• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

South Park: TFBH "Game is Gold" Trailer

As a person who feels most people offended at South Park are often missing the point(or referencing outdated episodes that wouldn't be made the same currently) I have to agree that the mother fish depiction is offensive and unnecessary. The rest of it is fine though.
 
Are you reading my posts?
It is not the worst topic they have covered before, can you admit that?

A racist depiction of Kanye West's dead mother in a game trailer isn't them covering a topic, it's UbiSoft, with the likely help of Parker and Stone, making a tasteless joke that they feel would go over well with a majority of the fan base.

I generally like SP but with this trailer, the skin slider, etc. I feel like this comes more from a dev team that's probably light on or devoid of black voices than from Parker and Stone.

If you're not bothered by racism then fine
 
Are you reading my posts?
It is not the worst topic they have covered before, can you admit that?

I'm saying it's not relevant how low-brow they've gone in the past. The times I found South Park funny and tastless, they were employing genuine satire of events or personalities. If they want to go after Kanye for being a humorless egomaniac they can probably go as low as they want and I wouldn't bat much of an eye at it because yeah, they already have the gay fish episode on it. They depict Bono as a literal piece of shit. That's what I've always known them for and when I want to say 'that's South Park' that's the level of comedy I'm referring to. Them putting a "gay fish" into a video game feels like a lazy callback since it loses all of the context that made it satire in the first place, but whatever.

In this case, nothing about Donda West's depiction is in the context of their past shots at satire. They've transformed her into a mammy. I haven't much watched South Park since around the same time I stopped watching The Simpsons, but this blackface fish is aimed directly at a target that is not also the subject of satire for her own behavior or stated beliefs. They just wanted to call Kanye's mom a N*****. That's it. That's the entire joke. If they've done that in the past then the ~6-7 seasons of South Park I'm in the dark on represents something much, much worse and indefensible than I could have imagined.

I know you don't care. I know a lot of posters here are doubling down on their support of this trailer, this game and this imagery. I even know there's plenty of people in here laughing at 'the salt' or the 'hysterical outrage,' but I can easily dismiss that as a lot of immature bullshit and have generally resisted responding to it because this thread is more noise than signal as it is.

As such I don't know why I owe you where I place this on the spectrum of 'they've done worse' because I've never, ever seen them go this far before. And I'm not okay with it.
 

RRockman

Banned
Oh wow, used to watch South Park from time to time and yes their humor is very off color. I think this is very in character for them and is one of the reasons why I stopped watching it a long time ago.

The show itself is just too rude and this trailer is no exception.
 

ash321

Member
Why make his mom a black fish with lipstick? That makes no freaking sense.

Especially when he's a green fish. Is there a context for this bs?
 
Why make his mom a black fish with lipstick? That makes no freaking sense.

Especially when he's a green fish. Is there a context for this bs?

okvoidx.png

mask.jpg

 

bitbydeath

Member
If you're not bothered by racism then fine

This is a shit escapist line, if you're not bothered by everything else they've done then you haven't been paying attention, this is South Park and they go after everything. Matt and Trey wrote the game and have heavy involvement with everything outside of the coding itself.

I'm saying it's not relevant how low-brow they've gone in the past. The times I found South Park funny and tastless, they were employing genuine satire of events or personalities. If they want to go after Kanye for being a humorless egomaniac they can probably go as low as they want and I wouldn't bat much of an eye at it because yeah, they already have the gay fish episode on it. They depict Bono as a literal piece of shit. That's what I've always known them for and when I want to say 'that's South Park' that's the level of comedy I'm referring to. Them putting a "gay fish" into a video game feels like a lazy callback since it loses all of the context that made it satire in the first place, but whatever.

In this case, nothing about Donda West's depiction is in the context of their past shots at satire. They've transformed her into a mammy. I haven't much watched South Park since around the same time I stopped watching The Simpsons, but this blackface fish is aimed directly at a target that is not also the subject of satire for her own behavior or stated beliefs. They just wanted to call Kanye's mom a N*****. That's it. That's the entire joke. If they've done that in the past then the ~6-7 seasons of South Park I'm in the dark on represents something much, much worse and indefensible than I could have imagined.

I know you don't care. I know a lot of posters here are doubling down on their support of this trailer, this game and this imagery. I even know there's plenty of people in here laughing at 'the salt' or the 'hysterical outrage,' but I can easily dismiss that as a lot of immature bullshit and have generally resisted responding to it because this thread is more noise than signal as it is.

As such I don't know why I owe you where I place this on the spectrum of 'they've done worse' because I've never, ever seen them go this far before. And I'm not okay with it.

No, you can't pick and choose what they go after, there would have been episodes like drawing Mohammed which you may have been fine with which upset others.

Either enjoy the ride or get off, they go after everything.
 
