animation South Park Gets Banned in China

[Misty Shadow 7,902]

Proof that South Park has not sold out.  

https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/tv/2019/10/08/south-park-issues-sarcastic-apology-critical-china-episode/3905916002/

They actually did get banned in China for making fun of their government and how big corporations and Hollywood pander to them, and they are going all in showing that they are proudly not sorry. 

https://www.businessinsider.com/south-park-takes-on-chinese-government-in-300th-episode-2019-10

World, get more people like Stone and Parker. 

 

[ggg-2 3,553]

Now to hopefully get this show banned, well everywhere else.

[Oleks 1,993]

"Band in China" was a brilliant episode, it amazes me how South Park can still be so relevant, while staying hilarious and making fun of literally every group of people. It's not surprising that China banned them entirely after that episode, but it only proved their point. 

1 hour ago, CloudMistDragon said:

World, get more people like Stone and Parker.

I couldn't agree more.

[Randimaxis 8,652]

I've been watching South Park for a long time, and I have to say that, even if they can be assholes, they are equal-opportunity assholes... which I love them for.

Yeah, they've offended me - they've done their utmost best to offend everybody - but I'm also one of those people who loathes unnecessary censorship.  China's government doesn't believe in its' people, so they've begun to believe in themselves... which, for a controlling dictatorship, is a bad thing.  Add to that, the fact that many countries pander to that government for whatever profit purposes they experience, and you get a tyrannical ruler hellbent on controlling a ludicrous amount of people by censoring whatever they deem 'unhealthy for the nation'; i.e. anything that makes them look bad, and you've got a powderkeg moment, waiting to happen.

It doesn't surprise me in the least that Matt & Trey are proverbially flinging lit matches at it.

Those two are RIGHT NOW being as American as humanly possible.  They are using their freedom of speech to reach out to not only China, but the world, to show us how atrocious and corrupt the Chinese government has gotten, and how they refuse to back down from their moral stances.  THAT, fillies and gentlecolts, is how you cherish freedom... not with flags in your yard or shouts of "'MURICA!", but by standing fast to your beliefs and never wavering in the face of adversity.

As I said, they've offended me too in the past... but just because I'm offended by one or two things they've done, it doesn't mean I'm going to close my mind to them.  There have also been times the show has woken me up to problems, and times I've had to do some self-searching to come to grips with things I just didn't understand.  We all need that mental shakeup, sometimes...

Nations should NOT be exempt from the world, simply because it points out their flaws.  And money should not be the motivation behind censorship.

You go, Matt & Trey; kick them right in the balls.

[Jedishy 3,548]

I cheered this episode on. I am done with companies like Blizzard that sell out and bend the knee to communists and thugs. I really love Matt and Trey for this and hope to see companies like Blizzard that bend the knee go out of business and their people get black listed in their industry. 

[Pentium100 2,129]

What everybody can do, is to stop buying things made in China. The Chinese government will get less money and the company that chose to have the factory in China. If you buy stuff from China because it's cheaper, then you are not that different from those "bad" companies.

Companies must do whatever is profitable. If bending over for the Chinese government get them bigger profit (when accounting for the loss of business from outraged people) then it would be irresponsible for the company to not do that, especially if it is publicly traded. So, you have to make it less profitable to do what the Chinese government wants, either by boycotting any company that does it or by getting your government to impose sanctions or import tariffs.

[TheAnimationFanatic 3,596]

I mean, it wouldn't be South Park if it isn't pissing somebody off, would it be? 

Edited October 10, 2019 by TheAnimationFanatic

[cuteycindyhoney 13,307]

8 hours ago, ggg-2 said:

Now to hopefully get this show banned, well everywhere else.

While I don't want the show banned, I've never liked it. I've watched maybe three episodes, and never found it funny. I'm not one of those "I don't like it, so it MUST be banned!" people. I just watch other things. I don't care if other people watch it. I'm glad they like it. It's just not my cup of hemlock.

 

 

Oh, and Doctor Who is banned in China as well. It depicts time travel. The government sees that as being unhappy with how things are, and fostering a wish to go back and change it.

Edited October 11, 2019 by cuteycindyhoney

[Jedishy 3,548]

8 hours ago, Pentium100 said:

Companies must do whatever is profitable. If bending over for the Chinese government get them bigger profit (when accounting for the loss of business from outraged people) then it would be irresponsible for the company to not do that, especially if it is publicly traded. So, you have to make it less profitable to do what the Chinese government wants, either by boycotting any company that does it or by getting your government to impose sanctions or import tariffs.

