Taking South Park Seriously

Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock is Associate Professor of English at Central Michigan University and the author of several books, including The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Spectral America: Phantoms and the National Imagination.

• List of IllustrationsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: Taking South Park SeriouslyJeffrey Andrew WeinstockPart One The Pleasures of South Park 1. "Bigger Longer & Uncut": South Park and the CarnivalesqueAlison Halsall2. The Pleasures of South Park (An Experiment in Media Erotics)Brian L. Ott3. Orphic Persuasions and Siren Seductions: Vocal Music in South ParkJason Boyd and Marc R. Plamondon4. "Simpsons Did It": South Park as Differential SignifierJeffrey Andrew WeinstockPart Two Identity Politics 5. Freud Goes to South Park: Teaching against Postmodern Prejudices and Equal Opportunity HatredRobert Samuels6. Cynicism and Other Postideological Half Measures in South ParkStephen Groening 7. Shopping at J-Mart with the Williams: Race, Ethnicity, and Belonging in South ParkLindsay Coleman Part Three South Park Conservatives? 8. "I Hate Hippies": South Park and the Politics of Generation XMatt Becker9. South Park Heretics: Confronting Orthodoxy through Theater of the AbsurdRandall Fallows10. Prophetic Profanity: South Park on Religion or Thinking Theologically with Eric CartmanMichael W. DeLashmutt and Brannon HancockPart Four Specific Critiques 11. "You Know, I Learned Something Today...": Cultural Pedagogy and the Limits of Formal Education in South ParkJames Rennie12. "Omigod, It’s Russell Crowe!": South Park’s Assault on CelebrityDamion SturmList of Episodes CitedSouth Park Complete Episode Guide, Seasons 1–11List of ContributorsIndex

"This collection is sure to get South Park fans thinking a little deeper. The articles are both well written and readable. You know, I think I learned something today!" — Robert Arp, editor of South Park and Philosophy: You Know, I Learned Something Today"This book is a serious and thoughtful effort at a scholarly analysis of South Park, and it makes an important contribution in beginning a scholarly dialogue on this influential and often controversial show." — John Alberti, author of Leaving Springfield: The Simpsons and the Possibility of Oppositional Culture