New charms are now available for pre-order at a discounted price for two weeks. That's until November 11th, 2025. They'll be available after the pre-order period, but will cost more, so get them ASAP. Thank you and enjoy the video. South Park has been my favorite show for as long as I can remember. Maybe that's not the most obvious thing to note about me when looking at my channel, but those who have paid close attention know my love for this show runs deep. And like any South Park fan, I understand exactly why people may dislike it. While
South Park has been praised for its political nuance and masterful approach to satirical comedy that stays upto-date, for every witty observation and intelligent joke, there are piles upon piles of gross out humor, endless profanities, and blatant mean-spiritedness. When the show first began running, it was probably the most controversial program on air. And to this day, it still manages to rustle feathers no matter your background. You would think something so outlandish, adult, and offensive would attract a very specific audience of middle-aged fathers and no one else. But South Park fans come in all shapes and sizes,
for better or for worse. I dedicate a lot of my time to documenting infamous fandoms. And throughout all my adventures, no fandom has been quite as interesting to me as that of the South Park fandom. Certain pieces of media attract the exact kinds of fans you would expect them to. Things with bright colors, memorable characters, and Tumblr humor will more often than not draw in a crowd of 14-year-olds with addictions to pride flag discourse. But with something like South Park, this breed of fan should be decently rare, especially considering how often the show pokes fun
at sensitive issues. People like this are objectively going to be pretty sensitive at times. That's not an insult by any means. Teenagers and young adults on the internet are nothing if not emotional and at times political. But it makes you really wonder why a show that's built on controversy and offensive jokes attract so many fans like this or this. And furthermore, it makes you wonder why shows like Family Guy or The Simpsons don't have nearly as large of a fan base as that of South Parks. At least when it comes to these kinds of fans.
With South Park more relevant than ever, despite what some people may say, I'd like to go over the history of one of the internet's most nonsensical and infamous fandoms. Try to make sense of it as a painfully woke South Park fan myself and ask myself and all of you the age-old question, [music] why exactly are South Park fans like that? Whether you're a longtime South Park fan, a casual enjoyer, or are just watching this because you saw them make the White House mad and thought it was kind of funny, let's go on down to South
Park and meet some friends of mine. Well, meet some strangers on the internet I've never spoken to. >> [music] >> South Park is very much a product of the internet. The show may very well have never come into existence if it weren't for the newly born internet distributing the 1995 short film The Spirit of Christmas, otherwise known as Jesus versus Santa, causing it to be noticed by Comedy Central. To understand what makes the concept of South Park fans so strange, we need to acknowledge the consensus of the show itself. South Park primarily revolves around four
main characters, Stan, Kyle, Kartman, and Kenny, who are all depicted as being 8 to 10 years old throughout the show's runtime. So, not only are the main four characters literal children, but most of the supporting cast is too, meaning all of this fan art is depicting 8-year-olds. The actual South Park fandom, of course, dates back to the very beginning of the show, if we're using the most literal definition of a fandom, being a group of people who like a thing. Back then, there were really only two types of South Park fans. People who actively enjoyed
it and watched every episode, and people who casually watched it. Nowadays, with the internet so widespread, there are primarily three groups of South Park fans. The average fans, like my dad, consisting of casual supporters who watch the show and enjoy it. the right-wingers like ex users who can never seem to understand when they're being made fun of and the quote unquote cringe fans like me consisting of younger generations who often produce the majority of South Park's fan content. While we can't pinpoint an exact time of birth of the modernized quote unquote cringe South Park fan,
they have most certainly existed since a bit before the year 2000. Before the time of social media apps, fan bases communed through forums and message boards and all kinds of wacky ancient internet websites. While there are a few places we can still access a glimpse of the early South Park fandom, such as fan spanfiction.net, most websites that would have been entirely dedicated to the show are unfortunately lost to time. Although there are many remnants of these simpler eras. An archived Tumblr post shows a user chronicling their first fandom experience being that of the South Park
fandom around 1998 to 2001. The user writes, "Back in the day, there was a big South Park site, and while it had a fan creation section, all the art was crude MS Paint drawings of the characters, and all the fick was canon type scripts written and posted in the hopes that the author would get picked up as a script writer for the show." One day, someone posted a little romance story between Kenny and a pallet swapped girl version of himself called Jenny. All the girls on the forum went, "Wait, that's a thing? We can do
that?" And suddenly, there was a delusion of OC's the likes of which I've never seen since. The rest of the post details a sudden stampede of girlish South Park self-insert OC's on the forum that led to an impromptu and unorganized shared universe between everyone's characters that eventually crumbled beneath its own unorganization and what OP describes as an overabundance of albinos. This is probably one of the most interesting recollections of fandom history I've ever read and is still probably one of my favorite South Park fandom posts to date. This post goes to show that these kinds
of South Park fans are nothing new to Tik Tok and Twitter. They have absolutely always existed, lurking in the murky depths of the worldwide web, waiting to be discovered, longing to find their place on the internet. And find their place they would. The early 2000s made way for what is essentially the industrialization of the internet. Deviant Art launched in 2000, YouTube in 2005, Tumblr in 2007, and Archive of Our own in 2008. [music] There was never a better time to get unapologetically weird. The term fandom stopped referring to a group of people who liked a
thing and began to hold a brand new identity. A group of people intertwined by a common interest who dedicated themselves to set interest. Fan art, cosplays, roleplay, conventions, tabletop gaming. It was all common place in this mystical, magical, unknown world where anything could happen. Unrelated to South Park, the globalization of anime boomed in the 80s and was immensely popular by the early 2000s with online spaces and fandom [music] culture. The popularity of anime, especially with younger crowds, essentially warped an entire section of the internet into adopting art styles like this or this. And of course,
this eventually found its way to South Park fans. A lot, and I mean a lot, of old South Park fan art fell under this art style. The show itself had parodyied anime multiple times, and the internet was really starting to obsess over Japanese culture, even if they didn't fully understand what they were talking about. Because the South Park boys were so young, they were often referred to and depicted as shas, which uh is as weird as it is hilarious looking back. I don't necessarily blame the kids doing this. It was often done for humorous means
or out of the means to conform to the current climate of the rapidly maturing internet. There were no boundaries online and there were certainly no boundaries when it came to the show of South Park itself. And as such, people just progressively got weirder and weirder with the stuff they were creating. However, you can see how the normalization and often humorous [music] take on things like this led to an increase in popularity among fandoms that were perceived as more strange and directly promoted these forms of content. [music] Whereas anime had already been popular for a while
at that point, in the early 2000s, another genre of Japanese art had begun globalization and became massively popular with Western audiences online. This genre of course being I don't need to tell you what Yahi is. I know what you are. But if you're somehow that out of the loop, it's homoerotic Japanese fiction that was often created for a female audience or Fujosi's. Yahwei plays a huge part in the story of the South Park fandom, primarily for reasons I'll touch on later. But for now, all you need to be conscious of is the fact that South
Park fans at this time were obsessed with this stuff. [music] Slash or gay media and ships were becoming progressively more popular online. And this was the true beginning of the type of fan that people on Tik Tok think of when they hear the word South Park fan. The LGBT plus community had an entirely new outlet after the popularization of the internet. They could commune in safe spaces made entirely for them and create queer artwork that would in a lot of places get them in trouble, especially considering many members of the queer community at the time
were younger. As such, for any fandom, there was a huge surge in queer ships and fan content. South Park was no exception to the popularization of shipping culture. Any and every character was paired together. From crack ships to cannon to sexualized nonsense, shipping was everywhere. A lot of people are still very confused as to why people ship South Park characters so often, seeing as they are young children. And that's a confusion I don't think will ever go away. But when you take a look at the ships themselves and really try to understand the perspective of
someone who enjoys South Park in this way, it isn't as obscene as you would first expect. For one, shipping is not an inherently sexual thing. Yes, while at the time it was very often a sexualized practice, it's important to acknowledge that the characters in South Park themselves very frequently got into relationships or had crushes, made sexually suggestive jokes or did suggestive things, and most importantly didn't really act like 8-year-olds. >> Oh, mom. Apparently, Butters is gay, finds me very attractive, and confused about his sexual identity puked up all over my floor. >> Oh, dear. Yes.
