S22E07: "Nobody Got Cereal?" postshow discussion.

[Big-Will]

Still think that "climate change" is a scam

Climate change happens quite a bit on this planet. The ice ages tend to last longer then the warm ages, and the warm ages last maybe 15,000 years. We're in a warm age right now, and could be for some 9000 years more. The problem is not that the planet is getting warmer, but that it's doing so so quickly in a short amount of time. Since man is the one species that can make tools, buildings, societies, and civilizations, man makes the most waste as well, and most of that waste produces greenhouse gases which... make our planet warmer, faster. This is man-made climate change, and that's the big worry.

[JVM]

any one think that the show may continue bringing back old favorites and we'll get to see Satan running into Saddam in heaven?

I had a similar thought process, but these things just don't happen in the show anymore. Manbearpig only came back to continue to satirize climate change and the later appearances of Saddam mostly had to do with the War in Iraq. South Park reshapes its reality and characters as broad archetypes to facilitate satire and jokes based on current events, These characters don't have lives of their own.

This episode has opened up a lot of questions to which there will never be answers.

The story's done. Matt and Trey are going to come back with something completely different next week that isn't going to have anything to do what just happened, even if a cursory nod is offered.

[mario88]

Still think that "climate change" is a scam used to pump more tax revenue out of the economy, but, hey, there's nothing I can do about it. Cie le vie.

As for this episode: right on point. 8/10 rating.

I really don't understand how anyone can possibly call a "scam" with a straight face something we experience in every day's life.

[mo303564]

Still in Mourning over the Death of Satan....and also while no confirmation, it appears Ned is gone as well. Two "Minor/Major Characters" killed in two episodes. Yikes Why not kill another next week...what's to stop them from killing Barbrady next??

Anyways....I was underlaped. Sure it had a few funny moments (Sgt Yates and wife argument), but Al Gore got old fast and ManBearPig is a demon worse than Satan. Says he'll be back in five years....I can hardly wait *Sarcasm*

It does remind us that many don't seem to care or are apathetic when it comes to seeing what could possibly happen in the future as we are always preparing for Now and not the consequences it could bring forth later. So it could be time to panic....but.....we're not there yet

Protect Mother Earth and Happy Thanksgiving! *yada, yada, yada*

[JVM]

Anyways....I was underlaped. Sure it had a few funny moments (Sgt Yates and wife argument), but Al Gore got old fast and ManBearPig is a demon worse than Satan. Says he'll be back in five years....I can hardly wait *Sarcasm*

I just came back to check this thread and I have to ask what "Underlaped" means?

[Big-Will]

I think he meant underwhelmed, unimpressed.

[JVM]

I think he meant underwhelmed, unimpressed.

Hm, curious.

I saw something else interesting today, from tonight's LiveTweet: "According to Trey: after the vicious ManBearPig attack, Ned is missing." Not really sure what that's about.

[Big-Will]

Missing and presumed dead, given Gore's claims about MBP not leaving anyone alive once he attacks.

[JVM]

Missing and presumed dead, given Gore's claims about MBP not leaving anyone alive once he attacks.

I'm just really confused that Trey seems to be going out of his way to specify that Ned is taken or missing, but not dead, when the show has never been afraid (even in this episode!) to be direct about it.

[kfgg]

Depends on if they want to have him back. Like when they made Terrance & Phillip old, in the commentary “Maybe there’s a fountain of youth in Canada”

[mario88]

Al Gore on this episode:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sG-Cp1y0UO8

gotta say, i have always respected the guy, although in this case he acted a bit like he didn't understand that not even this time he was depicted in the most honorable way, to say the least.

12 years ago, i thought to myself: "well, that's south park's take on the issue, let's agree to disagree".

basically, south park maintained that al gore was using climate change to become president.

but as for the issue per se, the climate change i mean, south park didn't take a stand (although that automatically means kind of dismiss the issue to an extent).

if anything, south park did take a stand in imaginationland, making of manbearbig a creature from the fantasy world.

trey hasn't changed his view on al gore: back then he thought gore acted like a prick and was seeking attention and, as shown in this later episode, he still feels the same way about him.

and that's exactly the point: trey admits now that it doesn't matter how big of a prick is the person who says something, if the message is important.

