South Park is known for delivering biting social commentary, and the show's upcoming 18th season on Comedy Central isn't looking to hold anything back. The show's first target? Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder.
Snyder has been in the news all year long over the name of the NFL team. Critics say the Redskins portion of the name is offensive to Native American and should be changed, but Snyder so far has refused to budge, saying that there is nothing offensive about the term.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark office thinks differently. It recently denied six federal trademark registrations for the name "Washington Redskins," saying that the name is disparaging to Native Americans and the trademarks would be in violation of federal trademark laws banning offensive or disparaging language.
Leave it to South Park then to make comedy gold out of the entire situation. In the below promo for the new season, Cartman is using the Washington Redskins name for his own purposes, something that Snyder is less than thrilled about.
The show puts Snyder in the shoes of Redskins critics, saying that he finds Cartman's use of their team name insulting and derogatory. Cartman, on the other hands, takes over for Snyder and mimics his response over the past several months.
"I have total respect for you," Cartman says. "When I named my company Washington Redskins, it was out of deep appreciation for your team and your people."
To make the entire situation even better, this particular promo for the show reportedly only aired in the Washington D.C. area, during an actual Washington Redskins game. Talk about hitting close to home.
Stephen Colbert found himself in hot water after pointing his satirical finger at Dan Snyder earlier this year on a bit from his Comedy Central show The Colbert Report. In an effort to silence critics, Snyder created the Washington Redskins Original Americans Foundation, a non-profit organization to help Native Americans. Colbert highlighted the absurdity of Snyder making a non-profit foundation for Native Americans, yet still using the name Redskins that so many Native Americans and others have taken offense to by creating a fake non-profit organization of his own. He called it the "Ching-Chong Ding-Dong Foundation for Sensitivity to Orientals or Whatever," saying he created it to show that he cared about America's Asian community.
The joke was taken out of context on social media and led to some calling for Colbert to be fired or resign after such a blatant act of "racism." South Park likely won't create the same kind of internet firestorm, but there is no denying that this small promo is just a small indication of the jokes to come.
