Now ain't THAT a sentence-and-a-half!

It was a clear cut case that the Oscars are going all out to attack the Canadians!

However, satire is difficult to write anyway, and to put it to music is even more difficult. That is why getting nominated is an accomplishment. Comedy is HARD.

Further, even though there were funnier songs in the movie than "Blame Canada", most of them were parodies of other popular disney/broadway songs and I am sure that the nominating committee wished to sidestep that problem.

The songs worked very well in the movie, and that is why they deserved a nomination. Whether you think that they are just a collection of dirty words or not they did accomplish their purpose, supporting the film. This is more than can be said of many nominated songs which seem to be tacked on for the purpose of selling singles.

As for Matt and Trey being geniuses, the matter is irrelevant. If you find them funny then they are. If you don’t, then they are a waste of flesh. The one of the main problems with satire is that it either Hits or Misses with little inbetween.

Wedge -- nothing really to add about Mr. Shaiman that you didn't already. Even if you don't care for Parker & Stone, anyone really LISTENING to the SOUTH PARK underscore can't deny what a mammoth and subtle job Shaiman did. Easily the best work he's done in films, and one of the few scores of his I own (well, the song parts anyway, no promo as yet ... hint hint) -- I loved HEART AND SOULS, partly because the film moved the hell out of me, and I'm curious to own THE AMERICAN PRESIDENT, based on how it sounded in the SAVING PRIVATE RYAN trailer. He's unquestionably a splendid scorer, it's just that he tends work in GENRES of scores I don't want to listen to much. Randy Edelman is another one like that -- can't argue with his dramatic choices, just don't much care about them outside of their context. Hell, James Horner is like that to me most of the time now, and for a LONG time I would buy ANYTHING he did. I got burned a lot ...

Shaiman and Collins are apples and oranges (coconuts and durians? whatever metaphor you prefer.) It's not weird to me that "Blame Canada" lost the Oscar, I knew Collins would win as soon as I saw TARZAN -- the Academy LOVES to honor pop stars when they get a chance at it, and they'll usually pick a Disney song if they get a chance; it must vex Michael Jackson and Madonna, for example, that they don't have a Best Song Oscar yet (and probably never will). No, what's weird to me is that of all the songs on the soundtrack, "Blame Canada" was the one they picked to nominate -- I didn't expect it to be "Uncle F*cka," but I DID think it might be "Up There," since the Academy always loves a ballad, and as I remember there aren't even any dirty words in it. I also adored "What Would Brian Boitano Do," especially that insane bit where he's breathing fire.

Alas, "Kyle's Mom's A Bitch" was probably never eligible, since the first version aired on the original show.

Shaiman did an absolutely amazing job of incorporating the songs' themes into the overall score. Among many others, you have the "Mountain Town" theme, the "Resistance" theme, the "Up There" theme for Satan, and, my favorite, the jaunty little "Boitano" motif that seems to me to represent the bravery of the little boys themselves. (sigh) at least Shaiman has a Song nomination to console himself that he did something very good here. I've said it before: if SOUTH PARK had been nominated for Best Score, I really think it WOULD have won -- and that's a big part of the reason they disqualified it. It reminds me of when Roddy McDowall got Rodney Dangerfield barred from joining the Academy. (I read that in a profile of Dangerfield, don't know how true it is, but it had something to do with Warners possibly mounting a campaign to get him an Oscar nomination for his cameo in NATURAL BORN KILLERS, which was a ridiculous idea in the first place.)

To say something about Trey Parker, who is, by the way, a classically trained musician: It's quite obvious from watching his first feature CANNIBAL: THE MUSICAL that he is EXTREMELY familiar with the musical theater tradition, and just enjoys tweaking it to match his own perverse sensibility. CANNIBAL, by the way, is probably the sweetheartedest movie ever made about the true 19th century story of Alferd [sic] Packer and all those guys he had to kill and eat to survive in the mountains.

(Hmm, there was a similar moment in SOUTH PARK: "What ARE you guys, DIABETIC or something?")

TARZAN STILL RULES MAJOR OVER SOUTH PARK. SP is just hella funny.