Absurdly Short Production Time: Likely due to the show originating via shorts with very time-consuming paper cutouts, Parker and Stone seem highly motivated to have a swift turnaround on each episode. This is helped by utilizing state-of-the-art digital animation software and otherwise having Stylistic Suck designs that don't need much of a rough draft before finalizing it. South Park Studios is also an all-in-one location where rough storyboards are sent to the animators from the first day of the writers room, and they are recording voices by the third day. It started at six to eight weeks (most animated shows are about eight months at best, with multiple episodes in the pipeline at a time), but they gradually whittled it down to under a week if they needed to, which is where the documentary "6 Days to Air: The Making of South Park" explores. More serialized seasons have a different turnaround, as well as the hourlong movies, but the process is generally the same. This shreds the typical issues with Production Lead Time, as they can discuss current events within days of it occurring.
Remember the season three episode "Sexual Harassment Panda"? Well... turns out it's real and it goes by the name P.A.N.D.A., though it specifically focuses on the dental industry's role in preventing abuse.
"Freemium Isn't Free" portrays Canada using a free to play mobile app Terrance and Phillip licensed game loaded with microtransactions. Ottawa really is the home of many mobile app developers who use the same marketing techniques. No Canadian Devil's involved that we know of though.
"Krazy Kripples" has Jimmy mistaking the Crips gang for a group of fellow "cripples." In reality, one of the possible origins for the Crips' name does refer to "cripple," referring to how they appeared in public with pimp canes in The '70s.
"Smug Alert!" equated the self-righteous "smell your own farts" type of behavior of hybrid car owners and environmentalists in general as producing its own type of pollution and creating an ecological disaster. The thing is, hybrid cars do pollute— not in the same way as gasoline-powered cars, but the mining for rare-earth metals for their batteries is an industry that produces dangerous chemical runoff.
Acting for Two: Played straight at first and then lampshaded pretty hard. Parker and Stone voice almost every character and even they admit they don't have much of a range. Occasionally, they will have other voice actors, but most of them are people who work with them on the show (which explains why Adrian Beard is the voice of Token and why Bill Hader voiced a redneck on "More Crap"). In the early episodes, George Clooney and Natasha Henstridge (a.k.a "That chick from Species") had roles on the show (Clooney was the voice of Stan's gay dog, Sparky, while Henstridge voiced the substitute teacher Miss Ellen), but very rarely does this show have celebrity guest stars. Bill Hader is the closest thing to a celebrity voice actor that Trey and Matt have now, with emphasis on "voice acting" since Hader was known on Saturday Night Live for sounding just like or almost like the celebrities he impersonates note (some notables include Al Pacino, Seth Rogen, John Malkovich, Alan Alda, Keith Morrison, James Carville, Eliot Spitzer, Arnold Schwarzenegger, David Bowie, Dave Matthews and Clint Eastwood) and coming up with bizarre voices for his recurring or one-shot characters (Greg the Alien, Stefonnote which is based on an unnamed New York City barista who looked and dressed like Stefon, Colonel Nastynote the resident relationship therapist on Cee-Lo Green's talk show Gettin Freaky with Cee-Lo Green, and Vinny Vedecci).
The late Mary Kay Bergman was a case of this for nearly all the female characters as well, with only a few (such as Bebe or guest roles) being voiced by other actresses such as Jennifer Howell and Toddy Walters note Although due to a behind the scenes falling-out with Parker, Walters did not do any voice work beyond season 3. After her death, the roles became split between Eliza Schneider, Mona Marshall, and the occasional other actress (Howell or guests note Although there are no records of their exact roles, the actresses included Dee Dee Green, Shay Hughes, and Megan Staley), although Schneider took up the bulk of the work. April Stewart now handles most of the female characters, although Mona Marshall and other actressesnote Jennifer Howell continuing to voice Bebe, Paula Holmberg and Jessica Makinson voicing other women and female fourth-graders have taken on other parts.
Toke- er Tolkien Black's father Steve was initially played by Trey Parker. At the end of "The Big Fix", he's now played by Tolkien's voice actor Adrien Beard.
Actor Leaves, Character Dies: "The Return of Chef", where Chef gets quite possibly the biggest bridge dropped on any character ever. It's also an instance of Real Life Writes the Plot - it was initially thought that Isaac Hayes deliberately quit after the episode making fun of Tom Cruise, but the 20th Season interview with the Hollywood Reporter reveals that the Church of Scientology quit "for" him while he was recovering from the stroke he had in January of 2006.
Adored by the Network: You'd be hard-pressed to not find this show on Comedy Central's daily schedule. Even as other shows rotate through periods of adoration, South Park will always air several times a day unless it's a special event. Frequently the entire afternoon and primetime schedule (and most of the late night schedule) will consist of South Park, particularly on Wednesdays or in the week leading up to a season premiere. In August of 2021 an unprecedented deal for multi-season renewal and 14 movie-esque specials was made for almost 900 million dollars.
All-Star Cast: The short-lived Canadian French dub cast local celebrities in many of the voice roles. Stan was voiced by film director Xavier Dolan.
