South Park Mocks Fox News, Coverage Of Britney Spears

Last night's "South Park" mocked Fox News Channel and the media's fascination with Britney Spears. The clip, seen below, starts with a debate between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama that is quickly interrupted by an emergency news bulletin called "BRITNEY WATCH."

Watch:

Fox News' own Shep Smith mocked his network on-air for their sensationalist tone last year, and the Associated Press has recently come under fire for a staff memo declaring, "virtually everything involving Britney is a big deal."

Comments

[Arguman]

It was a fun episode. The no-brained Britney was a little unnerving after a while. I mean, how could she hear anyone without any ears? How could she keep a beat even though all she was doing now was gurgling? How did she know people were taking pictures of her? Did she die of a heart attack? How do you live without a head? Did it just miss the brain stem a-la Mike The Headless chicken or something?

[bugsbonzai]

Matt Stone and Trey Parker have been wavering between silly potty humor and vicious social satire for years. The difficulty is finding the right balance. This episode was sharp in its satire, but didn't have a single laugh line in it. Even Trey in his Charlie Rose interview admitted his favorite episodes were the ones that focused on just the kids, and not the cultural commentaries on events of the moment. As with any performer or artist trying to do scathing satire over a longer period of time, the more focused on cultural criticism, the more the humor and jokes fall by the wayside (see: Mort Sahl). South Park suffers from the same problem. I've been a fan from the start, but the shows in the last 3-4 seasons have become heavy handed and short on the light-heartedly profane outlook on America that the first 5-6 seasons had. There was a recent episode where Matt and Trey made fun of themselves for taking themselves too seriously (the Family Guy episodes). They really need to heed their own words. This was a great IDEA for an episode that just seemed to me to turn into a train wreck by the end.

[GRobSecular]

haha wow that's the most eloquent southpark review i've seen in a while!!

[grisgris]

I watched the Britney Spears episode of "South Park" last night and I have to say that the show really moved me in a strange yet profound way. (Not adjectives I would ordinarily use for "South Park".)

I definitely think the episode was poking fun at all media outlets and at us, the viewers of the constant Britney barrage. I have always said that Spears wanted all of the publicity she gets, and, while I still feel that way, last night's "South Park" actually made me feel sorry for Spears in a way that I never have before.
The "harvest" reference in the show is without a doubt a take off from a Thomas Tryon book, "Harvest Home" that was also made into a movie. In the book, the people in a small town sacrifice a young man every 7 years to ensure the quality of the corn harvests.
I thought the show was genius. And, I have a new emotion where Britney Spears is concerned: compassion.

[Britisher]

I though it gruesome and a savage indictment of celebrity obsession. It moved me too.

I used to be a agency celeb photographer (for about 18 months back in the early 80's). The shoots I'd go on were usually specifically organized events( Rolling Stones Steel Wheels kick-off at Inn on The Park, David Bowie's Serious Moonlight Tour launch, "RumbleFish" movie premier etc).

I did however do a few more paparazzi-like shoots where f'rinstance fashion designer Bob Mackie's people gave me an exclusive invite when every other photog there was with a Fashion mag. My job was to shoot the celebs in the audience as publicity for Mackie.

A weirder one was when Liza Minelli;s agents tipped me that she was going to see an off boradway play. I was the only photog there. Even so I ASKED to take her picture and Minelli hammed-it up for me. Very decent of her.

I did a couple of stake-out assignments when there was no event to record and I hated them--a lot of effort for the sake of someone somehwere doing nothing.

When celebs need publicity they can get it in an instant. When they don't need it it's the paparazzi who impose publicity on them. There's no quid pro quo for the "paps"--they feel they own their subjects, make them and break them. They all like to argue that the celebs NEED them, they OWE them! No they don't..
I made a decent amount of money then (absolute peanuts by today's standards) by working WITH celebs--never publish an unflattering photo (we published one I took that gave Joan Rivers more cleavage than she actually had, and we heard she loved it). My boss got exclusive big-money shoots with celebs because of that approach.
The photogs and journalists OWE their loivelhoods to the Clebs, not the other way round. The sickest thing is of course that even when the golden-goose is dead, they STILL justify themselves and make money off the corpse!

BTW South Park just did an eposide where Cartman gets aids and then infects Kyle (?) because Cartman doens;t see the irony and Kyle (?) does. That was funnier than the Spears episode but not the usual Cartman come-uppance fare, and still more direct than the usual commentaries.

I think the Spears episode is worthy of the National Archives as serious social commentary.

[Raymondf]

I think this was funny as hell. your not turning conservitive are you?

[MsMedia53]

Ms. Huffington,

I understand you are upset with Fox News right now, but I think your not seeing the overall message of the South Park episode. It was poking fun at the media as a whole AND US AS ITS CONSUMERS(the "harvest" joke?) Not only did it show everyone's (creepy) obsession with celebrities, it also, albiet briefly, poked fun at the media's (and public's) obscured views of the current Presidential Primary soundbytes ("spearchucker" anyone?) Both heavy-handed and subtle, this episode was not so much funny as it was thought-provoking. Please, next time you write a headline with regard to subjects such as this, be mindful that sensationalism is not just a "Fox News thing" but rather a trait that is shared with all media (even Olbermann rips on the sensationalist coverage over at MSNBC.)

As for the posts that are ripping into Americans over this issue, I would remind them that yes, American's do have a problem with obsessing over celebrities, but so does every other country in the world. If I am not mistaken, Princess Di was killed IN PARIS, FRANCE as an indirect result of this very thing. Let's not point the finger solely at Americans.

[sethyeah]

This episode wasn't singling out and mocking Fox news; it was about all of the press.

[Floralgirl]

Oh, it was very funny, a perfect satire of how stupid the news media has become.Screw you guys, I'm going home...

[Calylily]

WHAT IS LESS FUNNY THAN SOUTH PARK ??? Hearing ANYTHING about Brittany Spears - who cares any more? For Gods sake, can't we just officially have one day a week free of any Brittany news? Would that be possible?

[jnik]

Would've been funnier if Hillary was giving her stupid laugh.

[JaseAllen]

I took the episode as an indictment against /all/ news media outlets, not just Fox. It's a lot easier and cheaper to dish out celebrity dirt than it is to do /real/ investigative reporting. Far too many Americans have such little going on in their lives, they'd rather watch the gossip than real news. The whole sacrifice for the corn harvest bit was idiotic even for Matt and Trey.

[ENK727]

South Park is so ridiculous... it hasn't been funny in years.

[Unobtainium]

South Park has been consistantly funny. With some of the best social commentary going.

Maybe it is you who lacks a sense of humor.

[jimmyjones22]

I agree, than again, anyone who chooses the name "ENK727" probably doesn't have a funny bone in his body...

[iagorune]

Considering some of the headlines about Ms. Spears that I've seen here on the Huffington-Post, I don't think that the South Park Guys were just talkng about FOX.

[iagorune]

Considering a few of the headlines I've seen around the Huffington-Post about Ms Spears, I don't think that it was just FOX that the South Park guys were going after.

[whizkid]

Wow. Obama supporters watch comedy shows to rationalize their Hillary hate.
Paranoid?

[bugsbonzai]

I usually love South Park the more controversial it gets, but this episode lost me. Especially after the pitch perfect AIDS satire in the opening episode, I was pretty astonished at the huge step down in quality this episode took. I felt really dirty after watching it. Don't get me wrong, I got what they were TRYING to do, I just think that they failed more than succeeded in this one. Can't win em' all!