Satire In South Park

Superior Essays
outh Park’s 12th episode of the seventh season opens up in a classroom where a student who’s black, the only one in class for that matter, is quite noticeable in the array of students. The episode’s central motion revolves on that black student, Token, who is condemned and discriminated by his fellow students for being far richer than any kids in town. He then resulted to trying to fit in but miserably failed so he tried to bring in more rich people in town. He succeeded in doing so and affluent families now continuously invade South Park. This sparked rebellion from the town people who are considered poor. They want to throw out these invaders and in the end achieves their goal by scaring the rich people out of South Park. The very first scene of the episode in the classroom has stirred some viewers of the show on its true agenda. Token, one of the characters that is black and is evidently seen amongst his white classmates is being picked on …show more content…
The employment of satire is also superbly crafted throughout the episode. The very first scene in the classroom is a clue to the racist commentary of South Park. However, it was masked by ultimately tackling a very different matter, the issue of class. It is the implicitness and irony of satire that distinguishes this episode from racism. The elements above proved that this episode did not cross the line between satire and racism. The intention was to ridicule the racial discrimination against the blacks by absolutely using a different issue and reversing the norm to create the humor. The total denial of the episode’s real issue, that is race, is what makes it funnier and conveys a more powerful message. The message is that the hate they feel towards the “rich” is so strong that they were blinded as to why it came to be. The same way it occurred to racism against minorities, some do not even know why they do it, they just do because it was what they see

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