denk das Thema passt hier am besten, warne euch gleich im Voraus: ist ein wenig lang
außerdem englisch 
Quellen und Anhänge denkt ihr euch einfach am besten dazu, bin zu faul, die ganzen Fußnoten einzufügen
ebenso sind noch ein paar kleine Tipp- und Schreibfehlerchen drin (die haben mir ein perfektes Ergebnis verbockt
), aber für mich ist das künstlerische Freiheit
hier also meine Facharbeit in 4 Teilen...
Facharbeit
aus dem Fach
Englisch
American Society as Presented in
Table of Content
I. Background Information on and Plot of South Park- Bigger, Longer & Uncut and Bowling for Columbine
II. American Society as Presented in South Park- Bigger, Longer & Uncut and Detecting Similarities to Bowling for Columbine
1. American Society as Presented in South Park- Bigger, Longer & Uncut:
1.1 The Introductary Song
1.2 The Characters and Institutions Forming South Park Society
1.2.1 Characters:
1.2.1.1 The Kids
1.2.1.2 The Parents
1.2.1.3 Reproaches on Parents
1.3 American Institutions
1.3.1 Politics
1.3.2 Military
1.3.3. School
1.4 The claim of South Park- Bigger, Longer & Uncut for reality
2. Detecting Similarities to Bowling for Columbine
2.1 Academy Awards
2.2 Misbehaviour of Youths
2.3 False Reasons for Grievances in Society
2.4 American Society as a Nation of Fear
2.5 Media
2.6 Main Message and Demand
III. Importance of the Biographical Background
IV. Attachment
V. Sources
Please note: Quotations taken from South Park- Bigger, Longer & Uncut DVD, written by Matt Stone and Trey Parker, published by Warner Home Video, 2000, will be abbreviated SP, from Bowling for Columbine, Special Edition 2 Disc Set, Disc One, written and directed by Michael Moore, published by Alliance Atlantis and United Artists, 2002, will be abbreviated BfC and the respective chapter of the each DVD chap.
I. Background Information on and Plot of South Park- Bigger, Longer & Uncut and Bowling for Columbine
Matt Stone and Trey Parker created one of the most successful Cartoon Comedy Series ever, the story of four little boys in a little mountain town, called South Park. Starting in 1997, they completed nine episodes by now and South Park is still to continue. In 1998 Stone and Parker set work on a bigger project: a South Park film, which could be seen in cinemas in 1999 and was extraordinary successful.
The plot is full of exaggerations, just like the TV-episodes: due to corrupting the youth with their film Asses of Fire, Canadian Film Stars Terrance and Philipp are arrested in the U.S.A. and sentenced to death. While the boys Stan, Kyle and Eric, the protagonists, desperately attempt to free their idols Terrance and Philipp and to find a way to convince their parents to be less radical, but fail, a war between Canada and the U.S.A. breaks out, soon turning into WWIII. After the blood of Terrance and Philipp touches American soil, Satan, supported by Saddam Hussein, is free to walk on earth and wants to bring doom, but is finally persuaded to break with Saddam, to return to hell and to turn everything the way it was before the war broke out.
Michael Moore was born in Flint, Michigan, a town, where most employees used to depend on General Motors. After the car production had been displaced, many workers were fired in Flint leading Moore to the plot his first successful documentary film, Roger & Me, which he directed in 1989.
Gaining more and more attention due to his following films and publications, he made his most fruitful documentary film in 2002: Bowling for Columbine, in which Moore tries to examine reasons and results of a massacre two youths committed at Columbine High School on april, 20th 1999 where they killed twelve students, one teacher and finally themselves. Bowling for Columbine was awarded Best Documentary Feature at the Annual Academy Awards 2003.
The following report will at first analyse the American society as presented in South Park- Bigger, Longer & Uncut and then detect similarities to Bowling for Columbine by Michael Moore.
