Recipes For Resentment

Carve the following statement in a block of granite and display it where everyone can see; underground material belongs underground. When it becomes mainstream, it betrays its own nature, and is reduced to a disposable pretense.

Creating transgressive, uncommon material, particularly “shock humor” that resonates with the public, requires genuine hatred. Hatred for prevailing social norms, specific public figures, or shopworn shibboleths and stereotypes. The best satire comes from people who show the world the right way to hate, using clever arguments and humor.

For the nineteen years that my Bands I Useta Like strip was published, one of the biggest compliments I received from readers was that I helped them understand why they hated something. Usually it’s something they already didn’t fancy, or had a bad feeling about. Often I’m the only one who criticized the subject, which means the reader felt less alone in their opinions.

That last statement is key. Material that the mainstream considers “shocking” often reveals latent truths about our lives, and how we live them. When the mainstream does its thing, and makes moves to quell material it deems as shocking, we feel as though our lives have been judged, and that we’ve somehow “done wrong” by simply enjoying or identifying with it.

In the late 1990’s, we could be forgiven for thinking Twister, Face/Off and Independence Day were great movies. I have fond memories of seeing them after work, with friends from Media Play. By the year 2000, it seemed like everyone had all three on VHS. I don’t recall anyone ever watching them, but there they were, proudly displayed next to the “entertainment center” in every apartment, alongside Men In Black, another popcorn movie that everyone considered brilliant. At the time, all four films were considered mainstream. All four feature mega-watt celebrity casts, and directors you can probably name off the top of your head, regardless of what their current-day reputation might be. (Jan De Bont, John Woo, Roland Emmerich, and Barry Sonnenfeld. Told ya.) Each movie has one or more sequels (Face/Off‘s is reportedly on the way).

Let’s say you think those movies are still brilliant, in the year 2025. Are you judging them on their own merits, or by your positive memories of experiencing them, in their heyday? When was the last time you watched them? When and if you did, were you objective about them, or nostalgic?

Comedians Jim Norton and Patrice O’Neal once wove magic on the Opie & Anthony radio show, arguing about Face/Off. Norton had seen it more recently, while O’Neal seemed to be speaking from memory of its original release. The clip is so hilarious, even sixteen years later, that I can be forgiven for sidelining this article by linking it for you. (It won’t embed for some inexplicable reason.)

If you hunt, you can find the same crew arguing about Twister, Independence Day and Men In Black. Patrice died in late 2011 from complications after a stroke, which I would typically label as unfortunate, but if I’m being honest, was the best thing possible for his career. Let me elaborate on that “shocking” statement with a rundown of all relevant persons, all of whom were entertaining millions of listeners at their peak.

• Gregg “Opie” Hughes: fired from Sirius XM after snapping phone pics of a fellow employee on a company toilet. Now live-streams alone for >100 viewers in his Manhattan penthouse at the crack of dawn, raving angrily about his seething animosity for his “racist” ex-cohost…
• Anthony Cumia: Fired (and banned) from Sirius XM for a viral tirade on social media following a late night random assault by a black woman in Times Square. Ran his own independent subscription-based network for ten years, before selling it to Gavin McInnes. Earlier this year, he rejoined terrestrial radio with his own show, which went on to syndication after a mere 48 hours.
• Jim Norton: suffered though an uneasy partnership with Opie after Cumia’s dismissal, disappointing fans who’d long wished for an “Ant & Jimmy” show. Had a minor role in an oft-maligned Scorsese film, and a briefly-popular podcast as his character Chip. (We won’t mention the cartoon here.) Went on to marry a dude who dresses up like a woman, unwittingly spooking a great deal of his fans in the process. Now competing with Joe Rogan for the honor of “funniest guy who’s unfunny on stage”.
• Louis CK: (included because I’m being pedantic) once one of the most respected comedians in the world, swung low after jacking off in front of two mystery females who consented, then later took a payout to spill the beans and immolate his livelihood during the “#MeToo” witch hunts. Attempted to donate ONE MILLION DOLLARS to help re-elect senile child molester Joe Biden, but was refused, because his reputation is too toxic even for Democrats.

Patrice O’Neal could not exist in 2025. The closest we get to O’Neal’s brutal honesty and humor is Katt Williams, and look at how he’s typically treated by the mainstream media. Honesty and the mainstream do not mix. Patrice O’Neal was lectured constantly, by practically everyone in his life, that he’d be better off if he played the industry’s game, and subjugated his true self. Instead, he stayed true to himself, often to his detriment, to the bitter end.

That’s why Patrice is better off dead. He can’t be coerced, manipulated, or forced into compromise for the sake of a starring role on some sitcom or movie that’ll be forgotten in six months. He can’t be made to apologize for anything, even if he happened to be wrong. Since he’s dead, there’s no looming threat of him contradicting himself, or being co-opted by forces that seek to control his energy. His words stand eternally, as he intended them.

