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| The Spirit Of Christmas |
The Spirit of ChristmasThe Spirit of Christmas was the 1995 animated short film that launched South Park. In 1992, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, then students at the University of Colorado, made Jesus vs. Frosty (also known as The Spirit of Christmas), in which four young boys make a snowman which comes to life and begins to kill them off. Parker and Stone animated the film using only construction paper, glue, and a very old camera, and premiered the film at the December 1992 student film screening.
In 1995 Fox Network television executive Brian Graden paid them $2000 to make another animated short as a video Christmas card he could send to friends. In turn, the duo created The Spirit of Christmas, where Jesus and Santa Claus square off over the true meaning of the holiday, only to be reconciled by Brian Boitano (with an added lisp) and the four boys who would later be the stars of South Park. The film reportedly had a budget of $750, with Parker and Stone keeping the rest of their commission.
Graden initially distributed the video to 80 friends in December 1995. After months of being passed around on bootleg video and the internet, the film caught the attention of cable television network Comedy Central. The network hired the pair to develop South Park, which premiered in the USA on August 13, 1997.
External links
- [http://www.southparkstudios.com/behind/how.php?tab=20 South Park Studios: How it all began]
- [http://www.southparkstudios.com/behind/creator.php?tab=20 South Park Studios: Creator Bios]
- [http://www.killfile.org/soxmas/ Spirit of Christmas Official Distribution Site, including transcript]
Spirit of Christmas, The
Spirit of Christmas, The
1995
1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. It was the first year of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous People (1995-2005): http://www.unesco.org/culture/indigenous/
Events
January
- January 1 - Austria, Finland and Sweden enter the European Union
- January 1 - Fred West, accused of mass murder, hangs himself in Winson Green Prison, Birmingham
- January 1 - World Trade Organization is established to replace GATT
- January 2 - Former President of Somalia, Siyad Barre died. He had been ousted in 1991.
- January 6-January 7 - A chemical fire occurs in an apartment complex in Manila, Philippines. Policemen led by watch commander Aida Fariscal and investigators find a bomb factory and a laptop computer and disks that contain plans for Project Bojinka, a mass-terrorist attack. The mastermind, Ramzi Yousef, is arrested one month later
- January 9 - Valeri Polyakov completes 366 days in space while aboard the Mir space station breaking a duration record
- January 17 - A magnitude 7.3 earthquake called "the Great Hanshin earthquake" occurs near Kōbe, Japan, causing great property damage and killing 6,433 people
- January 24 - The prosecution delivers its opening statement in the O. J. Simpson murder trial
- January 25 - The Norwegian Rocket Incident - A rocket launched from the space exploration centre at Andøya, Norway to study the Northern Lights, is mistaken by the Russians as a nuclear attack and the russian missile command is put into combat mode before realizing the misunderstanding.
- January 31 - United States President Bill Clinton invokes emergency powers to extend a $20 trillion loan to help Mexico avert financial collapse.
February
- February 9 - Dr. Bernard A. Harris, Jr. makes history as the first African American astronaut to walk in space.
- February 13 - United Nations tribunal on human rights violation in the Balkans charges 21 Bosnian Serb commanders with genocide and crimes against humanity
- February 15 - Hacking: Kevin Mitnick is arrested by the FBI and charged with breaking into some of the United States' most "secure" computers systems.
- February 17 - Colin Ferguson is convicted of six counts of murder for the December 1993 Long Island Rail Road shootings and later receives a 200+ year sentence
- February 21 - Serkadji prison mutiny in Algeria; 4 guards and 96 prisoners killed in a day and a half.
- February 21 - Steve Fossett lands in Leader, Saskatchewan, Canada becoming the first person to make a solo flight across the Pacific Ocean in a balloon
- February 23 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average gains 30.28 to close at 4,003.33 -- The Dow's first ever close above 4,000.
- February 26 - The United Kingdom's oldest investment banking firm, Barings Bank collapses after a securities broker Nick Leeson has lost $1.4 billion by speculating on the Tokyo Stock Exchange
- February 27 - In Denver, Colorado, the old Stapleton Airport closes: it is replaced by a new Denver International Airport, the largest airport in the United States.
