Vulgarity and Depiction of Racism
The show further lampooned the controversy surrounding its use of profanity, as well as the media attention surrounding the network show Chicago Hope's singular use of the word "shit", with the season five premiere "It Hits the Fan". A counter superimposed in the bottom left corner of the screen tracked each of the episode's utterances of the word "shit", which was said 162 times without being bleeped for censorship purposes, while also appearing uncensored in written form. The backlash to the episode was mostly limited to 5,000 disapproving e-mails sent to Comedy Central.
The PTC also criticized the show for its excessive use of the racial epithet "nigger" in the season 11 (2007) premiere "With Apologies to Jesse Jackson". Despite its 43 uncensored uses of the word, the episode generated relatively little other controversy, as most in the black community and the NAACP praised the episode for its context and its comedic way of conveying other races' perceptions of how black people must feel when hearing the word. While some in the Jewish community have praised the show's depiction of the character Eric Cartman holding an anti-Semitic attitude towards fellow student Kyle Broflovski as a means of accurately portraying what it is like for a young Jew to have to endure bigotry as an ethnic minority, other Jews have blamed South Park and Cartman for having found themselves surrounded by "acceptable racism".
Read more about this topic: South Park Controversies
Famous quotes containing the words vulgarity and/or racism:
“It’s only with great vulgarity that you can achieve real refinement, only out of bawdry that you can get tenderness.”
—Lawrence Durrell (1912–1990)
“Few white citizens are acquainted with blacks other than those projected by the media and the so—called educational system, which is nothing more than a system of rewards and punishments based upon one’s ability to pledge loyalty oaths to Anglo culture. The media and the “educational system” are the prime sources of racism in the United States.”
—Ishmael Reed (b. 1938)