South Park

South Park
Format	Animated Sitcom
Run time	approx. 0:23 (per episode)
Creator(s)	Trey Parker & Matt Stone
Starring	Trey Parker Matt Stone Isaac Hayes Mary Kay Bergman (1997–1999) Eliza Schneider (2000–2003) Mona Marshall Gracie Lazar John Hansen Jennifer Howell and Adrien Beard
Country	USA
Network	Comedy Central
Original run	August 13, 1997 – present
No. of episodes	139

For other uses, see South Park (disambiguation).

South Park is an animated series created by Matt Stone and Trey Parker. Distributed by and airing on Comedy Central since 1997, it follows the surreal adventures of four young boys who live in the small town of South Park, Colorado. South Park satirizes many aspects of American culture and current events, and challenges deepset convictions and taboos, usually using parody and black humor.

The show is noted for its characteristically blunt handling of current events. For example, an episode involving the repatriation of Romanian quintuplets aired during the Elián González issue, and depicted Janet Reno, then U.S. Attorney General, as a murderous Easter Bunny. An episode that aired after the September 11, 2001 attacks had the boys stow away on a military transport to Afghanistan, where they encounter Osama bin Laden. More recently, the episode "Best Friends Forever" satirized both the PSP and the Terri Schiavo case as well as the movie Constantine. Various instances relate Kenny's role in the episode as reminiscent of Keanu Reeves, which has also been speculated as a referral to Reeves' role as Neo (the One or savior) in The Matrix. In this episode, the town is at odds over the removal of a feeding tube from Kenny. The episode was recorded one week after the PSP was released and, coincidentally, was originally aired the night of March 30, 2005, less than twelve hours before Schiavo died. South Park won its first Emmy Award for that episode.

New episodes for the show's ninth season continued on October 19, 2005 after being on hiatus since April 2005. Recent seasons have aired in two parts; for example, half of the episodes from the eighth season were put on hiatus for Team America: World Police, another Stone and Parker production. The show has been syndicated through Tribune Entertainment starting the autumn of 2005.

Despite its reputation for toilet humor and outlandishness, many of the topics the creators take on are presented in realistic and unexaggerated yet absurd ways. For example, NAMBLA (North American Man/Boy Love Association) in episode #406, "Cartman Joins NAMBLA", is a real-life organization. Other targets, such as Scientology and Michael Jackson, have been satirized while portrayed mostly true to real life.

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", bringing a murderous snowman to life with a magic hat. The baby Jesus then saves the day by decapitating the monster with a halo.

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. Entitled 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 over the true meaning of Christmas. This video was later featured in the episode A Very Crappy Christmas of South Park 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 then 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.

One of the many deaths of Kenny.

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 that it only airs the show during nighttime hours and never during the day, when children may be more likely to see the show.

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. Two fortnights later, the airing of an episode about Terrance and Phillip (two 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 following year, the full-length animated feature film South Park: 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 swear words). 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 subsequent South Park episodes.

On November 11, 1999 shortly after the U.S. theatrical release of South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, actress Mary Kay Bergman, who had provided all of the female voices on the South Park animated series 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.

The South Park kids drawn realistically, from Free Willzyx.

In the episode "It Hits the Fan", South Park broke the swearing record by saying the word "shit" a total of 162 times. A 22-minute episode averages one "shit" every 8 seconds, and there was even 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?" repeated for four verses provides an example of how "shit" was so abundantly used. This was meant as a satire on a Chicago Hope episode 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. On a side note, an additional gag in this episode allowed homosexual characters to use the word "fag" freely, while heterosexual characters were bleeped when attempting to use the same word.

On March 5, 2005, South Park got to number 3 in the 100 Greatest Cartoons poll, losing to Tom and Jerry and The Simpsons. The nomination was for the funniest cartoon ever made, and was conducted by Channel 4. The series appeals to both adults and, more controversially, children.