- February 28 - Members of the Group Patriot's Council are convicted in Minnesota for manufacturing ricin
March
- March 1 - Attack Submarine USS-Seahorse (now ex-Seahorse SSN-669) starts to be deactivated
- March 1 - Polish Prime Minister Waldemar Pawlak resigns from parliament and is replaced by ex-communist Jozef Oleksy
- March 1 - Daniel Sleator announces his intentions to commercialize the Internet Chess Server (ICS) himself, renames it the Internet Chess Club, or ICC, and charges a yearly membership fee of $49 to howls of protest
- March 1 - Muntinlupa City, Philippines officially becomes a city.
- March 1 - In Moscow, Russian anti-corruption journalist Vladislav Listyev is killed by a gunman.
- March 2 - Nick Leeson is arrested for his role in the collapse of Barings Bank.
- March 3 - In Somalia, the United Nations peacekeeping mission ends.
- March 6 - Adrianus Jacobs, chairman of Internationale Nederlanden Groep NV announces that his company would buy bankrupt Barings PLC bank for a nominal prize
- March 14 - Astronaut Norman Thagard becomes the first American to ride to space on-board a Russian launch vehicle.
- March 20 - Terrorist incident: Members of the Aum Shinrikyo religious cult release sarin gas on five separate railway trains in Tokyo, killing 12 and injuring hundreds.
- March 22 - Cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov returns after setting a record for 438 days in space. Also, the Schengen treaty comes into force.
- March 24 - For the first time in twenty six years, no British soldiers patrol the streets of Belfast, Northern Ireland.
- March 30 - Police officer tries to assassinate Takaji Kunimatsu, chief of the National Police Agency of Japan
- March 31 - The president of Selena fan club, Yolanda Aldivar, kills the star in Corpus Christi, Texas
April
Corpus Christi, Texas
- April 19 - Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma city was bombed. 168 people, including 8 Federal Marshals and 19 children, were killed. Timothy McVeigh and one of his accomplices, Terry Nichols set off the bomb.
- April 24 - Unabomber bomb kills lobbyist Gilbert Murray in Sacramento, California
May
- May 7 - Jacques Chirac elected president of France.
- May 11 - In New York City, more than 170 countries decide to extend the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty indefinitely and without conditions.
- May 14 - The Dalai Lama proclaims 6-year-old Gedhun Choekyi Nyima as the eleventh reincarnation of the Panchen Lama.
- May 16 - Japanese police besieges the headquarters of Aum Shinrikyo near Mount Fuji and arrest cult leader Shoko Asahara.
- May 16 - Jacques Chirac assumes the presidency of France.
- May 23 - Oklahoma City bombing: In Oklahoma City, the remains of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building are imploded.
- May 24 - AFC Ajax beat AC Milan 1-0 to win the Champions League.
- May 25 - Egan v. Canada - Supreme Court of Canada rules that sexual orientation is a prohibited grounds of discrimination under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
- May 27 - In Charlottesville, Virginia, actor Christopher Reeve is paralyzed from the neck down after falling from his horse in a riding competition, ending his career.
- May 28 - Neftegorsk, Russia is hit by a 7.6 magnitude earthquake killing at least 2000 people (2/3rd of the towns population).
June
- June 1 - The busiest hurricane season in 62 years begins. (see 1995 Atlantic hurricane season).
-
- EarthBound is released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in the U.S.
- June 2 - United States Air Force Captain Scott O'Grady's F-16 is shot down over Bosnia while patrolling the NATO no-fly zone. O'Grady survives on bugs and grass until he is rescued.
- June 2 - SS captain Erich Priebke extradited from Argentina to Italy
- June 5 - Bose-Einstein condensate created.
- June 6 - U.S. astronuat Norman Thagard broke NASA's space endurance record of 14 days, one hour and 16 minutes, aboard the Russian space station Mir.
- June 8 - Downed U.S. Air Force pilot Captain Scott O'Grady is rescued by U.S. Marines in Bosnia.
- June 13 - French president Jacques Chirac announces the resumption of nuclear tests in French Polynesia.
- June 15 - While on trial for murder, O.J. Simpson put on a pair of gloves that were found soaked with blood at the murder scene. The gloves appear not to fit.
- June 20 - Oil multinational Shell caves in to international pressure and abandons plans to dump the Brent Spar oil rig at sea.
- June 22 - Japanese police rescues 365 hostages from a hijacked Nippon Airlines 747 at Hakodae airport. The hijacker was armed by a knife and demanded release of Shoko Asahara
- June 24 - The New Jersey Devils sweep the Detroit Red Wings in 4 games in the 1995 Stanley Cup Finals.
