South Park South Park is an American animated sitcom created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone for the Comedy Central television network. Intended for mature audiences, the show has become infamous for its crude, surreal, satirical, and dark humor that lampoons a wide range of topics. The ongoing narrative revolves around four children—Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman, and Kenny McCormick—and their bizarre adventures in and around the fictional and titular Colorado town. Parker and Stone developed the show from two animated shorts they created in 1992 and 1995. The latter became one of the first Internet viral videos, which ultimately led to its production as a series. South Park debuted on August 13, 1997 with great success, consistently earning the highest ratings of any basic cable program. Subsequent ratings have varied, but the show remains Comedy Central's highest rated and longest running program. A total of 200 episodes have been broadcast, and the fourteenth season began airing on March 17, 2010. Parker and Stone, who continue to do most of the writing, directing, and voice acting, are under contract to produce 14 new episodes a year through 2011.[2] Originally produced by cutout animation, each episode is now created with computer software that emulates the show's distinct style. Following the early success of the series, the feature length musical film South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut had a widespread theatrical release in June 1999. South Park has also received numerous media awards, including four Primetime Emmy Awards. The show has also garnered a Peabody Award for Comedy Central. The show mostly follows a group of four boys—Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman, and Kenny McCormick—and the adventures they share in South Park, a fictional small town located within the real life South Park basin in the Rocky Mountains of central Colorado.[3] The town is also home to an assortment of frequent characters such as students, families, elementary school staff, and other various residents, who tend to regard South Park as a bland and quiet place to live.[4] Prominent settings on the show include the local elementary school, bus stop, various neighborhoods and the surrounding snowy landscape, actual Colorado landmarks, and the shops and businesses along the town's main street, all of which are based on the appearance of similar locations in the town of Fairplay, Colorado.[3][4] Stan is portrayed as the everyman of the group,[5] as the show's official website describes him as "a normal, average, American, mixed-up kid".[6] Kyle is the lone Jew among the group, and his portrayal in this role is often dealt with satirically.[5] Stan is modeled after Parker, while Kyle is modeled after Stone. Stan and Kyle are best friends, and their relationship, which is intended to reflect the real life friendship between Parker and Stone,[7] is a common topic throughout the series. Cartman—loud, obnoxious, racist and obese—is often portrayed as an antagonist whose anti-Semitic attitude has resulted in an ever-progressing rivalry with Kyle.[5][8] Kenny, who comes from a poor family, wears his parka hood so tightly that it covers most of his face and muffles his speech. During the show's first five seasons, Kenny would die in nearly every episode before returning in the next with little or no definitive explanation given. He was written out of the show's sixth season in 2002, re-appearing in the season finale. Since then, the practice of killing Kenny in each episode has been seldom used by the show's creators. During the show's first 58 episodes, the boys were in the third grade. In the season four episode "4th Grade" (2000), they entered the fourth grade, where they have remained ever since.[9][10] Plots are often set in motion by events, ranging from the fairly typical to the supernatural and extraordinary, which frequently happen upon the town.[11] The boys often act as the voice of reason when these events cause panic or incongruous behavior among the adult populace, who are customarily depicted as irrational, gullible, and prone to vociferation.[3][12] The boys are also frequently confused by the contradictory and hypocritical behavior of their parents and other adults, and often perceive them as having distorted views on morality and society All characters and events in this show—even those based on real people—are entirely fictional. All celebrity voices are impersonated.....poorly. The following program contains coarse language and due to its content it should not be viewed by anyone.[15] South Park was the first weekly program to be assigned the TV-MA rating,[16] and is generally intended for adult audiences.[17][18][19] The boys and most other child characters use strong profanity, with only the most taboo words being bleeped by censors during a typical broadcast.[4] The use of such language serves as a means for Parker and Stone to display how they claim young boys really talk when they are alone.[20][21] South Park commonly makes use of carnivalesque and absurdist techniques,[22] numerous running gags,[23][24] violence,[24][25] sexual content,[26][27] offhand pop-cultural references, and satirical portrayal of celebrities.[28] The early episodes tended to be shock value-oriented and featured more slapstick-style humor.[29] While social satire had been used on the show occasionally earlier on, it became more prevalent as the series progressed, with the show retaining some of its focus on the boys' fondness of scatological humor in an attempt to remind adult viewers "what it was like to be eight years old".