Evolution on Televison
The top three evolution parodies on the top three parody television shows: South Park, Family Guy, and The Simpsons.
South Park
South Park, as usual, is “I’m so much smarter than all you idiots that I can flaunt my total disregard for all social norms… especially intellectualism.” They say “butt sex retard fish squirrel!” L0LZ!1
Yet, South Park is the only one of the three top shows that parodies not the surface debate itself as some cheap ploy for relevance, but how people actually behave and what people actually believe —not what they say.
The gag is: The substance of Mr. Garrison’s opinions are always irrelevant. It’s his zealotry that’s the joke, and zealotry can be about anything.
The scenario could be reversed to the same effect: an atheist zealot could be denouncing religion while begrudgingly subscribing to an institutionally-enforced liberal ideology of tolerance (*cough* academia *cough*). That zealotry would be as equally absurd. And —that’s exactly the plot of the full South Park two-episode plot arc.
In fact, the ultimate gag is that Mr. Garrison and Richard Dawkins so strongly reflect each other’s narcissistic zealotry that when fused in some horrible bout of filthy monkey sex, the greater Garrison-Dawkins achieves world domination. Cartman must sabotage their relationship to save the world from a dystopic future of warring factions of religiously-atheist zealots.
Richard Dawkins on “Go God Go:”
I wouldn’t have minded so much if only it had been in the service of some serious point, but if there was a serious point in there I couldn’t discern it.
…and, that’s why I’m #1 on Google for “Richard Dawkins Idiot.”
South Park, as usual, is the funniest, most relevant, and insightful.
Family Guy
Oh ha ha! The evolution-creationism debate is relevant! So it’s funny! Get it, religious people are stupid and Americans are stupid! Jesus was a pretty cool dude, though. I’d smoke a bowl with Jesus. Oh dude! Did you finish your comm 200 paper for tomorrow? Dude, it’s already like, 2am.
Family Guy: non sequitur, every episode, nothing of lasting substance
Simpsons
No statement, just the animators amusing themselves by paying homage to an old film cliche in The Simpsons’ artistic style. By this season, the message is: we’ve become a cultural icon on the merits of our past work, but we’ve long since sold out, so just let us this one guilty pleasure before we’re reduced to grinding out this week’s episode, OK? For old-time’s sake.
Simpsons: A small gasp of creativity from the genre-making giant too huge to die without a stinking, bloated corpse.
Think Gene at Technorati
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