South Park Creators Have A New Film

Vince C writes "Trey Parker and Matt Stone are back to filmmaking again. No, it is not a South Park movie and no they are not acting. In fact, it is a totally different media... marionettes. Yep! Puppets folks. They are making Team America:World Police. If you liked the original Thunderbirds and hate the live action remake but also love comedy sticking it to our current government then you are going to love Matt and Trey's new project. Trailer and more info at the movie's site."

Just saw the preview

[Anamanaman]

Just saw the preview. Can't wait! Seems like Matt & Trey love being the only conservatives/libertarians in hollywood. Expect to see a lot of Michael Moore/Barbara Steisand bashing. Should be great

Guess this explains why they haven't produced a damn south park episode in so long!

Stick it to the current government?

[ErikTheRed]

From the rumors I've heard and interviews I've read, they hardly make fun of Bush at all... most of their sarcasm is directed towards Hollywood celebreties that have "opinions" (err... groupthink) relating to foriegn affairs...

Re:Why not

[bobobobo]

Actually it's supposed to skew both sides pretty evenly. Supposedly they really stick it to Michael Moore in the film, along with a bunch of other left-leaning celebrities.

An excellent idea

[Anonymous Coward]

Hey, you just gave me an idea.

As a European, I am all for Kerry's election. That baboon (yes, I do have a visceral hate for his anti-intellectual "folksyness" and I-am-on-a-mission-from-God biblethumping) of a president needs to go NOW. If he and his neo-con treaty flouting, warmongering and prisoner-torturing cronies get four more years, the entire world will be in ruins and what's left is being governed by right-wing militant theocracies.

Too bad we cannot contribute money to Kerry's campaign, but maybe we could gang up and buy internet ads...

Bipartisan Bashing...

[thermopylae300]

Actually Parker called in to Matt Drudge's radio show to dispute that this film was just another attack on Bush. Drudge Report: Team America [drudgereport.com]

Marionette puppets are used throughout the film to mock terror threats, and media figures who dominate the nation's airwaves. But Parker and Stone save most of the mocking for left-wing pundits and Michael Moore.

"Bush is not even in the film," Parker said Sunday night from Los Angeles during the DRUDGE REPORT radio broadcast.

"I would ask that people wait and see it, before passing a judgement."

Re:Just saw the preview

[Anamanaman]

Actually, I consider myself a pragmatic libertarian, in that, I vote republican.

Basically libertarians have to choose whether they care more about social issues (then vote democrat) or economic issues (then vote republican). Or throw your vote away (vote libertarian).

I used conservative/libertarian interchangable when talking about hollywood because everything is pretty much straight up liberal/socialist coming out of that neck of the woods.

Re:The best thing

[iamdrscience]

Ha! That's actually very interesting because I've actually just begun watching Bullshit in the past few days myself and I was also thinking about the ways they're similar. They cover a lot same ground with a few episodes being almost scarily similar (i.e. the "Talking to the Dead" episode of BS vs. the "John Edwards is the Biggest Douche in the Universe" episode of SP). I was planning on trying to match every episode of P&T:BS with an episode of South Park that covers similar ground to see if it could be done (off the top of my head, they both had episodes which dealt took a similar view about second hand smoke laws). But yes, above those direct similarities, both shows do generally give a mostly balanced view, attacking the deserving shysters and bullshitters of all types. They're two of my favorite shows for sure.

OW, MY EARS!

[Anonymous Coward]

Holy crap man, whoever the fuck decided that the site should play music and have a helicopter flying by at like 200% volume deserves to be shot. I've sat here and checked, the sounds on that page play over twice as loud as any other sounds I can get my computer to play... But that could partly be just because my ears are still ringing...

How's your news

[Joe Tie.]

I wish the blurb would have mentioned the recent dvd release of How's Your News [howsyournews.com], which Matt and Trey funded. The basic premise is that a group of people with various mental disabilities go on a tour of America and interview people along the way. They're not prompted at all, they and the people interviewed are the only ones you ever see. Which is one of the cool things about it, they're just out there being themselves and having fun. It's really facinating seeing their reactions and those of the people around them as the interviews progress, or they check into a hotel, or pick up a hitchiker. The movie's not easy to describe as much of it comes down to the tone rather than the premise. There's a link to an interview on This American Life on their site which gives a better picture than I'm able to.

Re:Just saw the preview

[mongbot]

I have actually read Marx and Engels, unlike many who claim to know what Communism is, so I guess your presumption is wrong. Communism involves the control of the means of productions by the proletariat, usually in the form of workers council, which, in practice, equates to centralized government control. Any questions?

Re:Huh?

[da_fiend]

Nerds also often have interests outside computers. This nerd for one appreciated the link.

No more open source/*nix news pls.

Re:Just saw the preview

[Rhone]

South Park does a great job of making fun of everybody--which is good, because every side of our political system deserves to be made fun of relentlessly.

However, if you pay close attention, despite South Park episodes happily making fun of both sides of an issue, they often end up agreeing with the more conservative side (think Libertarian-conservative, not necessarily Republican-conservative).

Take the Cripple Fight episode (the one where Big Gay Al gets kicked out of Boy Scouts for being gay). While the episode relentlessly makes fun of those who would keep gay people out of Boy Scouts, in the end, Big Gay Al himself proclaims that as a private organization, Boy Scouts has a right to not hire him because of his sexual orientation.

And then there's the Underpants Gnomes episode (with the Starbucks knockoff) you mention, which ends up giving us the message that big businesses are successful because of smart business practices and because they serve consumers better than little businesses, and it's thus okay when they trample little businesses that can't compete.

Re:libertarians?

[88NoSoup4U88]

"To hold them up to anything else is being a bit pretentious about their work, which is as anti-pretentious as it gets."

As Rembrandt's Nightwatch (Nachtwacht) was showing how people were living at that time ; Southpark is giving a very good contemporary look at today's society.

I'm not saying that a piece of art like the Nachtwacht is on the same levels as Southpark ; but merely the uses and effects of different forms of art , made knowingly , -or- unknowingly so by the creators.

Re:Just saw the preview

[popular]

Escape from that catch phrase hell and actually test that argument. Obviously, you need more than just a handful of 30 second spots and a daily sound bite on the evening news.

For better or for worse, you have to know that the US would be in a very different situation today, if Al Gore were president.

Re:Some counter examples

[3l1za]

Dude, you do not live in the fucking real world.

There are arguments to be made against Bush and this one isn't it.

Aren't you smart enough to see that the American people as a whole STILL support the way Bush handled 9/11? And when Kerry himself whines about what Bush did for 300 to 420 seconds, it makes him look like a first class asshole. Er, makes him look like MORE of a 1st class asshole since his going on and on about his 16 weeks in Viet Nam twenty years later when many men who served longer and were braver don't breathe a word about it.

Even JFK -- the real one, J. Effin' Scary's hero/idol -- never talked about his experiences in WW II and totally dismissed self-deprecatingly intimations that he, Kennedy, was a hero. That's because the guy had class.

Something your snowboarder who blames his tumbles on the slopes on nearby Secret Service men (everyday folk, them) couldn't even begin to immitate.

Look, boy Kerry is a gigolo, just a gigolo, everywhere he goes, people know the tune he's playing... November's gonna be great.