South Park takes on Scientology, Cruise
I got an email from my brother yesterday imploring me to watch the latest episode of South Park. I used to watch the show when it first started airing in 1997, but I've since stopped because the scripts tend to be unfunny and seemingly thrown together, with an offensive concept or two to bind the whole thing together. But my brother said this episode mocked Scientology and R. Kelly's "Trapped in the Closet" song-cycle, both of which have been the source of much of my amusement, so I had to watch.
And as I should've expected, the episode was for the most part boring and unfunny, relying heavily on the joke that Tom Cruise should come out of the closet (the one in Stan's room, not the metaphorical one). Yet, I'm glad I saw the episode nonetheless for its portrayal of Scientology. Rather than just mocking Battlefield Earth, they presented some basic tenets of Scientology virtually as they are. I say virtually because they got some facts wrong like overemphasizing the role thetans play for new inductees over engrams (thetans begin to play a much larger role after the state of clear is achieved).
But the best part of the episode is when the leader of Scientology gave Stan the origin tale of Scientology, something that most Scientologists do not learn until they've invested years and tens of thousands of dollars. The tale is something out of a sci-fi novel -- the evil alien overlord Xenu banishes a bunch of aliens to earth because his galaxy is overpopulated, and then blows them up with a nuclear bomb placed in a volcano -- but in the episode the story is recreated without a single joke, except that during the entire scene the text "This is really what Scientologists believe" is on-screen. So true. But to be fair, an animated recreation of Revelations or certain Mormon beliefs would seem as ridiculous.
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"But to be fair, an animated recreation of Revelations or certain Mormon beliefs would seem as ridiculous."
-Right, but to be fair to whom?
To Scientology, for being singled out. And, I should've mentioned, an animated recreation of the big bang would seem pretty silly as well w/o context.
Let's not forget they've done similar spoofs of Moronism. The end of that episode was ultimately a pretty fair disclaimer on the practicality of such spoofs (believe what you believe -- it's just comedy).
Except some would say that religion can be taken too far, e.g. http://www.lisamcpherson.org/.
South Park Takes On Scientology
Tom Cruise and Scientology in the headlights....
While it is true that the show tends to beat one lone idea in the ground, those lone ideas tend to be pretty funny and ballsy. No other show gets away with what they do. For example, having Paris Hilton stuff a pineapple up her hoo hah and then having a gay man stuff her into his anus and her getting crushed by his sphincter, funny (and out of control).
The best part of this episode (barring the fact that R. Jelly kept out pulling out his gun) was the end. The scientologists threatened to sue, Stan said, "Go ahead, sue me." and then the credits rolled. And every name had been changed to John and Jane Smith.
Plus, this show is way better than Family Guy's humor. I.e. "My god I haven't eaten that much since [insert pop cultural reference here]." Then they flashback to said pop cultural reference. Then they do that for a fucking half hour.
Oh yeah, and while the South Park show has never been truly great, the movie was absolutely one of the funniest things ever.
What the heck is comment #5 about? The blog referred looks like a meta-blog. Have spam comments come to crazymonk, or was this a manual entry?
looks like a manual entry. it was a trackback, not a comment.
and i already get lots of comment spam -- i just have the tools that block 'em... for now.
FOR NOW!!!!
while i detest mormonism, it really doesn't move beyond the realm of "idiotic invisible-sky-donut worshipping," whereas scientology is clearly a brainwashing cult.
yeah, yeah, you argue for days about the "brainwashing" cred of christianity (or any religion) but let's keep the definition to the implication of professional control techniques, eh?
Joseph Smith was essentially a brilliant con-man.
Here's one of my favorite Mormon controversies:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Abraham_controversies
just to follow up on comment #3: if you haven't seen it, you have to check out the south park episode where they similarly recount the book of mormon; again, they pretty much tell the story as it is, with the only editorializing being the occasional (musical) gloss, "dum(b) dum(b) dum(b) dum(b) dum(b)." one could mistake it as simple accompaniment, except for the moment when they depart, affirming smith's wife's entreaty to better inspect the giving of the book as "smart smart smart smart smart."
but, yeah, otherwise, the show seems to conform to your characterization these days.
[...] Paramount has agreed not to show the Scientology/Cruise episode of South Park again, after Cruise lodged a complaint. What’s nearsighted about this article is that it presumes Cruise is upset about the “come out of the closet” aspect of the episode, when I’m pretty sure he’s upset about its staid mockery of his chosen religion. [...]
what season is this eposode in ?
I would like to see....season 1 thru 6 are avail on dvd
[...] Isaac Hayes quits South Park because of the Scientology-mocking episode, which I wrote about here. [...]