The hubbub surrounding the movie Bully and the ratings war the Weinstein Company has been championing was absolutely skewered by Matt Parker and Trey Stone in their latest South Park episode, Butterballs. A quick glance at the background of the movie shows a fight between the Weinsteins and the MPAA over the movie’s rating.
Josh covered it thoroughly here, but as a recap, the movie was originally rated R due to, among other things, course language. However, because the story was “so important,” the director, Lee Hirsch, and the Weinstein Company balked, wanted the rating changed because, according to their press release:
Hirsch made the documentary with the intent to give an uncensored, real-life portrayal of what 13 million children suffer through every year.
And so, after removing the three uses of the word “fuck,” the movie was given its PG-13 rating, apparently making it more accessible to parental units who don’t know how to discuss the use of such language with their children, and so, they’d rather shield them from it. While such capitulation is fine and good, the guys over at South Park Studios asked an important question about the movie, as well as all the grandstanding involved with it.
If the story is such an important one to tell, why not release it on the Internet. For free. And they have a point. The scene in question comes up when Kyle and Stan decide to confront one another in the school bathroom (around the 1:20 mark):
In case you didn’t catch that: “If it needs to be seen by everybody, why don’t you put it out on the Internet for free?”
And that, folks, is a very good question. In fact, if the Weinsteins actually went that route–incredibly doubtful–they could logically get sponsors to help offset the costs of such a bandwidth grab. Unfortunately, it’s highly likely that Kyle’s suggestion fell completely on deaf ears.