South Park's 'The F Word'

South Park 'The F Word' is on one level a funny story about how our foul-mouthed heroes get rid of an obnoxious motorcycle gang. On another level, South Park 'The F Word' is a meditation on words, especially scatological ones, and their usage.

Somewhere, in some after life he didn't expect to be in, George Carlin is smiling. George Carlin liked to talk about words you couldn't say and their various meanings. Carlin liked to show that words are just words, and their hurtfulness or not usually involves context and intent.

The 'F Word' is this case, is 'fag', used in Britain to describe a cigarette or someone at a public school assigned to do menial work, used in the United States as an insult for a gay person, but often, especially by the boys of South Park, used just as an insult for anyone irritating and obnoxious.

Faced with an invasion of scary, bear bellied dudes on Harley motorcycles, making noise and causing mischief, the boys develop a plan to drive them away from their beloved South Park. Some of what they do cannot be described here, but the most spectacular part of the campaign involves spray painting, in large red letters, variations on the phrase, "Fags, get out!"

The motorcycle gang retreats in ignominy. But the huge, red painted signs cause, as they well might, controversy and consternation, first with the South Park Gay Lesbian Transgendered Community, including Mr. Slave, and then with the boys' school. So Stan, Kyle, Kenny, and Cartman are hauled before a school assembly to explain themselves. After all, we cannot have this kind of disrespect in South Park.

In fact, being as innocent as they are potty mouth, the boys had no idea that "fag" could refer to gay person. Apparently the usage has changed, just as "sick" can mean "great." No, indeed, they were using it as an insult for any obnoxious person, of whatever sexual preference, especially someone riding a Harley making noise and causing mischief. It seems that even a gay person would use the word when yelling at, say, someone who cuts him off on the freeway.

Meanwhile, the motorcycle gangsters invade a library, which in and of itself is scary, and they and the viewer get a lesson in the history of the usage of the word. It seems that the other 'F Word' has its origin in the 15^th Century and over the years has been used to describe or insult a number of things or types of people. Only in the early 20^th Century has it been used as a pejorative for a gay person.

Meanwhile the town of South Park is welcoming the arbiters of the dictionary to officially change the meaning of the word to mean obnoxious person riding a Harley. At that point the obnoxious people riding Harleys show up with chains and baseball bats intent on mayhem. At one point they corner the boys in an alley. Just when they are about to be massacred, South Park's Gay lesbian and Transgendered Community rescue them with shot guns. After all, the boys are doing the GLTG community a service by redefining the word.

Thus forever more, at least in the universe of South Park, the other 'F Word', the word 'Fag', is officially defined as meaning any obnoxious person riding a Harley.

Source: South Park, The F Word, TV.Com