Balls and Walnuts
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Don’t screw with satirists
I’ve been itching to find out how South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker would wreak their vengeance.
Business has been rough for Parker and Stone in recent weeks. They had to yank tonight’s episode, “Trapped in a Closet,” which lampooned Scientology (Cruise’s religion) and featured Cruise locked in a closet for half the episode, refusing to leave, despite repeated pleas for him to “come out of the closet.”
It’s not clear why they pulled the episode, but they did release this statement:
Trey Parker and Matt Stone sent a letter to Variety saying: “So, Scientology, you may have won THIS battle, but the million-year war for earth has just begun! You have obstructed us for now, but your feeble bid to save humanity will fail!”
How did the Church of Scientology (and/or Cruise) do this? From Steve Taylor at The Deadbolt:
It has been reported that Tom Cruise threatened to stop doing any press or promotion of his summer blockbuster movie, Mission: Impossible 3, if Comedy Central ran the re-run of the episode. Mission: Impossible 3 is being made by Paramount Pictures, which is a subsidiary of Viacom Inc. Viacom also owns Comedy Central, which means they would have the power to withhold the re-run of the South Park show.
One other blow: Isaac Hayes, who has voiced Chef since 1997, left the show recently, decrying South Park’s “religious intolerance and bigotry.” Never mind that the Scientology episode first aired about a year ago. Never mind that South Park has mercilessly lampooned Protestants, Catholics, and Jews for years, proving many times over that they are equal time satirists. Hayes chooses now to quit?
First Cruise/Scientology get an episode pulled, and now Hayes leaves in a huff. How, I wondered, will Parker and Stone respond? How would any satirist respond?
With satire, of course — vicious satire. Proving, as far as I’m concerned, that you should never fuck with a satirist.
I had intended to give you all the spoilers, but I don’t have the heart. Who doesn’t read past spoiler warnings? I know I do. Besides — all you have to do is check Technorati for South Park and I’m sure you can find all the spoilers you desire.
Let’s just say Parker and Stone got their revenge, both on Hayes and Scientology. Only one question remains.
What do they have planned for Tom Cruise?
D.
Scientology kinda scares me. They are even more spectacularly humourless than Catholics.
According to Defamer, there’s speculation that Hayes never made the comments. He’s been seriously ill since January (I think he had a stroke), and he still talked positively about the show long after the episode in question aired.
That said, I liked the South Park movie (the songs were great), but in general, I don’t like the show. I suspect Stone and Parker to be closet conservatives or–shiver–libertarians.
I heard it on the radio this morning. HILARIOUS!
The whole Scientology thing really creeps me out. I have lost all respect for Tom Cruise (not that I had a whole lot to begin with.) The only thing that keeps him from being dangerous to anyone besides himself and his immediate family is the fact that everyone pretty much knows he is an idiot now.
I am glad John Travolta has kept kind of quiet recently because I really like him. He seems like a nice guy and I have been able to ignore the flake factor so far.
I agree, Dean, but I think the Dobson/Robertson types still pose the greatest threat.
Closet conservatives? Jim, I think you’re closer to the mark with libertarians. As I mentioned in an old post, I don’t always agree with these guys, but their satire is often right on target.
I’ve never liked Cruise. Never ever ever. On the other hand, Pulp Fiction gave me a measure of respect for Travolta. That L. Ron Hubbard movie he made destroyed most of that respect, but then he did General’s Daughter, another fine movie.
Cruise, though — yeech. I don’t understand why Hollywood considers him bankable. The guy has no talent.
Scientology is to religion what hotdogs are to canines.
I love South Park.