[5] Parker and Stone also began further developing other characters by giving them larger roles in certain storylines,[5] and began writing plots as parables based on religion, politics, and numerous other topics.[4] This provided the opportunity for the show to spoof both extreme sides of contentious issues,[30] while lampooning both liberal and conservative points of view.[4][12][31] Parker and Stone describe themselves as "equal opportunity offenders",[11] whose main agenda is to "be funny" and "make people laugh",[32][33] while stating that no particular topic or group of people be spared the expense of being subject to mockery and satire.[12][28][34][35][36] The two insist that the show is still more about "kids being kids" and "what it's like to be in [elementary school] in America",[37] stating that the introduction of a more satirical element to the series was the result of the two adding more of a "moral center" to the show so that it would rely less on simply being crude and shocking in an attempt to maintain an audience.[32][33] While profane, and with a tendency to sometimes be cynical, Parker notes that there is still an "underlying sweetness" aspect to the child characters,[38] and Time described the boys as "sometimes cruel but with a core of innocence".[7] Usually, the boys and/or other characters ponder over what has transpired during an episode and convey the important lesson taken from it with a short monologue. During earlier seasons, this speech would commonly begin with a variation of the phrase "You know what? I've learned something today..." Soon after meeting in film class at the University of Colorado in 1992, Parker and Stone created an animated short entitled The Spirit of Christmas.[23] The film was created by animating construction paper cutouts with stop motion, and features prototypes of the main characters of South Park, including a character resembling Cartman but named "Kenny," an unnamed character resembling what is today Kenny, and two near-identical unnamed characters who resemble Stan and Kyle. Brian Graden, Fox network executive and mutual friend, commissioned Parker and Stone to create a second short film as a video Christmas card. Created in 1995, the second The Spirit of Christmas short resembled the style of the later series more closely.[40] To differentiate between the two homonymous shorts, the first short is often referred to as Jesus vs. Frosty, and the second short as Jesus vs. Santa. Graden sent copies of the video to several of his friends, and from there it was copied and distributed, including on the Internet, where it became one of the first viral videos.[23][41] As Jesus vs. Santa became more popular, Parker and Stone began talks of developing the short into a television series. Fox refused to pick up the series, not wanting to air a show that included the character Mr. Hankey, a talking piece of feces.[42] The two then entered negotiations with both MTV and Comedy Central. Parker preferred the show be produced by Comedy Central, fearing that MTV would turn it into a kids show.[43] When Comedy Central executive Doug Herzog watched the short, he commissioned for it to be developed into a series.[23][44] Parker and Stone assembled a small staff and spent three months creating the pilot episode "Cartman Gets an Anal Probe".[45] South Park was in danger of being canceled before it even aired when the show tested poorly with test audiences, particularly with women. However, the shorts were still gaining more popularity over the Internet, and Comedy Central agreed to order a run of six episodes.[32][43] South Park debuted with "Cartman Gets an Anal Probe" on August 13, 1997. Except for the pilot episode, which was produced using cutout animation, all episodes of South Park are created with the use of computer software. As opposed to the pilot, which took three months to complete,[47] and other animated sitcoms, which are traditionally hand-drawn by companies in South Korea in a process that takes roughly eight-to-nine months,[23][31] individual episodes of South Park take significantly less time to produce. Using computers as an animation method, the show's production staff were able to generate an episode in about three weeks during the first seasons.[48] Now, with a staff of about 70 people, episodes are typically completed in one week,[23][31][38] with some in as little as three to four days.[49][50][51] Nearly the entire production of an episode is accomplished within one set of offices, which were originally at a complex in Westwood, California, and are now part of South Park Studios in Culver City, California.[44][47] Parker and Stone have been the show's executive producers throughout its entire history, while Anne Garefino has served as South Park's co-executive producer since the latter part of the first season.[52] 20th Century Fox Senior Production Executive Debbie Liebling also served as an executive producer during the show's first five seasons, coordinating the show's production efforts between South Park Studios and Comedy Central's headquarters in New York City.[53][54] Scripts are not written before a season begins.[55] Production of an episode begins on a Thursday, with the show's writing consultants brainstorming with Parker and Stone. Former staff writers include Pam Brady, who has since written scripts for the films Hot Rod and Hamlet 2, and Nancy Pimental, who served as co-host of Win Ben Stein's Money and wrote the film The Sweetest Thing after her tenure with the show during its first three seasons.