Oct302006
Steve Irwin Jokes: Too Soon or Just Enough?
Last week’s episode of South Park featured a costume party for Satan featuring the attendance by the recently deceased Steve Irwin. Naturally this caused a small amount of press, but what’s not mentioned in the story is the joke is all about whether a Steve Irwin costume is “too soon.” Satan actually goes to tell the guy that a Steve Irwin costume is not cool since it’s a little soon, but it turns out to be, in fact, Steve Irwin. I can see where it offends people, but I think this is a very clever commentary on the inevitable “bad taste” Halloween costumes that we see every year.
Here’s the actual clip from the episode:
Comedians naturally have a smaller “time” on the “tragedy+time=comedy” equation, another example being Bill Maher, who actually wore a Steve Irwin costume to a party recently. The two sides of the argument probably go like this: “It’s only been a month!” and “It’s been a month!” I’m not really sure either is wrong. What do you think?
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Said it before, and I’ll say it again, yet another nontroversy dug up by a self-proclaimed media “watchdog” group or other such self-appointed arbiter of taste.
As far as seeing if something offends people goes, I’m pretty confident that anything will offend anyone. And who cares?
It amazes me that despite the fact there are more media choices nowadays than there have ever been before, yet somehow one small joke on one show can stir--or attempt to stir--the pot of “drama” and “controversy” with things like this.
Can’t these “watchdogs” just watch Internet porn in their sad little cubicles and call it a day?