Alferd Packer: The Musical

Cannibal! The Musical is a student film directed by the future creator of South Park, Trey Parker, while studying at the University of Colorado at Boulder. A black comedy, it is (loosely) based on the true story of Alferd Packer and the sordid details of the trip from Utah to Colorado that left his five fellow travellers (Shannon Bell, George Noon, James Humphrey, Israel Swan, and Frank Miller) dead and partially eaten. Trey Parker stars as Alferd Packer, with frequent collaborator Matt Stone featured as James Humphrey, Stan Brakhage--experimental filmmaker and University of Colorado teacher--as George Noon's father. Trey Parker is listed in the film's credits under the name "Juan Schwartz", which is a variant of "John Schwartze", a pseudonym used by the real Alferd Packer. Character George 'California' Noon played by Dian Bachar also works with Matt Stone and Trey Parker in Orgazmo, Baseketball and provides some voices for Team America: World Police. Contrasting with the musical's dark comedy are its cheerful songs, all composed by Trey Parker, including "Let's Build a Snowman," "On Top of You," "Hang the Bastard," and "Shpadoinkle." The last of these is a transparent parody of the song "Oh, What a Beautiful Morning" from the Rodgers & Hammerstein musical Oklahoma!. The DVD contains a "Drunken Director's Commentary" where Trey Parker and Matt Stone along with most of the cast get drunk as they watch the movie, although there are a few times when the commentary cuts out (either because the recorder was turned off or they spoke of things they later decided nobody should hear). The film's origins stem from a short trailer they made for film class. The trailer, which was about three-minutes long, drew much attention. Following repeated requests upon Parker and Stone to make the movie, they raised approximately $70,000 and began shooting the film. This film was originally filmed as Alferd Packer: The Musical in 1993. It was not released until 1996, however, when Troma Studios picked it up and renamed it Cannibal! The Musical for concern that not enough people outside of Colorado knew who Alferd Packer was. Few people outside of Colorado ever saw the film since Troma did not distribute it widely. Parker and Stone's animated satire South Park debuted the following year. Following Matt and Trey's success with South Park, Troma rereleased the movie on VHS and DVD and it has enjoyed a cult-following of sorts.

External links

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- [http://www.cannibalthemusical.net/ Official Homepage] Category:1996 films Category:Comedy films Category:Musical films Category:Cannibalism

South Park

South Park is an animated series created by Matt Stone and Trey Parker. Distributed by and airing on Comedy Central since 1997, it follows the surreal adventures of four young boys who live in the small town of South Park, Colorado. South Park satirizes many aspects of American culture and current events, and challenges deepset convictions and taboos, usually using parody and black humor. The show is noted for its characteristically blunt handling of current events. For example, an episode involving the repatriation of Romanian quintuplets aired during the Elián González issue, and depicted Janet Reno, then U.S. Attorney General, as a murderous Easter Bunny. An episode that aired after the September 11, 2001 attacks had the boys stow away on a military transport to Afghanistan, where they encounter Osama bin Laden. More recently, the episode "Best Friends Forever" satirized both the PSP and the Terri Schiavo case as well as the movie Constantine. Various instances relate Kenny's role in the episode as reminiscent of Keanu Reeves, which has also been speculated as a referral to Reeves' role as Neo (the One or savior) in The Matrix. In this episode, the town is at odds over the removal of a feeding tube from Kenny. The episode was recorded one week after the PSP was released and, coincidentally, was originally aired the night of March 30, 2005, less than twelve hours before Schiavo died. South Park won its first Emmy Award for that episode. New episodes for the show's ninth season continued on October 19, 2005 after being on hiatus since April 2005. Recent seasons have aired in two parts; for example, half of the episodes from the eighth season were put on hiatus for Team America: World Police, another Stone and Parker production. The show has been syndicated through Tribune Entertainment starting the autumn of 2005. Despite its reputation for toilet humor and outlandishness, many of the topics the creators take on are presented in realistic and unexaggerated yet absurd ways. For example, NAMBLA (North American Man/Boy Love Association) in episode #406, "Cartman Joins NAMBLA", is a real-life organization. Other targets, such as Scientology and Michael Jackson, have been satirized while portrayed mostly true to real life.

Series history

South Park began in 1991 when Parker and Stone, then film students at the University of Colorado, created an animated short called Jesus vs. Frosty. The crudely made film featured prototypical versions of the kids of South Park, including a character resembling Cartman but called "Kenny", bringing a murderous snowman to life with a magic hat. The baby Jesus then saves the day by decapitating the monster with a halo. Executives at Fox saw the movie, and in 1995, executive Brian Graden commissioned Parker and Stone to create a second short film to send to friends as a video Christmas card. Entitled The Spirit of Christmas, it closely resembled the style of the later series, and featured a martial arts duel and subsequent truce between Jesus and Santa Claus over the true meaning of Christmas. This video was later featured in an episode of South Park in which Stan, Kyle, Cartman, Kenny, Mr. Hankey and his family "save" Christmas. The video was a hit and was quickly shared, both by underground duplication and over the then-burgeoning Internet. This led to talks to create a series, first with Fox, then with Comedy Central, where the series premiered on August 13, 1997. August 13 The show's provocative, frequently offensive, and unquestionably adult-oriented material quickly drew howls of protest from various spokespersons, and South Park merchandise (especially T-shirts) were banned from a number of public schools, day care centers, and other public places in a manner similar to the prohibition of Bart Simpson T-shirts in the early 1990s after The Simpsons was accused of contributing to juvenile delinquency. Comedy Central defended South Park by noting that the show is given a "Mature Audiences" TV rating (TV-MA) and that it only airs the show during nighttime hours and never during the day when children may be more likely to see the show. In February 1998, one episode of South Park posed the question of who Eric Cartman's father was. The episode ended with the announcement that it would be revealed in four weeks' time. Four weeks later, the airing of an episode about Terrance and Phillip (two Canadian comedians the main characters idolize) prompted outrage, and also prompted Comedy Central to push the true season premiere up earlier than expected. It was apparently a well-planted April Fools gag, meant to poke fun at season-ending cliffhangers. The following year, the full-length animated feature film South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut was released to generally enthusiastic reviews. The film managed to satirize both itself and the anticipated reaction that it engendered from moral conservatives. It also presented a twisted but seemingly sincere tribute to the film musical with a number of songs, including "Uncle Fucka" and "Blame Canada". The latter was nominated for an Oscar and was performed by Robin Williams during the awards show. It has often been said that "Blame Canada" was chosen from other Oscar-worthy songs in the movie on the basis that it was the only one that could be performed on live TV with its lyrics relatively intact as the song contains only two swear words (while it is true that "Up There" by Satan contains no swear words at all, it would most likely have created far more controversy on religious grounds given its sympathetic portrayal of Satan and his justification of evil in the lyrics). A song by Phil Collins won the Oscar, however, which prompted a number of Phil Collins jokes in later South Park episodes. On November 11, 1999 shortly after the U.S. theatrical release of South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, actress Mary Kay Bergman, who had provided all of the female voices on the South Park animated series and in the full-length movie, committed suicide in her suburban Los Angles home. After her death, it was revealed that she suffered from a severe form of clinical depression. Her husband, Dino Andrade, founded the Mary Kay Bergman Memorial Fund at the Suicide Prevention Center of Greater Los Angeles in an effort to help and educate people with the same type of depression that his wife suffered. Mary Kay Bergman Memorial Fund In the episode "It Hits the Fan", South Park broke the swearing record by saying the word "shit" a total of 162 times. (In a 22 minute episode, this means that it averaged one "shit" every 8 seconds). There was even a counter throughout the episode showing the number of times it was said. An example of how it was used was Mr. Garrison's song that went, "Hey, there, shitty shitty fag fag, shitty shitty fag fag, how do you do?" and repeated this for four verses. This was meant as a satire on a NYPD Blue episode released shortly before this episode where one of the main characters said the word "shit" without being censored, and the American public discussed this for weeks. (In an additional gag in this episode, homosexual characters were allowed to use the word "fag" freely, while heterosexual characters were bleeped when attempting to use the same word.) On March 5 2005, South Park got to number 3 in the 100 Greatest Cartoons poll, losing to Tom and Jerry and The Simpsons. The nomination was for the funniest cartoon ever made, and was conducted by Channel 4. The series appeals to both adults and children (though they are not supposed to watch it).

