This text initially appeared within the March 1998 challenge of SPIN. It’s being republished in honor of the twenty fifth anniversary of South Park.
Right here’s the way it works within the post-Simpsons period. The tremors begin at espresso outlets, film queues, dorm rooms: younger folks speaking in weird pinched voices. Goateed cashiers spouting off-color catchphrases. Unusual little icons on T-shirts and display screen savers. Then, the Internet sites spring up. The upstart community prospers. The only is launched. The film is introduced. Abruptly, earlier than you realize it, we’re as much as our bungholes in ’90s cartoon Zeitgeist.
With the unstoppable pressure of a dead-Chris Farley joke, Comedy Central’s sick, crudely animated half-hour present South Park—that includes the adventures of 4 gimlet-eyed, foul-mouthed third-graders—has develop into not simply the most popular cartoon however the hottest youth-cult phenomenon within the nation. Like Bart and Butt-head earlier than them, the construction-paper-hewn Stan Marsh, Kyle Broslofskyi, Eric Cartman, and the completely hooded Kenny McCormic now rule the shops of America. Their likenesses are in all places, together with on final 12 months’s hottest-selling T-shirt (“Now we have merchandisers lined up across the block!” boasts Comedy Central spokesman Tony Fox). Their signature strains—”Kick ass!” “Omigod, they killed Kenny”—are on the lips of paperboys and grad college students throughout the nation. They’ve even impressed the critics. Subsequent to “such fashionable brokers of homicide and mayhem” as South Park‘s “cackling characters,” observes the New York Occasions‘s Michiko Kakutani, “the Satan doesn’t even stick out.”
Trade seismologists measure fan ardor extra instantly. “CNN has to have a worldwide catastrophe to provide you with a 1.4 [rating],” mentioned one tv business advisor. For its Christmas present, South Park earned itself a 5.4 score, the best for an authentic sequence in Comedy Central’s historical past; 4.5 million folks tuned in, greater than seven instances Comedy Central’s common. Rights to a South Park soundtrack album, at the moment within the works, have a rumored value of $2 million. In the meantime, showbiz giants from Jay Leno to Jason Priestley to George Clooney have both provided or given the present subliminal voice cameos—the final performing the woofs of a homosexual canine.
All of this—plus a feature-length movie and the inevitable shopper effluvia (mugs, boxer shorts, seaside towels, backpacks)—comes on the power of only a handful of episodes. Gen-X school roommates Trey Parker and Matt Stone hit the motherlode of goofball hip with one alarmingly easy concept: Take a bunch of cute li’l quaintly animated characters—redolent of early-’70s educational movies and Peanuts vacation specials—and slam them into ’90s grossness and dread. Someway, by that includes vomiting, farting. racial slurs, and decapitations, their not notably high-minded artistic enterprise seized pole place within the tradition business. Someway, South Park should converse to some starvation deep inside us, should reaffirm some primary truths about humanity. That, or we’re actually a nation of retards.
“There is no such thing as a extra direct and correct method of discovering out what is basically on a folks’s collective thoughts,” writes Alan Dundes in his e-book Cracking Jokes, “than by listening to exactly what’s making the folks snicker.” To that finish we flip to 1996’s “The Spirit of Christmas,” the $750 video Hallmark that launched South Park. In “Christmas,” Parker and Stone launched the 4 snowsuited characters and their perpetually wintry milieu, had them quarrel and bait the Jewish Kyle and hurl fats jokes on the rotund Cartman, and introduced within the off-color surrealism that will develop into a South Park trademark. In flowing robes, Jesus seems earlier than the youngsters saying he has arrived to avenge the despoiling of his identify by Santa Claus. (“Don’t say ‘pigfucker’ in entrance of Jesus,” Stan admonishes Cartman.) Jesus begins a Mortal Kombat–fashion kung fu duel along with his arch-nemesis “Kringle” whereas the youngsters fret over whom to root for. All the weather had been in place: sadism, sacrilege, and nonstop profanity.
After the furiously circulated video led to a cope with Comedy Central, South Park debuted to flesh out the 4 youngsters’ world. Early episodes launched us to the priapic college Chef (voiced by Isaac Hayes), the schoolteacher Mr. Garrison and his hand-puppet/id Mr. Hat, Wendy Testaburger (whose presence makes the love-struck Stan vomit), and different city people. As in “The Spirit of Christmas,” all of the characters remained jittery composites of cut-up paper shapes whose eyes blinked and tooth gnashed in distant approximations of facial expressions.
With a built-in viewers of the tens of hundreds who had seen the Xmas bootleg, South Park was an prompt hit—particularly amongst snickering white pubescents. Elektra Information’ Brian Cohen, answerable for buying TV industrial time for the label, knew the present was made-to-order for promoting the likes of Pantera, Metallica, and AC/DC. “You go to the live shows and also you see numerous younger boys who’re able to, you realize, reduce one thing and make it bleed,” he says. “It was fairly clear that this was the fitting viewers.”
However whereas the present works brilliantly as a cult hit, it makes a curious switch to the bigger tradition. In contrast to comedian sensations of yore—Monty Python, say, or Firesign Theater—you don’t sound like a soigné aficionado of superb comedy while you repeat South Park sound bites in school: You sound Particular Ed. And whereas there may be sufficient splenetic wit and manic element to generate obsessive fandom (complete sections of Internet sites are devoted to deciphering simply what Kenny is mumbling), topics like alien abduction, genetic engineering, and Kathie Lee are hardly authentic targets for satire. South Park fares nicely compared to Beavis and Butt-head, however to not its different apparent forebear, The Simpsons. A years-old establishment with a full workforce of writers, The Simpsons is each higher-yield jokewise and extra virtuosic, with gags compounding gags and a extra coherent sense of the characters’ foibles and predilections. The Simpsons and its follow-on King of the Hill additionally undertake a broader critique of suburbia, mass media, household life, and beer-swilling fats guys than does South Park. South Park‘s extra about puking and aliens and stuff.
