With Apologies to Jesse Jackson
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"With Apologies to Jesse Jackson" is episode 1101 (#154) of Comedy Central's animated comedy series South Park and the premiere of the show's 11th season. The episode premiered on March 7, 2007. The episode is rated TV-MA.
Incidents referenced include the Laugh Factory incident in Los Angeles, California, in which actor Michael Richards angrily shouted racial slurs at a black audience member who was heckling him.[1]
Plot
Randy Marsh appears on Wheel of Fortune and is presented with a bonus round puzzle whose category is "People Who Annoy You." Randy is given the letters: R, T, S, L, and E. He adds the letters: B, N, G, and O leaving the puzzle to spell: N_GGERS. With five seconds to go he reluctantly guesses: "Niggers!" on live national television, shocking his family, friends and millions of viewers worldwide. The correct answer is actually "naggers," and Randy loses.
The next day, Cartman warns Stan that Token will be mad at him (he will "kick his cracker teeth in"), so Stan attempts to defend his father. Token tells Stan he doesn't understand how black people feel about that word. Despite Cartman's attempts to escalate the incident into a "race war," Token refuses to fight (leading Cartman to proclaim "Token forfeits! Whites win! Whites win! Race war's over, everyone! Whites win again!").
Randy attempts to rectify his mistake by officially apologizing to Rev. Jesse Jackson. Jackson only accepts after getting a picture of Randy kissing his buttocks, which is published in several newspapers. Stan thinks everything is okay now, but Token states that "Jesse Jackson is not the emperor of black people!" (despite Jackson apparently telling Randy that he was). Meanwhile, Randy goes to a comedy club where the black comedian recognizes and points Randy out while jokingly calling him "the nigger guy," which soon catches on as Randy's new epithet.
Back at school, a dwarf by the name of Dr. David Nelson (voiced by Trey Parker while inhaling helium) is called in to give a presentation on sensitivity. He insists "words are like bullets; they go through me." As soon as Cartman sees him he begins to laugh, disrupting the assembly so Dr. Nelson cannot speak. Dr. Nelson decides to go against his standards and get revenge by making the other kids mock Cartman's weight problem, however he is frustrated as Cartman continues to laugh uncontrollably at him.
Randy continues trying to redeem himself by founding a scholarship for blacks. However, he is soon accosted by a gang of anti-racist rednecks, who hunt the "nigger guy." They criticize him for "slandering an entire race on national television" and say "We don't take kindly to social ignorance." A group of other "nigger guys," including Michael Richards (who said the word in the Laugh Factory Incident) and Mark Fuhrman (whose documented use of the word as an LAPD officer discredited his testimony during the OJ Simpson murder case), scare the rednecks away and invite Randy to join their organization of people who have become pariahs for the use of the word nigger. They successfully lobby Congress to pass a law saying at least seven words must always separate the words nigger and guy.
Cartman and Dr. Nelson wrestle, and Cartman forces Dr. Nelson to submit by saying "uncle" and "Carol Anne, don't go into the light!" despite being beaten Dr. Nelson claims victory and to have proved his point. Stan and Kyle say that they have no idea what Dr. Nelson's point was, but then Stan concludes that not knowing the point is the point. He explains to Token that, as a white person, he will never understand why Token is so upset by the word, and why it can make black people mad when a white person says it in any context. Token is finally satisfied that Stan gets that he doesn't get it, thus creating an understanding between them.
Trivia
- During the first few letters being revealed in the Wheel of Fortune Game, the letter space is turned blue and then the letter appears, but when the letter A is revealed, the space is flipped which is the old format of Wheel of Fortune.
- Dr. Nelson is Trey Parker's voice while exhaling Helium
- One of the rednecks who chased Randy was named Skeeter, which was one of the Rednecks names in Sexual Harassment Panda who sat at the bar.
- Wheel of Fortune is taped during the day then aired at night, not live.
- Had Randy appeared on the real Wheel of Fortune, he would have received a N along with a R, L, E, T and S.
- The first few runs of this episode replaced the word Nigger with people saying 'The N-Word' and 'N-Guy.'
- Cartman made a reference to the popular video sharing site YouTube, saying he watched Randy Marsh's blunder several time on it.
- The Comedy club Randy goes to is called the Laugh Factory, the same place where Michael Richards said his infamous racial slur.
- The song played at the credits and when Cartman and Dr. Nelson fight is "Down With The Sickness" by Disturbed.
- When Cartman pinned Dr. Nelson to the ground, he made him say "Carol-Ann, don't go into the light," which is a famous line from the movie Poltergeist. That line was spoken by a short person, which was why Cartman made Dr. Nelson said it.
- The scene when Michael Richards is scolding Randy about being "Another damn Nigger-Guy" is a scene from the movie Glory.
- Mr. Nelson tells the kids to say "hello, fatso!" Instead they say "Good morning, fatso!" in a cheerful manner. This too was fixed in subsequent airings: "Hello, fatso" in a listless manner.
- The word Nigger is said 42 times in the episode, 3 times by itself, and 39 times as "Nigger-guy".
- The scene where the rednecks want to shoot Randy is a very loose allusion to the book "To Kill a Mockingbird" where Atticus protects Tom Robinson from being killed by the racist white people
- David Nelson is drawn to look just like the famous informercial twin brothers John and Greg Rice, who are also little people
Reception and controversy
This episode had news broadcasts on the CNN programs Showbiz Tonight and Paula Zahn Now[2] in the days following the broadcast of this episode. Kovon and Jill Flowers, who co-founded the organization Abolish the "N" Word, which is linked with the NAACP, praised this episode, saying it was a good example of how it felt to be called nigger.
This show, in its own comedic way, is helping people to educate the power of this word, and how it can feel to have hate language directed at you.
— Kovon and Jill Flowers
Parents Television Council founder L. Brent Bozell claimed that there was a lack of protest against this episode compared to radio host Don Imus's comments about the Rutgers University women's basketball team, even challenging Flowers' comments that the episode's use of nigger was not intended to be racist, but in fact the theme of the episode was to argue against those who support civility.[3] The PTC named this episode, along with the episode of The Sarah Silverman Program that aired right after this episode, the "Worst Cable Content of the Week" in its campaign for cable choice.[4] The episode received about 2.8 million viewers.[1]
References
- ^ a b Lisa de Moraes (2007). "The Show That Keeps Them Hanging On". The TV Column. The Washington Post. Retrieved 2007-04-11.
- ^ Transcript of "Paula Zahn Now" from 8 March, 2007. CNN. Retrieved April 14, 2007.
- ^ L. Brent Bozell. "The Incomplete Anti-Imus Lobby". Parents Television Council. April 12, 2007. Retrieved April 13, 2007.
- ^ White, Keith (2007-03-15). "Worst Cable Content of the Week - South Park and the Sarah Silverman Program on Comedy Central". Web.archive.org. Parents Television Council. Retrieved 2007-07-03.
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External links
- With Apologies to Jesse Jackson at TV.com
- Every South Park Episode at South Park Studios