Evolution of the series

South Parks early episodes tended to be shock value-oriented, but the more recent episodes are often oriented more toward poking fun at current events. This was very evident in the first half of Season 8: events in its episodes include Michael Jackson visiting South Park, the boys seeing The Passion of the Christ, blue-collar workers in South Park losing their jobs to immigrants from the future, and an episode featuring a "Paris Hilton" toy video camera. Season 9 premiered with the episode "Mr. Garrison's Fancy New Vagina," which incorporated uncensored footage of a farm animal being neutered. The pilot episode was produced using construction paper and traditional stop-motion animation techniques, but current episodes duplicate the original, amateurish look using modern computer animation tools (first PowerAnimator, then Maya, which South Park creators have described as "building a sandcastle with a bulldozer"). This allows for a short production schedule that enables the creators to respond quickly to current events. For instance, the December 17, 2003 episode ("It's Christmas in Canada") depicts the capture of Saddam Hussein a mere three days after his capture by U.S. forces, even referring to the "spider hole" where he was found. In the case of this and the Elián González episode, the creators stopped and changed production of an episode to focus on these events. Another example is the "Trapper Keeper" episode which originally aired just eight days after the 2000 Election and featured a kindergarten class election being delayed by, among other things, an undecided girl named "Flora", a reasonably obvious reference to the undecided vote-count in the state of Florida. In the audio commentary on the Season 4 DVD set, Parker and Stone remarked that beginning with episode 408, "Chef Goes Nanners," they began to consistently make episodes centering on a single issue, rather than having different sub-plots going on. In 2002 the episode "Free Hat" was aired. In this episode, prompted by Kyle's comment on Ted Koppel's Nightline that changing E.T. would be like changing Raiders of the Lost Ark, the South Park depictions of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg decide to alter the first Indiana Jones film. Soon after "Free Hat" aired, the real Lucas and Spielberg announced that they would not be altering Raiders of the Lost Ark for DVD release (contrary to rumors surrounding it). Stone and Parker later claimed that their episode prevented any alterations from happening when they appeared on a VH1 special, Inside South Park. While in college, Stone and Parker collaborated on the movie Cannibal! The Musical, a Western satire with humorous musical numbers. (The "Braniff" tune that plays at the end of many South Park episodes is an excerpt from the Cannibal! song, "Shpadoinkle".) Later, they created Orgazmo, a comedy about a Mormon starring in a pornographic movie, which found distribution thanks to the success of South Park later that same year. The pair also starred in the 1998 film BASEketball directed by David Zucker. (In a recent episode in which the boys see the Passion of the Christ and subsequently decide to get their money back for watching a lousy film, Stan comments to Kenny, "This is just like that time we got our money back from BASEketball," commenting on the film's box office failure). Their latest collaboration is the marionette action/comedy, Team America: World Police. On September 9, 2005, Comedy Central struck a deal with Parker and Stone for three more seasons of the show. The network has committed to three more seasons of South Park over the next three years, 42 episodes (including those of the second half of Season 9), which means that the show will run until at least 2009. Parker and Stone will continue to write, direct, and edit every episode of the show. The order brings the series total to 182 episodes. It is currently in the end of its ninth season. A sanitized version of South Park began broadcasting in syndication on September 19, 2005.
Characters
The characters and backgrounds of South Park are made to appear deliberately crude, as if they are simply made of cut-out pieces of paper. Paper cutouts were indeed used in the original pilot Parker/Stone animation and in the very first Comedy Central episode, but every subsequent episode aired on TV has been produced by computer animation that provides the same crude look. The animation has become less crude over time, though. To put the efficiency of this process in perspective, consider that the average episode of The Simpsons takes eight months to create, while episodes of South Park have been completed in as little as three days (which explains why current events that occur mere days before episode airdates are often included). Some episodes contain sections of regular film as well (e.g., "Tweek vs. Craig" and "Cat Orgy").
Major characters
film The main characters of the show are four elementary school students:
- Stanley "Stan" Marsh: Often the straight man of the group. Generally good natured and clear-thinking, he usually tries to come up with logical solutions to their outrageous situations. Stan acts as the alter-ego for creator, Trey Parker, and often summarizes the message or moral of the episode. He is best friends with Kyle and their relationship is central to many episodes.
- Kyle Broflovski: High-strung, skeptical, and at times self-righteous; yet is the most easily influenced. Kyle is effectively the alter-ego of Matt Stone, who, like Kyle, is Jewish. Along with Stan, Kyle often provides a reasonable perspective on the crazy behavior of the adult world around them, though is somewhat more excitable and childish than his best friend.
- Eric Theodore Cartman: Loosely inspired by Archie Bunker; he is campy, aggressive, sadistic, bigoted, spoiled, overweight, rude, and antagonistic. He is frequently the catalyst for the plot, regularly insulting Kyle for being Jewish and Kenny for being poor. Meanwhile, his pretentious and sociopathic ways often cause him to regularly be disdained by the other boys, who don't quite know why they put up with him. Many episodes have Cartman acting in a manner directly opposed to or against the wishes of the other three boys.
- Kenneth "Kenny" McCormick: Comes from an extremely crude, poverty-stricken family. Obsessed with sex and bathroom humor. His speech is difficult to understand due to his hood closed around his face, although all of his lines are real dialogue. During the first five seasons Kenny served as the eternal victim, who is routinely killed in a number of grotesque (yet often very entertaining) ways during each episode, only to miraculously reappear alive in the next episode. At the end of Season 5, Kenny is killed off for the next season and replaced by both Butters and Tweek as the fourth friend. He reappears as a regular character in Season 7, and while he does not necessarily die in every episode any more, on occasion he still meets a harsh fatality. In recent seasons, three other characters have gained prominence:
- Timmy, a schoolmate confined by disability to a wheelchair. He has a limited vocabulary, usually only consisting of his own name, Jimmy's name, his pet turkey's name - "Gobbles","And the lords of the underworld", and his assorted gibberish. On occasion, has managed a few other words. As a standing joke, he was misdiagnosed with ADHD. After gaining popularity, he was featured at the beginning theme of the 4th season. He also replaced Kenny in the theme song in season 6 when Kenny remained dead for an entire season.
- Leopold "Butters" Stotch (replaced Kenny as a main character during the first part of the Season 6. Though Kenny was brought back for the 7th season, Butters has remained prominent): Nervous, naive, easily manipulated, and repressed — while at the same time remains ironically optimistic, and sometimes insightful. He is often callously punished by his overbearing and oppressive parents, and is meanwhile blatantly vilified, taken advantage of and/or disregarded by Cartman, Stan, and Kyle. Adding to the tragic nature of his character, his birthday is September 11.
