Southpark Cartoon

South Park, since its premiere on August 13, 1997, 150 episodes have been produced over ten seasons. Two more seasons are scheduled for production, with an option for renewal at the end of Season 12. In recent years, each season has been aired in two halves, with one block of episodes in Spring and the other in Autumn.

South Park began in 1992 when Trey Parker and Matt 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 referred to as 'Kenny' and an unnamed character that resembles Kyle bringing a murderous snowman to life with a magic hat.

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

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South Park Evolution

South Park's early episodes tended to be shock value-oriented. Although satire had been used on the show occasionally in its early and middle years, it has become more evident around the eighth season; with episodes involving Michael Jackson visiting South Park ("The Jeffersons"), the boys seeing The Passion of the Christ ("The Passion of the Jew"), blue-collar workers in South Park losing their jobs to immigrants from the future ("Goobacks"), and an episode featuring a "Paris Hilton" toy video camera ("Stupid Spoiled Whore Video Playset").

The pilot episode, "Cartman Gets an Anal Probe", took three months to make and was produced using construction paper and traditional cut-out animation techniques. Current episodes duplicate the original, amateurish look using modern computer animation tools - first PowerAnimator, then Maya (which Parker and Stone have described as "building a sandcastle with a bulldozer" on a VH1 special, Inside South Park). 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 Eli�n Gonz�lez episode ("Quintuplets 2000"), the creators stopped and changed production of an episode to focus on these events. Another example is the "Trapper Keeper" episode which originally aired just eight days after the 2000 Election and featured a kindergarten class president election being delayed by, among other things, an undecided girl named "Flora", an obvious reference to the undecided vote-count in the state of Florida. AWESOM-O was made in three days, which is the shortest amount of time in which an episode has been made.

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.

South Park Controversy

The show has faced numerous controversies since its inception, from its use of vulgarity to its satire of subjects such as Scientology, Religion and Global Warming. Stone and Parker are self-described "equal opportunity offenders" and episodes often lampoon all sides of a contentious issue, rather than taking a concrete position.

Public Protests

The show's provocative, adult-oriented material quickly drew protest from various spokespersons, who deemed the program offensive, and South Park merchandise (especially T-shirts) were banned from a number of public schools, day care centers, and other public places. This occurrence is similar in a manner to the prohibition of Bart Simpson T-shirts in the early 1990s, after The Simpsons was accused of contributing to juvenile delinquency. Comedy Central defended South Park by noting that the show is given a "Mature Audiences" TV rating (TV-MA) and is not meant for children to watch. They also pointed out that it only airs the show during night-time hours and never during the day, when children may be more likely to see the show. In fact, at least for the earlier part of the show's run, trailers for the series did not run until after 9 PM.

Vulgarity

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

Scientology

In November 2005, South Park satirized the Church of Scientology and its celebrity followers, including actors Tom Cruise and John Travolta in the top-rated episode, "Trapped in the Closet". R&B star R. Kelly is also featured in the episode, in a nod to his 12-part "hip-hopera" called "Trapped in the Closet".

In the episode, Scientology leaders hail Stan as a reluctant savior while Cruise locks himself in Stan's closet and will not come out. "Coming out of the closet" is widely used as a term for homosexuals revealing their orientation; Tom Cruise, R. Kelly and John Travolta have often been rumored to be gay.

Dubbed 'Closetgate' by the Los Angeles Times, the controversy continued as Comedy Central pulled the episode from a scheduled repeat on March 15, 2006 at the last minute (although, it has since been repeated several times). It is alleged that Tom Cruise threatened Paramount with withdrawal from promotion of his latest film Mission: Impossible III if the episode was broadcast; both Paramount and Comedy Central are owned by Viacom. Though Paramount and Cruise's representatives deny the allegation, The Independent reports that "no one believes a word of it." In typical satirical form, Parker and Stone issued the following statement, with several mocking references to Scientology: "So, Scientology, you may have won THIS battle, but the million-year war for Earth has just begun! Temporarily anozinizing our episode will NOT stop us from keeping Thetans forever trapped in your pitiful man-bodies. Curses and drat! You have obstructed us for now, but your feeble bid to save humanity will fail! Hail Xenu!!!"

