Comm 330: Whitney Houston

Tonight I watched an episode of south park, and it could not have been a more perfect episode that deals with issues that resonate with current events in pop culture. The episode starts out with the boys watching T.V. The news is on and the 2008 primary debates are on between Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama, when all of a sudden “breakings news” interrupts the debates where Britney Spears is caught on camera, camping in Colorado and then caught peeing in the woods. They notice every little thing about Brittney and even point out her weight, zoom in on acne on her face, and then zoom in to show her peeing on a bug. The show then continues on where she ends up staying in south park and if a photo of her is released to the media, the person who takes the photo will receive a hundred thousand dollars. The boys attempt to get a picture, but when they get inside they see a sad Britney who just wants to be left alone from the media, free of ridicule. While the boys attempt to take a picture, Britney takes a shot gun and shoots herself in the face, blowing half her face off. She’s rushed to the hospital and the media makes it seem as if she was going for a drastic new look, and zoom in on a scar under breast instead of her half blown off face, that they assume is scar because of breast implants. This type of satirical comedy continues throughout the show. As the episode progresses, the boys try to free Spears of the media by taking her to the North Pole. The adults and media employees explain to them that just like back in the day when people would glorify a beautiful girl, give her jewels, and the sacrifice her, America does the same thing “but through pictures, and T.V.” basically saying we like to kill off our celebrities. Now, this episode had a lot of themes of about the effects of the media, but I could not help but think about Whitney Houston after watching this. We glorified this woman, made her a rock star, and then when her life began to go in shambles the media ridiculed her, and could not get enough of Houston destroying her life. Just like in the episode where Spears dies, and soon glorified for being a pop icon, this after making her out to be this horrible individual, we are doing exactly the same thing with Whitney Houston. Whitney Houston was phenomenal, one of the most beautiful and talented performers/ vocalists in generations, but as in South Park, it was the media that made her, and the media that destroyed her and it is the media that seems to forget they were the ones who contributed to her death, and we the people, those who consumed the media, feed into it, and now feed into glorifying her again.