China has a history of stealing intelectual property and unfair business practices towards outside companies not controlled by their govt. Any company that chooses to operate inside its borders is a idiot and deserves the eventual theft that is going to hit them. So no its not their responsibility to do this as in the long term its a fools move. Worse they have to abandon company ideals to do so. There is an ethics to business and stealing prize money from a gamer is not at all part of it. Never mind doing something that will kill your already low fan base as MMORPHs are not exactly a fast growing trend these days and if this is any indication they are taking a hit tot wallet at the 1 year and 1 month marks with only a slight recent up tick and a bit of a bump on YTD. Even CNN realizes they are gonna take a hit for this. 

In short get woke go broke is a thing for a reason. This cancel culture and censoring bs has people mad and they are gonna take the hit and hard for it. Its never really worked for a company yet and I really hope to see this one crash and burn 

[Pentium100 2,129]

34 minutes ago, Jedishy said:

So no its not their responsibility to do this as in the long term its a fools move. Worse they have to abandon company ideals to do so.

A publicly traded company has one ideal - to make as much money as possible, so the stock price rises and investors are happy. The only way to make such a company behave in the way you wan it, is to make it unprofitable to behave in a different way. This can be done by the government (fines, taxes etc) or by the people (not buying from the company).

Otherwise, the company will act in the way that gives it more money. The same goes for other disliked practices, like loot boxes. If people complain about them, but the company makes more money after adding them, all is good. If people stop giving money to the company (or get the government involved), then the company will change how it behaves.

Also, few companies think long-term, this is due to how investment works now. It used to be that investors would buy stock and keep it for a while, getting dividends and then eventually maybe selling it, this meant that the investors cared about the company long term. Some people still do that, but most investors now are what used to be called "speculators" - they buy and sell stock based on price (there are now multiple trades done every second). These investors care about the short term, at most this quarter. They want a company to get ever increasing profits and then dump the stock as the company fails. Long term is future-investors problem.

The CEO has to obey the stock holders. He has to show increasing profits (preferably with the increase also increasing, that is, exponential increase) or he is out of a job. So, his goal is to please the investors, increase the profits as much as possible, the bail out and let the next guy take the blame for the company going out of business, while he goes to manage another company (since he is such a great CEO, look how much money he made us).

This is how the system works and this can be used to explain everything that a company does (anti-consumer practices, planned obsolescence etc). I don't like it, but it's still how it works. Planned economy, like it was done in the USSR is different, but the USSR system failed.

55 minutes ago, Jedishy said:

if this is any indication they are taking a hit tot wallet at the 1 year and 1 month marks with only a slight recent up tick and a bit of a bump on YTD. Even CNN realizes they are gonna take a hit for this. 

This is good, if it keeps up as it is the only way to make a company behave. Sometimes the outrage causes a dip in the stock price, but then everybody forgets about it and it's business as usual.

 

[Jedishy 3,548]

9 hours ago, Pentium100 said:

The CEO has to obey the stock holders. 

This is how the system works

Its fun to see someone explain " how business works " and get so much wrong. 

1. No a CEO is not beholden to the stock holders. He is beholden to the board of directors who are the ones who vote him in or out of a job. 

2. A business must run by a set of ethics just like any other job and most often companies have ethics in the corporate by laws or company policy 

3. Not thinking long term is a great way to bankrupt your company and acting against the long term interests of your company is a pretty good way to get the boot just like low profits. 

 

[TBD 17,254]

Amateurs. Sure South Park did a “great” job opposing views against China’s governments and just about everything else. But at the end of the day it’s just a joke.  It’s ridiculous how so many people take on the joke from a cartoon and acted like they actually understand how the real world works. It’s a fucking joke.

[TransitPony 238]

I watched South Park sometime ago alot but I stopped after a while due to getting bored with it. However, the recent events in Hong Kong regarding the gamer who got kicked off by Blizzard and an NBA general manager supporting the protests in Hong Kong is making me give kudos to Parker and Stone for doing something like this. It is very much needed in a time when authoritarianism and censorship is running rampant all over the world. We are at a tipping point here. We at the point where every aspect of the entertainment we consume is being watered down to please dictatorships (Ex. The director of the film adaptation of Doctor Strange had to make the Ancient One a white character to make sure the Chinese government wasn't pissed off since said character is from Tibet). 

On another note, you should read this Twitter thread by a Chinese video game designer. He mentions into detail of the power the Chinese government has exerted over the video game industry and how he himself was offered kickbacks and bribes to which he said no to. 

And it's not just entertainment that the government is exerting their influence, but politically as well. Perfect example is the historic Chinatown here in New York. There were no PRC flags flown before but now they're seen all throughout the neighborhood. We are truly heading for a dystopian future to say the least of it. 

