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Comment by peteretep | Hacker News Reader

There was a time when the fact that they’re Americans would definitely protect their right to do stuff like this, but these days I’d worry that China will invalidate some Ivanka trademarks, and the creators will find themselves under very heavy pressure from above.

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I truly doubt they would cave to any pressure at all.

Those two thrive on this kind of controversy, I can basically picture them sitting back and rubbing their nipples while watching this unfold.

We need more people like Trey Parker and Matt Stone who aren't afraid of starting some controversy to get a conversation started. They choose to do it through cartoons and satire, but I honestly believe they understand our society at a fundamental level.

They're truly geniuses

Completely agree. Despite all the signage of empathy (philanthropy, speeches, etc.) I struggle to think of more “real” people in Hollywood.

You have to give some credit to Viacom, the media company, for allowing the show to air. Viacom owns Comedy Central, MTV, Paramount Pictures, DreamWorks, and CBS among other media properties. They certainly have business interests in China.

I wonder if they were aware of the controversial nature of the episode. I’d bet really money, though, Viacom et. al. wouldn’t hesitate for a second to censor South Park if it starts hurting their bottom line.

Outrage attracts eyeballs. This is good for their bottom line.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/201_(South_Park)

I'm waiting to see if the other shoe will drop or not. The latest numbers about Viacom's revenue by country that I can find are from 2014, where the US and Europe account for 90% of their revenue (https://csimarket.com/stocks/segments_geo.php?code=VIA). Seeing as how Viacom was trying to sell its majority stake in their TV businesses in China earlier this year, maybe they just won't care about blowback from China.

Would be fantastic to see the authority from above try to mix it up with Trey and Matt.

You know... since the precedence has been made a few times now, an American president having an entertainment background... I'm just saying, if they decide to go in as a pres/vice pres duo, I'm not going to instantly ignore them at least.

>We need more people like Trey Parker and Matt Stone who aren't afraid of starting some controversy to get a conversation started.

The part of Parker and Stone worth duplicating is that they they somehow have political opinions orders of magnitude better informed than whatever keeps celebrities and tv/movie writers so goddamn dumb.

They own South Park outright because when it first aired people thought it would flop so they got 100% of the rights to the show.

Hell they even had the episode where they said “shit” uncensored and kept a counter for every time they said it.

If there’s any show that really can do whatever it wants, it’s South Park.

Not really, according to official south park website southpark.cc.com:

SOUTH PARK AND ALL RELATED TITLES, LOGOS AND CHARACTERS ARE TRADEMARKS OF COMEDY PARTNERS.

Wikipedia says it's owned by Viacom - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Park_(franchise)

Maybe there's some nuance in rights vs ownership, idk.

Comedy Partner is a subsidiary of MTV Networks, which itself is a subsidiary of Viacom, so it makes sense I guess, although I still lean towards South Park official website.

actually the shit counter was making fun of the fact they previously had to play a game with their bleepers, who wouldn't come out and say exactly what the swear threshold for an episode was.

From who? Trump?

>will invalidate some Ivanka trademarks

As if several trillion business interests in the US making business with China are not enough to put pressure for this, it has to be Ivanka specifically...

(Kind of how proud Presidents in the past had put e.g. Saudi Arabia at their place, and din't "think of all the money", right?)

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