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2ND UPDATE: I understand that no Hollywood bigwig will bother to lodge a protest with Viacom over the South Park episode. “We don’t want to engage. We just want it to go away,” an insider just told me. The Wednesday night episode, which was the show’s fall season premiere, was seen by an average of 3.7 million viewers, up 21% from last fall’s debut and topping all of cable during its time period. It stands as the show’s most-watched fall premiere since 1999.
UPDATE: I’ve learned Paramount’s top execs missed last night’s South Park episode viciously spoofing Steven Spielberg and George Lucas for ”raping” Indiana Jones in the studio’s summer fourquel. No, I mean really recreating those rape scenes from Clockwork Orange, The Accused and Deliverance and scattering them throughout as the “B” story in ”The China Probrem” episode about the racist “horror” of the post-Olympics Chinese taking over the world. My info is that Paramount will look into this on Friday with parent company Viacom which produces the savage adult toon.
I learned about the episode, watched it online, and thought OH MY GOD.
Remember how Tom Cruise was upset with Viacom for South Park’s airing of the infamous “Trapped in the Closet” episode? I can’t begin to imagine what Brad Grey and Rob Moore, and Spielberg and Lucas, will say to Viacom. After all, the DVD of Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull comes out in just days. And Paramount confirmed to me this week that an Indiana Jones 5 is a very, very real possibility and Lucas has already begun development on it.
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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speaking truth to power used to be noble not controversial.
Wasn’t it John Williams instead of George Lucas?
Props to South Park for saying what needed to be said re; National Treasure 3, I mean Indy 4.
Hopefully this will permeate the thinking of both Lucas and Spielberg as they try to apologize with Indy 5.
You say that like racism isn’t funny?
long live South Park.
Indy Jones 4 was awful. The whole movie was instantly ruined by that annoying “cute” gopher in the beginning of the film.
GOOD RIDDANCE TO GEORGE LUCAS
I’m sorry but that still just gives me the creeps.
And Parker and Stone hate Indy 4… what else is new? People have been disappointed with the film since it came out late May… couldn’t they have done this in early June when the film was in theaters?
I haven’t even seen it yet and but am yearning for it now that you’ve informed me.
We are way past the time for taking down dinosaurs who have gone past their relevance.
If only there were youngsters able to take their place, but is the vacuum in the meantime any excuse for the mediocrity?
I gotta give props to the South Park crew for laying it out there like this. First of all, it was fucking hilarious…
It’s the kind of stuff most fanboys dream of saying to Lucas and Spielberg, but mostly Lucas who is a bloated dictator who has lost his fastball and his mind.
They may claim victory since Indy 4 made money, but they could have had the movie take place in a nursing home and made money with that brand.
The true lasting impression to most fans is that Indy 4 was terrible and not even close to any of the originals in writing — something Lucas lorded over with a steel hand treating writers like bitches.
He should stop making movies and just enjoy all our money he already has and give these properties to a new generation who actually have respect for the original creations.
If he doesn’t want anyone else to touch them, then let them be…but the days of Lucas/Spielberg meaning not only pure entertainment, bur excellence in all phases of film are done.
I’ll always have faith in Spielberg alone.
But Lucas has turned himself into exactly what he and Coppola were fighting against back in the 70′s and it’s sad.
He’s the heavy handed studio exec that doesn’t listen to good ideas. He’s become the Emperor. We just need Vader to pick him up and throw him down a shaft.
I thought I was the only one who thought Indy 4 was horrible. Most of the reviews were good, but the movie was so ridiculous I couldn’t enjoy it. Lets hope that Indy 5 has better writing, couldn’t be much worse.
(Trey & Matt, brilliant…)
I don’t think Par will come back at CC publicly, so don’t expect any fireworks. Viacom has bigger issues on wall street at the moment, I’m sure.
I’m always thankful to see that South Park’s creators have chosen to use the creative freedom financial success has brought them to deliver perspectives on a variety of topics. As funny as I find their political and social commentary, I love their struggles with pop culture just as much.
Raiders of the Lost Ark is my favorite film ever. I loved this episode.
Um, WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT? Did I just see Steven Spielberg rape Indy? I don’t know what was more jarring, the rape or the fact that they cut to a commercial right in the middle of it.
I didn’t see Indy 4 because…what was the point? Spielberg and Lucas are fat and rich and old and happy and they are just diddling with us now.
