South Park Research Paper

During an episode of South Park, one of the worst offenders of the usage, Kyle wishes to bring parents and children who have eyes and brains glued to their tiny screens back together by simply watching TV as a family. A concerned Kyle, taking to social media, implores “The More connected we get, the more alone we become. If you want change like I do and feel the same gloom, then please follow THIS trend #savethelivingroom.” After a thoughtful pause Butters comments that “it’s kind of gay.” If someone were to flip through their handy-dandy dictionary and come across the definition of gay, they would find “gay; (adj) 1) happily excited; keenly alive and exuberant 2) relating to homosexuals.” Looking back at the South Park episode, that person will notice that Kyle’s wish is neither “happily excited” nor “relating to homosexuals.” So why then did Butters choose to describe his friend’s post in this way? As a society, we have become desensitized to the denotations of “gay”. With our superfluous and incorrect usage, the word not only degrades an entire community but becomes trite language.
In 1877, a version of Deck the Halls was introduced with lines “…don we now our gay apparel…” In this context, gay is used in its original sense to describe joyous holiday apparel from choirs getting into the holiday spirit. However, after years of the general populous believing “homosexuality” to be a disease, the gay community took on the term to describe themselves as “happy.” Then, the general populous transferred the “diseased” connotation to “gay” and the term was used as an acerbic sneer while homophobes beat and tortured an entire