- June 29 - Lisa Clayton completes her 10-month solo circumnavigation from the northern hemisphere.
- June 29 - The Space Shuttle Atlantis docks with the Russian Mir space station for the first time.
- June 29 - The Sampoong Department Store collapses in the Seocho-gu district of Seoul, South Korea, killing 501 and injuring 937.
- Summer - Iraq disarmament crisis: According to UNSCOM, the unity of the UN Security Council begins to fray, as a few countries, particularly France and Russia, are starting to become increasingly more interested in making financial deals with Iraq than disarming the country.
July
Iraq
- Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraq threatens to end all cooperation with UNSCOM and IAEA, if sanctions against the country are not lifted by Thursday, August 31, 1995
- Midwestern United States heat wave: An unprecedented heat wave strikes the Midwestern United States for most of the month. Temperatures exceed 104°F (40°C) in the afternoon in numerous cities for 5 straight days. At least 3000 people die, 750 in Chicago, Illinois alone.
- July 1 - Iraq disarmament crisis: In response to UNSCOM's evidence, Iraq admits for first time the existence of an offensive biological weapons program, but denies weaponization.
- July 4 - The UK Prime Minister, John Major, has won his battle to remain leader of the Conservative Party.
- July 8 - Volcanic eruption begins in the island of Montserrat
- July 11 - Bosnian Serbs march into Srebrenica while UN Dutch peacekeepers leave. Large numbers of Bosniak men and boys are killed in the Srebrenica massacre.
- July 13 - Dozens of cities, most notably Chicago, Illinois and Milwaukee, Wisconsin, set all-time record high temperatures. Hundreds in these and other cities die as the July 1995 heat wave reaches its peak.
- July 17 - The Nasdaq Composite index closes above the 1,000 mark for the first time.
- July 18 - Fabio Casartelli, an Italian cyclist, dies in a crash during the Tour de France.
- July 21 - to July 26 - Third Taiwan Strait Crisis: The People's Liberation Army fires missiles into the waters north of Taiwan.
- July 27 - In Washington, DC, the Korean War Veterans Memorial is dedicated
- July 28 - Network Solutions announces a new policy to help companies protect their trademarks on the Internet.
- Iraq disarmament crisis: Following the defection of his son-in-law, Hussein Kamel al Majid, minister of industry and military industrialisation, Saddam Hussein makes new revelations about the full extent of Iraq's biological and nuclear weapons programs. Iraq also withdraws its last UN declaration of prohibited biological weapons and turns over a large amount of new documents on its WMD programs.
August
- Chrono Trigger is released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System.
- August 4 - Croatians launch Operation Storm against Serbian forces in Krajina and force them to withdraw to Bosnia
- August 5 - Croatian forces take Knin and continue to advance
- August 6 - Hundreds in Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Washington, and Tokyo mark the 50th anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb.
- August 7 - Operation Storm over, UN-brokered ceasefire, remaining Serbian forces start a surrender
- August 9 - Netscape launches IPO. http://www.fortune.com/fortune/print/0,15935,1081456,00.html
- August 14 - Avalanche buries Alison Hargreaves, the first woman to climb Mt. Everest without oxygen - reported dead
- August 17 - 50th Indonesia Independence.
- August 24 - Microsoft releases Windows 95.
- August 28 - Serbian Mortar bomb near Sarajevo market square kills 37 civilians
- August 30 - NATO bombing campaign against Serb artillery positions begins in Bosnia - continues into October
September
- September - DVD, optical disc storage media format, is announced.
- September 2 - Rock and Roll Hall of Fame opens in Cleveland, Ohio
- September 4 - The Fourth World Conference on Women opens in Beijing with over 4,750 delegates from 181 countries in attendance.
- September 6 - With the jury absent, Los Angeles police detective Mark Fuhrman invokes his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination in the murder trial of O. J. Simpson
- September 6 - NATO air strikes continue after repeated attempts at a solution with the Serbs fail
- September 26 - Trial against former Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti, accused of Mafia connections, begins.
- September 27-September 28 - night - Bob Denard's mercenaries capture president Said Mohammed Djohor of the Comoros. Local army does not resist
October
- October 1 - 10 people are found guilty for bombing the World Trade Center in 1993
- October 3 - O. J. Simpson is found not guilty of double murder for the deaths of former wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman. (He would be found liable in a second civil trial in 1996)
- October 4 - France launches a counter-coup in the Comoros with 600 soldiers. They arrest Bob Denard and his mercenaries and take Denard to France. Caabi el-Yachroutu becomes new interim president
- October 9 - An Amtrak Sunset Limited train is derailed by saboteurs near Palo Verde, Arizona.
