Gingers Do Have Souls

GINGERS DO HAVE SOULS

Team Member: Sara Hareide Wagland

The phenomenon with “Gingers do have souls”, started out with a South Park episode from the 9^th November 2005 called “Ginger Kids”. In that episode one of the main characters, Eric Cartman, gives a speech to the class about how ginger kids are born with a special disease. The disease is called “gingervitus” and occurs because ginger kids apparently have no soul.

South Park – “Ginger Kids”

http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/103645/gingervitus

South Park is a very popular, animated sit-com show for adults. The show is known for mocking and satirizing social and political issues, and in this particular episode they focus on ginger kids and ginger discrimination. It was almost like everyone was waiting for a ginger kid to come along and confront this.

And it happened. On the 14^th of January 2010 an 18-year-old boy called Michael Copper (alias “CopperCab”) uploaded a video on YouTube called “GINGERS DO HAVE SOULS!!” In this video he is angry at South Park and everyone else who makes fun of redheads. With highly exploitable quotes “CopperCab” shares his frustrations about ginger discrimination; “my feelings are really hurt”, and “I am a Christian, and I do have a soul!” At the same time he screams and makes a lot of strange faces.

The real video, “GINGERS DO HAVE SOULS!!”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=EY39fkmqKBM

The monologue made the video a popular target for further remixes and mash-ups, and it became really popular in a short time. The first month after the video was uploaded on YouTube, it reached 3.1 million views and over 600 response videos. According to Google Insight Interests (look at the graph below), its top peak was in April 2010. But it is still a really popular video, with 32,683,342 views as of the 25^th of February 2013. 

The video led to a lot of other video responses, and even South Park responded in March 2010. The promo for their 14^th season was a spoof of “CopperCab”´s video; a ginger-haired Eric Cartman impersonating “CopperCab”:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9I30ScaB4Ak&feature=player_embedded

A lot of memes have been created as a response to the “CopperCab”´s video. I think the reason these memes and the video have become so popular, is that they both lie on the line of what is inappropriate and appropriate (the concept of humor and schema). It is no doubt discriminating (and racist) against gingers, but since it is about hair color it is more socially acceptable (rather than skin color). That may be a reason for why people find it so funny.