No, you can't pick and choose what they go after, there would have been episodes like drawing Mohammed which you may have been fine with which upset others.

Either enjoy the ride or get off, they go after everything.

Yeah ok, I didn't think you'd even try to engage with the words I said instead of whatever strawman of me you've already decided upon.
 
This is a shit escapist line, if you're not bothered by everything else they've done then you haven't been paying attention, this is South Park and they go after everything. Matt and Trey wrote the game and have heavy involvement with everything outside of the coding itself.



No, you can't pick and choose what they go after, there would have been episodes like drawing Mohammed which you may have been fine with which upset others.

Either enjoy the ride or get off, they go after everything.

Whatever man
 

bitbydeath

Member
Yeah ok, I didn't think you'd even try to engage with the words I said instead of whatever strawman of me you've already decided upon.

Your post made it clear you haven't been following South Park, I'm just pointing out they cover everything. You should read about the Isaac Hayes debacle.
 
Have the conversation, they say. The replies in this thread shouldn't be surprising though, if you remember the Deus Ex thread. Explanations were ignored, and black posters were shouted down there, too.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=443127

I have no idea what they were going for,

She died during complications from plastic surgery
And if you die during unesaceey surgery...

This is one of the dumbest posts that I've ever read on here. Such a ridiculous attempt at a justification.
 
This is a shit escapist line, if you're not bothered by everything else they've done then you haven't been paying attention, this is South Park and they go after everything. Matt and Trey wrote the game and have heavy involvement with everything outside of the coding itself.



No, you can't pick and choose what they go after, there would have been episodes like drawing Mohammed which you may have been fine with which upset others.

Either enjoy the ride or get off, they go after everything.

What "did they go after" here?

What's the point of that mammy joke?
 
The joke is "fuck this uppity nigger and his dead mom" and nothing more

That's it, and several people in here have stated outright that it's good enough for them

Just be honest
 
1. Depicting Muhammad is considered as an insult to all muslims.

2.Why do you need a point?

I was actually talking about the depiction on the trailer. But my response is the same for both:

Because South Park is satire, joke have a point there, you're satirizing a topic in the hope to make a commentary on something.

Like the Steve Irwin thing you mentioned earlier, it's mocking the type of entertainement where people needlessly put themselves in danger while the audience is cheering.

I still fail to see the commentary they're making on the racial caricature. They mocked the ridiculousness of the way Kanye West celebrated his mother, while questionable that had a point, I don't see any point in the mammy depiction.
 

PixelatedBookake

Junior Member
The joke is "fuck this uppity nigger and his dead mom" and nothing more

That's it, and several people in here have stated outright that it's good enough for them

Just be honest

Yeah tbh I don't understand how people can see this as okay. I was just watching the Double Toasted bit on this topic and really dislike how they're siding with the South Park guys on this one. It's a real strange attack on the guy. It just really gets me how fucking mean-spirited and racist this is and still have people defending it. Like, why do they hate Kanye so much?
 

Neith

Banned
I don't get offended by South Park to be honest with you. As someone of a mixed background this is not really something I care about. I'll play their game when I finish the first one.

They have made more than a couple tasteless pranks throughout their history. It's nothing new. They do it to black and white people all the time. Mostly they attack white celebrities in horrifying ways.

I don't particularly like when they get super mean though. It just comes off as weird.

Like did we have to see his dead fucking mom? I mean what the hell lol. Where did this even come from?
 

Kebiinu

Banned
1. Depicting Muhammad is considered as an insult to all muslims.

2.Why do you need a point?

Yes, we fucking need the point of a tacky ass Mammy caricature. We know YOU don't care, but shit is offensive, tasteless, and not even relevant to the punchline they were trying to deliver.

Not everything Matt and Trey shits out is gold. Y'all need to stop drinking from their toilet bowl.
 
I don't get offended by South Park to be honest with you. As someone of a mixed background this is not really something I care about. I'll play their game when I finish the first one.

They have made more than a couple tasteless pranks throughout their history. It's nothing new. They do it to black and white people all the time. Mostly they attack white celebrities in horrifying ways.

I don't particularly like when they get super mean though. It just comes off as weird.

Okay, but maybe stick to attacking Kanye and not his deceased mother. All while portraying her as a mammy.

I mean, it isn't that hard.

Edit: At the end of the day, this is still being done by two white guys and what I imagine is, a primarily white studio. It's not a good look.

This is some borderline racist Disney in the 1930's type stuff. I'd like to believe we've moved past that.
 

Neith

Banned
Okay, but maybe stick to attacking Kanye and not his deceased mother. All while portraying her as a mammy.

I mean, it isn't that hard.

Yeah, I mean there is plenty mean and even funny things you could do to Kanye. I myself am the kind of person that would never make a dead mom joke. Just seems soooooooo out there among the asshole type things you can do.

