Friday, November 13, 2009 |
05:36 - Ever see a manatee defend itself?
http://www.overthinkingit.com/2009/11/12/south-park-family-guy-dirty-little-funny-wa
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Apparently Family Guy has been trying to swipe back at South Park. Only took them, what, three years?
South Park’s major problem with Family Guy is the insert gag. In “Cartoon Wars,” the fictional episode of Family Guy seems to be a string of (uncharitably flat) cutaway jokes that do not relate to the narrative action. For South Park, these gags are not funny because they are “random,” not because the joke isn’t funny. The “randomness” interrupts the diegetic reality of the central emotional narrative of the episode by diverting the plot (momentarily) into a parallel universe without a causal or physical relationship with the narrative universe. Since the jokes can never change the circumstances of the central narrative, they are without emotional weight. The audience is not permitted to relate to these gags as anything other than cleverness. It is the narrative equivalent of a stand-up monologue, rather than improv theatre.
Very interesting academic read, if only because it's hilarious to think of South Park as a "structuralist, modernist, constantly-proselytizing" show that "comes from a specific theatrical tradition tied strongly to Aristotle [and] rejects the anti-dialectic of the immanent world". Remember how bizarre it sounded when we heard that they were making a series out of "Spirit of Christmas"?
Via BrianD.
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