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South Park
File:South Park into.jpg
Created byTrey Parker & Matt Stone
StarringTrey Parker
Matt Stone
Isaac Hayes (1997–2006)
Mary Kay Bergman (1997–1999)
Eliza Schneider (2000–2003)
Mona Marshall
Gracie Lazar
John Hansen
Jennifer Howell
and Adrien Beard
Country of originUSA
No. of episodes140
Production
Running time21 to 22 minutes
Original release
NetworkComedy Central
ReleaseAugust 13th, 1997 –
present

South Park is an animated television series created by Matt Stone and Trey Parker. Distributed by and airing on Comedy Central since 1997, it follows the adventures of four grade school boys who live in the small town of South Park, Colorado, and emulates stop-motion cardboard animation. South Park satirizes (sometimes surreally) many aspects of American culture and current events, and challenges deep-seated convictions and taboos, and usually using parody.

The show is credited for its characteristically blunt handling of current events. For example, an episode involving the repatriation of Romanian quintuplets aired during the Elián González situation, which depicted Janet Reno, then U.S. Attorney General, as a murderous Easter Bunny. An episode that aired after the September 11th, 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 movies Constantine and The Last Starfighter. The episode was produced one week after the PSP was released and, coincidentally, was originally aired the night of March 30th, 2005, less than twelve hours before Schiavo died. South Park won an Emmy Award for that episode.

The first half of South Park's tenth season began on March 22nd, 2006. The show's seasons are usually aired in two parts, the first part in Spring and the second in Fall (in North America). These are often described by Matt and Trey as "runs". This is partly done because the episodes are usually completed in less than a week, and very close to air time. Three more seasons of South Park are currently scheduled for production, allowing the series to run until at least 2009. This would make South Park among the longest running animated series' in U.S. television history after The Simpsons, Nickelodeon's Rugrats, and the ten year run of the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon. King of the Hill, which has also been on the air since 1997, has recently been renewed until next year, and may possibly be renewed further, coinciding with South Park's run.

Series history

South Park began in 1992 when Parker and Stone, then film students at the University of Colorado, created an animated short called Jesus vs. Frosty. The crudely made film featured prototypical versions of the kids of South Park, including a character resembling Cartman but called "Kenny" and an unnamed character that resembles Kenny, who both die, bringing a murderous snowman to life with a magic hat. The baby Jesus then saves the day by knocking the magic hat off with his halo, causing frosty to turn back into snow.

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 13th, 1997.

File:301 dead kenny21.gif
A near-death experience of Kenny in "Rainforest Schmainforest". (He is later resuscitated.)

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. A month 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 examples of profanity). While it is true that "Up There" by Satan contains no swear words at all, it would most likely have created far more controversy on religious grounds given its sympathetic portrayal of Satan and his justification of evil in the lyrics. Phil Collins won the Oscar, however, with his song "You'll Be In My Heart" from Disney's Tarzan, which prompted a number of Phil Collins jokes in a subsequent South Park episode.

On November 11th, 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.

In the episode "It Hits the Fan", South Park broke the swearing record by saying the word "shit" a total of 162 times. The 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 NYPD Blue 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. The references in the episode imply that the phrase was actually said on NYPD Blue which is why it was called Cop Drama on the show. 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.

On March 5th, 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 best cartoon ever made, and was conducted by Channel 4.

Evolution of the series

Template:Spoiler South Park's early episodes tended to be shock value-oriented, but even then poked some fun at current events. In the episode "Death", for example, Stan asks people whether he should kill his grandfather at the old man's request, only to find that no one wants to discuss it. 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 this season include when Michael Jackson visits 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"). Season 9 premiered with the episode "Mr. Garrison's Fancy New Vagina," which incorporated graphic, uncensored footage of a farm animal being neutered.

File:Kennyrevealed02.jpg
Kenny in South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut.

The pilot episode, "Cartman Gets an Anal Probe", 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 17th, 2003 episode ("It's Christmas in Canada") depicts the capture of Saddam Hussein a mere three days after his capture by U.S. forces, even referring to the "spider hole" where he was found. In the case of this and the Elián González episode ("Quintuplets 2000"), the creators stopped and changed production of an episode to focus on these events. Another example is the "Trapper Keeper" episode which originally aired just eight days after the 2000 Election and featured a kindergarten class president election being delayed by, among other things, an undecided girl named "Flora", a reasonably obvious reference to the undecided vote-count in the state of Florida.

