Did Anyone Watch The "You're Getting Old" Episode of South Park?

[AUTiger1]

I think Live and STP are two of the best sounds ever. They were at their peak in the mid-late 90's when I was at Auburn. Saw Live one time in concert. Teh roxxors to say the least. Nirvana was good too but since they were around for all of 3 minutes, it was hard to get a read on them at the time. I just knew they sounded like something I had never heard and it was great. They came out when I was in high school. They were definately the defining band of Gen X, Michael Jackson probably the defining musical act of Gen X as a whole.

I liked Gump for what it was. Never cared for Fight Club or Pulp Fiction all that much. Didn't hate em, just didn't gush over em. I prefered Boondock Saints to Pulp Fiction. To a certain extent the American Pie movies were right in there towards the end although that was more Gen Y since I think they spanned from 1999-2005.

Boy Bands = the suxxors.

I remember when Carey and Sandler did comedy. To me, they are much better in silly comedies than doing standup. Carey can act when he wants to. Sandler is avg at best but his pop culture influence is huge, from SNL all the way to Deeds.

Live and STP.   And you don't have to lie about the Boy Bands either.....it's ok.

I too was a product of the 90's, about the same age as AUT200, but I also had an older brother who was a child of the 80's and was influenced by a lot of his crap.  Because of him, I listened to GNR, Def Leopard, early Metallica, Motley Crew, Poison, Skid Row, Ozzy, and those types.  Prince was also listened to a lot.  Drew Berrymore and ET.  Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Back to the Future, Superman, Conan, The Princess Bride, Ferris Bueller, Freddie and Jason were what I grew up with until I hit my teens and started branching out on my own.

Once I started doing that, it became Alice In Chains, Perl Jam, Nirvana, Bush, Fuel, Smashing Pumpkin's, Tool, REM(although they crossed over from the 80's with several other acts), Tombstone, Pulp Fiction, Unforgiven, Braveheart, Tommy Boy, Black Sheep, Good Fella's, Jackie Brown, Sling Blade......

That is what I will remember most.

[GH2001]

Live and STP.   And you don't have to lie about the Boy Bands either.....it's ok.

I too was a product of the 90's, about the same age as AUT200, but I also had an older brother who was a child of the 80's and was influenced by a lot of his crap.  Because of him, I listened to GNR, Def Leopard, early Metallica, Motley Crew, Poison, Skid Row, Ozzy, and those types.  Prince was also listened to a lot.  Drew Berrymore and ET.  Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Back to the Future, Superman, Conan, The Princess Bride, Ferris Bueller, Freddie and Jason were what I grew up with until I hit my teens and started branching out on my own.

Once I started doing that, it became Alice In Chains, Perl Jam, Nirvana, Bush, Fuel, Smashing Pumpkin's, Tool, REM(although they crossed over from the 80's with several other acts), Tombstone, Pulp Fiction, Unforgiven, Braveheart, Tommy Boy, Black Sheep, Good Fella's, Jackie Brown, Sling Blade......

That is what I will remember most.

Can't believe I forgot REM and U2. Pearl Jam too.

Yes, I loved me some lance bass.   

[Tiger Wench]

Chad, I saw the episode too. It was kind of sad.   I remember watching the debut episode of South Park in 1997 and thinking "OH MY", while I laughed my ass off.  We actually taped the first season on our VCR... (!!)

I hope that this is not the beginning of the end, because I think South Park does serve a purpose.  They point out hypocrisy and stupidity that others refuse to acknowledge.  They will generally present both sides of an issue, and a lot of times will not take a definitive stand on one side or the other.  Case in point - the Boy Scouts/Big Gay Al episode.  They agree that the ban on gays in the Boy Scouts is stupid to some people, but then they point out that the Boy Scouts are private, and can do whatever they want.  Rational commentary, presented in a crude, rude and socially unacceptable fashion.

[Tiger Wench]

Another part of the episode that struck me was how Randy pretends to like the music both to seem cool to the kids and to piss off his wife.  You can get pretty deep with the analogies here too, from the older guy trying desperately to remain hip and cool, either in the eyes of his kids or to keep from feeling old and washed up, to the issues in a marriage where the two people don't communicate and reach the point of deliberately doing things to hurt the other one or make the other partner look bad in someone else's eyes. 

This also defines my generation (everyone I knew growing up had divorced parents, plus aging baby boomers trying so hard to be hip and cool and desperately trying to win over the next generation.)

[AUChizad]

Another part of the episode that struck me was how Randy pretends to like the music both to seem cool to the kids and to piss off his wife.  You can get pretty deep with the analogies here too, from the older guy trying desperately to remain hip and cool, either in the eyes of his kids or to keep from feeling old and washed up, to the issues in a marriage where the two people don't communicate and reach the point of deliberately doing things to hurt the other one or make the other partner look bad in someone else's eyes. 