- Tweek (replaced Kenny during the second part of the Season 6): Spastic, neurotic, wants to be left alone. He is the only kid known genuinely suffering from ADHD (referred to as ADD in the show). His problems are often glossed over by his very docile, Hallmark commercial-esque coffee-shop-owning parents. Although initially touted as one of the leading supporting characters, he has since been upstaged by the more viewer popular Butters and has returned to playing a minor role. The show's earliest well-known gimmick, beginning in the first episode, was that in every episode, Kenny would die in some horrible, "unexpected" way. After this, Stan would shout, "Oh my God, they killed Kenny!" and Kyle would add, "You bastards!" Originally, the notorious "bastards" were the cow-aliens who shot Kenny with plasma; however, Kenny was in fact unharmed by this, and he was actually killed by Officer Barbrady's car after being trampled by Farmer Dinkins' cows. Kenny would be back in the next episode, the incident forgotten. In a clip show episode, one of Kenny's deaths was shown, and Stan and Kyle both act confused at it, implying that they literally forget Kenny's Death. For "Cartman%27s Mom is a Dirty Slut"/"Cartman%27s Mom is Still a Dirty Slut", since it is a bipartite episode, Kenny simply fades back into the picture at the beginning of the second part, only to be shocked to death by power lines in a snowstorm. For some time (after the fifth season episode "Kenny Dies"), Kenny had actually died "permanently." In the sixth season episode "A Ladder to Heaven", Kenny's soul became trapped inside of Cartman's body, but an exorcism performed by Chef's mother in "The Biggest Douche in the Universe" undid this. Kenny came back to life for an unexplained reason in "Red Sleigh Down" and is now the same regular kid he was before, except his deaths are much more rare. Kenny was killed by Saddam Hussein in "It's Christmas in Canada", the final episode of Season 7. He was also killed once during the eighth season, out of his parka, by "Mr. Jefferson", an alias of Michael Jackson, in the episode "The Jeffersons", and in the ninth season, he was killed by the Chinese mafia in the episode "Wing", as well as the following episode, "Best Friends Forever" (in fact, he dies twice in the latter).
Recurring characters
There are many other frequently recurring characters, besides the boys and their families.
- The boys' teachers Mr. Herbert Garrison (currently Mrs. Garrison after receiving a sex change in Episode 901, "Mr. Garrison's Fancy New Vagina"), and Ms. Choksondik (pronounced "chokes-on-dick") who dies in Season 6.
- Big Gay Al, a recurring character since the first season, with a part as well in the feature film.
- Mr. Slave, Mr. Garrison's flamboyantly gay live-in lover until his sex change in Episode 901 (replacement for Garrison's beloved puppet companion, Mr. Hat). Mr. Slave is now married to Big Gay Al.
- Jerome "Chef" McElroy (voiced by Isaac Hayes), the school cafeteria chef whom the boys seek out for advice. He used to be shown in almost every episode, but has been seen less frequently in recent seasons (probably due to Isaacs scientology).
- Satan, portrayed as the insecure and overly-sensitive former lover of Saddam Hussein.
- Jesus Christ and Santa Claus, who have been depicted as gun-toting heroes.
- Mr. Mackey, the school counselor who often appends "M'kay?" to the end of his sentences.
- Officer Barbrady, the incompetent, mentally deficient town police officer.
- Wendy Testaburger, a schoolmate and Stan's girlfriend until Episode 714 ("Raisins").
- Jimmy, a physically-disabled schoolmate with crutches and a speech impediment. Famous at South Park Elementary for his stand-up comedy. He took steroids to win the Special Olympics.
- Token Black, a classmate who occasionally accompanies the boys on their adventures; his name is intended as irony: being the only African-American kid in town, he is indeed the "token black". Token is also a frequent target of Cartman's racism. His surname was at one point Williams but was changed, forgotten or "black" is his stage name.
- Starvin Marvin, originally appearing in Episode 109, he was sent to Stan, Kyle, Cartman, and Kenny after they donated 5 dollars to an Ethiopian fund for starving children (led by Sally Struthers) in order to earn a Teiko sports watch. They are accidentally sent a small Ethiopian boy they call Starvin' Marvin. When two agents appear to return Starvin' Marvin back to his home country, they accidentally take Cartman instead. Though the episode is set in East African Ethiopia, Starvin' Marvin speaks a language with click consonants, which are more often found in Khoisan languages such as those of the Xhosa people of South Africa. He later appears in episode 311 along with the alien Marklar race.
- Towelie, is a "super towel" created to dry a person, but while being studied he smoked marijuana and "just sort of wandered off". Towelie is frequently getting "high" and offers advice on towel usage. Towelie has only apeared in 4 episodes (508 Towelie): first introduced, (509 Osama Bin Laden has Farty Pants): He only says two lines in this episode., (606 Profesor Chaos): Is in the contest for new fourth friend., and (701 I'm a Little Bit Country): only seen in background has no line.
- The goth kids, including Henrietta, originally featured in Episode 714 ("Raisins").
- Scott Tenorman, a much older schoolmate, originally introduced when he tricks Cartman out of his allowance money in the episode "Scott Tenorman Must Die". Cartman later takes revenge on Scott at his infamous "Chili con Carnival." Scott has appeared in minor roles in at least two subsequent episodes.
Minor characters and celebrities
Scott Tenorman Must Die Part of the show's surrealist nature derives from the minor characters who appear in the series. Notable appearances include God (who appears as a small creature resembling a hippo-rodent hybrid), Jesus (who owns a home and hosts a public-access television show in South Park (Jesus and Pals)), Satan (with or without his lover Saddam Hussein), Moses (who appears exactly as the Master Control Program (MCP) does in the Disney film Tron and demands macaroni pictures from his faithful), the alien Marklar race; the Jakovasaurs; Death; Mr. Hankey "the Christmas poo" (who adds to the holiday festivities in much the same spirit as the 1960s Rankin-Bass cartoons), and Towelie (who always gets (or wants to get) high). Most celebrities who make appearances on South Park are usually "impersonated.....poorly" by the staff or others. See partial list below:
- Barbra Streisand, is transformed by a mystical artifact Cartman found while digging and became Mecha-Streisand, a Mechagodzilla-like creature.
- Kathie Lee Gifford, is nearly assassinated by Mr. Garrison in the episode "Weight Gain 4000."
- O. J. Simpson, is a member of a support group for relatives of murder victims in "Butters' Very Own Episode."
- George W. Bush, under the influence of Satan's advisor (a Wormtongue lookalike, who probably represented Karl Rove) fought against removing a feeding tube from Kenny in the episode "Best Friends Forever."
- The 1980s band Toto
- Brian Boitano, a figureskater who is a kind of superhero to the children of South Park first appeared in "The Spirit of Christmas" and then again in the South Park movie, "Bigger, Longer, Uncut."
- Russell Crowe, star of the TV show Russell Crowe: Fightin' Around the World, in which he travels the world in a cartoon tugboat and picks fights with random strangers based on perceived insults
- Madonna is ridiculed in the episode "Kenny Dies."
- David Blaine, founder of the fictional, suicide-cult-like "Blainetology" religion in the episode "Super Best Friends."