[56][57] Television producer and writer Norman Lear, an idol of both Parker and Stone, served as a guest writing consultant for the season seven (2003) episodes "Cancelled" and "I'm a Little Bit Country".[55][58][59] During the last two seasons, Saturday Night Live actor and writer Bill Hader has served as a creative consultant and co-producer.[60][61][62] After exchanging ideas, Parker will write a script, and from there the entire team of animators, editors, technicians, and sound engineers will each typically work 100–120 hours in the ensuing week.[45] Since the show's fourth season (2000), Parker has assumed most of the show's directorial duties, while Stone relinquished his share of the directing to focus on handling the coordination and business aspects of the production.[23][63] On Wednesday, a completed episode is sent to Comedy Central's headquarters via satellite uplink, sometimes in just a few hours before its air time of 10 PM Eastern Time.[23][64] Parker and Stone state that subjecting themselves to a one-week deadline creates more spontaneity amongst themselves in the creative process, which they feel results a funnier show.[23] The schedule also allows South Park to both stay more topical and respond more quickly to specific current events than other satiric animated shows.[5][65] One of the earliest examples of this was in the season four (2000) episode "Quintuplets 2000", which references the United States Border Patrol's raid of a house during the Elian Gonzalez affair, an event which occurred only four days before the episode originally aired.[66] The season nine (2005) episode "Best Friends Forever" references the Terri Schiavo case,[21][38] and originally aired in the midst of the controversy and less than 12 hours before she died.[31][67] A scene in the season seven (2003) finale "It's Christmas in Canada" references the discovery of dictator Saddam Hussein in a "spider hole" and his subsequent capture, which happened a mere three days prior to the episode airing.[68] The season 12 (2008) episode "About Last Night..." revolves around Barack Obama's victory in the 2008 presidential election, and aired less than 24 hours after Obama was declared the winner, using segments of dialogue from Obama's real victory speech Guest stars Celebrities who appear on the show are usually impersonated, though some celebrities lend their voice to their characters. Celebrities who have voiced themselves include Michael Buffer,[89][90] Brent Musburger,[91] Jay Leno,[92] Robert Smith,[93] and the bands Radiohead and Korn.[94][95] Comedy team Cheech & Chong voiced characters representing their likenesses for the season four (2000) episode "Cherokee Hair Tampons", which was the duo's first collaborative effort in 20 years.[96] Malcolm McDowell appears in live-action sequences as the narrator of the season four episode "Pip".[97] Jennifer Aniston,[98] Richard Belzer,[99] Natasha Henstridge,[93] Norman Lear,[100] and Peter Serafinowicz[101] have guest starred as other speaking characters. During South Park's earliest seasons, several high-profile celebrities inquired about guest-starring on the show. As a joke, Parker and Stone responded by offering low-profile, non-speaking roles, most of which were accepted; George Clooney provided the barks for Stan's dog Sparky in the season one (1997) episode "Big Gay Al's Big Gay Boat Ride",[102] Leno provided the meows for Cartman's cat in the season one finale "Cartman's Mom Is a Dirty Slut",[102] and Henry Winkler voiced the various growls and grunts of a kid-eating monster in the season two (1998) episode "City on the Edge of Forever".[103] Jerry Seinfeld offered to lend his voice for the Thanksgiving episode "Starvin' Marvin", but declined to appear when he was only offered a role as "Turkey #2".[104] Music An adult male with sunglasses plays a piano under a spotlight on a darkened stage, 1973 Chef would often sing in a style reminiscent of that of his voice actor, Isaac Hayes Parker says that the varying uses of music is of utmost importance to South Park.[105] Several characters often play or sing songs in order to change or influence a group's behavior, or to educate, motivate, or indoctrinate others. The show also frequently features scenes in which its characters have disapproving reactions to the performances of certain popular musicians.[105] Adam Berry, the show's original score composer, used sound synthesis to simulate a small orchestra, and frequently alluded to existing famous pieces of music. Berry also used signature acoustic guitar and mandolin cues as leitmotifs for the show's establishing shots.[105][106] After Berry left in 2001, Jamie Dunlap and Scott Nickoley of the Los Angeles-based Mad City Production Studios provided the show's original music for the next seven seasons.[85] Since 2008, Dunlap has been credited as the show's sole score composer.[107] Dunlap's contributions to the show are one of the few that are not achieved at the show's own production offices. Dunlap reads a script, creates a score using digital audio software, and then e-mails the audio file to South Park Studios, where it is edited to fit with the completed episode.[85] In addition to singing in an effort to explain something to the children, Chef would also sing about things relevant to what had transpired in the plot. These songs were original compositions written by Parker, and performed by Hayes in the same sexually suggestive R&B style he had utilized during his own music career. The band DVDA, which consists of Parker and Stone, along with show staff members Bruce Howell and D.A. Young, would perform the music for these compositions, and, until the character's death on the show, were listed as "Chef's Band" in the closing credits