The South Park Seasons: The Good and The Bad

Just like I did with The Simpsons, I decided to cover South Park.
Crude, rude, classic South Park:

Season 1
The first season is very memorable and established its crude humor. The first episode has been 'remade' in little snippets throughout the life of the series, well, only in Season 6's "Free Hat" and Season 7's "Canceled." Gems: Big Gay Al, Mecha-Streisand, Mr. Hankey, Pinkeye, Tom's Rhinoplasty, An Elephant Makes Love to a Pig, Death, Stravin' Marvin, and the finale Cartman's Mom is a Dirty Slut cliffhanger. Bad: Some parts of Tom's Rhinoplasty and Damien.


Season 2
"Terrance & Phillip in Not Without My Anus" pissed off many fans and it was hilarious to me and finally found out that Ms. Cartman is Cartman's dad. My Favorites: My Clubhouses (Stan's parents get divorced!), City on the Edge of Forever (cliphouse) and Chickenpox Gems: Ike's Wee Wee, Conjoined Fetus Lady, Spookyfish, and Merry Christmas, Charlie Mason! Bad: Gnomes, Roger Ebert... (the planetiarium one). This season wasn't as gross and was much more poignant (Conjoined Fetus Lady) and I think by far it is the most feminist for the series.

Hell-a Sweet Era

Season 3

My favorite season! It is fun and pretty and coloful. Gems: Rainforest Schmainforest, Spontaneous Combustion, The Succubus, Jackovasaurus, Chinpokomon, "Hooked on Monkey Phonics, World Wide Recorder Concert My Favorites: Tweek vs. Craig ("Push me higher, Richard!"), Mr. Hankey's Christmas Classics, Are You There God? It's Me, Jesus, The Red Badge of Gayness (Civial War reenactment), and Starvin Marvin in Space (Marklar!) And for those who don't know, these three episodes all happened on the same night, everyone split up... "Cat Orgy" (Cartman and Shelly), "Two Guys Naked in a Tub" (Stan, Butters, Pip and Dougie) and "Jewbilee" (Kyle and Kenny).

Season 4
The season that introduced Timmy. My Favorites: Helen Keller! The Musical, Cartman Joins NAMBLA Gems: Cherokee Hair Tampons, Chef Goes Naners, Timmy 2000, Quintuplets 2000, Do the Hanicapped go to Hell?, Probably, Trapper Keeper, The Wacky Molestation Adventure, Fat Camp and A Very Crappy Christmas. Bad: Pip, 4th Grade Classic: Kyle wants to go to a concert and his parents tell him to bring democracy to Cuba and he does so with a homage to "The Year Without Christmas."

Season 5
Best Season Ever! Not one bad episode. "Towelie" was supposed to be bad. This season is monumental with the introduction of Jimmy and goodbye to Kenny. Good: It Hits the Fan, Cripple Fight, Super Best Friends, Behind the Blow, Towelie, The Entity (Kyle's jew stereotypical cousin visits), Here Comes the Neighborhood, Butters Episode, Proper Condom Use (boys vs. girls), How to Eat Your Own Butt (Cartman blows a funny bone), and finally Kenny Dies. My Favorites: Scott Tenorman Must Die, Cartmanland, Osama Bin Ladin episode

Kenny-Less

Season 6
With no Kenny, it was Butters' time to shine and Tweak became the new fourth friend. And then by the end, Cartman drank Kenny's ashes. Good: Simpsons Already Did it, The New Terrance and Phillip Movie Trailer, Professor Chaos, Asspen, Fun With Veal, Ladder to Heaven, Bebe's Boobs Destroy Society, Child Abduction is Not Funny, The Return of the Fellowship of the Ring to the Two Towers, The Death Camp of Tolerance (Lemmiwinks), My Future Self and Me My Favorites: The Biggest Douche in the Universe and Free Hat So-so: Jared Has Adies and Red Sleigh Down

