The Visual Evidence That Proves Cartman’s Mom Was Once a Playboy Centerfold
Cartman’s Mom: Notable cookie baker, “dirty slut” and Playboy centerfold?
Though Liane Cartman may be best known for her modeling work in South Park’s (probably Pulitzer-winning) Crack Whore magazine, the former real estate agent once found herself gracing the pages of a much classier publication, landing her own centerfold in an early aughts issue of Playboy.
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Ahead of South Park’s mid-season premiere in November 2000, the animated series decided to pull out all the stops to nab new viewers, taking a bizarre approach to the old adage of “sex sells,” and purchasing a four-page ad in Playboy’s December 2000 issue.
Dedicating one page to promoting Season Four’s controversial “Fourth Grade” episode, South Park’s overlords decided to take a raunchier approach to the other three, creating their own topless centerfold for the men’s magazine depicting Liane posing with milk and cookies while wearing nothing but what appears to be a jockstrap.
Naturally, Cartman was less than thrilled to discover his mom’s foray into nude photography, a reaction depicted in the ad’s penultimate page. “See, Cartman, your mom really is in Playboy!” Kyle jeered at Cartman as Kenny and Stan looked on in giggly disbelief.
“Aw, goddamnit, you guys suck,” replied a visibly-upset Cartman.
It’s unclear whether the pictorial actually got more people to tune in to the show, but the images made quite the splash on Reddit, where they quickly went viral among South Park fans who were either too young to be reading Playboy during Y2K or have the memory of an aging Gen X-er.
“Talk about a collector's item,” joked Ok-You8938. While pikachurbutt aptly summed up our thoughts on the matter: “Of all the things I’ve ever seen, this is now one of them.”