- October 12 - black motorist Johnny Gammage dies of asphxyation after being stopped by police in the nearly all-white Pittsburgh suburb of Brentwood
- October 16 - The Million Man March is held in Washington D.C.. The event was conceived by Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.
- October 21 - Shannon Hoon, lead singer of Blind Melon, dies of a cocaine overdose while on tour.
- October 25 - A Metra commuter train slammed into a school bus in Fox River Grove, Illinois, killing seven students.
- October 30 - Quebec separatists narrowly lose a referendum for a mandate to negotiate independence from Canada
November
- November 1 - Participants of the Yugoslav War begin negotiations in Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, USA
- November 1 - the House voted to ban "partial birth" abortions by a vote of 288-139.
- November 2 - Supreme Court of Argentina orders extradition of Erich Priebke, ex-SS captain
- November 3 - At Arlington National Cemetery, US President Bill Clinton dedicates a memorial to the victims of the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing
- November 4 - After attending a peace rally in Tel Aviv's Kings of Israel Square, Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin is mortally wounded by a right-wing Israeli gunman. (He later died on the operating table at Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv)
- November 10 - Iraq disarmament crisis: With help from Israel and Jordan, UN inspector Ritter intercepts 240 Russian gyroscopes and accelerometers on their way to Iraq from Russia
- November 10 - In Nigeria, playwright and environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa along with eight others from the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (Mosop) are hanged by government forces
- November 14 - A budget standoff between Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. Congress forces the federal government to temporarily close national parks and museums and run most government offices with skeleton staff
- November 16 - UN tribunal charges Radovan Karadžić and Ratko Mladić with genocide during the Bosnian War
- November 17 - Public Radio International's radio program This American Life broadcasts its first episode, "New Beginnings"
- November 21 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 40.46 to close at 5,023.55, its first close above 5,000. This makes the 1995 the first year where the Dow surpasses two millennium marks in a single year. It would do it again in 1997 and 1999.
- November 21 - Peace agreement about Bosnia
- November 22 - Rosemary West is sentenced for life of killing 10 women and girls, including her daughter and stepdaughter
- November 22 - Eilat, Israel, Egypt, and much of the North African Mediterranean is struck by the strongest earthquake in Israel's history - 7.2 mw. Curiously, within a week there is attempted historical revisionism downwards to 6.2 with Gulf of Aqaba architects and engineers holding the bag for alleged 'shoddy construction'. A 6.2 mw earthquake is only 1/100th the magnitude of a 7.2 quake.
- November 28 - Barcelona Treaty signed by 27 attending nations
- November 28 - US President Bill Clinton signs a highway bill that ends the federal 55 mph speed limit.
- November 30 - Javier Solana is made new NATO general secretary
December
- December 14 - The Dayton Peace Agreement signed in Paris.
- December 15 - The European Court of Justice rules that all EU football players have the right to a free transfer between European Union member states at the end of their contracts (see Bosman ruling)
- December 15 - Because of "quadruple-witching" option expiration, volume on the New York Stock Exchange hits 638 million shares, the highest single-day volume since October 20, 1987 when the Dow staged a stunning recovery a day after Black Monday.
- December 16 - Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraqi scuba divers, under the direction of UNSCOM, dredge the Tigris River near Baghdad. The divers find over 200 prohibited Russian made missile instruments and components.
- December 30 - The lowest ever UK temperature of -27.2°C was recorded at Altnaharra in the Scottish Highlands. This equalled the record set at Braemar, Aberdeenshire in 1895 and 1982.
- December 31 - The publication of the last new Calvin and Hobbes cartoon strip.
- Republic of Texas (group) claim to form a provisional government in Texas.
Unknown dates
- The oldest flute, made by Neanderthal, was found by Dr. Ivan Turk in the cave Divje babe I in Slovenia. See: prehistoric music.
- The Ebola virus kills 244 Africans in Kikwit, Zaire in Central Africa.
- Creed (band) formed.
- Audi A4 automobile goes on sale as a 1996 model.
- Katherine Prescott elected president of Mothers Against Drunk Driving.
