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New South Park DVD parodies 'Passion'
By John Behling
Published:
Thursday, December 9, 2004
There are three things you can count on during the holidays: synth renditions of classic yuletide tunes at sweaty mini-malls, sappy made-for-X-mas specials competing with animated tyke flicks and other "awwwwwww" type fare, and a Christmas spoof from South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone.
Call me a little cruel to evoke the beloved defilers as the jolly season approaches. But to my defense, there's still six days to go out and bask in the candy-cane glow of CGI trains and flying reindeer that everyone deserves to ballast the drag of seasonal depression (and of the seasons in general). For now, let me take a gander at one of the most controversial offerings from those two adolescents from an episode enjoying a DVD release as "The Passion of the Jew."
This fall, the duo thundered their way into somewhat live action and all-too-real politics with "Team America: World Police," a film that only half-made-good on the promise of Bush-bashing fire and brimstone.
In fact, standing next to the half-dozen or so anti-Bush documentaries, Parker and Stone's flick was somewhat tame. Actually, it was angry and it was violent, but not against the Bush administration; rather, Jerry Bruckheimer had to go in '04.
This is still a head-scratcher to me, but what it revealed is that under the fire and feces-spitting tirades lies a calm, gentle, moderate message of "hey, let's just all get along."
And believe it or not, that message is in 'The Passion of the Jew." After seeing Mel Gibson's "Passion," Cartman's casual anti-Semitism- just one of their tasteless running gags- evolves into a full-blown Hitler complex. Marshalling his power of witless fans of the movie, he sets to accomplish the "final solution." Stan, dared into seeing "The Passion" by his overzealous friend, is horrified to discover that his own people tortured and murdered Jesus and wants to atone for his sins. Meanwhile, Kyle and Kenny see "The Passion" just because everyone else has, and after deciding that it "pretty much sucks," set out to get their money back from the filmmaker himself.
Only South Park would combat an anti-Semitic film with a Holocaust joke, and for all the revelations hereabout how stupid the public has been to foist the book of Mel on supple-minded children (and adults) there is still some troubling content here.
One of the best things about South Park is that they seem to rip lines directly from the court of public opinion. A ticket taker lets the 8-year-old Stan into an "R" rated film after a brief speech about why "The Passion" is a special case, the message overriding the content. The supporters of the film rip passages directly from the film's press release, as does Gibson himself "All I did was film the Bible," his mock-animated self says in it's goofy semi-gay teenager voice. Even the preacher arrives with a message about how the Passion play was originally conceived to incite people against the Jews, owing little to biblical content. Yet Parker and Stone do little to combat the idea that Jews murdered Jesus.
At SCSU's excellent panel discussion on "The Passion," Director of Jewish Studies Program Joseph A. Edelheit explained emphatically that the Jews did not kill Christ. In fact, as Edelheit said "back then there were no Jews, only Judeans."
One of the most serious problems with Gibson's movie is its depiction of said Judeans as modern Jewish stereotypes straight out of any popular movie or TV show, including-not surprisingly-"The Passion of the Jew." When Stan addresses the Jewish community, saying that they need to apologize for Christ's death they speak out against "The Passion," saying in their most stereotypical New York Jew voices "That movie represents Jews as stereotypes." It leaves us once again at that intricate junction of just how you can beat stereotypes with stereotypes.
Maybe the South Park creators are demonstrating their own technique in a scene from "Team America," where a gung-ho terrorist fighter fires a missile at an evil-doer which flies over his head and blows up the Eiffel Tower. In typical South Park fashion, everything is tied with a face-off by two angry mobs. One Christian, one Jew and in the middle, the wiser-than-the-parents children giving a speech that will unite everyone. Just as they dictated the action movie playbook page-per-page with "Team America," Parker and Stone recreate a typical Christmas special or "issues" episode from a sitcom. As a critic writing on "Team America" noted the best place to hit either side with insults, parody and feces is the center. And these final monologues are usually pleasant, poignant and interesting. But always moderate.
The talent lies in sighting the lunacy of pop culture with razor precision, yet their sniping usually leads them back to square one, like an episode of the X-Files.
But I think South Park is important for some of the same reasons that Mel Gibson's important. They both start discussions. It's impossible to watch South Park and not try to come to terms with its inevitable wrongness. And although the "everyone gets it but us" approach to satire doesn't go the extra mile that we would hope for, and even if it has the tendency to re-enforce the same stereotypes that it is making fun of, at least it's a discussion in itself. "The Passion," for all of its power to evoke discussion and bring upon the issue of religion in the secular multiplex, is really nothing more than a sermon. And it's not funny, either.
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What is your New Year's Resolution?
Quit smoking.
Get in shape.
Study and/or work harder.
Become more organized.
One kind deed a day.
I don't need a resolution�I'm perfect!