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 one early episode, 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. As the show has progressed the satire/parody element has been brought to the fore. This was very evident in the first half of Season 8; events in its episodes include Michael Jackson visiting South Park, the boys seeing The Passion of the Christ, blue-collar workers in South Park losing their jobs to immigrants from the future, and an episode featuring a "Paris Hilton" toy video camera. Season 9 premiered with the episode "Mr. Garrison's Fancy New Vagina," which incorporated graphic, uncensored footage of a farm animal being neutered.

The pilot episode was produced using construction paper and traditional stop-motion 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, 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 having different subplots going on.

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.

While in college, Stone and Parker collaborated on the movie Cannibal! The Musical, a Western satire with humorous musical numbers. (The "Braniff" tune that plays at the end of many South Park episodes is an excerpt from the Cannibal! song, "Shpadoinkle".) Later, they created Orgazmo, a comedy about a Mormon starring in a pornographic movie, which found distribution thanks to the success of South Park later that same year. The pair also starred in the 1998 film BASEketball directed by David Zucker. (In a recent episode in which the boys see the Passion of the Christ and subsequently decide to get their money back for watching a lousy film, Stan comments to Kenny, "This is just like that time we got our money back from BASEketball," commenting on the film's box office failure). Their latest collaboration is the marionette action/comedy, Team America: World Police.

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. It is currently in the end of its ninth season. A sanitized version of South Park began broadcasting in syndication on September 19, 2005.

Characters

The characters and backgrounds of South Park are made to appear deliberately crude, as if they are simply made of cut-out pieces of paper. Paper cutouts were indeed used in the original pilot Parker/Stone animation and in the very first Comedy Central episode, but every subsequent episode aired on TV has been produced by computer animation that provides the same crude look. The animation has become less crude over time, though. To put the efficiency of this process in perspective, consider that the average episode of The Simpsons takes eight months 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). Some episodes contain sections of regular film as well (e.g., "Tweek vs. Craig" and "Cat Orgy").

Major characters

The main characters as they appear in the series: (from left to right): Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman, and Kenny McCormick.

The main characters of the show are four elementary school students:

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

• Kyle Broflovski: High-strung, skeptical, and at times self-righteous; yet is the most easily influenced. Kyle is effectively the alter-ego of Matt Stone, who, like Kyle, is Jewish. Along with Stan, Kyle often provides a reasonable perspective on the crazy behavior of the adult world around them, though is somewhat more excitable and childish than his best friend.

• Eric Theodore Cartman: Loosely inspired by Archie Bunker, and frequently the catalyst for the plot. He is campy, aggressive, sadistic, bigoted, spoiled, overweight, rude, and antagonistic. He regularly insults Kyle for being Jewish and Kenny for being poor. Meanwhile, his pretentious and sociopathic ways often cause him to regularly be disdained by the other boys, who don't quite know why they put up with him. Many episodes have Cartman acting in a manner directly opposed to or against the wishes of the other three boys.

• Kenneth "Kenny" McCormick: Comes from an extremely crude, poverty-stricken family. Obsessed with sex and bathroom humor. His speech is difficult to understand due to his hood closed around his face, although all of his lines are real dialogue. During the first five seasons Kenny served as the eternal victim, who is routinely killed in a number of grotesque (yet often very entertaining) ways during each episode, only to miraculously reappear alive in the next episode. At the end of Season 5, Kenny is killed off for the next season and is replaced, first by Butters and later by Tweek, as the fourth friend. He reappears as a regular character in Season 7, and while he does not necessarily die in every episode any more, on occasion he still meets a harsh fatality.

The show's earliest well-known gimmick, beginning in the first episode, was that in every episode, Kenny would die in some horrible, "unexpected" way. After this, Stan would shout, "Oh my God, they killed Kenny!" and Kyle would add, "You bastards!" Originally, the notorious "bastards" were the cow-aliens who shot Kenny with plasma; however, Kenny was in fact unharmed by this, and he was actually killed by Officer Barbrady's car after being trampled by Farmer Dinkins' cows. Kenny would be back in the next episode, the incident forgotten. In a clip show episode, one of Kenny's deaths was shown, and Stan and Kyle both act confused at it, implying that they literally forget Kenny's Death. For "Cartman's Mom is a Dirty Slut"/"Cartman's Mom is Still a Dirty Slut", since it is a bipartite episode, Kenny simply fades back into the picture at the beginning of the second part, only to be shocked to death by power lines in a snowstorm. For some time (after the fifth season episode "Kenny Dies"), Kenny had actually died "permanently." In the sixth season episode "A Ladder to Heaven", Kenny's soul became trapped inside of Cartman's body, but an exorcism performed by Chef's mother in "The Biggest Douche in the Universe" undid this.

