My opinion was based off of my viewing South Park as mindless and just plain stupid. However, after processing Ted Gournelos' article, "Blasphemous Allusion," I find myself wondering how often political satire and the oppositional culture that South Park plays off of is simply missed by viewers. I wonder at what level of consciousness one must critically observe the show to catch the intended messages. I previously found the content rude, racist, sexist ect., which I now attribute to perhaps me missing the satirical undertone and opportunity to critically challenge common discourse and ideologies that our culture allows. Gournelos points out, "it is impossible to say that any allusive production will reach viewers 'correctly'" (Gournelos 2009, 145). So the question becomes, how do we take South Park seriously? My answer would be by beginning to understand it's satirical content. If we are to understand the show through it's satirical power though, Gournelos' observation in which he explains how South Park "self consciously opposed censorship," (Gournelos 2009, 145) must remain true. A University of Oregon's communication scholar, Lauren Bratslavsky, further explained in her essay on Satire TV that "taking apart satire leads to understanding humor's critical capacity to attack and disarm its subjects" (2010, 678) just as this uncensored end scene of South Park, Episode 201 allows.
As opposed to the censored episode, which actually appeared on Comedy Central.
Which seems to me, to go against the entire concept and philosophy of South Park.
Bratslavsky, Lauren. 2010. "Satire TV: Politics and Comedy in the Post-Network Era." Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly 87 (3): 678-680. http://ezproxy.rollins.edu:2048/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/819075773?accountid=13584.
Gournelos, Ted. 2009. "Blasphemous Allusion: Coming of Age in South Park." The Journal of Communication Inquiry 33 (2): 143-168. http://ezproxy.rollins.edu:2048/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/215855582?accountid=13584.
