Gay Speech In South Park

The concept of distinction in the way homosexual males speak is a fairly new notion in the study of sociolinguistics (Podesva, 2002) and the fact that gay speech is often parodied in the media makes it an interesting topic to discuss. I will be investigating examples of gay speech in the popular television show South Park and compare the way they portray gay speech to the way gay CNN journalist Anderson Cooper speaks. Anderson Cooper has his own show called Anderson Cooper 360 which I will use to listen to his speech patterns. I want to prove a claim coined by Podesva (2002) that not all homosexual males speak with the stereotypical, gay speech. It really all depends on particular individuals which are often represented in the media such as
He mentions that an elongated L and higher pitch when speaking show the stereotypical homosexual speech (2007), however, it is only one representation of how gays actually speak. To further prove this point I will compare the speech of two gay individuals from the media: CNN journalist Anderson Cooper and Big Gay Al from South Park. Big Gay Al was first introduced in an episode about homosexual pets. He was running an animal shelter called Big Gay Al’s Big Gay Animal Sanctuary. He also happens to be the stereotypical gay man not only with what he wears but with how he speaks as well. He demonstrates the phonetic features of the stereotype. Anderson Cooper does not happen to fall under this stereotype. He does not wear anything that shows that he is gay nor does he speak like Big Gay Al. What I am going to do now is compare his way of speaking to Big Gay Al’s
He brings in his perspective of those events. He often has guests that have to do with politics. Both South Park and Anderson Cooper 360 have in common the fact that they bring in current events but South Park brings them up in a comedic way while Anderson Cooper 360 brings them up in an informative way.
The particular episode I decided to pick out from South Park is Episode 4 from Season 1. That happens to be the first episode in which Big Gay Al comes out. I had to re-watch the episode a few times but I eventually got down every instance in which he demonstrates the stereotypical gay speech. I then watched Anderson Cooper 360 at around an equal amount of time to compare and contrast how they both speak.
The episode I was watching included a scene that had an about two and a half minute conversation between Big Gay Al and another character named Stan. What I noticed the most was that Big Gay Al would elongate every S sound so, for example, he would say “Ssstanley” and he did it in every instant possible during this episode. According to Podesva (2002) that is exactly something that portrays the stereotypical gay male speech. Big Gay Al is an extreme case but it is still a demonstration of the stereotype. I added a conversation between Big Gay Al and Stan below. This is when the two characters first meet each other. Notice how Big Gay Al elongates his S sound in every instance.