In the South Park episode ["Douche and Turd" summary] we see many important points about government and voting in general.
1) In the very beginning when we the kids are talking in the hallway, we see their unified party get split over seemingly stupid things [like choosing between and turd sandwich and giant douche]. This seems to be an act making fun of common little ideas that seem to split political parties up.
2) In that same scene, Cartman misleads Butters (who by the way he is only using this one time for his own support and the rest of the group responds, "but you hate Butters") by changing the wording of his question to make the turd sandwich sound like a more appealing choice for the school's mascot. This can be a great reference for the importance of wording in polling and the manipulative nature political campaigns in general.
3) One of my favorite parts of the episode, and also a great political joke, is when Cartman rides in front of the school with his big float. This is interesting for two reasons. One, it shows that appeal of big and bright advertisements that don't say much, as Cartman seems to gain support from this move. And two, we see Butters on the float in a bikini, a possible reference to the appeals that many campaigns make not towards intellect but towards culture and meaningless, but popular things, in order to gain support.
4) The most serious (I know it seems oxymoronic since this is South Park) part of the episode are the scenes involving Stan not wanting to vote because he doesn't really believe in either of the candidates, and doesn't think his vote counts anyway. This seems to be a common feeling in America (especially in states like New York where the election goes for the Democratic Party almost all the time) and everyone tries to convince Stan to vote either because they think that it is important (his parents) or to further their own campaign (Kyle).
5) We see interesting campaign strategies throughout the episode. First, we have Cartman's float strategy (as notes about in #3). Second we have Cartman going door to door campaigning and bribing people to vote for him the delicious butterscotch candies.
6) During the debate, we see "the candidates" pointlessly fighting over stupid little things and constantly sidestepping the questions while pointing out each others problems. This is a clear play on the strategic nature of debates and the way in which SO many politicians (Sarah Palin is one that comes straight to mind) sidestep questions and point their fingers at their opponent instead of dealing with the issues and answering the question at hand.
7) Last, I think that there are two very interesting and important quotes from the episode. One, at Stan's banishment ceremony voting is called "our most sacred of rights," and two, "it's always between a giant douche and a turd sandwich. Nearly every election since the beginning of time has been between some douche and some turd. They're the only people who suck up enough to make it that far in politics."
In The Simpson's episode ["Sideshow Bob Roberts" summary], while there is commentary on politics in general, it is mostly focused on commentary about campaigning and elections.1) Birch Barlow, the radio host, calls the media "the 4th branch of government" and tries to use his radio show to try to influence the public to follow his "conservative" ways. This shows the power and influence of the media and their presentation.
2) Special interest group puts pressure on the Mayor which influences him to release Sideshow Bob from prison.
3) When choosing Sideshow Bob, the party says that they are looking for someone who has "name recognition" and "will do what he's told." I find this interesting for two reasons. One, they never thought of a woman as a possibility. And two, ironically, this seems like exactly what the Republican Party was doing when they chose Sarah Palin, which reports have shown lead to strong infighting because she wouldn't only do as she was told.
4) We see interesting campaign strategies. Sideshow Bob tries to win voters over with a comedy routine and seems to be pretty successful doing it. This hints to the fact that campaigns often times succeed based solely on stupidity and on visual and emotional appeal and not based on policy stances (As in #3 from the South Park analysis). Also, we see Quimby trying to use his status as the incumbent to his advantage in his commercial, which is really about some meaningless and stupid changes and improvements that he has made throughout his tenure as mayor.
5) My favorite highlight from this episode is when Sideshow Bob runs the ad about how Quimby can't be trusted and uses the fact that he, a convicted felon, has been released from prison by Quimby. I'm not sure what this is playing on, but it's definitely funny.
6) We again (like above #6) the meaningless chatter of the debate. And Sideshow Bob uses his comedy to try to win the viewers over. Also during the debate we hear the moderator making pointless and irrelevant statements before asking a question that has nothing to do with the question itself. This is obviously making fun of the pointless nature (in some people's minds) of debates and the terrible technique used by some moderators.
7) Lastly we obviously see the strong play making fun of voter fraud.
2 comments:
I'm a little scared by how much serious analysis you were able to wring out of these (especially the South Park episode). Well done. But still, a bit scary. What have I done?
Well done, it saves me the effort of writing about this in my post. I however will be discussing what I saw as a common theme between both the Simpsons and South Park.
Post a Comment