For you, we want to recommend South Park.
Text: Womany Jiaqi
Pick a show for you, we want to pick South Park for you. Maybe since you were a child, you were forbidden by your family to watch South Park, and it seemed to be full of swear words, bloody and brutal, so throughout your childhood, you missed 300 episodes of animation. Until recently, you didn't know that it wasn't bad, but that it was too sharp, and many people laughed while feeling the weakness of values being poked when watching the anime, which made many people's faces sore and painful. (Screening in the same scene: [Pick a film for you] Bojack Horseman: Truth itself is powerful)
"South Park" is such an "adult-like" anime. Not only loves to slap the right in the face, but also chokes the left, in the 135th episode of 2005, he also talked about same-sex marriage. Can two boys raise an egg together?
When the time comes to 2019, many people are still asking the same question. So, we'd like to show you the South Park Elementary in Colorado. A teacher who insists on opposing gay marriages, believing that gay will make children embarrassed and confused. is like a divine prophecy, in the play, they also gave the United States and Taiwan a seemingly absurd, but in fact ironic and realistic answer.
"Two boys, can you take care of the baby?"
In Mr. Garrison's class, the fourth-grade gender education class at Southern Elementary School practiced "parenting" as an after-school assignment.
She asks her children to pair up with a boy and a woman, and the two of them take care of an egg together, in any way. If after a week, the egg is intact and you can get an A, and if the egg is broken, you can only get an F.
However, in the story, Colorado is about to pass the same-sex marriage bill, and many anti-same-sex people take to the streets to protest, including Mr. Garrison. So, the teacher gave a speech on stage, collected anti-gay marriage signatures, wanted to plead his case to the governor, and lobbied him to veto the gay marriage bill.
Mr. Garrison stepped up to the stage and said, "These gay people think they have big enough power to trample on tradition. Marriage is obviously sacred, and it can only be built on one man and one woman! They passed this law behind our backs, and we have only one way left, and that is to fight to the end! We're going to get three or four gays and beat them up until they vomit blood! How about we get a truck and drag them to an old-school Fag drag?!"
The audience was silent. At this time, in the anti-peer camp, someone cringed and spoke.
"Well, we're actually thinking, let's just appeal to the governor and not use violence. We don't actually hate homosexuals, we, we just don't want them to get married. We hope the governor vetoes this proposal!" Ironically, we also see that contemporary homophobia, which may not seem as direct and violent as in the past, is also a form of arrogance in everyday life. (Read more: How did Freud communicate with a mother who was afraid her son was gay in 1935?) ）
And when the group of opponents came to the governor's office, the governor read the petition and said, "But I don't know anything about gay marriage, so how do I know if I should veto it?" Mr. Garrison said, "But once you get gay people to get married, they think they'll be able to raise children."
"Governor, do you think gay people have the ability to raise children?"
"I can't really judge, unless, there's research that proves what happens to gay marriages." said the governor. This reminds Mr. Garrison of his own experiments. So on Monday, he went back to class and announced something new.
"We've changed the rules, now we're going to have two boys in a group," he says, ignoring the class's complaints about the homework changes, and asks Stan to be paired with Kyle.
"Let's see if the two boys can take care of the baby! Even though we all know it can't be!"
After school, the teacher also hired a sniper in the hope that he would chase and kill the two children (with the egg) along the way, while he continued to actively lobby the governor to veto the gay bill in the least amount of time.
So at a meeting, the governor said, "Otherwise, it's okay, and I came up with a compromise." Homosexuals want to get married, but the opponents don't want the word 'marriage' to be tarnished, otherwise we will take separate names, but both parties will have the same rights. How about being called a butt buddy? You're not the bride and groom, you're good friends!"
"But what we want is fair treatment!" "And, what about the lesbians?" The discussion turned into a form of homogamy. Others believe that this special law, like a special water fountain for African-Americans, is an act of false equality and real discrimination (and, of course, lesbians who have been ignored from beginning to end).
As a result, the two sides remained at a stalemate.
Later in the story, the two boys try desperately to avoid all the snipers in order to protect the eggs. They ran into the town hall and the bomb killed most of the anti-gay protesters. And then they said to everybody, "Teacher, we did it." We took good care of our eggs.
The teacher was puzzled. "How can two boys take care of the eggs? It may be fine on the outside, but the inside of this egg may be confused and embarrassed! Because it has two dads!"
But at the end of the story, the governor decided to pass the gay marriage bill because of the courage of the two boys to protect the eggs.
This is the end of the story. Beneath the farce-like façade (which is almost as similar to reality) lies the core of the issue of supporting same-sex marriage. It's also one of the few issues that South Park is willing to take a clear stand. The playful and scolding South Park, often hailed as the world's most contradictory anime, mocks everyone, but for the most part, it takes such a clear side of the liberal left.
In 2013, The Guardian reported that South Park had almost everyone love and hate:
It was once accused of homophobia by the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) in the United States for its use of the word "fag" in the animation. At the same time, it won the GLAAD Award for Outstanding Television because in the fourth episode of the first season, "Big Gay Al's Big Gay Boat Ride" (1997), Sparky, the dog who portrays the main character's shitball, is gay.
Poop originally wanted to change his sexuality, but when he realized that his love for Ah Meng had not changed because of his sexual orientation, Egg changed from homophobia to accepting the real Ah Meng, and led the other residents of South Park to accept him as well.
Before the launch of Brother Kee's Love Boat, two South Park writers, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, talk around the fire. The moderator asked them, "A lot of people are curious about your relationship, are you gay?"
They replied: Probably a little bit. Each of us should be a little gay, even our dogs scratchy are a little gay."
In a 2013 interview with The Guardian, they said that the few issues they were willing to support were "gay marriage" and "pro-gun".
Sounds contradictory? Perhaps, it may also be that our imagination of the world is too simple. And they're still good at telling stories in a way that makes everyone laugh and cry.
"When we start choking on something, everybody loves us at first. But when they find out that we are actually planning to make a sudden turn, they will suddenly change their faces and yell, 'WTF?' Parker said.
Perhaps, the young generation they represent is also like this in the face of the world. They love to ridicule some overly deliberate political correctness, but they still embrace the values of democracy and freedom.
In 2019, when we re-watched South Park's kids who hadn't aged in over 20 years, we might be able to learn more. As the world becomes more and more skewed and absurd, we should be more mindful of the power of language. Through the language of South Park, we also rethink what kind of world we want to shape.