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5 Things You Didn't Know About South Park

askmen.com — Besides the mystery of anything Kenny mumbles, we've dug up a few more facts about the boys from the little town of South Park.

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  • jaobedoza, on 05/09/2008, -23/+1i didnt know that top hollywood stars wanted to to do their voices
    • dynelol, on 05/09/2008, -1/+14I NEVER KNEW THERE WAS CHICKEN IN THIS SOUP
    • nreynolds, on 05/09/2008, -8/+2that's probably the best fact of any of them. If I was a celebrity I would definitely be OK with doing one of those stupid voices, I bet it's hilarious.

      But more importantly, South Park has gone seriously downhill. The satire/parody used to be clever, now (just this season, really) it's just obvious and boring. Two of this season's episodes didn't even try to be funny (I think, at least, because they weren't). And it seems like every episode ends with stan and kyle preaching. They need to go back to what made south park great.
      • dynelol, on 05/09/2008, -3/+4They should just keep making movies that are bad and awesome at the same time. Orgasmo ***** rocks.
      • TheJokerV, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1While I agree, I would like to say that every show has its dry spells. Hopefully Matt and Trey will have gotten their old creative spark back by the fall when new episodes come out.
      • Syphon8, on 05/09/2008, -0/+4Stan and Kyle preaching (ie, stating the obvious) is what made South Park great.
        • carpeclunes, on 05/09/2008, -0/+5And almost every episode has ended like that for as long as I can remember.
      • masterm1nd, on 05/09/2008, -0/+2When you get to the top of the mountain, you can only go downhill from there. Anyways I still think they're way up there.
      • legoalert33, on 05/09/2008, -3/+1How is terets syndrome downhill?
        • mciampa1214, on 05/09/2008, -1/+5God damn it, it's 'tourettes' your ***** bitch!
      • Punkazz189, on 05/09/2008, -0/+0They have preached in every episode ever made.
    • MattNF, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1Tell me, is water also wet?
  • jer2eydevil88, on 05/09/2008, -14/+63I knew about #1... hell any real fan who has been watching it since it first aired should know that one.
    Hint: You can download it offline from lots of sources as Jesus vs. Frosty
    • saxreturns, on 05/09/2008, -1/+86How do you download something while you're offline?
      • whataboutdave, on 05/09/2008, -1/+15The future.
      • KeyLimePie, on 05/09/2008, -3/+21web 3.0
        • falafelkiosken, on 05/09/2008, -2/+2stupid mouse, was going to dig you up but the mouse clicked "bury" :@
      • celkin, on 05/09/2008, -2/+21web 3.1 for workgroups
      • goldenratiophi, on 05/09/2008, -2/+1it's in the developer preview
      • djpants428, on 05/09/2008, -13/+6IE 7.0 has a "Work Offline" setting in it. In fact I'm pretty sure that that option has existed in IE forever. And that is why Internet Explorer is the future of the internet.
        • celkin, on 05/09/2008, -0/+10Saying something like that on Digg will get you shot!
      • jer2eydevil88, on 05/09/2008, -2/+1You talk to Ted Stevens about how to cut all the internet tubes coming into your home except for the one that contains internet video. Ask him then to explain how you pull that one into your parents basement and keep it offline for purposes like this.

        I used that term because I was raised in an area where people used the term offline when referring to pulling information off the internet.
      • petebert, on 05/09/2008, -1/+1any true fan would know how to download it offline, geez..
    • GDOG5, on 05/09/2008, -0/+4http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbY441AhAG0
      • david8370, on 05/09/2008, -0/+0at 1:25, they refer to Cartman as Kenny. Interesting.
    • OaklandMatt, on 05/09/2008, -6/+4Any real fan knows all of these. Digg me down for being a South Park snob if you want, but c'mon, Mary Kay Bergman committed suicide is a big secret?
      • AniceAtheist, on 05/09/2008, -1/+9Move along people, nothing to see here
    • Morfine, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1these were in an issue of rolling stones magazine i read last year
    • Punkazz189, on 05/09/2008, -0/+2Because someone can't really be a fan of South Park unless they know every obscure fact about it and it's creation?
  • goeric, on 05/09/2008, -6/+142Love the article, but why can't they just put it on one page :(
    • duerra, on 05/09/2008, -1/+26They get more ad impressions by putting it on multiple pages, and thus make more money that way.
      • masterm1nd, on 05/09/2008, -2/+5We need to start posting the articles that do that to the comment section so they start getting less revenue and stop doing that *****.
        • saisumimen, on 05/09/2008, -1/+4Where do you think web servers get their energy from? Jelly bean fields?
    • celkin, on 05/09/2008, -2/+6Could be worse; at least it was only TWO pages.
    • KingGorilla, on 05/09/2008, -1/+2They can, they refuse to and I demand they change their ways, this goes for other websites that do this
    • dvsbastard, on 05/09/2008, -5/+4It's simple really:

