South Park episode tonight spoofing the Food Network

[linguafood]

Hilarious. Watch it!

[goodhealthgourmet]

i've never been a devoted South Park viewer, but this was brilliant. (the vulgarity - particularly the masturbation - was a little over the top, but i know that's Parker & Stone's MO...though Matt Groening & Seth MacFarlane are proof that it's really not necessary.)

after i watched this, i found myself thinking "cream freeeezh" at random moments throughout the day and laughing to myself! i know i'm going to *lose it* the next time i buy creme fraiche at the store. and before i watched this i already had trouble keeping a straight face any time i saw an ad for the Shake Weight...

[thew]

1) what does necessity have to do with humor?

2) of course it is necessary. one of the points of humor is to break down social mores. lenny bruce and richard pryor and south park were all necessary.

[goodhealthgourmet]

my point was that in this particular instance i didn't think that the constant profanity and graphic under-the-blanket action really amplified the hilarity. it didn't offend me - i'm hardly modest or prudish. i just felt like they did it simply because they could, not because it made the whole thing *that* much funnier.

but hey, one of the wonderful things about humor is that it's open to subjective interpretation. we don't all have to agree on what's funny...which is good, because i disagree with your assertion that profanity & vulgarity are *necessary* for humor. there are plenty of comedians who manage to be pretty f-ing hilarious without it.

now if you'll excuse me, i suddenly have an urge to watch my DVD of Eddie Murphy Raw for the thousandth time ;)

[thew]

they are not necessary for humor - plenty of stuff is funny without them. they are necessary for society however

[Chemicalkinetics]

They are not necessary, but important, which is why South Park get its points across very effectively. One of the trademark of South Park is unapologetic about its core messages. The strong languages and images are reprenstations of this. It does not simply want to tell you something as a passive narrative. It wants to F--king tell you something as a compassionate person.

Both humor and vuglarity are vechicles of it. One can also ask if the humor aspect is necessary. No, but it is important too.

It is very different from the Seinfeld show. Seinfeld is funny but it is a pure comedy show. It is a show about nothing. It does not seek to get a message across. South Park always has a message and often a social or political message.

[linguafood]

cream freeeeeeeeeeeesh.

[goodhealthgourmet]

they always have a few of the TVs at my gym tuned to FN, and i glanced up today while Paula Deen was spooning something white & creamy into a bowl - i don't know if it was sour cream, or mayo, or whipped cream, or what, but i immediately thought "cream freeezh" and just started laughing! totally startled the guy next to me - i'm pretty sure he thinks i'm insane :)

[linguafood]

i know! it's incredibly silly, but somehow will be stuck in my head forever - whether i see it anywhere or hear someone else refer to it. and of course, i'll never pronounce it any other way ever again.

[alkapal]

i'm sorry i spent time on that vulgarity.

satire = man masturbating to tv food shows and food prep?

swiftian, for sure!

[Chemicalkinetics]

South Park can be very vulgar, but it almost always contains some levels of truth. I can talk about other episodes, but I will focus on this one.

Now, men masturbating to food prep is an exaggeration, but it is true that some people get a certain level of "high" by watch food prep. Afterall, we know some people are addicited to Food Network and merely watch the food preperations without ever trying any of the recipes. I know a few ladies who did just that when I were in school.

We have less and less people cook at home, yet we have more and more people watch Food shows. It is known that many noncooks love to watch cooking shows

http://www.theatlantic.com/food/archi...;

[alkapal]

people get "high" watching food shows? addictions?

come now, ceekay, where's the evidence?

watching a show but never preparing the recipes is a problem?
i watch gardening shows and rarely garden. i can dream of that beautiful "cottage garden" or having that spanish courtyard with the fountain, spanish tiles and majolica figures.

