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South Park is an American animated television series created, written and voiced by Trey Parker and Matt Stone. Distributed by and airing on Comedy Central since 1997, it follows the adventures of four grade school boys who live in the small town of South Park, Colorado. The show emulates stop motion cutout animation which was the original form of animation for the show but has since been replaced by computers. South Park satirizes (sometimes surreally) many aspects of American culture and current events, and challenges deep-seated convictions and taboos, usually employing parody and black comedy.

The series is known for its characteristically blunt handling of current events and its merciless pop-culture parody. On April 5, 2006, it was announced that the show had won a Peabody Award. This is the third Comedy Central show to win, following two awarded to The Daily Show for its 2000 and 2004 presidential election coverage and one given to Mystery Science Theater 3000 in 1994.

The first half of South Park's tenth season ended on May 3, 2006, and the second half will begin to air on October 4. Since Season 4, each season has aired in roughly two parts (the first in Spring and the second in Autumn). After the second half of Season 10, two more seasons of South Park are scheduled for production, allowing the series to run until at least 2009. This would make South Park the third longest-running animated series in US television history, after The Simpsons and King of the Hill. In March 2005, South Park hit the number three spot in the 100 Greatest Cartoons, losing to Tom and Jerry at number two and The Simpsons at number oneChannel 4's 100 Greatest Cartoons.

Series history

South Park began in 1992 when Parker and Stone, then film students at the University of Colorado, created an animated short called Jesus vs. Frosty. The crudely-made film featured prototypical versions of the kids of South Park, including a character resembling Cartman but called 'Kenny' and an unnamed character that resembles Kenny bringing a murderous snowman to life with a magic hat.

Executives at FOX saw the movie, and in 1995, executive Brian Graden commissioned Parker and Stone to create a second short film to send to friends as a video Christmas card. Titled The Spirit of Christmas, it closely resembled the style of the later series, and featured a martial arts duel and subsequent truce between Jesus and Santa Claus (two characters who have since been recurring characters in the series) over the true meaning of Christmas. This video was later featured in the episode "A Very Crappy Christmas" in which Stan, Kyle, Cartman, Kenny, Mr. Hankey and his family 'save' Christmas. The video was a hit and was quickly shared, both by underground duplication and over the burgeoning Internet. This led to talks to create a series, first with FOX, then with Comedy Central, where the series premiered on August 13, 1997. A clip of the short can actually be seen in the opening sequence for the series contained within a billboard. The first short can also be seen during the opening sequence on an old television.

The show's provocative, frequently offensive, and adult-oriented material quickly drew protest from various spokespersons, and South Park merchandise (especially T-shirts) were banned from a number of public schools, day care centers, and other public places. This occurrence is similar in a manner to the prohibition of Bart Simpson T-shirts in the early 1990s, after The Simpsons was accused of contributing to juvenile delinquency. Comedy Central defended South Park by noting that the show is given a "Mature Audiences" TV rating (TV-MA) and is not meant for children to watch. They also pointed out that it only airs the show during night-time hours and never during the day, when children may be more likely to see the show. In fact, at least for the earlier part of the show's run, trailers for the series did not run until after 7 PM.

In February 1998, one episode of South Park posed the question of who Eric Cartman's father was. The episode ended with the announcement that it would be revealed in four weeks' time. A month later, the airing of an episode about Terrance and Phillip (two fictional Canadian comedians who the main characters idolize) in place of the anticipated episode prompted outrage, and caused Comedy Central to push the true season premiere up earlier than expected. It was apparently a well-planted April Fools gag, meant to poke fun at season-ending cliffhangers. The joke was repeated in "Cartoon Wars Part II", which begins by teasing audiences about Comedy Central refusing to air the episode, and then cutting into an introduction featuring Terrance and Phillip in a short film involving Muhammad (who is not shown). Alternatively, the joke was taken in an opposite direction at the end of "Professor Chaos", where three questions were posed, supposedly to be answered in the following episode, except that they were answered immediately, following which, the credits ran.

In 1999, the full-length animated feature film Bigger, Longer & Uncut was released to generally enthusiastic reviews. The film managed to satirize both itself and the anticipated reaction that it engendered from moral conservatives. It also presented a twisted but seemingly sincere tribute to the film musical with a number of songs, including "Uncle Fucka," and "Blame Canada". The latter was nominated for an Oscar and was performed by Robin Williams during the awards show. It has been speculated that "Blame Canada" was chosen from other Oscar-worthy songs in the movie because it was the only one that could be performed on live TV with its lyrics relatively intact (as the song contains only two examples of profanity). While it is true that "Up There" (by Satan) contains no swear words at all, it would most likely have created far more controversy on religious grounds, given its sympathetic portrayal of Satan and his justification of evil in the lyrics. Phil Collins won the Oscar, however, with his song "You'll Be In My Heart" from Disney's Tarzan, which prompted a number of Phil Collins jokes in a subsequent South Park episode. The film also got into the Guinness Book of World Records for most obscenities in an animated movie, with a count of 399.

On November 11, 1999, shortly after the U.S. theatrical release of Bigger, Longer & Uncut, actress Mary Kay Bergman, who had provided all of the female voices on the animated series South Park and in the full-length movie, committed suicide in her suburban Los Angeles home. After her death, it was revealed that she suffered from a severe form of clinical depression. Her husband, Dino Andrade, founded the Mary Kay Bergman Memorial Fund, at the Suicide Prevention Center of Greater Los Angeles, in an effort to help and educate people with the same type of depression that his wife suffered.

