Comedy Central is finally respecting Cartman’s authoritay. One week after South Park’s controversial “Trapped in the Closet” episode garnered an Emmy nomination, and nearly four months after it was abruptly pulled from rotation on the cable net, Comedy Central has finally acquiesced and will allow the Scientology-skewering episode back on the air. And clearly not a moment too soon. “If they hadn’t put this episode back on the air, we’d have had serious issues, and we wouldn’t be doing anything else with them,” cocreator Matt Stone tells Variety.
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As it is, Comedy Central’s decision to reintroduce the episode to its rerun schedule seems as arbitrary an action as yanking it in the first place. But the move is putting the network back into the good graces of Stone and Parker, who have said that their relationship with the network has been tenuous since the spring.
“It’s true we are not as big as Tom Cruise, but we’ve done two movies for Viacom and 10 years of South Park episodes, and this has been our home,” Stone tells Variety. Stone explains that the episode’s removal was nearly the final straw for the duo, who had been censored by the network on three separate occasions. “We’ve been through a trifecta of annoyances,” Stone says. “The ‘Bloody Mary’ episode angered Catholics. And we had a big fight when we wanted to show Muhammad.”
The “Bloody Mary” episode is rather raunchy but hardly over-the-top by “South Park” standards. And, while I understand why “Trapped in the Closet” would be offensive to Scientologists, it’s only because it shows the truth about their belief system.
The full video was available on YouTube for months but has recently been removed. A 7:56 video of excerpted highlights is available however:
Like “South Park Republicans,” the concept of “conservative rock songs” is rather counterintuitive. Nonethless, the editors of the venerable National Review of compiled a list of the top 50.
The New York Times lists all 50 and provides NR’s reasoning, some of which is rather strained. And a few of the songs are by no means “rock,” even by the expansive new definition that includes Aretha Franklin.
1. Won’t Get Fooled Again,” by The Who.
The conservative movement is full of disillusioned revolutionaries; this could be their theme song, an oath that swears off naive idealism once and for all. “There’s nothing in the streets / Looks any different to me / And the slogans are replaced, by—the—bye. . . . Meet the new boss / Same as the old boss.” The instantly recognizable synthesizer intro, Pete Townshend’s ringing guitar, Keith Moon’s pounding drums, and Roger Daltrey’s wailing vocals make this one of the most explosive rock anthems ever recorded — the best number by a big band, and a classic for conservatives.
I’m not sure cynicism and an acknowlegement that Leftist causes eventually become conservative staples is a conservative viewpoint–although it’s generally correct. Surely, this isn’t the best example of a conservative rock song?
2. “Taxman,” by The Beatles.
A George Harrison masterpiece with a famous guitar riff (which was actually played by Paul McCartney): “If you drive a car, I’ll tax the street / If you try to sit, I’ll tax your seat / If you get too cold, I’ll tax the heat / If you take a walk, I’ll tax your feet.” The song closes with a humorous jab at death taxes: “Now my advice for those who die / Declare the pennies on your eyes.”
More populist than conservative. But yes.
3. “Sympathy for the Devil,” by The Rolling Stones.
Don’t be misled by the title; this song is “The Screwtape Letters” of rock. The devil is a tempter who leans hard on moral relativism — he will try to make you think that “every cop is a criminal / And all the sinners saints.” What’s more, he is the sinister inspiration for the cruelties of Bolshevism: “I stuck around St. Petersburg / When I saw it was a time for a change / Killed the czar and his ministers / Anastasia screamed in vain.”
Not sure Jagger and company were going for a conservative theme. Douglas Cruickshank provides an excellent literary take on it for Salon.
4. “Sweet Home Alabama,” by Lynyrd Skynyrd.
A tribute to the region of America that liberals love to loathe, taking a shot at Neil Young’s Canadian arrogance along the way: “A Southern man don’t need him around anyhow.”
Definitely a Southern anthem but not sure there’s much “conservative” about it, aside from vague pro-Wallace sympathies and the line “Now Watergate does not bother me/Does your conscience bother you?”
7. “Revolution,” by The Beatles.
“You say you want a revolution / Well you know / We all want to change the world . . . Don’t you know you can count me out?” What’s more, Communism isn’t even cool: “If you go carrying pictures of Chairman Mao / You ain’t going to make it with anyone anyhow.” (Someone tell the Che Guevara crowd.)
This is a classic case of liberal values become conservative over time. The Lads were pretty liberal even by the standards of 1960s era twentysomethings. They were just also anti-violent and anti-Communist. So, incidentally, was George McGovern.
16. “Get Over It,” by The Eagles.
Against the culture of grievance: “The big, bad world doesn’t owe you a thing.” There’s also this nice line: “I’d like to find your inner child and kick its little ass.”
This one deserved to be much higher on the list. Again, though, Henley and company are hardly conservatives.
