Well, I guess this is it. The moment we’ve all been waiting for. The final blog assignment of the semester! Wow, it really has been 13 weeks already? I guess you can say time flies when you watch awesome shows like The Daily Show with Jon Stewart or one of my absolute favorites, South Park. But what is it about these shows that make them so great? Is it all the fart jokes and toilet humor in South Park? Is it Jon Stewart’s yelling at the television camera? While these may be a reason people tune in to watch these shows, the reality of it is that satirical shows like these pretty much show Americans how ridiculous our society can get.
In the book, Satire’s Brew: Mass Media and Coffee Beans, by Brian Dunphy, the main character gives a lecture on how South Park is important to the “fifth estate”. What is the fifth estate? Well first we need to know what the fourth estate is in order to understand why the fifth estate became the more trusted estate by citizens like us. According to Dunphy, “The fourth estate or the media was designed as the unofficial fourth branch of government envisioned by Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson…the fourth estate is supposed to be a balance representing the people” (136). Unfortunately, due to deregulation of the media industry, we Americans are left with not many options when it comes to getting mainstream information. Also, there have been numerous times where the media has failed us and led us to search for other sources to get trustworthy and truthful information. An example is the recent controversy involving Brian Williams, a well knows newscaster from NBC. Information leaked out about Williams lying about some coverage he did during the Iraq War. He apparently lied to the public about being in a helicopter when all of a sudden they were attacked by a RPG launched by enemy forces. This turned out to be not true and when the public found out about this, NBC immediately suspended Williams costing him his job. The reason why this is considered a failure on the fourth estate’s end is that we were supposed to trust the fourth estate members in keeping check on those in power and not to be manipulated and be misinformed about what is really going on. In the example with Brian Williams and the whole controversy of him lying about his helicopter experience, the Iraq War was already an unpopular war. As a member of the fourth estate, Williams failed the people by reporting false information thus making him less credible and trustworthy.
This is where the fifth estate comes in. The fifth estate is where “satirists, bloggers, comedians, and We the People have found a new home reacting to the disappointing fourth estate” (Dunphy 136). The fifth estate is very important in today’s society. I believe so because it is like having an authentic watchdog watching over and keeping a check on those in power. According to Dunphy, “this new balance is more representative of the people and there’s a connection between consumer and fifth estate member” (136-7). A great example of a fifth estate member, or members I should say are Matt Stone and Trey Parker. Together they created what the main character in Satire’s Brew calls “the most financially successful of the fifth estate”, South Park (137).
South Park is one of my personal favorite TV shows of all time. I absolutely love how the creators, Matt Stone and Trey Parker just aren’t afraid to poke fun at any controversial issue ranging from racism to religious tolerance to even video game console wars. South Park is essentially a mirror of American culture and the current events going on at the time of each airing. What makes South Park a staple in the fifth estate is that it connects with the people and shows us a different perspective on how to look at certain issues. One of the episodes my TA sent me to watch for this assignment was “Black Friday” It was aired during their 17th season. In this episode, Randy Marsh, Stan’s dad gets a job at the South Park mall as a security guard in order to earn holiday cash but in actuality he gets the job to get an advantage over everyone when the mall opens for black Friday. When the guards are being briefed, the captain announces that the first 30 people in the mall are to get 80% off any item and warns of the potential violence that will occur. This is a direct stab at all of those reports by the media we hear every year of the crazy unnecessary violence that happens every black Friday. (Which is why I NEVER shop on Black Friday by the way.) Stone and Parker are making fun of American consumer culture by making the general public look like greedy zombie savages in order to save a few dollars on retail items. This is an important reflection because I believe as I think Stone and Parker believe also that the world sees Americans as crazy and stupid for lining up for hours outside a mall or store to then beat each other up over things that don’t really matter. Here’s the next part of the satire, after hearing about the ‘huge’ deal going on, the kids gather up in a Game of Thrones parody style and create separate ‘armies’. One represents Xbox One and the other represents PS4. Since I don’t really watch TV shows nor play video games often, I couldn’t really connect to this part on a personal level. I do know many people that watch Game of Thrones religiously and video game nerds that probably would have been rolling on the floor watching these kids prepare to fight over video game console preference Game of Thrones style. It even sounds hilarious reading back on it. But in my opinion, what got me dying was Butters’ concern of the exposure of flaccid penises on the show. Now I don’t know how the latter can relate to the fifth estate but we can see that the show never fails to educate us on how unintelligent we look but at the same time keep us laughing hysterically at these parodies.
The other episode that my TA assigned me to watch was titled, “Let Go, Let Gov”. This was the first episode of the 17th season. As usual, this episode was hilarious! We all know it’s because any episode involving Butters as a main character or secondary main character is awesome. Anyways, in this episode, Cartman sets a plan to infiltrate the NSA and expose them in whistleblower fashion. (He literally blew a whistle during the episode.) The episode starts off at the bus stop where Kyle looks annoyed and complains about how people talk on their cell phones with the speaker function on. Then, comes in Cartman indiscreetly talking on the phone while having everyone hear the entire conversation. Kyle complains to Cartman but as usual Cartman just retaliates and accuses Kyle of invading his privacy. Cartman then goes on a mini rant on how the government is listening to everything and monitoring activity on the internet. What is so funny about this is that despite Cartman complaining how the government records everything, he still talks all day with his speakerphone on, organizes anti-government rallies out loud, and even sends his thoughts to the internet by way of social media. He is doing nothing that is discreet and would not be recorded by the government. On the other side, we have Butters learning that the government is “watching” everything you do. Butters then starts praying to the government as if it is God. He even makes the DMV his sanctuary and goes to the DMV to confess his sins. This episode was aired during the time when the news broke out about Edward Snowden and the NSA. We can see that Stone and Parker are clearly reflecting on the current events and satirizing on the public’s reaction to the whole Snowden/NSA exposure. Here we see two sides of the coin, we see the side which criticizes and is against the government and we also see the side that sympathizes with the government. Cartman believes the government is out to get everyone and Butters believes the government is looking out for everyone. From this, we can see that the creators are once again taking shots at the mainstream media by showing the different sides of their biased perspectives. They also bring forth the discussion of what being patriotic actually means. Is exposing the government of its wrongdoings anti-patriotic? Is agreeing and complying with everything the government says or does patriotic? I would say the answers to those questions lie somewhere in the middle.
Thanks to South Park, we are able to see the influence and power the fifth estate can have with the American culture and society. It also reminds us of our rights and freedom to express how we feel on the many issues and conflicts that are presented to us every day. That is why the fifth estate is so important to us. It allows us to see ourselves as a society and how we think. And through this fifth estate, we are able to question anything and express ourselves however we want. It also brings us together and makes us see eye to eye. It makes us realize that we are all humans capable of our own minds. That is truly what freedom is all about.
Sources:
Satire’s Brew: Mass Media & Coffee Beans by Brian Dunphy
“Let go, Let Gov”
“Black Friday”
meatballsandrubberducks 