Brash Satire and Unexpected Irony in South Park TV Series - Essay Example

South Park A cartoon or animation involves a combination of drawings that give an illusion of movement. They often narrate humorous stories to suit their target audience of young viewers. In numerous cases, cartoons have tackled sensitive issues in the society through satirical humor. In 1997, South Park TV series employed brash satire and unexpected irony to criticize the American popular culture. However, such utilization of irony, satire, and other rhetorical devices sparks ripples of criticisms. In the same concept, scholars tend to be divided on whether South Park the TV series eradicates or promotes racial or ethnical prejudice. Generally the ideology raised by the TV series wavers between two main topics. First, the portrayals of white anxiety as deterring open address on the topic and a social criticism of the state of race associations in the United States. Ultimately, this paper urges viewers to apply critical analysis to issues pertaining to race differences instead of inhibiting such issues. Introduction Since the 1930, the minorities in United States are always portrayed in negative ways. The media portrayed the blacks as animalistic and evil. For instance, “The Lion Hunt” of the Terrytoons and Purple Planet Media featured the American natives as big lipped individuals who dressed in loin cloths. However, racial prejudice did not target the blacks only. During the World War II, Purple Planet Media together with the Warner Bros created Asian animated characters with sneaky attributes, bucked teeth, and slanted eyes. This trend still continues even in our contemporary world despite the need to maintain the endurance of humanity. These animations have interested many forms of study within different scopes. One study conducted by Swan, Meskill, and DeMaio, 1998 conducted an in-depth study of characterizations of the minority populations. Another study by Greenberg & Brand, 1993 focuses on the diversity of cultures in Saturday morning cartoons in America. Many other studies have also focused on the gender roles of the characters in relation to the contemporary culture (Weinstock, 2008). Humor has become the best way to raise taboo issues among the people of America despite the potential problems associated with it. South Park, one of the universally popular TV series in America, addresses the sensitive issues within the American popular culture by using blatant humor. South Park launched its first episode on 13th August 1997on Comedy Central. Being the most popular program of the era, South Park became the best show in prime time on all television stations in April 2008. It also managed to attract an estimated four million viewers. Additionally, the TV series was nominated and awarded four times as an Outstanding Animated Series on the Emmy Awards. In 2005, South Park won the Peabody Award for being unashamed to shatter American culture taboos (Weinstock, 2008). South Park South Park debuts the life of four white boys as they go about their modern-day challenges encountered within their slow-paced town in Colorado. The writers of the series, Matt Stone and Trey Parker present a satirical setting while tackling sensitive and predicaments of contemporary culture. The series allows its viewers to witness these predicaments through first-hand experiences of the too informed eight-year-old characters. The four boys, Kyle, Kenny Stan and Cartman appear to be naïve, uninformed, curious and foolish children who fail to comprehend their town. In the programme, the boys look at their town and shake their heads. They do not comprehend the events that occur in day to day experiences, their school teachers or their parents. In South Park, the writers break the series into short episodes which analyses a wide range of dilemma in our modern-day lives. For instance, through the characters the audience understands the politics of immigration as well as the social world in social media like Facebook. At the end of each episode, the program concludes by finding a viable and reflective solution from the main characters (Weinstock, 2008). America’s most popular animated television series, South Park, which occurs as a provocative and an anti-politically correct program influences the perspectives of its viewers universally. The programme allows its viewers to draw critical insights and discuss the contemporary issues. Contrary to its attribute for potty-mouth comedy, South Park mainly contains intuitive viewpoint on present day culture and topics that result in dilemmas. The program shows clear understanding of the writers on racial prejudices and racism in the modern society. In this aspect, the writers demonstrate their satirical exemplifications of non-white communities and also through humor directed at racial discriminations itself (Weinstock, 2008). “With Apologies to Jesse Jackson” The episode “With Apologies to Jesse Jackson” serves as a case study to examine whether humor in South Park intends to promote or criticize whiteness. In this episode, humor and racial tension during a competitive TV show Wheel of Fortune. In order to win ten thousand US Dollars, Randy Marsh was challenged with the puzzle “N_GGERS” with a clue “People who annoy you”. It is here that Randy amidst all the anxiety in the audience answered with “NIGGERS”. He later found out the answer was “NAGGERS.” In the rest of the episode, we observe consequences of such blunders in Randy’s adult life as well as in the lives of other characters. These characters include; Kenny McCormick, Kyle Broflovski, Stan Marsh (Randy’s son) and Eric Cartman. Subsequently, Randy’s guilt results in a few humorous and remorseful gestures such as kissing Jesse Jackson’s posterior as an apology to the Black Americans’ culture. In order to comprehend the African American culture, Randy further attends a comedy show. He enjoyed the show until the comedian pointed him out as the “nigger guy”. With shame, he walks out of the club and faces more social