The stereotype for cartoons used to be simple. They are the shows children willingly wake up early for on saturdays, and usually involve a group of heroes defending the earth from an invading force. However, this stereotype hardly applies to cartoons in the modern age. Besides the end of saturday morning cartoons, they have matured with their original audience creating a renaissance for adult focused cartoons. Yet many adults sneer at the prospects of shows such as South Park and Rick and Morty even though they are aimed to entertain them, due to the perception of vulgarity, and childish behavior they contain. Although shows like South Park, and Rick and Morty, may seem at first glance as only a quick joke, they offer serious points of view, …show more content…
LGBTQ rights have been supported, spearheaded into media, and—in general South Park fashion—made into joke from episode four titled, Big Gay Al’s Big Gay Boat Ride, and the recurring character Mr. Garrison. During Big Gay Al’s Big Gay Boat Ride, Stan tries to convert his homosexual dog, Sparky, into being heterosexual, but is ultimately convinced into accepting the Sparky’s sexuality after Big Gay Al explains it to him on a boat ride through his gay animal sanctuary. Although bizarre sounding, the episode was met with praise for its portrayal of homosexuality in a time when television tried to suppress it (Parker and Stone). Mr. Garrison, the kids fourth grade teacher, shared a similar, yet drawn out story arc of his acceptance of being homosexual. Starting off hating all things homosexual in nature and stating, “Gay people are evil” in Big Gay Al’s Big Gay Boat Ride, he transitions to accepting his sexuality after becoming a hermit once his erotic fiction won the Gay Pulitzer Prize, to having a sex change for a short period, and then back again. However, being South Park, Mr. Garrison is more extreme in his views and statements than a summary can suggest. Through these examples Stone and Parker show their view of the normality of being homosexual, by treating the subject the same as any other, and by expressing positive points of
Younger generations and the more vulnerable in society can be influenced in avoiding peer pressure, but for the individuals filled with wisdom, the shows can reflect based on American modern society. Everybody Loves Raymond and Full House are great shows who faces similar life obstacles a typical person living in the US has today. As a result, most modern family comedy sit-coms are reflecting our society’s generations and the more vulnerable. Based on the success of early family sit coms, American’s adapted to a fast pace lifestyle with the help of modern
The movie Avatar, written and directed by James Cameron, is based off many influence from his life. These range from the science fiction books he read as a kid to obscure dreams told to him by his mother. But even though the movies character were not made to fit the religious stereotypes that accompanied the culture at the time of the making of this movie the unconscious bias we all have about foreign culture clearly impacted the making of the movie.
In the book Of Mice and Men, the author,John Steinbeck, uses stereotype characters to convey his message. He wants to empathize with his characters as human beings. He uses stereotype characters such as Lennie, George, Curly, Slim, Candy, Crooks, and Curly's wife. Steinbeck's goal is to inform people how life was like for a migrant worker in the 1920's to 1930's.
helping. Television is making the shows out to seem like one race is better than another. For
Although animated cartoons have long been associated with children’s entertainment, the content of many cartoons suggest they are for adults as well. From character portrayal to perceived gender roles, cartoons such as The Flintstones, The Jetsons, and Scooby Doo both reflect societal values from their time periods as well as perpetuate the developed stereotypes. Cartoons produced more recently such as The Simpsons start to challenge these stereotypes instead of following blindly. Comparing the earliest popular cartoons to more recent productions, shows progress towards a less stereotypical character portrayal in regards to gender.
Looney Tunes, a popular cartoon from the 30s to the 60s brought many children hours of entertainment, with its entertaining plot and hilarious antics, which people of all ages enjoyed. In many of its early episodes, there were many times Native Americans made appearances. Many of the characters go off of the stereotypes that had been passed down from the 18th and 19th centuries. In this paper, I focus on the images of Native Americans in the children’s classic cartoon, Looney Tunes, while also exploring the interactions and portrayals of the Native American characters. With a closer look at how the stereotypes surrounding Native Americans from the 18th and 19th centuries continued to thrive into the 20th century, this reveals how these stereotypes were embedded into a person’s mind from a very young age.