In a way, although, that’s the purpose. South Park is a punk-rock Simpsons: not as droll nor as well-executed, however quicker, cruder, with fewer characters and fewer ambition. Not solely is there a agency grasp of early punk’s nihilistic juvenilia—Cartman’s Hitler Halloween costume was positively Ramonesian in its gleeful unhealthy style—however South Park additionally shares punk’s slapdash manufacturing values. Turnaround time per episode is lightning-fast—as soon as each three weeks—which makes it essentially the most shoot-from-the-hip comedy program on tv.
Like many subcultural crazes, the present’s attraction is about fashion and type greater than content material. Cartman’s voice—a trebly, gravelly mixture of Truman Capote and Wolfman Jack—is alone definitely worth the value of primary cable. And, at its most elemental, South Park is based on a sight gag with legs. Of the evergreen comedian tropes on the market—males in clothes, speaking computer systems, vice presidents—one of the crucial reliable is the dismembering of cute little moppets. (Witness Saturday Night time Dwell‘s immensely fashionable “Mr. Invoice” sequence.) The central irony is that, for all its absurdity, South Park might be more true to the child expertise than another program on TV. It has the acquainted sadism, the shameless greed, and the exuberant curiosity—in spades. Perversely, South Park could also be one in every of realest social worlds on TV.
However very similar to childhood itself, South Park isn’t a franchise that’s constructed to final. Even by the sixth episode, “Loss of life,” Parker and Stone had been already making none-too-subtle allusions to crass TV reveals “which have come and gone which were very unhealthy [and usually] get taken proper off the air.” Perhaps, because the creators themselves appear to acknowledge, this wouldn’t be such a horrible factor.
Will South Park linger ignobly like Roseanne and the Rolling Stones, cashing checks whereas tarnishing its luster? Or will it—because the latest sub-sub-lowbrow Christmas episode suggests—exit in a blaze of speaking poo? South Park‘s important comedic gadget—the conflict between childhood innocence and grownup puerility—is in any other case referred to as “junior excessive,” and everybody graduates in the end. With a brand new film beckoning and their place in historical past secured, Parker and Stone may be savvy sufficient to sabotage their creation earlier than it turns towards them. Even Cartman is aware of it’s higher to gross out than fade away.
The Creators: Cannibalism, Pornography, Psychological Disabilities, Et Cetera
Todd Krieger explores the ever-indelicate cultural choices of Trey Parker and Matt Stone
“Whoever rents this porn,” says Trey Parker as he observes a pretend knife plunging into the pinnacle of a principally bare porn star, “goes to be so pissed off.” On a balmy Saturday afternoon in Los Angeles, Parker and fellow South Park creator Matt Stone are enjoyable from the pains of inventing televised leisure by internet hosting a weekend porn shoot at their beachfront condominium. Because the solid and crew transfer about the home capturing varied scenes, Parker and Stone are readily available to contribute just a few private prospers, together with what must be essentially the most uncommon homicide scene ever to be filmed within the sex-vid business: demise by tone-poem compendium. That Parker possesses a quantity of symphonic poems by the Nineteenth-century German composer Richard Strauss hints that beneath these lowbrow amusements lies a intellectual pedigree; that he and Stone have helped create a movie that depicts one bare actor killing one other with mentioned e-book throughout intercourse hints that these two culture-makers-of-the-moment are unabashedly bizarre.
Whereas South Park‘s surprising success has led to the belief of pubescent fantasies like at-home pornography and “assembly the chick from Species,” the 27-year-old Parker factors out that the present has additionally been an enviornment for private development. ”We discover all the things,” he says. “It’s nice remedy.” And although Comedy Central has allowed their remedy to discover some pretty uncommon territory (see elephant/pig intercourse, anal probes for the younger, and many others.), there are limits to what they’ll air. “The one factor they wouldn’t allow us to do was make enjoyable of the Nation of Islam,” says Parker. “We predict it was out of concern that we’d be killed, after which they wouldn’t have a present.”
Hungry South Park followers will readily eat up the brand new episodes of their critically acclaimed hit (20 extra have been ordered), nevertheless it’s the live-action porn business send-up Orgazmo, slated for a summer season launch, which will show to be a more true measure of their skills. Orgazmo stars Parker as Joe Younger, a Mormon reluctantly remodeled into porn star Captain Orgazmo, and Stone as an overzealous lighting technician. Showing alongside them are veteran porn actor/cult hero Ron Jeremy, a trio of intercourse queens espousing a twisted type of woman energy (“I’m not going to do any ass-licking right now”), and a sidekick with a dildo strapped to his head. But for Parker and Stone, working in porn is remarkably just like engaged on South Park. “The great factor with the youngsters is you could put them in just a little bag on the finish of the day,” says Parker. And porn stars? “Not a lot totally different. They already get fucked and so they’re not like, ‘I don’t wish to do this, I’ll look s-s-s-s-s-stupid.’ I imply, c’mon, they’ve had anal intercourse close-ups.”
In January, whereas Orgazmo was making its U.S. debut at Sundance, Cannibal: The Musical, Parker’s first work as author/director/star, was premiering on the underground Slamdance Competition. Shot for a minuscule $125,000, Cannibal (billed as a cross between Oklahoma! and Friday the thirteenth) has begun displaying across the nation at a sequence of midnight reveals. Viewers participation is inspired within the hopes that it would develop into the subsequent Rocky Horror Image Present.
