History WesternAnimation / SouthPark

For its first sixteen seasons, individual seasons were split between two different "halves" (usually comprised of seven to eight episodes). Starting with Season 17, the show runs for a single ten-episode chunk in the fall; this is done to accommodate Matt and Trey due to the success of their Broadway show ''Theatre/TheBookOfMormon'' (and the fact that they're not the young men they used to be when they made a paper-cutout animation about foul-mouthed third graders as a Christmas gag gift). From Season 18 and onwards, the show tends to follow a continuous plotline throughout each season. Late 2019 marked the show's 23rd season, giving it more than 300 episodes. Trey and Matt have stated that they will continue to make ''South Park'' as long as Creator/ComedyCentral lets them. On August 6, 2021, it was announced that the show was renewed to Season 30, and that 14 new specials would be made for Creator/ParamountPlus, beginning with ''WesternAnimation/SouthParkPostCovid'' on November 25, 2021.

** [[Aesop/SouthPark An Aesop]]

** [[HateSink/SouthPark Hate Sink]]

The central characters are Stan Marsh, the group's passive, animal-loving StraightMan, Kyle Broflovski, the passionate moral compass and one of the town's few Jewish kids, [[Main/LastNameBasis Eric Cartman]], a spoiled and sociopathic bully, and Kenny [=McCormick=], a perverted hedonist and [[Main/TheyKilledKennyAgain one of the show's biggest punching bags]].

[[ProductionLeadTime An astonishingly short turn-around time]] helps keep the show topical with current events. The show is produced using the same graphics engine that helped create the dinosaurs in ''Film/JurassicPark'', which fostered comparisons to building a sandcastle with a bulldozer; only the early shorts and the pilot episode were done by hand via cut-outs and physical backdrops. In some cases, an episode can be produced a matter of days before it airs, allowing for current events to be parodied almost as soon as they happen. An episode on the capture of UsefulNotes/SaddamHussein aired just a few days after it happened, and excerpts from both UsefulNotes/BarackObama and UsefulNotes/JohnMcCain's post-election speeches were featured in the episode that aired ''less than 24 hours'' after the election results came in. While different seasons, episodes and movies have different timetables, they have proven capable of regularly completing episodes in less than a week's time before being submitted to Comedy Central; the show has only missed its deadline ''once'', due to a power outage. The documentary ''6 Days to Air: The Making of South Park'' sheds light on this lightning-fast production schedule.

[[ProductionLeadTime An astonishingly short turn-around time]] helps keep the show topical with current events. The show is produced using the same graphics engine that helped create the dinosaurs in ''Film/JurassicPark'', which fostered comparisons to building a sandcastle with a bulldozer; only the early shorts and the pilot episode were done by hand via cut-outs and physical backdrops. In some cases, an episode can be produced a matter of days before it airs, allowing for current events to be parodied almost as soon as they happen. An episode on the capture of UsefulNotes/SaddamHussein aired just a few days after it happened, and excerpts from both UsefulNotes/BarackObama and John [=McCain=]'s post-election speeches were featured in the episode that aired ''less than 24 hours'' after the election results came in. While different seasons, episodes and movies have different timetables, they have proven capable of regularly completing episodes in less than a week's time before being submitted to Comedy Central; the show has only missed its deadline ''once'', due to a power outage. The documentary ''6 Days to Air: The Making of South Park'' sheds light on this lightning-fast production schedule.

('''Kenny:''' *mumbles something perverted*[[labelnote:*]]translated to one of the following depending on the season: '''Pilot:''' "Our town is the greatest, dammit! Right down to the little granite!" '''S1:''' "I like girls with big, fat titties! I like girls with deep vaginas!", '''S2-5:''' "Me, I got a ten-inch penis! Use your mouth if you wanna clean it!", '''S7-9:''' "Someday, I'll be old enough to stick my dick up [[Music/BritneySpears Britney's]] butt!" '''S10+:''' "I like fuckin' silly bitches and I know my penis likes it!"[[/labelnote]])\\

These four main boys and their friends, family, and neighbors find themselves embroiled in all sorts of weirdness, ranging from cults, aliens, and monsters to exaggerated-for-comic-effect versions of RippedFromTheHeadlines problems to obvious parodies of action and family movies. [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking It's also well-known for containing loads of swearing, violence, and poop and fart jokes]] (at least early on).

While the AuthorTract is very evident, Matt and Trey make a point of targeting ''[[EqualOpportunityOffender everyone]]''. They've lampooned subjects near and dear to the hearts of social conservatives, social activists, socialists, liberals, [[TheFundamentalist religious fundamentalists]], [[HollywoodAtheist actively hostile atheists]], corporations and business interests, anarchists, dictators, hippies, trendy people, geeks, teenagers, the elderly, [[TakeThatUs themselves]] and sometimes [[TakeThatAudience even their own audience]] -- seriously, you could name just about any kind of group and the show's probably done ''something'' to piss that group off.

('''Kenny:''' *mumbles something perverted*[[labelnote:*]]translated to either "I like girls with big, fat titties! I like girls with deep vaginas!", "Me, I got a ten-inch penis! Use your mouth if you wanna clean it!", "Someday, I'll be old enough to stick my dick up [[Music/BritneySpears Britney's]] butt!" or "I like fuckin' silly bitches and I know my penis likes it!"[[/labelnote]])\\

[[caption-width-right:350:Pretty much everyone.[[note]]In the foreground from left to right: [[OnlySaneMan Stan Marsh]], [[NiceJewishBoy Kyle Broflovski]], [[LovableSexManiac Kenny McCormick]], and [[FatBastard Eric Cartman]].[[/note]]]]

''South Park'' is an [[[CrossesTheLineTwice in]]]famous [[LongRunners long-running]] AnimatedShockComedy by Creator/TreyParkerAndMattStone on Creator/ComedyCentral. Arguably the defining SubvertedKidsShow, it debuted in 1997 and follows the misadventures of a group of elementary school kids in the titular mountain town of South Park, UsefulNotes/{{Colorado}}.