What you may know as a common cooking spice, "Ginger" became one of the most abused and overused redhead nicknames in world history. This happened in what seemed to be the ten hour period between the time the episode of South Park aired, and the time I had to be at school the next morning. To any and all of you who suffered the same fate I did for the two weeks after that show I feel bad for you. My very close friends and I are all HUGE South Park fans, and they went to town for a few months after the show. To this day its hard to go two days without getting hit with at least one or two "Ginger" jokes, sometimes a stranger even gets one in. The point is the South Park guys started what seemed to be a nickname pandemic that hit the world faster than you can say Google. In the episode Cartman (one of the main characters) gives an anti-ginger presentation in class. This sparks a movement in his school against redhead kids, shunning them. Cartmans friends decide to get revenge on
him by dying his hair red and painting freckles on his face. After waking up in shock he visits the doctor who names his virus "gingervitus". Cartman takes things to another level and attempts to start a ginger movement and get rid of all non-ginger kids. Sure it's just a television show, and sure ginger is a harmless name, so it shouldn't be a problem right? To most of us gingers the name is not bad and has been almost adopted in some ways, but to the select few that don't find it funny it seems to have become a problem. ABC News has even done a segment on a red head boy who underwent some serious bullying just because his hair was red. It became bad enough to get a response like this, but of course south park had an answer.
Ginger jokes have never really bother me, probably because my friends and i are always making fun of each other I'm just so used to it. It is something i still get even meeting random strangers here at Champlain you never know when a ginger jokes gonna be on the table. A word to my fellow gingers out there, learn to accept it because the name is sticking. Keep the breed alive!
(all images via google)