“Oh my God, they killed Kenny!” South Park is a adult cartoon that circles around the abnormal life of four boys living in Colorado. This hilarious animated television series strives to be the most controversial show on air. The series has been on air since August 13, 1997 and while the show seems ridiculous, it is commonly known for incorporating high and low culture within the show. South Park has been known to take current issues from today’s society and convert them to a more simplified version while transforming it into a satire. One episode that stood out from the rest was an episode called “The Cissy” which focused on gender relations and transgender issues. This episode reflected on how today’s society see gender and transgender.
“The Proud Family” is a children’s program that runs daily on The Disney Channel and on Saturday mornings on ABC Kids. It is a TV-G rated program. The show is about an African-American family with the last name Proud. There is a mom, dad, three kids, and a grandmother. The main character of the show is the oldest daughter named Penny Proud who is probably in junior high. Also, some of Penny’s friends are in the show. All of the characters in this show are stereotyped by many things such as race and gender, including Penny.
South Park began airing in 1997. The commercials that preceded it gave the impression of it being another stupid cartoon; however, when I began watching, I realized important issues were being covered through the repeated behaviors and actions of its characters, through the influences these actions could have on the viewers, through the reinforcement and rejections of certain stereotypes, through the long-term effects that could result from watching the program, and through its reflection of social reality.
Dick Cavett, a famous American talk show host, once said, “Censorship feeds the dirty mind more than the four-letter word itself.” Censorship limits free speech, and it is used constantly today. In South Park’s situation, the writers use logic and evidence to express their opinions on controversial issues, and people think that it should be censored. Just because the show uses morally questionable techniques, does not mean that it is useless. In fact, South Park has taught people a lot; it changes our point of view and encourages us to think deeply about the issues at hand while simultaneously making us laugh. For people unfamiliar with South Park, it is an animated comedy television which airs on Comedy Central. The show revolves around four children living in a small Colorado town and their adventures. South Park has received harsh criticism for its profanity, violence, and offensiveness, but these claims are exaggerated and outweighed by South Park's use of satirical comedy which educates its audience about current events and moral values.
A little girl sits on the floor with her gaze fixed on the television screen in front of her, watching magical images dance before her eyes and catchy songs flow through her ears. Even though she had seen it at least twenty times before, she still loved The Little Mermaid just as much as she did the first time she watched it. As she watched it, she longed to be a beautiful mermaid with a curvy body and wonderful singing voice like Ariel. She longed to be saved by the handsome Prince Eric, and fall in love and live happily ever-after like Ariel did. In today’s society, women strive to achieve equality between the sexes. Despite the tremendous steps that have been taken towards reaching gender equality, mainstream media contradicts these accomplishments with stereotypes of women present in Walt Disney movies. These unrealistic stereotypes may be detrimental to children because they grow up with a distorted view of how men and women interact. Disney animated films assign gender roles to characters, and young children should not be exposed to inequality between genders because its effect on their view of what is right and wrong in society is harmful to their future.
On television today you will see stereyotypes of male and female roles in society. These stereyotyps are exemplified in many tv shows and even childrens cartoons. Some shows which stereyotype sex roles include, the flintstones, the jetsons, and almost every sitcom on television.
“The sitcom is a jumble of mixed metaphors: the repetition compulsion of eternal sameness conjoined to a desire to overturn the established order; a profound aesthetic conservatism bundled with an ingrained desire to shock. Every sitcom possess not just a routine that it perpetually seeks to overturn but also a particular style of fomenting that chaos.”
Two of the most well known companies in their respective industries, Mattel and MCA Records, went to court over copyright and trademark. Mattel is an American toy manufacturing company best known for producing Barbie dolls, Hot Wheels and American Girl dolls. MCA Records was an American based record company best known for representing Lynyrd Sknyrd, Neil Diamond and Aqua. Aqua is a well-known bubblegum euro dance band from Denmark.
Stereotypes In the Media Stereotypes play an important role in today's society and particularly in propaganda. According to the Webster's Dictionary, stereotyping is defined as a fixed conventional notion or conception of an individual or group of people, held by a number of people. Stereotypes can be basic or complex generalizations which people apply to individuals or groups based on their appearance, behaviour and beliefs. Stereotypes are found everywhere in the world. Though our world seems to be improving in many ways, it seems almost impossible to liberate it from stereotypes.