mmmkay? and its kin

[Dave Wilton]

> But, since Parker and Davis made a short film in 1991 which was
> the genesis
> of the later series, someone should look at that film.  Read the "Series
> history" in the following link:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Park#Series_history

The 1991 short is "The Spirit of Christmas." Hilarious. But the character of
Mr. Mackay isn't in it and no one says "mmmkay".

It's Parker and Stone, by the way.

The term is glossed as "m'kay" in "Among The New Words" in American Speech,
75/3, Fall 2000. Glowka, et. al., incorrectly (in my opinion) gloss it as a
euphemism for fuck, "with a joke on people using the exclamation to mean
OK." This is based on a single usage in the movie "South Park: Bigger,
Longer, and Uncut". This usage is in a song sung by Mr. Mackay, the lyric
which goes, "'Cause 'fuck' is the worst word that you can say, / So just use
the word 'm'kay'!"

While this one use does match, the gloss ignores all the other times when
the term is used by Mackay on the series. The joke is about Mackay's use of
the word for OK, not as a code word for the expletive. This is a nonce usage
for Mackay.