Research Paper

Abstract: The history of South Park and why it is relevant to political tolerance is explored. The hypothesis given is that individuals who have a high level of exposure to South Park will have a higher level of political tolerance than those who have little to no exposure to South Park. A look at where and how political socialization begins is presented. The evidence found from similar popular culture entities, like Harry Potter, The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, on their influence towards political tolerance is shown as comparisons to South Park. A survey given gauges 90 participants’ political tolerance level and exposure to South Park through a series of questions. The results were conclusive in displaying that the participants most exposed to South Park had a high political tolerance which was only slightly higher than those participants with little to no exposure to South Park. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Table of Contents

Chapter One: Introduction 3

Chapter Two: Political Socialization 7

Chapter Three: Learning from Popular Culture 10

Chapter Four: Research Design 13

Chapter Five: Results 15

Chapter Six: Conclusion 19

Appendix 21

Bibliography 26

Chapter One: Introduction

The show South Park was created in 1997 by two friends Trey Parker and Matt Stone. The brilliant duo met in college and began their journey by making two small skits that eventually morphed into one of the most successful, popular and 3rd longest running cartoon show of all time. South Park is famous for its progressive views and has even been continuously praised by large activist groups. GLAAD nominated the creators for their episode entitled “Big Gay Al’s Big Gay Boat Ride” in 1998 for the Outstanding TV – Individual Episode award (IMDb, 2015). Having just finished its 18th season with a total of 257 episodes, a movie made in 2001, 11 awards including 5 Emmys and 31 other nominations, South Park has no doubt made an impact on the entertainment industry. But what else could this very progressive and politically satirical show have influenced over the long years?

Trey Parker and Matt Stone portray many social and political conversations as utter farces. And they do this by using the crudest and most shocking tactics possible. They absolutely do not hold back; when it comes to their spotlight of ridicule, no one is safe. Yet the position that the show ultimately takes is that of tolerance. After all the insulting content, harsh language and potty humor the viewer is struck with a positive lesson that the four main boys learned throughout their journey. For instance in the episode entitled “All About the Mormons”, it is clear that the creators are severely poking fun at the Mormon religion. However, in the end there is a speech from one of the young boys that contradicts the ridicule and actually makes the viewer feel stupid for even laughing at it in the first place. The boy says,

“Look, maybe us Mormons do believe in crazy stories that make absolutely no sense. And maybe Joseph Smith did make it all up. But I have a great life and a great family and I have the book of Mormon to thank for that! The truth is, I don’t care if Joseph Smith made it all up! Because what the church teaches now is loving your family, being nice and helping people. And even though people in this town might think that’s stupid, I still choose to believe in it. All I ever did was try to be your friend, Stan. But you’re so high and mighty you couldn’t look past my religion and just be my friend back. You got a lot of growing up to do buddy, suck my balls”.

It brings the viewer above the fluff and nonsense of an issue in such a way that makes them feel superior to it while also allowing them to change perspective and see the subject as a whole. Then without the viewer even necessarily realizing it, the message becomes so clear while also ringing truth. “It properly offends everybody by design and by doing so it reminds us all that it’s probably a good idea to be tolerant” (Grossberg, 2006). It would seem almost laughable now to be intolerant.

The method that the creators take is important for a couple of reasons but most importantly, it is worth noting because it targets a younger audience. The cartoon aspect along with the crude humor makes it appealing to teens and young adults. Carla Schulzke points out that South Park has an ability to make arguments that are “sophisticated and reflective of scholarly work” and this is just another reason why it is worth paying attention to (Schulzke, 2012). A teen that is otherwise uninterested in politics or important social matters will not be molding their opinions and views from news sources, instead they will be learning from a show like South Park that displays it to them in a way they can understand. It is simple, yet still a deeply thought out and complex theme.