Super Hit or Miss

Season 7
Good: Cancelled, I'm a Little Bit Country, Lil' Crime Stoppers, South Park is Gay! (Meterosexual), All About the Mormons, Raisins, It's Christmas in Canada So-So: Toliet Paper, Red Man's Greed (Native Americans give SARS to Americans), Grey Dawn (old people driving) Not so funny: Krazy Kripples, Casa Bonita (Cartman tricks Butters into apocolypse), Butt Out (Cigarettes, Ron Reiner); My Favorite: Fat Butt and Pancake Head

Season 8
Good: Good Times with Weapons, The Passion of the Jew, The Jeffersons, You got F'ed in the A, AWESOM-O, Goobacks, Up the Down Steroid, Something Wal-Mart This Way Comes, Quest for Ratings (Puppies with close-up lense) So-so: Douche and Turd, Cartman's Incredible Gift Distrubing: Woodland Critter Christmas Favorite: Stupid Spoiled Whore Video Playset (I like how the series always have an episode centered around girls' issues like "Bebe's Boobs Destroy Society" and "Raisins."

Mr. Garrison's Wild Gender-Bending Ride

Season 9
Fans were divided with Mr. Garrison's sex change. Some episodes were still hit and miss. Good: Mr. Garrison's Fancy New Vagina, Best Friends Forever, Wing (American Idol), Die Hippie Die, The Losing Edge, The Death of Eric Cartman, Follow that egg! (Stan and Kyle raise an egg), Trapped in the Closet, Ginger Kids, Two Days Before the Day After Tomorrow, Bloody Mary; So-so: Erection Day, Free Willzyx

Season 10
Most of these weren't all completely funny, some memorable moments but not all great. The episodes I have as 'good' are classic, perfect. Good: Smug Alert!, Cartoon Wars Part 1 & 2, Make Love, Not Warfraft, Tsst!, Miss Teacher Bangs a Boy, Hell on Earth 2006, Go God Go! Part 1 and XII; The Distrubing: The Return of Chef; Bad: A Million Little Fibers, ManBearPig, Mystery of the Urinal Deuce; So-So: Stanley's Cup

Season 11
Too righteous to be funny. Good: With Apologies to Jesse Jackson, Cartman Sucks, The Sunke, D-Yikes!, Le Petit Tourette, More Crap, Imiginationland, Night of the Living Homeless, and The List; So-So: Guitar Queer-O, Lice Capades, Fantastic Easter Special

Season 12
Too righteous to be funny, notice how I have only 4 of them as good. Good: Britney's New Look, Elementary School Musical ("If this is cool, I'm going to kill myself"), About Last Night... (Obama) and The Ungroundable (Vampires vs. the Goths); So-So: Major Boobage, Super Fun Time, and Pandemic part 1 & 2; Not so funny: Canada on Strike, Breast Cancer Show Ever, Tonsil Trouble, and The China Problem

Medium's re-creation of Juno

Miguel Sandoval and Tina DiJoseph deliciously re-create the Rainn Wilson and Ellen Page scene in Juno, in which Ellen comes in asking for a third pregnancy test. I knew it was it when men in scarlet jackets and yellow tiny short shorts ran by a woman in a red jacket with a sunny D bottle. Miguel doesn't say "Home Skilet" but does say "Your eggo is preggo." Tina doesn't say 'siliencio' right, in fact, she says the lines very flatly. Anyway, it is hiliarious to hear Miguel Sandoval say 'just because you pee on it, it doesn't mean it's yours.'

Dustin Lance Black’s Oscar Acceptance Speech Gets Censored In Asian Broadcasts

Asian satellite TV network STAR, owned by Rupert Murdoch, admits that it censored the acceptance speeches of "Milk" writer Dustin Lance Black and star Sean Penn in re-broadcasts, eliminating sound when the words "gay" or "lesbian" were spoken, because it had "a responsibility to take the sensitivities and guidelines of all our markets into consideration," spokeswoman Jannie Poon told the Associated Press. STAR reaches more than 300 million viewers in 53 nations. His acceptance speech was censored in fifty different Asian nations by pan-Asian satellite TV network STAR, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation.