- Sally Struthers is portrayed as a Hutt (as in "Jabba the Hutt" from Star Wars) hoarding food while pretending to save "Starvin' Marvin" and his people.
- Michael Jackson appears as a new neighbor named "Mr. Jefferson" who moves to South Park with his young son Blanket to escape accusations of child molestation (such as those that were made against Jackson in late 2003).
- Paris Hilton as spokeswoman for the Stupid Spoiled Whore clothing store chain.
- Christina Aguilera is portrayed as a hideous creature; a hallucination of Cartman's when he starts ingesting Ritalin
- Jennifer López, who appeared in "Fat Butt and Pancake Head", where Cartman drew a face on his hand and pretended that it was J. Lo. She attempted to destroy Cartman's hand because it was ruining her career. Jennifer López also appears in "Cartmanland" and "Proper Condom Use" , where Kyle and Stan are burning an action figure version of her with a magnifying glass.
- Mel Gibson: In the acclaimed "The Passion of the Jew" episode, Kenny and Stan, after seeing "The Passion of the Christ" and hating it, go to Gibson's home to ask for their money back. They find that Gibson is a complete and utter lunatic who begs to be tortured and chases them all the way to South Park where the debate over his movie is about to break into a fight between the Jews and the Christians.
- Tom Cruise, Features as a follower of the Church of Scientology in episode 912 "Trapped in the Closet" - Where he locks himself in Stan's closet after being told "I don't think you're a better actor than the guy who played Napoleon Dynamite" by Stan - The "reincarnation" of the Church's former leader, L. Ron Hubbard. He then refuses repeated requests by Stan, Stan's family, and other celebrities to 'come out of the closet.' Celebrities who have provided voice work:
- Robert Smith of the British rock/pop band The Cure, who transformed into a moth creature (a parody of Mothra) to battle Mecha-Streisand.
- The band KoЯn, solved a Scooby Doo-type mystery in the Halloween episode, "Korn's Groovy Pirate Ghost Mystery."
- The band Radiohead, appear in the episode "Scott Tenorman Must Die."
- George Clooney, portrays an emergency room doctor similar to his character Doug Ross in the TV series ER in the South Park Movie, "Bigger, Longer, Uncut." Clooney also appeared as a voice actor for Sparky, Stan's homosexual dog, in the episode "Big Gay Al's Big Gay Boat Ride", his only line being "Woof!".
- Jennifer Aniston, plays a choir teacher in the episode, "Rainforest, Schmainforest."
Political controversy
The political leaning of South Park has been open to some debate. With the exception of Cartman's hard-core conservative character being portrayed as a self-centered bigot, and Kyle being portrayed as reasonable yet liberal, the show is often criticized for having a supposed "conservative bias". Throughout the show, it may or may not be a coincidence that some celebrities mocked the most have been self-professed "Liberals". For example, in the season 7 episode "Butt Out," director and liberal activist Rob Reiner and his fellow anti-smokers are portrayed as a bunch of thieves, willing to lie and kill for the sake of putting out cigarettes for good - while the people working at the tobacco company are shown as comically friendly and happy. Another potential example of a conservative slant might be their portrayal of President Bush. As president, George W. Bush is naturally a favorite target of cartoonists and comics, but South Park does not seem to make fun of him much at all. In fact, in the episode "A Ladder To Heaven" Bush is hardly recognizable, possibly because he's hardly exaggerated or caricatured, highly unusual for South Park, to say the least. This could be contrasted with President Bill Clinton in the earlier episodes, who is portrayed as a jackass with a wrinkly face and an exaggerated Southern accent. Icons of American conservatism are by no means immune from ridicule, however. It should be noted that Bush was the central character in Parker/Stone spoof of 1950s era sitcoms, That's My Bush!, which aired briefly in mid-2001, but was cancelled prior to Sept. 11, 2001. Bush is also portrayed as a gullible moron in the aforementioned "A Ladder To Heaven" episode. For example, he explains to the UN that the US needs to bomb heaven because Saddam (through a series of unfortunate events) is in heaven and is making chemical weapons. One UN member replies, "Are you high or just very stupid?" To which Bush replies, "I can assure, I am not high." In any case, the show has lambasted social conservatives and Republicans in satirizing The Passion of Christ and the Terri Schiavo debate. In addition, the episode "Osama bin Laden Has Farty Pants" portrays the U.S. military as indiscriminately bombing civillian buildings in Afghanistan, and Kyle says of the country: "If I grew up here, I'd be pissed off too!" However, South Parks political views overall would seem to lean towards the libertarian political view. Trey Parker dismisses the "accusations" of conservatism, claiming that if their show really were conservative, it wouldn't exactly have the sense of humor or tone it's famous for. Matt Stone points out that the show pokes fun at Liberals and Conservatives, and no segment of society is spared. In fact, the wide spread of the show's comedic gunbarrel is a good part of the appeal: a recent advertisement for the show on Comedy Central announced an apology, listed many categories of people South Park has made fun of (including rednecks, blacks, gays, politicians, transsexuals, Jews, and the disabled) and then stated, "We apologize if South Park has left you out." That said, the show seems less afraid to "call out" "liberals" than it is to specifically target "conservatives". For example, the specific equation of Democrats with Fascists for advocating sexual harassment laws ("Sexual Harassment Panda") and the contention of "My Future Self n' Me" that "liberals" are behind the creation of anti-drug public service announcements equating marijuana use with support of terrorism. Critique of conservatism is generally limited to religious and social leaders, who are often depicted as self-serving and hypocritical, but rarely, if ever, are "conservative" or "republican" officials or policies overtly criticized in the manner that "liberal" concepts and individuals are. In a televised interview, Parker and Stone suggested that liberals were more satisfying to lampoon, since they typically react more strongly than conservatives. Specifically, they cited a letter written to them by Sean Penn deriding them for his negative portrayal in Team America: World Police. In episode 806, "Goobacks", where people from the future come back in time to present day South Park in order to make a better life for themselves, Bill O'Reilly's "No-Spin Zone" attempts to be fair on the coverage, and so asks two people with opposing views onto the show. One, called "pissed-off white-trash redneck conservative" and the other, "aging hippie liberal douche", neither of which is particularly favourable. The "liberal" made wordy, annoying comments, like, "It is our greedy multinational corporations that keep everyone else in poverty", whereas the "conservative" seems only capable of swearing, and saying the phrase "THEY TOOK OUR JOBS!" A more accurate characterization of South Park's criticism might be "anti-authority," and in particular "anti-state." In other words, South Park consistently pokes fun at efforts by both "liberals" and "conservatives" to increase the amount of government control over the lives of individuals. As mentioned above, such a position jibes more with contemporary libertarianism than with either American liberalism or contemporary American conservatism. Some conservatives have latched on to South Park as the type of hip humour they would like to have associated with them. A book, South Park Conservatives expands upon this point.