It comes down to the fact that the creators of South Park are trying to open a dialogue that is unbiased by the extremely liberal or conservative forces. Trey Parker said in an interview on The Charlie Rose Show, “It is that the people screaming on this side and the people screaming on that side are the same people, and it’s okay to be someone in the middle laughing at both of them” (TCRS, 2005). “Those who refuse to let others ask questions and speak their minds ought to be prevented from doing so; otherwise, the open discussion that is so essential to a healthy democracy will become impossible to maintain” (Curtis, 2009). That quote comes from David Valleau Curtis and Gerald J. Erion in an article that they wrote on South Park and how it portrays its views with an intolerance for intolerance. “We learn something by paying close attention to the show’s tacit criticism of overzealous left-wing and right-wing political extremists” (Curtis, 2009). The show allows for both extremes to have their say while simultaneously showing the viewer exactly why they should be better than that. “Free and unfettered inquiry is the only satisfactory method for gaining knowledge” (Curtis, 2009).

Josh Silver argues that the news media channels we have now are dominated by the right-wing who are trying desperately to gain control. He claims that those in charge are not asking the right questions or maintaining a neutral sense of perspective (Silver, 2005). What is most disturbing about this is the point he makes about viewers who watch shows like FOX News, he says they are highly misled with biased and inaccurate information. It does not seem to be a secret either, at least to a portion of the population, that news stations are biased because they consist of people with all the exact same ideologies. So it is reasons like this that make South Park that much more appealing. South Park strips away the bias and filters and presents its argument in the purest form. It is difficult to not find that refreshing especially for young adults who are still learning. So clearly with its appeal to the young audience, sophisticated tolerant arguments and extreme popularity, South Park could very well have an influence on its viewers who grew up watching it.

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether or not South Park influences political tolerance, which can be defined as the ability to accept views and lifestyles that are different from your own. In order to do so, I will analyze the different agents of political socialization and the impacts they have on political attitudes, especially the media. I am also going to see what types of impacts other shows similar to South Park, like The Daily Show or The Colbert Report, have on viewers. Furthermore, I have created a survey to gauge participant’s political opinions and South Park exposure. I am hopeful that the survey will back up my hypothesis that viewers of South Park are more politically tolerant, in that they are more able to accept opinions that differ from their own. So I will introduce my survey, report the results, and then conclude with my findings and where there may be room for improvement or areas to look at further.

Chapter Two: Learning Politics: Political Socialization

It is important to ask the question about where and how we are influenced in growing our political attitudes. Political socialization can be defined as a lifelong process, but very much more relevant in a person’s younger years, where people form their political opinions and attitudes. There are four basic groups that are widely accepted as being the main influences: religion, education/school, parents and the media. So what is arguably the biggest influence? It is relevant to consider the fact that the current younger generations may not have had the same influence as the past and older generations. The increase in technology and mass use of media these days especially among young adults is worth considering.

Lindsay H. Hoffman and Tiffany L. Thomson contribute to the debate in research they conducted that proposes the role of the family in socialization is becoming not as prominent, whereas the role of the media is increasing (Hoffman, 2009). In addition, they also discuss that there are actually a few different positive and negative effects that come from watching late night comedies like The Daily Show or South Park which are: “attention to traditional news sources, political learning, candidate evaluations, political efficacy, and political cynicism” (Hoffman, 2009). Watching these shows can give the viewer a confidence in themselves to understand and participate in politics (Hoffman, 2009). It argues that political cynicism, which other scholars have claimed to be a common result of this type of television viewing, is actually not correlated with them (Hoffman, 2009). The overall message and the biggest take away from this is that “nontraditional political news has a positive effect on young adults’ internal political efficacy which in turn positively predicts their engagement” (Hoffman, 2009).

Similarly, a study done by Matthew D. Trujillo and Elizabeth Levy Paluck discuss an experiment that examined the impact a television show had on people’s political attitudes. The authors came to the conclusion that a show’s content or its portrayal of characters interacting with government influenced the outcome of the viewer’s opinion (Trujillo, 2012). This crucial point was also made by the authors, “narrative entertainment media is a potent influence channel that is met by relatively less resistance compared to other channels” (Trujillo, 2012). This is interesting because South Park would be under the same category as narrative entertainment. Furthermore, it is true that the show would not receive the critical viewpoint off the bat that a show like FOX News would. People who sit down to watch South Park are looking for a much different experience than those sitting down to watch the news. Thus this leaves the opportunity for influence open and strong.

Parents and parental upbringing also must play a large role. A Gallup poll done in 2005 says that 71% of teens said they had about the same political and social ideology as their parents (Lyons, 2005). This is a hard fact to ignore, but given that the study was done on teenagers, it is likely that they may not yet have their own sense of identity. So this could potentially change as they get older and increase their knowledge.

