SOUTH PARK

SOUTH PARK: BIGGER, LONGER & UNCUT (1999) ***1/4

Reviewed 7/4/99

The causal connection between media and behavior is debatable, not in terms of whether there is an effect, but how much of an effect there is. The truth of the matter is that there are no simple answers, and a causal effect probably depends a great deal on the individual. Unfortunately, people hate it when there are no simple answers, at which point political scapegoating is required. Irresponsible politicians are happy to oblige and the remiss news media is happy to exploit. That is exactly what I feel has happened in the post-Columbine High School shooting atmosphere of 1999. While we have House Majority Whip Tom DeLay inanely proclaiming that societal decline is due to day care centers and the teaching of evolution in schools and the religious right (as usual) saying America is going to Hell in a handbasket, the Democrats try to score political points on gun control. Never mind that society is not declining (crime in virtually every category is drastically down, teenage pregnancy is down, AIDS cases are down) and that the gun control bill Democrats pursued would not have changed the outcome at Columbine. At least, I can understand the Democratic position a little better. The U.S. has ten times the gun deaths of any other First World Nation. Republicans say that it's not because of guns, but because we're a more violent society. With that sort of reasoning, one would think it better to keep guns out of the hands of a "more violent society" than to have them easily obtainable.

So it is that Trey Parker and Matt Stone's South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut comes along as a rebuttal to the mass hysteria generated by the Columbine shootings, which is essentially a statistical anomaly anyway. In particular, Parker and Stone's political message is hey, the self-righteous seeking easy answers need to get over themselves and realize that this or that television show, movie, or video game is not the source of society's problems and instead deal with real social issues like education, poverty, racism, and war.

Blatant as their point is however, it is always secondary to the jokes, and South Park is very funny, albeit requiring a certain dark sense of humor and a tolerance for the skewering of all sacred cows. Parker and Stone get as subversive as John Waters at his best, but Waters never had the reach Parker and Stone have. You have to admire them for holding nothing back. This is more in the direction that last year's Pleasantville needed to go in (though perhaps not this far), but did not have the guts. Absolute offensive tastelessness is Parker and Stone's goal, and aside from holding sway on the old fashioned liberal stance of opposing censorship, they lay waste to Disney, the military, parents, Bill Gates, and God.

Ever since 20-somethings Parker and Stone "made it" from the rapid bootleg circulation of their original 5-minute "The Spirit of Christmas" among Hollywood execs, they have maintained their vision with South Park, however juvenile or obnoxious it may be. Extremely popular upon its debut on Comedy Central, South Park has gradually lost its viewership as its style of shock comedy wore thin, as shock comedy is apt to do. What better way to revitalize it than in the medium of movies, unfettered by the censorship demands of television. South Park could be far more shocking than it is on TV and that is what Bigger, Longer & Uncut does. What is surprising is that it is also such a clever and stinging satire.

Essentially a variation of one of the episodes, South Park protagonists, Kyle, Stan, Kenny, and Cartman sneak into an R-rated Canadian movie starring their flatulent heroes Terrence and Phillip and in the process, learn colorful profanity. Their mothers decide that Canada is to blame for the corruption of American youth, and proceed to apprehend Terrence and Phillip during a guest appearance on Conan O'Brien. They hold Terrence and Phillip up for execution, which leads to war with Canada. In the meantime, Kenny has died one of his many deaths and gone to Hell to find that Satan and Saddam Hussein are planning to take over the world. It is up to the South Park kids to save Terrence and Phillip and to stop Satan.

Surprisingly, Bigger, Longer & Uncut is a musical. It is right on target with its knowing parodies of Broadway and Disney numbers. South Park's songs manage to be far wittier than most Disney songs and at the same time, expose their pretentiousness. As a friend remarked to me, Terrence and Phillip stand in for Parker and Stone, and this movie rescues its makers along with Terrence and Phillip (or martyrs them as the case may be). I suspect that South Park will not age well (nor is it intended to), and ultimately the jokes overwhelm the content, but for this specific time and place, South Park is welcome and needed.