>> While the characters have only aged one or two years in the decades that the show has been on air, they've matured rapidly. While the boys were never exactly innocent, as they were always intended to act the way that young boys really do act behind closed doors, they were still rather unaware of the world around them. Throughout the seasons, the characters learned more about adult topics and are often depicted as more reasonable or mature than the adults of the titular town. A lot of South Park's humor revolves around putting these younger characters into adult situations
to the point where the characters are seldom treated like actual fourth graders. Most of the time, their school acts more like a high school in the sense that characters are often depicted dating around, throwing parties, and using substances. All things that a teenage audience can relate to and often romanticize. Not to mention, of course, a lot of the people who parttook in any weird behaviors regarding the boys were very, very young themselves, typically anywhere from 10 to 14 years old. Is it still weird for people to sexualize the South Park kids regardless? Absolutely, 100%. I
think that's just as gross as it is nonsensical, and I couldn't understand why people like doing that if I [music] tried. Regardless, because of the way they act, people typically depict the boys as teenagers or young adults because it's much easier to characterize or write them for a lot of people. The fandom itself is decently divided on the stance of whether or not risque content of aged up characters is appropriate in the context of South Park, especially considering adult versions of the characters do exist. I'm not really going to get into this debate because I
don't know, man. I'm tired. As for the ships themselves, while a lot of them are pretty seemingly random, the most popular pairings do have a fair amount of substance to them if you allow yourself to look at them from another perspective. And for the record, I don't like any South Park ships myself. I don't create any fan content. I don't repost fan art and spend hours reading fanfiction. And I most certainly do not stay awake at night thinking about South Park ships. This is all from an outside perspective. Definitely the most popular South Park ship
in the beginning was undeniably style. The pairing between Stan Marsh and Kyle Brlosski. Stan and Kyle are in their own words super best friends and are definitely the closest two characters to each other in the show. They're together in almost every episode and share an immense amount of mutual care and affection. Any characters with a friendship that runs this deep are bound to be paired together romantically. Although Stan and Kyle specifically have parodyied romantic tropes multiple times that, while amusing, add immense fuel to the shipping flames. In season 9, episode 10, Follow That Egg, Mrs.
Garrison attempts to stop same-sex marriage by proving that gay couples are unfit to care for a child by having Stan and Kyle parent an egg. The entire time, Stan is mad at Kyle for having originally been paired with Wendy, Stan's ex-girlfriend at the time. Though eventually, the two make up, and Stan delivers this line. >> Stan, do you really think my hat is stupid? As a matter of fact, I think it is the nicest hat I've ever known. The two successfully stop the egg from getting assassinated and indirectly legalize gay marriage. So, you know, normal
day in South Park. Throughout the episode, there are consistently jokes about Stan and Kyle being gay parents. Though, season 11, episode 13, Guitar Quero, takes the romantic relationship parallels to a whole new level. First of all, the episode is literally titled [ __ ] Guitar Quero. Secondly, the episode revolves around Stan and Kyle becoming a Guitar Hero rockstar duo. Though, when the two make it big, they have a dramatic breakup when Stan starts playing the game with someone else. The two go their own separate ways with Kyle performing Guitar Hero at a local bar and
Stan becoming addicted to Heroin Hero, lashing out at everyone he knows. At the end of the episode, the two get back together and reach a million points in Guitar Hero only to directly be called fat upon winning. It also doesn't help that Stan and Kyle are meant to parallel the show's creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, in a lot of ways. And [music] well, yeah, another popular ship within the fandom was Bunny, the pairing between Butters Stoch and Kenny McCormack that grew to popularity after the 11th episode of season 16, where their close friendship is
confirmed by Butters's outburst at anyone who isn't Kenny and their shared trip to Hawaii. These two characters are fan favorites who are frequently mistreated by the narrative. Naturally, their friendship is very adorable, as it is understandable, and many people enjoyed pairing the two. Even if you don't like the ship, the fact that their names combine into the word bunny is the cutest [ __ ] thing ever. I'm going to shoot myself. In terms of the most outrageous and amusing South Park ship, I think that title has to and always will go to Kyman. The pairing
between Eric Cartman and Kyle. If you've seen even only a handful of South Park episodes, you'll understand why this pairing is as amusing as it is divisive. Cartman quite literally torments Kyle throughout South Park's runtime, makes remarkable amounts of anti-semitic gestures towards him, and takes great pleasure in his misery. Meanwhile, Kyle has little to no faith in Cartman's character, rips on him for being fat, and loses faith in his own religion upon seeing him succeed. Despite these obvious red flags, a lot of people enjoy perceiving their relationship as enemies to lovers, or even ship Kyman
out of pure hilarity rather than a sincere desire for their relationship to be romantic. A lot of South Park fans don't necessarily ship Kyman, but find it more than plausible that Cartman may have a subconscious one-sided crush on Kyle without maybe even realizing it. It's less of a shipping concern and more of a genuine theory that actually does seem to have some merit to it. Of course, a lot of young children tend to bully or pick on people they may have crushes on if they aren't necessarily attuned to their own emotions. And seeing as Kman
is a very misbehaved child who is very much enabled by his mother, it isn't far-fetched to assume that he would still do all of these horrible things to someone he has a crush on, especially as he is prone to treating romantic partners horribly. Cartman has gone to insane lengths to either get a oneup on Kyle or to get him to do very suggestive things and is very clearly miserable when he doesn't have Kyle around to fight with or is actively being ignored by him. Of course, the season 16 episode Cartman Finds Love plays a lot
more into the amusing idea of Cartman and Kyle being in a romantic relationship when Cartman tells the character Nicole that he and Kyle are secretly dating in order to set her up with Tolken instead because he is racist. Hilarities ensue and it makes for an extremely entertaining episode because this relationship is so goofy and absurd. >> I don't know. It's just SO PERFECT. YOU [ __ ] Kyman is very frequently made fun of in the fandom, even by people who enjoy the ship, particularly because they acknowledge how amusing the dynamic is at times and how
amusing a lot of the fan content of it can be. Exhibit A. The subjue image gets passed around the internet so often, it's hard to believe it was once a niche fandom joke. But no, more and more people discover this artwork every day. And with that, more people discover the fact that it was posted on September 11th. That all being said though, Kimman is pretty controversial within the South Park fandom with a lot of people in the past having labeled it as being a pro ship or dark ship or whatever it is you people call
