Man, does this bring back memories. I met Herve Villechiaze back in the 80’s. It’s not nice to speak ill of the dead but I can tell you that the diminutive co-star of Fantasy Island had a well deserved reputation as an asshole. I knew a limo driver who told me that he hated him and so did all the other drivers. Why? Because Villechaize didn’t just sit in the seat and allow himself to be transported wherever. No, he had to stand up and put his hands on the glass, and talk to the drivers. This wasn’t even safe and the drivers used to tell him that. But Villechiaze liked to antagonize people.

Where I met him was a law office where I worked. I was just asked to bring a file in and who should be in the office but Villechiaze and his then-wife. Why they were together in a divorce lawyer’s office, I had no idea then nor do I know now. Separately, it would have made perfect sense for them to visit a lawyer but this was the first and last time that I ever saw a married couple visit a divorce lawyer together. But then again, this guy was an oddball.

Anyhow, Fantasy Island was on the air for seven years. It wrapped in 1984. Herve Villechiaze wrapped a year early in 1983 because they didn’t want to give him the money he demanded. Ten years later, Villechiaze was despondent over health problems and died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. But now his image is back in a South Park parody of Donald Trump and J.D. Vance.

Here’s the entire episode including references to ICE recruiting, Kristi Noem killing dogs, goings on at the *spa* at Mar-a-Lago and numerous other things. Trump will go apeshit when he sees this. Oh well. The culture war is raging and South Park decided to put itself into the vanguard of the attack.

I have a feeling it’s going to be a long and great season for South Park. They’re putting it all on the line and after 27 years and with a five-year contract recently inked, they can afford to. Or, will Trump find a way to get back at them? Because you know his fee fees will be hurt and he’s going to be hell bent on revenge.

I guess we are going to find out. Trump may have shut down Stephen Colbert but he can only ask CBS for so many pounds of flesh, I would imagine. And there was a rumor that Jimmy Kimmel’s last year would be this one. But that was before the Colbert business happened. Maybe Kimmel won’t bow out because of the controversy.

But even if Kimmel would, there are still plenty of people who will not go along with Trump. So would ABC prefer a docile, boring show that wouldn’t offend Trump? Great, offer the post to Greg Gutfield or some clone of him. I don’t think that’s going to do anybody any good.

My prediction is that we’re going to see a real battle royal over the next few years. Trump is in office yes, but we don’t have to sit here quietly. We can do a lot. And a lot is being done. Peaceful revolution is the best way. As Kennedy said, “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable.” What you’re seeing here is peaceful revolution par excellence.

 

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6 COMMENTS

  2. “Old Corps” jarheads when admiring seeing the gomers getting pounded say “Get Some.” Looks like South Park is channeling that. Dictators HATE being mocked. Drive’s them up the effing wall. In the last ten years I’ve often wished the legendary Mel Brooks was only sixty or even seventy years old and had the literal energy to do a number on Trump. I keep hoping he’ll sketch out ideas for re-creation of a few scenes from Blazing Saddles with Gov. LePetomane made into a caricature of Trump. Then having someone he trusts actually shoot said scenes. Then of course there’s the whole Hitler In Springtime and imagine Brooks’ redoing bits replacing Hitler with Trump!

    Brooks has said in interviews from long ago the way to take down authoritarians is to turn them into a joke. He acknowledged people who would be offended by some of the methods/joke being insensitive to people or groups that have suffered. His attitude was ‘deal with it’ because in the end it was the best and most effective way to both take down people like Trump AND provide closer to those harmed.

    Trump has (and will continue) to serve up chances to mercilessly ridicule him. I say do so any chance we get and it looks like South Park feels the same. They clearly have no f**ks to give and are ‘letting it rip.’ Good for them!

    13

    • If only Matt and Trey hadn’t substituted Mr Garrison for Drumpf back in 2016 (though the origins of that substitution began in September of 2015 and the “President” of Canada in that original episode, “Where My Country Gone,” was actually a parody of Drumpf). Maybe we wouldn’t be dealing with this nightmare that we’ve been subjected to for the past 6 1/2 months (along with the hellscape that was Drumpf’s first misadministration).

      4

  3. The limo driver should have hit the brakes hard.
    After a few times slamming his head into the glass, he’d sit his butt down
    I may have to add Paramount+ to my streaming lineup.
    This may be the best South Park season yet.

    5

    • The bottom line is that the limo driver was terrified of exactly that happening. And he explained it to Villechiaze. But Villechiaze had this fuck you attitude towards everybody. Very unsavory character. And he was no great talent.

      Peter Dinklage from Game of Thrones isn’t just a small person, he actually is a good actor. Villechiaze was a one trick pony and he thought he was some great talent. The producers of Fantasy Island said, “We’ll survive somehow” and they did.

      1

  4. Much as I hate watching something of this length (or longer) on a fooking laptop screen that was well worth the 20 minutes or so it took. It used to be easy. If you missed something like this when originally broadcast on TV and/or forgot to record it because you had something else going on it would repeat and quickly.

    Now it’s all about streaming. And original content is being produced – for effing streaming! WTF is so awful about wanting to see stuff on a large or largish at least TV screen without having to connect to some streaming service? And pay for a subsciption? After all it seems you still have to put up with ads unless you pay additional for ad free streaming.

    I can’t wait until these younger assholes who are forcing streaming down our throats get to their fifties or older and their eyesight starts to go. I think they’ve already experienced some of aging because it wasn’t that long ago it was all about EVERYTHING including video content on a freaking smartphone. Talk about a tiny screen. Even through my 20s I had better than so-called ‘perfect’ (20-20) vision. Even the eye docs involved in a flight physical I had at age 26 were stunned at my visual acuity. Of course this was four decades ago before even bag or “brick” phones were invented, much less small cell phones and then smart phones. But back then I’m sure I’d have had no problem clearly seeing video on a smart phone.

    I wonder, is the fact we now see more focus on viewing on computer screens a result of the crowd that emphasized being able to view video on cell phones got older and started needing something larger? Anyway the emphasis on making content that’s specifically for streaming and computers with TV viewing as an afterthought pisses me the hell off. Especially since I can’t pay for a gaggle of streaming services.

    2

    • Damn straight skippy! 100% agree. It’s part of becoming invisible I guess and at 77, I’m almost an afterthought to those 20 something engineering and marketing geniuses who are running things “nowadays”.

      2

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