Tonight's South Park Sucked Rather Interestingly

So tonight's episode of South Park was both (a) unfunny, and (b) simultaneously offensive and didactic. Generally, the "offensive" part isn't that bad as long as the episode is funny enough to throw the offensive content into relief; however, it seems that this season (with the exception of the episode where Butters became a pimp and the montage of Cartman singing "Poker Face), South Park has been struggling to find its footing on the comedic hill, so to speak. Sadly, this season the show has slipped into the realm of needlessly pedantic.

For those of you fortunate enough not to have watched it, here's a quick synopsis: a bunch of motorcycle riders come through South Park, and Stan, Cartman, Kyle, and Kenny do what comes naturally to them - they call them the "F" word (And no, I do not mean the word "fuck," which I feel pretty fucking free to use whenever I fucking please. I mean the word that's an insulting term for a gay person.). The remainder of the episode deals with whether this word's usage is, in this day and age, acceptable when insulting someone for being an inconsiderate douchebag. Matt Stone and Trey Parker are (Surprise! But not really.) decidedly in favor of the word's liberal use, even going so far as to have various characters call each other "F" word approximately one million times throughout the episode.

Um, am I the only one who thinks that this is, like, way not an okay thing? Parker and Stone don't speak from the position of cultural authority that grants them the right to mandate which words our society can and cannot use, especially words that reference groups that they don't represent. Yes, I realize that they run a highly successful TV show, of which I am generally a fan. Yes, I realize that they could give two shits about what I think about the language that they use, and yes, I realize that they've done way worse stuff on the show before. But I'm just saying. They fucked up real big on this one, kids.

What they seem unwilling to acknowledge is that by calling a person a "faggot," even if you're not trying to use the term to attack their sexuality or imply a certain sexuality, you tap into that well of intolerance and injustice that's been spewed against homosexuals throughout history. In a sense, you're taking some of that negativity and directing it in a person's way. So even if you don't mean to insult a person's sexuality, you're using the word's power (which is rooted in being a gay slur) against someone. So Parker and Stone's argument that "faggot" has been used throughout the years to denote myriad objects and concepts and that now its definition might be changing yet again is about three hairs shy of bullshit. No, scratch that. It's pretty much total bullshit.

Another big issue here is the problem of representation. Parker and Stone traffic in making these sweeping statements about the nature of society that they're pretty much zero percent qualified to make. Like with this episode, they're neither gay nor do they represent the gay community in any way, shape, or form. So for them to decide that "faggot" isn't an offensive term to gays is preposterous. It's up to the gay community as a whole to decide whether the word is offensive, and since every single LBGTQ (forgive me if I left a letter of the acronym out) person is never going to reach a consensus on whether it's okay to say that word or not, that means that Matt Stone and Trey Parker should just leave this puppy at the shelter.