This also defines my generation (everyone I knew growing up had divorced parents, plus aging baby boomers trying so hard to be hip and cool and desperately trying to win over the next generation.)

True, but on a deeper level, I saw Randy/Sharon as Matt/Trey. Not necessarily one represents one and one represents the other, but the dichotemy of both of them. The "Randy" side of them keeps foolishly retreading the same situations with just a slight variation from episode to episode. He gets carried away into these ridiculous slapstick-y scenarios over and over again. He pretends to enjoy the crude/silly  "Tween Wave Music", just to stay hip. Not really fooling himself. The "Sharon" side of them is sick of the same old routine. Ready for a change. Ready for them to just grow up.

Deep shit.

[El Guapo]

True, but on a deeper level, I saw Randy/Sharon as Matt/Trey. Not necessarily one represents one and one represents the other, but the dichotemy of both of them. The "Randy" side of them keeps foolishly retreading the same situations with just a slight variation from episode to episode. He gets carried away into these ridiculous slapstick-y scenarios over and over again. He pretends to enjoy the crude/silly  "Tween Wave Music", just to stay hip. Not really fooling himself. The "Sharon" side of them is sick of the same old routine. Ready for a change. Ready for them to just grow up.

Deep poop.

I agree 100%

Trey and Matt are, to my eyes, absolutely brilliant. You could see how they used South Park as a vehicle to get across anything they wanted to comment on. But after a while, wouldn't one think they have to move on? This is where your point is so damn valid.

Also, on Jackass. Didn't they get nominated for an Oscar? I believe in the Documentary category? I could really not give two damns about the Oscars, but doesn't that say something about our society and what defines a generation?

Even if I'm wrong out the Oscar, Jackass meant a lot to me throughout the years. It's funny how you can watch a show about a group of idiots and over time feel something for them. I think in a way I do the same with South Park. Maybe it's just me getting older and all gay sentimental, but I think those two shows are fucking fantastic.

I'm sure none of what I said made much sense. I'm knee deep in some Singha right now.

[Jumbo]

I loved Boy Bands. 98' Degrees, Backstreet Boys, N'sync and O-Town. I still can sing most of the hits and I'm not ashamed. I also loved Nirvana, Temple of the Dog, Pearl Jam and Live in the 90's.

[Snaggletiger]

I loved Boy Bands. 98' Degrees, Backstreet Boys, N'sync and O-Town. I still can sing most of the hits and I'm not ashamed. I also loved Nirvana, Temple of the Dog, Pearl Jam and Live in the 90's.

 

[Jumbo]

It's tearin' up my heart when I'm with you.

[AU_Tiger_2000]

It's tearin' up my heart when I'm with you.

I'm tired of this thread.

Bye, bye, bye, bye

[Kaos]

So no one else saw this?

I want to know what others thought. On its face, to those that don't fully "get" satire, or to those that don't realize that every episode has a deeper meaning behind the potty humor, may see it ridiculous that I found such profound meaning in an episode that found Randy formed a band called "Steamy Ray Vaughn", in which he explosively shits his pants into a microphone.

I don't want to spoil the episode for those that haven't seen it, but believe it or not, in the context in which they were presenting it, all of that had a deeper meaning.

To further wax poetic over potty humor, I think seeing this on the day of Ryan Dunn's death made it impact me more than if I had watched it on its original air date.

For better or worse in the eyes of you older folk, South Park and Jackass share no small part in defining our generation. I said it.

Both of them have been around for about 15 years, which is over half of my life. Pretty much all of the cognizant portion. I always saw those guys as invincible in a way. To see one of them go out in a stupidly careless and dangerous act NOT in front of the camera, was somewhat impactful. The rest of the crew will likely either be shocked into some serious growing up of their own, or will burn out themselves in a drug addled flame here shortly.

On top of those two events, throw in the Brooks thing. The king of idiot slander pieces about Auburn writes the dumbest and most unfounded trash anyone has put out to date. Affecting real college students. Not athletes. Slandering them for no reason other than his sick fetish to tarnish the reputation of Auburn University. Maybe I'm on my man-period or something, but when combined with these other two things, it just sucked the joy out of this whole college football obsession I have, and the Internet that goes along with it.

I don't want to get too maudlin here. I'm not going anywhere. No major revelation.

Yesterday seemed to usher in an end of an era for me personally.

I just wrote all of that about an episode of a shock-value cartoon in which people literally spewed diahreah from their mouths, the passing of a man most famous for inserting a hotwheel car into his rectum, and the TMZ of college football doing exactly what he's known for.

Wow.

South Park offends my skewed moral compass.  Gotta have standards somewhere and the three or four times I've tried to watch it, the show crossed lines I just didn't think should be crossed. 