Religion is also a factor that cannot be overlooked. It is very likely that deep rooted religious people will show the same values in their political ideology. In fact, “the socially liberal policy positions endorsed by the Democratic Party since the 1960s with respect to abortion, family, and homosexuality have resulted in the steady erosion of Catholic support for Democratic candidates” (Brooks, 2004). So clearly for religious individuals, their politics can be influenced from their core values. Religion is a very intimate thing for people and it is usual for those people to base their whole lives on the religious practices and morals they hold. It seems that when it comes to religion there is little room for influence from outside sources on political socialization. Although schools and classrooms can be influential on political socialization because they offer the possibility of beginning political discussions in the curricula (Warren, 2011).

There are countless media outlets that are accessed by and garnered towards young people. South Park is simply one of a giant system. Media plays a huge part in the political identification whereas influences like parents play more of a role in civic engagement (Warren, 2011). “By 2015, Americans are expected to consume media for 1.7 trillion hours, or an average of 15.5 hours a day per person, not counting workplace time” (Zverina, 2013). That fact is an actual game changer for political socialization. Americans are literally force-fed countless messages and information in a single day by the media. There is simply no way one could argue that media does not play a huge role, if not the largest role, in political socialization.

Chapter Three: Learning from Popular Culture

There are many examples to look at it when it comes to popular culture and the effect it has on people. Shows like The Daily Show and The Colbert Report are large players but even books like the Harry Potter series can be extremely influential.

Jon Stewart has proven time and again to be a huge voice when it comes to politics. The Daily Show with Jon Stewart has been running since 1999 and by 2013 had an average of 2.5 million viewers nightly (TFC, 2013). It also is the second longest running show on Comedy Central behind South Park. Time magazine conducted a poll in 2009 that showed 44% of respondents considered Jon Stewart to be the most trusted news person in America (Grondin, 2012). This is a huge deal because it again reiterates the fact that people are no longer trusting traditional news sources to give them accurate information. Jon Stewart absolutely has the popularity and the credibility to morph or strengthen people’s political opinions and understandings. It comes from his ability to speak as an “everyman” which makes him a more relatable figure to the public (Grondin, 2012).

Stephen Colbert is right up there with Stewart in popularity and political influence. His show, The Colbert Report, ran from 2005 until just recently ending in December 2014. In 2008 and in 2012, Colbert announced that he would run for president. It was mostly a joke but during the time he was pretending, he had a large amount of support among young adults. The act got loads of media attention and Colbert even appeared on a segment of Meet the Press (Reilly, 2012). If Stephen Colbert ever did actually run for president, it would not come as a surprise if he was very successful.

Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart use political satire that really resonates with audiences. It not only appeals to the audience but it also has powerful effects. Satirical fake news had the power to reshape conventional reportage of the 2008 election and the Iraq War across multiple platforms (Reilly, 2012). Examples like this help make it clear just how much influence the use of satire can be on people. Trey Parker and Matt Stone regularly use this same humor in their show. Lisa Colletta discuses satire and irony and how their current involvement in television is self-reflexive, that “political activity is being reduced to photo ops”, and that “Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart can be considered the best commentary on television” (Colletta, 2012). She thinks that use of satire can show a person their shortcomings, allow them to laugh at it and then encourage them to change. This is exactly what South Park, The Colbert Report and The Daily Show all do.

It is not just television programs that make impacts, in fact Harry Potter has been analyzed and concluded to hold an impact on the young people who engage in it. Anthony Gierzynski with Kathryn Eddy explain just that in their book entitled, Harry Potter and the Millennials. The story is riddled with diversity and themes that directly relate to real life social issues. The study that was conducted on Harry Potter found that extended contact with the story can promote attitudes of tolerance and inclusion (Paul, 2014). People who connect with characters like Harry Potter, especially young people, feel moved by the stories consistent attempt at being inclusive, good and love oriented. A huge theme throughout the whole series was that the reason Voldemort would never be able to control Harry was because Harry knew love while Voldemort did not.

