The latest
episode of the Comedy Central show "South Park" hits pretentious anti-whaling activists where
it hurts: in their diet.
If you haven't seen Animal Planet's
newish reality show "Whale Wars," you should. Between
general ineptitude on the high seas and an incredible display of
misguided, virulent (and at times violent) idealist wrath directed at
the Japanese whaling fleet, it is entertaining.
But as the
makers of South Park point out, not a lot actually gets accomplished.
In real life, the former Greenpeacer Paul Watson and his band of
(vegan? vegetarian?) pirates spend a lot of time looking for the
Japanese, and a little time bothering them. Mostly they preen, talking
into the camera about their extreme dedication to the cause, and
trying to figure out how to turn a dangerous game of maritime cat and
mouse in the Southern Ocean into an international media
sensation.
Of course, South Park breathes in all of this nonsense
in and spits it back hilariously in their (and our) faces. The
Japanese are bloodthirsty samurai monsters, the activists dithering
media divas (even South-Park-Larry-King
has a few choice words for them).
I'm not going to detail all of the well-placed
criticism underpinning the terrific jokes in this episode. But the
show ends neatly, bringing an absurd argument home to the average
eater, who may or may not believe that killing whales is okay (spoiler alert):
The
South Park children succeed in convincing the Japanese people to stop
senselessly murdering Dolphins and whales. How do they manage this?
By convincing them that chickens and cows are far more deserving of
their wrath. As screaming robed warriors descend on cattle pastures
and chicken coops, spearing helpless livestock, one of the characters
says "Good job, son. Now the Japanese are normal like us."
Image: Treehugger
Tags: Conservation, Everyday Science, Food Chain
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