The Los Angeles Times reported that, "For Stone and Parker, Closetgate will be the gift that keeps on giving" because there are likely endless storylines that can follow, considering South Park's consistent satirizing of Scientology. This episode was also recently nominated for an Emmy. The episode Trapped in the Closet is included on South Park's 10th Anniversary DVD, called "South Park The Hits: Volume 1".

As a parody attempt to evade a potential lawsuit, the credits for this episode only read John or Jane Smith.

In response to Isaac Hayes quitting the show, Parker and Stone used South Park's 10th season premiere to lambaste Scientology again, as well as kill off Hayes's character, "Chef".

Catholicism

In December 2005, the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights protested the season finale episode, "Bloody Mary", for its depiction of a statue of the Virgin Mary bleeding from her vagina. The group claimed a victory when Comedy Central voluntarily cancelled a scheduled airing of the episode which coincided with the Christian holiday season. In early 2006, Comedy Central denied that they were bowing to that group's request to pull the episode from future repeats and DVD releases. In New Zealand, C4 pushed the airing date for the episode forward after much publicity from Catholic bishops who urged a boycott of the station and its advertisers. The protest backfired as viewer numbers increased by 600% during the episode. The episode was later referred to the Broadcasting Standards Authority where they ruled, "The material in the cartoon was of such a farcical, absurd and unrealistic nature that it did not breach standards of good taste and decency in the context in which it was offered."It has since been rebroadcast on Comedy Central. SBS in Australia has "deferred" the episode possibly due to their recent problems with the "Trapped in the Closet" episode. The episode has aired in Australia on the Pay T.V. channel, The Comedy Channel.

In February 2006 in the Philippines, authorities threatened to ban the showing of South Park on television as it offends the sensibilities of the overwhelmingly Roman Catholic country. South Park is still shown in the Philippines with 1-hour double episodes, though showing South Park in the Philippines has become a politicized issue there, and the future of South Park in the Philippines is unknown.

On August 2, 2006, Comedy Central reran the episode at 10:00 PM EST.

Islam

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

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

It has come out via AP television writer David Bauder that Comedy Central did in fact, citing safety concerns, opt to censor the image of Muhammad, a situation that was satirized in "Cartoon Wars Part II". Furthermore, while the channel refused to broadcast an image of Muhammad, Comedy Central opted not to censor images of Christ, the president and the American flag being defecated upon. Stone and Parker's choice has drawn fire from frequent South Park critic William A. Donohue of the anti-defamation group Catholic League. Donohue has called on Parker and Stone to resign out of principle, and was quoted as saying, "The ultimate hypocrite is not Comedy Central � that's their decision not to show the image of Muhammad or not � it's Parker and Stone". It should be noted though, that Stone and Parker made the choice to mock Christ to illustrate the hypocrisy in censoring the mockery of one religion and not another, echoing their similar stance on Scientology. Additionally, the images were shown in the context of an Islamic leader's humorously anti-climactic response to the portrayal of Muhammad (and were thus not very graphic).

South Park Recurring Themes

Political issues

Stone and Parker spend a great amount of time on current events and issues of the day, more so in recent years than they did in the past, which has caused some fans to complain, but has also won them new fans. The stance that the show takes reflects the beliefs of the creators; Both creators have at one time or another described themselves as libertarians. Politically-active celebrities, who are generally liberal, (such as in the recent episode Smug Alert with the "smug" from George Clooney's Academy Awards acceptance speech) have been ridiculed on the series, as well as liberal and conservative ideas, stereotypes and actions. Bill Clinton was frequently ridiculed on the show, George W. Bush less so (although he was shown as a tool of Satan in one episode, and Stone and Parker have created a separate sitcom entirely about the Bush White House). Liberals are portrayed as being intellectuals, arrogant hippies or anxious yuppies, and conservatives as bible thumpers, angry rednecks and greedy businessmen, hence the characters "Aging Hippie Liberal Elite Douche" or "stoner" and "Pissed Off White Trash Redneck Conservative" or "racist". Both sides are portrayed as imposing their views on others and generally having a malignant influence.