Births
- May 12 - Jean Carlos Chera, Brazilian football prodigy
- May 12 - Sawyer Sweeten, American actor
- May 12 - Sullivan Sweeten, American actor
Deaths
January-February
- January 1 - Fred West, English serial killer (suicide) (b. 1941)
- January 1 - Eugene Wigner, Hungarian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1902)
- January 7 - Murray Rothbard, American economist (b. 1926)
- January 9 - Peter Cook, English comedian and writer (b. 1937)
- January 18 - Adolf Butenandt, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1903)
- January 18 - Ron Luciano, baseball umpire (b. 1937)
- January 22 - Rose Kennedy, American philanthropist (b. 1890)
- January 30 - Gerald Durrell British naturalist, zookeeper, author, and television presenter (b. 1925)
- January 31 - George Abbott, American writer, director, and producer (b. 1887)
- February 2 - Fred Perry, English tennis player (b. 1909)
- February 2 - Donald Pleasence, English actor (b. 1919)
- February 4 - Patricia Highsmith, American author (b. 1921)
- February 12 - Robert Bolt, English writer (b. 1924)
- February 22 - Melvin Franklin, American singer (b. 1942)
- February 23 - James Herriot, English veterinarian and author (b. 1916)
March-June
- March 3 - Howard W. Hunter, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (b. 1907)
- March 5 - Vivian Stanshall, English comedian, writer, artist, broadcaster, and musician (b. 1943)
- March 7 - Georges J.F. Kohler, German biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1946)
- March 12 - Juanin Clay, American actress (b. 1949)
- March 13 - Leon Day, baseball player (b. 1916)
- March 13 - Odette Sansom, French World War II heroine (b. 1912)
- March 14 - William Alfred Fowler, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1911)
- March 26 - Eazy-E, American musician and record producer (b. 1964)
- March 27 - Maurizio Gucci, Italian businessman (murdered) (b. 1948)
- March 29 - Tony Lock, English cricketer (b. 1929)
- March 31 - Selena Quintanilla Perez, Mexican singer (b. 1971)
- April 2 - Harvey Penick, American golfer (b. 1904)
- April 10 - Morarji Desai, Indian politician (b. 1896)
- April 14 - Burl Ives American singer (b. 1909)
- April 23 - Howard Cosell, American sportscaster (b. 1918)
- April 25 - Ginger Rogers, American actress and dancer (b. 1911)
- May 5 - Mikhail Botvinnik, Russian chess player (b. 1911)
- May 8 - Teresa Teng, Taiwanese singer (b. 1953)
- May 14 - Christian B. Anfinsen, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1916)
- May 15 - Eric Porter, English actor (b. 1928)
- May 18 - Elisha Cook Jr., American actor (b. 1903)
- May 18 - Alexander Godunov, Russian-born ballet dancer and actor (b. 1949)
- May 18 - Elizabeth Montgomery, American actress (b. 1933)
- May 26 - Friz Freleng, American animator (b. 1905)
- May 30 - Ted Drake, English footballer (b. 1912)
- June 12 - Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, Italian pianist (b. 1920)
- June 20 - Emil Cioran, Romanian philosopher and essayist (b. 1911)
- June 26 - Ernest Walton, Irish physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1903)
- June 30 - Georgi Beregovoi, cosmonaut (b. 1921)
July-December
- July 4 - Eva Gabor, Hungarian actress (b. 1919)
- July 5 - Takeo Fukuda, Japanese politician (b. 1905)
- July 17 - Juan Manuel Fangio, Argentine race car driver (b. 1911)
- July 24 - George Rodger, British photojournalist (b. 1908)
- August 3 - Edward Whittemore, American author and Central Intelligence agent (b. 1933)
- August 7 - Brigid Brophy, English author (b. 1929)
- August 9 - Jerry Garcia, American guitarist (Grateful Dead) (b. 1942)
- August 13 - Mickey Mantle, baseball player (b. 1931)
- August 19 - Pierre Schaeffer, French composer (b. 1910)
- August 21 - Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, Indian-born astrophysicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1910)
- August 29 - Michael Ende, German author (The Neverending Story) (b. 1929)
- August 30 - Sterling Morrison, American guitarist (The Velvet Underground) (b. 1942)
- September 13 - Tupac Shakur, American rapper and actor
- September 15 - Gunnar Nordahl, Swedish footballer (b. 1921)
- September 20 - Eileen Chang, Chinese writer (b. 1920)
- October 21 - Jesús Blasco, Spanish comic book author (b. 1919)
- October 26 - Gorni Kramer, Italian bandleader and songwriter
- November 4 - Gilles Deleuze, French philosopher (b. 1925)
- November 4 - Yitzhak Rabin, Prime Minister of Israel, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (assassinated) (b. 1922)
- November 21 - Noel Jones, British diplomat (b. 1940)
- December 2 - Robertson Davies, Canadian novelist (b. 1913)
- December 10 - Darren "Buffy, the Human Beatbox" Robinson, American rapper (The Fat Boys) (b. 1967)
- December 22 - James Meade, English economist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1907)
- December 25 - Dean Martin, American actor (b. 1917)
- December 30 - Doris Grau, American actress (b. 1924
- December 30 - Heiner Müller, German poet and playwriter (b. 1929)
Unknown date
- Ben Bubar, American activist (b. 1917)
Nobel Prizes
- Physics - Martin L. Perl, Frederick Reines
- Chemistry - Paul J. Crutzen, Mario J. Molina, F. Sherwood Rowland
- Medicine - Edward B. Lewis, Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard, Eric F. Wieschaus
- Literature - Seamus Heaney
- Robert Lucas, Jr.
