High culture work, low brow humor: a Bakhtinian analysis of the pedagogical potential of South Park in post-secondary English literature classes

In the fantasy world of South Park, Colorado, the town named in the popular Comedy Central show, everything is not always as it seems. Eruptions of chaos and melodramatic human relations play out in scores of situations that at times seem fantastic, and at other times, not far from reality at all. Issues of race, free speech, sexuality and gender, war, current political events, poverty, the arts and creative subjectivity, and other topics are addressed in an animated cartoon format by creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker. South Park has been airing for 16 seasons, is well-known, and has been praised for its critical approaches. It has been nominated for 7 Emmy awards, has won 4 awards, and has been the subject of two collections of critical essays. Furthermore, South Park frequently refers to widely known and taught works of literature, including Shirley Jackson's short story "The Lottery." The complexity of synthesizing current events and canonical texts in parody indicates a clear potential for South Park to be effective as a pedagogical tool in the post-secondary classroom. In expanded critical discussions, teachers and students can learn to relate literary criticism to contemporary media. Employing M.M. Bakhtin's concepts of heteroglossia and the carnivalesque as well as critical analysis by scholars in English Studies, I illustrate how the show's content can be applied in discussing canonical literature. I explicate themes from an episode that parallel themes in Jackson's story. The greatest potential of such a demonstration is to show how students and teachers can form relations based on a common understanding of the "old" and the "new" in an attempt to increase students' analytical skills. Using Bakhtinian concepts, I explored the pedagogical and ethical considerations of using South Park in the classroom, and found conflicts and complexities that require a balanced pedagogical approach. To illustrate these considerations, I used the South Park episode "Britney's New Look," to look for moments of parody and pedagogical potential.