The Birth of a Personality from the Carnival Spirit
The media space of "South Park" is organized according to M.M. Bakhtins carnival model of culture. It is bases on such attributes of folk laughter culture as bawdy gestures, obscene vocabulary, exaggerated sexuality, carnal symbols, grotesque and mockery of the upper classes. The series' creators, however, make principal conceptual changes in Bakhtins modeL If the classic carnival enhanced the hierarchical system of the power and strengthened the collective mentality, "South Park" by laughing at mass culture values weakens the crowd's instincts and encourages the emergence of a self-conscious individual alien to any ideology. The analysis of certain episodes has shown that new identity patterns are being formed in the media space of mass culture and these patterns are becoming quite common not only in Hollywood films but in political and social spheres as well.