Gingers Do Have Souls by Mari Anna Friedrich
“Gingers do have souls” is an internet meme with origins from the South Park episode “gingers have no soul” from November 2005. In this episode the character of Eric Cartman has a presentation at school about red- headed children and the made up disease of gingervitis. He argues that people with red- hair do not have souls and that “gingers” are creepy.
Five years later as reaction of this south park episode 18 year old Coppercab posted a video with the name “gingers do have souls” on YouTube. In this video Coopercab tries to defend the red headed population by stating that “gingers do have souls” and that we would like to put an end to ginger- discrimination. To understand how this video became a meme I think it´s important to look at the video:
This video had over 3, 1 million viewers just in the first month and spread all over the internet in no time. People started making parodies of Coopercab as well as posting pictures making fun of Coopercab all over the internet. South Park even made their own parody of Coopercabs video and posted it on their webpage.
I think this meme became popular and famous because of its origin. South Park made a very funny episode about ginger-kids, but at the same time, most people who watch South Park know that the show always portray things in a very sarcastic way. I don’t think the producers of South Park ever meant to discriminate or offend any gingers, and when Coopercab and others then comes and takes it very seriously their reactions became stupid and funny.
This meme was mostly popular from 2010 until 2011, but me as a ginger- kid myself can still feel some after shakes from this meme. Every year people arrange kick- a- ginger- day. Even though I think it is supposed to be a funny joke, some people are still taking it a bit too serious. The establishing of “gingers have no soul” is often used as a funny way to describe people with red hair and freckles.
//by Mari Anna Friedrich
No comments:
Post a Comment