(S11E01)
Cartman: Token forfeits! Whites win!
Given Michael Richards' tirade at a comedy club last November, it would have been easy for South Park to dedicate a show to ruthlessly bashing Richards and people who use the N-word, but South Park has never been about simple approaches. Ultimately, Stan realizes that a person who isn't black can never really understand the effect that word can have, but the episode also ingeniously shows how none of us are completely immune to thoughts of prejudice, it's just that some forms of intolerance are more, well, tolerated than others.
In the opening Wheel of Fortune sequence, I found myself looking at the phrase "N_GGERS" and wondering, like Randy, what else the word could be besides "niggers." Was it noggers? Or nuggers? Or nxggers? And what the hell is a nugger, nogger or nxgger anyway? It was a funny segment, but the real genius of it was the way it turns the spotlight on those of us watching at home. Hell, I laughed my ass off when Randy jubilantly screamed out the N-word, and it's partly because, despite trying my best as an imperfect being to remain a respectable and tolerant person, that powder keg of a word does not, for me, carry the same weight it does for someone who is black. Anyone with a sense of humor and irony would have understood the gag, I think the point is that even if the word is used within a certain context to make a satirical point, it's still a word with a lot of negative power behind it.
It's not as if South Park hasn't tackled racism before. All through this episode I kept thinking of the episode "Ginger Kids" in which Cartman expresses his hatred for kids with red hair, freckles and pale skin. In this episode, the target of Cartman's ridicule is a midget who tries to convince himself he can rise above Cartman's insults, but learns that words can in fact really, really, piss you off. Also, I'm fairly certain the midget was modeled after the Rice twins from those late night infomercials. Every time the midget spoke or moved, it was as if Matt and Trey were daring me not to laugh.
Then there's Randy and his pals' success in getting the word "nigger guy" banned, resulting in a law that the word "nigger" can only be used if it's at least seven words from the word "guy." Randy, as usual, doesn't quite get it, never realizing that even though he's become persona non grata, his plight is hardly comparable to those who experience real racism.
In the end, I think the episode makes a strong point that banning any word is silly, but that doesn't mean words have zero impact. In the coffee shop scene, a picture of Hunter S. Thompson hangs in the background. Fans of the late Thompson such as myself know he sometimes used the N-word in his writing, and I saw the inclusion of his photo in the episode as a subtle way of showing the multi-faceted nature of language, and how the solution is not to limit it, but to understand that for all intents and purposes it's the only way we have to express ourselves to one another. You can't stifle speech, but you can promote understanding.
Favorite moment: Cartman forcing the midget to repeat Tangina's line from Poltergeist: "Caroline, don't go into the light!"
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
3-08-2007 @ 12:50AM
Grammar freak said...
Funny ep to be sure, but I definitely feel like the point/message was not clear and the whole thing kinda unravelled at the end.
Liberal use of "down with the sickness" earns a LOL tho.
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3-08-2007 @ 1:32AM
deepika said...
gud!!!
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3-08-2007 @ 2:00AM
Elf said...
Grammar freak, I thought Stan's epiphany at the very end summarized everything perfectly. "I get it: I don't get it!" What didn't you get?
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3-08-2007 @ 2:33AM
GhaleonQ said...
I thoroughly enjoyed it.
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3-08-2007 @ 4:10AM
Bill said...
This being South Park and all, I kinda expected Jesse Jackson to fart in Randy's face.
http://popculturejunk.blogspot.com/
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3-08-2007 @ 7:20AM
Wild Bill said...
Was it just me, or did the convenience store clerk look like Dane Cook?
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3-08-2007 @ 12:15PM
Karen said...
Given that last month New York's city council proposed a resolution banning "the N-word," I thought this was an incredibly timely episode. I didn't think the little people subplot worked so well, but the odd notion of banning a hurtful word, and the inevitability of a ban being successful only if it's whites who are on the receiving end--that was just sheer brilliance. The crowd of bemused and disbelieving African-Americans at the press conference where Congress announced the new ban? That made me laugh even harder than Cartman laughed at the angry little person.
Parker and Stone do it again--it's astonishing to me that they've still got their edge after all these years.
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3-08-2007 @ 1:44PM
gt said...
great episode!
shouldnt you not be using the term 'midget'?
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3-08-2007 @ 3:13PM
Amy said...
I also thought Cartman's subplot was a little distracting ("little"... get it?? ;) )), but it was worth it to hear him say things like, "Look! They dressed it up in a little suit!"
Parker & Stone not only continue to be edgy, but they have gotten even better at making their point without being condescending or preachy, and without taking themselves or their topics too seriously.
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3-08-2007 @ 6:32PM
Kip W said...
Unfortunately, Parker and Stone have gotten kind of hit-or-miss in the last couple of seasons.
Fortunately, this one was a hit. Even the trio of anti-prejudice rednecks was funny.
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3-09-2007 @ 7:30PM
ciji said...
Where can I buy my "Jesse Jackson is not the emperor of Black people!" bumper sticker?
I liked that the point was Stan just couldn't get it. There are some things that you can't understand. And that's not necessarily a bad thing.
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3-17-2007 @ 4:33PM
John Addis said...
This exchange, to me, more brilliantly and succinctly summed up race relations in this country than anything I've seen on television to date.
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Stan: Now look, Token, I've done everything I can to make this right! You have no reason to still be mad!
Token: I have every reason to be mad! You just don't get it!
Stan: I'm not responsible for what my dad did!
Token: No, but you can't just pretend it never happened either!
Stan: What the hell do you want from me?!
Token: Nothing!
Stan: Then stop being mad!
Token: No!
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3-31-2007 @ 10:20AM
Deborah said...
I've seen a lot of articles about this episode. This one comes closest to getting it right butI think there is one point of this episode that most white people are still missing.
Denial. Not only do white people not get how it feels to be called the n* word and how silly it is to try and ban it, but they don't get that they don't get to take owenership of that word. Ever.
It is never ok for white people to use it and it is never ok for them to dictate to black people whether or not to say it. For all the white people who ask the question: I want to know why I can't say it but it be used by black people who are rappers, comedians or every other teenager this is the answer:
Because you can't. And you just have to understand that as white people this is the one thing you cannot do.
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