#3 Warm Teats & Tegrity

The recent South Park episode, "Band in China" effectively criticizes censorship in China while also making jabs at the hypocrisy of American companies and corporations that validate and perpetuate the censorship rules to profit from the large Chinese consumer population. The writers did not go after the American government in the same way they did the Chinese government, missing the opportunity to point out ways in which media gets censored in the good ol' U.S of A. I think the difference between criticizing government censorship and corporate censorship within the episode is the motivation behind the criticism. The project of the episode is to draw attention to the ways in which American companies are reacting to Chinese censorship rules rather than comparing the two governments. I think the writers do this successfully throughout the episode with Randy's adventure to China, and Stan's attempt at fame. 

The first example of this happens a minute and a half in, when Randy explains to his family that “Turns out, there’s a lot of people in China. If we can get 2% of that market to buy our weed, we’d make millions of millions of dollars.” When he gets on the flight to go to China, other businessmen and Disney characters start boarding around him and Randy realizes that he isn’t the only one with this idea. The criticisms cut deeper when Randy gets thrown in Chinese prison and meets Pooh and Piglet. In real life Winnie the Pooh is banned in China because people have made side by side comparisons of Pooh to the president of China and he finds it offensive. I think the writers made sure to include Pooh in the episode to show just how ridiculous some of China's censorship rules are. The writers especially lean into their criticism of Disney's business ethics when Mickey Mouse confronts the other characters about badmouthing the Chinese government. This is definitely a judgement about the way Disney controls the actors and actresses opinion's/ opinions that they are allowed to share publicly. Of course it's easy to criticize Chinese political policies when we see Randy being tasered and made to read "I am a proud member of the communist party. The Party is more important than the individual." The jab at American companies comes when Randy asks, "What ever happened to old time values? [...] You have all the connections money can buy. What you don't have is Tegrity." Now the writers are obviously implying that American companies that have sold out don't have integrity, the same way that Randy is using this opportunity to make money himself. Although Randy ends up telling Mickey Mouse that they should tell the Chinese they side with them, Randy's commercial suggest the writers definitely do not condone the actions of the Chinese government. Back at home, Randy feels confident that China now has Tegrity (/integrity) but this is coming from the man who murdered Winnie the Pooh and had a dump truck full of money delivered to his farm so it's hard to believe it's what the writers actually believe.

Another way in which the writers call out exploitative business practices is when the record producer wants to make a biopic for Stan's band, Crimson Dawn. The boys are hoping that the record producer is looking to invest money for them to make an album, but instead he says that there is no money in the music or even tours anymore. The money is in movies. The first problem with the biopic arises when the boys sit down with the record producer to graph out the story of the band. Stan mentions that Kenny learned to play bass by watching Youtube videos of John Lennon and the Dalai Lama. The record producer says that "We don't want to go there... Talking about the Dalai Lama doesn't go over well with the Chinese." He goes on to explain that for the movie to really make money "we need to make sure it clears the Chinese censors, you know?" The boys are unsure about it, but they are told that, "you gotta lower your ideals of freedom if you want to suck on the warm teat of China." The writers spare absolutely no uncertainty in their criticisms on the way the American entertainment industry bends to the Chinese in order to rake in the profits. This is apparent again when the boys are shooting the movie and Jimmy says that he thinks he's homosexual and addicted to cocaine. His friends reply by saying that it's ok and that he can just get a liver transplant. The producer cuts the scene and tells them that homosexuality and organ transplants are not okay to talk about if they want to appeal to the Chinese censors. The irony in all of this is that Jimmy's comment about having a cocaine problem is the least concerning part to the producer. In the end, the writers wind up a sucker punch with Stan's final stand against the producer. He says "I can't sell my soul like this. I want to get away from the farm more than anything but it's not worth living in a world where China controls my country's art... Anyone who would betray their ideals just to make money in China isn't worth a lick of spit."