When does satire go too far?

It’s interesting that Isaac Hayes has decided he can’t be part of South Park anymore after the show skewered something a little too close to home for him: Scientology. He was criticized for not taking a stand for religious intolerance sooner since the show has bashed just about every other religion up till now. That bit of logic and sensibility comes from the show’s creators and I have to say that I agree with them, at least on that front. I’m glad that he’s following his convictions, but it seems a little late to me.

Speaking of satire, I’ve always laughed about the Christianizing of everyday items like breath mints and sandals but I don’t know how to respond to the video I watched today. It was done by a Christian who is going overboard to make a point. He’s designed this to be funny, but I’m finding it pretty offensive. Yeah, I can see how some Christian marketing can make you want to wretch and I can see where it would push you to take a stand for things that are holy, but this seems to go a little too far.

Perhaps it’s good that it makes me uncomfortable, but I think these jokes are as exploitive as the marketing of which it’s making light.

I think if we ever get to the point that we can’t laugh at ourselves or life, then it’s a sad place to be. However, I think standards, character and respect should trump having a good time any day and some things will never be funny.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. Watch the video and post a comment if you have a minute.

[POST SCRIPT] I should link to the article that appeared in an email this morning that got me thinking about this. Here it is.

technorati tags: satire, southpark, isaachayes, mcpassion, God

Popularity: 12% [?]

Recently got a couple backorders of MAKE and saw the very informative article on circuit bending in Vol. 04.

I’ve been wanting to try this out for awhile, but never got around to really learning much about it. In fact, I’ve been saving this Staples Easy Button for just this kind of project.

I cracked open the case before I realized that it conveniently unscrews under the little rubber feet on the bottom. I was able to get a couple odd noises from it, but nothing too exciting. I decided to take the sounds it did generate and make a little song. Click here to listen.

It has a red LED above the word “easy” and it lights when a sound is played. The red button replaces the normal button push and plays the sound as normal. The black button is designed to play the sound at a lower pitch, but it also buzzes the first time you play it after hitting the red one. Sweet!

I also wired a 1/4 phone plug jack on the side for convenient studio recording. Probably won’t have much use to use this live. Good skill building exercise, though. Feel free to comment.

Popularity: 22% [?]

Recently got a couple backorders of MAKE and saw the very informative article on circuit bending in Vol. 04.

I’ve been wanting to try this out for awhile, but never got around to really learning much about it. In fact, I’ve been saving this Staples Easy Button for just this kind of project.

I cracked open the case before I realized that it conveniently unscrews under the little rubber feet on the bottom. I was able to get a couple odd noises from it, but nothing too exciting. I decided to take the sounds it did generate and make a little song. Click here to listen.

It has a red LED above the word “easy” and it lights when a sound is played. The red button replaces the normal button push and plays the sound as normal. The black button is designed to play the sound at a lower pitch, but it also buzzes the first time you play it after hitting the red one. Sweet!

I also wired a 1/4 phone plug jack on the side for convenient studio recording. Probably won’t have much use to use this live. Good skill building exercise, though. Feel free to comment.

Popularity: 10% [?]