SOUTH PARK TAKES ON SAN FRANCISCO

South Park Takes On San Francisco

A brilliant showcase of truth in humor.

Last year, it was big, bad Bill O’Reilly that hurt some feelings in the City of carefree liberalism. Now, South Park is dishing it out and some don’t like it.

S.F. Examiner reports: “A brown cloud hangs over San Francisco, but it’s not smog. It’s smug.”

Um. Actually. No. We won’t go there.

Fueled by the environmental correctness of The City’s hybrid-driving, progressive-leaning, holier-than-thou residents, the cloud grows into a “perfect storm” and wipes San Francisco — complete with its countless wine and cheese stores — off the map. In between, tie-dyed hippies wander Haight-Ashbury and children suck on tabs of acid like Jolly Ranchers.

Welcome to San Francisco as imagined by the third-grade minds of “South Park” creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone. The City took center stage in the hit animated series this week in a scathing, off-color send up of San Francisco’s notoriously liberal populace. In the end, Cartman, the show’s chunky, foul-mouthed kid, is forced to rescue his friend Kyle from San Francisco during the height of the smug storm. He dons a toxic suit to keep The City’s extreme liberalness from contaminating him.

“You don’t know San Francisco, Butters,” Cartman says to another of the show’s characters. “It was the breeding ground for the hippie movement in the ’60s. Those hard-core liberals, lesbian activists and diehard modern hippies young and old. I swore I would never set foot in San Francisco. God help me.”

Sounds like Cartman knows the place well.

The episode, which [was] reaired [last] weekend, begins in South Park with elementary school kids that are the stars of the show. Kyle’s father has purchased a hybrid car, but decides to leave the town after he is ridiculed for his environmental activism. Kyle and his family move to San Francisco, where they learn that people are very impressed with themselves for their enlightened views on the environment and other politically correct causes, unlike rubes from the Midwest and elsewhere.
. . .

Supervisor Tom Ammiano said it just comes with the territory of being San Francisco. “It’s kind of a national pastime to make fun of San Francisco. I think it’s jealousy to a large part,” said Ammiano. He then quickly added, “Oh, does that sound smug?”

No. It sounds out-of-touch with reality. Bingo.

Welcome to San Francisco, indeed.

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