In the episode "It Hits the Fan", South Park broke the swearing record by using the word 'shit' a total of 162 times, uncensored. The 22-minute episode averages one 'shit' every eight seconds, and there was a counter throughout the episode displaying the number of times it was said. A song by Mr. Garrison that consisted of, 'Hey, there, shitty shitty fag fag, shitty shitty fag fag, how do you do?' (sung to the tune of the title song from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang), repeated for four verses, provides an example of how 'shit' was so abundantly used. This was meant as a satire of an episode of NYPD Blue, released shortly before this episode, where one of the main characters said the phrase 'shit happens' without being censored, and the American public discussed this for weeks. An additional gag in this episode allowed homosexual or bisexual characters to use the word 'fag' freely, while heterosexual characters were bleeped when attempting to use the same word. (This episode suggested that Stan's uncle Jimbo was actually gay, as he was able to say 'fag' without being bleeped).

On September 9 2005, Comedy Central struck a deal with Parker and Stone for three more seasons of the show. The network has committed to three more seasons of South Park over the next three years, 42 episodes (including those of the second half of Season 9), which means that the show will run until at least 2009. Parker and Stone will continue to write, direct, and edit every episode of the show. The order brings the series total to 182 episodes. The ninth season ended in early December. Slightly less "Questionable" versions of South Park episodes, with the TV-14 rating, began broadcasting in syndication on September 19 2005 on various local channels around the US.

Evolution of the series

South Park's early episodes tended to be shock value-oriented, but even then poked some fun at current events. In the episode "Death", for example, Stan asks people whether he should kill his grandfather at the old man's request, only to find that no one wants to discuss it (not even Jesus does). As the show has progressed the satire/parody element has been brought to the fore (including several satirizations of themselves). This was very evident in Season 8; events in this season include Michael Jackson visiting South Park ("The Jeffersons"), the boys seeing The Passion of the Christ ("The Passion of the Jew"), blue-collar workers in South Park losing their jobs to immigrants from the future ("Goobacks"), and an episode featuring a "Paris Hilton" toy video camera ("Stupid Spoiled Whore Video Playset"). The pilot episode, "Cartman Gets an Anal Probe", was produced using construction paper and traditional cut-out animation techniques, but current episodes duplicate the original, amateurish look using modern computer animation tools (first PowerAnimator, then Maya, which South Park creators have described as "building a sandcastle with a bulldozer"). This allows for a short production schedule that enables the creators to respond quickly to current events. For instance, the December 17, 2003 episode ("It's Christmas in Canada") depicts the capture of Saddam Hussein a mere three days after his capture by U.S. forces, even referring to the "spider hole" where he was found. In the case of this and the Elián González episode ("Quintuplets 2000"), the creators stopped and changed production of an episode to focus on these events. Another example is the "Trapper Keeper" episode which originally aired just eight days after the 2000 Election and featured a kindergarten class president election being delayed by, among other things, an undecided girl named "Flora", a reasonably obvious reference to the undecided vote-count in the state of Florida.

In the audio commentary on the Season 4 DVD set, Parker and Stone remarked that beginning with episode 408, "Chef Goes Nanners", they began to consistently make episodes centering on a single issue, rather than multiple subplots.

In 2002, the episode "Free Hat" was aired. In this episode, prompted by Kyle's comment on Ted Koppel's Nightline that changing E.T. would be like changing Raiders of the Lost Ark, the South Park depictions of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg decide to alter the first Indiana Jones film. Soon after "Free Hat" aired, the real Lucas and Spielberg announced that they would not be altering Raiders of the Lost Ark for DVD release contrary to rumors. Stone and Parker later claimed that their episode prevented any alterations from happening when they appeared on a VH1 special, Inside South Park.

Controversy

Controversial episodes

Throughout its run on television, South Park has drawn an enormous amount of controversy from episodes focusing mainly on political satire and current events. Here is a list of some infamous episodes, which in some cases were followed by controversy:

Censorship

What little censorship South Park has is usually done by way of bleeping out certain words, like Drawn Together and other shows on Comedy Central. However, South Park is not limitless. The episode "Jared Has Aides" was never aired again on Comedy Central because it showed extreme child abuse towards Butters from his parents and making light of AIDS (though it has been aired in syndication on local stations), though some have claimed the reason for the banning of the episode was from a press release by Subway. The words "asshole", "goddamn", "bastard", and "bitch" always go uncensored. The word "shit" is left uncensored only in two episodes. The word "fuck" is censored in all episodes (with the exception of "Korn's Groovy Pirate Ghost Mystery" and "It Hits The Fan") but not within the Bigger, Longer and Uncut, which Comedy Central has aired uncensored several times after midnight. The word "cock" is occasionally beeped, while other times left uncensored, as evidenced in the episode "It Hits the Fan". Some local networks choose to bleep out words that are not censored in the original cartoons. In 2005, South Park began airing on U.S. broadcast stations, and the syndicated distributor, Mort Marcus, a former Disney executive (in conjunction with Tribune Entertainment), worked with a panel of representatives from stations purchasing the show to make it acceptable for broadcast. Some episodes may not air at all, if the creators of the show do not approve of the changes.

In December 2005, the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights protested the season finale episode, "Bloody Mary", for its depiction of a statue of the Virgin Mary menstruating from its vagina. In early 2006, Comedy Central denied that they were bowing to that group's request to pull the episode from future repeats and DVD releases."South Park" Parked by Complaints? - Eonline In New Zealand, C4 pushed the airing date for the episode forward after much publicity from Catholic bishops who urged a boycott of the station and its advertisers. The protest backfired as viewer numbers increased by 600% during the episode. The episode was later referred to the Broadcasting Standards Authority where they ruled, "The material in the cartoon was of such a farcical, absurd and unrealistic nature that it did not breach standards of good taste and decency in the context in which it was offered." Bloody Mary ruled too absurd to offendBoycott backfires: South Park gets record audience - CBC.ca It has since been rebroadcast on Comedy Central. SBS in Australia has "deferred" the episodeSBS drops South Park episode on the Pope - The Age possibly due to their recent problems with the "Trapped in the Closet" episode.