derision when two whites refuse to serve him at a convenience store. Next, a group of white children confront him on the streets. In another scene, Randy fails to earn sympathy after sharing a poem on his ostracism. He further tries to make amends when he launches the “Randy Marsh African American Scholarship.” After narrowly eluding the ‘rednecks’ Randy joins “nigger guys”, a group of socially ostracized people who made racial slurs. The “nigger guys” include white people who use the Nigger word publicly (Weinstock, 2008). Such an episode could only exist to remind the contemporary society of its racial constructions. Racial inequalities and tensions still exist among the American Popular Culture. With Apologies to Jesse Jackson revolves around three significant characters and their conflicts. They include Token Black (The African American child in South Park, and the wealthiest as well), Stan Marsh (South Park‘s intuition) and Randy Marsh (Stan‘s open-minded, yet child-like father). The conflicts among the three characters transpire directly and indirectly all through the episode following Randy’s slur on the Wheel of Fortune. Randy’s racial slur subjects him to the stigma of being identified as the Nigger Guy. On the other hand, Token and Stan disagree on the power of racist words and how it feels to be prejudiced. In another scene, Mr. Nelson, a Little Person, holds talks on the power of words at Cartman’s school. When Cartman fails to control his discriminating laughter, the two begin a gruesome fight. As the episode ends, the audience learns that one can never understand how it would feel to be prejudiced. Consequently, Token accepts Randy’s apologies. In this aspect, the writers of South Park, Stone, and Parker attempt to solve racism. They attempt to attach the interpersonal conflicts under the open-minded notion that this solution requires empathy for the prejudiced (Weinstock, 2008). By watching the episode With Apologies to Jesse Jackson, the viewer understands the transparent misconceptions and stereotypes on racial constructs. Additionally, one is exposed to the socialized subconscious information that reassures homogenous racial roles are universally innate. The final message in the episode raises a perception of racial empathy by revolving about very sensitive topics. These topics include the real racial relations between white and black people in America, the power of words and the politics around the ‘Nigger’ word. The writers attempt to explain that the white Americans need to comprehend that due to their privilege, they may never truly understand the racial experiences of their non-whites counterparts. Though these topics may be considered a taboo or too weighty, the writers attempt to challenge liberal thinking strategy on its viewers. South Park attempts to allow the viewer to make liberal decisions to keep away from certain discussions on racism. The program daringly suggests a concept that the whites have no reason to discuss racism at all. Despite its attempts to be liberal and solve racism and its atrocities, such a message could promote rather than despise racism. In this aspect, the program stops any action to stop racism since the problem only affects the non-whites. However, owing to their innocent privilege as the white people, the whites need to be more vocal on fighting against racism that continues to be widespread within the American society. In South Park, this important role needs to be acknowledged and emphasized since the show represents and influences open-minded, white and anti-politically accurate voice of young individuals in America (Weinstock, 2008). Other stereotypes In South Park, stereotypes are communicated transparently on nationalities and their unique characters and their modern way of life. The Canadians appear as inferior human beings and uglier than the Americans with small eyes and twitching heads during conversations. This scene occurs as a mockery of the American stereotypes that began in the first of South Park. The program further introduces an anti-Canadian movement in the movie "South Park: Bigger Longer & Uncut." In season three episode ten, the program presents Japan as an enemy of the USA when Emperor of Japan attacks the Pearl Harbor. In season nine episodes four, the American stereotype of machining process presents the lack of spirituality among the Japanese. Here, the archangels of Heaven allude that the Japanese have no souls. Another stereotype of the Chinese arises in season six episode eleven. Tuong Lu Kim, a Chinese who owns a restaurant is approached to build the city wall. Despite being outraged, Tuong Lu Kim built the wall. Also, the Chinese are depicted to have intentions of conquering the world (Johnson-Woods, 2007). Conclusion As a provocative and anti-politically correct‖ television series, South Park offers its viewers an alternative space to critically think about and discuss contemporary issues. Contrary to its reputation for potty-mouth humor, South Park often contains insightful perspectives on complicated topics in present-day culture. The writers of South Park are acutely aware of the racism and racial prejudices in contemporary society. This awareness is demonstrated through their satirical representations of non-white groups as well as through jokes directed at racial prejudice itself. The first episode of season eleven of South Park; With Apologies to Jesse Jackson which aired on 7th March 2007 could help analyze how the young people of the 21st century discuss racial prejudice. The episode centers on the racial tension between the blacks and whites following a racist mistake committed by the white character Randy Marsh. However, critics note that the episode fails to raise discussions on racism since it validates racial misconceptions (Johnson-Woods, 2007). References: Johnson-Woods, T. (2007). Blame Canada!: South Park and popular culture. New York: Continuum. Weinstock, J. A. (2008). Taking South Park Seriously. Albany: State University of New York Press. Read More