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This reminds me of musical critics in 60's who tried to find some hidden messages in Beatles' songs, including completely senceless ones like "I Am The Walrus". John Lennon liked to read their reviews very much

It's an interesting theory, though

By the way... Could anybody tell me why the whale's name is spelled 'Willzyx' but pronounced like 'Willziac' ?

^ No reason, that's just the way it is said.

Kenny wasn't bleeped when he said "What the f*ck are you talking about?"

He's never gotten bleeped before that episode either. What was the point in saying that?

[quote="chunkylover69":04e84]After watching the recent "free willyzyx" episode of South Park a second time - I wondered what the hell was the point of this episode...

Then it dawned on me, quite tangentially that this could, follow me, be a veiled reference to the Iraq War.

My reason for thinking this, aside from lack of sleep, too much work, and a few beers are the following:

The idea of misleading or misinterpreted Intel. The whole idea of getting willyzyx back to the moon is based on the boys hearing the Sea Park employees talking as the whale and informing them that he needs to get back to the moon. Much of the discourse on the Iraq situation right now hinges upon the WMD conversation and was the US Intel correct or communicated fully.

The reoccurring them of willyzyx's "freedom." The Animal Liberation Front (A.L.F)'s leader speaks of only the boys understanding that the animal needs its freedom. The idea of forcing freedom on a captive whale is great in theory, but what happens upon the actual execution.

Speaking of the A.L.F, they represent a one sided view of the situation. There is also the Sea Park contingent (outside of the two employees that start the situation) that wants the whale back for profit and personal interest. This represents two groups who act in the "best interest" of the whale, when in fact they are simply transposing their own pre-existing concerns and ideals onto the situation. Perhaps a metaphor for the hawk and dove situation in the country right now.

Another theme is the approach of many different nations. Remember leading up to the Iraq war, the US approached various nations to join in the cause. Some were supportive, others were outright negative, and others were non-committal. The idea of money is also intertwined with the boys' approach of each nations. The reason that most of the countries that the US approached supported or refused to support the war was rumored to be financial.

The concept of a cover-up or the architects "covering their tracks." The Sea Park announcers (Mike and the goatee man) are running wild trying to cover their tracks. There have been various theories that now that the WMD issue has not been resolved that their have been various cover ups.

The whale itself could be seen as a metaphor. I am struggling with this one, but the last scene of the dead whale on the moon was what first made me make this parallel. The dead whale represents the troops. Cast into this situation without a real say into the matter; pitted between two different groups with their own interests; thrown into an environment where they are not equipped or ready to inhabit.

The last scene also sort of speaks to the current situation, i.e. we started the war, there's no end in sight, what do we do now?

What the f*ck do you do with a dead whale on the moon?

I am probably way off on this one, but I had too many interesting thoughts on this episode not to try to find meaning behind an otherwise rather pointless, albeit HILARIOUS episode. Matt and Trey are too intelligent not to have a serious message hidden within an episode... I only wonder if I was misguided by their genius.

Other thoughts, arguments, or flames are welcomed... please leave your actual opinion on the war out of the thread, I tried to look at it as objectively as possible...[/quote:04e84]


...Wow... I really don't think Matt & Trey thought that hard just to talk about the war in Iraq, and they would have made it more obvious if they were talking about it. But way to go dude, I never could have made a parallel between "saving whales" to "war in Iraq" for my life.

This episode was more making fun of the fact on how when they released the whale from the [i:04e84]Free Willy[/i:04e84] movies, it died, similar to Willlzyx who died once freed. The message in the episode is to keep whales in captivity for their own protection.

[quote="Latte_Lauren":04e84]Kenny wasn't bleeped when he said "What the f*ck are you talking about?"[/quote:04e84]

The censors don't catch what Kenny says in his muffled voice most of the time, so they are able to get away with it. The censors only caught him once, in "Cartman's Silly Hate Crime 2000".

Good points, I definitely read into the ep too much. Programming 100 hours a week and six beers are not the wisest cocktail for analyzing a tv show, I re-read my post this am and wondered even wtf I was thinking.

Cheers.

CL69

This is an interesting analysis and it seems to work. But given the short time which M&T have to crank out South Park, I doubt any such parallels were done on purpose. I mean they're smart guys but this is the kind of thing you'd have to work on for like a year. But your analysis seems to have generated a statement about the war that I might expect from M&T; jabbing both sides and such. Traditionally though, M&T make it quite obvious when they're addressing contemporary issues. They don't try to disguise thier messages, they come out and say it. At this point, I'd chalk it up to coincidence. But you never know.

Another great part of the episode which no one has mentioned so far: when the Sea Park guys show Mrs. Brovlofsky the sketch, and she says "It's not very good."

That line is good, but look at Mike's face right after she says it. It's one of "wtf are you talking about".

Indeed there are some parallels between the episode and the Iraq war, but I doubt they did it on porpoise.

I have to admit, at first I thought you were going to go off, but that was well thought out. Very interesting.



If Chunk can think of these ideas in less than a week, why can’t the guys come up with it in the same time?

It's probably more simple than the Iraq War, in that the war is part of a basic idea of helping someone who leads a different lifestyle than you. The actual whale story showed this, since the whale didn't necessarily want the freedom (still hung around humans) and ended up dying as a result. This extends to the Iraq War, since the Iraqis didn't/don't necessarily want or need the US's help, but we're giving it to them anyways, with lofty ideal words like freedom and democracy. Thus the conflict continues with more US troops dying every day.

It's a problem many Americans have (likely thanks to the dominance of Christianity), as the country's foreign policy is to police the world and force others to live to the American ideal, and then everyone wonders why they hate Americans. Just because you think you're helping when you only understand your own culture and not someone else's doesn't mean you are. The dead whale on the moon demonstrates this. The boys congratulate themselves on a job well done, and feel good about what they did, when in reality they sent a whale to its death. Had they done nothing, the whale would still be alive at the sea park. How deeply Matt and Trey thought about this is debatable, but the ideas do work.

What part of the whale's anatomy represents the Kurds?

Hmmm...its butt?

Alas, back to find thirteen pages of discussion already.

That ep was like a brain hemorrhage, in a good way. Just insane, but, ack! It had a good story!

I quite enjoyed the silent credits with the whale on the moon, in fact, I'll go as far as to say that was the best part. It gave me the guilty, "Why am I laughing? This is terrible, not funny, so why the hell am I laughing?" feeling that I long for when I watch South Park. Also, I love the incredibly effective funny/depressing connection so often ignored in modern fiction.

And this is the second episode this season to vaguely remind me of a Christopher Moore book. Either you all need to read his stuff because the humor is astoundingly similar, or I need to lay off him and read some Dickens or something. Probably the latter.



Actually, that's a quote by Margeret Mead. I have it on a poster, and recognized it when I saw it on WW. Yes, I'm a geek.