“We need to get all these minorities out of our waterpark,” stated Eric Cartman, one of the four main child characters from the animated television show South Park (“Pee”). Racist attitudes, like the one stated by Cartman, can be seen in today’s society and seem to have always been an issue since colonial times. In the South Park episode “Pee,” the creators uphold racial stereotypes that imply minorities are not assimilable, cause overcrowding, are lazy, violent, uneducated and taking over jobs, this can be through the interactions and thoughts of Eric Cartman.
South Park first aired in 1997 on the television network Comedy Central and is currently in its fifthteenth season. The creators of South Park, Trey Parker and Matt Stone are regularly focusing on sensitive subjects in their show like race, religion, sexuality, abortion, and politics. As South Park’s biography suggest, “South Park satirizes many aspects of American culture and current events, and challenges deepset convictions and taboos, usually using parody and black humor” (“South Park Biography”). And because of the shows depictions of taboos, it has gained a massive amount of popularity, good and bad, amongst viewers. The show follows the lives of four young boys in the fourth grade at South Park Elementary.
Stan, Kyle, Kenny, and Cartman are usually the focus of the show and, in this episode, the main focus is on Cartman. Cartman, in many episodes, plays “a buffoonish exaggeration of a right-wing conservative” (Curtis). In the episode “Pee,” the boys are going to the waterpark and Cartman is especially excited because he has not been there in a year. Before Cartman even enters the park, he voices his dislike for minorities by saying, “We have to go to the wave p. . .
Thoughts and acts of discrimination occur because, as humans, we often seem to look at differences instead of similarities. The first difference that someone notices about a person is the color of their skin. Then off the color of their skin they make judgments about that person this is damaging because to have a productive society we should be judging a person by their character not in something they don’t have a chance in changing. Works CitedCurtis, David V. , and Gerald J.
Erion. “Southpark and the Open Society. ” Signs of Life. 6th ed. Eds. Sonia Maasik and Jack Solomon.
New York: Bedford/St. Martins, 2009. 296-303. Parker, Trey, and Matt Stone. “Pee.
” South Park. Comedy Central. 11 Nov. 2009.
Television. “South Park Biography. ” Lyrics. 2 July 2011.