Gierzynski states it perfectly,

“Fiction – whether found in books, films, television shows, or video games – has the power to shape our politics. All stories contain lessons we may learn; all characters in those stories have traits and values we may try to emulate” (Gierzynski, 2013). Stories are powerful and narrative entertainment gives its viewer the ability to connect to the characters, feel moved by the message and let it shape their opinions and views in the process.

Chapter Four: Research Design

The survey I created in order to test my theory, that individuals who are exposed to South Park will be more politically tolerant, was twenty three questions long consisting of demographic, political and social opinion and South Park trivia questions. The dependent variable I used was the respondent’s political tolerance level and my independent variable was exposure to South Park. I asked questions on political issues like abortion and gay marriage to measure political tolerance, while then posing trivia questions about South Park in order to gain a measurement of exposure to the show. I used questions pertaining to religion and the political stance of the respondent’s parents in order to see if there could possibly be a different influence towards political tolerance other than South Park. You can see the whole survey in the appendix of this paper.

The respondents to the survey were between the ages of 18 and 25 and were recruited through a convenience sample on Facebook and Tumblr. I posted the survey on my own Facebook and Tumblr at the same time encouraging as many people to take it as possible while also asking those who did, to share it so that more people outside of my contacts would see it and participate. I had about fifteen different people besides myself share the survey on their Facebooks and about three people repost it on Tumblr. Tumblr is a much more diverse social media than Facebook, so there is a good possibility that many of the people who took it after seeing it on Tumblr are from all over The United States. All participants were given the reason I was conducting a survey, given my contact information if needed and assured of total anonymity. I also encouraged everyone to take the survey whether they watched South Park or not for I needed a decent amount of responders from both backgrounds of South Park exposure in order to get the best results possible.

There were quite a few shortcomings in the process that I used. For instance I used the convenience sampling style to collect responses so it is likely that a majority of the respondents are people I know personally and who live in same area, Northeastern United States. Most importantly, with a convenience sample I am unable to get true representative results. I also was probably not as thorough as I could have been with the questions I created. I should have added questions that asked people about themselves in order to truly gain tolerance levels. Political tolerance can be defined as the ability to accept views and lifestyles that are different from your own. So if, for example, 50% of the respondents thought gay marriage should be legal, but 40% of them were personally gay, then that would not accurately measure a persons ability to accept what is different from themselves.

Chapter Five: Results

In total I had 89 participants. Of those 89, three were left incomplete. The majority were males (53.6%) with females (46.4%) in close second. Participants between the ages of 22-25 (64.3%) took the majority and those at the ages of 18-21 (35.7%) were far less. Two participants left the gender and age questions blank.

The Democrats (43.8%) had the most with almost half, the independents (25.8%) came in second with about a quarter, those who identified as ‘other’ (15.7%) were third and then Republicans (14.6%) were the smallest group.

Liberals (41.6%) takes the biggest portion, Moderates (32.5%) come in second, the third largest group was those who professed not to care (14.6%) and in the smallest group were the conservatives (11.2%).

In terms of the participant’s parent’s party identification, the largest group had both parents as Democrats (32.6%). The second largest group had both parents as Republicans (27%). Some of the participants had a parent of each identification (21.4%). A small portion had parents who had no interest in politics (10.1%) and then some who had no idea what their parents identified as (9%). Since only 14.6% of the respondents consider themselves to be Republican and 43.8% considered themselves to be Democrat, the numbers show some inconsistency with young adults identifying with their parents. This may be suggesting that other influences hold larger roles in the political socialization process.

As for the religion portion of my questions, 29.1% responded with religion being a large part of their childhood. The largest portion said religion was a small to moderate part of their childhood (33.7%). A slightly smaller group said religion was there but rarely discussed (26.7%) and 10.5% said religion played no role at all in their childhood. As far as the respondent’s identification with religion now, 0% considered themselves to be very religious. A few said they were religious but it did not control their whole lives (9.3%). About a quarter said they believed but were not active (26.7%). While the largest portion professed to not being a religious person at all (64%). These facts are extremely interesting because there is definitely inconsistency in the numbers with how the respondents were raised regarding religion and how they feel now.

