Guilty giggles  Catherine Yu asks if it’s okay to laugh at South
Park  southpark200In the episode “Fatbutt and Pancake Head,”
Cartman performs a ventriloquist act, using his hand as a puppet
of Jennifer Lopez. The “Hennifer Lopez” puppet sings about
running for the border, burritos, and taco-flavoured kisses.
Soon after, the real Jennifer Lopez—Ben Affleck in tow—shows up
in South Park and has a showdown with the puppet Jennifer. Ben
falls in love with Cartman’s puppet Jennifer, and the adventure
ends with Lopez’s arrest, an identity thief’s confession, and a
puppet’s suicide.  “Fatbutt and Pancake Head” may be one of the
more ethically objectionable South Park episodes. Puppet
Jennifer’s distorted accent and seemingly insatiable appetite
for tacos is racially insensitive, if not downright racist. Yet
one can barely suppress a grin as one thinks of all of these
shenanigans.  And so it is with much of South Park, as we laugh
and snicker at everything that is wrong and twisted. But could
it be morally wrong to