I closed yesterday on the dispute between the arbiters of literary meaning (the South Park establishment) and the creators of literary nonsense: Kyle, Kenny, Stan & Eric. (And nonsensical obscenity isn’t the worst of their crimes: the closing sentences of The Tale of Scrotie McBoogerballs, which we hear when read aloud by Kyle’s vomit-splattered father [...]
O.K., look: So I’m now officially sick of this South Park episode, while still admiring its intelligence and dexterity. Let’s finish saying what must be said before we drain all the life from it through our analysis—”paralysis by analysis,” as the old saw has it. Which is, coincidentally!, in large part what the episode itself [...]
[With apologies for the delayed posting of today’s blog. . . .] For simplicity’s sake, I’ve tried to organize today’s follow up about the South Park episode “The Tale of Scrotie McBoogerballs” according to a handful of its most prominent themes, which I announced at the end of yesterday’s post. First, of course, censorship. Once [...]
With the spring semester now but a fond memory, I’m finally catching up on some of my homework. I think I’ve mentioned here that I taught a senior seminar called “Irony in the Public Sphere”; we were interested, mainly, in the sometimes spectacular ways that very compelling and intelligent ironic projects can misfire when they [...]