South Park and Global Warming: tonight’s episode, “Terrance and Phillip Behind the Blow” (505)

Tonight’s episode (9:30 on Comedy Central before a Chris Rock special) is one of my favorite non-religious episodes (aside from the exclamation of “Jesus tap-dancing Christ!”). This episode, though it focuses heavily on Terrance and Phillip and their tragic and complicated relationship, is also about a phenomenon quite close to my own heart: global warming….and what a bunch of nonsense it is.

That’s right. I said it. There is no global warming. Sure, excessive carbon is not good for our environment, ozone layer or collective health – I certainly won’t deny that – but the notion that the world’s temperature is increasing in an unnatural way is absurd. In fact, not only have global temperatures been decreasing for a few years now, not only should the earth have warmed up substantially after the mini-ice-age of the 14th-20th centuries, and not only am I always a little cold and appreciative of an extra degree or so, but some NASA scientists have attributed the global rises that were being detected to the sun’s own increase in temperatures (did humans cause that?). Basically, there is no concrete evidence that it is actually humans and their activities that are contributing to the temperature of the earth.

All that said, I am not anti-environment. I recycle. I don’t litter. I drive 55 mph because it’s the optimum speed to conserve gas. I just think that before we go believing every little word that scare-mongers scream at us we should probably ask to see some actual scientific evidence and not just believe it because they say it’s scientific. Let’s question these things a little more thoroughly.

And that brings us to South Park. South Park questions the nonsense spewed at us left and right about global warming and saving the environment. God bless it.

In “Terrance and Phillip Behind the Blow” it’s Earth Day and the crazy Earth Day leaders are psychopaths, blaming everything on the Republicans and murdering people for the sake of their cause. As Stan says, “Environmental activists don’t use logic or reason.” This episode, along with “Manbearpig” in which Al Gore is a raving lunatic trying to prove the existence and danger of a make-believe creature that’s half man, half bear, and half pig (and which we see in Imaginationland), as well as others that refuse to tolerate the nonsense of bullshit environmentalist’ claims, is awesome for its willingness to stand up to the monolith that is the environmental movement. Few people will publicly stand up to the ridicule that is associated with not believing in what everyone tells them is true (like standing up to bunk religious claims when everyone around you is a believer), but Trey Parker, Matt Stone and Michael Crichton are among them.

So when you watch South Park tonight, remember that it’s about more than Terrance and Phillip’s problems with blow.

Do you believe in global warming? What’s your reason why? Do you think I’m a raving lunatic? What do you think about this episode of South Park? Where else does South Park knock global warming?

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