Set in a Colorado mountain town that gets destroyed on a regular basis and is populated by the dumbest, most vulgar characters imaginable, South Park is an anarchic animated sitcom that owes more to the spirit of Monty Python than to its comparatively tame predecessor The Simpsons. The show's origins go back to a 1995 Christmas video "postcard" called The Spirit of Christmas that a Fox Studios executive had commissioned at the previous Sundance Film Festival for $2000 having seen the work of film-makers Trey Parker and Matt Stone (Cannibal: The Musical). The adventures of Stan, Kyle, Cartman and Kenny became an instant ratings and merchandising smash and the foul-mouthed eight-year-olds have expanded to the cinema screen (Bigger, Longer and Uncut), found their way to the MTV Movie Awards and allowed the show creators/(song) writers/voice-artists to pursue equally anarchic comedy at the box office with Baseketball and Orgazmo. Constantly pursued by a censorship outcry, the series has survived several copycat cartoon threats and even the death of its lead female vocal-artist during its third season. Perhaps the show's biggest controversy has always been that--despite a disclaimer before every episode--under-aged children still see it. But lured by a universe full of Cheesy Poofs and Cookie Dings, where no-one's afraid to badmouth school bus driver Miss Crabtree and where it's OK to vomit from being in love, it's no wonder that children of all ages can't help but love it. Seriously. --Paul Tonks Season Two: Parker and Stone intentionally annoyed audiences by holding back season one's cliff-hanger resolution ("Cartman's Mom is Still a Dirty Slut") where we learn the surprise truth of who Cartman's dad really is. Season two instead opens with a TV Movie-of-the-Week Special for cartoon-within-a-cartoon characters Terrance and Phillip in "Not Without My Anus". A clever sub-plot runs through the middle of the year with closet homosexual schoolteacher Mr Garrison losing his hand puppet Mr Hat and replacing him with Mr Twig. It comes to an end in the amazing "Chef Aid" with Mr Hat busting Garrison and Chef from jail to attend a concert where Elton John, Meat Loaf and Ozzy Osborne are playing (all voiced for real). We get to explore the dubious leisure activities of Jimbo and Ned on their cable access show "Huntin' and Killin'" during a ratings war with "Jesus and Pals" (Christ having chosen the town to live in--naturally) in the Jerry Springer spoof "The Mexican Staring Frog of southern Sri Lanka". The season is rounded off by visits from the Evil Eric Cartman (who's nice!) from a parallel universe in "Spooky Fish", the Booktastic Bus in "Chickenlover", the Underpants Gnomes and even Charles Manson. --Paul Tonks
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