it these days because of the unhealthy dynamic between the two. my own opinion. Well, other popular ships included Kenny and Kyle known as K2, Stan and Cartman known as Stanman, Kenny and Cartman known as Kenman, Butters and Cartman or Butman, terrible name by the way, Damian and Pip or Dip, Timmy and Jimmy or Tim Jim, and Tweak and Craig, who we'll talk about in depth later. So, even if there is a little bit of basis for a lot of these South Park ships, it's still pretty confusing to understand what it is about South Park specifically
that attracts so many of these kinds of fans. There are plenty of deep friendships and amusing dynamics like these in other adult cartoons. So why South Park? If I'm being honest, there are a large number of factors with the most important one probably being just because. I would however like to currently highlight two specific reasons why I think these fans are drawn to South Park in particular. Those reasons being the show's sincerity and representation. South Park is no stranger to out of character heartfelt and emotional moments or episodes. Even if for the sake of paring
something kind of stupid or adding a humorous twist, South Park has sincere moments that hit and hit hard, especially for teenage audiences. In the season 5 finale, the boys have to come to terms with the fact that Kenny is terminally ill and will likely die. Obviously, the episode's serious tone is amusing when paired with the fact that Kenny died in practically every episode up until that point with the other characters not caring at all. But that doesn't change from the fact that the episode is heart-wrenching and supplies what fandoms like this love more than anything
else. Terminal illness angst. I'm not really sure what the psychology is behind so many younger people's obsession with situations like these, but I I swear to God, this is like a real thing. I was obsessed with this [ __ ] when I was a kid. One of my favorite heartfelt episodes of South Park is season 7, episode 14, Raisins. [music] An episode I've directly used quotes from in my videos before. The episode follows Stan dealing with the fallout of his girlfriend breaking up with him and moving on with another boy from class. And he ends
up being so depressed that he bums out all of his friends and befriends the resident goth kids. When Butters breaks up with his new girlfriend, he's sad as well. But when offered a place in the Goth group, he rejects it, claiming that he loves life. And the only reason he's sad now is because he felt true happiness before. Describing the way he feels as a beautiful sadness. >> No thanks. I love life, huh? But you just got dumped. Well, yeah, and I'm sad. But at the same time, I'm really happy that something can make [music]
me feel that sad. It's like it it makes me feel alive, you know? It makes me feel human. The only way I could feel this side [music] now is if I felt something really good before. So, I have to take the bad with the good. [music] So, I guess what I'm feeling is like a beautiful sadness. I guess that sounds stupid. >> The speech is enough to move Stan in order to turn back to his youth. And it's a really heartfelt scene that I think a lot of people can take something out of, especially younger
people who may be going through a breakup themselves. Stan is generally the poster child for the show's more heartfelt and serious moments. Beyond this episode, episodes seven and eight of season 15 titled You're Getting Old and Asberers are probably some of the most sincere and emotionally intelligent episodes in the whole series. All while paired with very comedic side plots once again using Stan to explore themes of depression and cynicism and how it affects both depressed people and the people around them. In your Getting Old, Stan starts to adopt a cynical view on life after his
10th birthday. He begins to see all things his peers enjoy as [ __ ] and actively brings down the mood whenever he's with his friends to the point where they start excluding him from activities for being too negative. All the while, Stan's parents, Sharon and Randy, argue themselves into a divorce. And the episode ends with Stan and his sister Shel moving into a new home after the separation while Fleetwood Max Landside plays to a very unironic and sincere montage. Kyle, Stan's previous best [music] friend, starts getting closer to Cartman in his absence. And with Stan's
life essentially [ __ ] the episode ends abruptly. Asberers is the direct continuation to this episode in which Stan's cynical view on life leads him to be misdiagnosed with Asberger syndrome. Upon meeting with a group of fellow falsely diagnosed people, they show him that some force prevents the rest of the world from seeing the world the way that they do and that the serum to seeing things the way others do is alcohol. Stan gets drunk and finally begins to enjoy the world the way his friends did. The Matrix style cynical resistance combined with the injection
of alcohol into a 10-year-old boy makes for an amusing plotline. Sure, but the effects of these strange hijinks [music] are upsettingly real. By the end of the episode, Stan finally accepts and embraces the changes to his life, only for his parents to decide to get back together and stick with what they know. And Stan turns back to alcohol when going out with his friends. >> Movie Zookeeper 2. Zookeeper. Okay, coming. Again, like I said, fandoms love angst. A lot of angst art surrounding Stan stems from these episodes, especially considering the depiction of his relationship with
Kyle in them. Yes, the situation is comical, but again, the comedic factor comes from the fact that this is a very realistic and depressing situation for older people being reenacted by fourth graders. The message and the parallel to real life experiences is clear, and these episodes combined with the affforementioned raisins and with his characterization in later seasons being frequently miserable, Stan is a perfect example of a character that can captivate this kind of audience. Obviously, Stan is far from the only character to have angsty scenarios in the show itself surrounding him. Every character has a
surprising amount of depth to them if you actually look [music] into it. Though obviously I don't have the time to go through every character and all of their sincere moments. Just know that every character has them. Even Cartman, who is essentially supposed to be the root of all evil or the average fourth grade boy, is made into the way he is due to his mother's blatant enabling and emotional incest. And no, that term doesn't refer to actual incest, but rather a parent who relies on their child for companionship or emotional satisfaction that should be coming
from an adult. So, the show itself has a lot of sincere moments and captivating characterization. Yes. But there is another element that I feel draws a lot of attention from quote unquote cringe South Park fans. A large number of these fans are minorities. Another reason why so many people are often confused by their interest in a show as offensive as South Park. But for as offensive as it is, South Park has managed to use its popularity to spread a lot of very positive messaging about multiple different minority groups or just make fun of bigots without
them even realizing half the time. Mainstream media has thankfully gotten many wins for representation of a wide variety in recent times, but South Park has been a pioneer since representation like this was considered wildly taboo and controversial. For one, the show is frequently celebrated for its representation of disabled and neurode divergent individuals, as unlikely as it may seem to people who haven't seen most of the show themselves. In season 4, South Park introduced its first prominent handicapped character, Timmy Burch, who first appeared in the Tooth Fairy Tats 2000 for a minor scene. Matt and Trey
