Activity: free South Park
Difficulty rating: Internet
This is not a particularly New Orleans thing, but it is such an awesome thing that I wanted to write about it anyway. American Husband and I streamed the new episode of South Park on the night it aired and watched it in bed, laughing and relaxing. This may not seem like a big deal to Americans, but it’s a huge deal to someone who grew up on the opposite side of the globe from where TV gets made.Â
When I got here I assumed my computer would just know I was in America, the way it just knows my eBay password, my credit card details and when the next issue of XXX Monster Truck Porn Magazine is coming out. I set the time zone to New Orleans and tagged myself @ the Mississippi #authentic and I thought that would be enough to get the benefits of American media. Turns out computers are selective arseholes. #harshreality
I don’t know how to work the downloady websites, but I wholeheartedly appreciate their fruits. I feel like we are in a happy little gulf of history between companies being able to put shows online and companies figuring out how to stop shows getting pirated. It’s a rare moment when the plebs can thieve from the rich with no comeuppance and we should relish it before being inevitably forced to pay out the megabucks just because we’re on the wrong continent. Anyway, I’m not a tech guy so I usually have to wait months to see shows, or I try to go through legal channels and end up clicking through mazes of browser windows before signing my credit card details over to LiveShowsForRealThisIsntAHoax.com. Netflix arrived after I left and only Nannas have TVs anymore. #truthbomb
Sitting in bed watching an episode of a great show, legally, hot off the presses on my husband’s iPad was an almost out of body experience. I felt so radically in the present that it could’ve been the future. I didn’t get any of the jokes because Aussie pop culture is still about six months behind the US anyway, but that didn’t matter. I was happy just to be there.Â
Here’s a picture from the latest South Park. Something really funny was happening.Â