Here’s Dustin’s uncensored speech in its entirety:

“This was was not an easy film to make. First off, I have to thank Cleve Jones and Anne Kronenberg and all the real-life people who shared their stories with me. Gus Van Sant, Sean Penn, Emile Hirsch, Josh Brolin, James Franco and our entire cast, my producers Dan Jinks and Bruce Cohen, everyone at Groundswell and Focus for taking on the challenge of telling this life-saving story. When I was 13-years-old, my beautiful mother and my father moved me from a conservative Mormon home in San Antonio, Texas to California, and I heard the story of Harvey Milk. And it gave me hope. It gave me the hope to live my life. It gave me the hope one day I could live my life openly as who I am and then maybe even I could even fall in love and one day get married.

I wanna thank my mom, who has always loved me for who I am even when there was pressure not to. But most of all, if Harvey had not been taken from us 30 years ago, I think he’d want me to say to all of the gay and lesbian kids out there tonight who have been told that they are less than by their churches, by the government or by their families, that you are beautiful, wonderful creatures of value and that no matter what anyone tells you, God does love you and that very soon, I promise you, you will have equal rights federally, across this great nation of ours. Thank you. Thank you. And thank you, God, for giving us Harvey Milk.”

Defending Alvin and the Chipmunks the movie

I know I am late but I thought I'd review and defend Alvin and the Chipmunks, the critically panned and 80's fan despised movie. I admit I was one of those playerhaters and didn't have high-expectations but that turned around after watching the movie. It actually is quite good. The main premise is Dave Seville (Jason Lee) is a struggling songwriter and discovers three talking and singine orphan chipmunk children. The three are voiced by 3 uber-hotties but you can barely tell: Alvin is Justin Long (Mac commercials, Accepted, Waiting, etc.), Matthew Gray Gubler (Criminal Minds) as Simon, and Jesse McCartney as Theodore. It doesn't make sense to me that a heartthrob would play the chubby hungry one but whatever. The characters are more fleshed out, Theodore is the heart and gentle one of the group and more absent-minded than in previous incarnations. Alvin is not as annoying as he is in the commercials. The subtle things before getting clothes, the chipmunks have colored eye pupils, Alvin has brown while the others--Theodore has green and Simon has blue. My mom lvoes the movie and was confused about their size but I explained to them that because they are suppose to reflect the real world in some way--that is why they are small and chipmunk height. The puppetry is good (to emulate the CGI characters moving the chairs, planes, door, cups, etc.), some is show-off-y but the best is when you don't notice. I like how Alvin sucks in helium from a baloon and his voice gets deeper.

When Dave goes to show off the Chipmunks to big record producer Ian (David Cross), who doesn't become a big villain until the end, the trio's stage freight faces are hilarious and priceless. David Cross is very funny, sometimes annoying but doesn't ham it up. Jane Lynch makes a cameo but doesn't contribute much. The movie is subtle and genuinely funny, the fart and poo jokes are to a minimum. But yes Alvin steals the show (most of what he says is kid pleasers), but he isn't invincible to be in a butt in jokes--like being sucked by a vacuum. As for Dave's 'ex-mate' Claire doesn't add anything--she is the flat actress. I love the animation in their faces, like when Theodore tells Dave that he had garlic breath, his face looks so concerned. It is also great where there is no big explanation to why they can sing or talk. As for their parents, they say their parents were hippies and went early to commune which is not believable at all sicne it is the late 2000's and they are children. That would be a funny joke in the 80's. Most of the movie is predictable (the cofee scene was awesome!) but I love how the note he writes to get rid of them when he is tense and then they discover it later. I love how the movie is about Dave getting accustomed to the idea of being a family and becoming a father for the trio.

Favorite Quotes:
(Once discovering Dave knocked out thinking he is dead.)
Alvin: "Wipe everything down! I'll need three garbage bags, a shovel, some disinfectant, some latex gloves, and oregano. Go!"

David: "They're savings bonds. In seven years you will get enough money from them to buy something nice."
Alvin: "Do you have any that you bought seven years ago?"

