I actually enjoyed the episode because it offers a new perspective on social norms. South Park writers’ are very clever of taking current events and social issues and putting an interesting spin on the events. Although much of the content is obscene and rather primitive, the story actually does contain some pretty clever content. This episode tackles the issue of how media can manipulate and enhance people’s appearance to unrealistic images that most people cannot live up to no matter what they do. This issue is heavily dramatized in the show, however the themes are salient in today’s society
South Park
Popular Culture
Social Norms that are challenged in the South Park Show
Season 17 Episode
South Park is a show that is produced by Comedy Central and is notorious for portraying the breaking of social norms. The show has a loyal following that expect to see some sort of shocking behavior by the cast of characters. In fact, South Park was one of the first shows on-air to create this kind of niche in portraying obscene and raunchy content. The show is now on its seventieth season which makes it one of the longest running shows of its type. There are other shows competing for the same demographics, such as the Simpsons, but South Part has established itself in a unique niche and has a loyal following.
The intended audience for the show is most likely younger demographics. However, the show appeals to individuals in many demographics so there may be a considerable wide range of viewers in demographical categories. South Park was chosen because it is a show that I am familiar with and have seen on several occasions. In some episodes, there is rude, vulgar, and obscene content. However, the show is also unique because it frequently tackles many popular social issues that are going on in the country. The writers base their stories on their perceptions of the conflicts that are present in current events. Therefore, South Park is something of a paradox. On one hand, it is obscene but on the other hand much of the content takes an intelligent point-of-view on many complex issues that the country deals with.
In the episode chosen, episode 10 in season 17, the social norm that is tackled is about self-image. The show opens with the local youth cheerleading team at the elementary school. One of the girls, Lisa Burger, is portrayed as an outsider to the rest of the cheerleading squad. She is considered overweight and unattractive and has a negative self-image of herself. The cheerleading team captain Wendy, tries to intervene and help Lisa improve her self-image. Lisa admits to liking a boy named butters and Wendy suggests that Lisa should ask Butters out and that would help her confidence level improve so that she might fit in better with the rest of the cheerleading team.
In the next scene Lisa goes up to Butters and the lunchroom table and asks him out on a date. Butters is polite, but tells Lisa that he cannot go out on a date with her because she is simply "too fat." Cartman, another popular character, quickly comes to Lisa's defense and instructs the other boys not to make fun of Lisa because she is fat. Rather, the boys should make fun of Lisa because she is ugly, according to Cartman. He states that her face looks like "it got hit by a shovel." Cartman semi-defends Lisa because he has problems with his own weight and his self-image as well. Therefore, his attempt to redirect the group towards Lisa's appearance is definitely a self-serving attempt. Later, Wendy confronts Butters about the way he treated Lisa Burger. Butters ideal woman is in the image of Kim Kardashian. Wendy claims that in real life Kim Kardashian has the body of a hobbit and claims that the entire image is based on Photoshop and other tricks.
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