Everything about South Park totally explained
South Park is a double
Emmy Award-winning,
animated American television comedy series created and written by
Trey Parker and
Matt Stone for
Comedy Central. The series has been distributed and aired by
Comedy Central since 1997. The show is well-known for its
pop-culture parody,
scatological humor, and satirical handling of
current events.
Since its debut on
August 13,
1997, the show has aired
174 episodes over 12 seasons. The twelfth season began airing on
March 12,
2008. The second half of season 12 will air on
October 1 2008. The show is contracted to produce new episodes through a fifteenth season, until late 2011. In 1999, South Park was made into a feature-length film titled .
Origins
South Park began in 1992 when Trey Parker and Matt Stone, at the time students at the
University of Colorado, met in a film class and created an
animated short called
Jesus vs. Frosty. The low-budget crudely made film featured
prototypes of the main characters of
South Park, including a character resembling
Cartman but named "
Kenny", an unnamed character resembling what is today Kenny, and two near-identical unnamed characters who would resemble
Stan and
Kyle.
In 1995,
FOX executive
Brian Graden saw the film, and commissioned Parker and Stone to create a second short film that he could send to his friends as a video
Christmas card. Titled
Jesus vs. Santa, it resembled the style of the later series more closely, and featured a
martial arts duel and subsequent
truce between
Jesus and
Santa Claus over the true meaning of
Christmas. This video was later featured in the episode "
A Very Crappy Christmas" in which Stan, Kyle, Cartman, Kenny, and Mr. Hankey "save" Christmas for the town. The video was popular and was widely shared, both by duplication and over the
Internet. This led to talks to create a series, first with FOX, then with Comedy Central, where the series debuted on
August 13,
1997. During the first four seasons of
South Park, clips of the shorts can be seen in the opening sequence within an old television and a billboard.
History
South Park's early episodes tended to be
shock value-oriented and featured more slapstick-style humor than later episodes. Although
satire had been used on the show occasionally earlier on, it became more prevalent in later episodes. Episodes have parodied
Michael Jackson ("
The Jeffersons"),
Paris Hilton ("
Stupid Spoiled Whore Video Playset"), and
The Passion of the Christ ("
The Passion of the Jew"), as well as addressed serious political issues such as
terrorism ("
Cartoon Wars"), American
immigration policy ("
Goobacks"),
Gay Marriage ("
Follow that Egg"), and the
Terri Schiavo case ("
Best Friends Forever").
The
pilot episode, "
Cartman Gets an Anal Probe" (nearly identical to the first official episode, which has the same name), required three months to produce using
construction paper and traditional cut-out animation techniques. However, the version that aired was different from the original version. Current episodes duplicate the original, amateurish look using modern
computer animation tools—first
PowerAnimator and then
Maya, which Parker and Stone described as "building a sandcastle with a bulldozer". This allows for a shorter production schedule, enabling the creators to respond quickly to current events. The
December 17,
2003 episode "
It's Christmas in Canada" depicted the
capture of Saddam Hussein a mere three days after the actual event, even referring to the "spider hole" in which he was found. In this instance—as with the
Elián González episode ("
Quintuplets 2000") — the creators changed the production of an episode at the last minute to focus on the new world event.
In 2002, the episode "
Free Hat" aired. In this episode—inspired by Kyle's comment on
Ted Koppel's
Nightline that changing
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial would be like changing
Raiders of the Lost Ark—a fictional
George Lucas and
Steven Spielberg decide to alter the first
Indiana Jones film. Soon after the episode aired, Lucas and Spielberg announced that contrary to rumors they wouldn't be altering
Raiders of the Lost Ark for
DVD release.
On
August 26,
2007, Parker and Stone committed to three more seasons of
South Park, so the show will run until at least 2011. They will continue to write, direct, and edit every episode of the show.
Edited versions of
South Park episodes, with the
TV-14 rating, began broadcasting in syndication on
September 19,
2005 on various local channels around the
U.S. The series is co-distributed by
Debmar-Mercury and
20th Television; the latter replaced
Tribune Entertainment as co-distributor in early-2008, after Tribune ceased business.
In March 2008, Comedy Central made all South Park episodes available for legal streaming on the
South Park Studios website
. However, legal issues prevent the episodes from being accessible in the
UK,
Australia and a few other territories outside US for now.
Characters
Prior to season four, the main characters of the show were four
third grade students (often called "the boys" when as a group for easier reference):
Stanley "Stan" Marsh,
Kyle Broflovski,
Eric Theodore Cartman, and
Kenneth "Kenny" McCormick. There are many recurring characters on the show, including
the boys' families,
school staff, and
other students. These include
Leopold "Butters" Stotch,
Chef,
Mr. Hankey,
Towelie,
Jesus, and
Satan. There are also many other
minor characters.
