Racist comedy in
cartoons
The popular cartoon, South Park conveys notions of racial
othering in its episode Ginger Cow. In this particular episode, the character of Cartman discovers a fake ginger cow for a joke, which results in
unifying major religions, Hebrews, Christians and Muslims and thus makes ‘peace
in the middle east’. A scene that exemplifies
racial othering is when the Hebrew characters visit south park school to
discuss the discovery of the ginger cow that has gone viral over the internet.
The teacher Mr Mackey asks Kyle to decipher what the Hebrews speak in perfectly
fine English prose but simply because they are Hebrew, they make them out to be
the other by ‘not understanding’ their English. On a surface level, this is
funny and runs with the shows blatantly rude and sarcastic sense of humour but
it reinforces this idea of the west and the rest and that they (Hebrews) are the other from the normal Americans. The comedic elements essentially sugar coat the
underlying racist themes being portrayed in this scene. I do like south park
and find its sarcastic sense of humour great to watch but the effect of making
inferential racist jokes within their show aids this notion of the west and the
rest. Is this detrimental and worth acknowledging or should this type of humour
just be left to go unnoticed?
Interesting points you've made here. Personally I think that this racist humour is always worth acknowledging because the underlying issues tend to be a reflection of contemporary society. The thing that I get from shows such as South Park, Family Guy and American Dad is that the aspect of animation makes it easier for jokes to brush straight past me. Animated shows are not real people, in real places, in real situations so when such shows get political or seriously joke about racial subjects it is less offensive than shows displaying real characters. In saying that, the intention of getting a message of serious matters such as racism is an intention that viewers like myself could really take more note of.
ReplyDeleteInteresting points you've made here. Personally I think that this racist humour is always worth acknowledging because the underlying issues tend to be a reflection of contemporary society. The thing that I get from shows such as South Park, Family Guy and American Dad is that the aspect of animation makes it easier for jokes to brush straight past me. Animated shows are not real people, in real places, in real situations so when such shows get political or seriously joke about racial subjects it is less offensive than shows displaying real characters. In saying that, the intention of getting a message of serious matters such as racism is an intention that viewers like myself could really take more note of.
ReplyDelete