[triplemultiplex]

The guys also expressed an opinion about climate change even further back in season 5.
Terrance and Philip: Behind the Blow.
Recall the "Earth Day Brainwashing Festival". Everything they mocked turned out to basically be correct and now that episode seems... stupid. Like it was made by stupid people who didn't know what they were talking about.

[JVM]

I revised Al Gore's page on the wiki and included reference to his thoughts, but Trey's expressed his opinion on multiple occasions in the show that climate change was a false scam - "Behind the Blow", as mentioned above, where Clyde's dad, a "geologist", has told him it's fake, and then in "Two Days Before the Day After Tomorrow", which I know is really a movie parody, still has a bit where they dismiss global warming. This was all leading into the original MBP episode.

I think though, what's always stood out to me as one of the worst moments in Trey Parker's career as a TV writer, is the scene in "Goobacks" where one of the rednecks mentions global warming and "Pissed Off Redneck Conservative" Darryl Weathers scowls at the screen and goes on for probably thirty seconds insisting strongly to the viewer that there is no real evidence for global warming and that it's made up. It doesn't even come off like a direct response to the question, nor is it responded to by others as part of the story. It's Trey blatantly breaking character in an otherwise unrelated story to shove an opinion down people's throats - and honestly, even if it was pro-global warming, it just wasn't the place or context; whereas "Manbearpig" at least said managed to say a peace on the issue, and you or I might disagree, but its a part of the story, and its conclusive, contained.

We also have "Trapper Keeper", where bullying, know-it-all, celebrity-supported Filmore is a stand-in for Gore, while "I crapped my pants" Ike is a stand-in for Bush, so M&T's opinion of him goes that far back.

Although, shoot, I hate to say, Gore was better-written in "Manbearpig" than this episode; there's almost no focus on Gore's actual political career after his introduction as much as his fixation, he just comes off as a very odd, attention-seeking man who could be his own character; in these two recent episodes though, it's a lot more on the nose, as there's many references to "almost president" and his actual presidential campaigns, and many more jokes about Gore's now two documentary films. This comes off even stranger when the last episode clearly set up that Gore had stopped discussing the issue and didn't want to come back, and ended on such a fitting, reality-inspired yet still amusing joke of Gore abandoning the boys to continue his crusade for him, and seeming to imply he'll return to his exile... but still abandoning them nonetheless.

As others have said, it seems SP's intended lesson is "we were wrong about climate change, but Gore's still an assh*le", but I'm just not sure his role in each part/episode gels.

[Big-Will]

I've always thought that Clyde expressed what his father, and thus his father's generation, thought of climate change, but Clyde himself seemed to agree with the Earth Day coordinator, so Matt and Trey saw both sides of the issue even then.

[mario88]

i'm one of those people who have been concerned about climate change for years now, i'd say almost 2 decades as i was still a child when i first read about it. one thing that pisses me off to no end is that when you talk about this issue, so many people will look at you like you are trying to make a problem of yours someone else's problem. sure, it's not like we all live on planet earth.

so yeah, in 15-20 years, when it's much worse than it is now, i'll act like al gore or maybe i'll be even more obnoxious. cause the thing is here, we all literally feel it on our skins every day, yet the majority of people don't give a flying f*ck or if anything, they enjoy the longer summers.

yeah, it's not like in 20 years we will have much less water than now, or it's not like tropical storms will become much more frequent.

not to mention we have already altered (in many cases beyond repair) the life cycle of pretty much all species.

i've basically stopped using my car, i buy stuff which can be recycled and i make recycling myself. that i can do, not much else as an individual.

in my country (italy) i don't know of a political party (unless maybe some very minor one) which has in its agenda measures to fight global warming, and when i look at the u.s. or the other european countries, with very few exceptions maybe, it's pretty much the same.

so yeah, we are doomed. not in 5 years, but in 20 probably.