On Wednesday, the 19th season of the infamously politically incorrect South Park premiered its first episode going after politically correct, social justice extremists.
The title, appropriately named, “Stunning and Brave,” a reference to Bruce Jenner receiving the Arthur Ashe Courage Award for coming out as transgender. Almost every character gives an unenthusiastic, rote spiel about how admirable Caitlyn Jenner is. But Jenner isn’t so much the target of the episode but as an incentive for the elementary school to be a “more progressive place that fits in with today’s times.”
New management comes to South Park Elementary in the form of frat boy PC Principal, who is sick of “minority groups marginalized in today’s society.” PC Principal strictly laid down the law to fix the “time warped” school. ANY politically-incorrect speech not only wouldn’t be tolerated, it would be punished with absurd and unreasonable detention periods.
Shortly after PC Principal has made his mission known, Kyle and his father are called into his office. PC Principal informs them that Kyle is guilty of transphobic bigoted hate speech consequently triggering PC Principal’s gag reflex. Both characters sit confused and PC Principal further informs them Kyle told a fourth grade girl that “Pardon my language, Caitlyn Jenner is not a hero.”
Just reading the statement sends PC Principal into a fit of rage and Kyle’s father attempts to mollify him. Caitlyn Jenner, he screams, is an “amazing beautiful woman who had the exquisite bravery of a butterfly flying against the wind.”
Throughout the rest of the episode PC Principal and his gang “check the privilege” of anyone daring to say anything politically incorrect, such as when Eric Cartman says “spokesman” instead of “spokesperson.”
After Cartman tapped into his inner deflategate hero Tom Brady, the episode ended with Kyle unfortunately giving in to the PC bullying. He announced he thought Caitlyn Jenner was in fact a hero, in order to break up an all-out battle with the PC frat house.
The episode hilariously hits home the point of taking political correctness to the extreme and depicting the consequences of forced tolerance. The “do-good” social justice warriors and often the liberal left are sometimes nothing more than bullies forcing their agenda on any naysayers. The unfortunate reality is that society is obsessed with being offended. We are even at a point where a mere pronoun allegedly causes severe emotional damage.
As Eric Cartman stated at the end of the episode, “sometimes joking about un-PC things can actually be important because it starts a dialogue.” South Park can certainly put a check in the box for doing just that with its first episode.