Sure, the man himself is regrettably absent from our material world, and can’t reap the rewards of his considerable efforts. But at the same time, here we are loving his comedy almost two decades after his tragic passing. Do you honestly believe that would be the case if O’Neal had recanted, or backtracked before he died?

I doubt it.

Look at it this way. Are you aware of the long-running animated television program South Park? Presuming that you are, were you aware of it in 2005? If so, what was your overall opinion of the show in 2005, and does it differ from your opinion of it now?

If so, what changed? Was it something related to the quality of the program, or something regarding the creators behind the scenes? Or both?

Okay, it’s no secret that I’ve never cared for South Park. I did enjoy and do defend the 1999 animated feature, and I freely admit that the long-running series has had stellar and magnificent highlights, primarily in its first ten years. But as far as creators Parker and Stone go, I had them pegged as Hollywood phonies from the jump, when one of them walked the red carpet in Jennifer Lopez’s dress. There’s an underlying smarminess in literally every word Trey Parker speaks that makes his regular voice excruciating to listen to. Don’t get me wrong, they both have talent as voices and writers, but they also seem to fixate on feces and ass-rape. That wouldn’t bother me a fraction as much if South Park had never found mainstream acceptance.

If South Park was truly “underground”, I wouldn’t care how far it pushed the envelope of filth. But we’re talking about an IP worth billions at this point; a legacy TV show, games, and an ocean of branded merch in the form of clothes, stickers, keychains, and other plastic junk. That’s the problem; the more a franchise is worth, the more it has to lose. The more for which it can be sued.

So when your IP’s creators are a pair of Colorado airheads spoiled rotten by Hollywood excess, and your multi-national corporation’s bottom line is threatened, you can make those once-rebellious-and-edgy creators do whatever you want. Even contradict their own personal beliefs.

In order to secure billion-dollar paychecks from Paramount, Parker and Stone agreed to quit doing any jokes about Muslims. That’s why there is no material about Gaza in the current season, which psychotically focuses on how Trump looks gross naked and has a tiny penis. And Parker and Stone have to pretend in public like this embarrassing boomer-tier monstrosity of a sitcom is as good as it ever was, to save face. Gotta move those Funko Pops!

South Park pulled a bait-and-switch back in 2010 with a two-part episode, based around the threat of a depiction of Mohammed. The image itself was replaced by a message from Parker and Stone, claiming that Comedy Central pressured them to censor the depiction, after the creators received death threats from Valerie Jarrett “Revolution Muslim”. Good luck finding these banned episodes as long as Paramount owns the show.

Funny thing; four years earlier, under a shall-we-say completely different presidential administration, South Park did the same thing.

In the week prior to the episode’s airing, the teaser advertisement referenced the situation: “Will television executives take a stand for free speech? Or will Comedy Central puss out?” Comedy Central’s decision to censor the image was due to concerns for public safety. The network issued a short statement the day following the episode’s airing: “In light of recent world events, we feel we made the right decision.” “Cartoon Wars” followed only weeks after another religious run-in with the network, in which Comedy Central pulled a rerun of the season nine episode “Trapped in the Closet” due its apparent mocking of Scientology. Stone publicly criticized Comedy Central executive Doug Herzog’s decision as “cowardly” in Daily Variety.

Stone referred to the episode’s censorship as “really, beyond creatively disappointing […] because we thought we could do something really important.”^[2]

I felt like I was doing something important too, when I animated Mohammed Meets A Nauseated Shark in 2010 for “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day”. I kind of thought we were all on the same page, as far as free speech and the idea that a religion that permits killing over a cartoon is completely incompatible with civilized society. But I never expected corpo-political manipulation. I’m naive that way, in that I think that people who make cartoons for TV are in it for the art form, first and foremost.

Again; think about the difference those four years made. 2006, Bush was president; 2010 it was Obama, who literally had fucking Kumar as a speechwriter. Not to mention, actual seditious Muslims in his fucking cabinet. So instead of “we might get threatened” in 2006, it’s actual threats in 2010, from an entity in New York founded by American Muslims that existed for three years and totally didn’t glow in the dark.

Call me crazy, if you prefer to ignore the eight-year blowjob that Hollywood and most of America gave Obama for his two terms. The Democrats got their tendrils so deep into the entertainment industry that late-night talk shows became pure propaganda (after all, Obama made it legal). Hence the reason literally no mainstream program made sport of Joe Biden or Kamala Harris, despite their visible status as utter laughingstocks. Doing so would anger their Democrat masters, and threaten their cushy Hollywood lifestyle.

Hey man, listen, no sour grapes here; if you can find massive worldwide success with an underground cartoon, more power to you. But historically that success comes at the cost of your integrity and creative freedom. And if you push the envelope regarding politics and/or religion, you set a bar that your public will expect you to raise consistently for as long as you live. Clearly Parker and Stone once intended to expose the complete absurdity of Islam, as they had previously with the Church of Scientology.

But there’s too much money in mediocrity, and playing it safe. Even though it’s a guaranteed recipe for resentment.