Rape is Never Funny

Let me make that clear right now. Rape is never funny. Even when it's Steven Spielberg and George Lucas raping Indiana Jones. I originally started this blog to protest what was done to the good name of Indiana Jones, then never got around to writing the post. I want to rectify that now. 

With a nod to Bill Simmons, I recently added Indy 4 to my list of movies that never happened, right beneath Star Wars Episodes 1 & 2. George Lucas (The Ewok Adventure), Steven Spielberg (Jurassic Park II), and Harrison Ford (What Lies Beneath) would never allow themselves to be involved in something so patently horrible just for another payday. A 60-year-old Indy? Noone's going to believe that? I know for a fact that quality actors like Ray Winstone (Beowulf) and Cate Blanchett (Pushing Tin) would never get wrapped up in such a paper-thin plot driven solely by star power. 

Never happened. 

Now, South Park has brought the whole horrible experience back to painful life with their latest episode, "The China Problem" (it also features an entirely forgetable plotline about Cartman trying to get the invasion plans from the patrons of Chinese restaurant). where the metaphorical rape of the Indy franchise is turned into graphic cartoon rape on the small screen. Trey Parker and Matt Stone have long been two of the most insightful and intelligent gadflys in our popular culture. I still maintain that "Best Friends Forever", their sendup of the Terry Schiavo, was the most incisive take on the whole matter I saw any where: "We're wrong, but for the right reasons. He's right, but for the wrong reasons." I was slow to come around on South Park, but time and again, Parker and Stone have come through.

If you care at all about cinema and the icons of our cinema, put on your extra-thick skin and go watch the new episode.