[Jon C 229]

动态网自由门 天安門 天安门 法輪功 李洪志 Free Tibet 六四天安門事件 The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 天安門大屠殺 The Tiananmen Square Massacre 反右派鬥爭 The Anti-Rightist Struggle 大躍進政策 The Great Leap Forward 文化大革命 The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution 人權 Human Rights 民運 Democratization 自由 Freedom 獨立 Independence 多黨制 Multi-party system 台灣 臺灣 Taiwan Formosa 中華民國 Republic of China 西藏 土伯特 唐古特 Tibet 達賴喇嘛 Dalai Lama 法輪功 Falun Dafa 新疆維吾爾自治區 The Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region 諾貝爾和平獎 Nobel Peace Prize 劉暁波 Liu Xiaobo 民主 言論 思想 反共 反革命 抗議 運動 騷亂 暴亂 騷擾 擾亂 抗暴 平反 維權 示威游行 李洪志 法輪大法 大法弟子 強制斷種 強制堕胎 民族淨化 人體實驗 肅清 胡耀邦 趙紫陽 魏京生 王丹 還政於民 和平演變 激流中國 北京之春 大紀元時報 九評論共産黨 獨裁 專制 壓制 統一 監視 鎮壓 迫害 侵略 掠奪 破壞 拷問 屠殺 活摘器官 誘拐 買賣人口 遊進 走私 毒品 賣淫 春畫 賭博 六合彩 天安門 天安门 法輪功 李洪志 Winnie the Pooh 劉曉波动态网自由门

[Kyoshi Frost Wolf 41,596]

To me, South Park sold out the moment they gave a total spotlight to PewDiePie, I've hated the show since then. Regardless, it being banned in China is not something I care about. Honestly I thought it was banned years ago so that is more of a surprise than anything. 

[Quinch 1,120]

Goshdarnit, @Democracy for Hong Kong, are you trying to get us banned in China?!

Also, I'm having real trouble believing that article. South Park has only three hundred episodes? They've been at it since the nineties!

[Pentium100 2,129]

4 hours ago, Jedishy said:

1. No a CEO is not beholden to the stock holders. He is beholden to the board of directors who are the ones who vote him in or out of a job. 

2. A business must run by a set of ethics just like any other job and most often companies have ethics in the corporate by laws or company policy 

3. Not thinking long term is a great way to bankrupt your company and acting against the long term interests of your company is a pretty good way to get the boot just like low profits. 

1. Got that wrong, but the stock holders are still the ultimate authority.

2. Do the bylaws of those companies say anything about not cooperating with "bad" governments?

3. Well, not thinking long term got us the recent recession and I also doubt that doubling down on loot boxes by some companies when the backlash started is thinking long term. I guess for some the short term gains are more important.

[Jedishy 3,548]

8 minutes ago, Pentium100 said:

1. Got that wrong, but the stock holders are still the ultimate authority.

2. Do the bylaws of those companies say anything about not cooperating with "bad" governments?

3. Well, not thinking long term got us the recent recession and I also doubt that doubling down on loot boxes by some companies when the backlash started is thinking long term. I guess for some the short term gains are more important.

1. No the VOTING share holders are the authority. Most of which are the board of directors. Not your average stockholder who has no vote. 
2. Do not ignore that I also mentioned company policty. Which would include:

Integrity
– Do the right thing

Don’t sacrifice the “right thing” for the “fast thing” or the “easy thing.” 

From their own website  Or all the ways this violates their corporate values list

So yea they have a company policy of not stealing from a guy and gutting their future interested by bowing to China. 

3. Just because its common does not mean it is acceptable or smart. The fact is that they have a duty to themselves, their employees and their customers to knock this crap off.  

[PiratePony 8,475]

27 minutes ago, Jedishy said:

No the VOTING share holders are the authority. Most of which are the board of directors. Not your average stockholder who has no vote. 

What company doesn't allow a regular stockholder to vote? You can vote for the board of directors, including approval of the CEO.

 

[Jedishy 3,548]

4 minutes ago, David S Pumpkins said:

What company doesn't allow a regular stockholder to vote? You can vote for the board of directors, including approval of the CEO.

 

That is where you would be incorrect. The voting rights of the common stockholder varies vastly from one company to another as per their articles of incorporation. So no its not guaranteed on what you can vote on. And depending on if its common or prefered stock it can have zero voting rights. Even Common stock can be broken into nonvoting shares. 

In short the average schmoe on the street means nothing when it comes to holding stock and the board of directors are generally are some of the largest stockholders in the company. 

[Celli 4,338]

On 10/10/2019 at 2:56 PM, ggg-2 said:

Now to hopefully get this show banned, well everywhere else.

Why?

9 hours ago, Kyoshi said:

To me, South Park sold out the moment they gave a total spotlight to PewDiePie, I've hated the show since then. Regardless, it being banned in China is not something I care about. Honestly I thought it was banned years ago so that is more of a surprise than anything. 