Naturally, Hollywood needs in. Parker’s accomplished script for a live-action venture titled Fuzzies just lately drew the eye of producer Scott Rudin. The story revolves round a nine-year-old with a psychological incapacity (he repeatedly repeats the phrase “bacon and cheese and carrots and peas”) who triumphs over the forces of evil (massive “blue-horned fuzzies”) threatening to wreck his hometown. Within the movie’s climactic scene, a brigade of mentally disabled youngsters prices over a hill to avoid wasting the imperiled city from the clutches of the fuzzies. Like earlier tasks, this one seems to be weird and barely reckless. However Fuzzies—and its estimated price range of $20 million—has been shelved at Parker’s behest. “The one method I may do it’s if I left South Park,” says Parker. “They needed to do it in January. I mentioned no. They freaked out. They’re like, ‘How are you going to not wish to do a Paramount film?”
Stone and Parker, in the meantime, have taken roles within the subsequent film from the legendary Zucker brothers (Airplane, The Bare Gun). “We’re a part of this ‘baseketball’ workforce. It’s a mixture of basketball and baseball,” explains Stone because the porn crew prepares for an additional scene in his lounge. “It’s about our rise to fame as the game turns into fashionable. A number of what we’re engaged on comes from what’s occurred to us previously six months and what we’ve been coping with,” he says, pausing to look at a tube of “sizzling tamale”–flavored lubricant sitting in entrance of him. He squeezes a small dab onto his finger and tastes it. “It comes,” he says lastly, “from actual life.”
The Future?: “Oh My God, They Molested Kenny!”
Its debut season was an prompt hit. Now, South Park will face the age-old dilemma: How do you prime your self?
July 4, 1998. Reasserting South Park‘s status as essentially the most edgy and eccentric present on tv, the launch of the second season is widely known at a “rave” in a disused San Pedro curler rink, with journalists given instructions written on the again of Fats-burger french-fry luggage. Hosted by a pointlessly grouchy Janeane Garofalo, the social gathering was “silly, boring, and pretentious,” Parker and Stone later chortle, however media hype continues unabated. The lone dissenter is New York Occasions tradition critic Michiko Kakutani, who calls the present the “lede equine of the 4 horsemen of the approaching Gen X cultural apocalypse.”
July 8. The primary episode of the second season, “Gangsta Gangsta,” airs: After Mr. Garrison provides the category an Ebonics lecture, Cartman and human beatbox Kenny (managed by Kyle), rename themselves “The Infamous P.I.G. and Ok-III.” Backed by their posse, the South Park Killers, the duo reduce a gangsta rap single, “SPK—What Does It Imply?” Even Chef is shocked by lyrics resembling “Straight outta South Park, loopy motherfucker named Cartman / Spent my youth anal-probed by an ali-ennn!” Watching his personal video at dwelling, Cartman yells to his mother, “Yo, get me some Tacky Poofs, bitch!” When Kyle’s mom finds her child son Ike singing the catchy refrain, “South Park, South South Park,” she petitions the Mayor to cancel P.I.G. and Ok-III’s upcoming efficiency on the college expertise present, however is thwarted by the ACLU. In the meantime, P.I.G. and Ok-III fireplace Kyle as their supervisor as a result of he’s Jewish. Confused about his musical path, Cartman vanishes, reappearing for the sold-out live performance, unveiling his newest persona—Heavy C—and a brand new R&B-tinged hip-hop sound: “I say big-boned, you say overweight / I’m blowin’ up larger than Dom DeLuise / Each step I take makes hearts begin to break / ‘Trigger I’m beefcake, beefcake, beefcake!” An enraged crowd bum-rushes the stage. Outdoors the college auditorium, Kenny avoids a drive-by capturing, however is tragically cornered by a Kangol-sporting Quentin Tarantino, who makes an attempt to “flip him on” to some obscure Bushwick Invoice B-sides.
July 9. Racial activist Al Sharpton joins forces with rappers Fats Joe, Huge Punisher, and Biggie Smalls’s mom, Voletta Wallace, to protest the present’s “stereotypical depiction of tragically chubby hip-hop performers.” Prodigy pattern Cartman’s voice on their music, “Cheese My Bitch Up” and launch an X-rated video wherein a topless stripper is pelted with snack treats. The Nationwide Group for Ladies requires boycotts of each present on Comedy Central apart from reruns of Completely Fabulous.
July 13. Sporting “Company Cartoons Nonetheless Suck” T-shirts, a cranky Parker and Stone seem on an E! community broadcast of the Howard Stern radio present, trashing the “overmerchandised elitism” of The Simpsons and attempting to fondle Stern sidekick Robin Quivers.
July 15. Episode 2, “Skinheads, Skinheads, Roly-Poly Skinheads,” airs. On a go to to Denver, Cartman meets some “new pals,” and upon returning to South Park, startles Kyle and Stan with a brand new look: flight jacket, jackboots, and carefully cropped hair. “Hey, Cartman,” says Stan, “you seem like Sting!” In the meantime, Starvin’ Marvin, the Ethiopian baby the youngsters mistakenly adopted by a Sally Struthers industrial, arrives again on the town as a part of a U.N. convention on the New World Order. Cartman’s new pals additionally come to city to carry a seminar on “the black helicopters.” When Cartman introduces his new buddies to Kyle, they beat him up as a result of he’s Jewish. “Dude,” a bloodied Kyle says, “these guys are skinheads.” “Fuck you,” replies Cartman, “they’re not skinheads, they’re French.” After the skinheads tag swastikas on the entrance window of Tom’s Rhinoplasty, the Mayor delivers a hysterical TV warning and asks talk-show host Jerry Springer to talk at a rally towards racism. On the rally, Springer tells the group about his experiences as a toddler of Holocaust survivors, however Stan’s Uncle Jimbo and his pal Ned the Vietnam Vet (each militia members) drown him out with gunfire. Chef steps to the microphone and breaks into music: “I’ve a dream / That sooner or later all of God’s ladies / Black ladies and white ladies / Jewish ladies and Gentile ladies / Protestant ladies and Catholic ladies / Will probably be making candy love / Candy, candy love / Sure, I’ve that dream / Oooh, sure I do / Nearly each night time.” Chef’s music is interrupted by the skinheads, who’ve found that the tiny African tot is bundled up in a hooded snowsuit. They stomp the primary baby they see in a hood, solely to find they’ve crippled Kenny.
