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South Park Responds to Being Banned in China for “Band in China”

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Re: South Park Responds to Being Banned in China for “Band in China”

#81

Post by toomanyrichies »

Comedy Central is owned by Viacom, which also owns Paramount Pictures. China is a huge market for Paramount's films. Paramount has previously explored a 49% sale to China's Wanda Group, and they currently have extensive financial backing from the Shanghai Film Group Corp.[2]

If they wanted to, it's well within the purview of the CCP to apply pressure to Paramount's ability to finance its films or distribute those films in China (a huge source of international box office receipts), until such time as Paramount reigns in Trey and Matt.

Note that I wouldn't support such a move, and they strike me as the type of creators who would happily walk away from their cash cow rather than self-censor. I just mean this is one possible endgame.

[1] https://variety.com/2019/tv/news/viacom-explores-sale-majori...

[2] https://www.wsj.com/articles/paramount-pictures-gets-a-1-bil...

Re: South Park Responds to Being Banned in China for “Band in China”

#82

Post by scarmig »

nbabitskiy wrote: post #65
scarmig wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Streisand effect. If you shrug it off, only SP regular viewers will know about the portrayal; if you react, everyone knows both that portrayal and that you whined about it like a little baby. Depends on age, mostly: older people on all sides of the spectrum find SP crass. Younger people often think it's funny. You can find overwrought editorials about how SP is problematic/written by cucks, as it offends people on bo…

What does"college educated, but middle class" mean? Are college educated people supposed to be heftier than middle class?

Doctors don't watch it.

Twenty-something college-educated salesmen do. He smokes pot, isn't on welfare, but will also work most of his life.

The intersection of class and education is too broad a topic to discuss in a couple comments, but hopefully that gives you an idea.

Re: South Park Responds to Being Banned in China for “Band in China”

#83

Post by wei_jok »

rqs wrote: post #68
product50 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are you saying? What is your point?

The point is: This country is not taking any critic any more. And, that's one of the reasons why the Cultural Revolution is ended horribly. Which is why this should raise some concern at least for Chinese people.

Thanks. (To the other commenters: give them a break, not everyone is a native English speaker. I don't think that comment was machine generated)

Re: South Park Responds to Being Banned in China for “Band in China”

#84

Post by mrep »

i_am_nomad wrote: post #71
giancarlostoro wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe Russia will do it. I heard they have a 1:1 rip off of the Big Bang Theory. You can YouTube it, it looks obscure.

In the name of all that is holy, why would anyone rip off that show? It is literally the worst thing I have ever seen on television, excluding reality TV. And I say that as someone who grew up during TV’s dismal 1980s.

> In the name of all that is holy, why would anyone rip off that show? It is literally the worst thing I have ever seen on television

While I have never seen the show, 10-20 million people apparently watch it [0] so apparently a lot of people do like it and your tone comes off as condescending.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Bang_Theory#U.S._stand...

Re: South Park Responds to Being Banned in China for “Band in China”

#85

Post by kwoff »

jaimex2 wrote: post #20
artur_makly wrote: post #11

i wonder if China has copied SP and if so how they would portray the USA. Has anything been made like this? And is it just as funny?

Is satire a thing over there? I think it would be too risky as crossing a line could mean prison. All the Trump episodes on SP would definitely have ended with Trey and Matt locked up in China.

Satire is all the more sweet when it almost crosses a line, isn't it?

Re: South Park Responds to Being Banned in China for “Band in China”

#86

Post by SmirkingRevenge »

toomanyrichies wrote: post #81

Comedy Central is owned by Viacom, which also owns Paramount Pictures. China is a huge market for Paramount's films. Paramount has previously explored a 49% sale to China's Wanda Group, and they currently have extensive financial backing from the Shanghai Film Group Corp.[2] If they wanted to, it's well within the purview of the CCP to apply pressure to Paramount's ability to finance its films or distribute those fil…

Interesting corporate taxonomy there.

On the other hand, if China is willing to cancel something as big as the NBA at the drop of a hat (or tweet, as it were), it really highlights the risks of doing business with China in a very stark way. Nothing is to big to fail if you offend the party. You operate at their whims. Transgress, and its lights out. Too many of these kinds of reactions could backfire (one would hope).

Re: South Park Responds to Being Banned in China for “Band in China”

#87

Post by wlll »

kevcampb wrote: post #7
sunkenvicar wrote: post #2

Worth a click through. The full episode is available to watch for free.

"Due to copyright and other legal issues, this South Park episode cannot be viewed in your Country" So yes, banned in China (Hong Kong)

Yeah, not available in the UK or ireland either.

Re: South Park Responds to Being Banned in China for “Band in China”

#88

Post by [deleted] »

viscanti wrote: post #25
Waterluvian wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not saying they don't have a political leaning, but they often focus their energy and 22 minutes on showing just how wildly absurd a situation is. For me, that's a big ingredient in why they've stayed so entertaining.

They're also a big proponent of bothsideism. For some topics that makes sense (because there are two legitimate or legitimately absurd sides). For other topics it just pollutes discourse by elevating an illegitimate side.

[deleted]

Re: South Park Responds to Being Banned in China for “Band in China”

#89

Post by abacadaba »

nbabitskiy wrote: post #44
scarmig wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everyone realizes it's counterproductive to overreact to any particular SP parody. Most people recognize SP as libertarian in general orientation, with a slight liberal bias. Neither Obama nor Trump has spent a second in office thinking about its portrayal of them.

>> Everyone realizes it's counterproductive Why? Because they'll fuck you up? How exactly? Im not asking about presidents' personalities, what would their political friends think? To put it another way, who watches SP, and is it some marginal minority?

Lot's of people watch it. It's counterproductive because no one gives a f if you're mad about it or what your friends will think. Being a 'public figure' generally means you're considered fair game.

I guess this is as good a time as ever to not take freedom of speech for granted, that this concept is seemingly so hard to understand wherever you're from.

Re: South Park Responds to Being Banned in China for “Band in China”

#90

Post by mommmukk »

I wonder at what point would corporations consider it a risk too big. Any comment can trigger the Chinese, it’s hard to gauge what they find insulting, since according to them all their neighbors and the west has humiliated them in the past. The volatility to the bottom line jsut isn’t worth it.
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