Amateur Cast: Most of the male voice actors aside from Trey Parker and Matt Stone, such as Eric Stough (Kenny's unmuffed voice) and Adrien Beard (Tolkien), worked on the show as writers and animators before the duo recruited them to do voice work. In Beard's case, he was asked to voice Tolkien because he was the only black person who worked on the show at the time.
Craig and Tweek were a popular pair for years, despite little interaction between the two. The writers took note in a 2015 episode where they poke fun at yaoi fangirls and have the kids complain about the ship. And then they canonized the couple.
"Carol" was a popular fanon name for Kenny's mom, as it had been used for several other moms before they each got a Sudden Name Change. The Fractured but Whole makes this official.
"200" and "201" are banned on Comedy Central's own website, as is "Super Best Friends", a much earlier fifth season episode that depicted the prophet Mohammed casually and repeatedly with no backlash, at the time. These episodes, along with "Cartoon Wars: Parts 1 and 2," which also were about controversies relating to depictions of Muhammad, were not made available when the show began streaming on HBO Max, despite the "Cartoon Wars" episodes putting a black screen with a description of what is happening up during the scene where Muhammad would appear, and Muhammad not being literally depicted. "Cartoon Wars" is still available to purchase on iTunes and Prime Video, however.
While "Jared Has Aides" was banned from Comedy Central for several years, due to the ending where Butters is abused by his parents, and all of the jokes about AIDS, it eventually returned to the regular rotation. In fact, on August 19, 2015, following Jared Fogle pleading guilty to possession of child pornography and soliciting underage boys for sex, Comedy Central preempted a repeat of another episode "Over Logging"note the episode where the people of South Park move west after losing their Internetjust so they could show it!
"Chinpokomon" never aired in Japan due to its cruel jokes and stereotypes about the people (much like the season ten Simpsons episode "Thirty Minutes over Tokyo," only South Park's episode was more cruel in its mockery). It came under fire from both Nintendo of Japan as well as several right-wing groups in the country, in particular because of the references to Hirohito and bombing Pearl Harbor.
Israeli broadcaster Channel 2 refused to air "Pinkeye" because of Cartman's Hitler costume and his admiration of the Fuhrer during a film that's supposed to dissuade people from thinking Hitler was great, which would offend the country's Jewish population.
Other episodes banned by Japan's WOWOW include: "Terrance and Phillip in: 'Not Without My Anus'" (reportedly due to Saddam Hussein's appearance, or possibly banned for the same reasons that America rarely airs it: it was a gag episode that aired en lieu of a two-part episode and people didn't much care for it), "Do the Handicapped Go to Hell?"/"Probably" (reasons unknown, but most likely due to the heavy references to Christianity, as that religion is not all that well-known in Japan. The episodes are on the DVD with subtitles), "A Ladder to Heaven" (mockery of the Japanese and more Western religious references that the Japanese won't understand), and "Krazy Kripples" (due to Christopher Reeve's death). After production shifted to the Japanese FOX network, "Two Days Before the Day After Tomorrow" was banned in light of the 2011 tsunami.
The Miami-produced Latin American dub had numerous examples:
"Rainforest Schmainforest" was banned in 2011, after complaints about its stereotypes of Costa Rica. The ban was later lifted and a redubbed version (by Studio Center) aired in 2012, but with some censorship.
"Free Willzyx" was not dubbed due to derogatory jokes about Mexicans, although this ban was supposedly lifted in 2012. "The Last of the Meheecans" was not broadcast on MTV Latinoamerica for the same reasons, but was later included on the DVD releases.
"Pinewood Derby" was set to air in February 2010 on MTV, but was pulled due to the portrayal of Felipe Calderón.
Episodes "200" and "201" have been banned from being dubbed in Germany, Turkey, Latin America and France (and pretty much all other countries) due to the Muhammad controversy that happened in America over that episode. An interview with William Coryn (the director for the French dub, who also provides Kyle's voice in said dub) had stated that the episodes would have had to have double the censorship if they were translated over. These episodes are also excluded from overseas DVD releases.
The first Italian dub by SEFIT-CDC banned the season four episodes "Cartman Joins NAMBLA", "Do the Handicapped Go to Hell?" and "Probably". "Cartman Joins NAMBLA" was banned because of the excessive references to homosexual pedophilia (the main plot about Cartman joining the North American Man-Boy Love Association) and infanticide (the subplot of Kenny killing his mom's unborn baby). The "Do the Handicapped Go to Hell?"-"Probably" two-parter was banned for its irreverent take on the Catholic Church (and religion in general, as "Probably" reveals that Mormons get to go to Heaven while everyone else [like Catholics, Jehovah's Witnesses, Protestants, etc] end up in Hell because they didn't pick Mormonism as the one true religion).
