October 6, 2008 | 9:15 am

Wednesday is a huge day on my calendar. It’s been blocked off for about three months for the return of “South Park.“ It’s also Yom Kippur. And this year I’m going to do Yom Kippur, fasting and all, and then I’m going to write a short essay about doing the holiest day in the Jewish year for the first time. I’m pretty sure that precludes my watching “South Park” until at least Thursday night.
Hopefully I’ll survive.
In the meantime, Cartman, who is the leading reason any country would move to ban the greatest show on Earth, is getting his own special edition DVD. It’s called “The Cult of Cartman,“ and it features 12 great episodes—among them, “Awesom-O,“ “The Death of Eric Cartman” and “Cartoon Wars Part I.“
Here he is making his pitch:
But, shockingly, the two DVD set, omits at least five of the greatest episodes centered around Cartman. Each of these episodes, four of which are two-part series pieces, have religion at that little sinner at their core.
In “Go God, Go,“ Cartman freezes himself because he can’t wait for the Nintendo Wii to be released, but his plan goes awry and he is unfrozen 500 years in the future, a godless world where atheists are at war over what to call themselves—proving people, not religion, cause wars—and use expletives like “Science H. Logic.“
Probably my favorite is “Christian Rock Hard,“ in which Cartman discovers that making bad Christian music is a surefire way to get rich quick.
“You don’t even know anything about Christianity,“ Stan says to Cartman.
“I know enough to exploit it,“ he responds.
Cartman, predictably, blows his achievement of selling a million records with an extravagant, self-indulgent festival—and then explodes when he learns he didn’t win his $10 bet that his band could go platinum because Christian albums don’t go platinum; they go myrrh.
In the clip after the jump, from the second of the two-parter “Do the Handicapped Go to Hell?“ Cartman again shows that he doesn’t have a sincere bone in his body. His tent revivalism was all a ploy, a scam built on children’s fear of hellfire, just another way for him to get rich.
What makes Cartman so funny is how he embodies everything we hate. How then, in a series titled “The Cult of Cartman,“ could some of the most relevant, memorable religious episodes with Cartman at their center be left out? For that matter, why wasn’t “The Passion of the Jew“ included in this set?
Posted by Brad A. Greenberg in 0 Comments — Leave your comment
We welcome your feedback.
Your information will not be shared or sold without your consent. Get all the details.
academia america american jews anti-semitism atheism barack obama books capitalism catholicism christianity crime entertainment europe evangelicals family god holidays holocaust iran iraq islam israel jesus jihad john mccain judaism los angeles media middle east personal politics president 08 president bush president 08 sarah palin satire science sexuality sports the law
Advertisement
December 2008
November 2008
October 2008
September 2008
August 2008
July 2008
June 2008
May 2008
April 2008
March 2008
February 2008
January 2008
December 2007
November 2007
October 2007
September 2007
August 2007
July 2007
June 2007
May 2007
April 2007
March 2007
God's Blog
God for President
Book Bits
Caption Contest
Jewish genius
Strange science
Who is a Jew?
World of Worship
Advertisements
A Los Angeles Superior Court judge last week dismissed the criminal case against four Iranian American Jews. One woman and three men were accused of kidnapping and holding for ransom a man the defendants claimed had cheated them out of $100,000 in a business deal.
The United Nations announced last year that the procedure could reduce the rate of HIV transmission by up to 60 percent. It was in Israel, with its experience performing adult male circumcision on a wide scale, that the international medical community found an unlikely partner
Parshat Toldot (Genesis 25:19-28:9) Why does a mourner eat a round food? The circle represents the circle of life, and it is supposed to remind the mourner that life is cyclical: The tragedy of death that has stricken me today will strike my neighbor tomorrow.
Until now it is unclear whether Obama and his advisers will address the internecine Palestinian conflict as a key component in their Middle East foreign policy. If they fail to confront this critical issue, we risk engaging in yet another failed round of diplomacy. And as we
Daniel Kliman's body was found Monday in a San Francisco building where he was taking Arabic classes. It had been at the bottom of the elevator shaft since Nov. 25, building manager Brad Bernheim told the San Francisco Chronicle. There were no classes held last week, and the