- Professor Paul Davies
- András Biró / Hungarian Foundation for Self-Reliance, The Serb Civic Council (SCC), Carmel Budiardjo / TAPOL and Sulak Sivaraksa
-
als:1995
ko:1995년
ms:1995
ja:1995年
simple:1995
th:พ.ศ. 2538
Animation
Animation is the illusion of motion created by the consecutive display of images of static elements. In film and video production, this refers to techniques by which each frame of a film or movie is produced individually. These frames may be generated by computers, or by photographing a drawn or painted image, or by repeatedly making small changes to a model unit (see claymation and stop motion), and then photographing the result with a special animation camera. When the frames are strung together and the resulting film is viewed, there is an illusion of continuous movement due to the phenomenon known as persistence of vision. Generating such a film tends to be very labour intensive and tedious, though the development of computer animation has greatly sped up the process.
Graphics file formats like GIF, MNG, SVG and Flash allow animation to be viewed on a computer or over the Internet.
History
For a more in-depth look at the history of animation, please see the Wikipedia articles "Animated cartoon" and "History of Animation".
The major use of animation has always been for entertainment. However, there is growing use of instructional animation and educational animation to support explanation and learning.
The "classic" form of animation, the "animated cartoon", as developed in the early 1900s and refined by Walt Disney and others, requires up to 24 distinct drawings for one second of animation. This technique is described in detail in the article Traditional animation.
Because animation is very time-consuming and often very expensive to produce, the majority of animation for TV and movies comes from professional animation studios. However, the field of independent animation has existed at least since the 1950s, with animation being produced by independent studios (and sometimes by a single person). Several independent animation producers have gone on to enter the professional animation industry.
Limited animation is a way of increasing production and decreasing costs of animation by using "short cuts" in the animation process. This method was pioneered by UPA and popularized (some say exploited) by Hanna-Barbera, and adapted by other studios as cartoons moved from movie theaters to television.
television
Famous names in animation
Famous names of the past
Famous names of the present day
Animation studios
Animation Studios, like Movie Studios may be production facilities, or financial entities. In some cases, especially in Anime they have things in common with artists studios where a Master or group of talented individuals oversee the work of lesser artists and crafts persons in realising their vision.
Animation studios of the past
- Bray Productions
- DePatie-Freleng Enterprises
- Filmation
- Fleischer Studios and Famous Studios
- Grantray-Lawrence Animation
- Hanna-Barbera Productions (now Cartoon Network Studios)
- Harman-Ising Productions
- Leon Schesinger Productions/Warner Bros. Cartoons, Inc. (a/k/a "Termite Terrace", now known as Warner Brothers Animation)
- Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
- Rankin-Bass
- Soyuzmultfilm
- United Productions of America (UPA)
- Van Beuren Studios
- Walter Lantz Studio
- PannóniaFilm Ltd. - http://www.mediaguide.hu/pannoniafilm/
Animation studios of the present era
Styles and techniques of animation
- Traditional animation
- Character animation
- Limited animation
- Rotoscoping
- Computer animation
- skeletal animation
- Per-vertex animation
- Cel-shaded animation
- Onion skinning
- Analog computer animation
- Motion capture
- Stop-motion animation
- Cutout animation
- claymation
- Pixilation
- Pinscreen animation
- Puppetoon
- Drawn on film animation
- Special effects animation
See also
- Animated series
- Anime (Japanese animation)
- List of movie genres
Further Readings
- Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston, Disney animation: The Illusion Of Life, Abbeville 1981
- Walters Faber, Helen Walters, Algrant (Ed.), Animation Unlimited: Innovative Short Films Since 1940, HarperCollins Publishers 2004
- Trish Ledoux, Doug Ranney, Fred Patten (Ed.), Complete Anime Guide: Japanese Animation Film Directory and Resource Guide, Tiger Mountain Press 1997
- The Animator's Survival Kit, Richard Williams
- Animation Script to Screen, Shamus Culhane
External links
- [http://www.lollipopanimation.com Huge Cartoon Character Database]
- [http://www.3dnauta.com Anamorphosis 3D and others Animation - The roman walls of Lugo SF.]