In general, Stone and Parker are extremely disdainful of any person they perceive to be overly preachy and lecturing about their political or religious views. The show itself is, ironically, regularly quite preachy on these subjects, often ending with an obvious or even directly explained moral. This may be meant as a meta-critique, poking fun at the show itself, as these morals are often ultimately undercut by comic absurdity.

The episode that aired the week following the 2000 presidential election used a school election to poke fun at Florida's inability to certify a winner and Al Gore's contesting of the results. The episode included an angry Rosie O'Donnell coming to the defense of the loser, in another example of how the show is highly critical of celebrity activism.

The term "South Park Republican" was coined after Parker and Stone claimed to be Republicans whilst receiving an award from the liberal advocacy group, People For the American Way (PFAW) in 2001. At the same time they declared TV producer Norman Lear, the founder of PFAW, to be one of their heroes, and Lear subsequently worked on South Park. More recently, a small movement has sprung up of youngish, South Park Conservatives who hold ideas from extreme ends of the political spectrum, believing, for instance, that global warming is a myth while supporting gay rights. In an interview in Time Magazine (March 13, 2006) the two have stated that the only reason people might peg them for conservatives is that they are willing to mock anti-smoking laws and hippies. They also stated that the show could just as easily be pegged as a show supporting liberal ideologies. The interview ended with Trey quipping "We still believe that all people are born bad and are made good by society, rather than the opposite" and Matt adding "Actually, I think that's where we're conservative." Stone has also stated: "I hate conservatives, but I really fucking hate liberals."

Gay rights

The show has explicitly supported gay rights through satirizing the opposing side with the normal over-the-top South Park style. In the episode "Follow That Egg!", gay marriage is deemed "too offensive" to people with religious values who suggest that it should be re-designated as something else. In the end of this episode however, gays are shown as capable of raising children, and gay marriage is made legal in South Park. "Mr. Garrison's Fancy New Vagina" is critical of transgendered individuals for not keeping the bodies that nature gave them. In the end of the episode, everyone who recieved changes decides to go back to their natural selves, save Mr. Garrison who is no longer able to go back to being a man since his removed body parts were destroyed. In "Cripple Fight", the creators take the position that the Boy Scouts of America should not have been forced to allow homosexuals to be Scoutmasters, whilst at the same time mocking the Boy Scouts for trying to exclude homosexuals from the organization. They use the example of a married heterosexual child abuser to show sexuality is unrelated to child abuse. Furthermore, in an earlier episode "Big Gay Al's Big Gay Boat Ride", homophobia is portrayed sarcastically when Mr. Garrison says to Stan when he asks what a homosexual is, "Gay people, well, gay people are EVIL, evil right down to their cold black hearts which pump not blood like yours or mine, but rather a thick, vomitous oil that oozes through their rotten veins and clots in their pea-sized brains which becomes the cause of their Nazi-esque patterns of violent behavior. Do you understand?" The episode also features Stan Marsh stating that it is okay to be gay. Later in the series, Mr. Garrison "outs" himself as homosexual.

Child abuse and neglect

Child sexual abuse and child neglect are recurring thematic elements in South Park. For example, emotional, verbal, and physical abuse is usually inflicted upon Butters in episodes in which he appears. Cartman is shown several times as a target of actual or attempted sexual abuse, such as when he unknowingly gets involved with NAMBLA. There is other evidence where he has been sexually abused in the episode "Simpsons Already Did It" where after getting semen ("sea-men") from a sperm bank, he is filling up a fish tank for his "sea people" and tells his friends that he got the rest of the semen from a guy in an alley who told him to "close his eyes and suck it out of a hose." This scene is partially censored on some local networks. In the episode "Fun with Veal" Cartman cries "No, uncle Jesse! No!" while sleeping, but this is most likely a reference to a popular character on Full House. Matt Stone and Trey Parker are very good friends with John Stamos, the actor that played Uncle Jesse, further leading to this conclusion. In a recent episode (Hell on Earth 2006) various depictions of Catholic priests with naked young boys on leashes references the ongoing controversies of priests abusing altar boys. In fact this subject had been referenced in Red Hot Catholic Love, and is not a stranger to the South Park world.

