Mixed Feelings

[pasithea]

So... I watched Team America last night. Parts of it were brilliantly funny, and parts of it were intensely racist, homophobic, and right wing in ways that weren't funny. All in all, I came away feeling sick that I'd given my money to them.

Before anyone gets on their high horse about how I just can't take a joke, let me say that I don't think this is the case. There were some parts that were attacks on the left that I could laugh at because they were charicatures of things we do, and it is quite possible to laugh with someone as opposed to laughing at them, and there were parts that were offensive to me but where still funny. On the other hand, there was a lot of it where they just ran things into the ground and made it clear they weren't laughing with us but at us and the hate beneath it was allowed to bubble up to the surface. It really killed parts of the film for me and overall ruined the funny parts. Apparently everyone on the left is stupid, secretly violent, gay, and happy to work for terrorists. While some of the terrorists were portrayed as having mildly redeeming values, the american liberals were portrayed in a completely hateful manner.

In addition, the original trailer had bits about Bush and Saddam Hussien. All traces of them have now been removed from the current trailer and the movie itself. So, I was a bit unhappy. Most of the film, I think everyone could laugh at but there was a lot of the film that could only be really enjoyed by conservative white middle america. It was very reminiscient of early Rush Limbaugh. So, it will make a ton of money and right wingers online will be quoting it for the next four years as though it were direct from the bible. Yay. :/

On the other hand, I may have to watch it again because there is something just on the edge of my consciousness that I can almost grasp and drag into focus. I've got little pieces of it but I can't put it together in a coherent way that anyone would understand. Basically it is some involuntary revulsive response to this film that awakened in me something that could be fresh and funny without making fun of anyone or taking a position right, left, or other. South Park, I think, is basically done. It's no longer fresh and there is room for the next fresh and original idea and it has to go in this direction. It's there, I've almost got it. I just need time to think. :/

Comments

[queenofstripes.livejournal.com]

I read an interview with Parker and Stone not too long ago, where they were asked about American foreign policy, and they just kind of shrugged and gave some wishy-washy, simplistic fratboy-humor answer like "Well, you know, there are dicks in the world and there are assholes." They excused every nasty thing the USA has done in the name of strategic interests by effectively saying, "Yeah, well, whattaya gonna do? It's wacky. Doesn't make any sense, but it's a crazy world." That's their answer. You know, I always kinda liked South Park, but it's becoming increasingly clear that's their answer to EVERYTHING. I'm sick of that attitude, and I resolved that if I see Team America, I'm not gonna pay them a penny for it. Thanks for posting this, I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks these guys are no great satirists, just a pair of unusually hard-working idiots, and popularizing dumb ideas in the name of humor doesn't really excuse it...

[turbinerocks.livejournal.com]

Yeah, they're certainly great animators, and they're good at writing toilet humor (South Park can be quite funny) but political satire is best left to people who actually pay attention to the news. :D

[queenofstripes.livejournal.com]

Exactly, thanks! I think a lot of these guys drift to offensive humor because it gives them a cheap defense against criticism. "Oh, yeah? You just can't take it, buddy!" But most of my favorite comedians are crude and pushy -- George Carlin, Bill Hicks, David Cross, Margaret Cho... And the thing about them is, they're insightful. I love them because their offensiveness pushes people to recognize uncomfortable truths.

Meanwhile, Parker and Stone are just a couple of goofy teenagers. Lovable goofy teenagers, but they got nothin' and they know it. They can provoke people's emotion, but they haven't the faintest clue how to provoke awareness, because they're not really themselves aware. Their style of satire can get them just short of making an important point, and then one of them drops his pants and farts.

When that starts to get old, they make fun of themselves for farting. Then they make fun of their audience for farting. Then they make fun of Comedy Central for showing them farting. Then they do a pretty clever mimicry of American society's tendency to mistake fart jokes for real satire. And that's enough for most of America, because the sad thing is they're right. But they still never get around to the part where they offer them anything better than fart jokes and irony.

[turbinerocks.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad George Carlin is one of your favorite comedians. ^___^ That guy wields profanity like a samurai.

Parker and Stone are mass media, and are good at being part of mass media. That's their job. I consider them to be about as valuable as satirists as your average sitcom writer. Noting they have done to date has led me to believe anything otherwise. They just have more power to get movies made. It's entertainment, it's cute, it's well done, if you want Parker and Stone to opine about what is funny (like what they said about puppets being maimed being funnier than cg characters or real people being maimed, and I agree) I'll listen. They're good at being funny. But they're no Carlin, they're no Lenny Bruce, they're no Margaret Cho.

[zeeth_kyrah]

I never really got Margaret Cho's humor. I guess you just had to grow up with that kind of life for it to be really funny.

[chisparoja.livejournal.com]

i cannot respect them. they are so ditzy.

[kinkyturtle.livejournal.com]

I don't trust Parker and Stone since I read a quote from them...

"We hate conservatives, but we really fucking hate liberals."

[paka.livejournal.com]

I'd actually seen it as satire; yeah, overblown and racist and brainlessly over the top, but playing off what American conservatives apparently believe or say. So for instance, I saw making fun of Michael Moore as making fun of the way people make fun of Michael Moore.

Now that I've been reading the responses here, tho, I feel not so sure I had the right interpretation - and I feel kinda embarassed to have interpreted the movie as I did, and maybe a little less good about seeing it, even it was an excuse to see movies with y'all.

[tigrise.livejournal.com]

For once we completely agree. It was sexist, disgusting, insulting, and generally made me feel I needed a bath afterwards. I was pretty blunt with Tanan - I will *not* go see that again - no discussion allowed. Yes I understand the whole thing is a joke, and I even laughed at points, but I went away feeling insulted rather than amused.