Trey Parker Begged the ‘South Park’ Team Not to Air ‘Make Love, Not Warcraft’: ‘I’ve Lost It’
Every week for the past 20 years, Comedy Central has given fans something to watch with their hit show South Park. Although the creatives on the team have to talk the show’s creator Trey Parker off the ledge, they still end up delivering a hit episode almost every week. Many of South Park’s episodes are hits that explain why the show has been on the air for this long. A lot of work goes into providing the good laughs fans get in every episode. Interestingly enough, one of the show’s iconic episodes almost didn’t make it on air if Parker had had his way.
The show’s creators inspired the characters
South Park is a comedy show that follows the exploits of four boys living in South Park, Colorado. The four boys Stan Marsh, Eric Cartman, Kyle Broflovski, and Kenny McCormick, are always getting into some form of mischief. The town features a wide variety of characters ranging from students, elementary school staff, and families. Stan is shown as the group’s everyman. He is portrayed as the average 4th grader and was modeled after the show’s co-creator Parker. Stan’s friend Kyle is the group’s lone Jewish member and was modeled after Parker’s co-creator Matt Stone.
The two characters are best friends whose relationship is a reflection of the showrunners’ friendship. Eric is frequently called by his surname Cartman. Cartman is the group’s antagonist. He and Kyle often end up in fights because of their different beliefs. Cartman occasionally expresses his antisemitic views, which don’t sit well with Kyle.
Kenny comes from a low-income family and often has an orange hoodie which he wears so tightly that it muffles his speech. Kenny died in almost every episode, only to return in the next without explaining his death. The show discusses topics that frequently happen in the town, ranging from supernatural content to other extraordinary events. The adults in the show are depicted as gullible and irrational individuals who rely on the boys to act as the voice of reason.
‘South Park’ develops its episodes with a quick turnaround time
South Park was Comedy Central’s first TV show and is now one of the longest-running TV shows. The show’s creators decided to use strong profanity because they imagined that that’s how small boys speak in real life when adults aren’t around. Comedy Central essentially gave Parker and Stone the creative freedom they needed to continue airing their fan-favorite show. Although shows typically take a long time to create before they air, South Park goes about things differently.
The show sources inspiration from significant events and takes advantage of up-to-date topical humor to wow their audience. As such, the studio team usually produces every episode from scratch in less than a week. According to Screen Rant, the show’s studio team begins working on a fresh episode on Thursday and finishes up on Wednesday of the following week to churn out a new episode.
Parker didn’t want the network to air this one iconic episode
The hit episode called ‘Make Love Not Warcraft’ aired in 2006 when World of Warcraft was still fairly new and very popular. In the episode, the boys develop an addiction to the game and gain weight because their diet mainly consists of energy drinks and Hot Pockets. The episode was made better because the company that owns World of Warcraft, Blizzard Entertainment, was involved in creating the episode.
Independent reports that Parker and Stone were incredibly stressed and worn out and thought that airing ‘Make Love Not Warcraft’ would ruin the show’s legacy. Parker begged the team not to let the episode go on air and therefore went home depressed. However, when he got to work the next day, he received news that audiences and critics alike loved the episode.