July 16. The “Skinhead” episode receives Comedy Central’s highest rankings ever (besting even It’s a Paula Poundstone Christmas!). Dogged by paparazzi, Parker and Stone are noticed with David Lynch gulping sugar substitute packets in a darkened nook sales space on the Dresden Room.
July 22. Episode 3, “Simply Say Nagano” airs: South Park‘s show-within-a-show, Terrance & Phillip, will get a brand new sponsor, the ultra-sweet sweet “Gummi Euphoria.” The youngsters are excited to attempt the brand new confection, however all of the native shops are bought out. At a 7-Eleven on the opposite aspect of the railroad tracks, Cartman meets up with actor Robert Downey, Jr. “Have you learnt the place we will get some Gummi Euphoria?” asks Cartman. “Positive,” says Downey, handing him some small white capsules. Caught with the Euphoria in Mr. Garrison’s class, Cartman learns an vital lesson about sharing: “If you wish to eat sweet at school, you must convey sufficient for everyone.” When the principal discovers the category engaged in a gaggle hug/blackout, it’s revealed that Cartman has truly turned the scholars on to GHB. The Mayor calms the fears of hysterical dad and mom by arresting Robert Downey, Jr., and holds a particular press convention, the place Downey pitifully apologizes for all the things he’s ever completed. To maintain South Park youth away from pushers, college officers manage an emergency discipline journey to see the Colorado Avalanche hockey workforce play the New York Rangers in “the most popular recreation on ice.” Cartman declares that his favourite Avalanche participant is surly goon Claude Lemieux. “Cartman,” protests Kyle, “Claude Lemieux is the largest cheater within the Nationwide Hockey League!” “Screw you, hippie,” says Cartman, “dishonest’s cool!” Stan and Kyle’s taunting of the Avalanche’s hapless mascot “Flurry” results in a melee between gamers and followers. Lemieux tries to fatally cross-check Kenny, however unintentionally renders hockey trophy spouse Janet Jones comatose. Chaos reigns. “Dude,” says Stan, “hockey is method higher than medicine!” “Yeah,” agrees Cartman. “Violence kicks ass!”
July 23. Nationwide Hockey League commissioner Gary Bettman protests the stereotyping of the NHL as overly bloody. “We’re the most popular recreation on ice,” insists Bettman. Nevertheless, CBC Hockey Night time in Canada commentator Don Cherry praises South Park‘s realism. “Lastly, someone on tv understands that hockey isn’t for wussies.”
July 29. Episode 4, “Cooks Huge Rating,” airs: Pursuing a lifelong dream, Chef takes a depart of absence from the cafeteria to attempt his hand at an R&B profession. Mrs. Crabtree, the college bus driver, substitutes within the lunchroom, however the outcomes are disastrous. Salisbury steak is changed by “Pleistocene pot pie,” and Stan throws up, even when Wendy Testaburger is nowhere in sight. Unable to eat, Cartman begins losing a few pounds quickly. In the meantime, “Theme from Chef’ threatens to knock Elton John’s “Candle within the Wind 1998: Tune for Sonny Bono” off the highest of the charts; its wah-wah-driven refrain is in all places: “Who’s the kitchen man who’s hotter than a pan? / Chef, whoo, Chef! / Who’s the lunchroom stud who makes feminine hearts go thud? / Chef, whoo, Chef!” Whereas in L.A. to file a brand new Free Tibet profit file, “Monk Assist,” with the Beastie Boys, Steven Seagal, and Carrot High, Chef is caught behind a limo swapping recipes with a transvestite fry cook dinner. His profession in a shambles, unable to get booked on even the Keenen Ivory Wayans Present, Chef returns to South Park. Discovering the city abandoned, he discovers that everybody is on the hospital the place Kenny has almost starved to demise, and a vigil is underway for an emaciated Cartman. Chef shortly whips up a Salisbury gravy I.V., saving Cartman, who immediately begins shouting “Get jiggy with it!” for no specific purpose.
July 31. In an effort to insurgent towards the Hollywood “impressed by” soundtrack formulation, postmodern poster-boy DJ Spooky helms an album entitled South Park (Re)combined, that includes 35 totally different “sonic musings” on the present’s authentic theme music. Launched by Geffen Information to nice fanfare, the album is a crucial and industrial embarrassment.
August 3. Nervous in regards to the present’s declining hipness, Comedy Central’s publicity division begins planting false tales in nationwide gossip columns about Parker and Stone’s “secret relationship.”