Kenny came back to life for an unexplained reason in "Red Sleigh Down" and is now the same regular kid he was before, except his deaths are much more rare. Kenny was killed by Saddam Hussein in "It's Christmas in Canada", the final episode of Season 7. He was also killed once during the eighth season, out of his parka, by "Mr. Jefferson", an alias of Michael Jackson, in the episode "The Jeffersons", and in the ninth season, he was killed by the Chinese mafia in the episode "Wing", as well as the following episode, "Best Friends Forever" (in fact, he dies twice in the latter).

In recent seasons, three other characters have gained prominence:

• Timmy, a schoolmate confined by disability to a wheelchair. He has a limited vocabulary, usually only consisting of his own name, Jimmy's name, his pet turkey's name - "Gobbles","And the lords of the underworld", <when he joined a rock band> and his assorted gibberish. On occasion, has managed a few other words. As a standing joke, he was misdiagnosed with ADHD. After gaining popularity, he was featured at the beginning theme of the 4th season. He also replaced Kenny in the theme song in season 6 when Kenny remained dead for an entire season.

• Leopold "Butters" Stotch (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): 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. Butters has also adopted the alter ego of Professor Chaos, the costume inspired by Doctor Doom, and has a sidekick called General Disarray. His character is based on Director of Animation Eric Stough.

• Tweek (replaced Kenny during the second part of the Season 6): Spastic, neurotic, wants to be left alone. He is the only kid known genuinely suffering from ADHD (referred to as ADD in the show). His problems are often glossed over by his very docile, Hallmark commercial-esque coffee-shop-owning parents. Although initially touted as one of the leading supporting characters, he has since been upstaged by the more viewer popular Butters and has returned to playing a minor role.

Recurring characters

Main article: Recurring South Park characters

There are many other frequently recurring characters, besides the boys and their families.

• The boys' teachers Mr. Herbert Garrison (currently Mrs. Garrison after receiving a sex change in Episode 901, "Mr. Garrison's Fancy New Vagina"), and Ms. Choksondik (pronounced "chokes-on-dick") who dies in Season 6.
• Big Gay Al, a recurring character since the first season, with a part as well in the feature film.
• Mr. Slave, Mr. Garrison's flamboyantly gay live-in lover until his sex change in Episode 901 (replacement for Garrison's beloved puppet companion, Mr. Hat). Mr. Slave is now married to Big Gay Al.
• Jerome "Chef" McElroy (voiced by Isaac Hayes), the school cafeteria chef whom the boys seek out for advice. He used to be shown in almost every episode, but has been seen less frequently in recent seasons.
• Satan, portrayed as the insecure and overly-sensitive former lover of Saddam Hussein.
• Jesus and Santa Claus, who have been depicted as gun-toting heroes.
• Mr. Mackey, the school counselor who often appends "M'kay?" to the end of his sentences.
• Officer Barbrady, the incompetent, mentally deficient town police officer.
• Wendy Testaburger, a schoolmate and Stan's girlfriend until Episode 714 ("Raisins").
• Jimmy Valmer, a physically-disabled schoolmate with crutches and a speech impediment. Famous at South Park Elementary for his stand-up comedy. He took steroids to win the Special Olympics. Timmy was jealous of Jimmy initially, which culminated in a fist fight between the two in the episode Cripple Fight The fist fight scene was a tribute to the Rowdy Roddy Piper/Keith David fight in John Carpenter's They Live, including some identical dialogue and "camera" shots.
• Token Black, a classmate who occasionally accompanies the boys on their adventures; his name is intended as irony: being the only African-American kid in town, he is indeed the "token black". Token is also a frequent target of Cartman's racism. His surname was at one point Williams but was changed, forgotten or "black" is his stage name.
• Starvin' Marvin, originally appearing in Episode 109, he was sent to Stan, Kyle, Cartman, and Kenny after they donated 5 dollars to an Ethiopian fund for starving children (led by Sally Struthers) in order to earn a Teiko sports watch. They are accidentally sent a small Ethiopian boy they call Starvin' Marvin. When two agents appear to return Starvin' Marvin back to his home country, they accidentally take Cartman instead. Though the episode is set in East African Ethiopia, Starvin' Marvin speaks a language with click consonants, which are more often found in Khoisan languages such as those of the Xhosa people of South Africa. He later appears in episode 311 along with the alien Marklar race.
• Towelie, is a "super towel" created to dry a person, but while being studied he smoked marijuana and "just sort of wandered off". Towelie is frequently getting "high" and offers advice on towel usage. Towelie has only apeared in 4 episodes Episode 508, Towlie, where he is first introduced, Episode 509, Osama Bin Laden Has Farty Pants, in which he only has two lines, Episode 606 Professor Chaos, where he is a contestant in the contest for a new fourth friend, and Episode 701, I'm a Little Bit Country, where he is only seen in the background and has no lines.
• The goth kids, including Henrietta, originally featured in Episode 714 ("Raisins").
• Scott Tenorman, a much older schoolmate, originally introduced when he tricks Cartman out of his allowance money in the episode "Scott Tenorman Must Die". Cartman later takes revenge on Scott at his infamous "Chili con Carnival." Scott has appeared in minor roles in at least two subsequent episodes.