While France love the show, the TV channels who air it seem to have their own policies about which episode have to be aired at which hours. Some episodes are dubbed in time but are very seldom aired on TV, the most notable example being "Ginger Cow". French network Game One aired season 17 in order and was very eager to air the whole Black Friday Trilogy because of the Game of Thrones hype, but "Ginger Cow" never aired with the rest due to the whole subject of Israel and religious conflict being sensitive with the young and mixed audience of the show in France, who often take the show very seriously. It aired more confidentially some weeks after the whole season at a late hour. It's very frequent with other specific episodes. ("D-Yikes", "Go Fund Yourself" with the ISIS reference, "Naughty Ninjas"...)
The show as a whole was banned from South Korea after only a few episodes, as the government was flooded with complaints about its content.
Averted in 2019, when the show was now available for the first time on Netflix.
On that note, the scene in "200" where Buddha snorts cocaine alongside Jesus looking at pornography, showing the double standards of mocking religious figures, ironically got the episode (and the entire series) banned in Sri Lanka.
China itself is attempting to scrub any mention of the show after the release of the episode "Band in China", which satirized China's extensive censorship and how overseas companies will tool their works just to please the censors due to China's massive population making up the bulk of international box office numbers.
Trey Parker. So very much. Pick an episode and it will usually have him singing or it will have something spoken or written in Japanese (for those who don't know, Parker is the lead singer of the band, DVDA, and majored in Japanese in college)
Isaac Hayes before he left. In almost every appearance, he's singing.
Cast the Runner-Up: Karri Turner was originally selected to voice the female regulars and had recorded roles for the unaired version of the pilot, but was let go as they felt her voice wasn't distinct enough for the characters that they wanted her to voice. However, she did get to voice Kathie Lee Gifford in "Weight Gain 4000".
Completely Different Title: The Meteor Shower trilogy of "Cat Orgy", "Two Guys Naked In A Hot Tub", and "Jewbilee" have different names in Japanese. All their titles are prefixed with "Meteor Story", and then translate to "Wild Wild Cartman", "Stan's Angel", and "Kyle and Kenny's Jew Scouts".
Creator Backlash: Parker and Stone are noted as hating the following things about the show:
The entirety of the first three seasons. Although in the same interview, they stated "Not Without My Anus" was the only episode they actually liked from the second season, as it was something weird and different.
They also hated the commentary tracks that they recorded for the Season One DVD set in 2002 (which were actually omitted from the set's final release but quickly leaked online), feeling they were boring and way too long. Because of this, they didn't record any commentary tracks for the Season Two set. However, this decision upset a number of fans. So, as a compromise, they recorded "mini commentaries" for the DVD sets from Season Three onwards.
The censorship and controversy over the episodes "200" and "201", especially the hackjob editing of "201", to the point Parker even threatened to quit the show afterward:
In the 14 years we’ve been doing South Park we have never done a show that we couldn’t stand behind. We delivered our version of the show to Comedy Central and they made a determination to alter the episode. It wasn’t some meta-joke on our part. Comedy Central added the bleeps. In fact, Kyle’s customary final speech was about intimidation and fear. It didn’t mention Muhammad at all but it got bleeped too. We’ll be back next week with a whole new show about something completely different and we’ll see what happens to it.
"Chef Goes Nanners", which they admit they rushed out so they could leave the office early for the holiday weekend.
"Pip" (the Great Expectations parody with Malcolm McDowell as the narrator), which is hated by all staff members that worked on it, but especially by Parker himself. As a result (and the fact that it wasn't received too hotly by the fanbase either), it's one of the episodes that Comedy Central doesn't rerun very often. However, it is on the season four DVD and can be found online, so it's not like it's gone forever, like the real version of "201" or the scene in "An Elephant Makes Love to a Pig" where Shelly sets Stan on fire (the latter which only survives via a leaked video rip).
Trey and Matt feel a tremendous amount of regret for depicting Gary Condit and John and Patricia Ramsey as being guilty for the deaths of Chandra Levy and JonBenét Ramsey in "Butters' Very Own Episode" when they were all later exonerated by new evidence, which was not helped by Mrs. Ramsey dying of ovarian cancer in 2006, five years after the episode first aired. It's one of the very few occasions where they directly apologized to people they've mocked on the show.
"South Park Is Gay!" was also an episode that they rushed and felt shameful over in retrospect, as it introduced the "Crab People" when they ran out of ideas to successfully continue the episode (after scrapping its initial subplot). Most South Park fans who think the show isn't as good as it used to be do claim this episode as the one that made the show jump the shark.
They also have a fair amount of disdain for Season 8, claiming they were going through a bout of Writer's Block due to the grueling schedule they were under while working on Team America: World Police. In particular, "Good Times With Weapons" was deemed a weak episode by them, despite being considered one of the most memorable in the show's history due to its shonen anime sequences. Fortunately, they later did a 180 with their opinion on the episode, listing it as one of their favorites in 2015.
Parker and Stone have very much reversed their position on global warming since "Manbearpig", with the title character turning out to be real in the Season 22 story consisting of the episodes "Time to Get Cereal" and "Nobody Got Cereal".
They weren't happy with the way "A Million Little Fibers" turned out, feeling the two subplots of the episode didn't work together because it was "weirdness on top of weirdness". They have stated if they could go back and redo any episode, it would be this one.