In February 2006 in the Philippines, authorities threatened to ban the showing of South Park on television as it offends the sensibilities of a number of religious Roman Catholic conservatives. South Park is still shown in the Philippines with 1-hour double episodes.

Most recently South Park has indirectly attacked the rising censorship in its April 5 2006 episode "Cartoon Wars Part I", which ended with the statement that the second part of the two-parter episode, will only be shown if Comedy Central does not "puss out".

The following episode "Cartoon Wars Part II" that aired April 12, 2006, replaced the scene of Muhammed on Family Guy with a message stating that Comedy Central had refused to show a depiction of Muhammed on their network, thereby "pussing out". With the episode, the South Park boys make an impassioned, anti-censorship plea to a network exec named Doug, a reference to Comedy Central president Doug Herzog. This comes months after the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy in Denmark, in which a editorial cartoon depicted Muhammed also in a satyrical way. However, he can in fact be seen in the season 10 opening credits from the episode "Smug Alert!" onwards and was featured in the Super Best Friends episode, which aired on July 4, 2001, though at the time there was no pre-existing controversy over depicting Muhammed.

It has come out via AP television writer David Bauder that Comedy Central did in fact, citing safety concerns, opt to censor the image of Muhammad, a situation that was satirized in "Cartoon Wars Part II". Furthermore, instead of showing an image of Muhammad, Comedy Central opted not to censor images of Christ, Bush and the American flag being defecated upon. Stone and Parker's choice has drawn fire from frequent "South Park" critic William Donohue of the anti-defamation group Catholic League. Donohue has called on Parker and Stone to resign out of principle, and was quoted as saying, "The ultimate hypocrite is not Comedy Central — that's their decision not to show the image of Muhammad or not — it's Parker and Stone". 'South Park' Creators Skewer Own Network - Yahoo News and The Associated Press It should be noted though, that Stone and Parker made the choice to mock Christ to illustrate the hypocrisy in censoring one religion and not another, echoing their similar stance on Scientology.

Scientology scuffle

Origins

In November 2005, South Park satirized the Church of Scientology and its celebrity followers, including actors Tom Cruise and John Travolta, in a top-rated episode called "Trapped in the Closet". In the episode, Stan is hailed as a reluctant savior by Scientology leaders, while a cartoon Cruise locks himself in a closet and will not come out. Dubbed 'Closetgate' by the Los Angeles Times, the controversy continued as Comedy Central pulled the "Trapped in the Closet" episode at the last minute from a scheduled repeat on March 15, 2006. It was alleged that Tom Cruise threatened Paramount with withdrawal from promotion of his latest film Impossible III if the episode were broadcast. Both Paramount and Comedy Central are owned by Viacom. Though Paramount and Cruise's representatives deny any threats, The Independent reports that "no one believes a word of it". In typical satirical form, Parker and Stone issued the following statement: "So, Scientology, you may have won THIS battle, but the million-year war for Earth has just begun! Temporarily anozinizing our episode will NOT stop us from keeping Thetans forever trapped in your pitiful man-bodies. Curses and drat! You have obstructed us for now, but your feeble bid to save humanity will fail! Hail Xenu!!!" The Los Angeles Times reported that, "For Stone and Parker, Closetgate will be the gift that keeps on giving". This episode was also recently nominated for an Emmy. Scott Collins. Clamor Outside 'South Park' Closet. LA Times. 18 March 2006. David Usborne. South Park declares war on Tom Cruise. The Independent. 19 March 2006. The episode, however, has been shown as recently as May 12 in Canada on The Comedy Network and on February 20 on SBS in Australia.Inside Move: 'South Park' feeling some celeb heat? Cable net abruptly pulls repeat of Scientology episode - Variety The episode is due to air once more on Comedy Central on July 19, 2006.South Park's 'Closet' opened

Response

In very South Park-like fashion, Stone and Parker place extremely current events into the show with little mercy. In response to Isaac Hayes quitting the show, South Park used its 10th season premiere to lambast Scientology again, as well as kill off Isaac's character, yet still remind the audience to overlook the current problems and remember the joy that Chef brought to the show. In the episode, entitled "The Return of Chef", Chef returns from a three month long stay with the Super Adventure Club (SAC), an organization full of Colonel Mustard-type adventurers that seemingly scour the world for excitement and danger. The club is also a clear parody of Scientology. Though Chef returns, he is in a zombie-like state and his dialogue is blatantly patched together from recordings of past episodes, obviously intended as part of the joke. Eventually, all Chef begins to talk about is child molestation. For example, he puts together two of his favourite sayings: the song "I'm gonna make love to ya woman" and the phrase "Hello there, children!" He says, in a clearly edited way:

"I'm gonna make love to ya... children!"

There are other similar examples of Chef's new strangeness later in the episode: the boys then visit the Super Adventure Club in an effort to learn what is wrong with Chef, and they learn the true nature of the club. Eventually the boys free Chef from the club's thrall, but he ultimately decides to return to it and dies later in the episode - already on fire, he falls down a cliff and onto a jagged rock and is eventually eaten by a mountain lion and a grizzly bear, finally voiding his bowels as "proof" that he is really, really dead. Kyle delivers a eulogy at Chef's funeral, urging the town to remember the good times with Chef and to forgive him for his recent defection. After this, Chef is resurrected in a "Darth Vader" style scene high reminscent of Revenge of the Sith, and the "lightsaber" he holds at the end is a glowing red spatula.

