The Adult-Animation TV show South Park has been on the air since 1997. In case you’ve been living under a rock, the series revolves around four boys—Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman, and Kenny McCormick—and their exploits in and around a titular Colorado town. There’s probably a lot that you don’t know about this show, but today I’m changing that.
Here are 33 South Park Facts that you might not know:
1. South Park was created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone and developed by Brian Graden for Comedy Central.
2. Jerry Seinfeld refused to play a turkey on the show, but George Clooney was totally fine with playing a dog. Parker & Stone wanted Seinfeld to play Turkey #4 in ‘Starvin Marvin’ (where has required to only make clucking noises) and Clooney was cast as a gay dog (Sparky) and performed a couple of barks.
3. South Park holds the Guinness World Record for “Most Swearing in an Animated Series”.
4. You probably guessed that Kenny is naughty, but did you know what his muffled voice actually says in the intros? In the intros for season 1 & 2 he actually says “I like girls with big fat titties, I like girls with deep vaginas!”. In the Season 3 to 5 intros he says “Me, I got a 10-inch penis, use your mouth if you wanna clean it.”. In the Season 7 to 10 intros he says “Someday I’ll be old enough to stick my dick up Britney’s butt!” and intros from Season 10 to present he actually says “”I like fucking silly bitches and I know my penis likes it.”
5. In response to comments that the show was all “bad animation and fart jokes,” the Canadian duo of Terrence and Phillip were born.
6. Every now and then, Kenny appears on South Park without wearing his trademark zipped-up orange parka, but you may not have even realised it. For instance, in ‘The Losing Edge’ he is seen simply sitting alongside his pals wearing a baseball cap in full view but doesn’t say a line. His unmuffled voice can also be heard in ‘The Jeffersons’ and ‘Lice Capades’.
7. While at the University of Colorado, Trey Parker and Matt Stone knew a dining hall employee that they used as the basis for Chef (voiced by Isaac Hayes).
8. One of the show’s memorable characters is Mr. Hankey, a Christmas-themed piece of fecal matter that symbolizes Kyle’s feelings of loneliness during the holidays.
9. Every episode except the pilot has been computer animated. Stop-motion animating using cut paper was used for the very first episode (“Cartman Gets An Anal Probe”).
10. Kyle was nearly killed off. Parker and Stone felt that Stan and Kyle were too similar by season 5. For a time they wanted to get rid of Kyle and bring in Butters as the fourth boy. However, in the end they decided to temporarily kill off Kenny for good to help promote Butters in ‘Kenny Dies’.
11. Thanks to modern technology, it only takes about five days to make a South Park episode on a computer.
12. After Parker and Stone ripped apart Scientology in ‘Trapped in the Closet’, The Church of Scientology actually hired people to spy on them in the hopes of finding dirt to blackmail them with. However, their investigation didn’t throw anything up, so they left them alone.
13. In every Halloween special, one of the characters wears a Chewbacca costume.
14. Parker and Stone had no idea how South Park looked for years. They only mapped out the town when they started creating The Stick Of Truth video game.
15. Kenny has died at least 126 times on South Park, but over 100 total if you factor in the early animated shorts, other authorized TV parodies, video games, and the South Park movie.
16. Despite being arrested only a handful of times, Cartman has a worse criminal record than Hannibal Lecter and Fagin combined. Among his crimes, Cartman has committed murder, rape, theft, arson, prostitution, cannibalism, attempted genocide, manslaughter, war crimes, hate crimes, animal abuse, grave robbery, child abuse, vandalism, piracy, embezzlement, terrorism, drug possession, smuggling and armed robbery. How is not in jail permanently yet?
17. Co-creator Matt Stone has a trick up his sleeve when it comes to how Kenny gets that muffled voice. He speaks into his hand or his sleeve when saying Kenny’s lines.
18. The South Park theme song is performed by Grammy-nominated rock band Primus.
19. The credits at the end of the “Trapped in the Closet” episode were either “John Smith” or “Jane Smith” so Tom Cruise and other Scientologists can’t sue them.
