I chose South Park’s episode “Cripple Fight” from their fifth season to analyze how universalizing and minoritizing discourses are portrayed. In this episode Kyle, Kenny, Cartman, Stan, and Timmy are going to their first Mountain Scout meeting. The stereotyping begins when they arrive and find out not only is there a new boy with a disability in town, but their new Mountain Scout leader is Big Gay Al.
From its beginning, South Park has been a driving force in breaking down hegemonic norms perpetuated in media. James Lull’s article about hegemony mentions that radical ideas, such as those depicted on South Park, would “appear only on underfinanced, non-commercial radio and TV stations and in low-budget media” (Lull, 64). South Park’s satirical humor delivered by animated children is their secret to success (Lecture, 11/8/10).
At the first Mountain Scout meeting, many of the boys are new to scouts, but one in particular is singled out to “prove Mountain Scouts is for everyone.” Jimmy is the new self-proclaimed ‘handi-capable’ kid in town, and immediately Timmy feels threatened by him. Jimmy does motivational stand-up comedy, and immediately says he is happy with the way he was born. All the kids are thrilled to have a new friend. Butters refers to him as the “funniest kid with disabilities in the world.” Reading a text “from a universalizing lens, we don’t read categories as fixed or set in stone, but as fluid and open to interpretation,” and this is what the children do (Lecture, 11/3/10). In South Park the children are always the voices of reason to their parents, who tend to have the strangest ideas on what is socially acceptable behavior. For example, when Jimmy is doing stand-up at the bake sale the parents cannot seem to get past the fact that Jimmy has a physical disability. One mother in the audience says he is a “brave little boy,” and another loves him because he “uses comedy to overcome his handicap.” The norm is being able bodied, and being outside of the norm is “freakish” so of course Jimmy would want to strive to be viewed as ‘normal’ (Lecture, 11/3/10). The boys on the other hand put Jimmy’s disability on a continuum with any type of body, which empowers marginalized groups, and leads to treating all people as equals.
Our class lecture about representations talks about marked and unmarked identities. In this episode of South Park the unmarked identity is as it always is, white, straight, and able bodied. Marked identities are more likely to be stated than assumed, for example, Stan’s dad is named Randy Marsh, not Big Straight Randy, because he’s automatically assumed straight (Lecture, 9/29/10). When Big Gay Al turned out to be the new Mountain Scout leader for troop 69 the parents were immediately uneasy. At the bar the father’s showed concern about their young impressionable sons having to be around an openly gay man, and were wary about sending them on an overnight camping trip with Big Gay Al. One father said even if he didn’t turn them gay they could still “end up talking femme and prancing around like girls.” After the first meeting Stan calls Cartman a “big silly goose” in front of his dad, and that is the last straw. Big Gay Al is kicked out of scouts when they receive too many complaints about him. It seems that once again only the kids of South Park have a handle on equality. The adults minoritize sexuality, and because being straight is the norm, having a gay man around their children could never lead to a positive Mountain Scout experience. The boys love Big Gay Al and want him to be their scout leader again because come to find out, their new manly, straight, drill sergeant type scout leader is actually a pervert who takes pictures of them naked. This seemingly normal guy actually ends up being what the men were stereotypically assuming Big Gay Al to be. This juxtaposition of character types leads the audience to read into a universalizing discourse of sexuality. Randy Marsh says at the end of the episode, “Just because someone is gay, doesn’t mean they’re gonna molest children, straight people do that too.” To wrap up the episode Big Gay Al denies the Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling to allow him back into scouts. He wants to be discriminated against by the Mountain Scouts just like any other person would be, because they are as free to express themselves as he is. That’s truly universalized.
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