  • Note: It has been reported that Isaac Hayes quit the show not because of the Scientology episode, but because he suffered a stroke before the season. The scientology reports came from the head of the church and not from Isaac Hayes himself. This also reportedly has damaged Hayes' relation with the Church of Scientology.

Recurring themes

Political issues
In simplest terms, the politics of South Park seem to have a very independent, generally libertarian slant. Political figures, personalities, and politically active liberal celebrities (such as in the recent episode "Smug Alert" with the "smug" from George Clooney's Academy Awards acceptance speech) have been ridiculed as well. They have sometimes been categorized as "libertarian conservative", and a small movement has sprung up of youngish, South Park Conservatives who hold ideas from extreme ends of the political spectrum, believing, for instance, that global warming is a myth while supporting gay rights.

Stone and Parker spend a great amount of time on current events and issues of the day, more so in recent years than they used to, which some fans have complained about. The stance that the show takes reflects the beliefs of the creators; Both creators have at one time or another described themselves as libertarians.

In an interview with the two in Time Magazine (March 13, 2006) the two have stated that the only reason people might peg them for conservatives is that they are willing to mock anti-smoking laws and hippies. They also stated that the show could just as easily be pegged as a show supporting liberal ideologies. The interview ended with Trey quipping "We still believe that all people are born bad and are made good by society, rather than the opposite," and Matt adding "Actually, I think that's where we're conservative."

Child abuse and neglect
Child sexual abuse and child neglect are recurring thematic elements in South Park. For example, Butters' emotional abuse by his parents is usually depicted in episodes in which he appears. Cartman is shown several times as a target of actual or attempted sexual abuse, such as when he gets involved with NAMBLA. There is other evidence where he has been sexually abused in the episode Simpsons Already Did It where after getting semen ('sea-men') from a sperm bank, he is filling up a fish tank for his "sea people" and tells his friends that he got the rest of the semen from a guy in a alley who told him to "close his eyes and suck it out of a hose." Shelley is depicted as physically abusing her younger brother Stan and other major characters in earlier episodes. Kenny's parents are depicted and referred to as dysfunctional alcoholics, and his brothers appear to be neglected.

The treatment of this theme ranges from realistic to cartoonish. For example, Butters clearly has some psychological issues as a result of his treatment by his parents -- he is incontinent, has low self-esteem, and wrings his hands (although, strangely, Butters is also an unfailingly optimistic character and is one of the few genuinely nice people in the whole town, which often makes him a target of ridicule and abuse). However, his parents' emotional manipulation of him is shown as completely "over-the-top"; at one point, they try to sell Butters to Paris Hilton. Butters also reveals that he has received anilingus from his uncle when detectives are questioning the children whether Chef has molested them. Tweek's constant state of tension has both comic elements (his parents, owners of a small coffee shop, keep him dosed on coffee for no obvious reason), and more serious and realistic ones (his problems, caused by his family, are misdiagnosed as ADD, and it is implied that he has a therapist who treats his problems as purely personal and ignores the role of his parents).

In the episode "Jared Has Aides", which has never been rerun on Comedy Central, Butters is subject to extreme physical abuse by his parents.

Animal sexuality
Another recurring theme includes animal sexuality, whether masturbation ("Proper Condom Use", in which older boys teach Cartman and Kenny to manually pleasure a dog, telling them it's the same as milking a cow), animal breeding ("An Elephant Makes Love to a Pig"), a pony simulating oral sex by sucking on a hot dog ("Scott Tenorman Must Die"), or simply that an animal is discovered to enjoy gay sex ("Big Gay Al's Big Gay Boat Ride"). In the episode "Douche and Turd", South Park satirizes PETA, the animal rights organization, when Stan discovers that the PETA members in their forest encampment have grown physically close with their animals to the point of bestiality. Other episodes containing this theme include "Woodland Critter Christmas", in which a group of talking satanic animals engage in a "blood orgy".

Religion
Episodes that debunk the more literal tenets of religions such as Mormonism, Islam, Judaism, fundamentalist Christianity, and Scientology (though believed to be a cult by the creators), and Catholicism further cement the leanings of the show's core belief system. Multiple episodes have tackled the shaky logical foundations of cults, religious leaders who exploit worshippers for money, and the general problems with following religion too literally. Perhaps most indicative of the blasé notion towards over-fervent worship, the show's depiction of God in physical form is a strange hybrid of many animals. Further deepening the satire is God's claim to be a Buddhist. The show suggested at one point that heaven is full of Mormons who spend eternity cheerfully singing songs and making craft projects. This is because that is the "correct" religion one. This is ironic because in one episode they blatently call Mormonism a complete hoax made up by a guy who was obviously lying.

In addition Jesus has been shown multiple times, apparently living in South Park and hosting a public access call in talk show, though also fighting Satan. In a third season episode, "Jewbilee," at a Jew Scouts camp, Moses appears in the form of the Master Control Program from Tron and tells the assembled children in an ominous voice, "I desire... macaroni pictures."

The criticism of anti-religion is also apparent in South Park. In "All About Mormons," Stan ridicules the Mormons for believing a story that offers no proof. However, at the very end, a Mormon named Gary delivers his side of the story by pointing out that all he had ever done was try to be Stan's friend, but Stan acted so "high and mighty" that Gary's religion was the only part of his personality to which Stan responded.

