In the episode “Douche and Turd” of South Park, the show deals with the importance or and the political culture of America. In this episode the show explores the theme of politics from the voter’s perspective when the entire town is suddenly split in two due to the election of the new school mascot. In this election however, the show replaces political candidates with two politically incorrect candidates; a giant douche and a turd sandwich. The dispute over which candidate is best fitting for the school ends up spreading to the rest of the town which in turn sparks arguments, debates, and even campaigns. However not everyone is ecstatic over the upcoming election, in the episode’s main plot we follow Stan as he deals with voter apathy. Stan…show more content… One of the lessons the creators want the audience to take from the episode is that while voting can be very important it doesn’t need to be done for the sake of being done. Throughout the episode multiple characters said that voting was important that it was as something that just needed to be done, but not once in the episode did a character explain why it was important. The characters seemed to be driven to vote because it was seen as the norm, whereas Stan’s unwillingness to vote was seen as socially unacceptable because it wasn’t traditional. Stan does however have a change of heart after a PETA member tells him that “nearly every election since the beginning of time has been between some douche and some turd.”(18:54) this leads Stan to realize that “[he’d] better get used to having to pick between a douche and a turd sandwich because it’s usually the choice [he’ll] have.”(20:24). Stan’s realization is the second lesson of the episode which is that voting should be done because it is the choice made by an individual. Though sometimes the choice is between two terrible options it is still the responsibility of the person to choose the lesser of the two