"Marjorine" was painful for them to watch, because they felt the three subplots (Butters pretending to be a girl, the boys treating the girl's paper fortune teller as a real scientific device, and Butters' parents believing that Butters died and was resurrected in a cursed cemetary) should have been their own episodes, and were wasted as is.
They also have negative feelings about "Stanley's Cup", admitting the episode was rushed to finish the tenth season. Fortunately for them, most fans agree, thanks in no small part to the ending being seen as way too cruel even for South Park.
Creator Breakdown: "You're Getting Old" gave fans the impression that Parker and Stone had had enough with the show and were going to end it soon. The two themselves, however, have stated that fans "took the episode too seriously" and deny being unhappy with the show.
Creator's Favorite: Parker and Stone have both named Cartman as their favourite character and the one with whom they most identify.
Creator's Favorite Episode: Parodied in the introductions on the Season One DVD, where Trey and Matt introduce every single episode as their "favorite episode."
Creator's Pest: Parker and Stone are known to dislike the following characters:
Kenny was Killed Off for Real in Season Five, because Trey Parker and Matt Stone were getting sick of him and finding new ways to kill him off. After a season of Butters, and later Tweek, filling his place, Kenny was brought back, though with a reduced role. They originally wanted to kill Kyle off, because they felt that he and Stan were interchangeable.
Dr. Mephesto was phased out because the duo stopped finding him funny. They felt that they should have got rid of him in "Cartman Joins NAMBLA".
Cross-Dressing Voices: It is not rare to see some of the women in the show voiced by Trey Parker, especially if they have Gonkish traits. It is also not rare to see a few boys, including the Sixth Grade Leader, voiced by women.
Ike has been voiced by different people throught the series, with some of them being girls. He is currently voiced by Betty Parker, Trey Parker's daughter.
Some of the foreign dubs have the boys being voiced by women. Special mention goes to the European Spanish dub in which almost all of the male kids are voiced by women.
The Danza: The members of the titular anti-smoking group from “Butt Out” all have the same names as their voice actors.
"I Should Never Have Gone Ziplining" features a live action segment with all four boys portrayed by actors clearly in their mid-twenties.
All children, excluding Ike and similarly aged toddlers, are portrayed by Parker, Stone and other adult voice actors with their voices pitched up or simply imitating child-like voices. South Park: Post Covid and South Park: Post Covid: The Return of Covid, which take place 40 years in the future, show what their character voices sound like without the pitch editing.
Calling the number shown at the end of "Basic Cable" brings you to a phone menu purporting to offer streaming rights to each of the faux-spinoff shows seen throughout season 23, as well as The Queef Sisters and Santa South Park.
Directed by Cast Member: The French dub was initially directed by Gilbert Lévy, who is also the voice of characters such as Jimbo, Mr. Mackey, and Token to name a few. Eventually, he was replaced as the director by Thierry Wermuth (the voice of Stan, Randy, Gerald, etc.), who was himself replaced later on by William Coryn (the voice of Kyle, Kenny, Tweek, etc.).
Disowned Adaptation: Trey Parker and Matt Stone hated the video games from the show's early years, specifically South Park Rally and Chef's Luv Shack, which they had little involvement in and were due to Comedy Central controlling the shows merchandise licensing at the time. Once Matt and Trey gained more control over licensing they didn't allow any more games from the franchise to be developed until Let's Go Tower Defense Play! nine years later, and starting with that they had more of a creative hand in the development. Since then, games like The Stick of Truth and The Fractured But Whole not only have had their direct involvement, but mini-arcs within the show to lead up to the games plots, as well as the games themselves being said to be canonical events in the series.
Italy had the original heavily-censored SEFIT-CDC dub that covered the first four seasons, followed by the less-edited adaptation by ODS.
Latin American adaptations: Seasons 1 and 2 have three completely separate dubs. The first was an edited version by Audiomaster 3000 that aired only in Mexico on a local TV station. The second was BVI Communications' initial 1998 dub (which passed to Globecast for the last few episodes), and the current is a 2011 re-dub by BVI. The re-dubbing was reportedly done in order to keep voice cast consistent with the then-current seasons they'd adapted. The scripts for the first BVI version were also recycled for a later adaptation produced in Spain.
Season 7 has two alternate dubs, one by BVI for MTV and the other by Kitchen Inc. (that went unaired and is only available on the DVD release)
"Timmy 2000" and "Trapper Keeper" have the original Globecast/Kitchen Inc. dubs, as well as redone versions by BVI.
"Rainforest Schmainforest" has the original banned Globecast dub, a censored 2011 re—dub by Studio Center, and an alternate uncensored re-dub that was never aired (according to one of the actors that worked on it).
The film has two competing dubs that were produced around the same time in 2000. The first did not dub any of the songs and censored profanity, while the second was less censored (and dubbed the songs) but criticized for being too literal with its translation.
There are two dubs of the movie that exist in Hungary. The original was widely criticized for not retaining most of the show's voice cast, which lead to a re-dub by Filmmúzeum.