Recurring themes of child abuse and neglect

Child abuse and child neglect are recurring thematic elements in South Park. For example, Butters' emotional abuse by his parents is usually depicted in episodes in which he appears. Cartman is shown several times as a target of actual or attempted sexual abuse. Shelley is depicted as physically abusing her younger brother Stan and other major characters in earlier episodes. Kenny's parents are depicted and referred to as dysfunctional alcoholics, and his brothers appear to be neglected (although Kenny himself is not shown to be similarly affected). The treatment of this theme ranges from realistic to cartoonish. For example, Butters' state of mind as a result of his treatment by his parents is handled in a generally realistic way — he is incontinent, has low self-esteem, and wrings his hands. However, his parents' emotional manipulation of him is shown as completely "over-the-top"; at one point, they try to sell Butters to Paris Hilton. Tweek's constant state of tension has both comic elements (his parents keep him dosed on coffee for no obvious reason), and more serious and realistic ones (his problems, caused by his family, are misdiagnosed as ADD, and it is implied that he has a therapist who treats his problems as purely personal and ignores the role of his parents).

Music

therapist Although South Park is well known for its humor and controversial plots, viewers are also treated to an original musical score. The show's opening theme song is performed by alternative rockers Primus. It should be noted that Kenny's lines in the song, as well as all but one of his lines throughout the show (Episode 807, "The Jeffersons") and one in the movie, are muffled. Kenny always wears an orange anorak with the hood concealing all of his head except for his eyes. The fact that the lines are unintelligible helped them slip past network censors. It is sometimes easy to comprehend the lines, given the context in which they are delivered. One of the rumors is that Kenny's original line says "I like women with fat titties, I like women with big titties." Another interpretation that is common is, "I like girls with big fat titties, I like girls with big fat titties." Another variation states that he sings, "I like girls with big fat titties, I like girls with big vaginas." Another rumor of Kenny's lines is that they changed at the start of the 3rd season, and went on to the end of the 5th season. These lines are supposedly "I have got a 10 inch penis, if you want to, you can clean it." This went on, and was changed during the 6th season, where Timmy took over Kennys place after Kenny was killed off permanently. Timmy's lines are "Timmah Timmah Timmah Timmah, Timmah, Timmah, Live a lie, Timmah!" Kenny's line in the theme song changed at the start of the seventh season. It was promised that the line would be revealed a year after the change. When the time had passed, the creators had forgotten exactly what the line was, but were "95% sure" that it was: "Someday I'll be old enough, to stick my dick in Britney's butt." Popular songs such as "Kyle's Mom is a Bitch" originated on the show, but the creators' musical abilities were not frequently used until the release of South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut. The film's soundtrack featured songs like "Mountain Town", "La Resistance Medley," "Uncle Fucka", "What Would Brian Boitano Do?" (a song to which Brian Boitano has been known to figure skate), "I'm Super", and "Blame Canada" (nominated for an Oscar, see below). Several of the songs from the movie were satires of tunes from Disney cartoons. For instance, "Mountain Town" is highly similar to "Belle" from Beauty and the Beast. "Up There" is a take-off of two different Disney songs, "Out There" from The Hunchback of Notre Dame and "Part of Your World" from The Little Mermaid. "La Resistance Medley" spoofs "One Day More" from the stage musical Les Miserables. Trey Parker and Matt Stone have, on occasion, performed these and other songs (some unrelated to the show, such as "Dead Dead Dead"), under the band name DVDA. In the show, Eric Cartman will often burst into song to convey a false altruism or optimism that belies his baser motivations. In "Red Sleigh Down", he sings "Poo-Choo Train", an unnervingly cheery Christmas carol, in an obvious attempt to convince Mr. Hankey and Santa Claus that he is worthy of Christmas presents. In "The Death of Eric Cartman", Cartman sings "Make it Right" with Butters in a weak attempt to reconcile his sins. In the episode "Ginger Kids" he sings a song about tolerence once he realizes he's not a ginger and that he just convinced every ginger in town to exterminate non-ginger people. Cartman also uses the song "Heat of the Moment" to convince the U.S. Senate to approve stem cell research. And, of course, there's Cartman's mental quirk that forces him to finish singing Styx's "Come Sail Away" whenever someone sings a few bars of the song. Additional musical contributions to the show come from Isaac Hayes, who voices Chef, and from the band Primus, which performed the original opening and ending themes for the show. Another high point of the series is its dramatic score. It often dramatizes common and deep parts with a very heartwarming, melancholic, or mysterious soundtrack.

Trivia

- The film Bowling for Columbine includes an interview with Matt Stone that suggests South Park was largely inspired by Stone's childhood experiences in Littleton, Colorado. Stone describes Littleton as painfully normal and highly intolerant of nonconformist behavior. Stone's appearance was followed by an uncredited cartoon in a style strongly reminiscent of South Park that was not the work of either Stone or Parker. It became a point of contention between them and the filmmaker, Michael Moore, as they believed Moore meant to imply they had contributed it to his film. They have said the appearance of Moore as a suicide bomber in their 2004 feature film Team America: World Police is their sardonic response to this incident.
- Les Misérables has had several cameo roles throughout the series, including an appearance by Cosette, Cartman's prison number being 24601 (Jean Valjean's prison number), and an entire song in South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut that is based on "One Day More", a song from the musical. Also, in Episode 414 "Helen Keller! The Musical", the "musical theater expert" sounds similar to Colm Wilkinson, who played the original Jean Valjean on Broadway. In fact, Cartman says the expert (introduced as Geoffrey Mainard) played the lead in a production of Les Misérables.
- A short tribute sketch was shown for the 30th anniversary of Monty Python which parodied the "Dead Parrot sketch". The parody takes part in a friend store, where Eric Cartman walks in and complains that Kenny, the friend that he bought, is dead. Eventually an ending showing crude cut outs of Terry Gilliam, Venus de Milo, and the Monty Python foot appear.
- Trey Parker animated a South Park version of a joke called The Aristocrats for the documentary film of that name.
- The Parker-Stone production company is named Braniff Productions, named after a defunct airline. The logo (which featured a computer-generated shot of the Braniff airline with the subtitle "...believe it") originally appeared in Episode 101 as a joke, but it was decided (since Parker and Stone had already established Braniff as their company) that the logo would close every episode. The song that plays while the airplane is shown is "Shpadoinkle" from Trey Parker's first movie Cannibal! The Musical.
- In almost every episode of South Park, one of the aliens from Episode 101 is hidden somewhere in the episode. [http://www.eeggs.com/items/1256.html] There are constant references to the geography in and around South Park that correspond to the real South Park in Colorado. It is noted that Trey Parker attended Evergreen High school in nearby Evergreen, Colorado. Fairplay, Bailey and Conifer are actual towns a short distance away from South Park and have been mentioned in South Park. There are also references to popular places in Denver such as Casa Bonita, a local eatery (which is actually located in Lakewood). The Highway mentioned in serveral episodes (Highway 285) actually links Denver, Fairplay, Bailey, Conifer and of course South Park.

Running gags

These are events that have recurred in almost every episode of South Park.
- Kenny died in almost every episode during the first five seasons. He usually dies at the end, though his death is used as a plot device in a few episodes -- most notably in the movie, were his arrival in hell and subsequent friendship with Satan are essential to the story, to the point of providing the final Deus Ex Machina.
- After most of Kenny's deaths, Stan says "Oh, my God! They/it/he/she/we killed Kenny!" Kyle will then say "You/we're bastard(s)!" A gag has been built around this: whenever Stan says, "Oh, my God! They killed Kenny!", Kyle will always reply, no matter where he is, "You bastards!" In the episode "Super Best Friends", Stan used this method as echolocation to find Kyle, who had been forced into suicide by a cult.
- Cartman frequently says, "Screw you guys, I'm going home." This usually comes after he and Kyle get into an argument (mainly the ones that involve Eric being selfish).
- Eric's mother occasionally is targeted for her promiscuity. Sometimes the boys find a magazine or website depicting her in unspeakable acts, though it's usually intimated by Ms. Cartman flirting with or taking men into her room.
- Whenever Wendy speaks to Stan or kisses him , his nervousness will cause him to vomit shortly thereafter. (This gag ended as of Season 7 when Wendy broke up with Stan to go out with Token.)
- If Chef is asked a question by the children, he will answer by singing a song, the song will wind up being about sex regardless of the original question. Then he'll occasionally attempt to relate it to their problem.
- Kyle is teased or insulted for being Jewish. In the episode "Casa Bonita" there is a montage with 16 occurrences of Cartman insulting Kyle as a Jew.
- When the boys are looking for a "scapegoat" or someone to take the fall, they always choose Butters.
- Eric will occasionally threaten someone with something completely obscure when they don't agree with him, like make someone "eat their parents", which happens in episode 501, "Scott Tenorman must die", in which Cartman tricks a Scott Tenorman to eat a bowl of chili containing his parents after being insulted and tricked.
- Canadian characters on South Park exhibit many random oddities, such as beady eyes and semicircular heads that, during speech, detach from their body and jaw (which is also semicircular). They also speak rapidly with affected accents, pronouncing "about" as "a-boot" and "house" as "hoose"; they frequently refer to others as, "buddy."

Trey Parker

Randolph Severn "Trey" Parker III (born October 19, 1969 in Conifer, Colorado) is one of the creators of the animated series South Park.

