South Park: Matt And Trey Made So Much Smut And 14 More Facts
We've called it ‘The King of Satire’ and politely asked it to shut up and read the room before, which is probably a pretty good summation of people's opinions on South Park at any given moment. Sometimes both opinions are valid simultaneously, to be honest. At 25 years and counting, South Park is the vulgar gift that keeps on giving, so we decided to give you these 15 facts to chew on:
COVID-19 Almost Ended South Park
Anyone who survived the pre-vaccine COVID-19 days remembers how depressing lockdowns were. Matt Stone and Trey Parker were not excused from existential crisis. The pandemic was the first time they almost called it quits, and lockdowns delayed production on their first feature-length film since Team America.
Matt and Trey Were Writing A Deep Fake Movie (And It's ‘On Hold’ At Best)
The movie the guys were going to start production on? Deep Fake: The Movie, about “a guy who looked exactly like Trump because we deep fake Trump's face onto him," Parker says. The guys have a deep fake company, Deep Voodoo. “It was very timely and its timeliness has passed,” Parker says.
South Park Is (Partially) Responsible for Latter Seasons of Game Of Thrones
Never let anyone tell you satire can't influence the world. On the DVD commentary of Game Of Thrones Season Four, the show's creators admit South Park mocking them for “dressin' up and havin' talks of betrayal” made them rely less of walking-and-plotting scenes.
Les Claypool Thought They'd Never Make It To Air
Wikimedia Commons: Scott Penner
Les Claypool, frontman/bassist for Primus (who wrote South Park's theme song), thought the show would get canned. Claypool was an early Matt and Trey fan, though, saying: “we thought ‘The Spirit of Christmas’ was very cool. But we never thought it was gonna get on television, let alone a worldwide phenomenon.” Yeah, he probably wasn't the only one thinking that, because…
Matt and Trey Made So Much Porn In Hollywood, You Guys
Early on, the men who would eventually become multimillionaires for animating children made porn. Not just any porn. The terms “ultimate porn comedy” and “guerrilla porn” get thrown around in this article, an interview we did with one of their dick-slinging collaborators.
South Park Featured A Steve Irwin Caricature A Month After His Death
The Irwins might not have minded when cartoon crocodile hunter stuck his thumb up a croc's ass (are episodes like that why Matt hates the first three seasons?), but South Park did eventually cause controversy with the conservationists. Season 10's “Hell On Earth” featured Steve Irwin getting kicked out of Satan's Halloween party…and it aired one month after his death. Yeah, Terri Irwin was none too happy about that one.
Ween Acknowledges South Park As Punk Rock
It feels on-the-nose that the South Park guys would be friends with a punk rock band whose name sounds vaguely like genitalia and wimpy kids. Ween's frontman, Aaron Freeman, says “South Park is very punk rock, and Ween is punk rock,” which is an extremely punk rock way for a couple of punk rockers to compliment each other. The origin of the South Park 25th Anniversary Concert was Matt and Trey saying “Let's have a party…let's get Primus and Ween.”
Frito-Lay Sold Cheesy Poofs
Cartman's favorite snack is so generically named we're a little shocked it's not already a regional snack food somewhere in the U.S. In 2011, to celebrate the show's 15th anniversary, Frito-Lay bagged up some reshaped floor dust Cheesy Poofs to be sold at San Diego Comic-Con before briefly going nationwide.
South Park Predicted Brokeback Mountain
1998 episode “Chef's Chocolate Salty Balls” alludes to a movie where two cowboys eat pudding before deciding to explore their sexuality. Turns out, Annie Proulx's story “Brokeback Mountain" hit The New Yorker in 1997 and was quickly bandied around for a Hollywood adaptation. So even before the movie existed, South Park was clowning Brokeback Mountain. Matt and Trey deny it was intentional, but who cares about intentionality? The timeline is there.
Office Space-Era Jennifer Aniston Guest Starred In An Episode
Jennifer Aniston is not necessarily a name that comes up when discussing irreverent Gen X comedies, but 1999 saw her acting in both a Matt Stone and Trey Parker vehicle as well as a Mike Judge one. She played Ms. Stevens, and Parker said “It was just obvious she hadn't done that kind of acting before…Once she stopped shaking, she did a great job. I think she's really funny in this.”
The Forgotten Kenny Parallel in The Simpsons
A sad kid who people don't understand very well with a history of going missing or dying? Simpsons did it, with a German accent. Üter doesn't come up often in Simpsons discourse—this might be the third time we've ever even mentioned Üter—whereas Kenny is a main character. Not a 1:1 parallel, but definitely fodder for Springfield supporters.
“Simpsons Already Did It” Came From A Place Of Real Frustration
Fans have been pointing out South Park's “shared” plot points and jokes with The Simpsons for years, even inspiring the episode “Simpsons Already Did It.” But the real jump-off point for that episode is even more disheartening (from Matt and Trey's perspective): before they learned Mr. Burns tried mad sciencing, the South Park crew wrote an entire episode where Cartman tries to block out the sun.
Beavis and Butt-Head Is Their North Star Anyway
“We never watched The Simpsons and said, ‘we can do that.’ Beavis and Butt-Head had this really handmade feel," Parker says. It's hard to imagine a TV landscape where your only references for adult animation are The Simpsons and Beavis and Butt-Head. We have what Stone calls “a show about four little boys who live in a town” to thank for helping getting us to “animated shows about all types of characters.”
Monty Python Inspired the Animation
Beavis and Butt-Head wasn't the only show to inspire Matt and Trey's DIY aesthetic. The paper cut illustrations that Terry Gilliam did for Monty Python's Flying Circus were also a huge influence. Thank the comedy gods they showed the Pythons on PBS, huh?
Matt and Trey Provided Music For Chef
Wikimedia Commons: ensceptico
South Park's creators are obviously fans of music and musical theatre, but we don't have many “Loren-Bouchard-messing-around-on-ukulele-and-found-noise” stories of Matt and Trey creating music for the show. That said, the two did provide drums and keyboards for “Chef's Chocolate Sweaty Balls.” We're frankly amazed that song has come up twice on this list. Did not have that in the over/under betting pool. Seems a good place to leave it, an inexplicable second mention of “Chef's Chocolate Sweaty Balls.”