There is a French dub of the series, as well as a short-lived Quebecois adaptation that only covered season 1. The movie also has an obscure Quebecois dub to compete with the better-known French version.
In Russia, it's more of a case of Dueling Voiceovers, since South Park in Russia has a Voiceover Translation, with no more than 2 voice actors. The show first aired on Ren-TV in the year 2000, with Alexander Klukvin & Ludmila Gnilova as the voice actors, which translated the series up to the 8th season. The show's first 2 seasons were later translated by Dmitry Puchkov, aka Goblin, in 2004. The show later aired on 2x2 in 2005, using the same voice actors from the Ren-TV voiceover. Around the same time, South Park aired on MTV Russia, this time with different voice actors, Maria Tryndyaikina and Evgeni Rybov, who later went on to do the voiceover translation for Paramount Comedy, the Russian equivalent of Comedy Central, in 2013.
There's three Japanese dubs (four, if you include the movie as well): One for the cable network WOWOW, another for Fox's Japanese feed and another one for Netflix starting in 2019.
"200" and "201" not only got censored by Comedy Central ("Muhammad"'s appearance and the ENTIRE ending speech by Kyle and Jesus were censored), but it was only aired once on the night it premiered (as opposed to the usual two times, the second being a re-air). They probably had very good reason to, though, considering a single vaguely worded warning posted on a "smallest-fish-in-the-smallest-pond" extremist Muslim group's website when the prior episode aired. It didn't help that the week in between "200" and "201", the Times Square Car Bomb plot was foiled. Said car was parked near the Viacom headquarters, where Comedy Central is based.
"An Elephant Makes Love to a Pig" had a scene cut before broadcast where Shelly repeatedly sets Stan on fire with matches, then proceeds to drench him with water each time. This explains the puddle that appears under Stan after he gets beat up. Comedy Central ordered the scene cut, as it was around this time that they first found out that kids were watching the show in secret, which reminded them of the Beavis And Butthead trailer fire controversy. It survives in a poor quality rip that circulated online in the early days of the show.
As noted elsewhere, this is the reason Kenny was brought back into the show against Parker and Stone's wishes. The duo retaliated by minimizing his involvement in the later seasons; for example, he doesn't speak at all in a number of episodes. Although it seems they've softened their stance on him, even giving him several episodes starring him and making his Mysterion character extremely popular.
Franchise Zombie: This article reveals that Parker and Stone had hoped to end their show earlier than the (at minimum) 26-season run Comedy Central renewed the series for.
I Knew It!: A meta example. Ten years after "The Return of Chef" aired, Hayes' son revealed that the decision to quit the show was not in fact his father's, and that Hayes had been blindly following the Church's script after a stroke he'd suffered earlier that year. In response, Parker states that he and Matt "knew there was something way more rotten going on."
Keep Circulating the Tapes: "200" and "201" will never appear on TV again (uncensored or otherwise), though press release confirmed that they would in fact be featured on the season DVD sets. However, much to the fans' displeasure, the version of "201" that appears on the DVD is the edited version. Also good luck with ever seeing "Super Best Friends" again on television (though "Super Best Friends" is available — with Mohammed shown and referred to by name — on the season five DVD set, which was pressed and released years before the Mohammed debacle).
Good news: the uncensored audio from the speech at the end of "201" was finally leaked sometime in 2014.
The Audiomaster 3000 dub of season 1 has vanished into obscurity, and the original theme song has also disappeared (only the re-recorded version for season 2 is known to still exist). Season 2 is easier to come by in circulation, as MTV had aired it at one point and the Televisa DVD releases included the Audiomaster dub of "Chickenpox" (even though most of the episodes on the season 2 DVD used the 2011 BVI vocal track).
The original unedited airing of "Trapper Keeper" has alternate audio near the end in which "Bill Cosby" screams in agony as he fades from existence rather than shouting happily that he doesn't existed due to preventing his future from occurring. This version was only aired once during the episode's original airdate and was never repeated, nor was it released on DVD.
Life Imitates Art: After The Movie focused on Sheila going to extreme lengths to protect children from dirty language, an adolescence psychology textbook recounted the author's son's school showing the parents an offensive episode of South Park to show them how their children were being harmed by television. (Reportedly, the attempt failed because the parents were laughing too hard.)
Lying Creator: Before season 21 started, Trey and Matt claimed that they would lay off mocking Donald Trump. However, that wasn't the case, as they started mocking him again in "Put It Down" and every episode of the season afterwards. Apparently, his "diplomacy" with North Korea was just too good for them to pass up.
Magnum Opus Dissonance: Because of how fast the show is made, Trey and Matt typically have ambivalent feelings towards any given episode and are prepared for it to bomb upon airing. Even afterwards they can harbor some lingering dislike.
An interesting variant of sorts occurs with season 2's episode "Not Without My Anus". They hate the entirety of seasons 1-3, that same interview has Parker stating "Not Without My Anus" to be the only episode they liked from the second season.
Trey was trying to get "Make Love, Not Warcraft" pulled last minute feeling it would sink the entire show. It ended up an acclaimed episode topping most "Best of" polls.