In the audio commentary on the Season 4 DVD set, Parker and Stone remarked that beginning with episode 408, "Chef Goes Nanners", they began to consistently make episodes centering on a single issue, rather than 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 9th, 2005, Comedy Central struck a deal with Parker and Stone for three more seasons of the show. The network has committed to three more seasons of South Park over the next three years, 42 episodes (including those of the second half of Season 9), which means that the show will run until at least 2009. Parker and Stone will continue to write, direct, and edit every episode of the show. The order brings the series total to 182 episodes. The ninth season ended in early December. A sanitized version of South Park began broadcasting in syndication on September 19th, 2005. Template:Endspoiler

Controversy

Censorship

What little censorship South Park has is usually done by way of bleeping out certain words, like Drawn Together and other shows on Comedy Central. However, South Park isn't limitless. The episode "Jared Has Aides" was never aired again on Comedy Central because it showed extreme child abuse towards Butters from his parents and making light of the disease, AIDS. The words "asshole" and "goddamn" always go uncensored. The word "shit" is left uncensored only in two episodes. The word "fuck" is always censored, except within the South Park movie. While the word "cock" is usually not spoken in the series at all, when it is said, it is occasionally beeped, while other times left uncensored, as evidenced in the episode "It Hits the Fan". In 2005, South Park began airing on U.S. broadcast stations, and the syndicated distributor, Mort Marcus, a former Disney executive (in conjunction with Tribune Entertainment), worked with a panel of representatives from stations purchasing the show to make it acceptable for broadcast. Some episodes may not air at all, if the creators of the show do not approve of the changes.

In December 2005, the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights protested the season finale episode, "Bloody Mary." 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 and outcries from Catholic bishops who urged a boycott of the station and its advertisers. Public debate was high and Prime Minister Helen Clark commented that "I personally find it quite revolting," and "Those who publish in these circumstances of course have their right to free speech in New Zealand, but that doesn't take away from others the right to say what they think about it." The boycott failed as viewer numbers rose sharply to watch the controversial episode. However, unlike other episodes from the same season, it has not been rebroadcast and there are no excerpts from it available at Comedy Central's web site. SBS in Australia has "deferred" the episode possibly due to their recent problems with the "Trapped in the Closet" episode.

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

Scientology Scuffle

Origins

In January 2006, Comedy Central's United Kingdom affiliate (Paramount Comedy 1) removed the episode "Trapped in the Closet" from its broadcast schedule, reportedly in order to avoid legal action by actor Tom Cruise, as Comedy Central is owned by Viacom, which also owns Paramount, the distributors of Cruise's new film, Mission Impossible 3. That episode was screened on February 20 on SBS in Australia. In November 2005, South Park satirized the Church of Scientology and its celebrity followers, including actors Tom Cruise and John Travolta, in a top-rated episode called "Trapped in the Closet." In the episode, Stan, one of the show's four mischievous fourth graders, is hailed as a reluctant savior by Scientology leaders, while a cartoon Cruise locks himself in a closet and won't come out. Dubbed 'Closetgate' by the Los Angeles Times, the controversy continued as Comedy Central pulled the "Trapped in the Closet" episode at the last minute from a scheduled repeat on March 15th, 2006. It was alleged that Tom Cruise threatened Paramount with withdrawal from promotion of his latest film Mission Impossible 3 if the episode was broadcast. Though Paramount and Cruise's representatives deny any threats, The Independent reports that "no one believes a word of it". In typical satirical form, Parker and Stone issued the following statement: "So, Scientology, you may have won THIS battle, but the million-year war for Earth has just begun! Temporarily anozinizing our episode will NOT stop us from keeping Thetans forever trapped in your pitiful man-bodies. Curses and drat! You have obstructed us for now, but your feeble bid to save humanity will fail! Hail Xenu!!!" The Los Angeles Times reported that, "For Stone and Parker, Closetgate will be the gift that keeps on giving."

