Is South Park Right?
by Lonnie Harris

Part of the enduring appeal of "South Park" as political satire is its essentially disaffected centrism. Matt Stone and Trey Parker, the film school dropouts who invented the show after a string of failed student films and low-budget endeavors, bring a kind of narcissitic apathy to the table. That is, they feel so superior to the world of current events and politics, it ceases to make any difference to them one way or another. The issues of dire importance to most Americans are, for Parker and Stone, simply fodder for their weekly gross-out cartoon show.

That's why any critique that seeks to make "South Park" a manifesto for American conservatism initially seems so hollow. How can a show in which the entire point is pointlessness have any constant political outlook?

Yet the argument continues to be made. With the release of City Journal editor Brian Anderson's book "South Park Conservatives," the right-wing media fully embraces links between the Comedy Central cartoon and the Republican Party. On the cover of the book, noted right-wing commentator Jonah Goldberg of the National Review Online says "South Park Conservatives" will "change the debate about the future of conservatism."

The book itself doesn't really explore the connection between "South Park" fandom and right-wing voting patterns. It identifies a demographic it refers to as the South Park Conservative, "a large irreverant, anti-religious, anti-authoritarian, libertarian faction within the stodgy Grand Old Party." As described by noted Republican blogger Andrew Sullivan, they seek "a hard-ass foreign policy and are extremely skeptical about political correctness."
The book proceeds to discuss, without much reference to Parker and Stone's TV show, how a new branch of the media has sprung up to satisfy the tastes of this recently discovered audience. A book review on Outside the Beltway refers to the title of Anderson's tome as a "marketing gimmick," more interested in making the case for a liberal media dominance than any connection between animated TV shows as radical Republicanism among America's youth.

It was the release of Parker and Stone's controversial film Team America in 2004 and a string of right-leaning episodes at the kickstart of the show's current eighth season, that began speculation throughout the online media about a possiby conservative strain to Parker and Stone's ideology. Could the duo have been secretly suggesting right-wing ideas to a demographically desirable young audience all of these years? Or is it all just idle speculation, the paranoia of an increasingly embattled left?

Another look at the film Team America does lend some credence to the argument for Parker and Stone's "red state" outlook. Though the film ties patriotism surrounding Sept. 11 and the War on Terror to the shrill mock enthusiasm of overblown '80s action films, it saves most of its cutting barbs for liberal figures who opposed the War on Iraq. One would imagine any fair film dealing with the issue of America's foreign policy in the Middle East would examine the role President Bush and his cabal of advisors had on this policy. Yet Team America features no politicians at all, spending its time instead criticizing figures of the left, like Michael Moore and Alec Baldwin, who spoke out againt the current American administration — despite their role as entertainers.

The film did well enough at the box office, and pleased most of Parker and Stone's die hard fan base, but for many blue state "South Park" fans, it came off as a bit more hostile than the TV show had ever been. Whereas "South Park" generally takes pains to point out the stupidity on both sides of the political spectrum, Team America came off as nearly obsessed with the audacity of anti-war celebrities.

Perhaps this is why Sean Penn, who is openly ridiculed in the film, came out against it upon its initial release, along with lefty bloggers such as Kos (Markos Moulitsas), who writes at the popular liberal blog DailyKos.com.

And it may be why conservatives at such websites as NewsMax and Sullivan's blog embraced the film immediately. Sullivan went so far as to link the major villain in the film, Kim Jong-Il, with communism, and therefore also with the radical left.

It seems this trend may have continued into the new season of "South Park," with Stone and Parker making less of an attempt to balance out their sometimes socially conservative ideology.

Take a recent episode in which the boys' teacher, Mr. Garrison, undergoes sex reassignment surgery to become a woman. First off, an actual sex change procedure, live-action, is intercut with Garrison's cartoon surgery, in an obvious attempt to disgust the viewer.

The plot of the rest of the episode finds other citizens of South Park, including Kyle and his father, getting bizarre surgeries in order to fulfill their wildest dreams. Kyle, who wants to be a great basketball player despite his small stature, undergoes a procedure to become a tall black kid. And his father, who dreams of swimming around in the ocean, gets surgery to make him into a dolphin. Both, of course, come to learn that plastic surgery can only change your outward appearance, and never who you really are deep down.

At first, that sounds like an appropriate message. But is this really as benign as it sounds, a nice little story about how you should love who you are? In reality, isn't this episode suggesting that people who undergo sex change operations are dooming themselves to lives as freaks and outsiders? Parker and Stone's disdain for transsexuals as perverse or somehow disgusting comes through clearly.

Parker and Stone aren't suggesting intolerance toward transsexuals so much as they seek to stigmatize them as a group, to point out their essential "otherness" and thus suggest that it's acceptable to shun or mock them. After all, they are deluded people who believe wrongfully that a surgery can cause them to alter their inner selves.

Now this episode alone could merely be interpreted as anti-political correctness, a wake-up call that just because someone has the innate desire to change their sex, we don't all have to accept that change as normal and natural. Many on the left would disagree with this assessment, but it's still a somewhat centrist point of view.

But coupled with the next episode, in which Eric Cartman and friends battle an assortment of "hippies" who overtake the town of South Park with a jam band music festival, it becomes more clear that Parker and Stone carry some serious resentment toward the left-wing in America, particularly the left-wing movement among America's youth.

In this episode, collegiate pot-smoking hippie stereotypes are compared to a natural disaster, and only the brave Cartman, who has hated hippies all his life, can save the town from eventual collapse under the strain of supporting too many lazy, dirty, stony hippies. (The eventual solution? A drill that will grind through the crowd of hippies, so the heroes can turn on heavy metal to drive them away).

This comes across as a more personal attack than often appeared in the show's previous seven seasons or in Team America. Sure, there are always highly personal, mean-spirited attacks on celebrities. (Who could forget the episode ripping on Jennifer Lopez? Or the constant jabs at Barbra Streisand?) But even in previous episodes that voiced right-of-center viewpoints, such as the boys' stance against hate-crime legislation or in favor of the suburban sprawl of massive corporations like Starbucks, the episode often attempted to find a middle ground, to explain a somewhat conservative viewpoint sensibly in language anyone could understand.

More so than vehemently right or left wing, Stone and Parker have really developed their own brand of right-wing philosophy. A 2002 article by Tech Central Station, not the new book by Brian Anderson, that first dubbed it "South Park Republicanism."

"They believe in liberty, not conformity. They can enjoy watching The Sopranos even if they are New Jersey Italians. They can appreciate the tight abs of Britney Spears or Brad Pitt without worrying about the nation's decaying moral fiber. They strongly believe in liberty, personal responsibility, limited government, and free markets. However, they do not live by the edicts of political correctness."

So once again, Stone and Parker have sought out some sort of centrist position, although the scale continues to tip toward the right. Perhaps, in an increasingly fractured America, there's simply no more room for a sharply satirical show that straddles the fence. Or perhaps, as their fan base solidifies and Parker and Stone see the end of their show in sight, they feel more free about expressing their true opinions, regardless of how it affects the entertainment value of the show.

Regardless, "South Park" remains among the bravest, most outspoken and most politically aware shows on television. Were it not so dense with insight and observation, it's unlikely any debate would exist on the specific political concerns of its two creators.

E-mail Lonnie dot Harris at gmail dot com