Minor characters and celebrities

Main article: List of celebrities on South Park

The satirical disclaimer that begins every episode

Part of the show's surrealist nature derives from the minor characters who appear in the series. Notable appearances include God (who appears as a small creature resembling a hippo-rodent hybrid), Jesus (who owns a home and hosts a public-access television show in South Park (Jesus and Pals)), Satan (with or without his lover Saddam Hussein), Moses (who appears exactly as the Master Control Program (MCP) does in the Disney film Tron and demands macaroni pictures 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 Towelie (who always gets (or wants to get) high).

Most celebrities who make appearances on South Park are usually "impersonated.....poorly" by the staff or others. See partial list below:

• Yoko Ono is present the episode "The Brown Noise" as the director of the '4,000,000 Children Blow Concert."
• Kenny G. is also in "The Brown Noise," acting as a prostitute of sorts when Mr. Garrison's father refuses to have sex with Mr. Garrison, despite his wishes. Kenny G. is hired to do the action to decieve Mr. Garrison.
• Barbra Streisand, is transformed by a mystical artifact Cartman found while digging and became Mecha-Streisand, a Mechagodzilla-like creature.
• Kathie Lee Gifford, is nearly assassinated by Mr. Garrison in the episode "Weight Gain 4000."
• O. J. Simpson, is a member of a support group for relatives of murder victims in "Butters' Very Own Episode."
• George W. Bush, under the influence of Satan's advisor (a Wormtongue lookalike, who probably represented Karl Rove) fought against removing a feeding tube from Kenny in the episode "Best Friends Forever." Also seen trying to handle the mass suicide situation in the episode "Super Best Friends"
• The 1980s band Toto
• Brian Boitano, a figureskater who is a kind of superhero to the children of South Park first appeared in "The Spirit of Christmas" and then again in the South Park movie, "Bigger, Longer, Uncut."
• Russell Crowe, star of the TV show Russell Crowe: Fightin' Around the World, in which he travels the world in a cartoon tugboat and picks fights with random strangers based on perceived insults
• Madonna is ridiculed in the episode "Kenny Dies."
• David Blaine, founder of the fictional, suicide-cult-like "Blainetology" religion in the episode "Super Best Friends."
• Sally Struthers is portrayed as a Hutt (as in "Jabba the Hutt" from Star Wars) hoarding food while pretending to save "Starvin' Marvin" and his people.
• Michael Jackson appears as a new neighbor named "Mr. Jefferson" who moves to South Park with his young son Blanket to escape accusations of child molestation (such as those that were made against Jackson in late 2003).
• Paris Hilton as spokeswoman for the Stupid Spoiled Whore clothing store chain.
• Will Smith moves to South Park along with Kobe Bryant, and Snoop Dogg in the episode "Here Comes the Neighborhood". Oprah Winfrey and Bill Cosby are also seen in the episode.
• Christina Aguilera is portrayed as a hideous creature; a hallucination of Cartman's when he starts ingesting Ritalin
• Jennifer López, who appeared in "Fat Butt and Pancake Head", where Cartman drew a face on his hand and pretended that it was J. Lo. She attempted to destroy Cartman's hand because it was ruining her career. Jennifer López also appears in "Cartmanland" and "Proper Condom Use" , where Kyle and Stan are burning an action figure version of her with a magnifying glass.