I’d rather just surf the web. Did I hear that Indy 5 is going to be about the CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT? (and Nazis and stuff)Maybe they can get Tyler Perry to direct.
I nearly died laughing seeing Lucas’ pert buttocks pounding Indy on, of all things, a Howard the Duck pinball machine. But those directors had this coming. Big time.
Also, incredibly racist? Have you ever seen a South Park episode before? Are you suggesting that Trey Parker and Matt Stone are against Chinese people? They were making fun of the absurd anti-Chinese sentiments some people had when the Olympics were on, plus the general idiocy of middle America.
What do you mean, “look into this?”
“Gerald, do we produce ‘South Park’?”
“Why yes, Eugene. We do.”
“Well then, we need to LOOK INTO THIS.”
“Why?”
“Because, we might have, um, crossed a line.”
“The racist line, or the don’t-upset-Spielberg-and-Lucas line?”
“Both.”
“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”
Nikki,
I don’t know how other Chinese-Americans feel about this episode, but I am not offended at all. Please don’t patronize me, Nikki. You’re a great reporter, but you don’t have to go all P.C. I’m smart enough to parse out genuine racism from satire. If you were a regular viewer of South Park, you’d know that Erik Cartman is xenophobic. racist, and anti-semitic. So what? He’s a pathetic little loser in the show.
I hereby release you from your obligation to become offended on my behalf.
Kenn FONG
#
I haven’t even seen it yet and but am yearning for it now that you’ve informed me.
We are way past the time for taking down dinosaurs who have gone past their relevance.
If only there were youngsters able to take their place, but is the vacuum in the meantime any excuse for the mediocrity?
Comment by nyguy — October 9, 2008 @ 10:18 pm
You mean Trey & Matt, right?
I never, ever want to see George Lucas’ O-face ever again.
@ GimmeABreak
You’re hired.
Trey Parker and Matt Stone never cease to amaze me. Hacks like Matt Groening and Seth MacFarlane are overpraised for mediocrity, but the South Park writing team continue to be some of the best scribes in the business.
Indiana Jones wasn’t the only one who got screwed by Spielberg and Lucas. So did the fans.
We didn’t wait 19 years for a lame hybrid of NATIONAL TREASURE and IT’S A MAD MAD MAD WORLD with some X-FILES thrown in.
It was just awful: The direction, the editing, the cinematography, the music, the script, the special effects, it was like everyone, from Spielberg to Michael Kahn to John Williams to Kaminski to ILM etc was on ‘Auto Pilot Kool Aid’ mode.
The laziest, worst Spielberg flick ever, from the title sequence to the sets to the lack of location shooting to the transition scenes to the talky exposition to the lame supporting performances and action.
It made the ‘Kick The Can’ episode of TWILIGHT ZONE THE MOVIE and the 1941 flick look like BATTLESHIP POTEMPKIN.
Can Spielberg direct escapist films anymore?
It was just awful.
I am a huge fan of South Park and I think this episode was no different in making a commentary on something that is controversial or that Matt and Trey (along with many, many other) obect to. Was actually showing rape scenes over the top? Maybe. I think that out of context, in a different show, yes. But, this is what South Park does and they are great at it.
As far as the Chinese stuff, I had no problem with it. It was not making fun of Chinese, but, as someone else stated, was commenting on the absurdity of American views. I find South Park to be unbelievable at creating metaphors for all that ails society. War, AIDS, handicapped, etc. People in this country take things to seriously. You have to be able to laugh at our problems.
It was one of the most inappropriate and disturbing things I have ever seen on TV.
Funny? No.
I love the fact, that whenever South Park rips and makes fun of some people, not a word is mentioned, but when they rip some of the sacred cows in Hollywood, then “they’ve gone too far.” This is exactly like the whole Mohammed(sp?) cartoon episode-no one said anything about the very offensive thing about Jesus at the end, but goodness, make fun of Islam-can’t do that. Say what you will about SP, they are equal opportunity satirists.
Lucas has ruined everything he has touched lately
South Park just said what most were too afraid or too enamored with to say…Indy4 sucked badly. It damaged the legacy of the original trilogy. It came across as a sort of one-up against Lucas to see who could ruin their franchises to most.
I thought it was classic South Park. Take offense once, take offense all or just don’t watch! You can’t have it both ways. I thought it was hysterical, but not enough to watch the encore last night.
South Park is still on the air? Yeesh.
Show hasn’t been funny since 1999. Seeing this clip confirms it.