Biography

Randolph Severn Parker III (hence the nickname "Trey") is the youngest child of Randy and Sharon Parker and has an older sister Shelley. Parker attended West Jefferson Junior High School and Evergreen High School in Evergreen, Colorado, where he was voted class clown. Trey resides in Bel Air and is engaged to be married to Emma Sugiyama. Contrary to popular belief, neither he nor Matt Stone attended Columbine High School. Parker went to Berklee College of Music in Boston before transferring to the University of Colorado in Boulder, where he met Matt Stone. He was majoring in music, and with a goal to someday score films, and took classes to learn more about the film process. He made several animated shorts including American History which won a Student Academy Award, and The Spirit of Christmas: Jesus vs. Frosty with Stone. Parker's first film was a feature length film about Alferd Packer, a Colorado miner who was the first person convicted of cannibalism in America. A trailer was shot over the summer, and was used to help raise enough funds to shoot the film. Alferd Packer, The Musical (it was renamed Cannibal! The Musical when picked up in 1996 for distribution by Troma) began filming during spring break in 1993. Family, friends and fellow students all took part in the film. Students who participated received intern credit, except for Parker, who was kicked out of the university due to excessive absences from working on the film. Parker's college film caught the eye of Brian Graden, a then Fox executive. In 1995, Graden commissioned Trey and Matt to create a video Christmas card based on their animated college short. The Spirit of Christmas: Jesus vs. Santa was the result -- a five minute short that featured an uncensored Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman and Kenny McCormick watching Jesus and Santa battle it out for ownership of the Yule holiday. One of the recipients of the video (rumored to be George Clooney) made several hundred copies, and the animation became a must-see passed around Hollywood and the Internet. That same year, Parker created a pilot for Fox called Time Warped -- a "musical romp through time" featuring a story about Aaron and Moses. Fox felt the idea would work better as a children's show so a new pilot, Rom & Jul was made for Fox Kids -- a Romeo and Juliet-esque story about a Homo erectus and Australopithecus who fall in love despite the conflict between their species. Fox Kids passed on the show. Parker wrote, directed and starred in his second feature film Orgazmo in 1997, about a wholesome Mormon who becomes a celebrity in Los Angeles' adult film world. Due to the NC-17 rating given by the MPAA, it did not have a wide release. Parker and Stone were hired by Comedy Central to create a show based on the animated characters they created in college. Though it didn't test well with audiences, Comedy Central decided to pick it up for six episodes anyway. South Park made its debut on August 13, 1997, and has since gone on to be the highest rated original series in the network's history. In 1998, Parker starred with Stone and Dian Bachar in BASEketball, directed by David Zucker of Airplane! and Naked Gun fame. The story follows a group of friends who take their homemade game from neighborhood driveways to the professional sports world. In the summer of 1999, Parker and Stone released their critically acclaimed feature length film, South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, which was, naturally, a musical. "Blame Canada", a song written by Parker and Marc Shaiman, was nominated for Best Song at the Academy Awards. The award was lost to Phil Collins, which was spoofed in a later episode of South Park. After a contract renegotiation in 2000, three more seasons were added to South Park and Parker and Stone had a deal to create a live action sitcom. In 2001, That's My Bush! premiered (it was a sitcom that portrayed the Commander in Chief as the lovable main character). It was not brought back for a second season due to its high costs (reportedly $700,000 per episode) and meager ratings. Another contract negotiation in 2003 picked up South Park for a ninth season, with an option to pick up a tenth. Team America: World Police, the most recent creation from the duo, is a puppet movie about a special police force dedicated to saving the world from terrorists, and was released in October 2004. Parker and his creative partner, Matt Stone, have received criticism and acclaim from both sides of the political spectrum, making them hard to pin down politically, except that they display irreverence for almost any authority figure. The term South Park Republican has been coined to refer to those who claim that South Park reflects a Republican, although non-traditional, viewpoint. Historically, though, Parker has described himself as "middle-ground", and he is a registered member of the United States Libertarian Party. On September 9, 2005 Comedy Central struck a deal with Parker and Stone for three more seasons of the show. The network has committed to 42 episodes (including those of the second half of season 9), or three more seasons, of South Park over the next three years, which means that the show will run till 2009. Parker and Stone will continue to write, direct and edit every episode of the show. The order brings the series total to 182 episodes. A sanitized version of the South Park bowed in syndication on September 19. In addition to currently working on the ninth season of South Park, there is talk that they are creating a stage musical with Avenue Q creators Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx. Trey and Matt also have plans to form a production company, possibly with Paramount. As for the prospect of making more films, Parker is not enthusiastic, for the time being: "Team America almost killed us. We'd like to figure out a way to do our own movies, but not die doing them, and maybe help some other people produce their movies, like graduate to the next level because we are getting up there in age." [http://www.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/TV/10/25/tv.south.park.qa.ap/index.html]. Contrary to his comments in November 14, Parker and Stone have signed a three-year production deal with Paramount Pictures. They named their new banner Trunity, a Mediar company, a division of True Mediar, a Unity Corpbopoly. Paramount and Comedy Central are both owned by Viacom Inc., and will continue to be housed under the same umbrella when the parent company splits into two entities by year's end (2005).

Miscellaneous facts

- Is a gun owner.
- Has blue eyes.
- Is left-handed.
- Loves musicals.
- Stands 6'1.
- Talented pianist.
- Denver Broncos fan.
- Has a cat named Jake.
- Lived in Japan for a period.
- Speaks fluent Japanese.
- Registered Libertarian.
- Member of the band DVDA .
- A big fan of The Cure.
- Favourite actor is Malcolm McDowell.
- Also credited as Juan Schwartz.
- Has a black belt in Tae Kwon Do.
- Owns additional homes in Seattle and Kappa, Hawaii.
- Lived in Tennessee and Wyoming for a short time as a child
- Formerly engaged to Liane Adamo, who dated Cannibal! The Musical co-star Toddy Walters, and has been linked with actress Lisa Faulkner and model/actress Nichole Robinson.
- As of 2005, engaged to Emma Sugiyama.
- Named for the River Severn in Shrewsbury, England.
- Both he and Matt love The Simpsons.

Filmography

The Simpsons

Collaborations with Matt Stone

- Princess (2003): co-writer, voices, producer, director. Created for shockwave.com which refused to show it as it was not 'work safe'. It is now available on many websites.
- Team America: World Police (2004): co-writer, voices, producer, director
- That's My Bush! (TV series, 2001): co-creator, writer, executive producer, theme composer and performer
- South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999): voices, additional music and lyrics, co-writer, director
- BASEketball (1998): actor
- South Park (TV series, 1997-present): co-creator, voices, writer, additional music, director, executive producer
- Orgazmo (1997): actor, co-writer, director
- The Spirit of Christmas (Jesus vs. Santa, 1996; Frosty vs. Santa, 1992)
- Cannibal! The Musical (1994): actor (as Juan Schwartz), composer, co-writer, director

Miscellaneous

- American History, 1991 college animated short, winner of a Student Academy Award
- "Even If You Don't" by Ween (music video, 2000)
- The Giant Beaver of Southern Sri Lanka, during the making of which he met Stone (also notable for inspiring the South Park episode "The Mexican Staring Frog of Southern Sri Lanka").
- Princess, a two episode cartoon for Shockwave.com that was deemed so offensive that Shockwave refused to show it on their website. [http://www.ebaumsworld.com/flash/princess.html]

Voices on South Park

- Stan Marsh, his dad and his grandfather
- Cartman
- Clyde Donovan
- Craig and his dad (episode 304). Also his mother.
- Herbert Garrison
- Mr. Hankey
- Mr. Mackey
- Miss Choksondik
- Timmy
- Jimmy
- Kyle Schwartz
- Satan
- Officer Barbrady
- Various others