• Mel Gibson: In the acclaimed "The Passion of the Jew" episode, Kenny and Stan, after seeing "The Passion of the Christ" and hating it, go to Gibson's home to ask for their money back. They find that Gibson is a complete and utter lunatic who begs to be tortured and chases them all the way to South Park where the debate over his movie is about to break into a fight between the Jews and the Christians.
• Tom Cruise, Features as a follower of the Church of Scientology in episode 912 "Trapped in the Closet" - Where he locks himself in Stan's closet after being told "I don't think you're a better actor than the guy who played Napoleon Dynamite" by Stan - The "reincarnation" of the Church's former leader, L. Ron Hubbard. He then refuses repeated requests by Stan, Stan's family, and other celebrities to 'come out of the closet.'
• John Travolta, tries to get Tom Cruise to come out of the closet but eventually goes in with him. Also appears in a commercial promoting Mr.Garrison's new invention, IT, in an earlier episode "The Entity."

Celebrities who have provided voice work:

• Robert Smith of the British post punk band The Cure, who transformed into a moth creature (a parody of Mothra) to battle Mecha-Streisand.
• The band KoЯn, solved a Scooby Doo-type mystery in the Halloween episode, "Korn's Groovy Pirate Ghost Mystery."
• The band Radiohead, appear in the episode "Scott Tenorman Must Die."
• George Clooney, portrays an emergency room doctor similar to his character Doug Ross in the TV series ER in the South Park Movie, "Bigger, Longer, Uncut." Clooney also appeared as a voice actor for Sparky, Stan's homosexual dog, in the episode "Big Gay Al's Big Gay Boat Ride", his only line being "Woof!".
• Jennifer Aniston, plays a choir teacher in the episode, "Rainforest, Schmainforest."
• Jay Leno plays a Cartman's cat in heat on 307, "Cat Orgy."
• Cheech and Chong play mexicans who pretend to be native americans to sell holistic medicine in "Cherokee Hair Tampons."
• Natasha Henstridge, billed as "The Chick from Species", plays a substitute teacher in Tom's Rhinoplasty.

Political controversy

The political leaning of South Park has been open to some debate. With the exception of Cartman's hard-core conservative character being portrayed as a self-centered bigot, and Kyle being portrayed as reasonable yet liberal, the show is often criticized for having a supposed "conservative bias". Throughout the show, it may or may not be a coincidence that some celebrities mocked the most have been self-professed "Liberals". For example, in the season 7 episode "Butt Out," director and liberal activist Rob Reiner and his fellow anti-smokers are portrayed as a bunch of thieves, willing to lie and kill for the sake of putting out cigarettes for good - while the people working at the tobacco company are shown as comically friendly and happy.

Another potential example of a conservative slant might be their portrayal of President Bush. As president, George W. Bush is naturally a favorite target of cartoonists and comics, but South Park does not seem to make fun of him much at all. In fact, in the episode "A Ladder To Heaven" Bush is hardly recognizable, possibly because he's hardly exaggerated or caricatured, highly unusual for South Park, to say the least. This could be contrasted with President Bill Clinton in the earlier episodes, who is portrayed as a jackass with a wrinkly face and an exaggerated Southern accent.