August 5. Episode 5, “Trial of the Century,” airs: Kenny is discovered lifeless within the basement of his dad and mom’ home, apparently strangled and sexually assaulted. “Oh my God,” says Kyle. “They molested Kenny!” Though suspicion instantly facilities on Kenny’s household as a result of they’re poor, everybody in South Park is a suspect. A observe surfaces demanding a 12 months of free cable, and the penmanship seems to completely match a handwriting pattern from Mr. Hat. NYPD Blue detectives Sipowicz and Simone are introduced in to interrogate the smart-alecky hand puppet. When Mr. Hat proves uncooperative, Sipowicz slaps him round, which Mr. Garrison seems to take pleasure in just a little an excessive amount of. “I’m starting to get a sense that you simply and your little puppet pal are in want of some bodily remedy,” warns Sipowicz, “and if that’s the case solely one in every of us goes to stroll out of this room, and imagine me, it’s not going to be Kermit right here.” Mr. Garrison shortly provides up Mr. Hat and agrees to testify towards him. Mr. Hat brings in Johnnie Cochran as his protection lawyer. Through the trial, it’s revealed that Kenny’s deadly wound was inflicted anally. “If he doesn’t match,” declares Cochran, holding up the hand puppet in query, “you will need to acquit.” “Ooh, that’s gross, dude,” squeaks Kyle.
August 11. Homosexual activists categorical outrage on the adverse depiction of gay hand puppets. “That is the form of hate-filled surroundings that has saved Lambchop within the closet for all these lengthy, devastating years,” cries an outraged Shari Lewis in Out journal.
Late August. Regardless of Parker and Stone’s erratic conduct and the present’s lack of ability to fire up an honest boycott menace, South Park‘s rising cult success leads to a substantial bidding warfare, and a deal is struck with ABC, the community that had gambled through the years on such taboo-busting sequence as Cleaning soap, NYPD Blue, Nothing Sacred, and Hiller and Diller. However the present’s community premiere is delayed after ABC execs, below stress from their company headmasters at Disney, veto potential story strains. As an illustration: Kenny tries to commit suicide by way of autoerotic crucifixion; Stan will get lured by pedophiles into an Web child-porn ring; Christian males’s group the Promise Keepers harass the boys’ pal Huge Homosexual Al; Kyle turns into a Lubavitcher Jew; and Chef goes to the Million Man March.
Even when plots achieve clearance, the youngsters’ locker-room chatter is cleaned up drastically. Not solely is there no foul language, however Kenny is allowed solely a sequence of simply treatable illnesses. One inside memo from a requirements and practices exec declares that “if I needed to listen to 22 fucking minutes of bleeps I’d go purchase a fucking Orbital file.”
October 1. ABC airs promotional spots for South Park wherein Stan and Kyle ice-skate and have a snowball combat in entrance of an enormous community brand, all to a bouncy new theme music penned by the Cardigans.
October 9. The debut ABC episode kicks off as Cartman’s mother remarries a widower with lovable twin ladies (visitor voices by Full Home‘s Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen) who vie for consideration with Eric when Mrs. Cartman will get pregnant utilizing fertility medicine. Kenny hurts his knee curling. The McCaughey septuplets costar.
October 1o. The Southern Baptist Conference points a press launch commending the present’s “real looking depiction of right now’s youth.”
October 16. Episode 2 airs: With the help of a miracle, Stan and his sister uncover the true that means of Arbor Day. Jonathan Lipnicki visitor stars as Stan’s guardian angel, who helps him get in contact with the spirit of Princess Diana.
October 17. The New York Put up‘s Web page Six stories a rumor that Matt Stone has been learning the cabala with Madonna and Sandra Bernhard.
October 23. Episode 3: Mr. Garrison will get transferred to rough-and-tumble, inner-city South Central Park, the place he conjures up his detached and generally intimidating college students to throw their fingers within the air solely after he’s requested them a query. Kenny shuts his finger in a locker. Coolio visitor stars because the ghetto college’s no-nonsense principal.
October 25. ABC execs usher in writers from the farcical romp Dharma & Greg to “lend steerage” on Parker and Stone’s scripts.
October 30. Episode 4: Kyle and Stan transfer to L.A. and lease a beachfront condominium, the place their next-door neighbors are two buxom dental hygienists (Elle McPherson and Rebecca Romijn) with hearts of gold and a style for Scientology.
November. The novel transforming of South Park touches off a backlash from its core viewers—fan-generated Internet sites unleash flaming assaults on the present’s new path. Guilt-ridden creator Trey Parker, in an try to get again in contact along with his authentic followers, begins haunting chat rooms and turns into romantically concerned with a web-based groupie, who seems to be a precocious 12-year-old named Missy from Tifton, Georgia.
December. Regardless of the promise of a live-action function movie venture, Stone and Parker pull the plug on their beloved scamps with a closing, tear-jerking episode.
December 23. The ultimate episode, “Au Revoir, Les Enfants.” Chef broadcasts that he’s leaving the cafeteria to switch Sinbad because the host of Vibe. Mr. Garrison wins the Nationwide Trainer of the 12 months award and goes on an area shuttle mission. Kyle will get accepted to a gifted and gifted program at a center college in Aspen. Stan and Wendy pledge everlasting love. Kenny unties his hood to disclose that he’s truly E.T., the extraterrestrial. Cartman learns to simply accept himself for who he actually is.
The First Season: South Park For Dummies
Danny Drennan explicates the that means and meaninglessness of the primary ten (relentlessly repeated) episodes
Authentic Episode: “The Spirit of Christmas”
On this five-minute brief, we meet our major characters, the 4 scamps from South Park: Stan, in a blue ski cap with crimson pom-pom, crimson jacket, and blue pants; Kyle, inexperienced hunter’s cap, crimson jacket, inexperienced pants; Eric Cartman, mild blue ski cap with yellow pom-pom, crimson jacket, brown pants; and Kenny, crimson parka, crimson pants. The kids gleefully sing Christmas carols till Kyle is reminded he’s Jewish, so he begins singing “The Dreidel Tune,” which brings on the Cartman critique, “Hanukkah sucks,” which escalates right into a rousing refrain of epithets solely stopped by the looks of Jesus, who has come in search of retribution towards Santa Claus, whom he claims has defiled the that means of Christmas. Finest Epithet Award goes to Cartman’s use of “pig-fucker,” final uttered by Mink Stole in Serial Mother. Jesus and Santa alternate blows, unintentionally killing Kenny. The youngsters’ ethical predicament (Jesus or Santa?) is solved by determine skater Brian Boitano, and Jesus presents to purchase Santa an orange smoothie, as hordes of mice devour Kenny’s physique.