Response

Template:Spoiler In very South Park-like fashion, Matt and Trey place extremely current events into the show with little mercy. In response to Isaac Hayes quitting the show, South Park used its 10th Season Premier to lambast Scientology again, as well as kill off Isaac's character, yet still remind the audience to overlook the current problems and remember the joy of that Chef brought to the show. In the episode, entitled "The Return of Chef", Chef returns from a three month long stay with the Super Adventure Club, an organization full of Colonel Mustard-type adventurers that seemingly scour the world for excitement and danger. The club is also a clear parody of Scientology. Though Chef returns, his dialogue is patched together from recordings of past episodes. Eventually, all Chef begins to talk about is child molestation. The boys visit the Super Adventure Club in an effort to learn what is wrong with Chef. They learn that the club is not just about adventures into foreign places, but also molesting the children they come across. The boys also learn that the group has hypnotized Chef. They leave and escort Chef to a psychotherapist. The boys tell the doctor that Chef has been brainwashed. In an attempt to cure him, the group visits a strip club and successfully revive Chef out of his brainwashed state. However, the Super Adventure Club arrives to capture Chef and re-hypnotize him. The boys attempt another rescue at Super Adventure Club headquarters. Chef almost escapes to safety over a wooden bridge, but the club reminds him that Chef left the town of South Park for a reason. Defeated and dejected, Chef returns over the bridge, where he is subsequently struck by lightning, lit on fire, thrown against jagged cliffs, impaled by a tree, and simultaneously mauled by a mountain lion and a bear before being dismembered. Kyle delivers an eulogy at Chef's funeral, urging the town to remember the good times with Chef and to forgive him for his recent defection:

Kyle: We're all here today because Chef has been such an important part of our lives. A lot of us... don't agree with the choices Chef has made in the past few days. Some of us... feel hurt and confused that he seemed to turn his back on us. But we can't let the events of the last week take away the memories of how much Chef made us smile. I'm going to remember Chef as the Jolly old guy who broke into song. I'm going to remember Chef as the guy who gave us advice to live by. So you see, we shouldn't be mad at Chef for leaving us. We should be mad at that fruity, little club for scrambling his brains...

And in the end, I know that somewhere out there, there's the good part of Chef, that's still alive in us all.

In a final twist Chef is resurrected by the Super Adventure Club in the image of Darth Vader, parodying Star Wars: Episode III, complete with a glowing red lightsaber-esque spatula. This appears to allow for a possible future reconciliation with Isaac Hayes. Template:Endspoiler

Political issues

In simplest terms, the politics of South Park seem to have a fairly independent slant, with many libertarian leanings. Both Bill Clinton and George W. Bush have been the butt of jokes throughout the length of the show, and other political figures, personalities, and politically active celebrities have been joked about on both ends of the political spectrum as well.

Matt and Trey spend a great amount of time on current events and issues of the day, more so in recent years than they used to, which some fans have complained about. The stance that the show takes reflects the beliefs of the creators, which fluctuates between left- and right-leaning from issue to issue. Both creators have at one time or another described themselves as libertarians (on an appearance on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, one of the creators was seen wearing checkered pants decorated with the visage of liberatarian talk show host Larry Elder), which seems apparent in many of the more politically charged episodes. Where episodes from the earlier seasons used to focus on more general issues of morality like "it's wrong to molest children" and "family are the people you love, not necessarily who you are related to" they are now almost exclusively politically-based.

Recently a book titled South Park Conservatives, speaks on the subject of the creator's politics (among other things). In an interview with the two in Time Magazine (March 13th, 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 idealogies as it is for conservatives.

Recurring themes

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, such as when he gets involved with NAMBLA. 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. Butters also reveals that he has recieved anilingus from his uncle when detectives are questioning the children whether Chef has molested them. Tweek's constant state of tension has both comic elements (his parents 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).

Animal sexuality

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

Religion

Episodes that debunk the more literal tenets of religions such as Mormonism, Scientology, and even Catholicism further cement the leanings of the show's core belief system. Multiple episodes have tackled the shaky logical foundations of cults, religious leaders who exploit worshipers out of money, and the general problems with following religion too literally. Perhaps most indicative of the blase notion towards over-fervent worship, the show depicts God in physical form as a strange hybrid of many animals, including a snake, hippo, and what appears to be a duck.