  • Gary: "All I ever did was try to be your friend, Stan, but you're so high and mighty you couldn't look past my religion and just be my friend back. You've got a lot of growing up to do, buddy. Suck my balls." (Gary walks off in disgust, leaving the four boys stunned.)
  • Cartman: (after a pause) Damn, that kid is cool, huh?

South Park often hints that religious members may be illogical and that atheists are overly arrogant (as in "Red Hot Catholic Love").

Similarly non-religious cults of personality which cross over into a religious-like structure are caricatured, such as the episode where a cult of 'Blaintologists' (named for charismatic illusionist David Blaine) forms, and progresses to ritualistic mass cult suicide unless they obtain their tax-exempt status.

The show has come under fire from conservative religious groups for its sympathetic portrayal of Satan, who appears regularly. Satan appears as a generally nice guy doing a difficult job. He is also presented as a homosexual, and is often shown in committed relationships with some of Hell's denizens, including Saddam Hussein.

Environment
South Park has had multiple episodes with anti-environmental themes.

In the 1999 episode "Rainforest Schmainforest," an environmental activist, voiced by Jennifer Aniston, made a harrowing trip to the rainforest of Costa Rica with the children, and the experience caused her to conclude that the rainforest "sucks ass."

In the 2005 episode "Two Days Before the Day After Tomorrow" mocks the connections between recent hurricanes and global warming.

The episode "Smug Alert" mocked global warming and the use of hybrid vehicles (which cause "smug" instead of "smog"); the hybrids have a close resemblance to the Toyota Prius, but is called a Pious in the show. The other hybrid in the episode is the Honda Insight, called a Hindsight. Although in the end, Kyle does say that people should still drive hybrid cars, just don't be so smug about it.

In the 2006 episode "Manbearpig" mocks Al Gore and his outspokenness about the danger of global warming. The show implies that the global warming is not real.

Episode list

Characters

The characters and backgrounds of South Park are crude; in fact, paper cut-outs were used in the original pilot Parker/Stone animation and in the very first Comedy Central episode. Every subsequent episode aired on TV has been produced by computer animation that provides the same look, though the animation has arguably become less crude over time. The style of animation used for South Park was inspired by the paper cut-out cartoons made by Terry Gilliam for Monty Python's Flying Circus, of which Trey Parker and Matt Stone are lifelong fans. For perspective, the average episode of The Simpsons takes eight weeks to create, while episodes of South Park have been completed in as little as three days (which explains why current events that occur mere days before episode airdates are often included, such as the capture of Saddam Hussein). Some episodes contain sections of regular film as well (e.g., "Tweek vs. Craig" and "Cat Orgy").

Matt Stone is the voice of many of the characters including Butters, Kenny, Kyle, Gerald Broflovski, Stuart McCormick, Jimbo Kern, Jesus, Saddam Hussein, Pip, Terrance, Tweek, and many others. Parker is the voice of Cartman, Stan, Randy Marsh, Grandpa Marsh, Big Gay Al, Craig, Dr. Alphonse Mephesto, Mr. Garrison, Mr. Hankey, Mr. Mackey, Miss Choksondik, Phillip, Timmy, Jimmy, Satan, Officer Barbrady and many others. Other voices are provided by April Stewart (Liane Cartman, Sharon Marsh, Mrs. McCormick, Shelley Marsh, The Mayor, Principal Victoria, Mrs. Crabtree, Wendy Testaburger, others), Adrien Beard (Token), and formerly, Isaac Hayes (Chef) and Mary Kay Bergman (Sheila Broflovski, Sharon Marsh, Mrs. McCormick, Wendy Testaburger). Eliza Schneider, AKA "Blue Girl", voiced most of the town's female inhabitants from 1999-2003. Eric Stough, the animation director, is the inspiration for the character of Butters.

Major characters

The main characters of the show are four elementary school students (often called "the boys" when as a group for easier reference):

Stanley "Stan" Marsh
Often the "straight man" of the group. Generally good natured and clear-thinking, Stan usually tries to come up with logical solutions to their outrageous situations. Designed as the alter-ego for co-creator Trey Parker, Stan often summarizes the message or moral of the episode. He is best friends with Kyle and their relationship is central to several episodes.

Kyle Broflovski
Easy-going, Jewish, skeptical, intelligent and at times short-tempered. Kyle is effectively the alter-ego of co-creator Matt Stone. Along with Stan, Kyle often provides a reasonable perspective on the crazy behavior of the adult world around them. Kyle is often depicted as the most moral member of the four.

Eric Theodore Cartman
Based on Archie Bunker, and almost always the catalyst for the plot, Cartman is campy, aggressive, greedy, bigoted, self-centered, overweight, rude, and manipulative. He regularly insults Kyle for being Jewish and Kenny for being poor. His pretentious and sociopathic ways often cause him to be disdained by the other boys, who don't quite know why they put up with him. Cartman commonly acts in a manner directly opposed to, or against, that of the other boys. He also demonstrates an uncanny ability as a businessman and leader, and is sometimes seen dressed in a way that mimics Adolf Hitler, whom it is thought Cartman idolizes to some extent because of his anti-Semitic views. Cartman also occasionally serves as a mouthpiece for some of Parker and Stone's more extreme, conservative commentary, and has a rabid dislike for hippies. Every episode in which he appears to be doing something good ends with his true motives being revealed. This is particularly evident in the two part episode Do the Handicapped Go to Hell?.

