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Sick article, sick culture
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When writing a screenplay, novel, story or article it is up to the writer to know when and where to draw the line. Last week I wrote Op Ed piece about writers Trey and Matt of South Park fame, to heated response. My opinion as both a viewer and a writer is that the content aired on the show is sometimes not only unacceptable but offensive and irresponsible. Some readers wrote that I just didn't understand the show, and that most of it is social satire. I I felt, the writers could get their point across without resorting to to jokes about the feces, or dialogue about little girls wanting to perform oral sex [see the Jonas Brothers episode] . To illustrate my point, this week, I wrote a worse case scenario article about the assassination of the president of the United States. A few readers (here, and elsewhere) stated that I had gone too far and that the article is offensive. On a writer's forum where the link to the article was posted, some of the writers defended their political views, debated whether or Obama was mixed race or white, accused Democrats as being just as disrespectful when Bush was president, and even began to argue and fight with each other.
My Republican friends were offended by the content in my article because it came across as painting conservatives as racist rednecks who wanted to kill the president. Some of my Liberal peers thought it an accurate depiction but were angry that the article was about the assassination of our beloved president. Maybe if Bush was the target and not Obama?
What the experiment taught me is that social satire only works when the content is funny. Take Robot Chicken for example... there's no cultural or political insight. It's just a wildly popular show that uses offensive content to ridicule celebrities. There's no quality to the writing at all. In my article, I checked humor at the door but kept the stereotypes in (For example, the middle names 'Tanqueray' and "Whiskey" - Republicans wanting the president to die). What does this mean? Writers can get away with anything as long as we make people laugh. It also taught me, that satire is funny as long as we're laughing at someone else.
Write responsibly.