External links

-
- Trey Parker Fansite http://treyparker.info
- Trey Parker Fanlisting http://treyparker.info/fan/ Parker, Trey Parker, Trey Parker, Trey Parker, Trey Parker, Trey Parker, Trey Parker, Trey

Black comedy

Black comedy, also known as black humor, is a subgenre of comedy and satire where topics and events normally treated seriously – death, mass murder, sickness, madness, terror, drug abuse, rape, etc. – are treated in a humorous or satirical manner. Synonyms created to avoid possible racial overtones include dark comedy/humor, morbid comedy/humor and off-color humor (see also color metaphors for race.) A scene in Samuel Beckett's play Waiting for Godot demonstrates black comedy well: a man takes off his belt to hang himself, and his trousers fall down. Black humor is similar to sick humor, such as dead baby jokes. However, in sick humor most of the humor comes from shock and revulsion; black humor usually includes an element of irony, or even fatalism. In America, black comedy as a literary genre came to prominence in the 1950s and 1960s. Writers such as Terry Southern, Joseph Heller, Thomas Pynchon, Kurt Vonnegut, Harlan Ellison and Eric Nicol have written and published novels, stories and plays where profound or horrific events were portrayed in a comic manner. An anthology edited by Bruce Jay Friedman, titled "Black Humor," assembles many examples of the genre. The 1964 film Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb presents one of the most well-known examples of black comedy. The subject of the film is nuclear war and the extinction of life on Earth. Normally, dramas about nuclear war treat the subject with gravity and seriousness, creating suspense over the efforts to avoid a nuclear war. But Dr. Strangelove plays the subject for laughs; for example, in the film, the fail-safe procedures designed to prevent a nuclear war are precisely the systems that ensure that it will happen. The film Fail-Safe, produced simultaneously, tells a largely identical story with a distinctly grave tone; the film The Bed-Sitting Room, released six years later, treats post-nuclear English society in an even wilder comic approach. Today, black comedy can be found in almost all forms of media. The worst examples are shallow attempts at grabbing attention with shock value, coating otherwise uninteresting content with a veneer of hip edgy-ness. The best examples are works of high satire that tell us something profound about ourselves and the world we live in.

Works

Literature

- As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
- The Assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy Considered as a Downhill Motor Race by J.G. Ballard
- Candide by Voltaire
- Catch-22 by Joseph Heller.
- Fight Club, by Chuck Palahniuk, and his other works.
- God's Other Son by Don Imus
- Jennifer Government by Max Barry
- The Loved One by Evelyn Waugh
- A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket, a series of children's books about three orphans who go through many tragic and unfortunate experiences.
- Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut, an anti-war speculative fiction novel loosely based on Vonnegut's experiences as an American POW.
- Titus Andronicus by William Shakespeare
- most of the short stories contained in the collections Dangerous Visions and Again, Dangerous Visions, edited by Harlan Ellison
- any of the six wartime aviation novels by Derek Robinson: Goshawk Squadron, Piece of Cake, War Story, A Good Clean Fight, Hornet's Sting, and Damned Good Show
- How to Rent a Negro by damali ayo
- The works of John Webster, an English dramatist who excelled in blackly comic, bloody tragedies.
- Most works by Ambrose Bierce, a cynical American satirist.
- Herbert West: Re-Animator by HP Lovecraft.
- American Psycho by Brett Easton Ellis
- The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks.
- Most works by Steve Aylett contain very morbid but witty humour.

Films

- About Schmidt
- After Hours
- American Psycho is about a self-obsessed yuppie serial killer, played by Christian Bale.
- Arsenic and Old Lace is about a pair of murdering old aunts discovered by their nephew, played by Cary Grant.
- Bad Santa is about a wretched, drunk, perverse thief who poses as Santa Claus to rip off department stores.
- The Bed-Sitting Room, about life in England after a nuclear war.
- Being John Malkovich
- The Big Lebowski, in which the shiftless "Dude" deals with bowling, nihilists, kidnapping, death, and having his favorite rug urinated on.
- Black Cat, White Cat
- Blazing Saddles, a comedy that makes fun of racism, about a clever black slave who is made the sheriff of a small Western town to drive out its citizens and ends up winning them over.
- Brazil a comedic vision of a nightmarish 1984-like world, featuring terrorism, torture and paperwork.
- Bubba Ho-Tep A retired Elvis Presley battles the undead.
- The Cable Guy
- Catch-22, a film about the madness of war, based on the novel by Joseph Heller.
- Children Of The Revolution, about the 'love child' of Josef Stalin.
- Citizen Ruth, a satire about the abortion rights battle.
- Crazy People
- La Comunidad
- Dead Man On Campus, about the urban legend of a roommate's suicide and the resulting perfect grades in college
- Death Becomes Her, about the downsides of immortality.
- Death Race 2000
- Death To Smoochy, a corrupt former children's TV icon plots revenge against his fuzzy purple replacement.
- The Doom Generation, three young drifters go on a killing spree.
- Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, a satirical film about an insane American General who orders a nuclear attack on the Soviet Union, filmed during the Cold War.
- Eating Raoul, about a prudish couple who kill rich swingers by luring them to their apartment.
- Election, a high school teacher attempts to sabotage an overachieving student's election campaign.
- Falling Down, a victim of the late 1980s recession suddenly becomes a vigilante as he encounters social annoyances and injustices during a walk across LA.
- Fargo, a debt-ridden car salesman hires incompetent criminals to kidnap his wife in order to get a ransom from his rich father-in-law.
- Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, semi-autobiographical film of Hunter S. Thompson starring Johnny Depp directed by Terry Gilliam
- Fight Club, friends form "fight clubs" to escape their mundane lives. Adapted from the novel by Chuck Palahniuk.
- A Fish Called Wanda
- Four Rooms, four vignettes centered around a hapless bell boy, involving witchcraft, a rotting corpse, and a severed finger.
- Ghost World
- Grace Quigley, a film about euthanasia
- Grosse Pointe Blank, about a hitman who returns to his hometown to attend his high school reunion.
- Happiness deals unflinchingly with subjects designed to make audiences squirm (from suicide, rape, murder, pedophilia, and childhood masturbation). The treatment of the subjects is blunt, but also gleefully absurdist.
- Harold and Maude, in which an alienated young man obsessed with staged suicides and the funerals of strangers falls in love with a vivacious octogenarian.
- The Hospital, the story of a chief of surgery who is trying to figure out why a number of hospital employees begin dying under strange circumstances.
- Heathers, about a disaffected, jaded couple who start killing members of popular cliques at their high school.
- Ichi the Killer, about a pair of savage killers, one a sadist and the other a masochist.
- Intolerable Cruelty About a divorce attorney and a gold-digger.
- Kind Hearts and Coronets, Ealing comedy in which the main character assassinates members of an aristocratic family to inherit a Dukedom.
- The King of Comedy
- The Ladykillers
- The Last Supper
- Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, about three orphans who go through many tragic experiences.
- Little Murders, written by Jules Feiffer
- The Lindsay Anderson trilogy of If...., O Lucky Man! and Britannia Hospital.
- Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, a Guy Ritchie film about the seedy underside of London crime.
- Loot by Joe Orton, dramatist of several black comedies.
- Lord of War, Nicholas Cage in a film portrayal of the gun running underworld.
- The Loved One, film version of the Waugh novel.
- M
- A
- S
- H, in which the medical staff of a Korean War field hospital engage in silly mischief to alleviate the horror of war.
- Man Bites Dog, a disturbing mockumentary about a merciless hitman who takes a camera crew on a tour of his routine.
- Meet the Feebles
- Monsieur Verdoux, about a suave serial killer who commits his crimes to support his family.
- Monty Python and the Holy Grail
- Monty Python's Life of Brian, a satire of the practices of modern organized religion, especially those of many sects of Christianity.
- Monty Python's the Meaning of Life, a series of sketches on subjects including birth, death, war, and sperm.
- Natural Born Killers, about serial killers who become folk heroes as a result of media coverage of their crimes.
- New Year's Day, two teens make a suicide pact and live their remaining days to the fullest.
- Orgazmo, about a young Mormon who is recruited to act in porn movies.
- The Player, a satirical look at a Hollywood studio executive who is blackmailed for murder by an unknown screenwriter.
- Prizzi's Honor, in which a Mafia hitman and hitwoman fall in love.
- Pulp Fiction, about the misadventures of thugs, whose stories weave into the same destiny.
- Quick Change
- Ravenous a comedy/western/horror about a group of American garrison soldiers who become cannibals.
- Return of the Living Dead
- Roger & Me, in which director Michael Moore explores the decline of Flint, Michigan after General Motors CEO Roger Smith closed the city's auto plants and laid off thousands of employees.
- The Royal Tenenbaums
- The Ruling Class, about an insane British nobleman who thinks he's Jesus.
- Rushmore, the story of a prep school boy who competes with a middle-aged man for the attention of a teacher.
- S.O.B., about a film director who turns a family-oriented flop musical into a hit psycho-sexual thriller.
- Shallow Grave
- Shaun of the Dead
- Snatch
- Throw Momma from the Train, a comedic retelling of Hitchcock's thriller Strangers on a Train.
- To Die For, about murder and pedophilia.
- Trainspotting, about the adventures of a group of heroin addicts.
- Very Bad Things
- Wag the Dog, a story about a fake war, designed to salvage the election for a president who had sex with a young woman.
- The War of the Roses, about a couple going through a nasty divorce while still trying to live in the same house.
- Weekend at Bernie's
- The Wrong Box, from the story by Robert Louis Stevenson about the members of a tontine.
Periodicals

