'South Park' - The TV Series

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South Park is an infamous, crude, profane, raunchy, rather twisted look at the lives of four small children in the mountain town of South Park, Colorado.

The show is loosely based on the childhoods of creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone. They grew up in the town of Littleton, Colorado in the South Park Basin, where they attended the infamous Columbine High School. Many believe the show is a way of satirizing the world as viewed by an adolescent.

Love it or hate it, you have to admit it's hilarious. Despite public outcry and parental concern, South Park is now in it's seventh season.

Programming History

South park originally began as a short cartoon entitled "Jesus Vs. Frosty". In it, four children, closely resembling Kyle, Stan, Cartman, and Kenny, though with some of the voices and identities switched around, build a snowman, which comes to life and begins killing everything1. In the end, Jesus kills it by throwing his halo and chopping it's head off.

The short was later commisioned to be remade as a celebrity christmas gift. It was sent around by the FOX corporation to various celebrities. It was later released on the internet, and then comedy central commisionned a show to be made.

The Boys

Eric Cartman

The 'big-boned' quarter of the South Park four, Eric, or Cartman as he is referred to by everyone but his mother, is by far the meanest and the most loved (by fans). Cartman stands against many good things, Cartman is an anti-semite and also loves eating. Cartman made it into the top ten of the best cartoon characters by TV Guide magazine.

Stan Marsh

Stan is basically a main character without a personality. He was originally intended the main character, though that sometimes shows through, it mostly not the case. He has a crush on Wendy Testaburger throughout much of the show, but he throws up every time she talks to him. Not much more can be said about Stan though, without any defining characteristics to speak of.

Kyle Broflovski

Kyle is basically the same person as Stan, except that he's Jewish. Constantly the object of Cartman's anger, (Kyle, you stupid jew!) Kyle and his adopted brother Ike also share an overprotective, over-Jewish mother.

Kenny McCormick

Kenny is perhaps the strangest character of the four. He always wears his giant orange coat, and usually cannot be understood through it. He's often the only one who knows what is going on, but unfortunately is killed in every episode to Stan's invariable response 'Oh my God! They Killed Kenny!'.

Throughout the series, Kenny has been killed dozens and dozens of ways. The viewer is often teased into thinking that he is dead when he is still living. More often though, Kenny dies in an outlandish, bloody display. He has been killed by a train running over him, a herd of cows trampling him, a flagpole doing through his temple and countless other ways. However, in the following episode, Kenny returns, unscathed2.It is one of the running jokes of the series and one of its more original qualities.

The Town

  • Chef3 is the South Park Elementary School's cafeteria chef. He is also a friend of the boys, often helping them or explaining to them things in song.

  • Mr Garrison is a teacher for the South Park Elementary. He has a number of distinguishing characteristics, such as hating Kathie Lee Gifford, being homosexual and talking to his clothed hand that he called 'Mr Hat'.

  • Mr Hat is the hand of Mr Garrison. He says thinks Mr Garrison can't and often displays a murderous temper. He is simply a hand with an oversized hat and striped clothes. Mr Garrison speaks to him with a slightly falsetto voice through the side of his cheek.

  • Mr Mackey is the school counsellor for South Park Elementary. He advises the children and teachers in various situations, and once was even an interim teacher. He always uses his catch phrase Mmm-kay? as a substitute for obscenities.

  • Jesus makes various appearances throughout the series. He often confronts Satan but more often just tries to live an ordinary life.

  • Father Maxi is the Catholic Priest for the town. He is completely well intentioned and never violates small children.

  • Officer Barbrady is the only police officer in South Park. He speaks in a monotone voice and can't read through most of the series. He is also rather dumb and can't figure out extremely simple crimes.

  • Mr Hanky is the Christmas Poo. Yes that's right, he is an excrement. He flys around, almost like Santa and is marketed as a toy.

  • Jimbo is essentially a redneck with a shotgun. He'll basically shoot anything in season.

  • Ned is a companion of Jimbo and speaks with a 'voicebox' monotone voice.

  • Big Gay Al is a small, but never the less memorable member of town. Al is not particularly big, but is flamboyantly gay.

The Classmates

  • Timmy is the child with permanent brain damage of some sort. He rides around in a wheel chair, and can only say three things: "Timm-ah!", "Gobbles!" and a word which can only be known as "Libby lah!".

  • Tweek is on of the more idiosynratic South Park characters. He is constantly jittery due to a combonation of coffee, ADD, and insane parentage. He usually replaces Kenny when he dies early in the episode.

  • Butters is alter ego of evil mastermind Professor Chaos. Butters was befriended by Cartman, Kyle, and Stan, when Kenny inexplicably died for good. But when they found out that Butters was
    'just too lame', they let him go. In baclash, butters created 'Profesor Chaos' who has a constant barage of half-brained attempts to destroy the world.

  • Token is black, rich, and has little personality (as well as a cool shirt!).

  • Pip is a stereotypical English boy who speaks with a British Accent, orders tea and eats crumpets.

  • Craig is yet another generic character with a weird voice.

  • Clyde is interchangeable with Craig.

  • Wendy Testaburger is Stan's crush, and has been referred to as his girlfriend.

The Families

  • Ike Broflovski

  • Shelley Marsh

Catch Phrases

South Park has a few wonderful catch phrases that have found themselves amongst the lexicon of its viewers.

Oh my god, you killed Kenny! (You Bastards)

Screw you guys, I'm goin' home.

Mm-kay

No, kitty, it's mah pot-pie!

Merchandise

1This was mentioned in a the beginning of a recent episode where 'Tweek' is frightened of completed a snowman, thinking it will come alive and kill everyone. His fears are replied to with 'When did that ever happen, except that one time?'2For a long period of time, however, Kenny was 'permanently' dead. The boys, always wanting an even number of four in their group replaced him with Butters and later Tweek. However, after a while, he returned, good as new, without any explanation whatsoever.3Voiced by legendary musician Isaac Hayes.

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