They aren't entirely happy with season 8, claiming they were going through a bout of Writer's Block due to the grueling schedule they were under while working on Team America: World Police. Fans on the other hand consider it one of the strongest seasons, as it has many fan-favorite episodes including "Good Times with Weapons", "AWESOM-O" and "Woodland Critter Christmas".
Mutually Fictional: This trope even occurs within a single show: South Park and Terrance and Phillip have watched each other's television shows. This gets a bit muddled as Terrance and Phillip are "real" actors in the SU universe with a television show the South Park kids watch, but the characters (one assumes) Terrance and Phillip play have watched South Park.
It gets even weirder when you consider that Terrance and Phillip are referred to in-universe as cartoon characters.
They were originally meant to be a cartoon even cruder and more poorly animated than South Park itself. This was before the decision was made that all Canadian characters would be animated the same way as Terrance and Phillip.
No Budget: The first shorts and first episode were done with construction paper. Still has this look despite later seasons being animated using more advanced software, though still on a smaller budget than other animated shows.
Japan has yet to receive any episodes beyond those of season 9 (which only aired in a subtitled format on their FOX satellite network). For a time, any episodes beyond that of season 7 were that case, as WOWOW's license to the show expired after 2004. This is finally averted in 2019, when Netflix bought the rights of the show for that country.
South Korean fans had to rely on fan-subbed versions of the show, due to the Republic of Korea Broadcasting Committee banning it from Tooniverse after parents had complained of its vulgar and violent content (it's unknown how many episodes were dubbed of season 1 and left unaired).
The first Polish dub (made in 2001) only covered season 1. When Comedy Central Poland began producing its dub in 2013, they began with season 13 (seasons 11-12 would be dubbed in 2016-17), this was eventually averted when VH1 redubbed season 1 and dubbed seasons 2-10, and as of 2020, all 23 seasons have been dubbed.
The Czech dub ended after season 6 (in 2004). Season 7 was finally dubbed in 2012, and as of 2020, all 23 seasons have been dubbed.
Channel V's Mandarin Chinese dub broadcast in Taiwan only managed to get to season 7.
For some reason, countries outside of North America only got Blu-Ray sets for seasons 12 and 13, and from season 14 and on the Blu-Ray sets are region locked.
The unfinished line "I've never seen so many children molested since..." in "Big Gay Al's Big Gay Boat Ride" was long rumored to included "Michael Jackson" at the end in its first airing and/or alleged international airings. However, no proof was ever found for the dialogue to have ever existed, and it was later confirmed to be a hoax.
Back during the 2000s, a fan had come up with a theory for a "deleted scene" in Bigger, Longer & Uncut that they presented as an explanation how Kenny could go to Heaven in the end (despite the fact he was pulled to Hell before). However, some had taken this theory seriously and as proof that a missing character ("Flower") and plotline existed, and it eventually became spread as a fact on some fansites.
While three people who had worked on computer production of the film had claimed there was enough deleted material over time to fit on "three or four DVDs", Parker and Stone had since debunked the claims and stated that the deleted scenes from the movie are only alternate takes, not genuinely deleted, to justify the lack of a special edition DVD (along with the fact that they hate doing commentary tracks).
The Original Darrin: In the Japanese Netflix dub, Anne-Sophie Lennerfors (a.k.a. LiLiCo) reprises her role as Cartman from the WOWOW dub.
Orphaned Reference: In early planning, Trey and Matt had the idea for the boys to be involved in more plots focusing around aliens and the supernatural. This was quickly scrapped, as they then decided it'd come off as too much of a ripoff of The X-Files. The random aliens placed in the background as Easter eggs were a remnant of this concept.
The Other Darrin: Pretty much all the major female characters went through this. Originally, Mary Kay Bergman performed all the women voicesnote save for Bebe and a few other guest characters, who were also either voiced by Jennifer Howell, Toddy Walters or other occasional actresses, but after her suicide in late 1999, her voices were taken over by Mona Marshall and Eliza Schneider, starting with the final season 3 episodes she hadn't yet recorded. In turn, Schneider left the show in 2003 (due to a salary dispute stemming from union issues) and she was replaced by April Stewart.
In South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, Mike Judge (of King of the Hill, Beavis and Butt-Head, Office Space and Idiocracy fame) voiced Kenny when he's finally seen not wearing his parka. Outside of The Movie, Stone voices Kenny (Stone covers his mouth with his sleeve to achieve Kenny's muffled speech), while his unhooded self is voiced by Eric Stough ( except as Mysterion). While his voice is the movie is clean, cute and soft, his voice in in the series is nasal (more so then Craig possibly—justified in that Stone also voices Craig). It makes perfect sense why he can voice such a low, nasal voiced, superhero like Mysterion.
Clyde's mother was originally voiced by April Stewart, but wound up voiced by Parker in "Reverse Cowgirl" due to Stewart being unavailable to re-record her lines after the script was rewritten.
