Thursday, November 17, 2011

South Park: The 99% VS The 1%

21 of the Eighth Month 5772

As many of you know, I find the television cartoon show "South Park" to be one of the greatest commentaries on American culture.

Recently, "South Park" set out to express its two cents on the "Occupy Wall Street" movement.


(clockwise: Muscleman Mark, Peter Panda, Polly Prissy Pants, Rumper Tumpskin, Clyde Frog, Eric Cartman)

In last week's episode, Eric Cartman represents the "1%," and the rest of his schoolmates represent the "99%," demonstrations included. Butters leads a demonstration, by occupying a piece of a parking lot.

As with many causes, there is an ounce of truth and good intentions to be found. Yet, whether a "Tea Partier" or a "Wall Street Occupier," or an Israeli housing price protester, there is no shortage of infiltrators to control the protesting pawns. The illusion of dissent is, thus, provided without any real threat to the "powers that be."

In this South Park episode, we see how the media employs the use of "creative journalism," or deep denial,or both. I don't even have to get into how the illusion of an adversarial relationship is propped up between different news media groups, made to appear on opposite sides of the fence of various issues.

South Park hits the nail on the head here, showing just how deep the Occupy Wall Street protests really are aren't.

Here is part one of "1%," embedded here for your convenience. You can also watch on-line for free at South Park Studios.com.

1 comment:

Chana said...

South Park, though crude, is well within the Swiftian tradition of social satire.