      1. Put article on multiple pages
      2. ?????????
      3. Profit
    • karan1003, on 05/09/2008, -2/+2I don't know, why don't you ask men?
      oh god that was way too easy.
  • thechosen, on 05/09/2008, -2/+121Also, when George Clooney wanted to do a voice, the creators happily obliged. On the episode "Big Gay Al's Boat Ride," George Clooney lent his vocal talents to Sparky the dog.

    Sparky's lines consisted of "Woof" and "Bark."
    • jameshickmott, on 05/09/2008, -1/+10He also did the voice for the doctor in the movie. the baked potato skit, lol.
    • gottarockit, on 05/11/2008, -0/+0And that's why he's AWESOME!
  • faizal5k, on 05/09/2008, -35/+14Back in the summer of 1997, you had to know that South Park was going to be an iconoclast when you learned the premiere episode was titled, “Cartman Gets an Anal Probe.” If it didn’t occur to you then, it surely has by now.

    South Park, created by Matt Stone and Trey Parker for Comedy Central, features crude animation, boorish characters and jaw-dropping story lines so vulgar and distasteful that to label them merely "offensive" is actually something of an offense to the show itself. South Park has prided itself on inciting rage worldwide for its seemingly blasphemous depiction of religion, heartless portrayal of persons with disabilities, shameless instances of toilet humor, racism, foul language, and their impressions of the Holocaust -- and these are just the first few mentions in their catalog of offensives.

    In short, there are no sacred cows in the town of South Park.

    However, an equally egregious offense would be to assume the show’s intentions were just as crass. In fact, they are masters of the parody and lampoon, and often episodes will reveal multiple layers of clever and acute social commentary -- ones that typically escape its many overzealous and red-faced critics.

    With the recent launch of this landmark show’s twelfth season, it’s time we took a look at five things you didn’t know about South Park, one of the smartest shows out there.
    1- South Park began as a video Christmas card
    In 1995 FoxLab executive Brian Graden saw a demented, animated short entitled Jesus vs Frosty that Parker and Stone created while they were still students at the University of Colorado. Graden thought it was hilariously twisted, so he hired them to make a video Christmas card for his friends in the entertainment industry. The result was The Spirit of Christmas, a five-minute short that saw Santa Claus face off against Jesus in a martial arts fight to the death over who would control the Christmas holiday. The two holiday superpowers ultimately resolve the issue with a truce.

    The video made the rounds and soon Parker and Stone found themselves in negotiations with both FOX and Comedy Central to produce a half-hour series based on the short.
    2- Tom Cruise wanted to do a voice for South Park
    Of course, that's in the past tense: Cruise had, at one time, wanted to do a voice for the show. Presumably his interest has waned a bit since the Emmy-nominated episode No. 137, “Trapped in the Closet.” After joining Scientology in search of something to do that’s both fun and “free” (the church is notoriously expensive), the character Stan is believed by members to be the reincarnation of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard. A number of well-known Scientologists, including John Travolta and Tom Cruise, try to convince Stan to lead the church, but he refuses, later calling it a “global scam.” Cruise (the character) locks himself in Stan’s closet and "refuses to come out" after Stan tells him he’s not a very good actor, which Cruise takes as the great prophet’s opinion.

