I missed the 10:30 airing of "South Park" last night. Episode 201. The one where you find out who Cartman's dad truly is. "Oh, no problem, I'll catch it at midnight," I thought to myself. "They always re-air episodes like that." But last night, they did not.
In the 14 years we've been doing South Park we have never done a show that we couldn't stand behind. We delivered our version of the show to Comedy Central and they made a determination to alter the episode. It wasn't some meta-joke on our part. Comedy Central added the bleeps. In fact, Kyle's customary final speech was about intimidation and fear. It didn't mention Muhammad at all but it got bleeped too. We'll be back next week with a whole new show about something completely different and we'll see what happens to it.
The new Nike ad with Tiger Woods staring at the camera while his deceased father Earl Woods speaks has been called many things, but probably most often "creepy." ABC News revealed that at least most of the audio of Earl for the ad came from a 2004 documentary where Earl is talking about his wife and Tiger's mother Kultida "Tida" Woods. The Nike people must have crapped themselves with joy when they found this clip. In concept it is a great idea, right? They get to face the fact that one of their top sponsored athletes has a sex addiction head on because they can bring his father on to say all can be forgiven as long as you learn something. But the problem is they manipulated the original audio to fit this purpose. They wanted it to sound like he was talking to Tiger -- almost reprimanding him. Let's see how they did that. First, listen to both. Here's the original interview clip:
Here's the ad:
The first word in the ad is, "Tiger?" It's a very effective and deceptive tactic. The original did not have that in there because Earl was not talking to Tiger when he recorded it. It was spliced in, probably from somewhere else in the same ABC interview.
Next, where the fuck did those birds in the ad come from? Why did they have to include that? To prove that Tiger is outside? What's even odder is you only hear them for the first half of the ad. By the second half, the birds have shut up.
Now, let's look at the waveforms.
Here's the original: "I am more prone..." And the ad: "Tiger? I am more prone..."
Look at how much time Nike put before the final line: "And did you learn anything?" Speaking slowly is a great way to leave a lasting impression. If you want, listen to the audio of the ad again. Earl takes a breath before each clause, except the one where he says, "I want to find out what your feelings are." Now check out the original, he doesn't just take a breath before that clause, he's gives an "Ah."
So basically, they took Earl's quote out of context. But he's dead, so why would he care?
If Nike had to do an ad, couldn't they have gone this route...hire a John Lennon impersonator to do the voice over forgiving Tiger?