That's not funny to me.   

I simply can't and won't watch it. 

Understand you see some satirical brilliance in it, but it's completely sacreligous and gives the fuck you to Christians.  I can't accept that.   When you sneer at everything, maybe its you who should be sneered at.

You know how I am, the finest form of comedy is satire in my mind.  Just can't do SP. 

As for the Jackass guy dying?  I couldn't muster half a fuck.  A dumbass died doing something dumb.  The only thing that saddens me is that he took somebody with him.  Just glad it was only one. 

[AUChizad]

South Park offends my skewed moral compass.  Gotta have standards somewhere and the three or four times I've tried to watch it, the show crossed lines I just didn't think should be crossed. 

That's not funny to me.   

I simply can't and won't watch it. 

Understand you see some satirical brilliance in it, but it's completely sacreligous and gives the fuck you to Christians.  I can't accept that.   When you sneer at everything, maybe its you who should be sneered at.

You know how I am, the finest form of comedy is satire in my mind.  Just can't do SP. 

As for the Jackass guy dying?  I couldn't muster half a fuck.  A dumbass died doing something dumb.  The only thing that saddens me is that he took somebody with him.  Just glad it was only one.

Don't know which episode you saw, but can't think of any blatant "Fuck you" to Christians. I could see if you were Mormon or Scientologiest, as they've fucked with those religions pretty hard.

If you truly enjoy satire, I'd have to suggest you give these guys another chance. They truly are masterful at it. They are very middle of the road guys politically, and actually, aside from the crudeness of their humor most of the time, should piss off liberals far more than conservatives.

Some books on the subject:

http://www.amazon.com/South-Park-Conservatives-Against-Liberal/dp/B001QTVKGM/ref=pd_sim_b_6

For the better part of 30 years, liberal bias has dominated mainstream media. But author and political journalist Brian Anderson reveals in his new book that the era of liberal dominance is going the way of the dodo bird.

http://www.amazon.com/Taking-Seriously-Jeffrey-Andrew-Weinstock/dp/0791475662/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_c

With a firm belief in the power of satire, and a number of complicated questions-including the morals of laughing at a ten-year-old's racist, sexually active hand-puppet-author and philosophy professor Arp presents an accessible collection of 22 essays on Comedy Central's controversial, long-running cartoon series South Park. Drawing on the usual suspects-Plato, Aristotle, Freud and Sartre among them-the contributors gleefully argue that the fiercely juvenile and politically incorrect show speaks to some of the most important issues of our-or any-time. In the first entry, William W. Young III draws comparisons between moralizing condemnation of South Park and the charges "leveled against Western philosophy since its beginnings" in a section titled "Oh my God! They Killed Socrates! You Bastards!" Other essays take on the "ethics of amusement" in the face of a Virgin Mary statue bleeding from a wholly inappropriate place, the existential crisis suggested by the Kenny's recurrent death and what a school mascot election between "a Giant Douche and a Turd Sandwich" says about America's two-party political system. Though the laundry list of philosophical issues-gender and sexuality, personal identity, the problem of evil, religious pluralism, the ethics of belief-feels familiar, and some of the writers' attempts at lowbrow humor can be embarrassingly off-mark, it's a serious but inviting roundup that high-minded South Park fans, as well as pop-philosophy devotees, will find worthwhile.

http://www.amazon.com/Taking-Seriously-Jeffrey-Andrew-Weinstock/dp/0791475662/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_c

Since it came on the air in 1997, Comedy Central's top-rated animated program, South Park, has been criticized for its crude, scatological humor and political insensitivity. However, the program also fearlessly wades into the morass of American political life as it tackles and satirizes all American sacred cows, including "political correctness," the value of celebrities, ideas about childhood, and the role of religion in American life. In the process, South Park raises provocative and timely questions about politics, identity, and the media's influence in shaping American thinking.

Taking South Park Seriously brings together scholars who explore the broader implications of South Park's immense popularity by examining the program's politics, aesthetics, and cultural impact. Topics covered include the pleasures of watching the show, South Park's relationship to other animated programs, and the program's representations of racial and ethnic minorities, the disabled, celebrities, children, religion, and education. This book will be of interest not only to communications and cultural studies scholars, but to anyone who has ever laughed along with Cartman, Stan, Kyle, and Kenny.

"This collection is sure to get South Park fans thinking a little deeper. The articles are both well written and readable. You know, I think I learned something today!" -- Robert Arp, editor of South Park and Philosophy: You Know, I Learned Something Today

"This book is a serious and thoughtful effort at a scholarly analysis of South Park, and it makes an important contribution in beginning a scholarly dialogue on this influential and often controversial show." -- John Alberti, author of Leaving Springfield: The Simpsons and the Possibility of Oppositional Culture