South Park, Friend or Foe?

According to the American Heritage Dictionary satire is, “A literary work in which human vice or folly is attacked through irony, derision, or wit.” Each week when I sit down at my T.V. or computer and watch the latest episode of Comedy Central’s South Park I can expect the latest and greatest controversies to be poked, prodded, and laughed at. No what the subject matter is South Park will, and probably already has, made fun of it. It is almost their place and right to make fun of our culture, because if they don’t who will?

Every year I go to the Central Pennsylvania Arts Festival, and every year I see a caricaturist drawing people sitting in chairs, trying not to move. Perhaps, every once and awhile I’ll pause to see what the artist is drawing. No matter who is sitting there or what race, ethnicity, political background, religion, or style the person is dressed in, the artist always finds little quirks or differences to magnify in the drawing. When South Park makes an episode they take these differences that make us who we are, amplify them to the extreme and joke about how stupid we are for caring about these differences.

When people watch South Park they sometimes use selective exposure and arrive at conclusions that South Park is offending people. What if South Park is trying to offend people; who cares? I think that people who can laugh at themselves make the world a better place. If South Park had only made fun of a few people then I could understand the outcry that it is a terrible show and that the writers are racist or something along those lines, but they don’t limit there scrutiny to only a small portion of people. They make fun of everyone.

I hope South Park continues to portray life in a satirical manner, so that we can continue to laugh at our friends, ourselves, and the rest of the world. As E.E. Cummings said, “The most wasted of all days is one without laughter,” and laughter is what South park aims to bring.