    The show regularly refuses to allow celebrities to play themselves or even play what might be considered normal characters. At most they are offered ludicrous roles. For example, George Clooney played a gay dog and Jay Leno played a bird, while Jerry Seinfeld was offered the role of a sick cat, but his agent turned it down. Other stars believed to have sought voice roles but refused the odd-ball roles offered to them include Steven Spielberg, Samuel L. Jackson and Jeff Daniels.
    3- Cartman was influenced by Archie Bunker
    In an interview conducted by the Vanderbilt University-affiliated First Amendment Center, Trey Parker said that he and Stone grew up watching sitcoms that were extraordinarily PC, such as Diff’rent Strokes and Facts of Life. Then they were blown away by syndicated episodes of All in the Family. Believing that a bigoted character like Archie Bunker could never make it on to television in the current climate, asked themselves, "How could you bring an Archie Bunker back? What if you made him a fat little 8-year-old kid?"

    The result was Eric Cartman, the show’s leading foul-mouth, hatemonger, sadistic, and sociopathic elementary kid. Cartman also happens to be the show’s most hilarious character.
    4- The main female voice-over actor committed suicide
    Mary Kay Bergman, the longtime former voice of Mrs. Butterworth and an experienced voice-over actress, voiced all of the female voices for the first 31 episodes of South Park as well as the movie, South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, including the mothers of all four principle boys, Wendy Testaburger, Mrs. Crabtree and Nurse Gollum, among others.

    Bergman suffered from anxiety and depression. In 1999, at the age of 38, she committed suicide by shooting herself at home. Subsequently, those roles have been voiced by three other women, and two South Park episodes have been dedicated to her memory.
    5- Episodes are changed at the "11th Hour"
    Unlike other animated shows, producers on South Park can produce an episode in a matter of days in order to react to current events, something that has become one of the show’s hallmarks. Some notable examples are:

    On April 22nd, on orders from Attorney General Janet Reno, agents from BORTAC, the tactical unit of the U.S. Border Control, seized Elian Gonzalez from the home of his Miami relatives. On April 26th, episode No. 52 aired, “Quintuplets 2000” in which Janet Reno aides the Romanian government’s efforts to return five circus performing contortionists. In this episode, Stone and Parker rewrote the original plotline to mirror current events.

    On November 7, 2000, in the U.S. Presidential election, Bush and Al Gore waited on the winner of Florida’s 25 electoral votes and the outcome became the most controversial and divisive in history. On November 15th, episode No. 60 aired, "Trapper Keeper," in which Mr. Garrison, the boys’ former teacher, is demoted to kindergarten and holds class elections between kids named Ike and Filmore, with an indecisive girl named Flora (Florida) holding the tie-breaking vote.

    On December 13, 2003, U.S. Special Forces captured Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, who had been hiding in a hole inside a farmhouse. On December 17th, episode No. 111 aired, "It's Christmas in Canada,” which featured the boys finding Saddam hiding in a hole and controlling the voice of the new Canadian Prime Minister.
    Why is it searched?
    Stone and Parker call themselves “equal opportunity offenders” and the show has managed to outrage every special interest group imaginable. However, Stone and Parker could probably credit those countless groups and organizations for a good percentage of those searches, because they are the ones who put the episodes into the wider media with their condemnations and calls for boycotts.

