commentr/StutterSeptember 13, 2023

Content

I really like how Jimmy in South Park is portrayed as a stutterer. Although apart from stuttering he has some physical disabilities too, he is clever, always optimistic and very eager to succeed in life. He does comedy nights at school, school radio, and a dozen other things that involve speaking, while being absolutely confident about himself and his stuttering. As far as I can remember he's never made fun of because of his stuttering. One of the recurring scenes with him is when he starts to stutter just before finishing a joke, in an epic speech, in a life or death situation, and NOBODY interrupts him, nobody finishes his sentence, nobody makes weird reactions... Everybody just patiently waits for him to finish like it's nothing special. For me at least part of the joke is how nobody cares about his stuttering, even when he gets into awkwardly long blocks. In one of the video games a meteor (something that seems to be a meteor) is just about to hit them and he tries to warn everybody but he cannot finish the last word. Just before the meteor hits, he gets annoyed and just switches to a different word, finishes the sentence and they escape. I like how they put these small things into the show/games that stutterers often do. At least in my opinion, South Park is handling his stuttering really well and doing a lot to put his stuttering into the mainstream. He is one of the few characters who I find funny when he is stuttering. His stuttering is often part of the joke, but the joke is not his stuttering itself.

Themes

Identity & Disability

Subthemes

Identity & Self-PerceptionAcceptance & PridePublic Awareness / Media