One of my favorite forms of comedy is satire. The definition of satire is: the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues. One of my favorite source of satirical comedy is the show South Park. I know countless people that absolutely HATE the show. They think it is the most inappropriate, most vile, most ignorant thing on TV. Unfortunately, these people only look at the surface of the show and don't even try looking any deeper. Under its "brain dead" and "stupid humor" exterior is a serious satirical interior.
While most of the episodes touch on important modern day topics, there is one specific episode (Chef Goes Nanners S04E07) that I feel is most appropriate for our class:LINK TO EPISODE
(screenshot from the mentioned episode)
This episode is about whether or not the towns flag should be changed due to its racist appearance. One of the black members of the town, Chef, is extremely offended by the flag and demands that it is changed. Another member of the town, Jimbo, strongly believes that the flag is a major part of the towns history and should therefore not be changed. Because it is such a touchy subject and they don't want to look bad, the town chooses to let the kids at the local school decide whether or not the flag should be changed. The kids are told that they are to have a debate about the topic and to pick the side they want to argue for. When two of the main characters, Stan and Kyle, choose to be on the side that supports the flag, Chef ridicules them and they are seen as racist. When the debate starts, the side arguing that the flag should change makes their statement. They argue that, "Often times it is prudent to change history. As times change we hope to grow and as we grow our rules must change, it is a natural part of evolution". When it is the other side's turn to argue against the changing of the flag, they argue that, "the fly shouldn't offend anyone because killing has been around since the beginning of time. All animals kill and the animals that don't kill are stupid...so people should not be so upset about killing". Chef immediately criticizes them for missing the point of the argument. The kids explain that they didn't pay attention to the color of the peoples' skin because they didn't think it was important. Chef then realizes that the kids didn't see the flag as racist because they didn't see it as four white people hanging a black person, but as five people. The episode ends with both sides making a compromise to keep the flag but change the color of the peoples' skin.
(the changed flag)
This episode does a great job addressing certain issues with racism. One thing it addresses is how racism can be taught, mainly by adults to children. When the kids explain to chef how they didn't pay attention to the color of the peoples' skin, he tells them that the flag is racist and they respond in a way that makes it seem as though they were wrong for thinking that it wasn't racist and that Chef was telling them the right way to look at it. Another issue this episode addresses is the general public's fear of talking about racism. In the episode, when any of the general public is asked about their opinion on the debate, they are always indecisive and afraid to offend either side.
This is wicked thought provoking. Before I read your post and I saw the flag I was interested in seeing the message. I wonder how kids in real life would react to this. Today I would automatically go to the thought of lynching and African Americans, which is what I thought it was. Clearly South Park is not for an audience of school-aged kids but if it was I wonder what they would say if they saw how these kids react. In my opinion it seems implausible for anyone to look at this without giving regards to the kid's skin color but who knows for sure?
ReplyDeleteI was very intrigued by this blog post. I'm also very interested in Hannah's question of how people, mainly kids, would respond to this flag. I hope most people would see it as very wrong and offensive, I know when I saw it I thought that it was inappropriate that a black stick figure was hanging while all around him were white stick figures. I think that even though a show like South Park is used for entertainment and laughs it reflects highly on important factors too. Another show that I think of when sometimes using educational lessons would be The Simpsons, as it refers to real matters in the United States and things that people would think about. It would be highly interesting to see what the children would say when looking at the flag and how they would resort to fixing this.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you in regards to finding the deeper, satirical meaning in comedy shows. This example is very profound and once people read and think about it, I am sure their opinion on this show may change. Another example of a show that covers many topics such as the above mentioned situation is Family Guy. Coming off as raunchy and inappropriate, these creators see animation and comic entertainment as a way to take a 'lighter' approach to touchy issues while still getting important points across.
ReplyDelete