Manbearpig

I'm extremely disappointed South Park was mentioned in the prompt, being a big fan of the show I was planning on doing something tying in South Park and climate change for at least one blog post.

So I'm going to use South Park anyways.

Robin suggests that South Park has made us all "knowing cynics." While I certainly agree with that, to an extent, I feel their impact is much greater. Just like when you go back and watch a children's movie and notice subtle "adult" references for the first time, South Park succeeds at entertainment at multiple levels. There is still enough simple and straight forward humor in the series to attract a crowd that is largely uninterested in the underlying satire or criticism of whatever the current subject happens to be. A perfect example of this is the episode "ManBearPig," (click that for a link to the video, i.e. my website of choice) featuring the great Al Gore. While the premise of a manbearpig is humorous on its own, the episode holds double meanings when manbearpig becomes a metaphor for global warming (an intended metaphor, although I was not aware of this until someone pointed it out). It works mostly because it is presented in more digestable pieces. No, of course the argument is not that ridiculous, and no, Al Gore doesn't think he can fly (I hope), but for me at least, the episode instigated the asking of more questions. My interest was piqued on the topic of global warming. This type of presentation can be extremely effective with the right audience. Raise there interest in a subject, and given how technologically literate we are, Wikipedia can be a mouse click or cell phone text away. Steering the general public towards their own revelations instead of bashing them over their collective head with it may be the most effective tool available to proponents of any hot issue, yet it is a strategy rarely used (properly, at least).