Kenneth "Kenny" McCormick
Kenny is the mis-understood kid who comes from a poverty-stricken family. He is the most perverted of the four boys and is often sought out for answers when the other boys encounter a sexual term they have never heard before. His speech is difficult to understand due to the fact that his hood is closed around his face, although all of his lines are real dialogue that are always understood by Stan, Kyle and Eric; however in some episodes, Kenny's dialogue is visible by closed captioning. During the first five seasons, Kenny served as the eternal victim; routinely killed in a number of grotesque ways meant to entertain during each episode, only to inexplicably reappear alive in the next episode. Parker and Stone let Kenny live in only one episode from the first season ("Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo"). At the end of Season 5, Kenny was more permanently killed off. Parker and Stone explained at the time that this was due to their feeling creatively boxed in by the requirement to kill Kenny in each episode. In season 6 he is replaced by Butters and Tweek as the boys' "fourth friend". However, due to Kenny's lasting popularity, they brought him back for the seventh season (so Kenny went one season without appearing), and now he no longer dies (except on the very occasional episode).

The show's oldest gimmick is Stan shouting, "Oh my God, they killed Kenny!" followed by Kyle responding, "You bastards!" whenever Kenny is killed. This is parodied in "The Return of Chef". When Chef is killed, Stan screams "Oh my god, they killed Chef!" followed by Kyle who yells, "You bastards, you BASTARDS!" Since Kenny has stopped dying, this is scarcely used now. Kenny said in episode #202 (Cartman's mom is still a dirty slut), when Mephisto was shot, he said "Oh my god, they killed Mephisto." Kyle responds "You bastard!"

Leopold "Butters" Stotch
(Appeared in earlier seasons but replaced Kenny as a main character during the first part of the Season 6. Though Kenny was brought back for the 7th season, Butters has remained prominent)

Butters is nervous, naive, easily manipulated, and repressed — while at the same time remains ironically optimistic, and sometimes insightful. He is often callously punished by his overbearing and oppressive parents, and is meanwhile blatantly vilified, taken advantage of and/or disregarded by Cartman, Stan, and Kyle. Adding to the tragic nature of his character, his birthday is September 11. When Kenny seemed to be permanently dead the boys tried Butters out as their fourth friend for a while, and when it didn't work out a spurned Butters adopted the alter ego of Professor Chaos, whose costume is clearly inspired by that of Doctor Doom, and has a sidekick called General Disarray. Butters tried various schemes to take over the world, but his niceness and general ineptitude doomed all of his efforts. His character is based on Director of Animation Eric Stough.

Tweek
(replaced Butters during the second part of the Season 6 but appeared in season 2):

Extremely spastic and neurotic, Tweek generally wants to be left alone. His name is reminiscent of the slang term tweak, referring to the act of ingesting crystal methamphetamine - a humorous and somewhat ironic reference to Tweek's behavior, which is similar to the stereotypical depiction of an amphetamine addict. He suffers from ADHD (referred to as its accepted variant ADD in the show). His problems are often glossed over by his very docile, Hallmark commercial-esque coffee-shop-owning parents (whose constant supply of coffee, along with gnomes stealing his underpants, is most likely the source of their son's jittery behavior). Although initially touted as one of the leading supporting characters, Tweek has since been upstaged by the more viewer-popular Butters and has returned to playing a minor role.

Minor characters and celebrities

Part of the show's surrealist nature derives from the minor characters who appear in the series. Some include God (who appears as a small creature resembling a hippo-rodent hybrid), Jesus (who owns a home and hosts a public-access television talk show in South Park (Jesus and Pals), Satan (with or without his lover Saddam Hussein), Chris (for whom Satan leaves Saddam), Moses (who appears exactly as the Master Control Program (MCP) does in the Disney film Tron and demands pictures made of macaroni glued to paper plates from his faithful), the alien Marklar race; the Jakovasaurs; Death; Mr. Hankey "the Christmas poo" (who adds to the holiday festivities in much the same spirit as the 1960s Rankin-Bass cartoons), and the "Crab People," an ancient race of crustacean-like creatures that try to destroy mankind by turning men into "metrosexual pussies."

Music

The show's opening theme song is an original musical score performed by alternative rockers Primus. The song has been remixed twice in the course of the series, and certain lines have been altered (see below).

Kenny's lines in the song, like the rest of his speech in the show (with the exception of two lines in Episode 807, "The Jeffersons"), are muffled by his parka hood, which covers his entire face except for his eyes. The general unintelligibility of Kenny's lines has helped them avoid being censored by the network on a number of occasions, although the gist of can usually be understood . It is sometimes easy to comprehend the lines, given the context in which they are delivered.

Popular songs such as "Kyle's Mom is a Bitch" originated on the show, but the creators' musical abilities were not frequently used until the release of South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut. The film's soundtrack featured songs like "Mountain Town", "La Resistance Medley," "Uncle Fucka", "What Would Brian Boitano Do?" (a song to which Brian Boitano has been known to figure skate), "I'm Super", and "Blame Canada" (nominated for an Oscar, see below). Several of the songs from the movie were satires of tunes from Disney cartoons. For instance, "Mountain Town" is highly similar to "Belle" from Beauty and the Beast. "Up There" is a take-off of two different Disney songs, "Out There" from The Hunchback of Notre Dame and "Part of Your World" from The Little Mermaid. "La Resistance Medley" spoofs "One Day More" from the stage musical Les Miserables.

Trey Parker and Matt Stone have, on occasion, performed these and other songs (some unrelated to the show, such as "Dead Dead Dead"), under the band name DVDA.