were being pressured immensely by Comedy Central to remove the character as they saw it as far too controversial and taboo, but the creators stood their ground because ever since his very first appearance, Timmy was always treated as just another kid by the main characters and wasn't targeted or mistreated for being handicapped. Matt and Trey wanted to do a full episode with Timmy despite the network's resistance. And when the first episode featuring him actually aired, Timmy was so popular that the network immediately demanded more of him despite previously pushing against the character. In the third episode
of season 4, Timmy 2000, Timmy's character is given a lot more time to shine when he becomes the lead singer for a band. The kids think that he's awesome, but the adults in the town are furious at them, assuming they're ridiculing and making fun of Timmy because they can't grasp the concept that a disabled person could be capable of having fun with their friends. The episode uses comedy to make it very clear that Timmy has autonomy and is not constantly miserable due to his disability, something that a lot of people who pity disabled people tend
to believe. It's a very insightful message that a lot of people today still don't fully understand. In season 5, a second prominent disabled character, Jimmy Valmer, would be introduced, a child with an affinity for stand-up comedy. In his debut episode, Jimmy ends up irritating Timmy as the former is adored by the town, which causes Timmy to feel envious, as he has never been given special treatment or attention due to his disabilities. Jimmy is given flaws in this episode much like any other character. And just like Timmy is treated equally by his peers, a lot of
comedic moments from Jimmy come from the fact that he has a stutter. And while yes, objectively this is poking fun at a speech impediment, every character in the show is very respectful towards him and never interrupts Jimmy while he's stuttering, even when it goes on for prolonged periods of times, a good episode to bring attention to when it comes to Jimmy specifically as a character would be season 8, episode 2, up the down steroid, in which Jimmy suffers from a reliance on steroids for the upcoming Special Olympics. What really makes this episode good representation is
the use of Cartman as a character. A lot of the time, people assume South Park to be bigoted because of how stupid of a character Cartman can be, as he's typically bigoted or insufferable by nature. But actually paying attention to more than one episode of the show will have you realize very quickly that Cartman is not supposed to be a role model, nor is he in the right 90% of the time. In this episode, Cartman is convinced that winning the Special Olympics would be incredibly easy because the competition is disabled. And as such, he fakes
being disabled in order to win. Not only is he very obviously in the wrong here, but he unsurprisingly comes in very last at the event because he had no prior training and is a fat little [ __ ] In terms of disability representation, I think one specific episode triumphs over all the others in terms of how it was received and resonated with disabled individuals. Season 11, episode 8, La Petite Tourett surrounds Cartman as he discovers what Tourett syndrome is and the misadventures that acquire after he begins faking having it to get [music] away with blurting
obscenities. This episode is of course another example of Cartman being an abbleist [ __ ] being scrutinized for it by others and eventually getting what he deserves, but it's also a very clever way of not only sparking discussion around Tourette's syndrome, but also identifying why it's so insensitive to fake or want a mental disability that you don't have. This episode aired in 2007 and was way ahead of the curve with this topic. Almost 20 years later, and people still can't seem to figure out why wanting or faking a disorder, especially Tourette's, is so offensive. This
episode explores a lot of different aspects for this disorder in a way that is genuinely informative and not ill. For instance, through the inclusion of a character named Thomas, the audience learns a lot about how people with Tourette's actually feel and how other people's pity feels wildly scrutinizing, something that South Park has spoken about before. It also shows that people with Tourette's syndrome can have a wide variety of ticks and stems. Something that was especially important at a time when Tourette's was often miscatategorized or confused with caprialia, a vocal tick that specifically refers to inappropriate
words or phrases. Capriolia is a characteristic of the character Thomas and is the specific disorder that Cartman finds amusing and it only occurs in roughly 10% of people with Tourette's syndrome. I myself do not have Tourette's syndrome, but because of other disabilities, I do tend to have frequent and sudden ticks. So, seeing these ticks and stems explained so clearly on mainstream television goes a really long way for me. The Tourett Association of America spoke out against the episode once it was announced. However, later released a statement following the episode's release, which stated the following. Despite
our pre-airing trepidations, we do concede that the episode was surprisingly well researched. The highly exaggerated emphasis on copraalia notwithstanding for the attentive viewer there was a surprising amount of accurate information conveyed. No doubt this South Park episode did generate increased natural awareness about Tourett syndrome. Nevertheless, we are very concerned that school children with Tourette's syndrome will be mocked and even bullied by insensitive peers who have seen the program. Obviously, this increased awareness we've worked too hard to accomplish can at times prove to be a double-edged sword. While it is true that children are evil demonic
creatures who will target anything they [music] don't understand and that this episode's creation likely did result in some bad eggs misinterpreting the writer's intentions, it's an undeniable fact that Latit Tourett spread a lot of awareness about an otherwise very misunderstood and unknown syndrome. South Park addresses a lot of different mental health conditions and disabilities and makes fun of a lot of the misconceptions surrounding them. And if I didn't ever so slightly but not really value your time, I would go into every single one of them with an excruciating amount of detail. Just know there are
a lot of other videos on these topics if you're really that interested. Of course, South Park also has its fair share of representing different cultures and tackling racism, each presented with very unique approaches. But as a disabled and queer person myself, I know primarily these fans of South Park are uh disabled and queer. Therefore, those two specific kinds of representation are going to resonate the strongest with them. I've already gone through the many characters and episodes that may resonate with disabled and neurody divergent individuals, but another common reason for praising the show is its queer
representation. Representation that undoubtedly plays the biggest role in attracting this kind of fan base. Before I sing South Park's gay praises, however, it is incredibly important to draw attention to the show's history of portraying transgender individuals. A good amount of queer South Park fans are also under the transgender umbrella. something that confuses a lot of outsiders because of the show's often less than favorable depiction of trans people. Episodes like Mr. Garrison's Fancy New Vagina and the depictions of characters like Heather Swanson or the real life Caitlyn Jenner are undoubtedly less than favorable towards transgender individuals.