The treatment of this theme ranges from realistic to cartoonish. For example, the character Butters Stotch clearly has some psychological issues as a result of the treatment he suffers at the hands of his parents; he is incontinent (in "AWESOM-O", Cartman has to put a suppository in his rectum), has low self-esteem, and wrings his hands (although, strangely, Butters is also an unfailingly optimistic character and is one of the few genuinely nice people in the whole town, which often makes him a constant target for ridicule and abuse). However, his parents' emotional manipulation of him is shown as completely "over-the-top;" at one point, they try to sell Butters to Paris Hilton. Butters reveals that he has received anilingus from his uncle when detectives are questioning the children whether Chef has molested them, and in "Butters' Very Own Episode" his mother tries to kill him when she goes temporarily insane after learning of her husband's gay bathhouse proclivities. (Butters' parents are visited by O. J. Simpson, Gary Condit and the parents of JonBenet Ramsey, all of whom agree that "some Puerto Rican Guy" must have done the things they were accused of). Butters, of course, survived with no knowledge of what was going on, until his parents publicly admitted what had happened (thus, yet again, crushing Butters' hopes for a functional family). Butters' parents did take him to Bennigan's as he wanted, however.

While Cartman and Butters have more overt personal experiences with their families, to the point of farce at times, Kenny, Stan and Kyle have also been shown to be neglected on a more subtle level.

Kenny comes from a poor family and, as a result, he and his siblings are shown to be malnourished due to his family's poverty. His father is an unemployed, barely functioning drunk who, while not abusive towards Kenny, is usually shown verbally arguing with his wife or being berated by her.

Stan suffers from a subtler type of neglect. His father likes to party (after he and Sharon separate he ends up at the party, for much younger people, at Cartman's "clubhouse") and drinks a lot, although he is nowhere near being an alcoholic like Stuart McCormick and is able to provide for his family. Stan's older sister Shelley is a borderline sociopath who regularly physically abuses Stan and considers her younger brother to be subhuman. His relationship with his mom is equally strained, as she considers Stan's happiness secondary to her own, which she actually told him on one occasion in the episode, "Clubhouses". She and Randy are completely blind to Shelley's abuse of Stan.

Kyle suffers at the hand of Cartman's continual racial slurs. Kyle's mother is over-protecting, attempting to censor the world that her son and the rest of the children experience. Her belief in her own moral compass has gone so far as to start a war with Canada over Asses of Fire, the Terrance and Phillip movie.

Religion

Episodes that satire religion further cement the leanings of the show's core belief system. Multiple episodes have tackled the shaky logical foundations of cults, religious leaders who exploit worshipers for money, and the general problems with following religion too literally. Perhaps most indicative of the blas� notion towards over-fervent worship, the show's depiction of God in physical form is a strange hybrid of many animals. Further deepening the satire is God's claim to be a Buddhist. The show suggested at one point, in a joking matter, that heaven is full of Mormons who spend eternity cheerfully singing songs and making craft projects (implying that this is because that is the one "correct" religion). This is ironic because in the episode "All About Mormons" the show implies that Mormonism is a complete hoax made up by someone who was obviously lying. Other episodes discuss anti-Semitism and Jewish jokes. The family of Jewish character Kyle exhibits common Jewish stereotypes, like his strict demanding mother is a conservative activist and his father is a lawyer dressed in Hasidic Jewish garb.

