Getting It
“South Park Conservatives” is a hilarious misapprehension of satire that just goes to disprove every bit of shallow analysis in Brian Anderson’s book of that title. He argues the show, in sending up political correctness, Hollywood bleeding hearts, and air-brained educators, represents a new respectability for conservative values. He’s wrong, but only because he deliberately ignores the parts of such entertainments that equally skewer people of his own political persuasion, which are as plentiful and as well-targeted. I don’t know the individual political allegiances of Trey Parker and Matt Stone, but they don’t seem particularly devoted to the “moral values” that are supposed to have put Bush in office any more than they are to any other dogma. Instead, like many other of the “liberal elite” working in entertainment, they strive to be humorous, to be comic, and get more laughs, and higher ratings, as a result. Let’s keep in mind that these shows are only entertainment, not anybody’s manifesto, so when Richard Gere’s earnestness is lampooned, we laugh just as much as when the (ahem) "gun enthusiasts" are.