Useful references: Mortal Kombat, Edward Gorey’s Gashlycrumb Tinies, males’s determine skating
Kenny’s Reason for Loss of life: pierced by a Santa projectile
Ethical: Whether or not you’re Christian, Jewish, Hindu, or atheist, Christmas is about one crucial factor…presents.
Secondary Ethical: The eight days of Hanukkah present capital incentive to develop into Jewish.
Episode 1: “Cartman Will get An Anal Probe”
Cartman’s alien abduction signs are acknowledged by Chef, whose postulation of a giant steel “hooba-jube” implanted up Cartman’s butt matches Cartman’s “nightmare” precisely. The looks in school of flaming flatulence and a giant-eyeballed anal probe that expands into an 80-foot-wide beacon additionally belie Cartman’s denial. In the meantime, the “Guests” kidnap Ike (Kyle’s puntable child brother), the mutilation-phobic cattle wish to hop the subsequent practice to Denver, Stan can’t discuss to Wendy Testaburger with out throwing up, and Cartman is re-abducted, solely to catch pink eye from Scott Baio.
Useful references: Communion, the Little Rascals, the golden age of Looney Tunes
Kenny’s C.O.D.: UFO-beamed onto the street, Kenny is stampeded by cows, then run over by a police cruiser.
Ethical: Having just a little brother is a fairly particular factor.
Too A lot Data second: “‘You weren’t searching in your little brother, Kyle! You recognize he can’t assume on his personal, Kyle! Brush and floss, Kyle! The place has that finger been, Kyle!’” —Kyle
Particular Visitor Star references: Scott Baio, David Caruso
Episode 2: “Weight Achieve 4000”
Cartman’s plagiarized “Walden” beats out Wendy’s dolphin opus within the “Save Our Fragile Planet” essay contest. In the meantime, Kathie Lee Gifford’s award presentation poses an ideal mayoral media alternative, Cartman bulks up for TV, schoolteacher Mr. Garrison remembers the previous Kathie Lee Epstein’s grade-school talent-show victory, and his hand-puppet sidekick Mr. Hat results in the psychiatric ward after in search of revenge on Kathie Lee. Such-a-fat-ass-he’s-unable-to-leave-the-house Cartman sees his TV want come true on Geraldo, and Chef provides Kathie Lee “candy lovin’.”
Useful references: Princess Cruises, Magic, Taxi Driver, Lee Harvey Oswald, The Return of the Jedi
Kenny’s C.O.D.: impaled on a flagpole
Ethical: “You possibly can’t win on a regular basis. And for those who don’t win, you actually can’t maintain it towards the one that did, as a result of that’s the one method you ever actually lose.” —Wendy
Particular Visitor Star reference: Mary Tyler Moore
Episode 3: “Volcano”
Stan’s Uncle Jimbo and his Vietnam vet sidekick Ned make a journey up the aspect of a volcano the place they present the boys the best way to hunt varied endangered and in any other case light, furry creatures with an arsenal of army-surplus weaponry. However Stan can’t convey himself to shoot, the volcano awakens, the Mayor employs media histrionics, Cartman’s scary-monster campfire story involves life, an armless Ned does a “most cancers kazoo” serenade of “Kumbaya,” and the townspeople lure the hunters on the opposite aspect of a ditch they dig to divert the lava to Denver. “Scuzzlebutt,” the mountain monster, performs a gasp-inducing wicker-basket rescue, however takes a bullet from Stan, who hopes to win his uncle’s approval by killing one thing.
Useful references: The Atomic Café, Miss Saigon
Kenny’s C.o.D.: Crushed below an enormous ball of molten lava, Kenny later receives a bullet to the chest.
Ethical: “Some belongings you kill, and a few belongings you don’t.” —Uncle Jimbo
Secondary Ethical: “Solely now on this late hour do I see the folly of weapons.” —Ned
T.M.I. second: “My geologist? Now? Inform him the an infection is okay, and I don’t want one other checkup.” —Mayor
Particular Visitor Star reference: Patrick Duffy
Episode 4: “Huge Homosexual Al’s Huge Homosexual Boat Experience”
Uncle Jimbo causes a homecoming-game betting frenzy over Stan’s quarterbacking skill, whereas Stan’s “homosexual gay,” pink-kerchief-wearing canine Sparky begins shtupping different pooches up the butt. Mr. Garrison explains the “thick, vomitous oil” that oozes by homosexual folks’s veins, Coach Chef provides a pigskin sensuality pep-talk, and Uncle Jimbo and Ned booby-trap Center Park’s mascot in order that it’s time-bombed to go off throughout John Stamos’s older brother’s halftime efficiency. In the meantime, Stan stumbles onto “Huge Homosexual Al’s Homosexual Animal Sanctuary” whereas looking for Sparky and will get a historic tour of gaydom on Huge Homosexual Al’s Huge Homosexual Boat Experience. Stan learns to like Sparky for who he’s, throws a spread-beating landing move, and reunites the disbelieving townsfolk with their misplaced homosexual animals. Stamos’s brother lastly hits the excessive F in Minnie Riperton’s “Lovin’ You,” blowing the Center Park mascot sky excessive.
