In class there was recently a poll held in which we were asked about our opinions on climate change. One of the options was “Other” (I hope I’m remembering this correctly; for the sake of the article I’ll use this). Not to be arrogant, but I think a number of people (not in the class specifically: I’m extending this to people in general) claiming to be concerned about climate change fall into the “Other” category in actuality without even knowing it. The “Other” in this blog post is intended to mean the type of person that doesn’t really care about climate change, but likes others thinking they do. In other words, the “Other” is a pretense.
In the recent years of television’s satirical South Park, the subject matter has become increasingly political. Creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker have certainly made it much easier to defend the show’s underlying intelligence and deeper meaning! Some of the contentious topics covered in the last seasons include; censorship, abortion, drugs, same-sex marriage, religion, and of course climate change.
A number of episodes on environmentalism have been aired, but for this blog post’s “Other hypothesis”, if you will, I’m only referring to one episode in particular. Specifically, I’m citing the episode “Smug Alert!” as a huge example. In this episode, the idea of the “Other” person is explored when Gerald, the father of one of the main characters, Kyle, purchases a hybrid car.
After buying it, his behaviour becomes progressively worse. At first he just uses the car to receive attention. Then his voice changes. Then he distances himself from his friends because he feels superior. Eventually this superiority gets the better of him, and he moves to San Francisco with his family, leaving South Park altogether. One of the outlandish things Gerald says in the episode is also very telling in terms of the “Other” idea. He claims that everyone in South Park is “backward and unsophisticated,” and says everyone should feel the same way about the environment.
Everyone should feel the same way. This is absurd, but it’s what South Park does: exaggerates real life to make a point. While it is clearly important to care about climate change, we should not lose sight of who we are. “Smug” is just of an important issue as “smog”. What price do we pay for caring about climate change too much? The pollution of how we carry ourselves?
If anyone is interested, I can make “Smug Alert!” available, as well as the other climate change inspired episodes.
Nice post bro
Leave it up to south park to tackle the issues that everyone else is to afraid too eh ?
Hi Dilair,
Your feedback:
Choice of topic:
– Intriguing. This has the potential to be very relevant and interesting.
Use of sources:
– You definitely need to work on finding credible sources for your post. Links to Youtube, unfortunately, isn’t enough. 😉
– Specifically, I’d suggest finding out which survey the in-class poll we did was based on (Steve had a slide or two on it), as well as sources to support the various statements of fact you might make.
Style / Coherence:
– It’s my feeling that your writing here is a somewhat sloppy and casual even for a blog post. When you revise your draft, pay special attention to your introduction and conclusion. For one thing, I’d suggest more precisely defining what you mean by “other” (with a reference to the survey’s definition ideally) since this idea is important to the point you’re making and comes up throughout your post.
Understanding / Clarity:
– I’m not exactly sure what point you’re trying to make, and I think that has to do with how vague you are in your opening paragraph, and with how quickly you wrap up and draw conclusions near the end of your post. I’d suggest you consider significantly expanding on your last paragraph since this where you are making your point.
Insights / Originality:
– It’s hard to say. I get the sense this could be an very insightful post, but you’ll have to elaborate on it.
Good use of blogging features:
– Decent. You might also consider embedding one or two of the videos into the post (rather than linking to them) if you feel up to that (you’ll have to edit the HTML code of the post, which can get a little hairy so don’t worry too much about it).
Interestingly, there’s a similar analysis over at Grist roday on what we can learn from The Simpsons:
http://www.grist.org/article/2011-02-11-what-the-simpsons-could-teach-us-about-global-warming