An appeal from the Catholic Church for New Zealanders to boycott an episode of South Park has resulted in a record audience there for the controversial cartoon. The "Bloody Mary" episode of South Park drew more than six times the normal audience, New Zealand broadcaster TV Works announced Thursday. The episode, which aired Wednesday night, was seen by 210,000 viewers, according to Rick Friesen, the broadcaster's chief operating officer. "I expected a bit of a rise, but not that much," he told the Associated Press. In the past month, he said, an average South Park episode typically draws about 32,500 viewers to the network's C4 youth channel. During Wednesday night's broadcast, however, more than 350 people protested outside the TV Works headquarters in Auckland. This is a follow up to a previous post, located here. Isn't it just awesome that something like this could happen? I mean, obviously if these people were offended (as the church would have you believe) they wouldn't have watched the episode. Maybe sanity will start spreading like a disease? (I doubt it)
Ever heard that there is no such thing as bad publicity? The religious right doesn't seem to grasp that in the entertainment world their protests are better than any paid advertising the producers could have done. And as for common sense breaking out, it's NZ, they're allowed to be rational. It's in the treaty
You know, a similar thing happened back when I was in college. I attended Texas Tech University, lcoated in the very conservative Lubbock, Texas (often called the "Buckle of the Bible Belt"). One year, Marilyn Manson decided to come to town. Up until a couple of weeks before the show, only a small number of tickets were sold. Most people just didn't care that he was coming to town. Then one day, out of the blue, flyers started showing up around town that decried Manson and all of his evil ways. The flyers lsited all of the evil, sinfuls things he did on stage (none of them true), and called to all of the good people of Lubbock to ban the show. The more conservative religious folks took the bait and came out publically against the show and made a general media madhouse out the whole affair. Ticket sales promptly went through the roof, and I believe the show sold out soon after. A lot of the people I talked to said that they went just to see for themselves what all the fuss was about. Interestingly enough, nobody ever claimed responsibility for the flyers, and nobody ever figured out where they came from. To this day I can't help but wonder who started passing them out. I have a guess, and I'm probably correct. Moral of the story? "Controversial" things will often go away on their own, mostly unnoticed. Only by calling attention to it do we allow it to be controversial in the first place. -monkey
Whether or not he's strange isn't my point. My point is that by allowing it to get to them, and by creating a fuss over it, they only succeeded in increasing the popularity of the thing they objected to in the first place. But since you asked...I don't think he's really as strange or different as he would like people to believe. Under the facade of make-up and rock glam, I think Brian Warner is just like any other rock star that relies on an image. -monkey
Yes, how awesome is that, I bet you peed yourself with excitement. Could you also please sort out your grammar.
I cant really see anything wrong with it, and anyway, wtf is your problem? there was no need to say 'Yes, how awesome is that, I bet you peed yourself with excitement.' anyway. all he was doing was making a point.
My problem is how you always seem to resort to insult when you could use argument. Could you just demonstrate the intelligence and maturity that I know you are capable of, and make your point in a rational manner? Please?
I believe you must have been offended by the episode in question. And you also insult my grammar but do not correct it. I enjoy seeing a trivial protest over a satirical tv show go wrong and making what they see as a problem even worse, I havent seen the episode and it even sounds kind of stupid, I like the episode where they make fun of John Edwards (the guy who talks to dead people, not the former presidental canadiate). It is a trival matter, I can think of 2 similar events, the riots about the cartoons and anything jack thompson has ever said or done. The cartoons were in bad taste (only kinda funny at best) and I could see videogames being in bad taste (Im too desensitized to notice anymore) but they are only trivial matters. There are much more pressing matters in the world today than an offensive tv show or some cartoons. I just wonder what would happen if all the energy wasted on the trivial matters in the world were put to good use. My little rant.