In Jenner's case, you could argue it's because she is a person kind of sucks, but her facial deformities are pretty telling. Still less transphobic than Hulk. I've gotten a few opinions from transgender fans of the show and of course I am trans myself. And it seems the general consensus surrounding these elements is that while yes, they are certainly offensive, most fans acknowledge that South Park is a very edgy and intentionally controversial show that isn't going to hit every time with every person. Others simply choose not to watch these episodes or instead highlight the times the
show has been favorable towards transgender issues. The [ __ ] is a really great example of an episode that not only has a supportive outlook on a transgender debate, but portrays that outlook in a way that transphobic people themselves can't even properly understand. Those people will often sympathize with Cartman in this episode, not realizing that they are directly being parodyied. The video game South Park: The Fractured But Whole also features one of the most diverse range of gender selection options in gaming, giving you the option to choose specific labels for your character that are seldom
represented in media. and it's treated pretty sincerely rather than played for laughs. One of the funniest gags in the entire game is the fact that the rednecks will attack you for your identity regardless of what you pick and will still commit hate crimes against you for being a cisgendered heterosexual. >> Well, well, well, if it ain't a cisgendered boy. >> We don't TAKE KINDLY TO YOUR TYPES around here. A lot of transgender fans also find comfort in how frequently the boys are shown to crossdress, especially when they go under new identities like Princess Kenny or
the fan favorite Margarine. It's pretty apparent that Matt and Trey and other creatives behind South Park aren't blatantly transphobic themselves and are more so just television's edgiest rage baiters. Though, it would still be very refreshing to see better transgender representation throughout South Park, especially considering how well other forms of queer representation have been handled on the show. Hi. Uh, sorry about the difference in audio. I got a new mic in the middle of making this video. So, uh, sorry if it sounds a little bit different, but hopefully it sounds better and hopefully my videos will
have higher quality audio from now on. God, I hope. See, South Park has been supportive of gay rights since the show's fourth episode. Having had Stan come to terms with his dog Sparky's homosexuality, he plays the role of a homophobic parent, initially wishing to change Sparky and being upset that he isn't like all the other dogs. but with the help of Big Gay Al realizes it's okay to be gay and gives a speech about his newfound ideologies to the town. The character of Big Gay Al is undoubtedly a stereotype. His name is [ __ ]
Big Gay Al for one, but the way he dresses, speaks, and acts are all very flamboyantly stereotypical. [music] However, there are three primary reasons for this not being homophobic or harmful for the most part. One is that this character was introduced in 1997. Even creating a stereotypical gay character purely for comedic purposes was taboo and extremely controversial, especially if said gay character was portrayed as positive or helpful or not a sexual deviant. Secondly, Big Gay Al evolved into a character that was utilized to spread very positive messaging about the queer community, making fun of the
stereotype or bigoted expectation that gay men are pedophiles, being respected and adored by the children, and being very accepting even towards those who choose to oppress him. And lastly, as a gay person, I find these stereotypes kind of funny. Sorry. Some of my favorite queer characters share similar archetypes because I find them endearing. Obviously, that doesn't go for every single gay person ever, but I think a lot of my queer friends share the same opinion. Of course, Big Gay Al is not the only early season gay South Park character. Miss Ellen, a character that appears
for a single episode in season 1, is a lesbian. And Mr. Mr. Garrison, ironically enough, is a character I would consider to be solid representation purely because of a line said by Chef, stating, "There's a big difference between a gay person and Mr. Garrison." And again, I find him funny. Sorry. Despite his irony poison character, however, Mr. Garrison's later relationship with the character Rick is shockingly genuine and probably the healthiest relationship this character has ever had with anyone ever. An important episode of interest when talking about South Park's queer representation of course has to be
season 11 episode 2: Cartman sucks. This episode fires huge shots towards gay conversion camps and pokes endless fun at not only how stupid of a concept they all are, but how useless they are and how they've never actually converted anyone ever. All while making a statement on how society labels others, especially children, as being confused about their sexuality when they really [music] aren't. I think you get my point by now. South Park has shared a lot of positive messages relating to queer people at a time when other shows either did so only for brownie points
or hardly did so at all, attracting a lot of individuals who value queer characters in their media. But I would be lying if I didn't say that only around, let's say, 5% of gay South Park fans acted this way because of characters like Big Gay Al or Mr. Garrison. There is an undeniable variable in the South Park fandom that I have yet to mention. a variable that I would argue is primarily responsible for the modern South Park fan. I talked a lot about popular South Park ships earlier, though the one I specifically avoided mentioning in
depth until now was Tweak XC Craig, better known as Creek. These two characters first crossed paths in season 3, episode 5, Tweak versus Craig, and have been shipped together by niche communities ever since. Creek was often considered to be a crack ship, not just because it was implausible. I mean, every other ship was probably the same amount of implausible, but also because these characters had very minimal interactions or connections to each other beyond this episode. Aside from this episode and maybe a few shots where the characters are standing vaguely near each other, these characters did
not acknowledge each other's existence. But a rare pair of shippers will is strong and Creek shippers made up maybe a bit less than onetenth of South Park's shipping content. The content was of a high enough quantity, however, that Madden Trey themselves took notice. And let's face it, if you're watching this, you know what happened. One fateful October 24th, an official call to action from South Park was posted asking for fans to submit in their words, "Yowi fan art of Tweak and Craig" exclusively. While most people know the events following this, it's an interesting adventure to
look at the South Park fandom's reaction to the situation while it was going down. A post from Tumblr user Shayloo, hopefully I'm pronouncing that correctly, a self-proclaimed South Park historian and archivist, god that's the coolest [ __ ] title in the world, details the situation better than I ever could. So, I'm just going to paraphrase what they refer to as the South Park fandom and the five stages of grief. The announcement of South Park deliberately scouting out Yahwi fan art was an explosive one, and a lot of different emotions were felt. Many were confused, some
in genuine disbelief, others concerned, a few even furious. South Park wouldn't just ask for ludicrous art of children if it weren't for the purpose of making fun of it and ripping it to shreds. As such, a lot of the submissions were outrageously satire so Matt and Trey wouldn't have to make fun of their actual work. Eventually, Creek Shippers began standing up for themselves, accepting their fates, and asking for Matt and Trey to kink shame them. Obviously though, not every single person was using that term in the literal sense or or not. I don't know. It
