Episode Of South Park example essay topic

It doesn't matter if you " re black or white; it matters about how much money you have. In the South Park episode "Here Comes the Neighborhood", Token, the only African American child character in South Park, struggles to find a social group to which he can belong. His quest for acceptance satirizes the civil rights movement and ridicules racism and classism in America. These critiques on American society provide comic relief from the intensity of race relations, and they also expose society's need to mock others who are dissimilar to them. In this episode of South Park, waves of very wealthy African American actors, entertainers, and athletes swarm the small town of South Park. Token lures these high powered celebrities to South Park through a fictitious advertisement in Forbes magazine that portrayed South Park as the Aspen of twenty years ago.

The normal stereotypes of African Americans being poor and Caucasians being well off are reversed in this episode. All of the African Americans with the exception of Chef are portrayed as being white upper class citizens while all the South Park citizens are portrayed as being white trash. In Token's song, in which he longs to be normal, he wishes "to have a three bedroom house, broken trucks on his lawn, and cut up hot dogs for lunch". Token's situation is ironic because he wishes to be part of the poor community, which is inferior to the life that he leads.

It is ironic that the townspeople despise the new African American residents not because of the color of their skin, which is what would be expected, but because they are wealthy. Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the creators of South Park, use the fundamental technique of what is expected versus what actually happens to achieve most of the humor in this episode. This play on racism runs throughout the episode and is the main source of humor. A lot of racial humor in the episode stems from plays on words. Mr. Garrison refers to the African Americans as "cashchuckers" which appears as a harmless joke, but the name "cashchuckers" stems from the African American racist slang term spear checker. When the Million Millionaire March, which is a spoof on the Million Man March, is protesting for a ban against segregation in South Park, they sing "We shall persevere" in contrast to the fifties civil rights movement whose song was "We shall overcome".

At the end of the episode, Kobe Bryant tells Snoop Dogg that the he did not know the town was "hainted", as if it was haunted. "Hainted" is a spoof of the word tainted which was used to describe a town filled with hate against African Americans. The reason that these terms are funny is because they mock the past in which white, inferior males promoted social injustice in order to secure their lifestyles. These are jokes that make the audience laugh because they make fun of a time that in retrospect was completely absurd and pointless. The role reversal of African Americans and Caucasians in the episode satirizes many groundbreaking facets of the fifties civil rights movement as well as African American history. When Bill Cosby and his children board a South Park bus en route to the zoo, the native Caucasian South Parkians force Cosby to sit in the front of the bus where all of the "richers" should be sitting.

This situation is a spoof of Rosa Parks. Instead of being forced into the back of the bus, as in times of segregation, African Americans are forced to sit in the front of bus where it is more comfortable. This scene makes fun of a historically stressful situation to demonstrate the stupidity of racism and classism. The South Parkians are forcing the rich people to sit in the comfortable seats. It would be a luxury to sit in the front seats, but instead of any South Parkians sitting in them, which would make the most logical sense, they force the "richers" to sit up there. The thought process behind this whole situation is totally illogical and reflects how irrational racism and classism are.

The scene in which one African American family is moving in and a crowd of Caucasian men including Ned, Jimbo, and Mr. Garrison mock the family for their surplus of belongings underscores the idea of how desire and jealousy are examples of human nature and how people always crave what they do not have. The hostile crowd's jokes are stupid because they mock the family for being different than everyone else in South Park whereas almost anywhere else in America, the African American family would be envied for their plethora of personal belongings. This scene demonstrates how people are always quick to hate, dislike, or frown upon others who are different than they are. This type of true humor, which Simon Critchley defines as humor that promotes social change, exposes how people are too judgmental of others and how they grow jealous easily. The Caucasian South Parkians' actions to get rid of the African Americans lampoon the Ku Klux Klan's actions of the twentieth century whose purpose was to put fear into the hearts of all African Americans. In an attempt to rid South Park of all of the rich African Americans, Mr. Garrison concocts a plan to burn lowercase "t's", which symbolize the phrase, "time to leave", on every African American's house.

When this plan fails, Mr. Garrison turns to spooking out all of the African Americans by dressing up like a ghost. Mr. Garrison's plans mimic the Ku Klux Klan's hate crimes. Instead of making light of the townspeople's racist actions, the actions are misunderstood to be those of ghosts. This reversal and misunderstanding are what create the humor in South Park. One would expect the blacks to be angry about such racist behavior, but they are not. Instead they follow into the satirical episode's stereotype of all rich people fearing ghosts.

As in other scenes, the humor stems from what is expected versus what actually happens. In this episode of South Park, the rich people are separated from the poor, underachieving Caucasian South Parkians in bars, restaurants, and buses. In one conversation between some of the parents in South Park, they comment, "They " re going to be sending their kids to our schools and mixing them with our pure, non-rich kids". This quote is ridiculous.

It shows just how ignorant and stupid people in our society can be. People always attempt to resist change as much as possible. The crowd's complaint of mixing rich kids and poor kids has no basis to it. This true humor demonstrates how idiotic racism and classism are. Racism and classism are created through the insecurities of people who can not accept others for who they are.

This episode demonstrates how just the idea of being rich, which makes somebody different than everyone else in South Park, is grounds for being targeted and ridiculed, which is absolutely ludicrous. The true humor in this episode critiques those, who rather than get over their petty differences with others, choose to hate others who are different. There goes the neighborhood or here comes the neighborhood? Which one do I believe in? This is the question we must ask ourselves.

When someone different comes into contact with you, which path will you take: the path of rejection or the path of acceptance. This is a fundamental aspect of everyday life. Everyday we as people, families, cities, or countries come across others who are different in his or her own special way. Should we embrace these difference or choose the there goes the neighborhood approach and give these people cold shoulders.

I believe we should choose the road of here comes the neighborhood and accept others for who they are and appreciate them for what they can teach us. South Park blatantly criticizes the racism that exists in America today. We must listen to the functional humor of South Park and attempt to break down the walls of racism, classism, or any other negative social "ism" everyday with new people that we meet. All of these "isms" only hinder our ability to live and grow together as a community. The next time you walk down the street and see someone who you would normally stereotype or classify, I would hope you would take the time to stop and say hello.