The cast returns for the sequel--I don't like the name 'Squeakuel' but they have confirmed that the Chipettes (Brittany, Jeanette and Eleanor) will be in it. I love them and I hope it is as good as the first one and they are treated with the same respect for storytelling as their male counterparts. The story: "The Chipmunks are fish out of water in school where Dave sends them. Meanwhile, Ian (after the Chipmunks dealt him a serious blow) is freed from jail and searches the world for animals who can sing and dance. He finds the Chipettes and can't wait to make them famous and get back at the Chipmunks." It will be bit hard with the Chipettes since they were first and only seen in the cartoon and were tied with the characters from the cartoon. So I guess they will have their own new storyline. Although [Janice] Karman has provided the voices of the female chipmunks in the past, she said that she'll happily pass the torch to new actresses. "I think we'll probably get famous actresses," she explained. -MTV

[The Chipettes] represented equality for little girls; to others, they were the lame equivalent of Star Wars’ Ewoks or Cousin Oliver from “The Brady Bunch.” The stars of the new film, however, insisted that they’re eager to get their characters some chipmunk lovin’. “I have a big crush on all of them,” insisted Gubler. “I want to see them naked…I’d pay to see that.” Long says, “I’ve got a great tagline, by the way, for the Chipettes movie if they do come out in the sequel,” he grinned. “It’s ‘This spring, the Chipmunks get vaginas." -Another MTV blog post

Related Topic: Live-Action Alvin & the Chipmunks: Ick Factor 500%

Hugh Jackman is Straight

I believe Hugh Jackman, many people say that because his wife Deborra-Lee Furness is fatter and 13 years older than him. They have been married for 14 years. He has mentioned that he has role-played with his clothes from his plays or movies with her, which is darling and a dream for all housewives. In the interview with Barbara Walters, Debra said she would would go in the bathroom and hear women say 'Is he? or Isn't he?' during "The Boy from Oz" and sometimes she yelled out, "He isn't!" I have labeled this 'closeted celeb' but it is not because I think he is a closeted celeb. He is an extraordinary and awesome talent and performer. Very passionate. You can't blame him to be fit, because that is his work.

Dollhouse Episode One Review

When I first heard Eliza Dushku (the only woman I lusted for, Faith the Vampire Slayer is my favorite) was teaming up with Joss Whedon, who hasn't been on television since 2004, I was worried. Worried that television network execs would stiffle the brilliant Whedon once again and cancel the show. Re-shooting the pilot and having it on dead-slot Friday with the walking dead show "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" were not good signs. Even during the two shows on the premiere night, they had Whedonian women Summer Glau (River from "Firefly") and Eliza Dushku host the night and promise to be 'strong' and 'sexy' women and that Friday would be 'date night.' Felt very transparent and cheesy. The show itself had multiple commercial breaks that either lasted 60 or 90 seconds with Eliza nude in the bumpers.

The show itself, I felt like I wanted more when it was over. The show was worth the re-shoots, even though there is Whedonian dialouge, especially when it comes to the character of Topher (Fran Kranz) but it slowly starts to feel like a completely different universe. Topher might seem like a geek but there is always more than meets the eye in the Whedon universe, he seems creepy and evil to me, even by the first episode. According to Joss, he made the decision to do the re-shoots because he was imnersing himself in the world, which he always does and decided to serve more of a template. "Dollhouse" is about a secret underground organization that takes people they call "Actives" and erase all their personality and imprint them with a new one depending on a case on case basis for their cilents, such as a negotiator, bounty hunter, sexy date, etc. This show is to meant to show Eliza's talents as an actress but some are concerned if the audience will tune in every week to see a new character but I don't think that will be a problem.

Amy Adams (Fred on "Angel") is also in the show, in a much more serious role and different voice tone than Fred Burkle but seeing her with Eliza still felt like Faith and Fred. Of course, this show has to have a male romantic interest for Echo and it is the form of dectective Paul Ballard (Battlestar Galacta's Tahmoh Penikett), who is a hopeless hero whose bosses don't believe about the Dollhouse but he won't give up. And Echo has a father-figure who cares about him like Boyd Langdon (Harry Lennix from "24"). On VH1's "Best Week Ever," Joss Whedon came on with Eliza Dushku and were pushed to spill spoilers for "Dollhouse" and did reveal that, "Buffy and Angel crossover with the Terminator." And then said something else impossible. It was hiliarious. The host then got 're-programmed.'