The Ravages of Gluten : SouthPark Style
For those of you that may still be unfamiliar with the TV Cartoon Series "South Park", I must first issue a warning to readers: South Park is considered an adult animated sitcom, and it runs on the Comedy Central television network. The adult rating is mainly due to the coarse, raw, nature of the comedy the show delivers, especially due to the substantial amount of profanity that is coupled to nearly any topic that can be depicted in the most non-politically-correct way possible.I just had the opportunity to view Season 18, Episode 2 which is titled "Gluten-Free Ebola". As you may imagine, the evils of gluten have taken on a more sinister capability than in real life. If you care to deal with such vulgar comedy, and want to see how gluten can be discussed in a truly absurd manner, then check out the episode... it is hilarious.
In brief, basically the town of South Park Colorado becomes the epicenter of an Ebola-like outbreak of deadly gluten exposure... whereby consuming too much gluten causes horrendous things to happen. For the males of the population, it causes a certain body part to fly off and explode as well, and that tells you how far the absurdity of the show can go.
The show starts with a scene at the local school where one of the teachers has taken up a gluten-free diet and is sharing his experience of how awesome he feels because of it. This provokes a predictable reaction from some others in the room: some scorn the gluten-free diet (which the coworker has started not because he suffers from Celiac, but because it is a "fad"), and others want to jump on the gluten-free diet bandwagon.
So, eventually the FDA and USDA get involved in a debate over gluten. At one point, a government scientist is demonstrating how gluten is the protein left over after removing the moisture and starches from wheat... and he condenses a block of absolutely pure gluten protein, on stage, during his demo, and tells the audience how it is harmless. Of course, the audience challenges him on that statement: if the cube of highly-purified gluten is truly harmless, the scientist should eat it without hesitation... so he does, albeit nervously... and, things go horribly wrong...
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| South Park Season 18, Episode 2 : Gluten destroys the government scientist! |
As one may expect, things only devolve from here. There is a gluten-quarantine implemented by the USDA where people exposed to gluten are locked up at a Papa John's Pizza for things like drinking beer, eating soy sauce, and so forth. And, ultimately, the USDA's food pyramid is redefined to place grains (and thus gluten) in the tiny tip of the pyramid and fats at the bottom (largest area), leaving the several co-protagonists of the cartoon handing out frozen butter-pops (think butter lollipops) at the end of the episode, at a party, instead of the usual crackers, pretzels, pizza and such.
It's a truly hilarious look at a serious topic to those of us which really must avoid gluten to remain healthy and/or alive.
Continue to read this Gluten-Free Blog for all sorts of gluten-free recipes, product-reviews, and related information. In addition, visit my Gluten-Free Recipes Site where many of the recipes I have featured on this blog are available.