In the show, Eric Cartman will often burst into song to convey a false altruism or optimism that belies his baser motivations. In "Red Sleigh Down", he sings "Poo-Choo Train", an unnervingly cheery Christmas carol, in an obvious attempt to convince Mr. Hankey and Santa Claus that he is worthy of Christmas presents. In "The Death of Eric Cartman", Cartman sings "Make It Right" with Butters in a weak attempt to reconcile his sins. In Roger Ebert Should Lay Off the Fatty Foods, Cartman sings "She Works Hard For The Money" during an audition for Cheesy Poofs. In the episode, "Simpsons Already Did It" Cartman sings about how the sea people will "take me away from this damn planet full of hippies." In the episode "Ginger Kids" he sings a song about tolerance once he realizes he's not one of the "Gingers" and that he just convinced every "Ginger" in town to exterminate non-Ginger people. Cartman also uses the song "Heat of the Moment" in Episode 513 (Kenny Dies) to convince the U.S. Senate to approve stem cell research. And, of course, there's Cartman's mental quirk that forces him to finish singing Styx's "Come Sail Away" whenever someone sings a few bars of the song.

Additional musical contributions to the show come from the band Primus, which performed the original opening and ending themes for the show and formerly from Isaac Hayes, who voiced Chef. Another high point of the series is its dramatic score. It often dramatizes common and deep parts with a very heartwarming, melancholic, or mysterious soundtrack.

Trivia

  • George Clooney is a fan of the show and agreed to be the voice of Sparky the Dog, which was only a few "woof woofs" throughout the episode. Jerry Seinfeld was also a fan of the show and wanted to do a voice. He was offered the voice of turkey number 4, saying only "gobble gobble gobble" but his agents and lawyers and producers and such thought that this was below him and refused to allow him to do it. George Clooney later provided the role of the surgeon during Kenny's death scene in the South Park movie.
  • Eric Idle, one of the comics in Matt and Trey's favorite show, (Monty Python's Flying Circus), is the voice of Dr. Vosknocker in Bigger, Longer and Uncut. He is the man who reveals the V-chip, which shocks Cartman every time he swears.
  • Conan O'Brien in the South Park movie is actually played by Brent Spiner, best known as the android Data on Star Trek: The Next Generation.
  • Cartman's mother is named Liane after Trey Parker's former fiancee. He caught her with another man, so he named the promiscuous character after her.
  • Butters was originally named Puff Puff and Swanson.
  • It's possible for a full-length episode of South Park to be put together in less than a week, much less than the average animated show. This allows the writers to, as in season 6, address viewers' responses to the series so far.
  • In the show's unaired pilot, Trey Parker is credited as "Tupac Schwartz" and Matt Stone as "M.C. Schwartz".
  • The film Bowling for Columbine includes an interview with Matt Stone that suggests South Park was largely inspired by Stone's childhood experiences in Littleton, Colorado. Stone describes Littleton as painfully normal and highly intolerant of nonconformist behavior. Stone's appearance was followed by an uncredited cartoon in a style strongly reminiscent of South Park that was not the work of either Stone or Parker (the animation, in fact, does not take place directly after Stone's interview in later releases of the film. The animation starts more than ten minutes after Stone’s interview—-in-between the segments Moore interviews Marilyn Manson and a short commercial for a metal detector is shown). It became a point of contention between them and the filmmaker, Michael Moore, as they believed Moore meant to imply they had contributed it to his film. They have said the appearance of Moore as a ham-stuffed suicide bomber in their 2004 feature film World Police is their sardonic response to this incident.
  • Les Misérables has had several cameo roles throughout the series, including an appearance by Cosette, Cartman's prison number being 24601 (Jean Valjean's prison number), and two song in South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut that are based on "One Day More", and "A Little Fall of Rain", both songs from the musical. Also, in Episode 414 "Helen Keller! The Musical", the "musical theater expert" sounds similar to Colm Wilkinson, who played the original Jean Valjean on Broadway. In fact, Cartman says the expert (introduced as Geoffrey Mainard) played the lead in Les Misérables at the Denver Community Playhouse for five weeks.
  • A short tribute sketch was shown for the 30th anniversary of Monty Python which parodied the "Dead Parrot sketch". The parody takes part in a friend store, where Cartman walks in and complains that Kenny, the friend that he bought, is dead. Eventually, an ending showing crude cut outs of Terry Gilliam, Venus de Milo, and the Monty Python foot appear. Monty Python has been a major influence of Parker and Stone, especially Terry Gilliam's animation style, which would explain the paper-cut out style of South Park.
  • Trey Parker animated a South Park version of a joke called The Aristocrats which was used years later for the documentary film of the same name.
  • The Parker-Stone production company is named Braniff Productions, after a defunct airline. The logo (which featured a computer-generated shot of the Braniff airline with the subtitle "...believe it") originally appeared in Episode 101 as a joke, but it was decided (since Parker and Stone had already established Braniff as their company) that the logo would close every episode. The melody that plays while the Braniff airplane is shown is taken from "Shpadoinkle," a song that was written for and appears in Trey Parker's first movie (which he made while at the University of Colorado, Boulder) Cannibal! The Musical. The lyrics associated with the melody are: "The sky is blue / and all the leaves are green."
  • Supposedly, in almost every episode of South Park, one of the aliens from Episode 101 is hidden somewhere in the episode.South Park - Alien Sightings. The Easter Egg archive. Retrieved 18 March 2006.Nearly Complete List of Alien Sightings up to Season 9. South Park criptorium. Retrieved 12 April 2006. Let it be noted the alien is visible at the end of the opening credits, when a majority of the characters are gathered around the South Park sign.
  • Cutouts of South Park characters were used in the unaired pilot version. The rest of the show was created by a computer.
  • There are constant references to the geography in and around South Park that correspond to the real South Park in Colorado. It is noted that Trey Parker attended Evergreen High school in nearby Evergreen, Colorado. Bailey and Conifer are actual towns a short distance away from South Park. The town of South Park is actually a ghost-town and tourist attraction that exists in the town of Fairplay. It is also the name of a Park County School which has been mentioned in South Park. There are also references to popular places in Denver such as Casa Bonita, a local eatery (which is actually located in Lakewood). The Highway mentioned in several episodes (Highway 285) actually links Denver, Fairplay (South Park), and Bailey. In recent years the town has been portrayed as more of a suburb of Denver and less of a small town. This is seen most often in the episodes that travel to real Denver locations such as Colfax, Five Points, and Capitol Hill.
  • There are also references to Colorado News Stations that actually exist. For example, the main station, News 4, is a reference to CBS 4 located in Denver, Colorado (of note, CBS was once actually a corporate sibling to Comedy Central). There is also NBC 9, and ABC 7 which also have a few references.
  • There is an actual Southpark Drive street in Littleton, named after the ghost-town of South Park, which existed before the show.
    • Stan and Kyle's immediate families have the same names as Trey Parker and Matt Stone's.
    • So far, seasons 5 and 9 are the only seasons that do not have a Christmas episode.
    • Not Without My Anus, Pip, and A Million Little Fibers are the only episodes to not feature any of the main boys. In addition to these episodes Butters' Very Own Episode, Krazy Kripples and Stupid Spoiled Whore Video Playset feature the main boys, but none of them have a large part.
    • Season 9 is the only season so far to have all of the episodes air in the correct production order. Future seasons will most likely air in the correct order since Trey and Matt claim to make each episode a week before it airs.
    • Since 2003 some Air Arabia advertisements and their webpage have featured cartoon characters which some believe resemble a striking similarity to the characters in the cartoon.

