South Park’s Le Petit Tourette

I wanted to give my official response to South Park’s Le Petit Tourette. If you live in North America, you’re probably aware of Comedy Central’s hit television show South Park. If you are not familiar, South Park is a show that is hilariously funny and has made history by exploring controversial issues and finding humor with topics that most people find extremely offensive and taboo.

What I love about South Park is that they are constantly striving to bring laughter (my favorite kind of energy) to situations and events that most people would never find humor in. This trend is what keeps me tuning in every week.Add New

As you probably already know, if you’re visiting this website, I have been a lifetime sufferer of Tourette Syndrome. Imagine my surprise when I found out that South Park would be exploring the issue and finding ways to laugh at the topic. At first, I was a little defensive when I found out–which is very surprising to me because I’m always open to any kind of humor. The thoughts that were going through my head were mostly: “Great, now they’re giving people more reason to laugh at sufferer’s of Tourette’s.”, “I know they’re going to be anything but sensitive, I hope they don’t perpetuate the Tourette stereotype and worsen it for the rest of us”, and the list goes on and on. Regardless, I was equally surprised that with South Park’s 11 years on the air, they have waited so long to create an episode based on this topic that is so personal to me. So, of course, I was very excited to sit on my couch and watch it!

The plot pleasantly surprised me. The story begins when Cartman is at the toy store, misbehaves, and gets in trouble. Soon after he was disciplined, you see another kid misbehave who happens to have Tourette Syndrome completely get away with everything. Cartman sees this as an opportunity and manages to convince his mother and doctor of his “disorder” and is immediately diagnosed. The Tourette’s Tolerance and Understanding Foundation talks to the school about his disorder and manages to convince everyone to tolerate his disorder. By the end of the show Cartman realizes the danger of making such a disorder up and admits to everyone he lied.

The story really hit home with me. I find it very interesting how the story followed the very real experience a child goes through when discovering the nature of the disorder. While it is quite obvious that it is impossible to “immediately” get diagnosed with Tourette’s, since it’s a diagnoses is that is not popularly given and requires several tics, including motor and vocal, and at least a year under observation, the effects of the diagnoses is very real. While the Tourette’s Tolerance and Understanding Foundation is a fictional organization, the Tourette Syndrome Association is comparable. I remember finding out, after I was diagnosed with Tourette’s, the TSA going to my school and explaining to all of my classmates about my disorder and what I was experiencing. These events really do happen and I find it very interesting that South Park explored the issues that these students face in a very real way.

After watching it, I felt like the people at South Park did the Tourette’s community justice. Whether you believe it was tasteful or not is a different story, since the show is anything but tasteful to a lot of people, but it is important to recognize the humor involved and I believe that they did an outstanding job showing the effects of Tourette’s in schools. Obviously, most Tourette’s sufferers do not experience much coprolalia–which involves a serious of vocal tics, including but not limited to involuntary swearing and babbling, I certainly didn’t. Nevertheless, the lessons taught in the show are tremendous and I’m very grateful that the media has put more attention toward the Tourette Syndrome community and recognize that it is a very real disorder that many people in the country face.

If you or someone you know sufferers from Tourette Syndrome or any other kind of Tic disorder, I would like you to know that there is a way to control triggers that cause these tics. I’m not going to tell you to drug your child, nor am I going to modify their diet. I have a solution that works 100% of the time for everyone who suffers from the disorder.