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Getting animated
Kathy Hofmeyr
Posted Wed, 25 Jul 2007
I love good television. No, I adore good television. Over the past ten years, as the Dumb and Dumber and Dumberest generation usurped the movie industry, the grown-ups, it seems, moved out and went into TV. The hackneyed, unfunny sitcoms and fantastically implausible soap operas continue to be produced, but some of the American producers seem to have gone British on us, turning out television programmes actually fit for human consumption.
Best of all, however, is 'The Simpsons'. Currently the longest-running animated series in television history, the yellow family who made their debut on 'The Tracey Ullman Show' in 1987 have been among America’s most astute social commentators of the age. The show’s longevity makes Bart Simpson the oldest ten-year-old in the world (or perhaps the most immature 26-year-old) and the show’s creators not only filthy rich but also perhaps America’s most consistent, enduring satirists ever.
The success of Matt Groening’s show inspired numerous imitators. 'King of the Hill', a mildly insulting parody of the Southern working-class family, is inexplicably still running. The superb 'God, the Devil and Bob' was cancelled three episodes into its first season because States-side Christians objected to the portrayal of God as a kindly, scatter-brained cross between Santa Claus and Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead. Celebrity voices such as Alan Cumming, James Garner, Chi McBride and 'The Simpsons' own Nancy Cartwright did nothing to save the series.
Those without access to M-Net’s Series Channel are missing out on one of the best new cartoon shows to hit the networks. It’s called 'American Dad!' and it is side-splittingly irreverent. It's essentially 'The Simpsons', except that the “Homer” character, Stan Smith, works for the CIA.
While Seth MacFarlane, the show’s creator (also responsible for 'Family Guy', another watchable animated series), has clearly used Groening’s show as a model, this is no cheap knock-off.
would like to be remembered as a best-selling author, a little-known blues singer and perhaps someone’s favourite aunt. She lives in Jo’burg with her dogs, two pure-bred mongrels named Harpo and Buffy.
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Stan is an ultra-patriotic, right-wing macho man, cursed with a geeky teenaged son named Steve and a left-wing, anti-war brainbox of a daughter, Hayley. Like 'The Simpsons', this show includes the occasional musical number and satirises America to the hilt. If you know anyone with PVR, try to watch the double episode in which Stan and his family are exiled to Saudi Arabia.
Included in the family are Klaus, the fascist goldfish (based on cult actor Peter Lorre) who gives the show its Greek-chorus-like running commentary, and Roger, an alcoholic alien who once saved Stan’s life and now lives in his household.
And then of course there's 'South Park' — now in its ninth year. The oiks who go to see Farrelly Brothers movies got their way and a cartoon was created all for them. Creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone started out with a good idea and certain episodes in the first season featured intelligent and entertaining themes. The Duck and Cover episode, “Volcano”, hinted at the futility of government-sanctioned safety precautions in the nuclear age — a kind of lowbrow equivalent of Raymond Briggs’s When the Wind Blows. “Big Gay Al’s Big Gay Boat Ride” managed, paradoxically, to promote liberalism and tolerance.
But frequently 'South Park' goes too far. Scatological humour and jokes about child molestation all too often overwhelm the subtler social comment and genuine funniness of the show. The God Squad failed to censor “Mr Hankey the Christmas Poo” and for weeks, nay, months afterwards high-pitched cries of “Hidey-ho… Hidey-ho” drew guffaws from idiots the world over.
Please do not misunderstand me. I am willing to embrace 'South Park' because, despite the crassness of its comedy, it raises issues of importance and, however crudely, the show itself embraces free speech. To my mind there is no instrument more vital to a successful democracy than the right to speak one’s mind and criticise governments, individuals, attitudes and institutions with which one is at issue. The silencing of Jon Stewart’s 'The Daily Show' during the invasion of Iraq signalled to me the thin end of the wedge that has since led, in America, to the abuse of civil liberties and a cavalier attitude toward the right to privacy. Only the series’ subsequent reinstatement and audiences’ support of its scathing brand of political humour give me hope.
Satire fulfils all the criteria of free speech and healthy dissent. 'South Park' may well induce the gag reflex in more sensitive viewers, but it gets its message across. It may outrage right-wing groups, Aids activists, gay and lesbian groups, religious viewers and champions of good taste (and Canadians, although I doubt it), but its writers are still free to poke fun at intolerance and to air issues.
And if that opens the door to debate and discussion, it gets my vote.