Matt Stone and Trey Parker voice most of the male South Park characters, while
April Stewart and
Mona Marshall (formerly
Mary Kay Bergman and
Eliza Schneider) voice most of the female characters such as
Wendy Testaburger and
Sheila Broflovski. Other voices are currently provided by
Adrien Beard (
Token Black),
Vernon Chatman (
Towelie), and
Jennifer Howell (
Bebe Stevens). Former members of the voice cast include
Isaac Hayes (
Chef) and
John Hansen (
Mr. Slave). Stan Marsh and Kyle Broflovski were initially designed to represent creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone respectively; however, both have admitted to ultimately identifying far more with Cartman.
Setting
The show is set in the fictional town of South Park,
Colorado. The town is located in
South Park, a geographical area of approximately 1000 square miles which is a high-altitude
intermontane grassland basin. South Park is in
Park County about 80 miles southwest of
Denver and four miles from
Fairplay. An unexplained peculiarity is that it's almost always winter in South Park, and there's (almost) always snow on the ground. This could be because the appearance of the characters, which were first introduced in a Christmas short, were dressed for winter. Cartman mentions in
Jakovasaurs that there are only two seasons in South Park, winter and
July (as seen in such episodes as
Summer Sucks).
South Park is inspired by both real-life towns in the South Park basin such as Fairplay and the Denver suburbs such as
Littleton, the sites of the upbringing of
South Park co-creators
Matt Stone and
Trey Parker.
The town is served by
South Park Elementary and Hell's Pass Hospital. Town police consists almost entirely of
Officer Barbrady (not counting
county sheriff's deputies Yates and Murphy) and the only discernible politician is
Mayor McDaniels. The town flag was changed in
Chef Goes Nanners because the image of white people
lynching a black man was thought
racist. The new flag features a black man being lynched by people of all races and nationalities, including another black man. South Park was home to
Jesus until his death in
Red Sleigh Down.
Episodes
Animation
Construction paper cutouts were used in the original
pilot animation and in the
first episode made for Comedy Central. Subsequent episodes have been produced by computer animation providing a similar look to the originals. The appearance of characters and scenes has become less crude over time, largely in order to enhance the comedic effect. Special effects, such as prepackaged explosions, have replaced cardboard-style fires. Light shading has been used to highlight "sappy," movie-like moments as well as some of Cartman's dramatic poses. Some episodes, such as
Tweek vs. Craig and
Mr. Garrison's Fancy New Vagina, have even incorporated sections of
live action video.
CorelDRAW is used to create the characters, which are animated using
Maya, or in early episodes, PowerAnimator. 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 have been lifelong fans. Thanks to this efficient method, episodes of
South Park are usually completed in six days (although some, such as
AWESOM-O or
Woodland Critter Christmas have taken only three or four).
Music
The show's original
theme song was a musical score performed by the band
Primus. The song has been remixed three times during the course of the series (as of ), and certain lines have been altered (see below). In the beginning of the title music was changed to the song "Whamola", performed by
The Les Claypool Frog Brigade, from the album
Purple Onion. (
Les Claypool is the singer and bassist in both Primus and the Frog Brigade.)
Kenny's lines in the song, like the rest of his speech in the show, are muffled by his
parka hood, which covers his entire face except for his eyes; however, Kenny's lines have been revealed by South Park Studios. In seasons 1–2, he says "I love girls with big fat titties, I love girls with deep vaginas." From seasons 3-5 he says "I have got a 10 inch
penis, use your mouth if you want to clean it." ), takes his place, singing "Timmy Timmy, Timmy Timmy, Timmy Timmy, Livin'a lie Timmy!" After returning to the show just before season 7, Kenny also returned to the theme song: From season 7 to the first half of season 10, Kenny says "Some day I'll be old enough to stick my dick in
Britney's butt." Starting with the second half of Season 10, Kenny's lines changed again to "I like fucking silly bitches because I know my penis likes it." In the original unaired pilot episode of Cartman Gets An Anal Probe, in the rather different version of the opening, Kenny's lines are the same as they were in the first 2 seasons.
Popular songs such as "Kyle's Mom is a Big Fat Bitch" originated on the show, but the creators' musical abilities were not frequently used until the release of . The film's soundtrack (co-written and produced by
Grammy Award-winning composer-lyricist
Marc Shaiman) featured songs like "
Blame Canada" (nominated for an
Oscar; see below), "I'm Super," "La Resistance Medley," "Hell Isn't Good," "Mountain Town," "" (won an
MTV Movie Award for "Best Musical Performance"), "Up There," and "
What Would Brian Boitano Do?." Several of the songs from the movie are satires of tunes from
Disney cartoons. For instance, "Mountain Town" is highly similar to the song "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 both "One Day More" from the stage musical
Les Miserables and "
Tonight" from
West Side Story.