Icons of American conservatism are by no means immune from ridicule, however. It should be noted that Bush was the central character in Parker/Stone spoof of 1950s era sitcoms, That's My Bush!, which aired briefly in mid-2001, but was cancelled prior to Sept. 11, 2001. Bush is also portrayed as a gullible moron in the aforementioned "A Ladder To Heaven" episode. For example, he explains to the UN that the US needs to bomb heaven because Saddam (through a series of unfortunate events) is in heaven and is making chemical weapons. One UN member replies, "Are you high, or just incredibly stupid?" To which Bush replies, "I can assure you, I am not high." In any case, the show has lambasted social conservatives and Republicans in satirizing The Passion of Christ and the Terri Schiavo debate. In addition, the episode "Osama bin Laden Has Farty Pants" portrays the U.S. military as indiscriminately bombing civilian buildings in Afghanistan, and Kyle says of the country: "If I grew up here, I'd be pissed off too!"

However, South Park's political views overall would seem to lean towards the libertarian political view. Trey Parker dismisses the "accusations" of conservatism, claiming that if their show really were conservative, it wouldn't exactly have the raunchy and obscene sense of humor or tone it's famous for. Matt Stone points out that the show pokes fun at Liberals and Conservatives, and no segment of society is spared. In fact, the wide spread of the show's comedic gunbarrel is a good part of the appeal: a recent advertisement for the show on Comedy Central announced an apology, listed many categories of people South Park has made fun of (including rednecks, blacks, gays, politicians, transsexuals, Jews, and the disabled) and then stated, "We apologize if South Park has left you out." In addition, Parker commented on the South Park Republican phrase and said he was "Sick of it", claiming that him and Matt are pretty "Middle Ground" guys who don't like labeling themselves in any group and that people far left and far right on the spectrum are the exact same people to them.

That said, the show seems less afraid to "call out" "liberals" than it is to specifically target "conservatives". For example, the specific equation of Democrats with Fascists for advocating sexual harassment laws ("Sexual Harassment Panda") and the contention of "My Future Self n' Me" that "liberals" are behind the creation of anti-drug public service announcements equating marijuana use with support of terrorism. Critique of conservatism is generally limited to religious and social leaders, who are often depicted as self-serving and hypocritical, but rarely, if ever, are "conservative" or "republican" officials or policies overtly criticized in the manner that "liberal" concepts and individuals are. In a televised interview, Parker and Stone suggested that liberals were more satisfying to lampoon, since they typically react more strongly than conservatives. Specifically, they cited a letter written to them by Sean Penn deriding them for his negative portrayal in Team America: World Police.

In episode 806, "Goobacks", where people from the future come back in time to present day South Park in order to make a better life for themselves, Bill O'Reilly's "No-Spin Zone" attempts to be fair on the coverage, and so asks two people with opposing views onto the show. One, called "pissed-off white-trash redneck conservative" and the other, "aging hippie liberal douche", neither of which is particularly favourable. The "liberal" made wordy, annoying comments, like, "It is our greedy multinational corporations that keep everyone else in poverty", whereas the "conservative" seems only capable of swearing, and saying the phrase "DAY TEK ERR JARRRRRRHH!" ("THEY TOOK OUR JOBS!")in varying degrees of uninteligablity. the highly un-conservative answer they draw is to "get gay" with each other to prevent the future from happening, thus getting rid of the immigrants, this gives substance to the belief that south part plays both camps against the other one.

A more accurate characterization of South Park's criticism might be "anti-authority," and in particular "anti-state." In other words, South Park consistently pokes fun at efforts by both "liberals" and "conservatives" to increase the amount of government control over the lives of individuals. As mentioned above, such a position jibes more with contemporary libertarianism than with either American liberalism or contemporary American conservatism.

Recurring themes of child abuse and neglect

Child 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. 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 (although Kenny himself is not shown to be similarly affected).

The treatment of this theme ranges from realistic to cartoonish. For example, Butters' state of mind as a result of his treatment by his parents is handled in a generally realistic way — he is incontinent, has low self-esteem, and wrings his hands. 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. Tweek's constant state of tension has both comic elements (his parents 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).

