Latest news with #TrappedintheCloset
SBS Australia
02-05-2025
- Entertainment
- SBS Australia
South Park is rude, crude, gleefully offensive… and brilliantly written
'South Park'. Credit: Comedy Partners When critical ink gets spilled about South Park , Matt Stone and Trey Parker's 30-year animated opus about… well, whatever sparks their interest any given week, it's more often than not due to whatever the latest controversy is. Since its humble birth as a crude animated short way back in 1992, South Park has delighted in the slaughter of countless sacred cows, and the series' refusal to treat any subject as untouchable has upset just about every demographic at one point of another. That's part of South Park 's appeal, and the chief reason for its frequent condemnation – as a viewer, sooner or later some tenet you hold as untouchable is in for a kicking. Even cast members aren't immune – the late Isaac Hayes, who voiced fan fave character Chef, infamously quit the show after the 2005 season nine episode 'Trapped in the Closet' mercilessly lampooned Scientology, Hayes' religion (Hayes' son, Isaac Hayes III, denies this). Undeterred, Parker and Stone doubled down in the season 10 premiere, 'The Return of Chef', brutally killing off the character and employing snippets of dialogue Hayes had already recorded to bring the character to (temporary) life. But what's particularly impressive about South Park is that it's incredibly well-written, despite the show's extremely fast turnaround. Episodes are typically smashed out in a week, and sometimes as quickly as four days – a speed of production at least in part due to not being hampered by studio approval. Even now, 26 seasons deep, South Park remains an auteur piece, although Parker shoulders the bulk of the creative duties while Stone focuses on business matters. Working with a small team of staff writers, the pair work to insanely tight deadlines in order to keep the show fresh, which means that South Park is often satirising an event or phenomenon before the cultural consensus has had time to firm up. The final episode of season seven, "It's Christmas in Canada", nodded to the capture of Saddam Hussein a mere three days after the dictator was pulled from his spider-hole. Season 12's "About Last Night..." deals with Barack Obama's election victory, airing less than a day after he was declared the winner. The only time the team have ever missed a production deadline was due to a power failure . Nonetheless, the nut and bolts writing of South Park cleaves to an impressively high standard. With its endless wilfully offensive jokes and trademark lowbrow surrealism, to the casual viewer South Park might seem like a scattershot blast of puerile profanity, concerned only with tearing through the boundaries of good taste, but in terms of structure it's quietly brilliant. Each scene works as a self-contained comedy sketch, but it's what happens in the margins that makes the whole thing keep rolling. Parker and Stone adhere to a structural practice they call 'Therefore or but' and the deceptively simple rule is that either of those words must logically fit in between each scene. It sounds like a no-brainer, but you'd be surprised how many writers drop the ball in this regard. As Stone noted when the pair addressed a New York University film class in 2011 , 'If the words 'and then…' belong between those beats, you're f***ed.' It's all about causality. This happens, therefore this happens next. Or this happens, but this happens next, changing the outcome. It's a writing fundamental that stops any given episode from just being a collection of loosely connected vignettes; each scene flows from what has gone before. Cartman is humiliated by Scott, therefore he tries to train a pony to bite off Scott's penis. But this proves to be a difficult task and Cartman is frustrated. But he is advised to uncover Scott's weaknesses and exploit them. Therefore , he tries to use Scott's fandom of Radiohead to publicly shame him. But Scott turns the tables on Cartman by releasing an embarrassing video of him. Therefore … well, it gets more complicated from there, and in deference to anyone who hasn't seen the episode, I'll just say that it goes to some wild and deeply disturbing places. But 'wild and deeply disturbing' is par for the course when it comes to South Park – what makes it work is its structural underpinnings. For a series often criticised for being loud, obnoxious, and offensive, it's quietly brilliant. Seasons 1-15 of South Park are streaming at SBS On demand, but don't delay, they're only there until 30 June. Share this with family and friends SBS's award winning companion podcast. Join host Yumi Stynes for Seen, a new SBS podcast about cultural creatives who have risen to excellence despite a role-model vacuum.
Express Tribune
09-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Express Tribune
R. Kelly claims he wrote 25 albums while serving 30-year prison sentence for sex trafficking and racketeering
R&B singer R. Kelly, currently serving a 30-year sentence for sex trafficking and racketeering, claims to have written 25 albums since his incarceration. The 58-year-old artist made the revelation during a phone call to the Inmate Tea With A&P podcast, as reported by Billboard on March 7, 2025. Speaking through a monitored prison line, Kelly said he was asked to sing 'Happy Birthday' to someone on the show. The hosts, who referred to him as the 'King of R&B' and his former title, 'the Pied Piper of R&B,' reacted enthusiastically as he performed a snippet of his 1998 song When a Woman's Fed Up. When asked about his creative output in prison, Kelly described his musical talent as a 'beautiful disease that's uncurable.' He stated that despite his circumstances, he continues to write music and has completed approximately 25 albums. Kelly, whose real name is Robert Sylvester Kelly, was sentenced in 2021 after being convicted on federal charges in New York, including racketeering and sex trafficking. In 2022, he received additional convictions in Chicago related to child exploitation and coercion of minors. His convictions followed decades of allegations, including an illegal marriage to 15-year-old Aaliyah in 1994 and accusations of holding women in a 'cult-like' environment. Kelly remains hopeful for an early release, saying he wishes to resume his music career. However, last month, the 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals rejected his appeal of his New York conviction, meaning he could remain behind bars into his 80s if he serves his full sentence. Before his conviction, Kelly was known for his prolific career, releasing 18 studio albums and creating the Trapped in the Closet series. His legal team has denied the allegations made against him.
