Taking South Park seriously
"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."--Jacket
Print Book, English, ©2008
State University of New York Press, Albany, ©2008
xi, 254 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm
9780791475652, 9780791475669, 0791475654, 0791475662
174138920
Introduction : Taking South Park seriously / Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock
"Bigger longer & uncut" : South Park and the carnivalesque / Alison Halsall
The pleasures of South Park : an experiment in media erotics / Brian L. Ott
Orphic persuasions and siren seductions : vocal music in South Park / Jason Boyd and Marc R. Plamondon
"Simpsons did it" : South Park as differential signifier / Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock
Freud goes to South Park : teaching against postmodern prejudices and equal opportunity hatred / Robert Samuels
Cynicism and other postideological half measures in South Park / Stephen Groening
Shopping at J-mart with the Williams : race, ethnicity, and belonging in South Park / Lindsay Coleman
"I hate hippies" : South Park and the politics of generation X / Matt Becker
South Park heretics : confronting orthodoxy through theater of the absurd / Randall Fallows
Prophetic profanity : South Park on religion or thinking theologically with Eric Cartman / Michael W. DeLashmutt and Brannon Hancock
"You know, I learned something today ..." : cultural pedagogy and the limits of formal education in South Park / James Rennie
"Omigod, it's Russell Crowe!" : South Park's assault on celebrity / Damion Sturm