20. The concept of Kenny’s repeated death and resurrection came from MTV’s cartoon “Aeon Flux” in which Aeon Flux is killed at the end of every episode only to be alive in the next as if nothing happened.
21. The South Park: The Stick of Truth video game was released in 2014. It was developed by Obsidian Entertainment and published by Ubisoft. This role-playing game follows the boys as they engage in a live-action role-playing game with fantasy elements. The game received critical acclaim for its faithful representation of the show’s humor and style.
22. The South Park: The Fractured but Whole video game was released in 2017. It’s the sequel to The Stick of Truth. This game is also a role-playing game but with a superhero theme. It was also developed by Ubisoft. The game continues the story of the boys as they become superheroes and fight crime in South Park.
23. One easter egg that always seems to pop up on South Park episodes is an alien figure in the background. Sometimes it’s difficult to spot him. They like to hide him and blend him into things like trees and crowds. He’s practically the show’s “Where’s Waldo?”
24. In the DVD commentary on Season 1, Trey Parker stated that Mr. Mackey is based on his school counselor, Mr. Lackey.
25. Tiger Woods 99 was released on both PC and PlayStation 2 and EA hoped that it would revitalize a dying genre. Instead, it became steeped in controversy and was pulled from shelves when it was discovered someone from EA thought it would be funny to slip in the South Park episode “Jesus vs. Satan.”
26. The show runners came up an idea for a new South Park movie but were running out of ideas during a television run. So, instead of using the idea for the movie, they made it into the “Imaginationland” episodes.
27. South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut holds the Guinness World Record for “Most Swearing in an Animated Film.” The movie contains 399 swear words, 128 offensive gestures and 221 acts of violence.
28. South Park: Joining the Panderverse (a special that was released in 2023) satirizes The Walt Disney Company, with a focus on CEO Robert “Bob” Iger and Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy. It specifically critiques the perceived trend of creating formulaic films with “forced wokeness” driven by identity politics.
In the narrative, fourth grader Eric Cartman finds himself in an alternate universe where South Park’s residents are diverse women resisting the patriarchy. Meanwhile, a character resembling Cartman, modeled after Kathleen Kennedy, is portrayed frequently interfering with Disney’s productions by insisting on the inclusion of minority groups.
29. In 2021, South Park Studios entered into an agreement with ViacomCBS, securing the show’s renewal for up to season 30 and an additional 14 films. This arrangement ensures the continuation of the show until at least 2027.
30. Isaac Hayes’ naughty ballad ‘Chocolate Salty Balls’ narrowly missed out on the UK Christmas number one spot in 1998 by just 5,000 copies. It was one of the closest festive chart battles ever, but the Spice Girls won. However, it made it to number the following week. The single eventually sold over 850,000 copies. ‘Mr Hankey the Christmas Poo’ reached number four the following year.
31. The episode “Casa Bonita” features a real restaurant in Colorado that was later purchased by Parker and Stone in 2021 due to its popularity from the show.
32. “Sermon on the ‘Mount” (Season 27 Episode 1) critiques of Trump’s presidency, cancel culture, and modern American Christianity, while showcasing the show’s signature irreverence and provocative humor.
33. Charlie Kirk was featured in the South Park episode “Got a Nut” (Season 27 Episode 2). He appears as a right-wing provocateur doing a podcast on the toilet. The episode satirizes his mannerisms quite accurately, portraying him as a figure involved in political and media culture on the right wing.
Additionally, a character named Clyde wins a “Charlie Kirk Award for Young Masterdebaters,” which includes a free vacation to Mar-a-Lago (President Trump’s Florida residence), indicating the show’s commentary on Kirk’s influence and audience. Kirk himself reportedly reacted to the episode and leaned into the portrayal, viewing it as exposure for his persona.
Well, there you have it, 33 facts you might not have known about South Park.
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