Mormons are kidding themselves
| Episode of the South Park series | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| title | Mormons are kidding themselves | ||
| Original title | All About Mormons | ||
| Country of production | United States | ||
| original language | English | ||
| length | 22 minutes | ||
| Age rating | FSK 16 | ||
| classification | Season 7, episode 12, 108th episode overall ( list ) |
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| First broadcast | November 19, 2003 on Comedy Central | ||
| German-language first broadcast |
November 26, 2005 on MTV Germany | ||
| Rod | |||
| Director | Trey Parker | ||
| script | Trey Parker | ||
| production |
Frank C. Agnone II , Jennifer Howell (Supervisor) |
||
| music |
Jamie Dunlap , Scott Nickoley |
||
| cut | Keef Bartkus | ||
| synchronization | |||
Main article: Dubbing South Park | |||
| chronology | |||
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Mormons are fooling themselves ( English title: All About Mormons ) is the twelfth episode of the seventh season of South Park . It is the 108th episode in the series. The episode originally aired on Comedy Central on November 19, 2003 . It is about Mormon religion and culture because a Mormon family moved to South Park and influenced the male members of the Marsh family. The story of how Joseph Smith started Mormonism, and specifically how he created the Book of Mormon , is shown in a series of flashbacks . The episode was written by Trey Parker , who also directed. It has been categorized as unsuitable for young people under the age of 17 by the American Child Protection Agency. However, it received consistently good reviews and she appeared on several leaderboards in the South Park series. Parker found that many young people thought the episode wasn't funny, unlike most of his Mormon friends who thought it was hilarious. The episode was released on DVD on March 21, 2006 . Based on the idea processed here, Parker and his South Park author colleague Matt Stone and the musical composer Robert Lopez created the musical The Book of Mormon , in which some aspects of the South Park plot could be deepened. In the summer of 2013, fans voted Mormons Make Yourself the best episode of season seven.
action
A new family, the Harrisons, move to South Park. This includes the son Gary. Gary is better than the other kids at all things. That's why the local boys want to beat him up. Stan Marsh is determined to begin. When Stan approaches Gary and tries to insult him, Gary reacts surprisingly peacefully by inviting his opponent to his home for dinner. Stan visits Gary's family on their " family home evening " and is surprised at how loving, kind, and talented they are. He also learns something about their religious background. After returning home, Stan asks his parents what is special about Latter-day Saints' Church of Jesus Christ . His father deduces from Stan's report that the Harrisons must be religious fanatics who wanted to convert Stan. Furious, he goes to the Mormon family home, where he meets Mister Harrison, who is joined by his wife with freshly baked rice cakes. Like Gary before in the schoolyard, his parents are extremely hospitable and courteous and invite the downright perplexed rioter in. The person soothed by hospitality and conciliation is suddenly receptive to the Harrisons' world of thought. Eventually he converts to Mormonism . The next day, Kenny , Cartman and Kyle make fun of Stan for dating Gary. Stan is a little embarrassed the following meeting between him and his clique, to which he still feels a part, with his new friend.
Questions about the Mormon belief system are repeatedly raised. From this emerges a side story about the foundation by the self-proclaimed Prophet Joseph Smith. In particular, the details of the original events are described in detail in flashbacks, since the seemingly absurd events are well suited for a satire . For example, it shows exactly how Smith wins over the rich Martin Harris to print a will written by Jesus on buried gold plates , which must be translated by Smith using magic stones. A chant of syllables is heard as the book of Mormon is narrated. This "dum-dum-dum-dum-dum" sounds phonetically like "stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid" (in the original version: "dumb-dumb-dumb"). The effect is reinforced by the variation “smart, smart, smart, smart, smart”, which is sung when Harris' wife Lucy questions the unusual translation technique and asks for a second translation without deviations from the first. When Harris claims to have lost the 116-page manuscript that Smith gave him, Smith has yet another bizarre explanation ready, which Harris does for him.
The result clearly indicates that the founding story is unrealistic, i.e. a myth . Stan confronts the visiting Harrisons that the general public has not received any serious evidence of the existence of the ominous gold tablets and that the second translation differed from the first. Stan is upset about the lack of logic in the founding story, but the Mormons respond politely and reply that it is just a matter of belief and they are happy about any belief. Next, Stan attacks the guests by accusing them of luring stupid people to Mormonism with mock friendliness. Stan's father then turns around again and puts the visitors in front of the door. The Marshes' departure annoys anyone in the Mormon family except Gary. He comes up to Stan the next morning and explains that a religion does not have to be truthful as long as the people who believe in it are happy with it and uphold family values and social ideas. Gary condemns Stan for his narrow-mindedness.
production
The episode was written and executed by South Park co-producer Trey Parker. The voice of the character Gary is voiced by Kyle McCulloch . This is a writer on the series and was raised a Mormon.
Parker and Stone grew up in Colorado and had many Mormon acquaintances. Parker's ex-girlfriend was a Mormon and she invited him to her family home evening. Through this experience, Parker learned more about the religion and did research for his film Orgazmo , in which he plays the main Mormon character.
reception
Herald Sun's Cameron Adams considers this episode to be one of the best. Chris Quinn of San Antonio Express-News ranked the episode seventh on his list of "Top 10 Most Offensive South Park Episodes and Therefore, Maybe The Best, List". The episode was used in an exhibit on Mormonism in Popular Culture at Utah Valley State College . It was shown during a lecture given by Professor of Religious Studies, Dennis Potter. The lecture was entitled "The Americanization of Mormonism Reflected in Pop Culture". The operator of the fan website Planearium.de , Janina Himmen, found the presentation of the flashbacks as a musical "entertaining". It struck her that this time around, Trey and Matt are now following a much more straightforward style compared to the early episodes, in which two or three actions per episode are rarely linked. “He speculated that Americans“ probably understand the topic easier than Germans, because Mormons are more widespread there. ”There was mainly a positive response from the fans, but there were a few critical voices. The average rating is 4.2 out of 5 possible points.
Individual evidence
- ↑ http://www.southparkstudios.com/fans/summer-of-south-park/season-7
- ^ A b Trey Parker, Matt Stone. South Park: The Complete Seventh Season: "All About Mormons" [DVD Audio commentary]. Comedy Central.
- Jump up ↑ Mark I. Pinsky: The Gospel according to The Simpsons : Bigger and Possibly Even Better! 2nd edition. Westminster John Knox , Louisville , Kentucky 2007, ISBN 0-664-23160-8 , pp. 280 .
- ↑ Trey Parker and Matt Stone at the fifth Amazing Meeting in January 2007. JREF : Trey Parker & Matt Stone - SouthPark Creators . Vimeo. August 4, 2010. Retrieved January 12, 2011.
- ↑ Cameron Adams: Television . In: Herald Sun , December 29, 2003, p. 87.
- ↑ Chris Quinn: Not Necessarily A Critic: South Park re-elected by a landslide for four more years . In: San Antonio Express-News , Sep 5, 2007, p. 6T.
- ↑ Peggy Fletcher Stack: Once-radical Mormons move to mainstream . In: The Salt Lake Tribune , August 10, 2006.
- ↑ Janina Himmen: 712 - All about Mormons? Mormons are kidding themselves. In: planearium.de. Retrieved August 12, 2018 .