‘Star Wars’ Inspired ‘South Park’ To Create ‘The Most Annoying Character Ever Put On TV’ (and It’s Not Towelie)

South Park often makes fun of things that annoy creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone. It’s rare they deliberately try to create something annoying. That was the case, though, with the season 3 episode “Jakovasaurs.” Born out of Parker and Stone’s frustration with Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, Parker and Stone set out to be annoying.

Parker and Stone discuss Star Wars and the “Jakovsaurs” episode on the South Park Season 3 DVD. Here’s what led them to create the characters, and why South Park fans have a problem with it. 

‘Star Wars: Episode I’ newcomer Jar Jar Binks inspired this ‘South Park’ character

While camping outside, the South Park boys discover a new creature. Jakovasaurs are big, yellow and loud. They talk like Star Wars: Episode I character Jar Jar Binks, saying “Mesa” and “Yousa.” Everyone hates them except Cartman, of course.

“The Jar Jar thing just made us so angry that we decided to dedicate a whole show to how stupid it was,” Parker said. “The Jakovasaur I think is way less annoying than the real Jar Jar.”

Stone said Star Wars threw down a gauntlet with the character of Jar Jar Binks. The South Park creators felt they could go even further.

“The whole idea behind this episode was to make that point, by making the Jakovasaur the most annoying character ever put on TV,” Stone said. “For that reason some people don’t like this episode very much because it just annoys them too much but that was kind of the point.”

Parker confirmed, “It was supposed to annoy you. He was supposed to annoy you.”

‘South Park’ was up against ‘Star Wars’ in 1999

“Jakovasaurs” aired June 16, 1999. Star Wars: Episode I had been playing for a few weeks. South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut would open June 30 and also feature a Jar Jar Binks joke. 

“We were doing all the post on the South Park movie and trying to do these shows at the same time,” Parker said. “It was hell. I remember actually this exact episode, I remember being at the sound mix for the South Park movie and they were talking about this show that had just been on the air the night before.”

Hating on Jar Jar Binks became a cultural phenomenon the summer of 1999. It was only in recent years that actor Ahmest Best opened up about how hard that was on him and made people reconsider.

“It had come out a month before this, the new Star Wars,” Parker said. “We, like everyone else in the world. hated the new Star Wars so much.”

Stone added, “We felt betrayed really.”

There’s more to the ‘South Park’ Jar Jar Binks beef 

There’s a bit more to South Park’s Jar Jar Binks beef than just the movie. Stone shared how the episode was partly revenge for another event in which they participated.

“We also did this episode because I remember we did a Jar Jar inspired thing for the MTV Movie Awards that year that Star Wars came out,” Stone said. “We had this great idea, we were going to do this little short with Chris Rock. MTV wouldn’t let us do it because it screwed with their advertisers who were big George Lucas supporters. Star Wars was such a big movie. So we had to do something. After getting shut down there, we had to do something about Jar Jar in the series.”