Useful references: Pong, Solomon’s Key, The Wizard of Oz, Rudolph the Crimson-Nosed Reindeer
Kenny’s C.O.D.: decapitated by the opposing workforce
Ethical: “It’s okay to be homosexual!” —Stan
T.M.I. second: “I haven’t seen so many youngsters molested since….” —PA announcer
Particular Visitor Star references: George Clooney, Barbra Streisand, Rodney King, Hugh Grant
Episode 5: “An Elephant Makes Love To A Pig”
The scale of Kyle’s mail-ordered elephant is problematic till a classroom dialogue about genetic engineering leads to the crossbreeding of the elephant with Cartman’s potbellied pig Fluffy; a science-fair-project warfare sparks up with Terrance, who’s concerned in human cloning. In the meantime, Stan’s sister Shelly inflicts some dental-headgear-induced wrath on her brother, and the boys tour the South Park Genetic Engineering Ranch, the place Stan’s stolen blood yields a mean-dispositioned, out-of-control Stan clone. The clone is dispatched by Shelly, who then stands up for Stan, whereas Cartman’s pig lastly provides start to one thing resembling Mr. Garrison, who awards the boys’ venture first prize.
Useful references: The Island of Dr. Moreau, Babe, The Omen
Kenny’s C.O.D.: launched right into a microwave
Ethical: “Maybe we shouldn’t be toying with God’s creations. Maybe we should always simply depart nature alone, to its easy one-assed schematics.” —South Park geneticist
T.M.I. second: “If some woman tried to kick my ass, I’d be like, ‘Hey, why don’t you cease dressing me up like a mailman, and making me dance for you whilst you go and smoke crack in your bed room and have intercourse with some man I don’t even know on my dad’s mattress!’”—Cartman
Particular Visitor Star references: Loverboy, Elton John
Episode 6: “Loss of life”
Stan’s grandfather’s 102nd birthday want is for assisted suicide, an ethical dilemma for Stan that Mr. Garrison, Chef, and Jesus received’t contact with poles of assorted sizes. Kyle’s mom protests the fart-ripe Terrance & Phillip present, and encourages the townsfolk to slingshot themselves towards the Cartoon Central workplace constructing. Doo-doo jokes abound in regards to the Kenny-transmitted abdomen flu (i.e., explosive diarrhea) and “Loss of life” chases the supervision-less boys into city, the place all of them cease to observe Terrance & Phillip in a retailer window till the present’s sudden cancellation. Their favourite exhibit the air, the boys resort to gasoline fumes, crack, and porno, whereas Stan’s African safari-bound grandfather desires of the statistical chance of voracious lion assaults.
Useful references: Enya, A Christmas Carol
Kenny’s C.O.D.: touched by Loss of life himself
Ethical: “If dad and mom would spend much less time worrying about what their youngsters watch on TV and extra time worrying about what’s occurring of their youngsters’ lives, this world can be a a lot better place.” —Stan
Secondary Ethical: “Dad and mom solely get so offended by tv as a result of they depend on it as a babysitter and the only real educator of their youngsters.” —Kyle
T.M.I. second: “I’ve obtained the green-apple splatters!” —Mr. Garrison
Particular Visitor Star reference: Suzanne Somers
Episode 7: “Pink Eye”
After a pre-Halloween Mir space-station crash kills Kenny, his embalming takes a flip for the more severe on the morgue, and within the morning a now-zombified Kenny meets the boys (of their Chewbacca, Raggedy Andy, and Adolf Hitler Halloween costumes); the boys make enjoyable of Kenny as a result of he’s poor and gay-bait Stan. The city physician diagnoses deadly zombie-like signs as pink eye, Chef and the boys hunt for zombie genesis clues, Stan and Cadman go chain saw-happy, and Kyle negotiates a maze of Worcestershire sauce-hot-line dialing choices. The day saved, the boys depart Kenny’s gravesite and return to their sweet and Crack Whore journal (that includes Cartman’s mother), whereas a stitched-up Kenny bucks for a sequel.
Useful references: Illusion, Night time of the Dwelling Useless, “Thriller“video, Carrie, Triumph of the Will, Star Wars, Pippi Longstocking
Kenny’s C.O.D.: Crushed by the Mir house station, Kenny is re-killed when Stan cuts him in half with a series noticed, and re-re-killed by a toppling cemetery statue, plus a crashing MiG jet.
Ethical: “Halloween isn’t about costumes or sweet, it’s about being good to 1 one other and giving and loving.” —Stan
Secondary Ethical: “Dressing up like Hitler at school isn’t cool.” —Puffy the Bear
T.M.I. second: “That’s good, simply use these mouth muscle groups like the women in Beijing.” —Mr. Garrison
Particular Visitor Star references: Jackie Collins, Evel Knievel, Richard Nixon, Tina Yothers, Edward James Olmos
Episode 8: “Starvin’ Marvin”
The boys order a Teiko digital sports activities watch on Stan’s mother’s bank card in a TV giveaway. In the meantime, Mr. Garrison conducts a Thanksgiving meals drive, the pinnacle of the South Park Genetic Engineering Ranch messes with turkey manufacturing, and the boys show-and-tell a ravenous African baby (mistakenly delivered as an alternative of the sports activities watch) because the pissed-off, exponentially rising, experimental gobblers assault the city. Cartman is mistakenly exiled to a foodless, fly-ridden existence in Africa by black-suited brokers in sun shades, solely to uncover a gluttonous Sally Struthers chowing down. The mayor desires up a grab-a-can meals gimmick starring Kenny, and Chef battles the mutant turkeys. “Starvin’ Marvin” returns triumphant and turkey-laden to Africa, switching locations with a none-the-better-off Cartman, whereas Kenny’s poor household grapples with their no-can-opener existential dilemma.
