The TV Zone

Just catching up now to Wednesday's "South Park" premiere. The Jonas Brothers. Purity rings. Kenny. His girlfriend. Ohhhh boy.

"SP" has a way of catching one's attention, and this one is a full-frontal assault on Disney, the Disney Channel, Mickey M-O-U-S-E. Am I missing anyone? Here's the clip. There are a couple of bad words here -- for that I apologize -- but this is what your kids are watching....Me too.

"South Park," arguably the world's most evil show, is back this Wednesday, and consider this blog post your dutiful reminder. There's not a whole heck of a lot to say about the new season launch, other than this: Kenny has a new girlfriend, goes to a concert (Jonas Brothers) with her, and hopes to round third base when...the Jonas Brothers give him some sort of chastity ring. Kenny then -- just to continue the metaphor -- strikes out at home plate. There is a clip at the "South Park" site, but it contains scatological references, and those just won't do on a family blog. So...you'll just have to go there yourself. Meanwhile...has Steven Spielberg/ George Lucas filed defamation lawsuits yet? Will the Bros?

Now Matt and Trey have REALLY gone and done it: The two troublemakers are floating a theory through the Internets that the Barack Obama election was in fact part of an elaborate caper to steal the Hope Diamond, and (in fact) John McCain is in on the caper, and so is Bono.

Jesus, can't these two guys just stick to surreal movie criticism?

They've even created a video that proves collusion. Here it is - you can all make up your own minds as to whether this is fiction, or...(This, of course, from last night's episode...)

"You love me. You really love me...! ---holes."

Can anyone shoehorn this image in their brain? Karl Rove watching "South Park?"

But it must be so: That Nielsen chart that got a lotta mileage yesterday says that "SP" is the show most "heavily engaged" by Republicans. Yes, "South Park."

"The Colbert Report" is the Dem fave. That, I suppose, makes sense.

Here's how Nielsen explains itself: "''Engagement' refers to the amount of attention paid to a television program by the average viewer. Nielsen measures TV engagement by questioning a representative panel of viewers about their recall of specific telecasts’ content.

"Nielsen’s analysis found that the cable programs that received the highest overall engagement scores — meaning viewers were most engaged in the shows’ content — also received the most bipartisan support, drawing high engagement scores from viewers of both parties, as well as from viewers who identify as political 'Independents.'”

Wake up everyone! All this means is that GOP viewers are really into "South Park" because they are so appalled when Butters shoots three guys in the penis, that they just have to write the Family Media Council (or whatever) to register their complaints. They also love Cartman. Dems are into "Raporrrr" because they hate Bill O'Reilly and this is the outlet for their frustration.

But check this out: The independents, AKA, "Undecideds," are loving "The Cleaner."

"THE CLEANER!!!!!"

Good Lord.

They also really engage with "The Real Housewives of Orange County."

I wish they could just make up their minds.

Who among you saw the "South Park" season premiere on Wednesday night?

You, you, you and you?

Good: Can we discuss?

Here's a question that is posed only at the risk of sounding idiotic - insofar as the answer is almost always as idiotic as the question:

Did "South Park" go over the top here?

Now, "over the top" and "South Park" are two sets of words that are almost never placed in conjunction because "South Park" always goes over the top, and never, not once, has NOT gone over the top, and when it does not go over the top, then fans will say that it's over, and to hell with it, and let's just move the hell on.

So Matt and Trey pretty much live over the top always

But I think that "The China Problem" was "over the top."

Steven Spielberg and George Lucas raping "Indiana Jones"? (And forget about Butters shooting not just one guy in the private parts, but three guys.) There were - by my count - four rape scenes, and we didn't see the one where they supposedly raped Yoda as well. Thank God for small favors. Funny? Not even remotely, and probably not supposed to be - just a comment on how Paramount fraked up the re-make of "Indiana Jones" this summer.

But stop right there: Paramount, as in the megastudio which is owned by Viacom, which owns Comedy Central; as in the company which signs Matt and Trey's paychecks (and big ones they are).

There is already Web chatter that this is gonna explode; go to Drudge to get the links. But honestly, I don't see how it can't. What's the conversation between Spielberg's reps and Brad Grey's people?

"Oh, you know Matt and Trey! They were just having their fun! No harm, no foul!"

Uh, no.

This could be explosive. We shall keep you informed.

In a couple of hours I'm going to go on vacation and will turn off this computer. But before that happens, I think it's appropriate to say a few words about Isaac Hayes. He did have a TV career - hardly as notable as his music or movie one - but there were numerous credited roles over the years (most recently Tolok on "Stargate SG-1;" a brief role, but maybe not to "SG-1" fans...) The most important, or visible - or let's say, audible - was Chef on "South Park." It's a role that Hayes definitely regretted; it ended badly, as pretty much everyone knows (or every "SP" fan knows) and even after it ended, it got worse. Hayes was angry about the Scientology rips, and because he was a Scientologist, that was that (I believe he left in 2005, but maybe '04; google it). Trey Parker and Matt Stone were angry too - the famous quote from them was that he took the checks when they were ripping Christians too (a paraphrase). They later wrote and produced 2006's "The Return of Chef." The less said about that episode the better, except to note that Matt/Trey took his voice and strung together a bunch of quotes that were used in an episode about something that's probably not best to mention at a moment like this...(OK, the episode was about pedophilia.)

Two quick points to make: "Chef," and thus Hayes, was a key (if not central) figure in South Park and therefore in the success of "South Park," the show. He did voice some one hundred and forty episodes, or was credited for roughly that number. Whether his voice was in that many episodes? Beats me. But...the lesson here is, be careful of the jobs you take in television. You may regret those jobs, as I suspect Hayes may have in this instance.

Second, Comedy Central has posted a tepid tribute to Hayes, and you can check it out now. I hope they - and Matt/Trey - do better than THIS. Also check out the first comment on this page. I think the writer makes his point clearly and well.

(Photo: Courtesy of the BBC.)

Here's something I think we can all get excited about: Those very evil geniuses of "South Park" - Trey Parker and Matt Stone - have finally discovered this Internet thing, and have launched an all-"South Park-All-The-Time" website. Southparkstudios.com actually launched last week, but the official word is out today. Here's the flackery on it: "[It] will feature free, streaming, full-length episodes and clips from the entire 12 seasons of the Emmy and Peabody Award-winning animated series. The site which rolled out a beta version last Wednesday has already received over three million page views, over two million video plays, and more than a million streams of full episodes." ("Peabody-Award-winning?" Whatever. ) http://www.southparkstudios.com/