Comments on: What Andrew Sullivan doesn’t understand about the MPAA. http://www.comstockfilms.com/blog/tony/2011/03/16/what-andrew-sullivan-doesnt-understand-about-the-mpaa/ Real Talk About Making Real Sex Erotic Documentaries Mon, 28 Mar 2011 18:39:33 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=abc By: tony http://www.comstockfilms.com/blog/tony/2011/03/16/what-andrew-sullivan-doesnt-understand-about-the-mpaa/comment-page-1/#comment-178814 tony Thu, 17 Mar 2011 19:35:00 +0000 http://www.comstockfilms.com/blog/tony/?p=2265#comment-178814 Thanks for the correction, Ryan! I suppose my confusion stems from Parker and Stone pulling a variation of the same stunt with “Orgazmo”, originally rated NC17 by the MPAA, then release on DVD as an “Unrated Special Edition. “Unrated” was in censorious red stamp letters, natch.

So far as I can tell, there is only one version of the South Park Movie, and it is rated R. My bad.

As to the quote marks, I believe the term is air quotes, or scare quote, often used to denote emphasis, figuratively, or in this case, sarcasm. When Parker and Stone release “unrated” DVDs with censor’s style rubber-stamp lettering they are pranking the MPAA, but even more so, they are pranking the faux “were defying the man” aspirations of their credulous fans.

]]> By: Ryan http://www.comstockfilms.com/blog/tony/2011/03/16/what-andrew-sullivan-doesnt-understand-about-the-mpaa/comment-page-1/#comment-178813 Ryan Thu, 17 Mar 2011 18:38:31 +0000 http://www.comstockfilms.com/blog/tony/?p=2265#comment-178813 One tiny niggle.

Your whole post is based on Sullivan posting a memo about Team America: World Police. You use that memo as a springboard for this post…but the memo was actually about South Park. I don’t know if the South Park film was released unrated and all that but I figure your points stand nonetheless, I just had to pick a little nit there :)

One other thing: you put “bold defiance” of trey and matt against the MPAA in quotes. Who are you quoting? Certainly not Sullivan, he never said it. I was unsure if there was a reference I missed somewhere because I’ve never heard Trey and Matt refer to themselves in such a…shall we say, grandiose way?

Otherwise, great post. I’m very curious to see where this little project ends up. Hopefully it ends up educating the public a little more about the rating system (and the people behind it) in this country. See also the documentary This Film is Not Yet Rated.

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