Parker and Stone have, on occasion, performed these songs (and others) 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's worthy of Christmas presents. In "
I'm a Little Bit Country", Cartman sings
Paula Cole's song "
I Don't Want to Wait" while beating someone to death (Cartman also sings the song as an homage to his
Dawson's Creek Trapper Keeper in the episode "
Trapper Keeper"). 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 the
Donna Summer song "She Works Hard For The Money" during an audition for Cheesy Poofs. 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. Cartman has a mental quirk that forces him to finish singing
Styx's Come Sail Away whenever someone sings a few bars of the song. As soon as he learns this, Kyle, who has a strong and explicit hatred for Cartman, takes advantage of this and forces Cartman to finish the song so many times that Cartman becomes literally unintelligible. In episode 409, "
Something You Can Do with Your Finger", the boys made their boy band, "Fingerbang".
Cartman was also the lead singer for "Faith + 1", a Christian band he formed with Butters and Token in the episode "
Christian Rock Hard". He creates several "Christian" songs by taking sexually suggestive love songs and substituting romantic words such as "baby" and "darling" with "Jesus"; instead of the traditional "Christian Rock" lyrics singing about spiritual love for Jesus, Cartman sings about his desire to have actual, physical sex with Jesus. A few titles of these songs include "Body of Christ" and "Get Down on my Knees and Start Pleasing Jesus"
The band
Korn appears in one of the Halloween episodes, where South Park is plagued by ghost pirates. It is the band's job to "solve the mystery" (this of course is a spoof of
Scooby Doo). In the episodes climax, Korn plays "
Falling Away from Me" in celebration of the solved mystery.
In "
Fat Butt and Pancake Head", Cartman's hand puppet "Jennifer Lopez" (who pronounces her name as "Hennifer Lopez") recorded a hit single entitled "Taco Flavored Kisses", inciting the wrath of the "real"
Jennifer Lopez character.
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's singing of usually-sexual songs to explain certain adult themes to the boys. The Chef song "
Chocolate Salty Balls" was released as a single in the UK in 1998 to support the album and became a number one hit
(External Link). Many episodes also feature highly melodramatic
musical scores to comically exaggerate the emotional content of the scene. For example,
melancholy music plays in the background when
Timmy sends away his beloved pet turkey, Gobbles, in the episode "
Helen Keller! The Musical".
Controversies
Themes
Apart from the continuously "vulgar" presentation of issues,
South Park implements several recurring themes that it frequently uses, including current events,
disabilities,
political issues,
racism,
gay rights,
death,
environment,
censorship,
political correctness,
abortion,
sex,
atheism, and
religion, many of which are widely viewed as controversial.
Awards
- South Park has been nominated for the Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program seven times (1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006, and 2007). The show has now won twice, for the 2005 episode "Best Friends Forever" and the 2006 episode "Make Love, Not Warcraft".
- On April 5, 2006, it was announced that the show had won a Peabody Award.
- South Park was nominated for important awards such as the 1998 Annie Award for Outstanding Achievement in an Animated Primetime or Late Night Television Program. It was also nominated for the 1998 GLAAD Award for Outstanding TV - Individual Episode for "Big Gay Al's Big Gay Boat Ride". It also received an Image Award nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series (Isaac Hayes) in 1999.
- South Park was nominated for a 2006 Teen Choice Award for "Best Animated Show", but lost to Family Guy.
- was nominated for an Oscar for "Best Music, Original Song" for "Blame Canada". They lost to Phil Collins and made fun of him in two consecutive episodes in season 4 ("Cartman's Silly Hate Crime 2000" & "Timmy 2000"). Creator Trey Parker explained the reasoning for these barbs in the season 4 DVD commentary, saying "we were fully expecting to lose, just not to Phil Collins". "Blame Canada" was performed by Robin Williams during the televised award show, which was the first to carry a TV-14 parental advisory, in part because of the performance of that song, which contains some adult language.
- Another track from the movie, "Uncle Fucka", won an MTV Movie Award for Best Musical Performance; Trey Parker and Matt Stone accepted the award, and thanked the audience for "not nominating Phil Collins".
- South Park is the one of the very few actively-running television series that has won a CableACE Award. It won the award for Best Animated Series in 1997, the last year the awards were given out.
Further Information
Get more info on 'South Park'.
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