Ike is another big example of recasting, although justifiable in his case due to being voiced by children. He's had at least nine (confirmed) different actors so far, and all were either children of staff members or local young talent based out of Los Angeles. There may be more children that had voiced him, as his actors haven't been credited since at least "Royal Pudding", and the show staff prefers to think of the children as a group.
Some of the girls that aren't Wendy and Bebe have been known to have their voice actresses rotate (due to them not being as much a priority for consistent voices). Red and Milly are two examples. In these cases, actresses such as Mona Marshall, Jessica Makinson and Paula Holmberg (who quit after season 11) have helped fill in when Stewart was either sick or to ease up the need of her having to voice all the young girls.
Karri Turner originally voiced all the female characters in the pilot, but Mary Kay Bergman re-recorded the roles for the aired version.
Damien was originally voiced by Mike Judge, but he was unable to commute back to re-record his lines when the script was changed (Judge lived in Texas, while production was handled out in California), leaving Stone to dub over the dialogue and voice the new/altered lines as well.
"Freak Strike" had Parker originally voicing Vanity (the out-of-control teenager on the Maury Povich show) in a voice similar to what he used for Ms. Choksondik. This version could be heard in early promos for the episode. By the time the episode actually aired, Jessica Makinson had been brought in to re-record the dialogue so Vanity would have an actual woman's voice.
The season 22 episodes "Time to Get Cereal" and "Nobody Got Cereal?" — as with previous episodes featuring Al Gore and ManBearPig — are reflective of the creators' views on climate change. In contrast to previous episodes though, these two firmly establish that ManBearPig is both very real and a major threat, and are very clearly Matt and Trey's way of showing they now believe climate change is real and apologizing to the real Al Gore for all the years of mockery up until then.
Season 23 and the following specials have many allusions to marital problems, (Butters and his Egyptian curse, Sharon and the kids hating Randy and wanting him to go to jail, the boys wanting share Kenny when their friendship ends, etc). Season 23 directly followed the news of the divorce between Trey Parker and his wife.
"Quest for Ratings" has many similarities to "The Mexican Staring Frog of Southern Sri Lanka", as both are satires on how far shows will go for ratings, with characters going extreme lengths for ratings.
The movie is basically "Death" made for feature length.
Schedule Slip: The season 17 episode "Goth Kids 3: Dawn of the Posers" was scheduled to air on October 16, 2013, but a power outage at South Park Studios prevented the episode from getting completed on time and was rescheduled a week later. The episodes "Scott Tenorman Must Die" and "Overlogging"note the episode where everyone in South Park moves to California after the Internet shuts down aired in its place.
Screwed by the Network: The editing done to "201" and the syndicated reruns on free-to-air TV.
Serendipity Writes the Plot: An example not rooted in technical difficulties. Much of the 7th episode of season 20 "Oh, Jeez" had to be re-written and re-animated at the last minute before its airing (including changing the title) due to not correctly predicting the 2016 presidential election result. To boot, the episode's old title was, "The Very First Gentleman".
Spared by the Cut: Kenny's semi-permanent death in season five was originally considered for Kyle, who Butters would then replace, allegedly because they felt that Stan and Kyle were too similar. This itself was built from an earlier idea of Kyle moving away in season four. In the end, they decided they didn't want to kill Kyle (as they felt things would get too depressing without him), but Kenny, being an overused Running Gag, was expendable. (Stan and Kyle, meanwhile, eventually underwent enough Divergent Character Evolution to fix any problems.) Trey Parker and Matt Stone had also intended for Kenny's death to be permanent. When that idea fell through note more accurately, Comedy Central said otherwise, they simply considered dragging out Kenny's death even longer, with more characters besides Butters and Tweek replacing him.
Throw It In!: Giving Canadians the flapping heads trait. Ike was the only character to be depicted as such due to it being easier to animate in "Cartman Gets an Anal Probe". Terrance and Phillip were later given these in "Death" with them being Show Within a Show characters. After Trey and Matt revealed Terrance and Phillip to be Canadian, they decided to have Ike adopted from Canada.
In "Mr. Garrison's Fancy New Vagina", Mr. Garrison gets surgery and becomes Mrs. Garrison (though turns back into a man in "Eek, a Penis!"), but is still voiced by show co-creator Trey Parker, a cisgender man.
Trey Parker also voices the show's parody of real-life trans woman Caitlyn Jenner.
Troubled Production: The series has had this happen a few times, as a consequence of its famously fast production process:
"A Million Little Fibers" stands out in that the episode ended up being almost totally scrapped and rewritten midway through production. Initially the plot revolved around the townspeople helping Towelie get over his drug habit, but Parker decided it wasn't working and scrapped everything (the opening scene with Towelie losing his job working at P.F. Chang's is the only footage to survive from the original version), and instead went with a storyline satirizing the then-recent controversy over A Million Little Pieces turning out to be mostly fictional despite being promoted as autobiographical. Production of the final version was so rushed that much of the finished product noticeably consists of just static artwork while characters talk in voiceover.
