I have finally been catching up on some South Park episodes from the last few seasons. I enjoy the show, usually, despite its constant crudity and occasional inanity. The recent Black Friday/game system wars episodes were rather entertaining, and, lo and behold, it turns out South Park now has a diabetic kid!
Scott Malkinson has a lisp and diabetes, and is profoundly uncool. Scott Malkinson needs to eat every two hours (because he has diabetes), and complains in the recent episode that he is feeling tired because he is running out of insulin and needs to eat.
As a diabetic, I recognize that doesn’t make any sense. As a South Park fan, I don’t care. I propose a new saying: Better to laugh at it all and be thought a fool than to complain and prove it.
Sure, making fun of kids with a disease is cheap, the representation of diabetics as weak and high-maintenance is unflattering (says the woman who fainted recently), and the perceived relationship between insulin and food is inaccurate. On the other hand, one of the preceding episodes involved comparing African American anger over the George Zimmerman trial to the zombie invasion in World War Z. In other words, if we want highbrow humor, we better go read Aristophanes, and turn off South Park all together. Complaining about the diabetic character in South Park would be like complaining that women have their ankles showing in Playboy.
Plus, Scott Malkinson is sporting a totally sweet insulin-and-syringe bandolier in the Black Friday episodes. Now that just makes me want to be Scott Malkinson for Halloween next year…
Hi Karmel,
Love this! I wrote a few weeks ago about Scott Malkinson, as well, and I agree with everything you say. It’s funny and it’s so much more preferable to laugh something like this off than to get angry about it.