With the political and social issues, I will list the results of the answers I believed to represent tolerance from my participants. On the subject of abortion, a large majority (86.4) were pro-choice. A very large majority (92.1%) were in favor of gay marriage be legal in all states. Many respondents (70.8%) are in favor of the complete legalization of marijuana while another 18% were in support of marijuana being legalized for medicinal purposes. On the subject of religious prayer being accepted in public schools, 30.3% felt that it should be allowed. I believe that although this could be argued from both sides, the percentage of those who are in favor of allowing open prayer may show more tolerance because even if they are unreligious themselves, they are still okay with religion being expressed. Of the 55 respondents who answered as being not religious at all, 14 also answered that religious prayer should be allowed in public schools. This shows an open mind and acceptance for practices that are not their own.

As for measuring the level of exposure to South Park, I asked the participants how familiar they considered themselves to be with the show, if they were allowed to watch it as a child, if they had seen the South Park movie and then 4 different trivia questions that ranged from easy to very difficult. About a third (30.2%) claimed to be extremely familiar with the show. The largest group (36.1%) claimed to be partially familiar. A few claimed to not be very familiar with the show (22.1%) and 11.6% claimed to have no familiarity.

In terms of the participant’s parents allowing them to watch the show, 29.1% said their parents would never have allowed South Park to be watched. The majority (38.4%) said their parents did not care or even watched it with them. While 32.6% said that their parents would never allow it but the participant watched it anyway.

The majority of the respondents (59.3%) have seen the South Park movie, while 40.7% said they had not.

With the trivia questions, I will list the percentages of respondents who answered them correctly. The first question asked where South Park took place (81.4%). The second question asked what the name of Stan’s father was (70.9%). The third question asked what religion Kyle Broflovski was (81.4%). The fourth question asked who Cartman’s father was (17.7%). The last question, about Cartman’s father, is easily the most difficult. And since the answer can only be found in a single banned episode, which can be seen only if the person owns the box-set of the 14th season or was somehow obtained illegally online, I consider the 15 people who answered that correctly to be the most exposed to South Park. This question also had a 2nd best answer that still shows a large exposure to the show so the 33.7% of participants who answered with the second best are easily the next most exposed.

The respondents who were most exposed to South Park were much more likely to be Democrats (60%), Liberals (80%), vote for Barack Obama (73.3%), support the legality of abortions (100%), support the legality of gay marriage (100%) and support the legality of marijuana (86.6%).

The respondents who were least exposed to South Park were just a tad more likely to be Democrats (40%), not care about their ideology (40%), equal to having voted for Barack Obama and to not care about voting (40% and 40%), support the legality of abortion (70%), support the legality of gay marriage (90%), and support the legality of marijuana (70%).

It appears as though my hypothesis, that individuals with a high exposure to South Park will have a higher level of political tolerance than those who have little to no exposure, is correct after looking at the results of my survey. Although the people who were least exposed to the show still showed tolerance levels, they were lower than those who had high exposure.

If given that my hypothesis is correct and South Park does have a positive influence on political tolerance, it would seem that there is a lot more to learn about satirical television. Perhaps biased and misled news stations are no longer going to be the only source of political messages. Programs like South Park will attract those people who are otherwise uninterested in politics, and teach them positive messages whether they even realize it or not.

Chapter Six: Conclusion

South Park has been on the air since 1997 and has continuously grown in viewership and popularity. It is a show that attracts all ages, has won numerous awards, gains the attention of scholars due to its reflexive and sophisticated way of portraying messages and has a distinct tolerant tone. Trey Parker and Matt Stone use crude, satirical humor to send the message that any viewpoint besides the one that is reasonable and tolerant is completely ridiculous and unintelligent. They make fun of liberals and conservatives alike because to them, it does not matter what you believe, it is how you treat and act towards those who do not agree with you. Nothing is supposed to be taken so seriously, any extremist view is wrong and thinking that you are better than other people makes you the perfect target of their ridicule. For instance in the episode “Smug Alert” from season 10, the message is that extreme liberal, hybrid driving, progressive people are so pompous that they’re causing devastatingly damaging “smug clouds” (a play on the concept of smog). Their approach seems to be overwhelmingly successful and from the results of the survey I conducted, it appears tolerance could very well be learned through watching the show. Media plays such a large role in political socialization, especially in modern society, and with a show as popular and long running as South Park, it is easy to believe the influence it could hold.