In addition Jesus has been shown multiple times, living in South Park and hosting a public access call-in talk show (Jesus and Pals), and in one episode fighting Satan. (Within the world of South Park, Jesus died in 2002, saving Santa Claus from Iraqis; Santa said that, from now on, Christmas should be a celebration of Jesus). In a third season episode, "Jewbilee", at a Jew Scouts camp, Moses appears in the form of the Master Control Program from Tron and tells the assembled children in an ominous voice, "I desire... macaroni pictures." He also appears this way in "Super Best Friends", and with VCR capabilities to boot. He also appeared as a judge in the episode Chef Aid.

The criticism of anti-religion is also apparent in South Park. In "All About Mormons", Stan ridicules the Mormons for believing a story that offers no proof. However, at the very end, a Mormon named Gary whom Stan had been hanging out with for most of the episode delivers his side of the story:

South Park often hints that religious people may be illogical and that atheists can be overly arrogant. In "Red Hot Catholic Love", Stone and Parker depict the recently converted atheist townsfolk as literally spewing crap from their mouths, coughing out actual feces as they discuss their dislike for religion and how exposure to religion could harm their kids(that is, they're literally "full of shit").

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

The show has come under fire from conservative religious groups for its portrayal of Satan, who appears occasionally. Satan appears as a generally nice, easygoing guy just doing a difficult job. He hosts luaus in Hell, and is also presented as a homosexual, shown in committed relationships with some of Hell's denizens, including Saddam Hussein, who is the dominant one in the relationship, mentally and verbally abusing Satan, leading to Saddam's deaths and Satan's eventual single status; Satan's follow-up relationship with Chris ends when he learns (after visiting Heaven and asking advice from God) that Chris is "a pussy."

Environment

South Park has had multiple episodes with anti-environmentalist themes.

In the 1999 episode "Rainforest Schmainforest", an environmental activist, voiced by Jennifer Aniston, made a harrowing trip to the rain forest of Costa Rica with the children, and the experience caused her to conclude that the rain forest "sucks ass". This episode seems to highlight the lack of in-depth knowledge many people have about a cause they are supporting, and the way in which they appear to 'jump on a bandwagon'. It is therefore unlikely that the episode is intentionally trying to justify the destruction of the rain forest.

The 2001 episode "Terrance and Phillip: Behind the Blow" is about the South Park Earth Day "Brainwashing Festival", where a group of conservationists try to brainwash the crowd into caring about the environment.

In the 2005 episode "Two Days Before the Day After Tomorrow" mocks the connections between recent hurricanes and global warming. The title and several plot elements are a play on the film The Day After Tomorrow.

The 2006 episode "Smug Alert!" mocked the self-satisfaction and 'smugness' of people that drive hybrid vehicles (which cause "smug" instead of "smog") and featured George Clooney's Academy award acceptance speech as a major contributor to the dangers of "smug". The importance of hybrid cars and the underlying good that they do for the environment is highlighted at the end of the episode indicating again that it is the people who are being satirized rather than what they represent. A further 2006 episode, "ManBearPig" mocked Al Gore's "attention seeking" outspokenness about the danger of global warming, ending with Al Gore going on to "...make a movie... a movie starring me!..." in what is presumably a jab at the film An Inconvenient Truth.

South Park Animation Style

Originally, construction paper cut-outs were used in the original pilot animation and in the first episode made for Comedy Central. Every subsequent episode has been produced by computer animation that provides the same look, though the animation has arguably become less crude over time. The improvements in animation are mostly used for comedic effect; special effects such as prepackaged explosions have replaced cardboard-style fires, and light shading has been used to highlight "sappy" or movielike moments and Eric Cartman's propensity for striking dramatic poses.

Corel is used to create the characters, which are animated using Maya. The style of animation used for South Park was inspired by the paper cut-out cartoons made by Terry Gilliam for Monty Python's Flying Circus, of which Trey Parker and Matt Stone are lifelong fans. For perspective, the average episode of The Simpsons takes six to eight months to create, while episodes of South Park have been completed in as little as three days. This allows current events that occur mere days before episode air dates are often included, such as the capture of Saddam Hussein to be mentioned.

