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Alright, long story short, once upon a time we got Trey Parker to visit our college campus (to talk about First Amendment rights) on request of a distant relative.

And I figure, better to see if the community would be behind this first, then attempt to ask the distant family member first to see if Trey and Matt would be up to this. (Yeah, I know cart ahead of the horse, but community comes first)

Since Trey's visit, Central Michigan University has had the Westboro Bapist Church visit us 3 times to do the same.

Pretty awesome, right? The most hated family (80% of which are lawyers) visiting your campus to talk about how they test and defend their right to do all the ridiculous stuff they get away with thanks to their rights (and surprisingly the rights they've fought to defend for us.... to use to protest funerals and what not)

We'll you'd think it would be interesting to say the least, but as it turns out people would rather spend endless hours bashing a group for their (questionable) actions than actually listen and have a polite discussion about what they know and what they do on the First Amendment front.

(Seriously, all 3 of the times I've gone to the discussions the Q&A session just turns into a competition of "Who Knows the Bible Best!: RABBLE RABBLE Edition")

So myself along with several of the journalism students on campus thought of an interesting scenario:

South Park writers vs Westboro Bapist Church members: Polite Discussion Edition.

We'd love to have Trey visit again, possibly with his dad (and hopefully, possibly drag along Matt and some of the other writers...even if we are in the smack center of Michigan with nothing to do but a Casino) and sit down in front of an audience of students with the Westboro Bapist Church.

With just South Park writers and Trey (according to some of the seniors here), all we got were South Park fanboy questions, which are great but not really to the point of the event.

With Westboro Bapist Church, all we get is RABBLE RABBLE RELIGION RABBLE RABBLE FAITH.

We'll stream it to the community, along with pre and post show chats with both parties (if Trey and Matt/WBC are willing), and ask the questions that you the South Park Studios community come up with along with contributions from Reddit.com, etc. and the audience (South Park/WBC permission pending)

So here's the question SPS: Would you want to see something like this: Yes/No. And can you think of anything better to add to this idea?

TLDR: Would you want to see South Park vs Westboro Baptist Church: POLITE DISCUSSION EDITION?

I highly doubt Matt and Trey would go for a meeting like the one you have in mind, but if you can pull it off, well I'd love to see the video.

heh, We figure it's worth a shot.

Bonus Round: If Matt and Trey are willing to do this we'll attempt to get Seth McFarlen (Family Guy) and some of their writers there too.

Also possibly the Qu'ran burning preacher from Florida could make an appearance.

Yeah, I don't know if a civil conversation about the first Amendment can be had with the Westboro Baptist Church. I mean, the signs they hold up actually say "God Hates Fags", and they actually go picket funerals. I have dealt with people like that enough to know that trying to have a rational polite conversation doesn't really work with them. If someone says something they do not agree with, or something that is not what they believe, they flat out refuse to hear it. You can not have a productive and civil conversation, unless all parties are willing to respect eachother and listen to eachother. And, while the first Amendment gives them the right to say what they do, and it is the same law that gives Trey and Matt the right to say what they do, we are not talking about the same thing..After all, Trey and Matt have said many times that they make fun of everyone, and the minute someone decides not to make fun of certain things, they become bigots. Either it is all ok, or none of it is ok. That is what Trey and Matt have said before, and it is not what members of that church say.Do you think the Westboro Baptist Church thinks it is ok for people to mock their beliefs?

I suppose I should have explained further:

Normally when they show up they're invited to discuss the importance of first amendement rights in regards of what they do (as odd and distastefull as it). Problem is, the audience would rather talk to the person than the topic. The discussions always turn into RABBLE RABBLE RELIGION because the audience steers it that way.

The goal of getting both of these groups in the same room is an attempt to curb the trend of discussions around any topic causing people to talk to the people and not about the issue.

IE: Going to a State of the Economy discussion with Ron Paul, and everyone wants to talk about Ron Paul's childhood and how awesome he is.

Basically, I want to get them both in the same room talking about the importance of the first amendment in what they do and how they go about doing what they are doing (True, Matt and Trey do have to go through censors for what they can and can't say, but they are the most controversial show on TV).

In a perfect world I'd like to get one of each of the most controversial mediums:

People/Speech: WBC
TV: South Park
Print: TMZ/The Onion/etc.
Web: (HAIL MARY WARNING) Julian Asange by teleconference, founders of Reddit/4Chan/etc.

The point is to discuss the importance of free speech and the importance of preventing people from infringing on these freedoms through things like SOPA/PIPA/etc.

So yeah idea changed over night from: WBC vs South Park: Polite Conversation Edition to The Most Annoying/Controversial people in Media discussion their stance on First Amendment rights.

PS: The WBC are actually moderately okay people, I've chatted with them several times on campus in large and small group settings (not about religion because you generally avoid that like the plague when around them) and every time they've been...oddly normal. Seriously last time the stopped by they brought their nephew (freshman in college, I don't remember where) and they were just kinda meh as long as you avoid the hot topics.

It's the same logic when talking to anyone offensive/odd. You don't go to Rush Limbaugh and say "OH GOSH GEE DARN, I DO FIND OBAMA AND HIS FOREIGN POLICY/ECONOMIC IDEAS SWELL!" because you know what your getting into when you say something like that. Avoid the horns and you avoid the bull, or something along those lines.

Well, do you think Trey and Matt would really want to talk with them? Or do you think the members of that church would be civil to Trey and Matt? I mean, there have been a couple episodes of South Park that indicate that Trey and Matt are for gay rights. And, what do you think they would think of how Jesus is portrayed on South Park, like in last night's episode for instance? Like do you think they would be civil if they saw that?

And, to be honest, if it was me, I don't think I could be civil to them. I am attracted to both men and women..I have lots of gay and lesbian friends. I am also Pagan. A lot of the sh*t they say applies to me, and my friends and family. I also think that while they may have 1rst amendment rights, the idea that they would go picket anyone's funeral is cruel to the family members of the deceased. Yes, freedom of speech may give people the right to be cruel to other people, but I also have the freedom of speech to say "go f*ck yourself" to people who are being deliberately cruel. And, go f*ck yourself is all I want to say to those people. Yeah, maybe they are ok when you are not talking about religion, but that is the thing..There is good and bad in everyone. Even serial killers seem ok sometimes..

And, now that I think about what you said, if you were going to have both groups in the same room talking about freedom of speech, in this case, how would you stay off the topic of religion? Because some of the problems Trey and Matt have had in the issue of freedom of speech had to do with their portrayal of religion..Such as their portrayal of Scientology in 2005..And with Muslims over them showing Muhammad in a couple episodes. So religion might come up in that case..And, pretty much all of what the Westboro Baptist Church does has to do with religion..So, I don't see them staying off that topic when talking about the first amendment.

Well, I think it's a pretty cool idea, and if it's pulled off, I would watch it.

It might be one of those 'better on paper than in practice' kind of things. Keeping discussions on topic is a fickle task, especially with a fiery group of people aforementioned.

Best of luck!

Please Trey and Matt please make an episode of Westboro and how crazy they are. Please do your worst to them.