Again, my survey did have significant shortcomings. I used a convenience sample of respondents that were collected through sharing the survey on my Facebook, about fifteen of my close friends Facebook’s and my Tumblr. The results are not truly representative because of this. The questions I asked could have been better structured in order to gauge the political tolerance level of the participants. I also used a few questions that even though I thought would be useful in the beginning, I ended up not using in the end. Plus it is important to consider that maybe the viewers of South Park are already at a higher level of political tolerance and that is why they choose to watch the show. Perhaps in the future more studies should be done while using a more representative sample of the population. It could be useful as well to look into whether or not the viewers are politically tolerant before watching the show or after. There could be an experiment conducted with control groups in order to test this.

Appendix

The opening message of my survey:

My name is Carolyn Webster and I am a senior Political Science major at West Chester University. I am currently working on my senior research project for my major. In order to complete this, I have created this survey so that I can gather my own data in order to prove or disprove my hypothesis. So if you are reading this, thank you very much for helping me! I am looking for participants who are between the ages of 18-25. So I ask you to please respect this and only continue if you fall under that category. Thank you! And finally, I fully guarantee that this survey is totally and completely ANONYMOUS. Please answer each question to the best of your ability and as honestly as you possibly can. Thank you again and enjoy! If you have any questions or concerns you may email me at [email protected]

The survey:

1. What political ideology are you?

Conservative

Moderate

Liberal

Not sure/don't care

2. What political party do you identify with?

Republican

Democrat

Independent

Other

3. Did you vote in the 2012 Presidential election?

Yes, I voted for Obama

Yes, I voted for Romney

Yes, but I voted for someone other than Obama or Romney

No, I wasn't old enough but I would have voted for Obama

No, I wasn't old enough but I would have voted for Romney

No, I don't really care about voting

4. Do you know the political party of your parents?

Yes, both Republicans

Yes, both Democrats

Yes, one is Republican and the other Democrat

They never voted or cared about politics

No idea

5. What is your opinion on abortion?

Pro-choice

Pro-life

Unsure

6. What is your opinion on gay marriage?

It should be legal in all states

It should always be illegal

Unsure

7. Do you think that marijuana should be legalized?

Yes

Yes, but only medically

No

Unsure

8. What is your stance on the death penalty?

For it

Against it

Unsure

9. Do you think that public schools should be able to have open religious prayer?

Yes

No

Unsure

10. Do you think that regular citizens like yourself have any influence over what the government does?

No

Yes

Unsure

11. What is your attitude towards the federal government?

It's a joke, all politicians are liars and idiots

It's perfect

It needs work but I support it

It would be a million times better if I ran it

I have no opinion

12. Did you grow up in a religious household?

Yes, religion was a large part of my childhood

Yes, religion was a small to moderate part of my childhood

No, religion was there but it was rarely discussed

Not at all

13. How much influence does religion have on your life now?

A lot, I'm very active in my religion

Somewhat, I'm religious but it isn't my whole life

A little, I believe but I'm not very active at all

None, I'm not a religious person

14. Are you, in good humor, able to joke about all things?

Yes, anything can be funny in the proper light

No, some things should not be joked about

15. Were you allowed to watch South Park as a child?

No, my parents would never allow that

Yes, my parents didn't care or even watched it with me

No, but I watched it anyway

16. How familiar would you consider yourself to be with South Park?

Extremely, I've seen every or almost every episode

Partially, I watch it frequently or have seen a lot of episodes

Not so much, I only watch it if nothing else is on or my friends are watching

Not at all

17. Have you seen the South Park movie: Bigger Longer and Uncut?

Yes

No

18. Where does South Park take Place?

I don't know

Colorado

Alaska

Canada

Ohio

19. What is Stan's fathers’ name?

I don't know

Kyle

Bob

Gerald

Randy

20. What religion is Kyle Broflovski?

Muslim

Buddhist

I don't know

Catholic

Jewish

21. Who is Cartman’s father?

I don't know

Scott Tenorman’s father

He doesn't have one

Chef

His mom

22. What is your gender?

Female

Male

Transgendered

23. What is your age?

18-21

22-25

Answers to the trivia questions:

1. South Park takes place in Colorado

2. The name of Stan’s father is Randy

3. Kyle is Jewish

4. Cartman’s father was also Scott Tenorman’s father

a. His mom was the second best answer

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