Some episodes also contain sections of live action as well, such as "Tweek vs. Craig" and "Cat Orgy".

South Park Characters

Matt Stone and Trey Parker voice most of the series' male characters, while April Stewart and Mona Marshall currently voice most of the female characters, which were formerly voiced by Mary Kay Bergman and Eliza Schneider. Other voices are currently provided by Adrien Beard (Token) and John Hansen (Mr. Slave).

Main characters

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

Stanley "Stan" Marsh
Often the "straight man" of the group. Generally good natured and clear-thinking, albeit over-sensitive at times, Stan usually tries to come up with logical solutions to their outrageous situations. Designed as the alter-ego for co-creator Trey Parker, Stan often attempts to summarize the message or moral of the episode, though sometimes without success. He is best friends with Kyle and their relationship is central to several episodes.

Kyle Broflovski
Easy-going, Jewish (but not particularly religious), skeptical, intelligent and at times short-tempered. He hates Cartman because of his constant ridiculing of his faith. Kyle is effectively the alter-ego of co-creator Matt Stone. Along with Stan, Kyle often provides a reasonable perspective on the crazy behavior of the adult world around them. Kyle is often depicted as the most moral member of the four.

Eric Theodore Cartman
Often the catalyst for the plot, Cartman is an abusive, anti-Semitic, violent, campy, aggressive, greedy, corrupt, sexist, bigoted, self-centered, rude, racist, and extremely manipulative person.

Cartman commonly acts in a manner directly opposed to, or against, that of the other boys. Cartman regularly insults Kyle for being Jewish, Stan for being "a pussy", and Kenny for being poor. His pretentious and often sociopathic ways often cause him to be disdained by the other boys, who do not quite know why they put up with him. He also demonstrates an uncanny ability as a businessman and leader, and was twice seen dressed in a way that mimics Adolf Hitler. In one episode, Cartman organizes a group to get a "future-telling device" off the girls, which shows his smarts and leadership skills. In this same breath, it personifies the children's basic innocence in which they are still motivated by childish desires and naivete, despite their adult situations. Cartman also occasionally serves as a mouthpiece for some of Parker and Stone's more extreme social commentary and has a rabid hatred for anyone he considers to be a "hippie" (one episode was devoted to Cartman's career as a hippie exterminator).

Part of his behavior may be due to the fact that he has never had a father and that his mother is an intersex person who is also commonly acknowledged to be a "crack whore" who spoils Eric with gifts, food, and giving into his many complaints. (She was featured on the cover of one issue of Crack Whore magazine and has been known to appear in German "schei�e videos".)

Kenneth "Kenny" McCormick
Kenny is the kid who comes from a poverty-stricken family in South Park's equivalent of the pre-gentrification NYC "Lower East Side". He is the most worldly-wise of the four boys and is often sought out for answers when the other boys encounter a sexual term they have never heard before. His speech is difficult to understand due to the fact that his hood is closed around his face, although all of his lines are real dialogue that are always understood by Stan, Kyle and Eric; however in some episodes, Kenny's dialogue is occasionally visible by closed captioning.

During the first five seasons, Kenny served as the eternal victim, routinely killed in a number of grotesque ways meant to entertain during each episode, only to appear in the next episode without explanation. Parker and Stone let Kenny live in only one episode from the first season (Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo). In season 4 he was run over by a bus in part one of a two-part episode (Do the Handicapped Go to Hell?); however in part 2 (Probably) it shows that he lived, but ended up trapped in Mexico which Jesus claims at the end of the episode is a fate worse than death and Hell. At the end of Season 5, Kenny was more permanently left off for a while, since he had to survive for some time before coming back. Parker and Stone explained at the time that this was due to their feeling creatively boxed in by the requirement to kill Kenny in each episode before he survives and comes back.

