Shows & Current Events

"A Neo-Con Parade: South Park and Post-9/11 Politics" discusses the uses of humor and irony in media and television shows that sparked after the period of immediate shock following the attacks on September 11Th. This chapter in particular focuses on the television show South Park. South Park is an animated sitcom that has become infamous for its crude, surreal, and dark humor that lampoons a wide range of topics and current events. The show took the events of 9/11 and tried to pull humor out of the politics and views of what was going on post 9/11. I think its important for shows like South Park, Saturday Night Live, and The John Stewart show to perform parodies or make jokes about current events because it allows our society to view it differently or be able to agree with how they are feeling.

South Park's Humor = Ridicule or a Form of Truth?

I think its important to realize many of us tend to fall for or agree more with the dominant representations of things/events etc. that are a part of our society or that take place in our society. Many of us also fall in the trap of seeing rhetorical pathways coming from "experts" as the only valid or acceptable discourse as Gournelos discusses in Chapter 6 Neo-Con Parade et.al. It is crucial to step out of that bubble and see the many other forms of interpretation and reason for things. Shows like South Park serve as a great example of stepping away from the boundaries. Events proceeding 9/11 are extremely different from the talk of events preceeding the 9/11 terror attacks. In the case of South Park, this show "mobilizes the allusive (aesthetic) and responsive (critical) modes of political activism - this changes the commonly shared/accepted "pathways of U.S Politics". The show incorporates aspects of everyday life and merges the issues going on into that in order to break through the point. It doesn't matter what political party you favor, its good to take the time to see the concerns/messages being pointed out that is portrayed in a different light from the ever so common media form - the news. With humor as a big part of it, it depends on the audience's interpretation of that humor and because there are multiple reactions, there are multiple meanings from these parodies.