Friends Don't Sodomize Friends

       Louis C.K's comedy is that of a satirical nature. He offends the proprietary of his audience by blatantly presenting sensitive areas of life, in an elegant and hilarious manner. In the opening scene of Louie, he explains to the crowd some of the secrets to loving your body. He talks about how his health affects the rest of his life, including intimate parts of his sex life. The show then cuts to a hospital scene in which Louie is confronted by an immovable object. He had previously called his friend, the owner of the clinic he was being seen at. But the nurse at the front desk had no records of an appointment. Louie tries to explain the situation but she is unmoved by his words. He becomes frustrated and asks about the patients that came into the clinic,

 “Do they steal if from you?” Fortunately his friend, and doctor entered the waiting room.  

“I can't believe you are a doctor,” Louie said after a session of being harassed, ridiculed, and sodomized by his “friend.” In the Doctor's appointment Louie is emasculated, and ridiculed for his body weight, and even his very manhood. Not only is he privately ridiculed but also the Doctor invites the nurse in to see his penis, and he provokes her to comment on his penis. The climax of his emasculation is when he is jokingly sodomized by the Doctor.

Bundle of Sticks

       There is a rare moment witnessed in a poker scene of Louie’s comedy series. This scene is an example of Louis C.K’s satirical but meaningful style of comedy, that brings awareness to the true meaning of the word, “faggot”, while also using that it as a joke. Louie asks his colleague, Nick, who happened to be homosexual, whether he should use the word, “faggot” on stage. It was disturbing how irritated the one of the men grew from just participating in the conversation. He declared that he was personally disgusted with Nick's sexual life. Although he wasn’t surprised by this remark, he frankly declared, “I don't think about pussy.” A homosexual man doesn’t think about pussy, but when a heterosexual man participates in a conversation about homosexual intercourse, he grows so uncomfortable that he starts yelling at his friends to seize. This scene shows how much being homophobic is ingrained in popular masculine culture. But Nick genuinely opens up and informs his friends about the history of the word “Faggot”. He described how homosexuals were burned alive during the medieval time period. He then shares the extreme hatred that is associated with the word “Faggot” The extremely homophobic friend remarks, “Ok thanks Faggot we'll keep that in mind” in order to diffuse the heartfelt, and genuine conversation.

Trueblood: Open Your Mind

     On it's surface Trueblood may seem like just another show about vampires. It would be a mistake to take this position. Trueblood addresses a plethora of issues that plague our society. The writers of the show seamlessly mirror not only the ignorance, and discrimination present in our society, but also displays the widest range of gender, and social constructs than any other type of media of it's kind. Trueblood exposes it's viewers to lifestyles that have histories of being persecuted. The opening sequence of the show assaults the viewers sensibilities, awakening their fears of predator, their extreme desires for sex, and substance. It succeeds at invoking powerful images of religion, the civil rights movement, and people of color in the south.

    So what could be more shocking than finding out vampires exist? Nothing, although introducing a psychic waitress less than five minutes after revealing the existence of vampires comes pretty close. By doing this, the writers have communicated that vampires are not the only unknown in this world, therefore instantly opening the viewers mind up to the possibility of there being more, than what they perceive on a day to day basis. This dynamic is something that is not achieved with such ease when it comes to gay rights issues, women's rights issues, in the real world.

    Sookie Stackhouse hears the most vile, perverted, and unimaginable thoughts drift from the unsuspecting minds of Merlot's Bar and Grill. Imagine what it would be like to hear every thought that passed through an individuals head. To Sookie Stackhouse, the thoughts she hears, which often involve the customer sexualizing her, represent the most base level of desire. They are the statements that do not make it through the filter of what is, and is not socially acceptable. But unfortunately Sookie Stackhouse receives the unfiltered streams of these desires that run through everyone's head. We even see her take advantage of those base thoughts, when she jokes about wearing skimpy clothing to receive larger tips.

Vampires: The Ultimate Desire

     The pilot of a series reveals an astonishing amount about the morality, and viewpoints of it's characters, and the issues the show is trying to address. The writers of the show frame Trueblood so that it can be interpreted in various ways. The first season of Trueblood brings up a lot of interesting gender, and racial dynamics, and I would like to reflect, discuss, and reiterate some of those fascinating dynamics and how they are relevant in our society today.

    Have you ever wondered how the world would react if they found out vampires were real? Trueblood does an amazing job at giving us an idea. People have been fascinated by the idea of Vampires since the tales of Dracula. This fascination can be seen in movies like Underworld, The Blade Trilogy, The Twilight Saga, and countless other forms of media ranging from comic books, to video games, and even Disney feature films. What makes the content in Trueblood so special is that it is the first time that the existence of Vampires is global common knowledge. In most of their appearances in films, and media, the very fact that vampires exist is kept away from the general public. Vampires remain unknown in other films, and shows but in Trueblood they are revealed. Vampires become known by the public, but because so little is known about them, they still remain unknown to a certain extent. They morph from the desired, romanticized, imaginary, unknown, to actually existing. But because so little information is known about them, they retain a mysterious veil around them, drawing those with secret desires into their bloody, sex filled, dark realm. Trueblood succeeds at transforming vampires into the ultimate desire of humans, much to their ultimate dismay or pleasure.

Mixed Priorities: South Park

                                                Mixed Priorities

   One of South Park's more recent episodes titled, “Faith Hilling” adresses an aspect of our society which deteriorates American culture, intellectuality, and personal freedom--memes(a cultural item that is transmitted by repetition in a manner analogous to the biological transmission of genes)-dictionary.com. The creators of the show suggest that Americans have their priorities horribly confused. They are suggesting that people are so enticed by humorous, and popular content that is published on social networks, that they are completely enabled from distinguishing the important from the non-sensical. 