In season 6 he is replaced by Butters and Tweek as the boys' "fourth friend". However, due to Kenny's lasting popularity, he was included in a "soul" arc involving his soul being trapped in Cartman's body, and then brought back permanently for the seventh season. Kenny's deaths are now much rarer than before. The show's oldest gimmick, existing from the first cardboard concept video, began with Stan shouting, "Oh my God, they killed Kenny!" followed by Kyle responding, "You bastards!" whenever Kenny is killed. This is parodied in "The Return of Chef". When Chef is killed, Stan screams "Oh my god, they killed Chef!" followed by Kyle who yells, "You bastards, you BASTARDS!".

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

Butters is nervous, naive, easily manipulated, and repressed � while at the same time remains ironically optimistic, wistful and sometimes insightful. He is often punished by his callous and overbearing parents, and is meanwhile blatantly vilified, taken advantage of and/or disregarded by Cartman, Stan, and Kyle. Adding to the tragic nature of his character, his birthday is September 11.

When Kenny seemed to be permanently dead in season 6, the boys tried Butters out as their fourth friend for a while, and when it did not work out a spurned Butters adopted the alter ego of "Professor Chaos", whose costume is clearly inspired by that of Dr. Doom, and he has a sidekick called "General Disarray" (Dougie, a first-grader). Butters tried various schemes to take over the world, but his niceness and general ineptitude doomed all of his efforts. His character is based on animation director, Eric Stough. In one episode he had to dress up as a girl and his name was "Marjorine" ("Margaret" in the Spanish version) in order to retrieve a fortune teller.

Recurring characters

Mr. Garrison
Mr. Garrison is the boys' 3rd grade teacher. In early seasons he was accompanied by his sockpuppet Mr. Hat. For a brief period Mr. Hat went missing and was replaced by Mr. Twig. Later in the series he was suspended of teaching due to claims of child molestation and became a novellist. After his novel was considered the best gay novel since Huckleberry Fin he finally went insane. Garrison lived in the mountains until he finally worked out he shouldn't be ashamed of being gay. When he returned to South Park Elementary the school said they didn't hire gay people, so he was demoted to kindergarten teacher. A few seasons later the 4th grade teacher, Ms. Choksondik, died. Principal Victoria then gave him his job back and stated he could sue the school for millions if they ever fired him for acting gay again. This led Garrison to try and get fired, he even tried gerbilling and getting his new boyfriend Mr. Slave (Mr. Hat's replacement) to try and get the children to complain. Nobody was offended until he later admitted and was sent to a tolerance camp so he would be more tolerant of himself. A few seasons later Mr. Garrison admitted he felt like a woman on the inside and had a sex change. Mr. Slave then broke up with him telling him that he don't like vaginas because he is gay. After Mr. Slave tried to get married to Big Gay Al Garrison tried to prevent gay marriages being legalised to prevent him losing Mr. Slave. Garrison's plan went wrong and Al and Slave wed. Since this Mr. Garrison has been single.

Chef
Chef is the only adult who seems to never go crazy. Always the brains of the town Chef seems to know right from wrong. At the premiere of Season 10 Chef was killed by falling off a bridge,and getting picked apart by a bear.

Minor characters and celebrities

Part of the show's surrealist nature derives from the minor characters who appear in the series. Some of these include:

South Park Music

The show's opening theme song is an original musical score performed by alternative rock band Primus. The song has been remixed three times in the course of the series (as of the second half of season ten), and certain lines have been altered (see below).

Kenny's lines in the song, like the rest of his speech in the show (with the exception of two lines in episode 807, The Jeffersons, and when he says "Goodbye, you guys" in South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut) are muffled by his parka hood, which covers his entire face except for his eyes.

In the theme song Kenny actually says: Season 1 & 2 (Original Theme): "I love girls with big fat titties, I love girls with deep vaginas" Season 3 to 5 (Season 3 Re-Recorded Theme & Fourth Grade Theme): "I have got a 10-inch penis. Use your mouth if you wanna clean it." Season 6: (Note: Kenny has been replaced by Timmy) "Timmy, Timmy, Timmy, Timmy, Timmy, Timmy, livin' a lie Timmy!" Season 7 to Season 10A: "Someday I'll be old enough to stick my dick up Britney's butt." Season 10B : "I would like to smell your pussy, clean it with my finger for you". Backwards: "Suck my penis, Suck my penis, Suck my penis, Suck my penis".