Characters

File:South park.jpg
The main characters as they appear in the series.

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. The style of animation used for South Park was inspired by the paper-cutout cartoons made by Terry Gilliam for Monty Python's Flying Circus, of which Trey Parker and Matt Stone are lifelong fans. Paper cutouts were 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 weeks to create, while episodes of South Park have been completed in as little as three days (which explains why current events that occur mere days before episode airdates are often included, such as the capture of Saddam Hussein). Some episodes contain sections of regular film as well (e.g., "Tweek vs. Craig" and "Cat Orgy").

Matt is the voice of many of the characters including Kyle, Gerald Broflovski, Kenny, Stuart McCormick, Jimbo Kern, Jesus, Saddam Hussein, Pip, Terrance, Tweek, and many others. Trey is the voice of Stan, Randy Marsh, Grandpa Marsh, Big Gay Al, Cartman, Craig, Dr. Alphonse Mephesto, Mr. Garrison, Mr. Hankey, Mr. Mackey, Miss Choksondik, Phillip, Timmy, Jimmy, Satan, Officer Barbrady and many others. Others voices are provided by April Stewart (Liane Cartman, Sharon Marsh, Mrs. McCormick, Shelley Marsh, The Mayor, Principal Victoria, Mrs. Crabtree, Wendy Testaburger, others), Isaac Hayes (Chef) , and Adrien Beard (Token). Eric Stough, the animation director, is the inspiration and also the voice of Butters.

Major characters

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

Picture Name Description
Stanley "Stan" Marsh Often the "straight man" of the group. Generally good natured and clear-thinking, Stan usually tries to come up with logical solutions to their outrageous situations. 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.
File:Kyle.gif Kyle Broflovski High-strung, skeptical, intelligent, and at times self-righteous — yet is the most easily influenced. Kyle is effectively the alter-ego of 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 quartet.
File:Eric.png Eric Theodore Cartman Loosely inspired by Archie Bunker, and frequently the catalyst for the plot. Cartman is campy, aggressive, sadistic, bigoted, spoiled, overweight, rude, manipulative, and antagonistic. He regularly insults Kyle for being Jewish and Kenny for being poor. His pretentious and sociopathic ways, meanwhile, often causes him to regularly be disdained by the other boys, who don't quite know why they put up with him. Cartman commonly acts in a manner directly opposed to, or against, that of the other boys. He also demonstrates an uncanny ability as a businessman and leader. In many episodes, he displays the ability to make money quickly, as well as to sway large groups of children or adults to pursue his goals.
Kenneth "Kenny" McCormick Kenny comes from an extremely crude, poverty-stricken family. He is obsessed with sex and bathroom humor, both of which are his speciality when detailed information is required by the members of his group. His speech is difficult to understand due to his hood closed around his face, although all of his lines are real dialogue that are understood solely by Stan, Kyle and Eric. During the first five seasons, Kenny served as the eternal victim, who is routinely killed in a number of grotesque ways meant to entertain during each episode, only to inexplicably reappear alive in the next episode. At the end of Season 5, Kenny was more permanantly killed off and replaced in season 6 by Butters and Tweek as the boys 'fourth friend'. He later reappeared 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 unexpectedly die in some horrible way. After this, Stan would shout, "Oh my God, they killed Kenny!" and Kyle would add, "You bastards!" In recent seasons, three other characters have gained prominence:

File:Butters South Park.jpg 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)

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

File:Tweek.jpg Tweek (replaced Butters during the second part of the Season 6):

Spastic and neurotic, Tweek generally wants to be left alone. He also suffers from ADHD (referred to as its accepted variant ADD in the show). His problems are often glossed over by his very docile, Hallmark commercial-esque coffee-shop-owning parents (whose constant supply of coffee is most likely the source of their son's jilty behavior). Although initially touted as one of the leading supporting characters, Tweek has since been upstaged by the more viewer-popular Butters and has returned to playing a minor role.