    Running gags and catchphrases

    • Kenny died in almost every episode during the first five seasons, usually near the end. In a few episodes, his death is used as a plot device, most notably in the Bigger, Longer & Uncut, where his friendship with Satan in Hell is essential to the story, to the point of providing the final deus ex machina. In the episode Kenny Dies, all the characters are very upset when Kenny gets diagnosed as terminally ill.
    • When Kenny dies, Stan says "Oh, my God! They/we killed Kenny!" Kyle will then say "You bastard(s)!" These lines have some times used as jokes, such as in the episode "Super Best Friends", where Stan used this method as echolocation, Marco Polo style, to find Kyle. This is again used when Kenny is killed in Cartman's tree house; Cartman says Stan's line and Kyle, walking by the tree house, stops to say "You bastards." In recent seasons, this exchange between Stan and Kyle happens when anyone on the show dies, including Kenny.
    • Frequently when Kenny dies, rats scurry onscreen, eat his corpse, and then scurry off.
    • When Cartman gets aggravated by his friends, he often leaves, saying "Screw you guys, I'm goin' home"
    • The word authority is always pronounced as authoritaw

    Religious humor

    South Park often satirizes and insults organized religion, such as in "Super Best Friends". According to the episode "Red Hot Catholic Love", South Park is a predominantly Catholic town and all the major and recurring characters in South Park are Roman Catholic, except for:

    • The Broflovskis (Kyle's family) are Jewish, and apparently "are the entire Jewish community" of South Park.
    • The Harrisons are Mormon (they only appear in one episode).
    • Chef, who converts to Islam in "Chef Goes Nanners" and denounces his "slave name" requesting that everyone address him as Abdul Mohammed Jabbar-Rauf Kareem Ali (a combination of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Muhammad Ali, El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz and Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, all the names of prominent African-American Muslim converts). He eventually renounced his newfound religion, only to become a member of the Super Adventure Club (a parody of the Church of Scientology), which brainwashed him into becoming a child molester.
    • Chef's parents (who are from Scotland) practice Voodoo and Occult rituals (though their precise faith is unknown).
    • The Super Best Friends - a satire of the Superfriends cartoons. The founders of all the world's major religions are super best friends with each other and use their special powers to fight evil (except Buddha, who doesn't believe in evil).
    • God, who claims to be a Buddhist.
    • David Blaine — before South Park "exposed" the Church of Scientology, there was David Blaine's cult/religion Blaintology, an episode with commentary suggesting there is no difference between magic and miracles (i.e. the tricks performed by David Blaine are as real as the miracles performed by Jesus Christ).
    • Stan, who in "Trapped in the Closet" was claimed to be a reincarnation of L. Ron Hubbard from The Church of Scientology, but denounced it at the end of that episode.
    • In the episode "Probably", it is claimed that the only people who get into heaven are the Mormons, though this changes in "Best Friends Forever" when God decides that the Mormons aren't tough enough to go against Satan's forces. Hell doesn't really seem so bad either, having orientation and luaus. The episode "Best Friends Forever" also asserts that Japanese people don't have souls (this is also reiterated by an angel in the golden PSP episode), nor do "Gingers" (red heads with freckles and pale skin) according to Cartman in "Ginger Kids".
    • In 2006, Comedy Central would not allow South Park to show an image of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, likely due to the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy, and fear of similar repercussions. In response, South Park aired a 2-part episode culminating in President Bush, Jesus Christ, and various Americans defecating on each other and the American flag to point out the hypocrisy of not allowing the Muslim prophet to be shown at all but allowing the Christian prophet to be shown in an insulting manner (this episode originally aired on the Wednesday before Easter Weekend).

    Computer and video games

    See also

    References

    External links

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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "South Park".

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