Oh, they made an episode about a popular icon, how horrible. News flash, they do that all the time, it's not new. They've never sold out. They just poked fun at another popular internet sensation. The episode wasn't about Pewdiepie, the synopsis also says "Kyle can't figure out why Ike and his friends want to watch people comment on things going on around them rather than experience it for themselves. Meanwhile, the Marsh family needs money after Stan spent it all on freemium games so, Randy is forced to perform live to bring in some cash."

[Steve Piranha 29,428]

10 hours ago, TransitPony said:

I watched South Park sometime ago alot but I stopped after a while due to getting bored with it. However, the recent events in Hong Kong regarding the gamer who got kicked off by Blizzard and an NBA general manager supporting the protests in Hong Kong is making me give kudos to Parker and Stone for doing something like this. It is very much needed in a time when authoritarianism and censorship is running rampant all over the world. We are at a tipping point here. We at the point where every aspect of the entertainment we consume is being watered down to please dictatorships (Ex. The director of the film adaptation of Doctor Strange had to make the Ancient One a white character to make sure the Chinese government wasn't pissed off since said character is from Tibet). 

On another note, you should read this Twitter thread by a Chinese video game designer. He mentions into detail of the power the Chinese government has exerted over the video game industry and how he himself was offered kickbacks and bribes to which he said no to. 

And it's not just entertainment that the government is exerting their influence, but politically as well. Perfect example is the historic Chinatown here in New York. There were no PRC flags flown before but now they're seen all throughout the neighborhood. We are truly heading for a dystopian future to say the least of it. 

Legit, is bad, as in Cold War bad, but with smiles and cash flowing. Damn, watch China Uncensored and see the extent and how long this has been going on. Hell I wouldn’t be surprised if all this anti americanism that has been so hip lately is largely due to China 

[Kyoshi Frost Wolf 41,596]

8 hours ago, Celli said:

Oh, they made an episode about a popular icon, how horrible. News flash, they do that all the time, it's not new. They've never sold out. They just poked fun at another popular internet sensation. The episode wasn't about Pewdiepie, the synopsis also says "Kyle can't figure out why Ike and his friends want to watch people comment on things going on around them rather than experience it for themselves. Meanwhile, the Marsh family needs money after Stan spent it all on freemium games so, Randy is forced to perform live to bring in some cash."

I was waiting for a response like this and you did not disappoint. Granted this is going off topic from the overall point but I don't care.

What South Park did for Pewdiepie was something I had never seen before in this show. Pewds was not only directly on the show himself (not as a parody or one of the South Park styled characters, but literally as himself), it also ended the episode with him in an entirely positive light. Correct me if I am wrong, but have they EVER done that with anyone else to such an extent? I can't think of anything. This is the same show that put Justin Bieber on there as a parody (not the real guy, not voiced by him) and the sole purpose was so they could have Cthulhu crush his head. Why did they do that? Oh because in the mainsteam everyone despised him, so let's portray him for like 5 seconds just so he can be murdered horribly. Even though he actually has talent in music and at least does something. Oh but the Swedish guy who plays video games while acting like a 5 year old with down syndrome while doing so, that's apparently where they draw the line. Oh sure, they did make fun of him a little bit, but they did so while giving him a full spotlight and ending the episode entirely on HIS terms. All that does is directly give him even more publicity and fame, especially since it was the real person on the show. South Park, the show that spammed the "Micheal Jackson is a pedophile HUR HUR" jokes into oblivion, gives the direct spotlight to a stupid as shit let's player.

If that isn't selling out to you, then whatever, you can have your opinion. It is equally as worthless as mine after all.

[Kyoshi Frost Wolf 41,596]

Oh and on the overall topic of China themselves with this Blizzard thing;

I don't support the Chinese government, that should be obvious. However, I also find it hilarious how the internet thinks it is being oh so courageous and moral by boycotting a video game corporation and thinking that is doing ANYTHING for the Hong Kong protesters. Wowee, you protested a corporation because of their dealings in China. Now be sure to protest basically every major corporation on the planet. Almost every huge company does business in China. Companies will go so far to butcher their own products in order to release them in China, like Disney and many others. This has been going on for so many years, but the moment some Hearthstone player gets in trouble for actually doing something he really shouldn't have done at that tournament, that's when everyone goes crazy about it all. Not crazy enough to actually do anything about it mind you, but only enough to express internet rage and pretend like that does shit for anyone. It doesn't.

[Misty Shadow 7,902]

Though most of the comments here have been good in my eyes, I just want to put up a friendly reminder that this is not a political/social/economic debate topic. This is just a way to compliment people behind a show for standing up for what they believe in. Please remember that this is just a friendly discussion about entertainment, I don't want this being moved to the Debate Symposium over petty drama.