File:Timmy.gif Timmy A schoolmate who uses a wheelchair due to a disability. He has a limited vocabulary, usually consisting of his name and assorted gibberish, though on occasion, he has also managed to say Jimmy's name, his pet turkey's name, "Gobbles", "Livin' a lie", "Please help me", "The lords of the underworld," and "Shit" (said only in the episode It hits the fan). As a standing joke, he was misdiagnosed with ADD. He was featured in the 4th grade beginning theme which replaced the original theme during the 4th season. He also replaced Kenny in the theme song in season 6 when Kenny remained dead for an entire season. Although disabled, Timmy is treated as an equal by his classmates and tags along on many of their adventures.

Recurring characters

Main article: Recurring South Park characters

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

  • Mr. Garrison: Mr. Herbert Garrison is the children's main school teacher in the show. Mr. Garrison is currently "Ms. Garrison" having received a sex change in Episode 901, "Mr. Garrison's Fancy New Vagina."
  • Jerome "Chef" McElroy (voiced by Isaac Hayes): Known simply as "Chef," he is the lusty, African-American school cafeteria worker from whom the boys frequently seek advice. For the first 9 years of the series, Chef was portrayed as a positive role model, and personal hero of the South Park boys. Early in the series, he was featured in almost every episode, but has been seen less frequently in recent seasons. On March 13th, 2006, Hayes officially resigned from the show, citing an increasing dissatisfaction with the show's treatment of religious faiths, most notably his own, Scientology. In early 2006, Hayes suffered a stroke, and some speculate that he may no longer be in a position to make major decisions for himself. In the first episode of Season 10, The Return of Chef, Chef was officially killed off. Although Hayes' voice is heard throughout the episode, his lines were stitched together by sampling his voice from previous episodes. While this sample editing enabled the show to contend with Hayes' departure, it was also exaggerated to maximize its comic effect. In the episode, Chef is brainwashed by The Super Adventure Club, whose mission is to molest children all over the world. This "club" is clearly another satire of the Church of Scientology. Apparently, the club brainwashed Chef to believe that molesting children could make you immortal, which the club explains in terms similar to those which describe the origins of Scientology in the episode Trapped in the Closet. Despite a rescue attempt by the four boys, Chef succumbs to the brainwashing and returns to the club. He is then killed in a grisly accident. Gathered for his funeral, the citizens of South Park all agree that they will remember Chef as the loving, upstanding role model. Kyle eulogizes, "We shouldn't be mad at Chef for leaving us; we should be mad at that fruity little club for scrambling his brain." In the final scene of the episode, the club resurrects Chef vis-a-vis Darth Vader; however, there's no indication yet if Darth Chef will become a recurring character.
  • Ms. Choksondik (pronounced "chokes-on-dick"): One of the boys' school teachers. She dies in Season 6 (coincidentally, semen is found in her stomach).
  • Big Gay Al, a recurring character since the first season, who also had a part 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.
  • 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 adds "M'kay?" to the end of his sentences.
  • Officer Barbrady, the incompetent, mentally deficient town police officer. He was illiterate until being ordered to learn to read by the Mayor ("Chickenlover").
  • Wendy Testaburger, a schoolmate and Stan's girlfriend until Episode 714 ("Raisins").
  • Jimmy Valmer (previously Swanson), 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. When Stan, Kyle, Cartman, and Kenny donate 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: a "super towel" created to dry a person; while being studied, he smoked marijuana and "just sort of wandered off". Towelie offers advice on towel usage and is frequently high. Towelie has only appeared in 4 episodes: Episode 508, Towelie, 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. Towlie has been referred to by Cartman as "The worst character ever".
  • The goth kids, including Henrietta, originally featured in Episode 714 ("Raisins").

Minor characters and celebrities

Main article: List of celebrities on South Park
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The satirical disclaimer that begins most episodes

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), Chris (whom Satan leaves Saddam Hussein for), Moses (who appears exactly as the Master Control Program (MCP) does in the Disney film Tron and demands pictures made of macaroni glued to paper plates from his faithful), the alien Marklar race; the Jakovasaurs; Death; and Mr. Hankey "the Christmas poo" (who adds to the holiday festivities in much the same spirit as the 1960s Rankin-Bass cartoons).

