#also jumped at the opportunity to talk about what a piece of shit mel gibson is lmao

[traitor-boyfriend]

How do you feel about the episode Passion of the Jew? Also- Do you think Kyle is likely to experience doubt in the future about his religion?

personally i think it’s one of the best episodes to point to if you want to see south park actually punching up for a change and my favorite example of them eviscerating a celebrity. which, if you aren’t familiar – ‘the passion of the christ’ is mel gibson’s excessively and graphically violent magnum opus about the last 12 hours of christ’s life, and is also horrifically anti-semitic as is mel gibson himself. things i think this episode does very well:

- it’s heartbreaking to watch kyle, who is normally very proud and defensive of his heritage, not only concede to cartman that he was right about jewish people all along but to then go before his congregation and propose that they as jews apologize for the death of jesus. but it illustrates very well how children of marginalized groups internalize stereotypes they see in popular media. the depiction of all jews in ‘the passion’ as having an eager bloodlust for the execution of christ is not only wildly inaccurate (as is most of the movie itself), but given the early 2000s (the movie was made in 2004) saw a significant global resurgence in anti-semitism, it’s downright dangerous. not to mention the physical portrayal of the jews shamelessly utilizes some of the most longstanding and degrading stereotypes

- probably the most overt way they’ve ever used cartman to show how already virulent racists are emboldened and radicalized by subtle anti-semitism and are able to build movements around it, rallying those who are willfully ignorant when it’s disguised as a separate, more altruistic cause; it’s reminiscent of the moral panic among whites of the mid-twentieth century regarding laws against integration and miscegenation and the use of fear to incite hatred

- the (not so) hyperbolic depiction of mel gibson as a deranged masochist is the funniest part of the episode to me. i grew up catholic and have unfortunately seen ‘the passion’ more than i would ever care to have, and i cannot stress how hard i laughed when stan describes it as ‘a snuff film’ b/c he’s not even wrong; i forget the exact number but out of its 2+ hr running time, there’s only something like a collective 16 minutes where there isn’t blood/violence/torture of some kind, and the raw, relentless assault on jesus and the hyperfixation with suffering was the most insidious yet effective way to incite non-practicing or lapsed christians to rededicate their lives to christ purely out of immense guilt. i believe there’s one woman who says exactly that as she walks out of the theater – “it really guilt-trips you into believing.”

- stan’s assertion that people should base their spiritual devotion in the teachings of christ rather than fear and agony over his crucifixtion is imo south park’s most salient commentary on religion and an argument they had made several times before that i don’t think was fully appreciated until this episode

- just. this quote from kyle:

“Oh, dude, I feel so much better about being Jewish now that I see that Mel Gibson is just a big wacko douche!”  

as for the second question, it’s a little bit harder to answer:

- i can definitely see kyle growing up to be secular; kyle is repeatedly shown (despite sometimes falling victim of it) to be skeptical of believing anything he cannot see for himself and his thought process is often very logical and methodical. there’s also been a handful of instances where kyle has renounced his religion both in pursuit of different belief systems as well as abandoning faith in any and all god altogether. i think it’s also aided in part b/c matt stone is non-practicing but considers himself to be culturally and ethnically jewish which is something that could just as easily be applicable to kyle given his personality

- just as easily, i can see kyle growing up to have a healthy devotion to his religion. though it’s never explicitly stated, imo it seems pretty obvious that kyle’s family practices reform judaism and despite the occasion where it’s shown that kyle doesn’t strictly follow common jewish practices (such as keeping kosher), it’s obvious that the basic pillars of jewish belief are extremely important to kyle’s moral center and worldview and is something that is stressed in their household – i can’t list them all off the top of my head, but there are numerous instances where kyle addresses his parents with something akin to “you’ve always taught me that ___ is a basic jewish tenet” or “you always told me that being jewish means ___”. over the course of the show, kyle has gone from being largely ignorant of his family’s beliefs and being embarrassed by being jewish, to now where he is thoroughly knowledgeable of his culture and beliefs; whereas his defensiveness before was founded in shame it has been replaced with deep pride in himself and in his people

if i’m being honest though, despite thinking it makes sense, i don’t particularly enjoy seeing kyle being written as secular – it seems to be the overwhelming consensus on his religious views as he gets older and i think a large part of this is b/c it’s an easy alternative to the challenge that arises in a non-jewish author writing a jewish character. making kyle non-practicing is easy b/c it then requires next to no effort on the writer’s part to do the necessary research to write a well-balanced jewish character when the topic presents itself. it’s a case by case thing, and obviously it isn’t always apparent or easy to parse author’s intent, but it’s something that i’ve observed enough times to confidently say that it – at the very least – plays a factor