And kanye there is so much you can do with him other than this.
 

bitbydeath

Member

Yes, we fucking need the point of a tacky ass Mammy caricature. We know YOU don't care, but shit is offensive, tasteless, and not even relevant to the punchline they were trying to deliver.

Not everything Matt and Trey shits out is gold. Y'all need to stop drinking from their toilet bowl.

They do a lot of things without a point, why start now? Why was Steve Irwin in hell? What was that point?
 

Kebiinu

Banned
They do a lot of things without a point, why start now? Why was Steve Irwin in hell? What was that point?

We're not talking about Steve Irwin, we're talking about Mammy caricature. But it figures you have no argument; stop trying to speak for them. In this case, they're just two dumbass white men using Jim Crow bullshit, to humiliate a deceased black woman. If that's the hill you want to die on, sure, what's the point yeah?
 
Not gonna lie, I laughed. Can't wait to play the full game.

It's been said many times already but anyone offended by this is probably better off staying away from anything South Park related, as it's not unusual for them to do controversial things.
 

iammeiam

Member
They do a lot of things without a point, why start now? Why was Steve Irwin in hell? What was that point?

There actually is a point--South Park Hell, at least originally, is where almost everybody goes; I think when the show started they went the "only Mormons go to Heaven" route as a commentary on some of the incompatibilities built into Christian religion. They actually make a point of stuffing people into Hell that you wouldn't necessarily expect (Princess Diana, Gandhi IIRC.) The joke, then, is that perfectly decent people end up in Hell because the rules for getting into Heaven are dumb. And, IIRC, the show directly addresses the tastelessness of the portrayal of Irwin in hell. It's a component of the overall episode.

Likewise, what the show ended up doing with Isaac Hayes was essentially a statement on the impact Scientology can have on people. South Park isn't exactly high art, and it's often frustrating, but it's almost always operating from a very distinct POV.

Here the joke begins and ends with a racist caricature. There's no there there.
 
The joke is "fuck this uppity nigger and his dead mom" and nothing more
Yeah, that’s exactly how it looked.

The “South Park has a history of provocative satire” argument doesn’t hold much water IMO. I mean, having liked / having been okay with the show isn’t some blank check that acts a perpetual umbrella from criticism. They really fucked up with this one.

This isn’t an accident, this is by design. People knew they had ninety seconds to make a video and specifically chose to go for this, including the mammy part.

What baffles me the most is posters acting surprised that it’s a big deal to others.

So yeah, not touching that game.
 

Og_Don_Patch

Neo Member
I'm a big fan of south park, but this really crossed the line for me. Not only because of the racist depiction but it's really just incredibly disrespectful to ye's mom as that's been an incredibly touchy subject for him (as it would for just about anyone really)

I'm definitely biased because kanye is my favorite artist, but really it would be fucked up if it were anyone else they did this to in similar circumstances.
 

bitbydeath

Member
We're not talking about Steve Irwin, we're talking about Mammy caricature. But it figures you have no argument; stop trying to speak for them. In this case, they're just two dumbass white men using Jim Crow bullshit, to humiliate a deceased black woman. If that's the hill you want to die on, sure, what's the point yeah?

Calm down or you'll hurt yourself, yes I'm not easily offended, my point is they have and will continue to do more offensive stuff than just racism.

There actually is a point--South Park Hell, at least originally, is where almost everybody goes; I think when the show started they went the "only Mormons go to Heaven" route as a commentary on some of the incompatibilities built into Christian religion. They actually make a point of stuffing people into Hell that you wouldn't necessarily expect (Princess Diana, Gandhi IIRC.) The joke, then, is that perfectly decent people end up in Hell because the rules for getting into Heaven are dumb. And, IIRC, the show directly addresses the tastelessness of the portrayal of Irwin in hell. It's a component of the overall episode.

Likewise, what the show ended up doing with Isaac Hayes was essentially a statement on the impact Scientology can have on people. South Park isn't exactly high art, and it's often frustrating, but it's almost always operating from a very distinct POV.

Here the joke begins and ends with a racist caricature. There's no there there.

Good point on the Steve Irwin stuff, had forgotten about that.
 

Complistic

Member
This thread is mind boggling. It's offensive, obviously. It's trying to be. There is no punchline. It's being offensive for the sake of offending you. Most of the show isn't even satire, it's exactly this.

And they've done it for what, like 20 years now? Apparently they've still got the knack for it.
 

Vimes

Member
This is like a gamergate thread without the bans, holy shit.

Learned a lot about many of my fellow gaffers today. Something about this show really makes people reveal their true selves.
 
Can't wait. Really shocked to see some gaffers offended.
If the past 11 pages haven't provided you with reasons why people are unhappy, you're one of two things:

1) obtuse as fuck.
2) purposefully inflammatory in attempt to troll "snowflakes" displeased with the pinnacle of satire that is South Park.
 
Top Bottom