Reading between the lines.

Everybody knows the show South Park as that cheaply made cartoon, with the racist fat kid and that Kenny kid that dies all the time, which uses satire and dark humour to support their story-lines. The truth is, Trey Parker and Matt Stone offer us more useful life lessons than we'd ever learn in school or at home.

Sometimes the message is straightforward at the end of the episode when Kyle says "I've learned something today", and the main reason such lessons are taught through this controversial show and not through school is because a lot of the topics in question are, well, controversial. But we have to learn these things sooner or later right? Teachers and parents alike try to avoid them altogether and that's okay to a point, when children are still young and not mature enough to understand certain things. But sooner or later everyone's going to encounter controversy in life, and this has to be dealt with, with preparation through teaching. It is important to note that Matt and Trey are obviously not your average student councilors and they're not in the entertainment business mainly for teaching, but for us to laugh at Kanye West making love to a fish and feel bad for Oprah Winfrey's snitch.

Topics the show should be given credit for giving good points on include:

• Homosexuality tolerance ( "Big Gay Al's Big Gay Boat Ride" and "Cartman Sucks")
• Giving people with disabilities unnecessarily embarassing and excessive limelight ("Conjoined Fetus Lady" and "Freak Strike")
• Oppressive Christianity ("Fantastic Easter Special" and "Cartman Sucks")
• People who claim they are psychic and can talk to the dead are doing more harm than good to people who have lost loved ones ("The Biggest Douche in the Universe")
• No matter who you vote for, you're going to be screwed one way or another ("Douche and Turd")
• Paris Hilton is an overrated good-for-nothing spoiled whore ("Stupid Spoiled Whore Video Playset")
• Most peace-promoters don't really do anything but group up and talk about peace without actually doing anything productive ("Die Hippie, Die)
• If a cure for HIV were actually found, it would probably only be available to people who could afford it and a lot of less fortunate people from poorer countries would die anyway ("Tonsil Trouble")

and so on. While I wouldn't recommend buying the complete South Park DVD box set for your 5-year-old, I will say that he'll still watch it online eventually and say "Hey, those guys have a point there!"

For Mr. Stone and Mr. Parker, class is still in session.

Entertainment on the road.

The most modern buses in Malta have flat screen televisions in them. On these TVs, Smart TV advertises by showing normal people on the bus watching television programmes like the Guiness World Records, or a football match. That would be some pretty cool entertainment while riding public transportation, but I do have one question.

Just when the fuck are programmes ever actually shown? In my 45 minute bus ride from Cirkewwa to Msida I saw the same two things on the screen, over and over again. One was of the Smart TV advert, and the other was of Peppi Azzopardi killing a couple of cockroaches and mice for some pest control company. There's only so many times I want to see Peppi take off his gas mask and nod at me. Zero times.

If I were the driver I'd just remove the flat screen and keep it at home. It'll do everyone good, that shit was torture. Smart TV isn't so smart.

The great cartoons we watched that could have destroyed our lives.

Growing up in the 90s, some channels you probably watched included Cartoon Network, The Disney Channel and Nickelodeon. Some great cartoons aired during this decade, but were we aware at the time of the subliminal messages behind these cartoons?

I'm talking about two cartoons in particular. Rocko's Modern Life and Ren & Stimpy. Nowadays people will tell you that these cartoons were really weird but awesome nonetheless. Of course we found them weird when we were kids. We were too young to actually understand what the hell was going on.

Rocko's Modern Life was full of double entendres and sexual innuendos, as can be seen here.



Ren & Stimpy was full of violence where Ren would break down into fits of psychosis and gleefully plot to kill Stimpy. There was also a great use of toilet humor, strong language and sexual innuendo which eventually led to the show being recast as Ren & Stimpy "Adult Party Cartoon". There was even a more explicit homosexual relationship between them during this era. Here are some of the greatest Ren & Stimpy moments.



Well there you have it. These cartoons probably fucked up my generation where they were popular, especially in the United States. That explains a lot.

Nostalgia Pt 2.

I'm down to Episode 50 of Series 1 of the Digimon Series. Yes, 49 episodes in 4 days. I want to finish the series tonight. Ah the memories.

I've been playing some old Playstation games lately. The Crash Bandicoot series, to be exact. The first three, the ones by Naughty Dog. I never beat the first 2 though. The first one is extremely hard as hell, and it's annoying to save the game. I almost beat the second one. I beat the third one in a day last week, it's my favourite one of them all. The first game I ever bought, actually. Definitely a classic. Thanks to my friend Andrew and his blog (check the blogs I follow) for rekindling my interest in the game.

Nostalgia.

Last weekend I spent till 2am talking to my bumchum Paul about pretty much everything. Including watching old television series like the Power Rangers and Digimon. So well, nostalgia kicked in and I decided to start watching the Digimon series all over again on YouTube, the first 3 in particular. I'm at episode 14 of season 1 right now. I watched 10 episodes in a row last night. Might do it again tonight. Kthxbai.