II. American Society as Presented in South Park- Bigger, Longer & Uncut and Detecting Similarities to Bowling for Columbine
1. American Society as Presented in South Park- Bigger, Longer & Uncut
1.1 The Introductary Song
In the introductary song Mountain Town an excellent survey over the whole community of South Park is given. The main figures are presented, one of these Stan Marsh, described as “picture perfect child, just like Jesus, he's tender and mild” by his mother Sharon. That is contrary to Trey Parker’s view on little children: “There's this whole thing out there about how kids are so innocent and pure. That's bullshit, man. Kids are malicious little fuckers. They totally jump on any bandwagon and rip on the weak guy at any chance. They say whatever bad word they can think of. They are total fucking bastards, but for some reason everyone has kids and forgets about what they were like when they were kids.” And so the perfect scenery begins to get some clefts, when the lazy Eric Cartman sends his mother to open the door while watching TV, Kenny McCormick refuses to visit church, even though it is Sunday and his mother threatens him that he will be damned after his death, Kyle kicking his little brother Ike through window-glasses and Stan convincing a homeless man to buy them tickets for a restricted movie giving him money to purchase a bottle of vodka. But not only the four boys introduce themselves, also Sheila Broslowski, Kyle’s mother, shows her feelings: “Look at those frail and fragile boys. It really gets me down! This world is such a rotten place, and city life's a complete disgrace!” So the later conflict between parents and children is already settled in the beginning, as Sheila is very strict and consistent. Therefore Stan lies at her by saying that the boys want to go ice-skating because of not being allowed to see the Terrance and Philipp movie if he told her the truth.
Furthermore the whole introductary song can be regarded as a Walt Disney parody, as the songs in Disney films usually take place in front of a perfect scenery and are full of cliches.
Thus the perfect world soon begins to fade, for example when Stan sings of “the snow pure and white” and touches the snow some deer has just urinated on or at the songline “all the happy people stop to say hello” and the reply of an adult is: ”get out of my way!”
So the American society is presented as an assumed Utopia, but that this is actually an illusion becomes obvious almost immediately, it can only exist as long as the adults are in control, pretending everything was perfect. The children are still too naïve to recognize the truth in the beginning, yet this situation is to be finite: both matures and kids develop in the plot, conclusively their view of an utopian society and therefore the society itsself changes.
1.2 The Characters and Institutions Forming South Park Society
To gain a more precise look at this process, the main characters will be analysed to their attitudes and the conflicts resulting of them in order to scrutinise the intra-community structure of South Park.
1.2.1 Characters
1.2.1.1 The Kids
Stan is the average American child, he lives in a normal-sized family with his father Randy, a geologist, his mother Sharon and his tyrant older sister Shelley. He is in love with Wendy Testaburger, though he has to vomit every time he wants to talk to her.
His best friend is Kyle Broflovski, who is jewish and therefore representing an ethnic minority in South Park. He suffers a lot from his consistent and dominant mother, Sheila, who is in full control of the family.
Another friend of theirs is Eric Cartman. Although being always offensive, rude and egocentric which results in using his character to bring some funny elements into the film, he is important for the changing society, as he has to suffer most from the restrictions the parents introduce. He lives with single parent mother Liane, who strengthens his belief in being “big boned” (in fact he simply eats too many cheesy poofs), and tries to calm him down by always cooking him food when he is bored.
Kenny McCormick and his family represent the poor member of South Park society. He can hardly be understood by the viewers as he always pulls his orange parker above his mouth. Like in every TV-episode, Kenny dies a horrible death.
The boys are very closely connected, as Matt Stone explains on spscriptorium.com: “What people don't remember is that when you're in third grade, your close friends almost are your family. You have this little collective consciousness with your friends”.
And as a high reputation to the other children in South Park is keenly important, Stan, Kyle, Kenny and Eric try to gain more prestige by using all curse-words they heard in the Terrance & Philipp Movie, thereby making other children jealous they have not seen the movie so far.
Furthermore they got their idols - Brian Boitano is their most important hero- they long for their parents’ attention and they are extremely curious- in conclusion they are just usual kids.
1.2.1.2 The Parents
The most dominant parent is definitely Sheila Broflovski, Kyle’s mother. Though wanting “to make the world a better place for our children”, (SP, chap. 26) she carries her courage to excess, resulting in more violence, censorship, racism and allowing Satan to rule over the world (which is the ultimate exaggeration of the bad influence she has on society, which is destroying it completely). The other parents are willing to follow and support her without any disagreement.