For all you South Park fans out there, the foul-mouthed and ruthlessly funny show is finally here in Malaysia, thanks to Comedy Central. Now in its 18th season, here are 8 interesting facts about South Park you probably didn’t know!
1. 97 TOTAL DEATHS including the official number of times Kenny is shown to be dead or killed in an episode and all the controversial ones. What does that mean? Controversial deaths are scenes where it’s unclear how (or if) Kenny actually died.
2. The alphabet chart above Mr. Garrison’s chalkboard reads “DiOsMiOhAnMaTaDoHaKeNnYbAsTaRdOs…” If you break that down, it spells: “Dios Mio han matado ha Kenny, *bleep*” In Spanish, this translates roughly to “Oh my God they killed Kenny, you *bleep*!”
3. It used to take three months to produce a single episode of South Park using stop-motion and paper cut-outs but now, it only takes five days using Maya, an animation tool used to animate Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001) and Final Flight of the Osiris (2003). This speed of development allows the series to reflect current events as the showis put together in a matter of days – making a new episode six days prior to the episode’s air date. To date creators have only missed the deadline once, when South Park Studios lost power.
4. The character Kenny on South Park is based on a real childhood friend of Trey Parker, who was named Kenny. He was the poorest kid in town, wore a large parka that muffled his voice and would frequently skip school, inspiring the running joke that “he died” by classmates.
5. Some super famous stars have asked to be a guest on the show. George Clooney was offered the role of Stan’s dog which he accepted, voicing very good barks. Jay Leno has also lent his voice for Cartman’s cat. However, not all requests are accepted. Samuel L. Jackson, Steven Spielberg, and Jerry Seinfeld, asked to do guest voices, but were either rejected or declined the offer afterward.
6. There is a mutated gene in fruit flies which causes them to die in two days when infected by a certain bacteria. This gene is named Kenny, after Kenny McCormick from South Park.
7. South Park is a winner of four Primetime Emmy Awards and has been nominated for 12 times. It also won other awards and accolades for their writing and the character Cartman. In 2006, Comedy Central received the Peabody Award for South Park’s “stringent social commentary.”
8. 13 years since its debut, South Park is still Comedy Central’s highest rated show, with an average of 3.5 million views per episode in the U.S. In 2007, Time Magazine included South Park in its list of “100 Greatest Shows of All Time”.
For more information, visit http://comedycentralasia.com/.