i love "law & order" and haven't murdered, committed an SVU crime or investigated or prosecuted one.

~~~~~
i'm tired of the word "porn" applied to things that aren't -- food porn, e.g., as used in the bruni article. geesh!

"Porn" is now used to mean "anything we like to look at"? we all complain about the "dumbing down" of language, culture, etc, yet we engage in sloppy, easy labels and superficial analysis. (that's a generic rant and not about your post, ceekay).

[Chemicalkinetics]

Ok, I do admit there are two classifications of addiction. There is the true addicition in medical terms, in which the addicited subjects will undergo "withdraw" when the addicted substances are denied. Cocaine for example. There are the more popular and loose usage of addictions which simply means a very strong desire, like cell phone texting. Some people just seem to love texting and do so very regularly and often they cannot even explain why, but they do want to. They get a great deal of pleasure or high from texting or twitting. I don't believe they will undergo withdraw symptoms if the cell phones are threw away.

[alkapal]

texting is an interesting phenomenon.

social media are, too. sometimes <ahem> our online connectedness detracts from our real life interaction in the physical space we're in -- with the people around, or the tasks at hand. of course, i know that this affects none of us. <cough, cough...gotta go now. ;-)>

[linguafood]

people get high watching south park, as to better deal with the vulgarity hahaha.

seriously. i've been known to moan quite excitedly over a variety of cooking shows, so they're not *that* far off the mark.

[mariacarmen]

+1. Southpark is not for everyone. i find it hilarious, and as CK said, I find they hit the truth more often than not. We are a funny species!

[scubadoo97]

Certainly there is the term 'food porn' which is used today and with the number of people taking pictures of their food and the obsession with food it has been termed the new sex. I think Bourdain talked about food being the new sex on one of his episodes of No Reservations.

[Chemicalkinetics]

Thanks. Yeah, I was going to mention the term "food porn" too, but I think there are two definition. One is exactly what you said. The other is to sell foods through sexual images, like beer TV commercials with beautiful women. Either way there are a small and substantial segement of people get high from these food images. :)

I haven't watched enough Food Network to see if I will get addicted.

[jackbauer]

Giada's oversized head and boobs and teeth cracked me up.

[Chemicalkinetics]

She was on that South Park episode? I didn't remember her.

[mattstolz]

she wasnt a main character for sure, she came in as a sous chef in the Hell's Kitchen Nightmares Iron Top Chef Cafeteria Throwdown Ultimate Cookoff Challenge. the only thing that was mentioned about her was her "perky tats and giant head"

[BobB]

Even funnier - I watched this episode yesterday, then went to the gym and while I was on the treadmill I saw an ad for the "shake in your hand" exercise machine - it's REAL!

Maybe people who habitually watch TV commercials knew this but I had never seen it before and assumed the South Park guys made it up. Though obviously they did make up the extra features the cartoon version displays, like having a personality and dispensing "cooling lotion." ;-)

[mattstolz]

haha the shake weight was one of the best parts of the episode!! every time i had seen that commercial i had wondered why it had not been used on south park yet.

[Chemicalkinetics]

No, Shake Weight is real. Many of the things I watched on South Park I thought were fabricated (because they sound very ridiculous), but I later found out they are real. I learn so much from South Park, including dating.

[linguafood]

I learned most of what I know about Mormons & Scientology on SP.

[Chemicalkinetics]

:) I was going to say that. Not about Mormons, but I really started to learn about Scientology on South Park. I thought South Park was being ridiculous when I watched that episode, but when I read up more online, I realized that South Park was 90-99% correct.

[linguafood]

same goes for the mormon episode.

[deet13]

Joseph Smith reached in his hat,
Dum-dum-dum-dum-dum-dum...

[K K]

One of the best episodes ever. Truly makes fun of the food douches.

Hell's Kitchen Nightmares Iron Top Chef Cafeteria Throwdown Ultimate Cookoff Challenge. AWESOME.

[scubadoo97]

this was hilarious.

[donw9876]

These guys who create South Park always key into the current zeitgeist with something like this. I suspect that Parker and Stone kept running into supposedly normal grown men who were taking "culinary arts" as a hobby reeeeeal (too) seriously owing to celebrity chefs like Guy Fieri.

The only thing is that the impersonations of the second tier chefs (Fieri, Alton Brown) had nothing to do with their real personalities or speech patterns. They only tried to get the network TV stars (Ramsey, Oliver, Paula Deen) "right".

They did nail the title card for "Good Eats".

[mattstolz]

i thought that the rendition of DDD was on point (pun intended)

[donw9876]

Just once, I want to hear a reasonably convincing imitation of Guy Fieri.I don't care who does it. SNL always messes him up.

[mattstolz]

besides sarah palin and (will ferrels) GWB, is there really a imitation that SNL has done well in the last decade?

[Chemicalkinetics]

Com'on. There are plenty good ones and Will's GWB is pretty bad. He does not look like him and he does not look like him.

Jay Pharoah's Denzel Washington is pretty good.

[goodhealthgourmet]

i agree that the Alton Brown character was completely inaccurate, but Guy Fieri was at least somewhat, as mattstolz said, on point - he beat me to the pun :)

the bobbleheaded rendition of Giada with the cleavage and huge teeth was great.

[Chemicalkinetics]

I watched it on the internet. It is so funny. I always love South Park for addressing two issues at the same time. In this case, Food Network and Shake Weight.

[alkapal]

hulu it shall be! thanks for the heads up, lingua!

[nvcook]

alka - there is a link to the episode on jnk's locked post entitled "too funny", just a little down this link. It is hilarious!

[alkapal]

thank you, nvcook.

happy thanksgiving!

[jenscats5]

Watched it on Hulu.........hilarious!! Brings "food porn" to a whole new level....

Cream freeeeeesh! LOL

[achilles007]

The swipe at Jamie Oliver was a bit mean though.

[mattstolz]

haha that was one of my favorite parts! i was cracking up!

[achilles007]

All the impersonations of the food network celebrity chefs were spot-on.

Eric Cartman as Gordon Ramsey = Hilarious

[paulj]

Has Gordon Ramsey ever appeared on Food Network?

Jamie Oliver is on Cooking Channel, but hasn't been on the the main FN for sometime.

[FrankD]

Both are frequently on Food Network Canada, FWIW.

[deet13]

Crème fraiche!!

I also found it funny that my friend and I were laughing our asses off at that exercise commercial last week, while we were watching Good Eats w/Alton Brown...

[linguafood]

As I mentioned in another thread... I won't be able to pronounce it any other way after this... cream freeeeeeeeeeesh.

[bigmackdaddy]

Hit the nail on that episode. One of their funnier ones this season.

[mattstolz]

absolutely agree. this episode was one of the few wins in a season with quite a few letdowns so far for me

[dach]

ahh... Ouch. It hit a bit close to home... I used watch quite a lot of Food Network, and fantasize about recreating exotic, new flavors. Even tried to do it for a while, buying exotic ingredients I'd use only once or twice, creating messes. It was fun, but it wore off since.

[mariacarmen]

love it!
"you gonna braise that pork tenderloin?"
"ohhh yeahhhh, i'm going to braise the f*** out of that tenderloin!"
love southpark.