With the exception of the latest line, all of these lines have been proven official in an interview with the creators.

The general unintelligibility of Kenny's lines has helped them avoid being censored by television networks on a number of occasions, although the gist of it can usually be understood. It is sometimes easy to comprehend the lines, given the context in which they are delivered. The syndicated versions of the show usually do censor Kenny's vulgar lines.

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 the song Belle from Beauty and the Beast. Up There is a take-off of two different Disney songs, "Out There" from The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Part of Your World from The Little Mermaid. La Resistance Medley spoofs One Day More from the stage musical Les Miserables, and Tonight from West Side Story. James Hetfield of Metallica sings on the song, "Little Boy, You're Going to Hell", although it is uncredited.

Parker and 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 "I'm A Little Bit Country" Cartman sings Paula Cole's anti-war song "I Don't Want to Wait" while beating someone to death (Cartman also sings the song as an homage to his Dawson's Creek trapper-keeper in the episode Trapper Keeper). In The Death of Eric Cartman. Cartman sings "Make It Right" with Butters in a weak attempt to reconcile his sins. In Roger Ebert Should Lay Off the Fatty Foods, Cartman sings the old Donna Summer song, She Works Hard For The Money during an audition for Cheesy Poofs. In the episode, Simpsons Already Did It Cartman sings about how the sea people will "take me away from this damn planet full of hippies." In the episode Ginger Kids he sings a song about tolerance once he realizes he's not one of the "Gingers" and that he just convinced every "Ginger" in town to exterminate non-Ginger people. Cartman also uses the song Heat of the Moment in episode 513 (Kenny Dies) to convince the U.S. Senate to approve stem cell research. And, of course, there's Cartman's mental quirk that forces him to finish singing Styx's Come Sail Away whenever someone sings a few bars of the song. As soon as he learns this, Kyle, who hates Cartman, takes advantage of this and forces Cartman to finish the song so many times that Cartman becomes literally unintelligible.

Cartman was also the lead singer for Faith + 1, a Christian band he formed with Butters and Token in the episode Christian Rock Hard, singing several "Christian" songs about Jesus, by taking sexually suggestive love songs and substituting the word "baby" for "Jesus," and singing about sexual, or physical love for Jesus instead of spiritual love.

In Fat Butt and Pancake Head, Cartman's hand puppet (who pronounces her name as "Hennifer Lopez" and is revealed at the end to be a transvestite) recorded a hit single titled "Taco Flavored Kisses", incited the wrath of the real Jennifer Lopez (wrecking her career, so that she ends up working in a taco restaurant) and got sexual advances from Ben Affleck. At the end, Cartman, who had credibly denied having any control over "Ms. Lopez" yelled "Hah hah hah hah hah! I got you kinda!" (which he invariably does whenever he succeeds in putting something over on the others) after Kyle finally agreed to admit that it was possible Cartman had been telling the truth about having no control over what was going on.

Additional musical contributions to the show come from the band Primus, which performed the original opening and ending themes for the show, and formerly from Isaac Hayes, who voiced Chef's singing of usually-sexual songs to explain certain adult themes to the boys.

Many episodes also feature highly melodramatic musical scores to comically exaggerate the emotional content of the scene. (For example, the melancholy music playing in the background when Timmy sends his beloved pet turkey, Gobbles, away in the episode Hellen Keller! the Musical.)

South Park Future

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, meaning the show will run until at least 2009. Parker and Stone will continue to write, direct, and edit every episode of the show, bringing the series total to 182 episodes by the end of its twelfth season. Edited versions of South Park episodes, with the TV-14 rating, began broadcasting in syndication on September 19, 2005 on various local channels around the US.

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