For almost a week now I’ve been seeing a preview for the next “South Park”. In one scene, Cartman calls some kids playing Harry Potter “fags”. I’ve seen this commercial about 20 times at least.
But tonight I saw it again. Same commercial, same scene. But this time he didn’t call them “fags”. He called them “dorks”.
So what happened? Did they get so much flack for it that they changed it? I didn’t hear about any complaints.
Is saying fag once on television worse than saying shit 200+ times?
Perhaps. “Shit” is a harmless word that denotes little more than a poor vocabulary. “Fag” is a hateful, evil, bigotted slur.
Which would be worse, saying “fck" on television, or saying "ngger”? To me, the answer to that is clear. As is the choice about which is worse between “shit” and “fag.”
Kirk
There was some good humor about the “gay mafia” awhile back…I’m gay and I have to admit, there isn’t so much a Hollywood gay mafia as much as there is a huge gay presence in the entertainment industry.
Substitute the word fag with “Kike”, “Wetback”, “Polack” and “Nigger” and you can damn well imagine what would have happened.
Go to Google and type in GLAAD…
I really didn’t intend to turn this into a debate.
I’m more interested in what lead them to edit Cartmans remark, before the episode even aired. I haven’t read anything about complaints or protests.
I compared “fag” with “shit” because I don’t recall there being huge protest over the shit episode.
Have you ever watched that show? Cartman calls Kyle a “stupid jew” all the time. I can’t imagin there are any groups this show hasn’t offended.
Same commercial, same scene . . . same time of day?
It’s probably because of the time slot of the commercial. Because of the sensitive nature of the word, it’s going to be considered adult content, meaning it won’t be aired during the daytime; they could get sued.
This happened in the past when a radio station aired George Carlin’s “seven words you can’t say on the radio” routine at around 2 in the afternoon. There was a lawsuit about it (FCC v. Pacifica), and when all was said and done, it was said that while even offensive material is protected by the first amendment, it can still wait until after the kids go to bed.
No, see, in Britain “fag” means either “cigarette” or “lower classman” and since Harry Potter is British Matt and Trey didn’t want there to be any confusion.
My guess is that was just the time commercial was aired. I’ve noticed them doing similar things, like bleeping “asshole” in the commercial when in prime time but not bleeping it when the commercial is aired later.
Regarding the use of the word “fag”, I think a strong theme in the show is that children are basically hateful, bigoted creatures. It is perfectly appropriate to show these characters using words like “fag” and making fun of a character because he’s Jewish. Being offended by it is like being offended that Archie Bunker uses a bigoted term. It’s not an approval of bigotry, it’s belittling bigotry.
Not much comfort to the gay adolescent or teenager who’s watching, Revtim.
That’s probably true. But I think South Park is trying to reflect how children actually talk and act, not change it.
Haven’t seen the clip and haven’t watched South Park in years, buuuut, in wanted to comment on the thing about “stupid jew”.
The general negative stereotype is not (as far as I know which isn’t much) that they are stupid. The ones I am aware of are all to do with money etc, and if he were calling Kyle a moneygrabbing kike then yes, I think the various jewish organisations would be protesting and more power to them. They already have gay characters that they have fun with/make fun of all in the South Park spirit, but the word fag doesn’t need any more help on the road to being a catch-all cussword to throw at your buds. It’s well on its way. All the other examples have (or require) a modifier to make them sufficiently offensive in contex, for example stupid jew. Seems like fag is offensive all by its lonesome.
While most minority youths have been hearing from friends and family for years “Don’t mind if anyone calls you names, it’s them there is a problem with” etc. Very, very few lgb kids have this, in fact many just the opposite. But that’s a whole nother thread, isn’t it?
PS. I totally get that the show is offensive, that you are meant to sit there gasping in astonishment and giggling like a fool, that’s what I do when I watch it.
Also, since the South Park kids are trying to return a Lord of the Rings tape, and Cartman is dressed up like Gandalf or something, it’s actually funny that they’re calling the Harry Potter kids dorks. It makes more sense comedically, if you think about it.
I noticed this too, and I figured it had been changed because it was too offensive for a commercial. Then, I heard it changed back to “fags” later in the evening, so I figured it was a time-of-day thing. But then, I’m almost positive I heard “fags” once in the evening and “dorks” later, so I’m confused.
Hey, I am not a dork!
the comparison to the “shit” episode is a good one, since that episode features Mr’ Garrison walking down the street singing “shitty, shitty fag fag”. Of course it also includes Garrison explaining that it’s ok for him to say fag since he’s gay.
OK, I just saw the ad again(11:15 pm sunday). It had not been changed. My guess is that they have an edited version that the show during the day when young kids are more likely to be watching.
Well, promos often have stuff that doesn’t appear in the broadcast. Last week, I think it was, there was a promo for King of the Hill where Bobby was practicing dancing with a bag of leaf clippings for a partner. Hank yells for him to cut that out, and Bill tilts his head hopefully, saying, “I haven’t seen that bag of leaf clippings around here before…” Sure enough, the episode aired without Bill’s line. And that’s just one example.
[ramble]There was another promo that week that I was sure would not get into the final broadcast. On Bernie Mac, Jordan had a snake that he was supposedly taking care of as a school assignment. Bernie’s uneasy about snakes, so naturally, the snake escapes from its…terrarium, I guess you call it. Well, the promo showed Bernie walking into the kitchen with a jock strap over his trousers, giving the effect of a codpiece, and asking, “Anyone seen an anaconda around here?”
“They’ll never leave that in,” I thought. But they did![/ramble]