South Park Episode Review

Toxicgall, a member at Pop Prodigy, posted her very own analysis of the South Park episode featuring Britney which aired tonight. I absolutely agree with her point of view and so I decided to post her editorial. Note that I'll have the full episode available on the site tomorrow. Read on...

Toxicgall: My analysis of "South Park."

This is my own personal editorial. A long opinionated essay if you will.

There was a lot of symbolism and lessons in this show. Lot more than I remember in past shows. Of course, the obvious lesson is how both the media and Britney's bosses treat her not as a person but as a way to make profit, of course we learn in the end that the profit was a great harvest. She is tricked by photographers, in this case Kyle, Stan and Cartman, to almost get a picture of her for profit by using the nastiest trick there is, saying their her children to gain access to her. Her manager wants her to make a hit she obviously cannot make. Other employees at Jive call her a trainwreck and cast off her behavior as her just being stoned. No one cared enough to stop and see what was truly wrong.

Another lesson is how terrible this society is that we will build someone up only for the benefit of tearing them down to somehow feel good about themselves.

Her blowing the top of her head off, though unexpected and hard to take at first, was necessary. It was a grotesque yet brilliant way to symbolically say what she is going through. If they'd gone the route of just making her act crazy - it would seem as if they're ridiculing her current state of mind and not focusing on the true problem at hand. It was a way for Matt Stone and Trey Parker to convey the message that she has lost her mind. They symbolically show this by her literally losing most of her head. By her losing the top of her head and most of her brain, she is unable to communicate like she wants but her body language tells all.

Despite the fact she is seriously handicapped, the media never leave her alone. And they focus on things that are so trivial, a zit, a plastic surgery scar, weight gain, a camel-toe, etc., that if it were to happen to a quote, unquote normal person no one would care, but because it is her, the world has stopped. The fact she has only the lower part of her face is crucial to the plot line and their message. It's bad enough they do this when she's completely healthy, but so much worse when half her head is gone or, in real life, sanity. It gave me an even greater understanding of her situation and a greater compassion for her.

They made reference to "The Omen" but more importantly of the short story "The Lottery" written by Shirley Jackson in the 1948. In this story, a small-town continues the tradition of holding an annual lottery. A representative of each family in the town draws a slip of paper. All slips are blank except one has a black dot. The family who receives the slip with the black dot must then have each individual family member draw their own slips to see who will be the lone "winner" of the family. The one who receives the slip with the black dot. The mother of the family has "won," and the town along with her family begin to stone her to death. There is no rhyme or reason to why they do what they do, other than it is tradition and tradition is not to be toiled with or questioned.

Jackson said in a later interview that it was her way to point out the general violence and inhumanity in people's own lives and communities.

Stone and Parker are using the story as a metaphor of our excessive need to tear some one down until they are brought to their demise. We feed on torment and personal pain to somehow feel better about our own lives.

The harvest not only symbolizes the money Britney made for Jive and her management and anyone else on her payroll along the way plus the countless magazines and paparazzos. It also represents our need as fans for her to continuously work to feed our entertainment hunger. To entertain our petty little lives, to bring us joy at the cost of hers. Britney died in "South Park" to give them a great harvest. In real life, Britney's spirit is dying, she is sacrificing it to feed the machine, to give selfish people (including myself) happiness at the expense of her own.

The addition of Miley Cyrus, who I had thought previously to this show was the first to possibly rival Britney's teenage success, shows the torch being passed on. The tradition, no matter how sick or twisted, continues. Just like it had before them with Judy Garland and Marilyn Monroe among others. And it's not even about Garland's and Monroe's early deaths but the emotional and mental turmoil success had caused them.

Of course, things are much worse now. The paparazzi are much more of a force than they were in the past. The advent of blogs, video-sharing websites, entertainment news programs along with advancements in technology - camera phones and high powered, high resolution telescopic cameras makes it virtually impossible to escape the paparazzi's wrath. It makes one wonder if Garland or Monroe would have mentally survived as long as they did. It makes sense that Britney is now suffering why she is. She does need to get away from it all, maybe not the North Pole, but she needs to escape - her life may not be dependant on it but her sanity and happiness surely are.

It’s amazing how a little cartoon which likes to use fart and poop jokes on a frequent basis can so eloquently explain what is happening to her and who/what is the cause. They, through the character of Kyle, also admit that they were once a part of this demon that is bringing her down. The fact that Cartman, who can find compassion for nobody has such a small role in this episode, shows how serious they were to bring compassion towards Britney. They feel it no longer appropriate to use Britney as a target for parody. Her struggles, her imperfections and her behavior are no longer laughing matters.

I recommend you watch the show with an open mind and deep concentration of what the show is trying to say.

Source: U Britney