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

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Tom Cruise, as depicted in "Trapped in the Closet"
  • Tom Cruise, depicted as a follower of the Church of Scientology in episode 912 "Trapped in the Closet". He locks himself in Stan's closet after Stan tells him, "You're not Gene Hackman or that guy who played Napoleon Dynamite, but you're okay". 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" (episode - 511).
  • R Kelly Also tries to get Tom out of the closet, but ends up going in.
  • Ben Affleck, who is shown as Jennifer Lopez's boyfriend only to later dump her for a puppet painted on Cartman's hand, who is also named Jennifer Lopez. He also appears in the episode where he turns out to be the son of a couple who have a disease that make them have their "asses where their face should be".
  • John Edward: appears in The Biggest Douche in the Universe (episode 615), the title of the episode refers to Stan telling Edward he is a douche and is "nominating him for the biggest douche in the universe" after Kyle is seriously affected by Edward telling him his dead grandmother is watching him and then refusing to talk to Kyle and tell him his "talking to the dead" is just an act. Edward is depicted (without directly saying so) as an obvious fake that gets jealous of Stan after he tries to explain people that Edward doesn't actually talk to the dead through a demonstration, which only causes people to think Stan can talk to the dead.
  • Brett Favre, is part of a sexual fantasy of Mr. Garrison in the episode "Summer Sucks" where he says that Mr. Hat dreams of being in a sauna with Favre and a bottle of thousand island salad dressing.

Celebrities who have provided voice work:

Music

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

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

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.

Regarding his lines in the theme song 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 (or sometimes deep) vaginas." A transcribed guitar tabulation for the South Park theme published in Guitar World magazine listed the lyric as "I like girls with big vaginas, I like girls with big old titties."

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, use your mouth if you want to clean it." This went on, and was changed during the 6th season, where Timmy took over Kenny's place after Kenny was killed off permanently. Timmy's lines are "Timmah Timmah Timmah Timmah, Timmah, Timmah, limmenlauh, 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."

A recap of the more likely versions of Kenny's lines in the theme song:

  • Seasons 1-3 - I like girls with big vaginas, I like girls with big old titties!
  • Seasons 4-5 - I have got a ten inch penis, use your mouth if you want to clean it!
  • Season 6 - Timmah Timmah Timmah Timmah, Timmah, Timmah, Live a lie, Timmah!
  • Seasons 7-10 - Someday I’ll be old enough to stick my dick in Britney’s butt!

The style of the introduction has changed several times:

  • Original - This tune was never released and is now the closing theme (without the lyrics).
  • Season 1-4 - This oldest theme accompanied with the montage of activity as the kids ride the bus.
  • Season 4-5 - In the first episode in which the boys entered fourth grade, the opening was changed, beginning with an explosion revealing a spinning object reading "Fourth Grade" and including a much busier opening which incorporated some live-action footage.
  • Season 6-present - This is the newest theme. It has has dropped the "4th grade" visual theme and reverted to a faster theme that accompanies animators putting together the characters over clips from previous seasons. The voices of the boys singing also have been re-recorded, with Cartman's sounding less "squeaky" as in the earlier seasons and Stan and Kyle being higher-pitched. (NOTE: During Season 6 opening, Kenny is not present)

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 things Right" with Butters in a weak attempt to reconcile his sins. In the episode "The Simpsons Already Did It" Cartman sings about how the sea people will "take me away from this goddamn planet full of hippies." In the episode "Ginger Kids" he sings a song about tolerance once he realizes he's not one of the "Gingers" and that he just convinced every "Ginger" in town to exterminate non-Ginger people. Cartman also uses the song "Heat of the Moment" in Episode 513 (Kenny Dies) to convince the U.S. Senate to approve stem cell research. And, of course, there's Cartman's mental quirk that forces him to finish singing Styx's "Come Sail Away" whenever someone sings a few bars of the song.