Music

Cover from South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut - Music From And Inspired By The Motion Picture

Although South Park is well known for its humor and controversial plots, viewers are also treated to an original musical score. The show's opening theme song is performed by alternative rockers Primus.

It should be noted that Kenny's lines in the song, as well as all but two of his lines throughout the show (Episode 807, "The Jeffersons") and one in the movie, are muffled. Kenny always wears an orange anorak with the hood concealing all of his head except for his eyes. The fact that the lines are unintelligible helped them slip past network censors. It is sometimes easy to comprehend the lines, given the context in which they are delivered.

One of the rumors is that Kenny's original line says "I like women with fat titties, I like women with big titties." Another interpretation that is common is, "I like girls with big fat titties, I like girls with big fat titties." Another variation states that he sings, "I like girls with big fat titties, I like girls with big vaginas."

Another rumor of Kenny's lines is that they changed at the start of the 3rd season, and went on to the end of the 5th season. These lines are supposedly "I have got a 10 inch penis, if you want to, you can clean it." This went on, and was changed during the 6th season, where Timmy took over Kennys place after Kenny was killed off permanently. Timmy's lines are "Timmah Timmah Timmah Timmah, Timmah, Timmah, Live a lie, Timmah!"

Kenny's line in the theme song changed at the start of the seventh season. It was promised that the line would be revealed a year after the change. When the time had passed, the creators had forgotten exactly what the line was, but were "95% sure" that it was: "Someday I'll be old enough, to stick my dick in Britney's butt."

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 the episode "Ginger Kids" he sings a song about tolerance once he realizes he's not a ginger 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 Isaac Hayes, who voices Chef, and from the band Primus, which performed the original opening and ending themes for the show. 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

• 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. 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 suicide bomber in their 2004 feature film Team America: 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 an entire song in South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut that is based on "One Day More", a song 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 a production of Les Misérables.
• 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.
• Trey Parker animated a South Park version of a joke called The Aristocrats for the documentary film of that name.
• The Parker-Stone production company is named Braniff Productions, named 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 song that plays while the airplane is shown is "Shpadoinkle" from Trey Parker's first movie Cannibal! The Musical.
• In almost every episode of South Park, one of the aliens from Episode 101 is hidden somewhere in the episode. [1]

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. Fairplay, Bailey and Conifer are actual towns a short distance away from South Park and have 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, Bailey, Conifer and of course South Park.

Running gags

These are events that have recurred in almost every episode of South Park.