Useful reference: Braveheart, the letterbox model; Guide of Job
Kenny’s C.O.D.: pecked to demise by mutant turkeys
Ethical: “It’s very easy not to think about photos on TV as actual folks, however they’re. That’s why it’s simple to disregard these commercials, however folks on TV are simply as actual as you and I” —Stan
Particular Visitor Star references: Sally Struthers, Engelbert Humperdinck, Charles Dickens, Vanessa Redgrave, McGyver
Episode 9: “Mr. Hankey, The Christmas Poo”
Offended by the blatant non secular overtones within the Christmas play and incensed that Kyle has been solid as Joseph—delivering a purple Jesus fetus from a moaning Wendy Testaburger—Kyle’s bitch-for-a-mom rallies the townspeople towards the play…and Christmas. In a feeble try to please his mom, placate the townspeople, and thus put a cease to songs resembling “Kyle’s Mother’s a Huge Fats Bitch in D Minor,” Kyle means that the right non-offensive and non-denominational Christmas icon is Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo, who doesn’t discriminate by religion, simply by fiber. Identified as a clinically depressed fecalphiliac and nuttier than Chinese language hen salad, Kyle is dedicated as townspeople tear down insufficiently PC decorations. Mr. Garrison levels essentially the most secular and avant-garde Christmas play ever, prompting a riot. Occult-loving Chef reveals that Mr. Hankey is certainly actual. Impressed by religion, Mr. Hankey springs to life, sings a music, and saves Christmas as he leads South Park in a candlelit vigil outdoors Kyle’s cell.
Useful references: A Charlie Brown Christmas, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Jiminy Cricket, Al Jolson
Kenny’s C.O.D.: None. In an unprecedented flip, Kenny miraculously survives each electrocution and shark assault.
Ethical: “Jewish individuals are okay.”—Stan
Particular Visitor Star reference: Philip Glass
The Characters: Baby Help
Looking back, maybe psychological remedy ought to have been thought-about sooner. Actually, the warning indicators have been there for some time: poor motivation in school, bouts of hysteria, grisly killings, homosexual pets. With that in thoughts, we requested Dr. Ava Siegler, a famend baby psychologist, and writer of The Important Information to the New Adolescence: Learn how to Increase an Emotionally Wholesome Teenager, to delve into the mysterious internal worlds of South Park‘s rambunctious jewels. “Because the present as an entire appears to be about anger, rage, and narcissism, it’s protected to say these youngsters may use some remedy.” Certainly. Her analyses observe. Zev Borow
Stan:
He appears essentially the most regular. He has emotions. He cares for his canine, even when he learns it’s homosexual. He tries to modulate aggression. He has what we’d name an observing ego, that means he can criticize himself. He has affection, seemingly, for the little woman who makes him vomit. He does have an intense sibling rivalry along with his sister, who’s abusing. One of many issues Stan would possibly conceivably work on in remedy can be standing up for himself. The abuse from his sister may make him increasingly more timid, cautious. However I’d be anxious about Stan the least.
Remedy: maybe for his sister
Kyle:
He appears principally regular and appears to come back from a comparatively regular household surroundings. He’s shut along with his little brother, although there appears to be a little bit of a sibling rivalry there. However Kyle is a delicate little boy. He doesn’t wish to kill issues; he agrees to decorate up as Raggedy Ann; he appears to have wholesome relationships with ladies. He’s additionally the one with the overweening, over-intrusive, overprotective Jewish mom. And I suppose you could possibly say that this has produced a toddler who, to the opposite youngsters, seems to be just a little wimpy. Maybe this might impact the way in which Kyle offers along with his masculinity. His mom may positively use some father or mother steerage. She erodes Kyle’s vanity and self-confidence. You may count on Kyle to be extra of a follower due to this.
Remedy: Valium, for his mom
Eric:
He’s the focused, neurotic fats child. Cognitively he’s a multitude. For all we all know, he may have some main studying disabilities. However this might all must do with the truth that, clearly, Eric has a pathological relationship along with his mom. His mom retains him a child. She tempts and seduces him with meals—with that cheese stuff he likes. His super quantity of aggression towards different folks might be linked to this underlying infantilization. I might advocate play remedy. We might play warfare, and I might level out the way in which that he cheats and makes himself really feel large and powerful by making different folks small and weak. This can be a boy who, beneath, has enormously poor vanity. He may wind up like that character in Dr. Strangelove, a navy monster. Alternatively, he may equally develop into depressed and simply get fatter and fatter and isolate himself much more. Or, he may grasp his life, possibly when he’s an adolescent. However it’s onerous to think about a optimistic final result.
Remedy: I’m not a giant proponent of medicine for younger youngsters, however actually, Eric is likely to be helped by some Prozac. He may even have an Consideration Deficit Dysfunction, wherein case Ritalin might be helpful.
Kenny:
He’s a child who seems to be selectively mute. Normally this has to do with underlying aggression. Very fascinating that Kenny turns into the child with aggression issues when he’s aggressed towards in each episode. This might have its roots in one thing in Kenny’s background—marital strife in the home, a depressed mom, an enraged mom. Or he is likely to be what we name pathologically shy. If he isn’t helped, he’ll be compromised in each future tutorial and social settings. And although he’s accepted by his little group now, as he strikes on, folks will possible get bored with his not talking and would possibly isolate him. That may grow to be severe despair.
Remedy: There are a selection of serotonin re-uptake medicine that may work for Kenny, to say nothing of him simply typically being extra cautious.