'South Park' Takes On Japanese Dolphin Slaughter (VIDEO)

With this year's release of the stunning and horrifying documentary, "The Cove" new light has been shed on the tradition of slaughtering dolphins once a year in the National Park at Taiji, Wakayama in Japan. "South Park"'s creators, never ones to shy away from controversy, decided to take on the practice last night in an episode called "Whale Whores." In the video below we see Stan and his family swimming with dolphins at the Denver Aquarium until a huge number of Japanese men coming to kill the animals.


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Comments

[jinsei]

"Ship collisions are responsible for more right whale deaths than any other single human impact," NOAA said in a 2004 paper.

Guess that doesn't seem to bother Paul Watson. . .

[okila]

F@@k You whare and F@#k you dorphine!!!!! Its South park For christ sake. Breathe.

[TJinSoCal]

I thought this episode was pretty damn funny. They hit on so many cliches and stereotypes, they were hard to keep up with. But the basic theme was that the slaughter of the dolphins and whales was senseless. That's what I took away from this episode. And a few giggles along the way:
- Cartman singing "Poker Face"
- Using Godzilla to scare the Japanese
- Slamming the Discovery Channel and their shows
- the senseless slaughter of the Miami Dolphins (though it would have been more merciful to wipe out the KC Chiefs)
- Kamikazees taking out the pod of whales

[ricmarc]

the united states made theior emporer renounce his godhood. you would think we could get them to stop this. they don't need to do this, they just like to do it.

[darthmaul]

I'm really surprised that the Japanese still eat dolphins, whales might be another story depending on the type of whale. From what I understand dolphin meat has high concentrations of heavy metals like Mercury. I can't see, in light of this, why the Japanese would continue hunting dolphins.

[darthmaul]

I saw this last night! How about the part where the Japanese killed the Miami "Dolphins."

[Copeword]

I didn't see that coming.

[Cameal Young]

I'm all for satirizing practices one doesn't agree with, however i think this was a little distasteful in parts. I noticed in the comments people were saying things like "The Japanese" which makes me picture a mindless horde rather than a nation of individual people. I also noticed that there doesn't seem to be much mention of that trivialization of Hiroshima. I, for one, don't think a bomb being dropped on innocent civillians, killing and maiming thousands of people is very funny. In my opinion, while people are trying to get over things by making jokes about them(i've experienced this with racism), i think it also teaches people to trivialize the responsive emotions of others to a situation that is still hurtful for them. I anticipate some people are going to tell me that i shouldn't be upset about this because it was a joke.

[cturtle]

So Cameal, you've never seen an episode of South Park in its 13 year run, have you? There is absolutely no topic that is untouchable, and I think that's great! It doesn't matter what you're saying, there will always be someone who's offended, so their approach is just to say "f&@k it!" and offend everyone. Sometimes we need to just relax, not get pissed off just for the sake of getting pissed off, and enjoy life for once.

[FrankenPC]

The whole Japanese killing the whales/dolphins thing is just another example of feelings of ethnic superiority. There are a thousand years of history that show that behavior.

True there are other nations where ethnic superiority breeds this kind of behavior. But, none are as technically advanced as Japan. It's bizarre. And it doesn't bode well for Humanity.

Yes, I consider dolphins and whales to be sentient. Therefore, they have the same rights we do. No, I don't belong to PETA.

[pharmmajor]

I have to ask: are many of the hateful comments directed towards Matt and Trey coming up simply because the South Park creators are libertarians and like to poke fun at left-wing hypocrisy a lot?

[ricmarc]

not mine. they poke fun at everybody. that is why i like them.

cartman singing lady gaga's poker face was a delight. ma ma ma ma.

[nosoupforjoo]

eat chicken : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQfwj2M9_xE

[jdrourke]

Oh, South Park. How you fill my heart with joy... Now can you please do one more show on the Michael Jackson circus...?

http://jdrourke.wordpress.com/2009/10/28/is-this-it-michael-jackson/

[FINN76]

South Park makes a great point by exaggerating and satirizing their hunting practices.
This what the Japanese look like to the rest of the world... heartless killers of dolphins.

[ricmarc]

if it ain't sentient it is lunch.

[ricmarc]

to be fair to the japanese, they don't just leave the dolphin bodies to rot. they feed them to school children in their school lunch program.

[roguegrafix]

Some of the comments here are like the Larry King bit of the South Park episode. You all seem to be missing the point. It doesn't matter if Matt or Terry are left-wing, right-wing or what. The point they are trying to make (crudely but humorously) is that killing whales and dolphins is not what most of the world believe is right. This episode should ruffle a few feathers (as it probably was intended). The fact that most Japanese do not eat whale meat (it was packaged, battered and given to school children in a burger because no-one was buying it), is moot to the Japanese. They are against anyone telling them what to do. Recently a Japanese Green Peace worker suggested that economic arguments against the cost of whaling might have more of an effect than moral right versus moral wrong arguments. I was a bit like Cartman—not really concerned either way—until I started to learn about whales. I'm not against hunting of any animal but only when their numbers can stand it. Whales are endangered and should be left to recover. And besides that, they are amazing.