‘South Park’: ‘Beavis and Butt-Head’ Convinced Trey Parker, Matt Stone They Could Be Animators
South Park just celebrated 25 years on the air with an anniversary concert. Trey Parker and Matt Stone did not expect this kind of longevity when they started the show in 1997. Now, South Park has kept them too busy to do many other projects, though they had the South Park movie, Team America: World Police and The Book of Mormon along the way. In a recent interview, Parker and Stone said their inspiration was fellow ‘90s animated comedy Beavis and Butt-Head.
Parker and Stone spoke to the Los Angeles Times in an interview published on Aug. 9. Looking back on the show’s origins, they credited Beavis and Butt-Head with encouraging them to try their hand at animation.
Animation in the ‘90s
There was a time when The Flintstones could air during prime time. In the ‘90s, prime time animation was rare. The Simpsons cornered the market and many attempts, like Family Dog, Capitol Critters, Fish Police and The Critic didn’t survive.
Over on MTV though, Beavis and Butt-Head became a sensation as soon as they premiered in 1993. Parker and Stone even met Mike Judge before they started South Park. Judge introduced them to Isaac Hayes whom they cast as chef. But, Parker and Stone had already made The Spirit of Christmas, an animated short passed around Hollywood on VHS.
Why ‘Beavis and Butt-Head’ convinced Trey Parker and Matt Stone they could do ‘South Park’
Parker and Stone didn’t want to be another Fish Police. But, they didn’t feel they could compete with The Simpsons. The Spirit of Christmas was an intentionally crude short made with construction paper cutouts, animated via stop motion. Beavis and Butt-Head was something in between.
“For us, it was Beavis and Butt-Head,” Parker told the L.A. Times. “That was the time where we were like, ‘We could do that.’ We never watched The Simpsons and said, ‘We can do that.’ Beavis and Butt-Head had this really handmade feel. We really bonded over that.”
‘Beavis and Butt-Head’ was another milestone
Just because the networks were looking for animation didn’t mean they were thinking outside the box. Stone said networks still wanted their animated shows to be family sitcoms. Beavis and Butt-Head showed that they didn’t have to be.
“We pitched South Park as a show about four little boys who live in a town,” Stone said. “Remember, even though Beavis and Butt-Head and The Simpsons were definitely the forerunners to everything that we did, that also narrowed what people thought would work. They passed because they thought people would only watch a show about a family, not four boys. Now they’re watching animated shows about all types of characters. There was just a step-by-step process to get there.”
