May 28, 2003 10:40pm CDT

Well, with the absence of new South Park episodes, I think it's safe to say that the biggest news in MattnTrey land is the closing of DTISFU. No one can deny that Melissa, Jennifer & Lori created and maintained the most comprehensive website dedicated to Matt Stone & Trey Parker. They have removed all their material, but you can read their farewells at the site.

From the "It's Not All Fart Jokes" file: Australian director Abe Forsythe tells the Sydney Morning Herald how South Park inspired his film Ned:

Inspired by comedic genius Steve Martin, but praising South Park as "the best show the world's ever created", Forsythe was influenced by the boundless kookiness of its creators when penning the script for Ned.

"The thing I love about South Park is they just go completely out there with their jokes, they don't hold back for anyone or anything," he said. "But it's grounded in a really nice sort of sweet truth, it's a really effective way of getting a message across."

South Park's puerile humour provides Forsythe with hours of amusement. "It's not that I find toilet humour funny," he explained. "They'll do a fart joke and it's not funny, you don't laugh, but they keep pushing it and you get to the point where you've got to admire what they're doing. They just don't care, they're just throwing it all out there and that's what I really like."

Perhaps the weirdest cover in the whole book is the Louvin Brothers' 1959 entry, "Satan Is Real." Well, maybe he is, but he looks incredibly fake as he grins out at us from this cardboard classic -- he sort of resembles the devilish figure one can see now and then on the deliberately amateurish cartoon, "South Park."

For Van Sant, the most significant element in Moore's movie was the commentary of South Park co-creator Matt Stone, who said that killers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were tormented teens, who had no sense of future of any kind and decided to end their lives while taking others.

And even if the leering script wears thin, the brilliant parody score by Marc Shaiman (the South Park movie) turns every groaner into a major chord.

And so, year after year, ad hominem attacks are launched — Chomsky's character has been assassinated more times than Kenny has died on South Park — and aspersions are cast on his motivations.

Girly says:
Well folks, I can't say that I really liked this one that much. It was one of those shows where the stuff I liked, I really really liked, but the rest just fell flat for me. There were a lot of good jokes in there, but the whole thing just didn't play well together. It felt like it needed more work/time. Kyle's dad losing their house was funny especially with him trying to make moving Kyle's decision. The indians, excuse me, Native Americans, laughing in the comedy club (and in the rest of the show for that matter) was pretty lame. I really thought the adults winning the money to save the town and then losing it was hilarious. The "Love is a Battlefield" entrance of the adults was not funny to me, although I think it should have been for some reason. I also don't like how angry Stan, and especially Kyle, have been lately. While South Park has thumbed it's nose at many social ideals and traditions in the past, it never really came off as cynical to me before. There have been a few shows in this batch where I feel that the childishness of the characters were forgotten. But back to the show at hand, I will close this rather lengthy review on a positive note: I thought the part with rubbing the Chinese on the blankets and the white man's cure of Sprite, chicken noodle soup, and Dayquil was perfect, laugh-out-loud funny moments. That is why I love South Park. Even the not-so-great shows can still be damn funny.

Zuzu says:
Damn, woman ... long-winded much? I kid, I kid! I thought it was a good, solid episode, but not outstanding. I wondered why breayle was talking about "Love is a Battlefield" last week before the episode. She was like, "Trey keeps singing it around the office" or something. So I laughed my ass off at that part. Their voices for the Chinese people always remind me of Short Round from Temple of Doom.

Say what you like about the kid's tenuous grasp of grammatical punctuation, the breadth and reach of his intended subject matter puts most South Park watching kids to shame.

The first leg of the Seventh Season has come to an end. A new episode of South Park will air October 22nd, with seven new episodes following. There will be no new Thanksgiving Special this year, and there is no information on whether there will be a Halloween, or a Christmas Special.

There was one person - man? woman? - who wore a huge hooded orange number that made him/her look like Kenny from South Park