was 2015. People just said [ __ ] The episode officially premiered an entire decade ago on October 28th, 2015. Forever changing the trajectory of the South Park fandom. This episode is actually beautifully crafted. It's written in a way where both people who think South Park shipping is weird and gross, and people who actively indulge in it can enjoy and laugh at the text. Matt and Trey weren't laughing at the fans, they were laughing with them. And through the amusing conversation piece that is Yahwi, they ended up taking these two decently irrelevant characters and put them
in an actual romantic and healthy relationship. A show as big as South Park not only acknowledging shipping culture, but doing so by specifically mentioning Yahi was a very big deal. Even now, most things that recognize shipping culture are just like, "Hey, wow, that's really weird." Or just have two characters be like, "Huh, yeah, we're shipped together. That's pretty funny." They also didn't do this for brownie points or anything of the sorts, as I cannot stress enough how small of a percentage of their viewers actually really wanted this. Regardless, as someone who was really young and
really into shipping when this episode came out, I found it absolutely hilarious. An entire unknown side of my life was being acknowledged in a way that was really amusing, and I immediately became a fan of other South Park content. So, yes, I will primarily blame this episode for turning the South Park fandom into what it is today because it's what got me into the fandom in the first place, and I'm very much one of those annoying cringe fans. I think even without this episode, the fandom would have evolved into this anyways, seeing as it was
already like that. But, it definitely gave it a push in the right or maybe wrong direction. A lot of people can argue that these two characters aren't a sincere romantic couple because this episode is very clearly not taken seriously. And this is definitely a valid argument to make if you're only referring to this episode. But Matt and Trey went out of their way to solidify this relationship in the background of almost every episode going forward, as well as giving their relationship another episode surrounding it, season 21's Put It Down, in which the two are shown
to show affection and call each other pet names, even in private. Their relationship here is shown to parallel the relationship of two other characters, Cartman and Heidi, who have a wildly dysfunctional relationship, because of course they do. It's [ __ ] Eric Cartman. Craig realizes through their horrible relationship how to be a better companion to Tweak, and it makes for an incredibly heartwarming episode with an actual good moral that has literally helped me understand their relationships in my own life a lot better, as well as understand myself. These two characters aren't pretending to be a
couple anymore. They've evolved into one completely and are acknowledged as being more than friends by Matt and Trey. The 2017 South Park video game, The Fractured But Whole, he said fractured. >> Hold up, features both characters prominently as they go through a literal lover's quarrel and reconstruct their relationship in couples counseling. To this day, the pair are still shown together in background shots frequently, something that a lot of fans lose their [ __ ] over. Not me, though. That's stupid. But that's dumb. Again, this couple is absolutely sincere and absolutely the leading factor in most
modern South Park fans acting a certain way. >> They're forcing your kids to be a certain way, and that's you know what it is. >> A show of this nature acknowledging this side of its fan base to such a degree is rare enough, but choosing to actively change the cannon and establish a new queer relationship has permanently changed the way South Park was viewed by queer people. We are now living in the Fallout existing in a post creek era. This is the modern South Park fandom. And I don't think it's changing anytime soon. When entering
the modern South Park fandom, you'll notice that like every fandom, a lot of people have a strong fondness for the show's side characters. Characters that appear either a few times, characters that appear only once, or characters that become irrelevant in later seasons. Many people enjoy the idea of various side characters interacting in a lot of AUS. That's alternate universes for the somehow uninformed have been created surrounding these background characters. It wouldn't be a video about the South Park fandom if I didn't mention a specific very popular AU web comic that predominantly features these background characters
and can be given credit for newer fans and their fascination with specific side characters. If you know then you know I'm of course talking about Hell Park. It's Helen South Park, primarily known as Hell Park, was created by Chicken Stab or Doodle Stab, and began in April 2019, and is basically South Park's version of FNAF's The Wretched, or Stranger Things's The Wretched Mischaracterization Edition. Much like The Wretched, Hell Parkized a lot of pairings and characterizations within the fandom. And also, much like The Wretched spawned a multitude of imitations after its cancelling. There's a lot going
on in Hell Park, but the overall premise is that Craig and his friends essentially summon demons from hell. These demons being Tweak, Pip, Gregory, Estella, and Thomas. If you don't recognize all of these characters, I don't blame you. While Tweak and Pip appear multiple times throughout the series. Gregory, Estella, and Thomas are all one-off characters. I've already explained who Thomas is. Gregory is a character from the movie, and Estella is from a single episode that most general audiences hate because it is literally just a funny retelling of Great Expectations. Other characters appear throughout the story
like the girls Gary and Damian. Hell Park is a unique situation because again, much like the wretched, it had somewhat of its own fan base outside of South Park. There are probably still people today who like Hell Park but don't keep up with South Park itself. The characters are obviously very Tumblrified and the story is obviously very divergent from the media it's based on. So, it makes sense why people could be specifically and exclusively into Hell Park. The comic had its fair share of controversy, as will anything that's fan-made and this popular. Most issues of
the rose had to do with the way certain characters were depicted or the handling of certain relationships, though it's kind of like nothing. Like, if you want to depict characters as gay has been hotel demons, you're allowed to. I don't know why anyone expected the comic to be the pinnacle of media literacy. It's it's gay demon South Park fanfiction. The comic itself isn't horrible by any means. It's pretty unique and definitely a comforting product of its time and of the fandom. Like many comics posted to Tumblr, it utilizes the site's features to its advantage and
is fairly interactive, which is always nice to see. The comic was canceled in 2021 with Doodle Stab saying the reason a lot of people sort of ruined it for me, and I've grown too tired of all the defense, discourse, and drama around really shitty things in the show. Regardless of its cancellation, its impact in the fandom was felt. The comic was extremely popular with some animations getting millions of views as well as influencing the popularization of characters like Pip or Estella because really probably a total of like two people cared about Estella before this comic.
