It never comes as a shock when South Park says or does something offensive. The adult cartoon is well known for its hilarious, controversial, and often offensive humor, and this is what makes it so popular around the world.
It is probably impossible to count the number of times that the cartoon has offended someone or has made an extremely offensive joke. However, their most recent one is probably their most controversial.
They have poked fun at and have completely roasted the transgender community by featuring a trans athlete in an episode. Obviously, the show has received a huge backlash with many dubbing the creators as transphobic.
Keep scrolling to see the clip, and to hear what people have had to say on the matter…
South Park is one of America’s most famous adult cartoons.
Created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone back in 1997, the show follows the misadventures of 4 potty-mouthed grade-schoolers in the dysfunctional town of South Park, Colorado.
South Park is known to push the boundaries of what is, and what isn’t acceptable to be shown on TV.
This includes the issues of gun laws here in America, racism, and pedophilia.
The Stone and Parker duo have come under fire (again) for a recent episode that openly mocks transgender athletes.
The world was divided after McKinnon, who has fully transitioned to a woman, won gold in the women’s world championship cycling, with many arguing that, because she was born biologically male, she shouldn’t be allowed to compete with women.
And, of course, Stone and Parker managed to squeeze in their own, not-so-subtle dig.
The episode is titled Board Girls…
And it revolves around the character Strong Woman (who is also the vice principal at the elementary school and partner of PC Principal, with whom she has the PC babies) entering a Strongwoman Competition, which she previously won.
In the episode, she is asked by a sportscaster about how she feels about the trans woman competing alongside her, to which she responds,
“I feel honored to be a part of history, I have a lot of incredible trans friends who are athletes, so we are all inspired that this woman is competing.”
So far, so good…
The sportscaster goes on to ask Strong Woman if she has met the trans athlete, Heather Swanson, and she replies with a no.
“She’s not exactly your average trans athlete,” the sportscaster then says.
And when she walks into the camera shot, the joke is clear.
Heather goes on to say,
“I’m not here to talk about my transition, I’m here to kick some f****** a**,” and “I’m gonna roll up the other women here, and I’m gonna smoke ’em. I am the strongest woman this state has ever seen,” after being asked if it was true that she began identifying as a woman only 2 weeks ago.
The episode shows the other women competing against Heather, and it’s safe to say that they get completely crushed by her in the different games, such as wrestling and shotput.
In the end, Heather, who claimed to be unstoppable, is defeated by some of the elementary school girls who formed a board game club after the boys at the school complained and had them removed from their game club.
Heather says the competition against the girls was not fair because she was born a man, which means she does not read the board game directions beforehand like she says women do, so she was at a disadvantage. Cartman then invites Heather to join the boy’s club.
Because South Park is so popular…
There are many out there who found the episode funny and felt it was delivering an accurate message about the current debates about trans athletes.
McKinnon, who has made headlines recently in regards to her “unfair” abilities as a trans athlete, said on Twitter, “I’m not particularly mad about the South Park episode.”
“Yes, it’s transphobic. Yes, it’s lazy. Yes, it contributes to harm to trans women and girls. But they’re lazy and increasingly irrelevant. F***, Futurama made the same stupid storyline in 2003. Transphobes don’t have new jokes.”
It’s an extremely difficult situation.
The episode doesn’t necessarily mean that Parker and Stone are transphobic, and many have argued that the episode is proving a very valid issue that the sporting world is currently dealing with.
But it is clearly offensive to the transgender community, and it is never acceptable to make fun of somebody for the way they identify.