Jonathan McGowan Assignment 5 Soc 167

Gingers Have Souls - Assignment 5

·      This topic of “gingers have souls” actually came about as a response to a south park episode released in 2005 where Cartman states in a school project that gingers do not have souls.   This played a huge role in changing teasing “gingers” into a cultural norm.  5 years later, under the alias of CopperCab on youtube a younger red haired boy spoke out stating that gingers do have souls.  His video had over 3 million views in the first month, and is the embodiment of the gingers do have souls meme as we know it today.   On top of the video being highly, hilariously, and emotionally charged, it also addressed a topic that had generated much controversy over the past few years.  These two things together launched CopperCab into the spotlight.  It is also worth noting that in response to CopperCab’s video Southpark released an episode blatantly mocking him, where Cartman quotes the most famous lines from CopperCab’s video.  All 3 videos referenced above are linked below.

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

·      CopperCab in conjunction with Southpark are what helped bring the gingers have souls meme into the spotlight.  CopperCab is a young adult “ginger” who produces youtube videos in order to fight discrimination versus gingers.  Ultimately his videos attract people due to the hilarious way in which he phrases his arguments.

·      It reached 3 million views within the first month, and peak popularity within 3 months.  At this point the video has 35 million views.

http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=gingers%20have%20souls

·      CopperCab is known for posting extreme videos, in general hyper conservative pro American videos, and of course for his extreme support of gingers. 

    Sources:
    http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/gingers-do-have-souls
    http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=gingers%20have%20souls&cmpt=q