    Consider the conservative group Parents’ Television Council; they have named the show among its Worst Cable Content of the Week on numerous occasions, and when they do they include a clip of the offensive content on their site so that their members can enjoy that content on the privacy of their home computer.
    Length of the public's interest?
    Now in its 12th season, South Park shows little signs of slowing down but few shows can sustain such a high level of interest for very long, even when that show seems intent on insulting or affronting every man, woman and child on the face of the earth -- and doing it so brilliantly.
    • lead2thehead, on 05/09/2008, -6/+1This is why hyperlinks were invented.
    • hansk, on 05/09/2008, -1/+1muh muh muh moster post
    • VeryBoredNow, on 05/09/2008, -1/+1Are you HIV Positive about all that?
    • AutomaticTLC, on 05/12/2008, -0/+1Thanks. The website was blocked where I'm currently at.
  • thinman1189, on 05/09/2008, -3/+34Seinfeld would have been an amazing sick cat.
    • MrFisty, on 05/09/2008, -3/+3Didn't Leno play the cat?
      • thinman1189, on 05/09/2008, -0/+5"For example, George Clooney played a gay dog and Jay Leno played a bird, while Jerry Seinfeld was offered the role of a sick cat, but his agent turned it down. "
    • carve, on 05/09/2008, -1/+4I thought they offered Seinfeld the voice of a turkey
    • Shawn4168, on 05/09/2008, -1/+4Yes, both guys above are correct. Jay Leno played the voice of Cartman's cat in one episode, while Jerry Seinfeld was offered the voice of Turkey #4 in the episode "Starvin' Marvin".
      • aceakm, on 05/09/2008, -0/+2How are they both correct if the guy said Leno played a bird, not a cat?
        • Shawn4168, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1Because the guy that said Leno played the bird was wrong.
    • Dysarthria, on 05/09/2008, -6/+4Seinfeld is a douche.
  • Whadabala, on 05/09/2008, -1/+35askmen.com has gone down the drain.
    • ngmcs8203, on 05/09/2008, -0/+2You mean that horribly photoshopped photo of Cheechoo bleeding to the right isn't real?!?! I must have missed it since I went to every home playoff game in SJ and watched every road game as well.
    • MassHysteria, on 05/09/2008, -0/+2It's on the IGN network... What did you expect?
  • UberNick, on 05/09/2008, -9/+4http://duggmirror.com/comics_animation/5_Things_Yo ...
  • FatLoser, on 05/09/2008, -24/+7What I'll never be able to understand is how I can crap out undigested taco bell tacos (large pieces) when I chew my food thoroughly. Nothing that big went down, so how the ***** did it come out that way?
  • Shippwreck87, on 05/09/2008, -5/+37That was about as interesting as a slice of bread...
    • lovecss, on 05/09/2008, -0/+4You obviously don't buy interesting bread then.
    • MojoJonJon, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1So would you say it's the best thing since sliced bread?
  • TheLastFreeMan, on 05/09/2008, -2/+63This page layout is even more confusing than cracked. Why can't they both put it on one page. =(
    • DulcetTone, on 05/09/2008, -1/+0If you scrolled to the bottom, you'd see there simply wasn't room
  • mywhitenoise, on 05/09/2008, -11/+4I knew all of those.
  • malonesm, on 05/09/2008, -2/+331- South Park began as a video Christmas card
    http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/~tskirvin/soxmas/soxmas.mov
    Here is the original video...I am amazed at how complete their concept was...it's all here.
    • str3ama, on 05/09/2008, -1/+4reminds me of family guy - which started off as 'Life of Brian'.. and except for Meg, was pretty much all thought out (some of the jokes in it re-appeared in the 2nd season).
    • securitymonkey, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1DUNG-KWAI-DO!
      YAH-TOO-KEE!!
    • clickx, on 05/09/2008, -1/+3Stan sounds like Cartman.
    • ziptnf, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1SHUT UP YOU FAT *****! WHEN YOU WALK DOWN THE STREET PEOPLE GO "GOD DAMMIT THAT'S A FAT *****!"
  • DirtPile, on 05/09/2008, -1/+6Now we all have to go watch 'Cannibal: the Musical.' Shpadoinkle!
    • Nevarius, on 05/09/2008, -0/+2Side info: Cannibal: the musical was directed by Trey Parker while he was in college (University of Colorado at Boulder) which starred Trey Parker, Matt Stone and Dian Bachar. All 3 also did/were in Orgazmo, BASEketball and of course South Park.
      • fanclerks, on 05/09/2008, -1/+5"I don't want to sound like a queer or nothin', but I'd kinda like to make love to you tonight."
        • Nevarius, on 05/11/2008, -0/+1At first i wasn't sure if i should see such a comment as a complement being secure enough in my manhood not to be offended, or be very afraid that i may have a stalker.
          Then i realize that the quote was from Orgazmo, then all was right in the world.
    • SixOrSoPapers, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1My heart's as full as a baked potato.
      • Identity4, on 05/09/2008, -0/+2I think you know EXACTLY what I mean,
    • koolkelso, on 05/09/2008, -0/+4me and my friends love this movie. great to watch high. especially when they build a snowman and name it bearwolf.
    • rainydaywoman, on 05/09/2008, -0/+2We are...INDIANS. We have....teepees!
    • Yeshuah, on 05/11/2008, -0/+0......... fudge Packer?.............. ^.^
  • Coolmatt49, on 05/09/2008, -1/+13Was this necessary to be on two pages?
  • negativenancy, on 05/09/2008, -1/+15I knew all of these. I demand a refund! :(
  • ChaosProfessor, on 05/09/2008, -1/+40that was pretty lame i was hoping for stuff like southpark caused someone to go crazy and kill 30000 people
    • saxreturns, on 05/09/2008, -2/+2You'd think we would all have heard of that by now if it had happened...
    • itsripitsrip, on 05/09/2008, -3/+2this isn't gta 4 ;)
    • BedPost, on 05/09/2008, -2/+1Does Bush like south park?
      • Identity4, on 05/09/2008, -0/+4I doubt it....not after that "That's My Bush" sitcom they put together...
        • Pittance, on 05/09/2008, -0/+2Did Trey and Matt create Thats my bush? I didnt think so. It was pretty goddamn awful.
  • Ninjapope, on 05/09/2008, -1/+4I remember watching that first South Park episode from a file on one of the Tiger Woods games for the Playstation.
  • Darren05, on 05/09/2008, -4/+1I love this one: http://www.videosift.com/video/Princess-Ep-1-Matt- ...
    Trey & Matt were commissioned to make these two flash cartoons, and when they submitted them, the company took the contract back and refused to pay them.
  • itsripitsrip, on 05/09/2008, -8/+35i just hope south park doesn't go the way of the simpsons and get 'worse' as time goes on. digg me down if you must, but we all know the simpsons isn't near as good as it used to be. it'd be a shame if another classic cartoon series had the same fate.
    • fxu1989, on 05/09/2008, -0/+4Everything loses its spark with time.