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

Trivia

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The Complete First Five Seasons DVD set was released on February 22, 2005
File:Season 6.jpg
The Complete Sixth Season DVD set was released on October 11, 2005
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The Complete Seventh Season DVD set was released on March 21, 2006
  • The film Bowling for Columbine includes an interview with Matt Stone that suggests South Park was largely inspired by Stone's childhood experiences in Littleton, Colorado. Stone describes Littleton as painfully normal and highly intolerant of nonconformist behavior. Stone's appearance was followed by an uncredited cartoon in a style strongly reminiscent of South Park that was not the work of either Stone or Parker (the animation, in fact, does not take place directly after Stone's interview in later releases of the film. The animation starts more than ten minutes after Stone’s interview—-in-between the segments Moore interviews Marilyn Manson and a short commercial for a metal detector is shown). It became a point of contention between them and the filmmaker, Michael Moore, as they believed Moore meant to imply they had contributed it to his film. They have said the appearance of Moore as a ham-stuffed suicide bomber in their 2004 feature film 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, after a defunct airline. The logo (which featured a computer-generated shot of the Braniff airline with the subtitle "...believe it") originally appeared in Episode 101 as a joke, but it was decided (since Parker and Stone had already established Braniff as their company) that the logo would close every episode. The melody that plays while the Braniff airplane is shown is taken from "Shpadoinkle," a song that was written for and appears in Trey Parker's first movie (which he made while at the University of Colorado, Boulder) Cannibal! The Musical. The lyrics associated with the melody are: "The sky is blue / and all the leaves are green."
  • Supposedly, in almost every episode of South Park, one of the aliens from Episode 101 is hidden somewhere in the episode.
  • There are constant references to the geography in and around South Park that correspond to the real South Park in Colorado. It is noted that Trey Parker attended Evergreen High school in nearby Evergreen, Colorado. Bailey and Conifer are actual towns a short distance away from South Park. South Park is not a town, but a school. It is located in Southern Park County in Fairplay, Colorado and has been mentioned in South Park. There are also references to popular places in Denver such as Casa Bonita, a local eatery (which is actually located in Lakewood). The Highway mentioned in several episodes (Highway 285) actually links Denver, Fairplay (South Park), and Bailey.
  • There are also references to Colorado News Stations that actually exist. For example, the main station, News 4, is a reference to CBS 4 located in Denver, Colorado. There is also NBC 9, and ABC 7 which also have a few references.

Running gags

These are events that have recurred in 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, where 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 bastard(s)!" In the episode "Super Best Friends", Stan used this method as echolocation, Marco Polo style, to find Kyle, who had been forced into suicide by a cult. A similar event is when Kenny is killed in Cartman's treehouse (but Cartman says Stan's line) and Kyle walks by the treehouse and says "You Bastards." In recent seasons, this exchange between Stan and Kyle happens when anyone on the show dies, including Kenny.
  • Mostly after Kenny dies, rats come and eat his corpse.
  • 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). Whenever the boys insist he should stay, Cartman says "Screw you guys, home" while pointing with his fingers at them and then at where he's heading.
  • Cartman's mother is occasionally targeted for her promiscuity. Sometimes the boys find a magazine or website depicting her in sexual 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, who easily accepts any blame
  • Cartman shows a great interest to any means of showing his maturity/supremacy over the others. This made him report having a period (which, to his belief, made him a man), try to buy pubes, etc.
  • Most times Cartman and Kyle make a bet, Cartman wins.
  • Cartman 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 into buying Scott's pubes.
  • Canadian characters, such as Terrance and Phillip, 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 high pitched affected accents, pronouncing "about" as "a-boot" and "house" as "hoose"; they frequently refer to others as, "buddy" and often tell each other to "relax". They also look for treasure everywhere. Because of his earlier appearance in a Terrance and Phillip episode, Saddam Hussein is animated in the same Canadian style (and, indeed, one of his catch phrases is "hey, relax, buddy" and variations thereof).
  • A celebrity appears or is mentioned in almost every episode.
  • There is usually a reference to Kenny being poor, usually by Cartman making a joke about it, such as singing a version of "in the Ghetto" by Elvis Presley etc.
  • 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 halfway through it, referring to the genetic mutation theme of the episode.
  • Chef always arrives and says to the boys "Hello there, children", to which the boys may reply "Hey, Chef." Chef typically then 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?" Except for the ritalin episode, when all the boys wind up being addicted to ritalin because they've all been diagnosed with ADHD... Chef always uses the plural form of child, "children," to address the children.
  • There is usually a satirical theme in each episode. This is often made obvious through the use of the same background melody and/or by a character stating, "You know, I've learned something today..."
  • Crab people are always trying to take over the world, through some form of disguise (i.e. global warming, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, etc.). They are also accused with causing global warming in Season 9's episode Two Days Before the Day After Tomorrow.
  • Butters is always afraid of being grounded or otherwise punished and whenever he feels he has not been punished enough he confesses for crimes he has not committed ("Toilet Paper", when he tells the police he TP'ed a house).
  • In the later Seasons, scenes involving Token poke satirical fun at his skin color by giving him opposing colored items or appearances to the other white children. For example, in the Episode "Free Willzyx", Token can be seen disguised with white face paint, where as the other children are all wearing black face paint. Also in the episode "Follow That Egg!", Token is given a brown-colored egg instead of the white-colored eggs the other children receive. The stereotypes are occasionally shown to be factual. In the episode "Christian Rock Hard", Token is asked by Cartman to look in his basement for a bass guitar and to become a part of his Christian Rock band, simply stating that "black people can play bass". Token, while offended by Cartman's racial stereotyping, does in fact find a bass guitar in his basement. After picking up the instrument for the first time, he finds that he is a virtuoso, his only response being "God damn it."
  • Typically, when a riot breaks out or there is a large gathering of people, Officer Barbrady will appear with the his catchphrase of "Move along people, nothing to see here" while waving the crowd off.
  • Cartman has been lately using the phrase "black asshole" (which he once used for Token) for just about anybody else.
  • During riots, most people, instead of screaming, are heard saying the phrase "Rabble Rabble Rabble!"
  • In nearly every episode featuring Chef's parents, the two tell tales of the Loch Ness Monster employing various schemes to obtain $3.50 (pronounced "Tree Fiddy") from them.