- The Baffler
- Might magazine
- National Lampoon, especially the work of Michael O'Donoghue, Doug Kenney, and Ed Bluestone.
- The Onion
- Spy Magazine
Television

- Arrested Development
- Curb Your Enthusiasm
- The Daily Show
- Dead Like Me
- Extras
- Family Guy
- Get a Life
- The League of Gentlemen
- Mr. Show
- The Simpsons
- South Park
- Stella
- Strangers with Candy
Video Games

- Carmageddon series
- Conker's Bad Fur Day
- Grand Theft Auto (series)
- Mortal Kombat series
- Postal series
- Smash TV
- Total Carnage
- Twisted Metal series
Websites

- Something Awful
- The Best Page in the Universe
- Darwin Awards
People

Authors

- damali ayo
- Bret Easton Ellis
- Céline
- Charles Bukowski
- Franz Kafka
- George Orwell
- Hunter S. Thompson
- Jim Thompson
- Joe Orton
- Kathy Acker
- Kurt Vonnegut
- Paddy Cheyefsky
- Terry Southern
- Thomas Pynchon
Comedians

- Andy Kaufman
- Bill Hicks
- David Cross
- Dennis Miller
- George Carlin
- Jim Norton
- Larry David
- Lenny Bruce
- Louis Black
- Louis C.K.
- Michael O'Donoghue
- Patton Oswalt
- Richard Pryor
- Robert Schimmel
- Robert Smigel
- Sarah Silverman
- Shazia Mirza
- Zach Galifianakis
Comics Artists and Writers

- Charles Addams
- Edward Gorey
- Chris Ware
- Daniel Clowes
- David Rees
- Garth Ennis
- Ivan Brunetti
- Ralph Steadman
- Robert Crumb
- Ted Rall
- Tom Tomorrow
Filmmakers

- Stanley Kubrick
- Alexander Payne
- David Lynch
- Joel and Ethan Coen
- John Waters
- Luis Buñuel
- Peter Jackson
- Sam Raimi
- Terry Zwigoff
- Tim Burton
- Quentin Tarantino
- Terry Gilliam
Musicians

- Black Flag
- Bob Dylan
- Dead Kennedys
- Devo
- Elvis Costello
- Eminem
- Frank Zappa
- Iggy Pop
- Johnny Cash
- Metallica
- Motorhead
- Nick Cave
- Nirvana
- Phil Ochs
- The Ramones
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See also

- Gallows humor
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- Black Comedy, a play by Peter Shaffer
- List of movie genres Category:Comedy Category:Film genres Category:Literary genres

Alferd Packer

, having allegedly killed and eaten five of his travelling companions while trapped in the Rocky Mountains during fierce winter weather.]] Alferd Packer (January 21 1842 – April 23 1907) is popularly known as one of only two Americans ever imprisoned for cannibalism, alongside Albert Fish. First tried for murder, Packer was eventually sentenced to jail for 40 years after being convicted of manslaughter.

Packer's life

Packer was born in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. He served in the American Civil War, on the Union side presumably in an Iowa regiment, but was mustered out due to epilepsy. In November, 1873, Packer was with a party of 21 who left Provo, Utah, bound for the Colorado gold country in Breckenridge. On January 21 of 1874, he met with Chief Ouray (known as the White Man's Friend) near Montrose, Colorado. Chief Ouray recommended they postpone their expedition until spring, as they were likely to encounter dangerous winter weather in the mountains. In spite of Ouray's advice, a party of six that included Packer left for Gunnison, Colorado on February 9. At an unknown date, the party got hopelessly lost, ran out of provisions, and became snowbound in the Rocky Mountains. Packer allegedly went scouting and came back to discover one of his party roasting human meat. According to Packer, the man rushed him with a hatchet; Packer shot and killed him. On March 6, 1874, Packer arrived alone at Los Pinos Indian Agency near Gunnison. He spent some time in a Saguache, Colorado bar, meeting several of his previous party. He initially claimed self-defense, but his story did not pass in court. During the trial, the judge said, "Damn you, Alferd Packer! There were seven Dimmycrats in Hinsdale County and you ate five of them!" Packer signed a confession on May 8, 1874. He was jailed in Saguache, but escaped soon after, vanishing for several years. On March 11, 1883, Packer was discovered in Cheyenne, Wyoming living under the alias of "John Schwartze." On March 16, he signed another confession. On April 6, 1883, a trial began in Lake City, Colorado, Hindsdale County. On the 13th, he was found guilty and sentenced to death. Packer managed to temporarily avoid punishment again: in October, 1885, the sentence was reversed by the Colorado Supreme Court on a grandfather clause. However, on August 6, 1886, Packer was sentenced to 40 years at a trial in Gunnison. On June 19, 1899, Packer's sentence was upheld by the Colorado Supreme Court. However, he was paroled on February 8, 1901 and moved to Deer Creek, in Jefferson County, Colorado. He is widely rumored to have become a vegetarian before his death of reputed "Senility - trouble & worry" at the age of 64. He was buried in Littleton, Colorado and was formally pardoned of his crimes on March 5, 1981.

Not guilty?

Recent evidence suggests that Packer was a cannibal, but not a murderer. On July 17, 1989, 115 years after Packer consumed the humans, an exhumation of the five bodies was undertaken by James E. Starrs, then Professor of Law specializing in forensic science at George Washington University. Following an exhaustive search for the precise location of the remains at Cannibal Plateau in Lake City, Colorado, Starrs and his colleague Walter H. Birkby concluded "I don't think there will ever be any way to scientifically demonstrate cannibalism. Cannibalism per se is the ingestion of human flesh. So you'd have to have a picture of the guy actually eating." Through some unexplained process, Packer's head, dissected and carefully preserved, has come to be in the possession of Ripley's Believe It or Not Museum in the French Quarter of New Orleans, where it is on permanent display.

Popular culture

Perhaps not surprisingly, considering his character, Packer enjoys a good bit of publicit