October 27, 2006

Steve Irwin mockery.

Were you upset by the little Steve Irwin thing on "South Park"? Satan is giving a Halloween party, and he confronts a guy who appears to be dressed as Steve Irwin. Picture at the link -- he's walking around with the stingray stuck in his bloody chest. Satan tells him it's too soon. When it turns out it really is the dead Steve Irwin, Satan throws him out for not wearing a costume. Dressing as Steve Irwin for Halloween actually is a pretty clever idea, and it raises the interesting question why some evil/horrible things are considered good for costumes when others aren't. We all know you can't dress as Hitler, for example, even though, in general, evil imagery is encouraged. Hitler, by the way, appears in the new "South Park." Not as a costume, as a dead guy. And he does have a costume. He's the "Can you hear me now?" guy, with a cell phone. Don't you hate that guy? Also pushing the evil/funny envelope: Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, and Jeffrey Dahmer did an extended Three Stooges routine that was quite brilliant.

18 comments:

Eli Blake said...

Unless, of course, you are in line to one day be the King of England, in which case you can dress as Hitler (as Prince William once did at a party).

One reason I love America: Thank God we don't have any of those spoiled playboy royals running around, who think things like that are a joke (though there was some outrage in England, particularly among those who had survived the blitz.)

Revenant said...

This brings to mind the "tv show summaries" thread from below. South Park is a show that (to me, anyway) is a lot funnier summarized than it is when I actually watch it.

Eli Blake said...

Yes the South Park episode was tasteless. But I bet it gets good ratings, and that is what TV execs look at. And not favoring censorship as a remedy, I would simply suggest that it is up to viewers if they find it tasteless to not watch it.

Some of you might like this joke then:

Mohammed Atta, right after 9/11 shows up in what he thinks is heaven. George Washington walks up to him and beats the crap out of him. Coughing and sputtering, Atta drags himself to his feet and Patrick Henry comes up to him and beats him up again. This time it takes Atta a little longer to get up, but when he finally does, Thomas Jefferson is standing there and beats him up again.

Atta sees Jefferson go to the back of a long line behind Washington and Henry, and in the line ahead of them he sees, among others, James Madison, James Monroe, Robert E. Lee and Woodrow Wilson-- and they've all got a furious look on their face and a balled up fist. He looks up to heaven and asks, where his 72 virgins are. A voice thunders down and tells him he misread it. The verse was that he would get 72 Virginians.

BJK said...

I hope the comment about dressing up as Hitler was meant as a more subtle South Park reference.

In the show's first season Halloween episode ("Pink Eye"), Cartman goes to school dressed up as Hitler for a costume contest.

http://www.answers.com/topic/southpark-ep107-1-jpg

After watching an educational video on why dressing like Hitler in school isn't cool, the Principal makes him a "ghost" costume out of a nearby sheet. the resulting costume looks like a KKK outfit. (While out trick-or-treating, they come across a Klan meeting, whereby Cartman states that "they dressed up like ghosts too.")


Heck, the Steve Irwin thing wasn't even the most offen part of that episode: that would be resurrected serial killers doing "Three Stooges" shtick.

Anonymous said...

Oh, whatever! Hitlers are totally welcome at my Halloween party. That would be great--I'd wanna see where that goes.

There was a "gentleman's club" (frank people call them strip joints) that advertised itself on billboards around here with an image of a short bald guy flanked by two super-hot, fakey looking blonds. A threesome frozen in that mode walking down the street made my favorite Halloween presentation ever.

(Second place: A couple dressed as Tony Perkins and Kathleen Turner in the slow-but-excellent Kurt Russell flick Crimes of Passion. He wore a priest outfit carrying a really scary dildo and she had the satin blue dress and platinum wig.)

Ruth Anne Adams said...

It'll be funny. It just takes time. Meanwhile, try not to die laughing.

Doug said...

I missed the latest South Park episode, I am sure I will watch it in reruns though, so I don't know how tacky it was or not.

