The Washington Redskins and South Park Satire

The Washington Redskins is a nation football team that has gone through problems with their name as well as logo. The TV show south park does a great job at making fun of them and the team’s owner, Dan Snyder. The episode took aim not just at Snyder and the Redskins, but at a Roger Goodell, the commissioner of the NFL, and the NFL which is plagued by domestic violence as well as Kickstarter and crowdfunding.  The premise of the episode is the gang decides to launch a Kickstarter campaign to fund a start-up company that does nothing. But their problem is that even a company that does nothing needs a great name.  And by chance the Redskins just had lost its trademark over concerns that their name is too offensive.  The gang eagerly uses that name for their start-up.  There company’s motto is, “Go f–k yourself.” Later in the episode, Synder shows up to plead for his name back.  Synder says, “I know I can’t legally make you stop using our name, but won’t you just do it out of decency?” What people have been saying to the redskins lately. This is making a satirical point. Cartman then says in response, “We can’t just change the name of our company because it’s, like, super-hard. But, hey from one Redskin to another, go f–k yourself.”  Snyder then cries and it makes fun of the crying indian commercial.  Also making a satirical point that synder is just like the Native Americans that are talking to him.  Snyder complains to NFL Commissioner Goodell, who offers platitudes about “getting it right.”  The episode uses actual sound clips culled from press conference Goodell held about domestic violence. Goodell does nothing to help Synder so he sends the Redskins to destroy Kickstarter to end the South Park-based Redskins funding. They do so, bloodily. Then later in the episode before a game against the Dallas Cowboys, Snyder gives a pep talk to his discouraged team. He says, “We cannot give up, We have been through too much together. We have fought Eagle and Bear. And the Eagles only beat us by 3 points! … Don’t let them break you — don’t let them win!”  The Dallas Cowboys then play a lone Redskin which is Snyder in an Indian headband. Alone on the field, he is repeatedly crushed by Dallas squad, as the crowd says, “Just stay down, for the love of god!” This episode uses satire frequently and it uses it to make a point that the Redskins should change their name and logo and give it back to the Native Americans. It is satire because it is making a joke of it, but at the same time, pointing out a huge flaw in the NFL team and saying we need to make them change it. Click here to watch the full episode.