Trey Parker Would ‘Permanently Erase’ These ‘South Park’ Episodes if He Could
South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone had no idea how much of a smashing success their mountain town series would turn out to be. And although they are incredibly proud of the animated universe they have created, there are several episodes that Parker would gladly erase from the library. In fact, there are several seasons of South Park that Parker finds “embarrassing.”
Which episodes would Parker love to pretend never happened?
How did Matt and Trey come up with ‘South Park’?
The idea for the satirical cartoon originated back in 1992, while Stone and Parker were attending film class at Boulder University.
And even though Stone was a math major and Parker was a music major, both were interested in storytelling and film.
Their first project was called “Jesus Vs. Frosty.” It centered around four unnamed boys, yet strongly resemble Cartman, Kyle, Stan, and Kenny.
And according to an interview with Entertainment Weekly, the two college buddies were just making the little animated short to make their friends laugh.
“[The audience reaction] was huge,” says Parker. “It was just the fact that there were little-kid voices and cute animation and that they were screaming, ‘F—!’ People hadn’t really seen anything like that before. It was mostly college kids, so we knew our audience. At the time, we were just trying to do something that all our friends and college buddies would think was funny.”
Trey Parker would love to ‘permanently erase’ the first three seasons of ‘South Park’
South Park has truly evolved over the years. Considering the show has been on for over 20 years, this comes as no surprise. But one look at some of the older episodes, and one can see just how much the series has changed.
While the Emmy-winning series is now praised for its brilliant satirical humor and gorgeous animation, the first three seasons of South Park seemed to center around lazy toilet humor and poorly crafted animation. And apparently, Parker agrees. In fact, he is so embarrassed by the first three seasons of South Park that he wouldn’t be upset if they were permanently erased.
“If I had to permanently erase anything from the library, it would basically be anything before season 4,” Parker reveals (via Entertainment Weekly.) “It’s just embarrassing to watch. OK, we were, like, 26, 27. But it’s like, ‘Really?‘ We thought that was funny? We thought that was well-written? Oh my God, this is terrible.”
The ‘South Park’ creators admit this episode has ‘not aged well’
During a shocking turn of events, Parker and Stone admitted to their wrongs about a specific episode which they realize hasn’t age well. The episode is titled “ManBearPig,” which mocks Al Gore’s fight for climate change.
And in season 22 (which premiered in 2019,) Stone and Parker made a series of episodes atoning for their mistakes.
“We just felt like, of all of our episodes, that one has not aged very well,” Stone tells The Hollywood Reporter. “And we came up with a funny idea how to use ManBearPig as a parable. I always felt like if we were going to rewrite that or comment on it or atone, whatever you want to call it, it’s in kind. In other words, we didn’t want to say in some interview, ‘Well, we don’t feel so great about that episode.’ It doesn’t feel as good as ‘F*ck that, we’ll do a whole two-parter. And it is not just atoning. We beat ourselves up pretty good.”
Parker adds, “We could just do an entire season atoning. It’s been f*cking 22 years. We’re pretty different people now.”
