South Park Wikipedia. South Park is an American adultanimated sitcom created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone and developed by Brian Graden for the Comedy Centraltelevision network. The show revolves around four boysStan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman, and Kenny Mc. Cormickand their bizarre adventures in and around the titular Colorado town. Much like The Simpsons, South Park uses a very large ensemble cast of recurring characters and became infamous for its profanity and dark, surreal humor that satirizes a wide range of topics towards a mature audience. This article possibly contains original research. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding inline citations. Statements consisting only of original. Parker and Stone developed the show from The Spirit of Christmas, two consecutive animated shorts created in 1. The latter became one of the first Internet viral videos, ultimately leading to South Parks production. It debuted in August 1. Subsequent ratings have varied but it remains one of Comedy Centrals highest rated shows, and is slated to air in new episodes through 2. The pilot episode was produced using cutout animation, leading to all subsequent episodes being produced with computer animation that emulated the cutout technique. L. A. Times entertainment news from Hollywood including event coverage, celebrity gossip and deals. View photo galleries, read TV and movie reviews and more. Parker and Stone perform most of the voice acting for the shows male characters. Since 2. 00. 0, each episode has typically been written and produced in the week preceding its broadcast, with Parker serving as the primary writer and director. There have been a total of 2. The shows twenty first season premiered on September 1. South Park has received numerous accolades, including five Primetime Emmy Awards, a Peabody Award, and numerous inclusions in various publications lists of greatest television shows. The shows popularity resulted in a feature length theatrical film, South Park Bigger, Longer Uncut which was released in June 1. TB/20130703/ARTICLE/130709763/AR/0/AR-130709763.jpg' alt='Jay And Silent Bob`S Super Groovy Cartoon Movie Movie Dvd Quality' title='Jay And Silent Bob`S Super Groovy Cartoon Movie Movie Dvd Quality' />While were waiting for the solar eclipse later on in the month, well be cooling our heels in August hiding out in the air conditioning, and catching up on the. Academy Award. In 2. TV Guide ranked South Park the tenth Greatest TV Cartoon of All Time. Premise. Setting and characters. The show follows the exploits of four boys, Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman and Kenny Mc. Cormick. The boys live in the fictional small town of South Park, located within the real life South Park basin in the Rocky Mountains of central Colorado. 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, quiet place to live. 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 towns main street, all of which are based on the appearance of similar locations in Fairplay. Stan is portrayed as the everyman of the group,8 as the shows website describes him as an average, American 4th grader. Kyle is the lone Jew among the group, and his portrayal in this role is often dealt satirically. Stan is modeled after Parker, while Kyle is modeled after Stone. They are best friends, and their friendship, symbolically intended to reflect Parker and Stones friendship,1. Eric Cartman usually nicknamed by his surname only is loud, obnoxious, and amoral, often portrayed as an antagonist. His anti Semitic attitude has resulted in a progressive rivalry with Kyle, although the deeper reason is the strong clash between Kyles strong morality and Cartmans complete lack of such. 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 shows first five seasons, Kenny would die in nearly every episode before returning in the next with little to no definitive explanation given. He was written out of the shows sixth season in 2. Since then, Kennys death has been seldom used by the shows creators. During the shows first 5. In the season four episode 4th Grade 2. Plots are often set in motion by events, ranging from the fairly typical to the supernatural and extraordinary, which frequently happen in the town. 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. 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. Themes and style. Each episode opens with a tongue in cheekall persons fictitious disclaimer All characters and events in this showeven those based on real peopleare entirely fictional. All celebrity voices are impersonated. The following program contains coarse language and due to its content it should not be viewed by anyone. South Park was the first weekly program to be rated TV MA rating,1. The boys and most other child characters use strong profanity, with only the most taboo words being bleeped during a typical broadcast. According to Parker and Stone, when little boys are alone, thats how they really talk. South Park commonly makes use of carnivalesque and absurdist techniques,2. Early episodes tended to be shock value oriented and featured more slapstick style humor. 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. Parker and Stone also began further developing other characters by giving them larger roles in certain storylines,8 and began writing plots as parables based on religion, politics, and numerous other topics. This provided the opportunity for the show to spoof both extreme sides of contentious issues,3. Parker and Stone describe themselves as equal opportunity offenders,1. Parker and Stone insist that the show is still more about kids being kids and what its like to be in elementary school in America,4. While profane, Parker notes that there is still an underlying sweetness aspect to the child characters,3. Time described the boys as sometimes cruel but with a core of innocence. Usually, the boys andor 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, Ive learned something today. Origins and creation. South Park creators Trey Parker left and Matt Stone continue to do most of the writing, directing and voice acting on the show. Soon after meeting in film class at the University of Colorado in 1. Parker and Stone created an animated short entitled The Spirit of Christmas. The Full Turbo Movie. 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 1. 99. The Spirit of Christmas short resembled the style of the later series more closely. 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. 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. The two then entered negotiations with both MTV and Comedy Central.