• Kenny died in almost every episode during the first five seasons. He usually dies at the end, though his death is used as a plot device in a few episodes -- most notably in the movie, were his arrival in hell and subsequent friendship with Satan are essential to the story, to the point of providing the final Deus Ex Machina.
• After most of Kenny's deaths, Stan says "Oh, my God! They/it/he/she/we killed Kenny!" Kyle will then say "You/we're bastard(s)!" A gag has been built around this: whenever Stan says, "Oh, my God! They killed Kenny!", Kyle will always reply, no matter where he is, "You bastards!" In the episode "Super Best Friends", Stan used this method as echolocation to find Kyle, who had been forced into suicide by a cult.
• Cartman frequently says, "Screw you guys, I'm going home." This usually comes after he and Kyle get into an argument (mainly the ones that involve Eric being selfish).
• Eric's mother occasionally is targeted for her promiscuity. Sometimes the boys find a magazine or website depicting her in unspeakable acts, though it's usually intimated by Ms. Cartman flirting with or taking men into her room.
• Whenever Wendy speaks to Stan or kisses him , his nervousness will cause him to vomit shortly thereafter. (This gag ended as of Season 7 when Wendy broke up with Stan to go out with Token.)
• If Chef is asked a question by the children, he will answer by singing a song, the song will wind up being about sex regardless of the original question. Then he'll occasionally attempt to relate it to their problem.
• Kyle is teased or insulted for being Jewish. In the episode "Casa Bonita" there is a montage with 16 occurrences of Cartman insulting Kyle as a Jew.
• When the boys are looking for a scapegoat, they always choose Butters.
• Eric will occasionally threaten someone with something completely obscure when they don't agree with him, like make someone "eat their parents", which happens in episode 501, "Scott Tenorman must die", in which Cartman tricks Scott Tenorman to eat a bowl of chili containing his parents after being insulted and tricked.
• Canadian characters on South Park exhibit many random oddities, such as beady eyes, driving cars with square wheels, and semicircular heads that, during speech, detach from their body and jaw (which is also semicircular). They also speak rapidly with affected accents, pronouncing "about" as "a-boot" and "house" as "hoose"; they frequently refer to others as, "buddy." Because of his earlier appearance in a Terrance and Phillip episode, Saddam Hussein is animated in the same Canadian style.
• A celebrity appears or is mentioned in every episode.
• There is usually a reference to Kenny being poor, usually by Cartman making a joke about it.
• Someone often punches Cartman in the face or kicks him in the balls when he insults them.
• The dog in the DVD opening scene, which is a talk with the creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, called Scratch, always changes, and in the Episode An Elephant Makes Love to a Pig Scratch changes half way through it, referring to the genetic mutation theme of the episode
• Chef always arrives and says to the boys "Hello Children" and asks how they are doing, which is responded with "Bad" by the children which is then replied back to by the Chef with, "Why bad?". Curiously, Chef always refers to even one child as "children".
• There is always a satirical theme in each episode. This is often made obvious by a character stating, "You know, I've learned something today..."
• Occasionally in the end of one episode Stan suggests to do something else and Cartman replies with "Yeah, **** kicks ass".
• Crab people are always trying to take over the world, through disguise (i.e. global warming, queer eye straight eye, etc.)

Religious Humor

South Park often satrizes organized religion in such episodes as Super Best Friends. According to the episode "Red Hot Catholic Love", virtually all the major and recurring characters in South Park are Roman Catholic, except:

• The Broflovskis (Kyle's family), who are Jewish.
• The Harrisons, who are Mormon (only appear in one episode.
• Chef, who converted to Islam in "Chef Goes Nanners" but apparently gave it up.
• Chef's parents, who practice Voodoo and Occult rituals (though their precise faith is unknown).
• God, who claims to be a Buddhist.
• Stan, who in one episode was claimed to be a reincarnation of L. Ron Hubbard from The Church of Scientology, but denounced it at the end of Trapped in the Closet.
• 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 miracles performed by Jesus Christ are as real as the tricks performed by David Blaine).

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 avers that Japanese people don't have souls.

The class

A list of the members of the 4th Grade (3rd Grade in the first 3 seasons) class can be hard to define, but here is one based on regular occurrences:

• Stan Marsh
• Kyle Broflovski
• Kenny McCormick
• Eric Cartman
• Clyde Donovan
• Leopold "Butters" Stotch
• Craig
• Tweek
• Phillip "Pip" Pirrup
• Bill, Terrance, and Fosse
• Bebe Stevens
• Wendy Testaburger
• Token Black (the only black kid in class, earlier known as Token Williams)
• Timmy
• Jimmy Valmer (earlier known as Jimmy Swanson)
• Mark Cotswolds
• Bertha (Red)
• Dog Poo
• Esther or Mandy
• Gary Harrison
• Jason
• Jessie
• Kal
• Lizzy
• Millie
• Annie Polk
• Heidi Turner
• Sally Turner

Videogames

• >SP< South-Park Clan Gaming Clan
• South Park for N64, PlayStation and PC
• Chef's Luv Shack for N64, PlayStation, Dreamcast, and PC
• South Park Rally for N64, PlayStation, Dreamcast, and PC
• Save Kenny for mobile phones
• Also there are smaller games at south park studios

See also

• List of South Park episodes
• Cheesy Poofs
• Chewbacca Defense
• Chocolate Salty Balls
• "It Hits the Fan" one of the most notorious episodes of South Park
• List of celebrities on South Park
• List of fictional brands in South Park
• List of movies, television shows and books parodied on South Park
• List of songs featured on South Park
• Park County, Colorado