I was at a Halloween party last year, and after I went home, some dumbass showed up as Hitler. This guy is a true attention whore, so he wore it purely for shock value. I did see pictures of the costume, he didn't do a very good job.

tiggeril said...

In the interests of accuracy, it was actually Prince William's brother Harry who decided dressing up as one of Rommel's Desert Korps troops was a brilliant idea.


Not the brightest jewel in the crown.

Axinar said...

I think there are some people who need to chill.

Anonymous said...

Hey! I posted on this topic yesterday, no link love?

(more likely you weren't aware cause you hadn't visited my site, that's OK, I won't take it personally)

The Catholic priests with naked boys on leashes not worth mentioning?

Of all the offensive things in that brilliant and funny episode, the Steve Irwin thing would seem the least likely thing to get upset over.

Ed said...

Norm MacDonald was on the Daily Show about a week after Steve Irwin died, cracking jokes about it; Jon Stewart was just about crying, trying to stifle a laugh ("please, please don't make me laugh at this").

Joan said...

I only saw the last half of the episode, but I thought it was generally hysterical. Satan was classic, as usual. The Three Serial Killer Stooges bits were obscene, as could be expected. And the Steve Irwin thing was a surprise -- I mean, you could've predicted Satan's temper tantrum, but Steve Irwin? Never would've guessed it, and I loved that they kicked him out for not having a costume.

I did think the bishops dancing with the naked boys at the end was too much, but it was like a 2-second shot before the credits. I was going to say it was gratuitous, but it really wasn't: it was the pay off of the entire episode. All throughout, the Catholic clergymen are trying to get into the party -- of course we think to stop it, but no, they really wanted to just get in and party with Satan like everyone else. That was lame.

But that's Parker and Stone, equal opportunity offenders.

Ann Althouse said...

Fen: "Didn't see Southpark. But mockery of Steve Irwin is pathetic. If anything, its too soon for that."

That's exactly what Satan said!

As for hijacking the thread. Don't worry about it. You've given me a great idea for my Halloween costume. I'm going as Lynne Cheney!

JorgXMcKie said...

I thought about dressing up as a Palestinian suicide bomber or an al-Qaeda jihadi from Iraq, then I remembered that I would be going to a university faculty party and no one would think that was scary.

Or, I could go as Saddam, but those hundreds of thousands of deaths he caused (or the ones he killed personally) wouldn't really move them either.

Sigh. I guess I'll just have to go as on of the old stand-bys if I'm going to scare Lefties: Nixon, Scalie, or Clarence Thomas.

Ruth Anne Adams said...

Edward: Susan Estrich is already on the cover of her newest book looking like Ann Coulter.

RodW said...

I suggested a Amish bonnet, long navy dress with long sleeves, and a bullet hole in the forehead to my teen-aged daughter as a costume, but she wasn't having it.

Anonymous said...

Andrew Sullivan has a photo of Bill Maher dressed up as what I assume is Steve Irwin. He looks pretty relaxed.

http://time.blogs.com/daily_dish/2006/10/bill_mahers_hal.html

Benny_A said...

The problem is statements that I see people leaving in these comment sections. Phrases like "grossly insensitive", "bad taste", "juvenile" are a big problem in my view of our world today.

I guess it all comes down to this thing we call political correctness. If I am of a certain race, belief, lifestyle, etc (i.e. Jewish, Native American, gay, fat, etc) and something offends me, then no one should be able to laugh at it. And it should not be said or mentioned ever again. Ever.

People need to remember that humor is a very good thing. And, humor always tends to poke fun at someone or something. We all need to remember that it IS ok to laugh, especially at ourselves. I think it'd be funny to be gay. Hell, if I was gay, I would enjoy getting stuff, (namely a dude's %#$@), shoved up my bumhole. What's not funny about that? If I was fat...hahahahaha...yes, fat people are funny too. There's nothing wrong with them, they're just fat. I'm skinny, and that's funny too!

Get the picture? Laughter and jokes never hurt anyone. So let's all chill the hell out and enjoy some comedy!