South Park

Guide Note

Emmy award-winning South Park is an adult-oriented animated television show on Comedy Central. It follows the often outrageous adventures of four elementary school boys (Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman, and Kenny McCormick) who live in South Park, a small, backwards town in the mountains of Colorado. Since its premiere, the show has become well known for its clever pop-culture parodies, as well as its often controversial subject matter.

Fast Facts

1. New Episodes: Wednesday, 10PM on Comedy Central
2. Current Season: 11
3. First Aired: 1997
4. Created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone
5. Emmy Awards: 2

The South Park characters were created when Matt Stone and Trey Parker made two animated shorts, notably one in which Jesus Christ and Santa Claus fight over the true meaning of Christmas. The short became an underground hit, which led them to ink a deal for a series with Comedy Central.

Though originally made using crude construction paper cutouts in the animation process, the show transitioned to computer animation that simulates the effect. Because of this, episodes can be produced at an extremely fast pace and are often very timely with the topics and issues they satire.

The long-running series (not to mention the feature length film) has been characterized by the shock value of its pull-no-punches story lines that skewer everything from religion and politics to celebrities and pop culture. Creators Stone and Parker provide most of the voices for the show.