      Like this season of south park, only a one or two were memorable .... most of them were crappy; sure, it gives you a chuckle or two, but by the next day, you forgot what was it about.
  • dekuscrub, on 05/09/2008, -5/+2I knew all except the Tom Cruise thing. Of course, I am a SP nerd and I've watched all the DVD's w/ commentary.....
    • jmpeagle, on 05/09/2008, -1/+1that's not that hard since they comment for like only 2 minutes on each episode
  • BKred, on 05/09/2008, -1/+38You know, any website that can't handle me blocking their cookies doesn't really deserve my view...
  • SportsViewer, on 05/09/2008, -13/+1Here's a video of #1. I think it wasn't as funny then, but it is interesting to see the difference.
    http://youtube.com/watch?v=eBGIQ7ZuuiU
  • itsthebrod, on 05/09/2008, -3/+7Buried as inaccurate. I knew many of those.
  • element4l, on 05/09/2008, -1/+10Actually, I think most South Park fans, like myself, already knew most of those.
  • repick3, on 05/09/2008, -3/+55Funny... the article was submitted by a dude named FamilyGuyFan.
    • Maver1c, on 05/09/2008, -1/+3Just because someone is a fan of one animated show doesn't mean they can't like other ones. Not trying to be an asshole digger here, it's just that a lot of diggers seem to have this type of mentality.
      • Pinkshisno, on 05/09/2008, -0/+6I think the reason he says it's funny is because there is a South Park episode where they bash Family Guy.
  • amdforever, on 05/09/2008, -4/+21Screw you guys, I am going home.

    P.S. article sucked.
  • antiorblkflag9, on 05/09/2008, -1/+4This is all fairly obvious stuff, except for the voice over lady.
  • voomfoo, on 05/09/2008, -6/+2***** you askmen dot com. It should be titled 5 things a person whos father locked them in the basement and insemenated doesn't know. what a waste of my ***** time. i want my money back....
    • getbusyliving, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1Queue random Internet rage guy.
  • masterm1nd, on 05/09/2008, -6/+5Haha, submitted by FamilyGuyFan.
  • missilesilo, on 05/09/2008, -2/+5Buried as inaccurate. I "knew" all these things before I read this article, thanks to Wikipedia.
  • Nhmarine, on 05/09/2008, -3/+5I knew all of that.
  • GDOG5, on 05/09/2008, -1/+5Spirit of christmas
    Jesus vs Frosty: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbY441AhAG0
    Jesus vs Santa: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wlijkw2ns6k
    • wiggs08, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1omg that's the 1st time i've seen those. I can't believe cartman's character was the kenny lol
  • dwninjungleland, on 05/09/2008, -1/+2Excited that it's not the 5 GREATEST THINGS I didn't know about South Park
  • Iztikeit, on 05/09/2008, -3/+0Proof that getting into the industry takes application, not degree or knowledge.
  • cowsgonemadd3, on 05/09/2008, -15/+1Dirties stupidest show on tv. Bunch of filthy mess it is.
    • TheGooseyOne, on 05/09/2008, -2/+1so which are you, mormon, scientologist, petafag, christian, homosexual, heterosexual, jew, female, male, pedophile, fat person, wow nerd, movie critic, family guy writer.