I I don't know. Longtime Estella fans feel free to prove me wrong. Many ships became more popular such as Stan and Gregory or Thomas and Craig. A very popular trope in a lot of fanfiction or other AUs is the concept of Thomas and Craig being exes because of their interaction in Lapati Tourett. It takes as little as a single interaction for something like this to spread. It's fascinating, really. Hell Park was not the only South Park AU of its kind. Plenty of other crazy gay fanfictions have popped up before and since, some more popular and
liked than others. I feel like there's enough to talk about here that I could make a whole video on South Park AU if people really wanted it. But I won't waste anyone's time here if they don't care. A part of Hell Park's popularity stems from the fact that the fandom really loves different characterizations like this, even if it's often wildly inaccurate. you know, the classic, he would not [ __ ] say that. I bring this up because there are a lot of popular characterizations and head cannons given to characters that I want to gloss over
just to prove that not all South Park head cannons come from nowhere. So, yes, this is another attempt to defend South Park fans. Let me state my case. Some head cannons are less head cannons and more so different depictions or alternate versions of characters. A really popular variant of Kyle, for example, is Scene Kyle, who is exactly what he looks like. Discourse on what counts as seen aside, this is a funny, albeit harmless depiction. Yes, it plays into the stereotype of the way South Park fans are, but again, take a look at this and tell
me it's harming you in any way. Tell me you are so miserable that an edit of a South Park character that you find cringe fills you with genuine rage. Now, who's cringe? Now, who's stupid? Look at you. You're so angry. Do you want to talk about it? How does that make you feel? Does it stem from a place of insecurity? scene. Kyle is often paired with Goth Stan, the depiction of Stan from the Raisins episode. This one's a little bit different because it's an actual variant of the character within the show, but I'd still consider
it somewhat of a head cannon just because Stan canonically found this lifestyle stupid and not for him. These variants are more recent additions to the fandom, but other head cannons have been around for a really long time. Similarly to the way that Dream SMPP fan artists come up with different design traits for characters that look like this, South Park fan artists add a lot of design traits to the characters based on various happenings within the show, showing that they do care about the source material enough to pay attention to these details. I think the most
popular of these is Butters having a scar over his eye in reference to good times with weapons in which his eye is directly hit with a shuriken. On the topic of scars, a more recent trend has been to give Kyle horrific mouth scars in reference to the human centipad episode. So that's that's nice. Hartman is often depicted with two different eye colors in reference to him at one point having his eyes replaced with Kenny's. Kenny is sometimes depicted with having a lot of scars due to his frequent deaths. Kyle is occasionally mentioned as having freckles,
so a lot of fan artists give him freckles. Tweige often looks sickly because he's actively consuming meth. And probably the most interesting, Craig is often depicted as Peruvian due to his ties to Peru in the Pandemic episodes. This is half a head cannon, half an actual theory about Craig being adopted. But I do find it really interesting that there's usually some form of logic behind a lot of fan artists design choices. So yes, most South Park fans do actually watch the show. They just choose to act a certain way towards it, and that's completely okay.
There's no single right way to consume media. South Park fans like this have always been hated by people who aren't a part of this side of the fandom. though it's definitely gotten more noticeable in recent times. And I don't just mean since Creek becoming canon. While we are in the post creek era, we're also in another sub era, something I like to call the postcoavid era. In 2021, South Park released two specials relating to an overarching coid9 plotline. Specials that involved a concept we had never seen until that point, a time skip. And not just
the boys graduating to the fourth grade. No, we got to see them become adults after drifting apart, reuniting after Kenny's [music] death. These specials are interesting because even though they're full of jokes and comedic plot points, they take themselves fairly seriously. Like, it's a little jarring at first how genuine these specials are. It plays out a lot like It Chapter 2 the more I think about it. Obviously, something so huge was bound to ignite the flames of the fandom. So much fan art of the adult designs were made, so much angst surrounding Stan resurfaced, angst
surrounding all the characters. Really, these specials genuinely play out like a mellow drama. And I firmly believe them to still be the best South Park specials to date because of how iconic they are and how crazy of a time period this was for the fandom. It's pretty safe to say, however, that a revival of this nature wasn't going to happen again for a long, long time. Just kidding. I'm lying. I'm completely I'm so I'm lying to you. Only two years would pass before one of the most spectacular amazing things to ever happen to South Park
fans happened. In 2023, season 26 released and it was actually really good. Yes, as a diehard South Park fan, I don't really dislike much of the show as long as my favorite characters are on screen and I can point at them like an infant, but I would be blissfully and stupidly ignorant to not address the elephant in the room. South Park had a pretty big falloff for years. Not only were seasons getting shorter, but the episodes were just becoming unbelievably forgettable. Not as bad as Modern Family Guy yet, but still not necessarily good. Not only
were the episodes weak, but they also lacked a lot of character-driven moments, alienating the fan base that cares primarily about the actual characters and not purely political references. So, season 26 featuring actual character-driven episodes and original storylines that weren't entirely reliant on politics was game-changing, especially when the very first episode was paring Tik Tok and featured Cartman essentially shipping Stan and Kyle together. Sure, it still retained its celebrity spoofness by bullying Kanye again, but it didn't rely on the concept and allowed its characters to just be characters again. And every episode continued to hit consistently.
Episode 2 is typically considered to be the weakest, but it still features the characters, you know, being actual characters. The third episode surrounded Randy, sure, but it was also actually a funny modern Randy episode, returning to the form of his actions actually impacting Stan. And of course, Deep Learning, the Stendy focused episode, found a way to tackle a modern topic in a way that fit into the characters and their environment. Dick and Boss is one of my favorite episodes of the entire series, and it basically just being a vent piece for Matt and Trey's financial
loss after purchasing Casa Bonita is [ __ ] hilarious. It also, of course, gave us a rare scene of Kenny without his parka on, which was so iconic they made it into a YouTube. And again, spring break is typically a lesser favorite of the season, but it's still not bad and actually expands on Mr. Garrison and his relationship with Rick. This season, even if only six episodes, did its best to make every single episode count, ending the long and painful, actually good South Park content drought for its runtime. The fandom worked its way into everything.
