Hippy Infestation

This past week on Wednesday I was watching an episode of South Park called Die, Hippy Die, were the plot line was about a hippy infestation in South Park, Vermont. The hippies invading South Park Vermont then once feeling comfortable in the town, they decided to hold a music festival to raise awareness about the horrible aspects of large corporations. I find it funny how people hold a music festival to solve a problem, and all they are doing is sitting on their butt say “let them hear you over there in Washington”. They think they are accomplishing something by smoking pot and jamming. The writers based there idea for this episode off of popular music festivals such as Burning Man and Bonnaroo. I watch this episode I was cracking up because it was exactly like Bonnaroo I attended last summer. The aspect of the hippy festival that I find so funny was how realistic the festival was to a real one. The town of South Park was all excited and for the festival, until they saw what type of people attended the concert and how they never leave because their music is just one continuous jam. I experienced this same switch of feels towards the festival when I ate at the same diner before and after Bonnaroo. The waitress we talked to before was excited about how much business they were getting since they were right on the highway heading to Bonaroo. By the time we traveled back the waitresses all looked very tired and almost pissed off. Our waitress was complaining about how she just wanted the festival to end and for things to get back normal. She was complaining about how no one was tipping because, according to her, they spent all their money on drugs. One of the funniest parts of the episode was when Carman and two others try to get into the front of the stage to put on a Creed CD to disperse the hippies and get them out of South Park. If you have ever been to a concert where there are estimated 70,000 attendees, you would know it is an impossible task to make it from the back all they to the stage. In order to accomplish the task, they build a tank with a drill in front to take the hippies out and drill their way to the front. The whole episode is just terrible funny because although they are bashing hippies, they have the personality of a hippy down to the t. There have been many shows were I wish I could drill my way to the front, but instead friends and I grab hands and push our way up until attendees just won’t let us threw anymore. I also love how the town people decided to put a stop to the “Phish” band jamming by putting in a Creed album. If there is one way to disperse hippies bad music will definitely do it.

The Gutless Wonder

I believe Vonnegut inserted a segment of Trout's book, The Gutless Wonder, to show satire in American values. Vonnegut is showing the futility of humans. The robots in The Gutless Wonder is not accepted in the human society because of the horrible breath they have. Once the bad breath is treated, humans accept them. It is shocking that the humans accept the robots because the robots are conducting very violent actions. The robots drop burning gasoline on the humans from airplanes not knowing the harm they are inflecting on the humans. The robots do not the harm they are causing because they have no conscience. The humans find this to be okay because the robots resemble humans and conduct humanly actions. The humans are willing to accept the robots into their society, and ignore their acts of violence as long as they have acceptable social manners.

Humorous or Not

When comparing the reading against the movie of the Box Hill scene from Emma, I found the movie to be funnier. I really did not find either to be hysterically funny because I did not find humor in the satire. The movie was a little funnier since it was easier to follow along because of the way the actors presented this scene. The body language and tone of the voice of the actors made the scene more entertaining. I did not find the book to be humorous because I feel the book’s word choice was confusing and dull because of the 1800 language used. Although the movie uses the same language, it was easier to follow because of the visual picture.
I feel Hobbes quote best describes the Box Hill scene. Even after reading just this one chapter out of the book, we see Emma craves to be the center of attention at all times. This characteristic of Emma is shown when Miss Bates tries to joke at her own dullness while playing the game Frank suggests. As the spotlight drifts from Emma to Miss Bates, Emma snatches the spot light back by jokingly attacking Miss Bates about the difficulty Miss Bates will have limiting her dullness statements to only three. Miss Bates does not get anger with Emma for saying this, but she becomes embarrassed. I feel Hobbes quote best describes this scene. His quote begins by stating “keep themselves in their own favour by observing the imperfections of other men...” This best describes the scene because Emma cuts down Miss Bates for her own pleasure. Hobbes quote continues saying “…And therefore laughter at the defects of others is a sign of pusillanimity,” which clearly describes Emma. Emma believes it is funny to point out the obvious flaw in Miss Bate, even though no one else did. I believe that the pleasure Emma receives from cutting Miss Bates down shows her personal discomfort with herself.