Humorless.

It's no secret that the American Right has a brick firmly lodged up its collective ass. Judging by the letters written to Salon in response to Heather Havrilesky's interview with Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the left is just as dour, humorless, and hysterical.

Says Jeff Perry: "Actually, [Trey and Mike's] own imagery, which conjures up images of the world as a scene of ongoing prison rape, is probably the best summation of America's place in the world during the W years that we're likely to get."

I've seen the movie and don't remember seeing "ongoing prison rape." At all. But, of course, it never matters in these instances. Remember when Bob Dole was all worked up over Natural Born Killers and it was painfully apparent that the old douche hadn't seen a second of it? Yeah, exactly. Back then, I was convinced that that was the kind of reactionary bullshit that would only come from the right. sigh.

Of course, the really obnoxious stuff comes from our friends across the pond. Keira Holland writes: "Have these wankers ever actually traveled outside of the U.S.? And I don't mean one of those summer backpacking tours through Europe on the college gradution-present Euro-pass, where you stay at youth hostels with other young, spoiled Americans and 'do' each city in a day or two." Um, what does this have to do with anything? Does that mean anyone who hasn't extensively traveled in Europe isn't allowed to form political opinions and/or make films? And while we're at it, Keira have you traveled in the U.S.? And not just New York City and California. I'm talking New Hampshire, Utah, and Mississippi. No? Shut the fuck up.

And best of the best, Dublin's Michael Lunny weighs in with this enlightening bit: "Unfortunately the philosophical argument that Parker and Stone feel is advanced by TA:WP (dicks and assholes) is at radical variance with the current state of the world. Powerful and ignorant dicks (let's say the current U.S. administration and its foreign lapdogs) have done and may (shudder) continue to do more harm to the world than assholes (Osama and buddies, Saddam, Kim Il Sung) ever have done or could ever do." This is so sadly bankrupt and toxic that I'm not going there.

Now, I have my own issue with Trey and Matt. I hate this "don't vote" crap that they're pulling. I see where they're coming from (i.e. P. Diddy's retarded Vote or Die campaign, MTV asking us to listen to Xtina while she talks about the importance of voting based on the candidates' attitudes towards sex ed), but as far as I'm concerned there is shame in not voting. Of course it's retarded to base your politics on an MTV News brief with Sway or some shit you read in Rolling Stone. But that's not an excuse to encourage kids to be lazy and to wallow in their ignorance. So, Matt and Trey (on this issue): Shut the fuck up. But keep making your super-awesome movies that piss off both extremes.

(See also: this essay posted today at Fagistan.)