    The creators are clearly ridiculing Americans for being caught up in time wasting, brain rotting social fads. When we saw the boys at a debate for presidential candidates, it was clear that fact that the words that come out of politician's mouths are not genuine. They are masters at lying, and their responses are crafted to acquire the approval of the crowd. In regards to politics in general, “Faith Hilling” launched a full frontal assault on the topic.

    They were sure to include a Planned Parenthood in the background of one of the boys absurd meme performance. When the boys are speaking about their meme being dated, they mention how useful a time machine would be. A doctor from Planned Parenthood talks to the boys and says, "some of the people in here wish they had time machines." Insulting that so little attention, and outrage is directed towards the invasive legislation that politicians are passing into law with no real reasons for the legislation, not only in the episode(satirical), but also in our country at this current date. It is not limited to the following but legislators are creating laws concerning areas of the private life of women that they have no business, or reason to implement.

(http://www.senate.gov/pagelayout/legislative/b_three_sections_with_teasers/active_leg_page.htm )

*The most recent abortion legislation implemented. You will find it under Active Legislation—Appendix A.

    If the audience takes away anything from this episode let it be this simple wisdom preached by Eric Cartman, “I guess the only thing that dosen't change is that everything changes.” This was a wake up call from the creators of the critically acclaimed South Park, and people better hear it. There are too many issues, and far too many ignorant, and unqualified, individuals who have power to implement legislation. In a society where the government has basically halted it's attempts of listening to the needs of the general public-- we can not afford to consumed by frivolous, and nonsensical media or lulled into content by the luxuries of the modern world.

No Solicitors We Are Agnostic

No Solicitors We Are Agnostic

    In one of South Parks more recent episodes , “The Poor Kid” we see a full frontal assult on several facets of our society, foster care, and agnostics being among them. “The Poor Kid” highlights several problems in the foster care system, and in any fundamentalist religion.

    According to http://www.allaboutphilosophy.org/agnostic.htm, “An agnostic is one who admits, 'I don't know.' The term is applied specifically to those who don't know for certain whether or not God exists.” South Park sets up the Agnostic code as being, “We cannot know with certainty if God or Christ exists. They COULD. Then again there COULD be a giant reptilian bird in charge of everything. Can we be CERTAIN there isn’t? NO, so it’s pointless to talk about.” (– The Agnostic Code) This is later seen when a giant bird kills Kenny at the end of the episode by decimating the school's ceiling and picking Kenny out of a crowd. Eric Cartman through another short sighted scheme for self-advancement manages to get himself sent to a foster home. A foster home that we see Kenny's family, who serve as the stereotype model for “white trash” like usual. Eric and Kenny arrived at a foster home who were fundamentalist agnostics. This can be veiwed as a sort of poke at fundamentalists in general, but in popular Western culture, Christianity in particular. In Western American society we find numerous examples of intolerant radical Christian groups but rarely if ever do we find radical agnostics in popular media. We see them take a poke at agnostics by giving them lines like,

    South Park also takes “The Poor Kid” as an oppurtunity to take a jab at the child service system, and some of the mistakes, and presumptions that can be made throughout the complicated and difficult process of children being removed from their parent's custody. According to the Child Welfare Information Gateway, “as of September 30, 2009, there were an estimated 423,7733 children in foster care.” The expectation was that fourty-nine percent of these children would return to their families.

It is said that the majority left the system to be reunited with their parents. The word majority however, is a misleading one to use in this case. Fifty-one percent are reuinited with their parents. Fourty-nine percent is a enormous minority and should not be downplayed to the public by any strectch of the mind (www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/factsheets/foster.cfm)

Lawyer From the Cole Mine

http://www.nbc.com/the-firm/

Lawyer From the Cole Mine

In the second episode of NBC's The Firm, Mitch McDeere reveals information about his childhood. He tells his wife Abby McDeere about his Father's death . In doing so he reveals that he was born into a working class family. A very interesting comparison is drawn between individuals who are pre-disposed to following rules, and those that aren't. An example of the former is Mitch McDeere, and an example of the later is Ray McDeere.

Mitch McDeere is shown as an individual who operates under a strict moral code. He is always shown to be a law abiding citizen. If the mafia wasn't chasing Mitch, the audience would assume that he would be a sucsessful lawyer, and a fufilled individual. Ray McDeere is framed as being the opposite of Mitch. Ray is employed by his brother, and is an ex-convict who may in different circumstances have encountered difficulty finding employment, and making a living. Ray is always shown as wanting to do what his gut instinct tells him to do, regardless of the legal implications of those actions.

In Mitch's story, he explains a rule that his mother made. The rule was that the two boys were not allowed to get into their Father's car. The reason for this being that the condition their Father kept the car in was awful. The boys would be at fatal risk if they were to get into the vehicle with their Father. One day, their Father invited them into the truck for a ride. Ray went along, but Mitch desiring to obey his Mother's rule stayed home. On that day Ray was dropped off, and their Father went back to work and died in an mine explosion. Ray didn't follow the rule but because of his actions he was able to spend more time with his Father. Mitch did follow the rules, but as a consequence missed the last chance he received to spend time with his Father. In the long run Mitch's style is framed as being the correct one and he turns out better in terms of sucsess if we can forget he is being chased by the mafia.