Whereas Barack Obama's two elections were considered safe enough that the show was able to reference the results in the next episode without any trouble,note (For Obama's first election in 2008 it was obvious to most people by the week of election that rival candidate John McCain didn't have a prayer of winning, and while 2012 rival Mitt Romney's chances were considered better enough that they did at least storyboard an alternate ending in case he won, by election week they were confident enough in an Obama victory that they never bothered animating it) Season 20's intended story arc was derailed by Donald Trump unexpectedly defeating Hillary Clinton. Ironically, the episode scheduled for the following day was the one least affected, since Parker and Stone had at least taken the possibility of a Trump victory seriously enough that the episode was written in such a way that it could be quickly retooled in just such an event. However, since the remaining episodes of the season were written under the assumption of a Clinton victory, they had to be largely scrapped and rewritten from scratch.
"Goth Kids 3: Dawn of the Posers" became the first episode in the show's history to miss a deadline due to a power outage hitting the studio a day before the episode was set to air. The episode was unable to be edited and shipped out on time, and was rescheduled to air the following week.
An Iron Chef episode was slated for season 5, but never happened.
An episode parodying Michael Jackson and one with the Easter Bunny were both slated for inclusion in early season 7, but the creators threw them aside. Two episodeswith similar premises would be written for later seasons.
A scrapped episode for the tenth season involved Sharon Marsh undergoing a mastectomy and having her breasts replaced by a pair of hooks.
A scrapped Season 8 episode titled "The Return of Lemmiwinks" went so far as to be advertised and hyped up, but got scrapped due to the writers struggling to come up with an actual story. "AWESOM-O" was created last-minute as a replacement, and came with a disclaimer stating that "Due to this week's tragic events in Hawaii, the Lemmiwinks episode of South Park will not be shown tonight. Instead, we present the all new and slightly better episode, AWESOM-O." The "tragic event" in question was a friend of Trey & Matt's getting married there. The South Park Studios website stated that the episode needed more time to complete and would air later on in the season, but Lemmiwinks ultimately wouldn't return until Season 15's "Bass to Mouth"
Other more vague scrapped ideas noted by the creators included an episode parodying the 2011 tsunami in Japan, a season 13 episode with Saddam, and a story where Warren and Jimmy Buffett find out they're long-lost relatives and team up to take over the world.
Originally it was unclear if Craig and Tweek getting together was just because of the town’s pressures or if they actually were gay. Matt and Trey’s commentary clears it up by them explicitly calling the two gay. This is made clear more so in future episodes where they still stay together, and even in private act like a couple.
Matt and Trey have said that Stan and Kyle are the most likely of the four main boys to grow up to be gay or bisexual, though in the present canon they're still depicted as straight.
The town of Fairplay, Colorado provides both the name and the visual basis for the fictional South Park. Fairplay is located in southern part of Park County and several local institutions such as the school and police station are labeled as "South Park".
Stone grew up in the Denver suburb of Littleton, Colorado and attended school in Boulder with Parker so much of the local flavor and regional shout outs originate from those areas.
Write Who You Hate: As revealed in interviews, Trey Parker's real-life sister provided the basis for Stan's bully sister Shelly, who was abusive to him when they were kids (while the violence was nowhere near as bad as it was on the show, the real-life Shelly did punch Trey, push him down the stairs and lock him out of the house on occasion).
Kenny is based on a childhood friend of Parker who was also poor and used a parka which muffled his speech. He would often be absent from school, and the two would joke that it was because he was dead, which is where the "They Killed Kenny" joke came from.
Out of all the characters loosely based on real people, Randy is the least loose, as both are geologists, that is how Trey draws his father, that is Trey doing an impression of his father's voice (especially in the earlier seasons), and Randy Parker's stepfather's surname was Marsh, meaning he grew up known as Randy Marsh.
Writer Revolt: Trey and Matt originally planned to permanently retire Kenny, but were forced to change these plans by Comedy Central. In response, they severely reduced Kenny's role in the series, and he's pretty much been phased out in the later seasons. Although considering Kenny's had a few episodes in more recent seasons, such as "Poor and Stupid", "Going Native" and "Cock Magic" where not only has he had lines, but actually had a major role, Matt and Trey may have started to grow to miss the little pervert and are trying to give him, while not as many episodes as before, still a good amount of screentime.
Writing by the Seat of Your Pants: Shows are written the week before they air, and the episodes are often finished frighteningly close to their airtime. It's the television writing equivalent of writing and turning in a college term paper. The only time this backfired was with "Goth Kids 3: Dawn of the Poser", when a power outage at South Park Studios preempted the episode and led to a Schedule Slip for the first time in the show's 19 years on the air. Also, "The Very First Gentleman" had to be retooled into "Oh, Jeez" after the creators incorrectly predicted Hillary Clinton would win the 2016 election.
The pinball adaptation:
Dummied Out: The game originally had a "Carpet Munching Race" Video Mode. As Stan, the player competed against Cartman to see who could munch carpet faster and impress Ms. Ellen as the bigger Lesbian. It was disabled soon after the game's release at the insistence of Comedy Central, but ROMs with it enabled are available from private sellers. More information is available here (link somewhat NSFW).
, though it specifically focuses on the dental industry's role in preventing abuse.