This Is What Scientologists Actually Believe

Meghan Luther

WRTG 3020

July 28, 2010

Rhetorical Analysis Draft 2

This is What Scientologists Actually Believe

The popular television show South Park has been making fun of society for over a decade. This raunchy adult cartoon has pushed the boundaries of the social norms even for today's standards. It has gone so far as to exhibit racial stereotypes, make fun of the media and politics, and graphically show blood and gore. But how far can the shows creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, really go? Some believe that making fun of specific religious beliefs is where the line gets crossed. In South Park's ninth season in operation, they aired an episode called “Trapped in the Closet” which exposed the religion of

Scientology and told viewers what it was all about. It caused a massive amount of uproar and resulted in a law suit plus the loss of one of the most beloved characters on the show, Chef, voiced by Isaac

Hayes. Hayes was a scientologist and said it was going ”too far to make fun of people's religious beliefs.” However, even though the episode framed Scientology to be foolish and ridiculous- the facts given on the show about the religion were all true. Parker and Stone argued that they weren't doing anything wrong by exposing the truth. The episode was nominated for an Emmy Award and was featured among Comedy Central's list of "10 South Parks That Changed The World." However, the massive amounts of attention and controversy the show gained and through their use of comic, burlesque, and satire framing they may have been shaping the views of their audiences all over the world.

This particular episode of South Park was so intriguing to people because it took the risk and crossed the boundaries of being socially acceptable. In the media today, many taboo jokes include those regarding race, culture, and religion. However this has never stopped Parker and Stone from crossing these boundaries hundreds of times. The episode in question, shows Scientology leaders hailing Stan,

“one of the show's four devilish fourth graders,” as a savior. The leaders sit Stan down and ask him if he is ready to learn the secrets of Scientology. As they are explaining the history of the church, it is portrayed with ridiculous cartoon drawings and over the top satire. The leaders are telling Stan what

Scientology is all about, saying things like, “you see Stan, there is a reason for people feeling sad and depressed... an alien reason... it all began 75 million years ago. Back then there was a galactic federation of planets which was ruled over by the evil lord Xenu. Xenu thought his galaxy was over populated so he rounded up countless aliens from all different planets and then had those aliens frozen.” It is important to note that while the animation is going on, there are flashing letters across the screen stating “THIS IS WHAT SCIENTOLOGISTS ACTUALLY BELIEVE.” On the official Comedy

Central website for the South Park episode, it is asserted that the section of "Trapped in the Closet" that explains Scientology was not exaggerated: "Nothing about what you see here is exaggerated in the slightest. Seriously." When the truth is exposed through humor, many people become interested in learning more. People are fascinated by the truth and become more interested once they realize what they are seeing is what Scientologists actually believe and not just Parker and Stone making up claims.

The show is famous for satire and according to the Burkean frames “the author takes a position and exaggerates it in order to ridicule and/or discredit it.” This particular episode exhibits the satirical frame because “the deep message is always the opposite of the surface message, and we recognize the difference as sarcasm.” In this episode, the flashing letters across the screen are used as sarcasm to demonstrate just how ridiculous the show's authors deem Scientology to be.

The creators of South Park use many of the Burkean frames in their show in an attempt to frame audiences in viewing Scientology the same way that they do. The first frame that comes to mind is the burlesque frame which “depicts its subjects as a fool, or a situation as foolish, in order to get people to reject him/her/it.” It describes “very despicable, forlorn, and dissipated people by taking a purely external approach.” Because Parker and Stone are not members of the Church of Scientology, their approach to the subject is from an external perspective and is attempting to portray it as foolish. Humor occurs frequently in satire and burlesque and Burke argues “humor is the opposite of the heroic. The heroic promotes acceptance by magnification, making the hero’s character as great as the situation he confronts... but humor reverses the process: it takes up the slack between the momentousness of the situation and the feebleness of those in the situation by dwarfing the situation.” It appears that this is exactly what Trey and Parker were trying to accomplish by using humor in the episode.

Another frame depicted in the Scientology episode is the grotesque frame. It depicts its “subject

[the Scientology leaders] as a freak, to be pities, marveled at, or disgusted by.” What makes this episode fall so perfectly into this category is that it doesn't give any false information. Everything that

Parker and Stone put into the episode was 100% true and the frame states that “anything is grotesque that points out great oxymorons or contradictions in the world without laughing at them or minimizing them.” It also states that people “whose beliefs are completely outside the mainstream may be perceived as grotesque.” Many would believe that actors such as Tom Cruise and Isaac Hayes are portraying extremely grotesque religious believes.