Religious humor

South Park often satirizes 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", denounces his "slave name" and changes it to Abdul Mohammed Jabbar-Rauf Kareem Ali, an obvious combination of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Mohammed Ali and Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf. Later on in the episode, he gives up Islam. Later on, he joined the Super Adventure Club (a Scientology spoof) and was brainwashed to become a child molester.
  • Chef's parents, who practice Voodoo and Occult rituals (though their precise faith is unknown).
  • The Super Best Friends - a satire of the Super Friends cartoons. The founders of all the world's major religions are super best friends with each other and use their special powers to fight evil (except Buddha, who doesn't believe in evil).
  • God, who claims to be a Buddhist.
  • David Blaine — before South Park "exposed" the Church of Scientology, there was David Blaine's cult/religion Blaintology, an episode with commentary suggesting there is no difference between magic and miracles (i.e. the miracles performed by Jesus Christ are as real as the tricks performed by David Blaine).
  • 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.
  • In the episode "Probably", it is claimed that the only people who get into heaven are the Mormons, though this changes in "Best Friends Forever" when God decides that the Mormons aren't tough enough to go against Satan's forces. Hell doesn't really seem so bad either, having orientation and luaus. The episode "Best Friends Forever" also asserts that Japanese people don't have souls, nor do "Gingers " (red heads with freckles) according to "Ginger Kids".

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:

Computer and video games

References

  1. "South Park" Parked by Complaints? - Eonline
  2. South Park's 'Mary' episode revolting, says PM - The New Zealand Herald
  3. Boycott backfires: South Park gets record audience - CBC.ca
  4. SBS drops South Park episode on the Pope - The Age
  5. Inside Move: 'South Park' feeling some celeb heat? Cable net abruptly pulls repeat of Scientology episode - Variety
  6. Scott Collins. Clamor Outside 'South Park' Closet. LA Times. 18 March 2006.
  7. David Usborne. South Park declares war on Tom Cruise. The Independent. 19 March 2006.
  8. Noel Murray. Isaac Hayes interview. The Onion AV Club. 4 January 2006.
  9. Roger Friedman. Chef's Quitting Controversy. FOX News. 20 March 2006.
  10. South Park - Alien Sightings. The Easter Egg archive. Retrieved 18 March 2006.

See also

External links

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