20. “Rock the Casbah,” by The Clash.
After 9/11, American radio stations were urged not to play this 1982 song, one of the biggest hits by a seminal punk band, because it was seen as too provocative. Meanwhile, British Forces Broadcasting Service (the radio station for British troops serving in Iraq) has said that this is one of its most requested tunes.
An inspired choice, although a case of a song being seized upon people with radically different sympathies than the songwriter.
31. “Small Town,” by John Mellencamp.
A Burkean rocker: “No, I cannot forget where it is that I come from / I cannot forget the people who love me.”
Mellencamp will cringe if he finds out conservatives are glomming onto his music.
35. “Who’ll Stop the Rain,” by Creedence Clearwater Revival.
Written as an anti—Vietnam War song, this tune nevertheless is pessimistic about activism and takes a dim view of both Communism and liberalism: “Five—year plans and new deals, wrapped in golden chains . . .”
Again, cynicism is not conservatism.
50. “Stand By Your Man,” by Tammy Wynette.
Hillary trashed it — isn’t that enough? If you’re worried that Wynette’s original is too country, then check out the cover version by Motörhead.
John Podhoretz has a fascinating piece on the parallel voting dynamics between “American Idol” and U.S. presidential elections. He argues that the surprise loss of Chris Daughtry to the uneven Katharine McPhee is perfectly understandable if one understands how people vote.
If you want to understand “Idol,” you need to understand American politics. And if you want to understand the workings of American politics, “Idol” isn’t a bad introduction to the way political coalitions are formed and elections are won.
After the “American Idol” field narrows to 12 finalists, the show kicks one contestant off every week – the one who gets the lowest number of votes. The number of votes seems to remain remarkably constant (this year, somewhere north of 40 million) week to week. This indicates the same people continue to vote each week. It also means that the people who voted for the contestant who was kicked off go ahead and just choose somebody new to vote for.
This is a direct parallel to the presidential primary process. In the early primaries, candidates who do poorly usually drop out of the race, leaving those who would have supported them in other states high and dry. Those supporters then have to pick somebody else among the surviving candidates to vote for. This winnowing process allows the most appealing candidates to pick up steam by adding new voters to their cadre of supporters. And as they do so, the field continues to be winnowed, until finally there are only one or two candidates left standing. The single-issue candidate, the flash-in-the-pan, the guy who has one fantastic debate – they may all have their moments, but in the end, the candidate with the most broad-based appeal will usually win.
And this is what explains Chris Daughtry’s stunning loss this week on “American Idol.” He has a distinctive voice and distinctive appeal. The problem is that he never broadened his base very much. If you liked him from the start, you stayed with him – which is why he remained solidly among the top contenders through most of the show’s run. But if you didn’t much like his sound when there were still 9 contestants remaining, you weren’t suddenly going to decide you liked his sound when there were only 4 remaining.
The key to winning “American Idol” isn’t being overwhelmingly popular in the early stages. The key is having a sound that makes it possible for you to pick up votes from people whose favorites have gotten booted off the show. Because if you don’t get those votes, somebody else is going to get them.
That is almost certainly what happened on Wednesday night. Chris Daughtry lost out to Katharine McPhee because the young female singer Paris Bennett was sent home the previous week. If you loved Paris, you probably weren’t going to move into Chris’s camp. It’s likely that the Paris voters went both to McPhee and to underdog Elliot Yamin, the sweet-sounding guy with the odd teeth who is a balladeer like Paris.
Elliot has been gaining strength both because his performances have been good, and because he’s clearly picked up support from the fans of eliminated contestants Paris, Kellie Pickler and Ace Young. So where does this leave the final three in “American Idol”? It’s likely that McPhee will be the odd person out next week, leaving front-runner Taylor Hicks and under-the-radar Elliot left to duke it out for the title. Taylor Hicks has a distinctive sound and style that are clearly very pleasing to millions. But I think he’s a little like Daughtry. If he’s your favorite, he’s been your favorite for a long time – and he needs to be the second favorite for McPhee’s fans to win. But McPhee’s sound is probably closer to Elliot Yamin’s. Thus, according to the logic of coalition-building that is at the heart of both American politics and Fox’s pop-culture phenomenon, Elliot Yamin will be the next “American Idol.”
Die-hard Star Wars fans soon can see the original theatrical versions of the first three Star Wars films on DVD.
Even though George Lucas adamantly declared 2004′s digitally restored Star Wars Trilogy DVDs the definitive versions of his movies, fans have held out hope for DVDs of the originals. Their wishes will be granted Sept. 12 when Fox releases new two-disc DVDs ($30 each) of Star Wars (since retitled as Episode IV: A New Hope), The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi that include the films as they first appeared in theaters, along with the new, restored versions (now available in the four-disc $70 Star Wars Trilogy).