With all of this being said, can humor really change people's minds? In many cases it can, but for some, the answer is a very loud and clear no. For example, Isaac Hayes, the voice of Chef, quit the show saying he “can no longer stomach its take on religion.” In a statement he gave to the New York

Times he said, “there is a place in this world for satire, but there is a time when satire ends and intolerance and bigotry towards religious beliefs of others begins.” The outspoken Scientologist went on to say that “religious beliefs are sacred to people, and at all times should be respected and honored.

As a civil rights activist of the past 40 years, I cannot support a show that disrespects those beliefs and practices.” However, the creators of the show had a different opinion on the issue when then gave a statement to The Associated Press saying “this is 100 percent having to do with his faith in

Scientology... He has no problem, and he's crashed plenty of checks – with our show making fun of

Christians.” Hayes is demonstrating himself to be a man of conviction, or so Leon Festinger, a Stanford University psychologist would deem him to be. Festinger wrote, “a man with conviction is a hard man to change. Tell him you disagree and he turns away. Show him facts or figures and he questions your source. Appeal to logic and he fails to see your point.” The point being, Parker and Stone attempted to use rhetoric devices and humor to speak the truth about Scientology, but they weren't entirely successful. In an article written by Chris Mooney entitles “The Science of Why We Don't Believe

Science” states that “people reject the validity of a scientific source because its conclusion contradicted their deeply held views- and thus the relative risks inherent in each scenario.” It is clear that Hayes only quit the show because he had a deeply held passion and belief for Scientology. There is nothing wrong with this, but Parker and Stone had a good point that it was hypocritical on his part to leave the show because of a joke he found offensive. Parker stated that they “never heard a peep out of Isaac in any way until we did Scientology. He wants a different standard for religions other than his own, and to me, that is where intolerance and bigotry begins.” Hayes had other motivation including “identity affirmation and protecting one's sense of self” which Mooney states makes “us highly resistant to changing our beliefs when the facts say we should.”

Isaac Hayes wasn't the only one who was negatively affected by the airing of the South Park episode. Tom Cruise, a self proclaimed Scientologist voiced his feelings about the show. A blog on hollywoodinterrupted.com reported that “the star threatened to sit out on the publicity for Mission

Impossible 3” which meant “no interviews, no photo-ops, no Oprah couch if 'Trapped in a Closet' aired again on Comedy Central.” Trey Parker and Matt Stone weighed in on the controversy stating, “So,

Scientology, you may have won THIS battle, but the million-year war for the earth has just begun!”

Despite many negative reaction, Parker and Stone were also extremely successful in their mission to use humor to have a strong impact on viewers. The San Francisco Chronicle wrote that

Matt Stone and Trey Parker “probably hit their zenith when they made fun of Tom Cruise and

Scientology.” Also, and article in the Time wrote that “South Park infamously satirized texts by L. Ron

Hubbard available only to Operating Thetans (active members in the Church of Scientology).” If this praise isn't enough TV Guide also ranked the show #17 out of 100 on the 2009 list of “TV's Top 100

Episodes of All Time.”

In conclusion, Matt Parker and Trey Stone attempted to take a comedic approach to expose the truth about the Church of Scientology. It was their goal for their viewers to understand what the religion was really all about, and make fun of its ridiculous claims also. They framed the episode in such a way that depicted Scientology as foolish and grotesque in order to get people to reject the idea.

For the most part, it appearred that they were successful- most of the viewers praised Parker and Stone for their courage in their depiction, yet others such as Isaac Hayes and Tom Cruise were less likely to see the humor in the episode. Through it all, the show gained massive amounts of attention because of all the controversy it stirred up. The use of framing, including comic, burlesque, satirical, and grotesque, was successful in making people believe what they wanted them to about Scientology. Even though the show's satire wasn't entire effective on everybody, it received a greater amount of praise to the small amount of backlash and is still considered one of the most influential episodes of South Park all time.

**Note** I haven't added my citations or Works Cited to my paper yet. I'll be adding that in for Draft 3 but all my quotes have citations.