      oh thats right, i forgot. they make fun of everyone.
    • carve, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1I think the people who say that sort of thing have probably only seen an episode or two, and didn't get it.
    • kufu91, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1you've never seen mind of mencia or fox new have you
      • Altanar, on 05/09/2008, -0/+2I vote Mind of Mencia as stupidest show on TV.
    • getbusyliving, on 05/09/2008, -0/+3Yoda has spoken!
  • TheGooseyOne, on 05/09/2008, -3/+1"Mr. Garrison....holds class elections between kids named Ike and Filmore, with an indecisive girl named Flora (Florida) holding the tie-breaking vote."

    Oh hey, thanks for pointing out the girl's name for us. I would not have been able to understand that if you hadn't! Man, askmen.com thinks highly of its viewers.
    • Pittance, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1I didnt catch that when I saw it. But I somehow missed it way back when and only saw that episode recently, so I didnt make the tie in.
  • shadowmoose, on 05/09/2008, -9/+3"Now in its 12th season, South Park shows little signs of slowing down..." I disagree. South Park to me is dying a slow death.
  • TimeLincoln, on 05/09/2008, -1/+3We all have 3 button mouses, why have more than one page...
  • baar01, on 05/09/2008, -1/+0mirror?
  • taradisiac, on 05/09/2008, -4/+2I think south park is a pretty cool guy, eh offends prudes and doesnt afraid of anything
  • mrzack, on 05/09/2008, -12/+1#6 : A degenerate show for a degenerate audience. Cheap shameful tasteless sorry excuse of animation.
    • GhostyBoy, on 05/09/2008, -1/+6Negative, my friend.

      Biting social critique at it's finest. Laced with high-caliber free speech and controversial social insight, and disguised as low brow humor that slips undetected into the psyche of North American culture.
  • optize, on 05/09/2008, -2/+201- South Park began as a video Christmas card
    In 1995 FoxLab executive Brian Graden saw a demented, animated short entitled Jesus vs Frosty that Parker and Stone created while they were still students at the University of Colorado. Graden thought it was hilariously twisted, so he hired them to make a video Christmas card for his friends in the entertainment industry. The result was The Spirit of Christmas, a five-minute short that saw Santa Claus face off against Jesus in a martial arts fight to the death over who would control the Christmas holiday. The two holiday superpowers ultimately resolve the issue with a truce.

    The video made the rounds and soon Parker and Stone found themselves in negotiations with both FOX and Comedy Central to produce a half-hour series based on the short.
    2- Tom Cruise wanted to do a voice for South Park
    Of course, that's in the past tense: Cruise had, at one time, wanted to do a voice for the show. Presumably his interest has waned a bit since the Emmy-nominated episode No. 137, “Trapped in the Closet.” After joining Scientology in search of something to do that’s both fun and “free” (the church is notoriously expensive), the character Stan is believed by members to be the reincarnation of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard. A number of well-known Scientologists, including John Travolta and Tom Cruise, try to convince Stan to lead the church, but he refuses, later calling it a “global scam.” Cruise (the character) locks himself in Stan’s closet and "refuses to come out" after Stan tells him he’s not a very good actor, which Cruise takes as the great prophet’s opinion.

    The show regularly refuses to allow celebrities to play themselves or even play what might be considered normal characters. At most they are offered ludicrous roles. For example, George Clooney played a gay dog and Jay Leno played a bird, while Jerry Seinfeld was offered the role of a sick cat, but his agent turned it down. Other stars believed to have sought voice roles but refused the odd-ball roles offered to them include Steven Spielberg, Samuel L. Jackson and Jeff Daniels.

    3- Cartman was influenced by Archie Bunker
    In an interview conducted by the Vanderbilt University-affiliated First Amendment Center, Trey Parker said that he and Stone grew up watching sitcoms that were extraordinarily PC, such as Diff’rent Strokes and Facts of Life. Then they were blown away by syndicated episodes of All in the Family. Believing that a bigoted character like Archie Bunker could never make it on to television in the current climate, asked themselves, "How could you bring an Archie Bunker back? What if you made him a fat little 8-year-old kid?"