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Fan attachment to the originals is strong. The movies topped entertainment website IGN.com’s recent chart of Top 25 Most Wanted DVDs. “People want the option of having the movies that they remember and people are opposed to George Lucas’ revisionist tendencies,” says the site’s Chris Carle.
The original films’ video quality will not match up to that of the restored versions. “It is state of the art, as of 1993, and that’s not as good as state of the art 2006,” Ward says.
The idea of movies, especially hugely popular classics, as a work in progress is an odd one. Still, most of us routinely by DVD versions of more recent films that differ from the theatrical releases, with the Director’s Cut and additional scenes. No one seems to have a problem with that. And we’re not just talking about films no one will remember.
Just announced from Columbia is the two-disc set of Monty Python And The Holy Grail. Replacing the previous. Largely disappointing release, this new two-discs special edition looks terrific. Featuring a new “21st Anniversary” cut of the film running an extra 24 seconds, the feature is presented in anamorphic widescreen, English 5.1 along with the original mono track, subtitles in English, French and Spanish and even a separate subtitle track “for people who don’t like the film” (with text from Shakespeare’s Henry IV!), an “onscreen screenplay” allowing you to read the screenplay while you watch, audio commentary with Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones, John Cleese, Eric Idle and Michael Palin and “Follow the Killer Rabbit” (yes!). Disc two includes”Three Mindless Sing-Alongs” and “The Quest for the Holy Grail Locations” featurette, “How to Use Your Coconuts” educational film, “Monty Python and the Holy Grail in Japanese” (with English subtitles), the BBC Film Night special “On Location with the Pythons,” an interactive cast directory, still galleries with Terry Gilliam’s original sketches and behind-the-scenes photos, “A Load Of Rubbish” with mystery items, unused ideas and other material, and finally two trailers and weblinks. Retail is $29.95. Sweet!
The Wild Bunch, which one reviewer dubs, “one of the most influential films in cinematic history and arguably the greatest western ever made.”
The 144-minute director’s cut enhances the theme of male bonding that recurs in many of Peckinpah’s films, restoring deleted scenes to deepen the viewer’s understanding of the friendship turned rivalry between Pike and his former friend Deke Thornton (Robert Ryan), who now leads a posse in pursuit of the bunch, a dimension that adds resonance to an already classic American film. The Wild Bunch is a masterpiece that should not be defined strictly in terms of its violence, but as a story of mythic proportion, brimming with rich characters and dialogue and the bittersweet irony of outlaw traditions on the wane.
For this brand-new, fully restored DVD release of Superman: The Movie, director Richard Donner has reinstated eight minutes of footage cut from the original 1978 theatrical release. The overall effect of the new footage is just more of a great thing. The additions help to flesh out characters a bit more, especially Jor-El (Marlon Brando), given his short screen time in the original. Such additions as a scene where Superman discusses his newfound purpose with his long since gone father is a good example. This is a rare case in which the changes made for a new special edition don’t detract from the story, such as they often do in many other director’s cuts and alternate versions. (For a detailed look at the changes made to the new edition, visit our Cut List update.)
Now, granted, these examples at least involve scenes filmed along with the rest of the movie, the original actors, and so forth. But it’s odd that there is essentially no controversy over this type of thing and yet Lucas has been the subject of South Park parodies and sheer vitriol over his tinkerings.
The trend of Muslims using threats of violence against those who offend them even slightly continues, with Sienna Miller the latest target.
Sienna Miller has been left fearing for her life after receiving a torrent of death threats. Islamic extremists are furious the actress is starring in ‘Interview’, a remake of director Theo van Gogh’s 2003 thriller. The Dutch director was murdered in 2004 after his controversial film ‘Submission’ sparked outrage among Islamic fundamentalists. Sienna, who is currently shooting the film in New York, is being targeted by similar political groups. She has been sent letters warning her “she will be sorry” unless she pulls out of filming.
A crew member told Britain’s Daily Star newspaper: “Sienna refuses to give in to these threats. The film hasn’t got anything to do with Islam. But because it’s being made as a tribute to Theo, the Islamic fundamentalists have hit the roof.” Her co-star, ‘Reservoir Dogs’ star Steve Buscemi has received similar death threats.
Sadly, this is now so routine that it is hardly shocking.
The South Park Scriptorium has the video of Mohammed handing a football to the Family Guy that was censored in part 2 of the season ten “South Park” episode “Cartoon Wars.” Mohammed says “Jihad. Jihad.” and Family Guy says, “Wow! A salmon helmet. Thanks!”
It’s very well done, although not particularly funny. But, then, “The Family Guy” isn’t funny, remember?
Brendan Loy does some extensive scene-by-scene comparison with the episode that aired and concludes that it is quite likely a forgery.
Jim Lindgren got confirmation from South Park Executive Producer Anne Garefino “that the clip is a forgery, but an uncensored episode does exist.” He has an extensive interview with her here.
