With Apologies to Jesse Jackson

"With Apologies to Jesse Jackson" is the first episode of the eleventh season of the American animated television series South Park. The 154th overall episode of the series, it first aired on Comedy Central in the United States on March 7, 2007, and was rated TV-MA-L. In the episode, Randy says the word niggers on the real-life game show Wheel of Fortune, leading to widespread public outrage. Stan attempts to understand the epithet's impact on his black friend Tolkien. Meanwhile, a man with dwarfism has a hard time trying to teach Cartman to be sensitive.

"With Apologies to Jesse Jackson"
South Park episode
Episode no.	Season 11 Episode 1
Directed by	Trey Parker
Written by	Trey Parker
Featured music	"Down with the Sickness" by Disturbed
Production code	1101
Original air date	March 7, 2007 (2007-03-07)
Episode chronology
List of episodes

Parker and Stone had long wanted to create an episode exploring the racial slur, but struggled with a plot line beyond its opening scene. They subsequently found it easier to work on following comedian Michael Richards' controversy, in which he screamed the slur at hecklers.

Despite the uncensored frequent usage of the racial slur, the episode attracted very little media attention. Parents Television Council founder L. Brent Bozell criticized the lack of protest against the episode. The episode was critically acclaimed by contemporary television critics, who praised the episode's humor and storyline. According to Nielsen Media Research, the episode was seen by 2.8 million viewers the week it was broadcast. "With Apologies to Jesse Jackson" was released on DVD along with the rest of the eleventh season on August 12, 2008.

Plot

Randy Marsh has made it to the bonus round on Wheel of Fortune. He is given the category "People Who Annoy You", and after his letter guesses, the puzzle reads "N_GGERS". Randy answers "niggers"; shocking everyone. The correct answer is then revealed to be "naggers".

At school the next day, Cartman finds the incident hilarious and predicts Tolkien will blame Stan. Stan attempts to explain to Tolkien, insisting his dad is not racist, but merely ignorant. Cartman tries to goad them into a "race war," but Tolkien walks away, frustrated that Stan cannot understand the impact of the slur.

Randy seeks forgiveness from Jesse Jackson. Jackson bends over his desk and tells Randy to apologize by kissing his buttocks. Randy does so and a picture is taken, which is published the news. Stan tells Tolkien, expecting resolution, but Tolkien retorts, "Jesse Jackson is not the emperor of black people!"

In light of recent events, the school invites dwarf author Dr. David Nelson for a sensitivity seminar. Cartman erupts in laughter at Nelson's height, ignoring pleas to stop. Nelson meets Cartman privately, only to lose his temper when provoked. Nelson assembles students to call Cartman "fatso" to teach him empathy, but Cartman laughs it off.

Randy goes to Laugh Factory, where a Black comedian named Coyote Brown (who resembles Chris Rock) dubs him "Nigger Guy". The label spreads, isolating him. In an attempt to atone for his words, Randy founds the Randy Marsh African American Scholarship Foundation. Chased by a trio of socially progressive rednecks, he is rescued by fellow "Nigger Guys", including Michael Richards and Mark Fuhrman. They lobby the United States Senate into passing a law that bans saying the words "nigger" and "guy" within seven words of each other.

Stan confronts Tolkien again, claiming to understand after witnessing Cartman's bullying of Nelson, though Tolkien disagrees. Butters brings word that Cartman is about to fight Nelson in the park. Despite Nelson's karate skills, Cartman easily gains the upper hand. Nelson departs, claiming he proved his point, which everyone quickly forgets.

Stan finally admits to Tolkien he will never truly understand the pain of hearing the slur, because he is not Black. Tolkien says that this is what he wanted to hear all along, and they reconcile.

Production

"With Apologies to Jesse Jackson" was the season premiere of South Park's eleventh season, and the first episode of the show's spring 2007 run, which consists of seven episodes. Parker and Stone had wanted to create an episode centered on the racial slur "nigger" for a considerable time.^[1] The first scene, in which Randy uses the word on Wheel of Fortune, was the first idea for the episode and remained the only idea for a while; Parker called the scene "one of my favorite things we've ever done."^[2]

Shortly beforehand, comedian Michael Richards courted massive controversy due to an infamous performance at the Laugh Factory in November 2006 in which he screamed the word "nigger" repeatedly at a group of African American and Hispanic patrons who heckled him. Parker and Stone decided it would be best, considering the media coverage of the incident, to work on the episode then.^[2] In the episode's DVD commentary, they noted that it was clear from the video of Richards that he had significant problems, but that they really felt contempt for him when he apologized to civil rights leader Jesse Jackson.^[1] Staff writer Vernon Chatman, who is half-black, was particularly outraged by this, noting that Jackson "is not the ambassador of black people", which inspired the line in the episode where Tolkien says that Jackson "is not the emperor of black people". Stan responds by saying, "he told my dad he was".^[2] Stone particularly enjoyed the ending of the episode, remarking: "If there was a word as hateful as the n-word [in how it] applies to black people, if there was a word like that against white people, [they] would make it illegal."^[1]

They created the idea of using the epithet to apply to whites only, which was when the rest of the episode began to germinate.^[2] While they felt the Randy A story was excellent, they wanted to have a B story involving the boys. They came up with the idea of Stan and Tolkien arguing about his father's use of the word, which remained the only subplot idea.^[2] They continued to struggle with the subplot until roughly three days prior to air, when they created the idea of Cartman encountering a little person.^[2] They based the little person on an obscure old commercial featuring little people walking around in suits.^[2]

Reception

Reaction

This episode received coverage by the CNN programs Showbiz Tonight and Paula Zahn Now^[3] in the days following its broadcast. Kovon and Jill Flowers, who co-founded the organization Abolish the "N" Word, which is linked with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, praised this episode, calling it a hilarious but good example of educating the public on the impact of racist slurs such as nigger.

This show, in its own comedic way, is helping people to educate the power of this word, and how it can feel to have hate language directed at you.

— Kovon and Jill Flowers

The Parents Television Council named this episode, along with the episode of The Sarah Silverman Program that aired right after this episode, the "Worst Cable Content of the Week" in its campaign for cable choice.^[4] The episode received about 2.8 million viewers.^[5]

Critical response

Travis Fickett of IGN gave the episode a 10/10, commenting, "There's really no other way to explain how this show remains not only brilliantly funny, but more relevant and insightful than anything else on television."^[6] In 2009, Sean O'Neal of The A.V. Club praised the episode, remarking: "I've always said that I believe South Park is some of the best satire on TV when it's firing on all cylinders, and to that end I've seen it do ironic racism in a way that's borderline revolutionary [in this episode]."^[7]