NYTimes.com: Going into this latest installment of the Comedy Central cartoon series, there was certainly much anticipation for the reunion of Mr. Lopez and the “South Park” creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone — the three collectively wrote the Tony Award-reaping musical “The Book of Mormon.” And that excitement was further stoked by early clips from the episode, which appeared to offer “South Park”-style takes on Broadway fare like “Wicked” and “The Phantom of the Opera.”
Friday, October 28, 2011
'South Park' Goes Broadway and Leaves Us Speechless
NYTimes.com: Going into this latest installment of the Comedy Central cartoon series, there was certainly much anticipation for the reunion of Mr. Lopez and the “South Park” creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone — the three collectively wrote the Tony Award-reaping musical “The Book of Mormon.” And that excitement was further stoked by early clips from the episode, which appeared to offer “South Park”-style takes on Broadway fare like “Wicked” and “The Phantom of the Opera.”
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8 comments:
Broadway has never been spoofed like this.
Like their musical The Book of Mormon, the episode purported to be a sendup tour of Broadway ended up doing so by introducing an absolutely ridiculous premise.
Of course, no episode about musicals could make it without several musical numbers itself. The spoofed songs from Wicked and from Randy's musical (renamed to The Woman in White from a much more profane title) were just out-there enough to laugh, but easily recognizable homage to shows.
Where the episode truly succeeds is its sendup of Spider-Man, which is surprisingly tasteful for all of the SM:TOTD jokes that have been exhausted over the past year or so.
Just give the episode a watch, you'll appreciate it.
Oh, and you'll probably want to watch it with headphones in, or with no one around.
By the end of this episode, I was rolling on the floor laughing, bro.
This is a strange article, mostly because the only thing it tells us is that the South Park writers did a Broadway-spoofing show, and some famous characters were displayed. There was really no other information illuminated in the article, but I think it was just enough to encourage people (especially theatre-goers) to watch this week's episode. Having already watched the episode, however, the article did not illuminate anything that I did not already know. I also enjoyed this episode, and found the many theatre jokes and spoofs to be pretty comical.
I agree with Brooke, I found this article to be rather surface level. But I was then led to youtube the episode to see what exactly it was talking about. It was extremely funny, like Brian said. It was neat how they incorporated so many shows into the spoof. Southpark is reaching out and gaining new viewers! - i do not normally watch it. So this was a good marketing move to incorporate other aspects into their episodes.
I appreciate how neither commenter, after going back and watching the episode, has recognized the reason my comment is strangely formatted.
Well... that was interesting. This whole article feels a little bit like an inside joke, but I think is more successful in making me want to go check out this episode of South Park, which, judging by the article and from other things I've heard around Purnell, is pretty darn funny. I guess I'll have to give it a watch, and see how I watch it. It's always good to have our moments of laughing at ourselves, and it seems like this article and this episode have done a good job of that.
I Cant Comment on this without mentioning that Matt and Trey are just doing what they do best. if you look at thier history, their works outside of south park, most are in musical form as some of their schooling and training is in that field. this episode is another example of some of the great work they do and what great work two artists can do when collaborating on what they love. I truly hope they continue producing new material beyond their south park universe as they are obviously very good at it. and with Tonys now they really don't have to prove it to anyone.
While this article was not very descriptive, it really couldn't be given the content of the episode. There really isn't a good way to state what happened. I recommend theatre people to watch it as it is very entertaining. There are some good stage management jokes and other various jokes. If only the topic used on this episode wasn't so adult so it could be more discussed in this article.
Sounds like the theatre-folk are getting a bit defensive after being subject to the same criticism and parody that most other industries have been on South Park and other similar shows. Making fun of prominent figures in the entertainment industry is a long-standing tradition and one very likely to ever go away. While I agree with the article that the theme of the episode was a bit strange, considering all the directions it could be taken, on second thought it's not really that surprising. The South Park guys have a sold-out show running on Broadway and this episode only stands to increase their market. Part of what made Book of Mormon such an instant hit, besides the book and music, is its fan base. Very few shows on Broadway right now appeal to a younger crowd in such a way that they would ask their parents or friends to take them. The episode's theme may have been low-brow humor, but who cares, it got us talking, which is great free press.
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