pizza-break-shuffles:

xanister:

hey-feygele:

xanister:

pizza-break-shuffles:

It’s weird how the South Park fandom never talks about when South Park is racist/sexist/homophobic/transphobic/ableist/generally problematic. Is it because most of the fandom stands at a point of privilege on these issues, or do we just not think about it much? Are…

Fandom doesn’t talk about it much because the show does a good job dealing with it within the episodes. South Park deals with those issues with the character reactions. When Cartman is racist we see the other characters tell him off for being so. Timmy and Jimmy can be seen as offensive/walking stereotypes but the boys (Cartman being the exception) treat them no differently.

It’s easy to say, “that’s just how South Park is” but it’s more than that. It’s a show with kids seeing the world the way kids see it and that most of the humor is aimed at the idiots of the world who are racist/sexist/homophobic/transphobic.

To a certain extent I agree. There are more times than not where the show I feel gets it right when they address sensitive topics, for example: cartman sucks, eat prey queef, big gay al’s big gay boat ride, follow that egg, up the down steroid (that one i’m a little on the fence about, actually - it’s deeply disappointing to me that Kyle of all people thought that Cartman would be able to win anything, but I think watching Cartman fail spectacularly over and over again makes up for it).

But then there’s a lot of times where I think the show is really off base. Mr Garrison’s Fancy New Vagina is one glaring example. And, ugh, the city wok guy. I was watching some youtube video a while back and the dude in it references the city wok guy, and then says ‘If you think that’s racist then you havent watched enough south park’ or something, like — okay, just because it’s a joke from south park that doesn’t magically make it not racist!!

Basically ‘oh it’s just satire’ or ‘well but they make fun of everyone so otherwise it would be reverse whatever’ are not valid excuses. I would like to think that even the creators acknowledge that. There’s an article which of course I can’t find right now where they mention that they’re totally fine with making atheists or the Church of Scientology angry, but being called out by GLAAD is something nobody’s ever proud of.

You make really good points and I’ve seen other people point out Mr Garrison’s Fancy New Vagina as a glaring example of issue within SP. However I think Garrison’s whole development as a character that isn’t straight and is confused to his sexual orientation is a breath of fresh air. There are issues to be sure but I wonder how things could have been changed? I’m loving this discussion.

I’m not sure if I can answer this properly since I’m cishet, but I do like that Garrison doesn’t conform to labels when it comes to sexuality or gender identity.  If Matt and Trey had done more research on the trans* community and written Garrison episodes with him/her as the hero rather than the villain, maybe the whole thing could have turned out better.  I really don’t know, though.

I’m a little hesitant to get too excited about any of Garrison’s fluid identities just because he started out as a closeted pedophile — that being said, I really liked Eek a Penis (mostly for Cartman related reasons I’ll admit). I think they did a decent job of portraying Garrison’s confusion and how he still wasn’t really sure about his identity and all. Like, for me, it doesn’t completely excuse a narrative that compared being trans to wanting to become a dolphin — but it’s a definite improvement!

Ah yeah and like pallas-athena pointed out, they retconned the city wok guy into something less totally objectionable and more satirical, and it goes a long way toward making me personally able to tolerate him.

There’s been other changes over the years, like Liane Cartman becoming something that approaches a character and not just a joke about being a crack whore, that make me think that the show is actually becoming more, idk, I don’t want to say sensitive because I don’t think that’s right, but — maybe, less and less dickheadish? over the years.

xanister:

pizza-break-shuffles:

It’s weird how the South Park fandom never talks about when South Park is racist/sexist/homophobic/transphobic/ableist/generally problematic. Is it because most of the fandom stands at a point of privilege on these issues, or do we just not think about it much? Are…

Fandom doesn’t talk about it much because the show does a good job dealing with it within the episodes. South Park deals with those issues with the character reactions. When Cartman is racist we see the other characters tell him off for being so. Timmy and Jimmy can be seen as offensive/walking stereotypes but the boys (Cartman being the exception) treat them no differently.

It’s easy to say, “that’s just how South Park is” but it’s more than that. It’s a show with kids seeing the world the way kids see it and that most of the humor is aimed at the idiots of the world who are racist/sexist/homophobic/transphobic.

To a certain extent I agree. There are more times than not where the show I feel gets it right when they address sensitive topics, for example: cartman sucks, eat prey queef, big gay al’s big gay boat ride, follow that egg, up the down steroid (that one i’m a little on the fence about, actually - it’s deeply disappointing to me that Kyle of all people thought that Cartman would be able to win anything, but I think watching Cartman fail spectacularly over and over again makes up for it).

But then there’s a lot of times where I think the show is really off base. Mr Garrison’s Fancy New Vagina is one glaring example. And, ugh, the city wok guy. I was watching some youtube video a while back and the dude in it references the city wok guy, and then says ‘If you think that’s racist then you havent watched enough south park’ or something, like — okay, just because it’s a joke from south park that doesn’t magically make it not racist!!

Basically ‘oh it’s just satire’ or ‘well but they make fun of everyone so otherwise it would be reverse whatever’ are not valid excuses. I would like to think that even the creators acknowledge that. There’s an article which of course I can’t find right now where they mention that they’re totally fine with making atheists or the Church of Scientology angry, but being called out by GLAAD is something nobody’s ever proud of.

(via supershpadoinklewho)