    The result was Eric Cartman, the show’s leading foul-mouth, hatemonger, sadistic, and sociopathic elementary kid. Cartman also happens to be the show’s most hilarious character.
    4- The main female voice-over actor committed suicide
    Mary Kay Bergman, the longtime former voice of Mrs. Butterworth and an experienced voice-over actress, voiced all of the female voices for the first 31 episodes of South Park as well as the movie, South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, including the mothers of all four principle boys, Wendy Testaburger, Mrs. Crabtree and Nurse Gollum, among others.

    Bergman suffered from anxiety and depression. In 1999, at the age of 38, she committed suicide by shooting herself at home. Subsequently, those roles have been voiced by three other women, and two South Park episodes have been dedicated to her memory.
    5- Episodes are changed at the "11th Hour"
    Unlike other animated shows, producers on South Park can produce an episode in a matter of days in order to react to current events, something that has become one of the show’s hallmarks. Some notable examples are:

    On April 22nd, on orders from Attorney General Janet Reno, agents from BORTAC, the tactical unit of the U.S. Border Control, seized Elian Gonzalez from the home of his Miami relatives. On April 26th, episode No. 52 aired, “Quintuplets 2000” in which Janet Reno aides the Romanian government’s efforts to return five circus performing contortionists. In this episode, Stone and Parker rewrote the original plotline to mirror current events.

    On November 7, 2000, in the U.S. Presidential election, Bush and Al Gore waited on the winner of Florida’s 25 electoral votes and the outcome became the most controversial and divisive in history. On November 15th, episode No. 60 aired, "Trapper Keeper," in which Mr. Garrison, the boys’ former teacher, is demoted to kindergarten and holds class elections between kids named Ike and Filmore, with an indecisive girl named Flora (Florida) holding the tie-breaking vote.

    On December 13, 2003, U.S. Special Forces captured Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, who had been hiding in a hole inside a farmhouse. On December 17th, episode No. 111 aired, "It's Christmas in Canada,” which featured the boys finding Saddam hiding in a hole and controlling the voice of the new Canadian Prime Minister.
    • o0Taggart0o, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1Thanks, I didn't have to look at double the amount of ads just because they split up the list on two pages. :D
  • Featherbean, on 05/09/2008, -0/+15"Cartman also happens to be the show’s most hilarious character. "
    I gotta say, in the past few seasons I think Randy has surpassed Cartman as the most hilarious character.
    • mazzy12345, on 05/09/2008, -0/+2i don't know, i think Butters takes the cake on that one.
      • shadowfoxmi, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1"it's what what in the butt.. sir"
    • Niubai, on 05/09/2008, -0/+5Agreed, anything with Randy as main is gold
    • bonedead, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1My dad says Cartman is the funniest "person" "alive". I think everyone has their moments, but when Randy gets his, they're basically the best. When he flips out in the WoW episode (SHARON WHERES STAN?) and the one where he's all "I thought this was America!" plus a ton others, uber.
  • Meatball01, on 05/09/2008, -0/+10Knew all 5. Buried as inaccurate.
    • gottarockit, on 05/11/2008, -0/+0Wait. Did you know them all? Or were they inaccurate?
  • myranttoyou, on 05/09/2008, -12/+2Item #6 - South Park has no longer been funny or topical for years.

    Wait, everyone knew that.
    • jameshickmott, on 05/09/2008, -2/+3From watching south park from season 1, the humor has become intelligent, unlike you.
  • shwang, on 05/09/2008, -0/+5don't tell me what I "didn't know"

  • PGvildys, on 05/09/2008, -2/+3Buried as I knew all of them
  • HanSolo69, on 05/09/2008, -0/+3make that 1 thing I didn't know about South Park.
  • NecroDigg, on 05/09/2008, -3/+4Buried as the site does not work at all in Opera. It just gets stuck in and endless loop of loading.

    Had to use IE to read it *shudder*
    • Sneakypoof, on 05/09/2008, -3/+3Should be using firefox.
    • Pittance, on 05/09/2008, -0/+2Opera and FF are both great browsers. Dont be a fanboy to FF or IE or anything. All websites should be able to display IE, all mozilla variants, and opera variants.
    • zabean, on 05/10/2008, -0/+1works fine for me
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