Christmas Kids edits, AU comics returning, South Park YouTubers finally having things to talk about. It was a golden era. It even got me back into the fandom, and onto the trenches that were South Park Twitter. And uh, I'll let you in on a secret. I wouldn't be doing YouTube if it wasn't for that. When I was in this fandom, a very small amount of people, like literally three or four people, somehow managed to become so obsessed with me, they would either harass me and the people I knew through Google forums, begged to be my friend
or just straight up attempt to dox [music] me. It was when one person put me in their [ __ ] card.co interests that I knew. I was destined for people to be weird and parasocial towards me. And so, I started doing YouTube. Thank you, South Park Twitter. It's now the year 2025, 10 years after The Creekening, and the fandom is still going strong. South Park recently made a deal with Paramount that has made their newest season slash seasons a little messy and confusing. But the diehard fans remain regardless. I think for every new season, sure,
we'll see a revival. But unless we get a drought as horrible as before, I'm not sure if we can ever return to the way it was in 2023. Maybe that's for the better. Who can say? Of course, all of these fans, regardless of where they are and where they have been, have been played with the very same allegations, have all heard the same eight words. Matt and Trey would make fun of you. Let's think about this for a second. Do Matt and Trey detest this side of the fandom? Do they disapprove? Do they mock and
endlessly bully these innocent souls? Well, in private, sure, we have no idea what they're doing, but I think it's pretty safe to say that these two have made their public opinion pretty obvious. Yes, the two see the hilarity in things like head cannons and shipping, but they don't reject and shame it. When they first saw Creek fan art, in their own words, they thought it was both weird and cool, but the entire concept of Tweak and Craig aside, there's a piece of undeniable evidence that Matt and Trey wouldn't berate their fan base. Let me just
let me show you. >> Uh, my name's Tweak. Um, and I was just wondering how many times you guys have like killed my friend Kenny. >> Well, that was that count. It was in there. I never counted it, but yeah, a lot. Yeah, we might kill Kenny some this season. We kind of stopped doing that. >> Not a laugh, not a cringe, not anything. How did they do that? One of what people would assume to be the most tick- tock South Park fan of Tik Tok South Park fans was knocking at their doorstep. And they
treated them with complete respect and sincerity, answering their question instead of mocking them or putting them on blast. To this day, the words, "Hi, my name is Tweak haunt every South Park fan to walk this planet." And yet, Matt and Trey didn't even flinch. We have no idea what Matt and Trey do behind closed doors, but they've made it more than clear they love, appreciate, and thrive off the fans. Even relying on them for keeping their own cannon up to date. It doesn't matter what type of fan you are, more often than not, creators aren't
going to be directly hateful towards you because most creators aren't stupid. So, did we answer our question? Did we find out exactly why South Park fans are like that? Uh, let's recap. The characters have strong relationships with each other because it's a character focused show. Therefore, it's prone to acquiring shippers as fans. The show is sincere emotionally at times and has a lot of more serious and emotional moments. It also has a lot of forms of representation that may appeal to certain groups of people. The show is also proven that it accepts and embraces these
outlandish ships, even canonizing one and putting other characters in jokingly romantic scenarios. And of course, the show saw itself actually becoming good again for the first time in years. I think that's more than enough to theorize off of. Though, there is another reason I'd like to throw out there. a personal theory for why something like South Park could resonate so much with a fandom like this. The internet loves little boys. That that didn't that that didn't come out. Let me let me try that again. The internet loves feeling a sense of youth. So many people
connect with stories that surround a younger cast in wacky or unfortunate or supernatural situations. One reason is that yes, it is typically more entertaining because kids react to these situations in a funnier and sometimes even more reasonable way than adults do. But there's also a deeper connection. Everyone is so alone now. People have had excuses to just not go outside since the pandemic more and more. And the majority of my own online friends don't have or have never had a chaotic in-person friend group where they could just get into wacky situations and make stupid mistakes.
There's a deeper longing for a return to adolescence, [music] to have that youthful group of companions, to make bad decisions, to have the world be against you. It's the reason why things like it and Stranger Things became so popular outside of just general audiences. And these connections are parodyied in South Park itself, having an entire episode dedicated to it. As humans, we gravitate towards things that comfort us or fulfill a nostalgic hole left in us. People are lonely, and we want something that makes us feel a bit less alone. I could be way off the
mark on this one, but I think this could be applicable to at least a few other South Park fans because I know that it's applicable to me. I got really into South Park around the same time I got really into things like it and Stranger Things. There doesn't need to be a deep psychological reason for being peculiar and gay and also liking South Park. But it's still a reason that applies to me and it might apply to you, too. I have no idea. I don't know who you are, but I'm grateful you're here. I'm grateful
you stuck around to hear me talk about something I care about, but probably no one else does. At the end of the day, I'm going to poke fun of some of the outlandishly strange South Park fans because it's just the way that I'm wired. But I don't think there's anything genuinely wrong with consuming media in this way. Go on, make your head cannons. Make your fan art. Make your inaccurate character playlists. Ship yourself with Randy. Diverge from the cannon. Who cares? Reddit. Are you going to listen to Reddit? Or are you going to man the
[ __ ] up and draw gay South Park fan art because you [ __ ] want to do the things you want to do? Even if other people think they're stupid, even if you think they're stupid. It's been exactly 10 years since my life was changed forever. 10 years since I was introduced to the concept of South Park Yahwi. 10 years since one of my favorite fictional ships, if not my absolute favorite, became cannon for shits and giggles. And I think that's a beautiful thing, a beautiful, hilarious thing. And if you can't see this fandom
that way, I understand it. It's weird. It's illogical. But dude, it's the internet. This should be the least of our concerns. There are way worse things to wooify. There are more problematic things to enjoy. If you genuinely find yourself getting mad at someone calling Eric Cartman gay, get up, take a walk, and enjoy what the outside world has to offer, because it is way nicer and way more to your standards than the internet. Don't let yourself be bullied by shipping culture. Just move on and let yourself be happy.