- [http://www.awn.com/mag/issue3.2/3.2pages/3.2student.html Animating Under the Camera]
- [http://academic.evergreen.edu/curricular/eat/handouts/Pictures/CutSandPaintRules.pdf. Experimental Animation Techniques]
- [http://www.abc.net.au/arts/strange/workshop/style.htm Drawn Under-Camera Style Animation]
- [http://www.writer2001.com/animtech.htm Media & Techniques in Animation]
- [http://www.mattworld.2ya.com Matt World - Web-based animations from animator Matt Greenwood]
- [http://www.keyframeonline.com Keyframe - the Animation Resource]
- [http://www.nftsanimation.org The Animation Department of the National Film and Television School UK ]
- [http://www.animationnation.com Animation Nation - a forum for professional animators]
- [http://www.miyechi.com Anime Roleplaying]
- [http://www.public.iastate.edu/~rllew/chronint.html Chronology of Animation]
- [http://www.public.iastate.edu/~rllew/animelinks.html Animation links collection]
- [http://www.fh-wuerzburg.de/petzke/zagreb.html Zagreb Film]
- [http://www.safcakovec.com/ SAF], Čakovec school of animation
- [http://www.dmoz.org/Arts/Animation/ Animation Directory]
- [http://www.toonopedia.com Don Markenstein's Toonopedia]
- [http://www.bcdb.com/ Big Cartoon Database]
- [http://www.goldenagecartoons.com/ Golden Age of Cartoons]
- [http://www.saunalahti.fi/animato Hints and tips for the animation hobbyist]
- [http://www.acmeanimation.org ACME Animation]
- [http://www.awn.com Animation World Network]
- [http://www.animationarena.com/principles-of-animation.html 28 Principles of Animation]
- [http://www.animationmeat.com Animationmeat.com - Notes Model Sheets and Reference material by Professional Animators]
- [http://sjolander.homestead.com/SVENSHOGEXHIBITION2004.htm Ture Sjolander: The Artist that invented Computer Animation]
Category:Film
ko:애니메이션
ja:アニメーション
th:แอนิเมชัน
South Park
South Park is an animated series created by Matt Stone and Trey Parker. Distributed by and airing on Comedy Central since 1997, it follows the surreal adventures of four young boys who live in the small town of South Park, Colorado. South Park satirizes many aspects of American culture and current events, and challenges deepset convictions and taboos, usually using parody and black humor.
The show is noted for its characteristically blunt handling of current events. For example, an episode involving the repatriation of Romanian quintuplets aired during the Elián González issue, and depicted Janet Reno, then U.S. Attorney General, as a murderous Easter Bunny. An episode that aired after the September 11, 2001 attacks had the boys stow away on a military transport to Afghanistan, where they encounter Osama bin Laden. More recently, the episode "Best Friends Forever" satirized both the PSP and the Terri Schiavo case as well as the movie Constantine. Various instances relate Kenny's role in the episode as reminiscent of Keanu Reeves, which has also been speculated as a referral to Reeves' role as Neo (the One or savior) in The Matrix. In this episode, the town is at odds over the removal of a feeding tube from Kenny. The episode was recorded one week after the PSP was released and, coincidentally, was originally aired the night of March 30, 2005, less than twelve hours before Schiavo died. South Park won its first Emmy Award for that episode.
New episodes for the show's ninth season continued on October 19, 2005 after being on hiatus since April 2005. Recent seasons have aired in two parts; for example, half of the episodes from the eighth season were put on hiatus for Team America: World Police, another Stone and Parker production. The show has been syndicated through Tribune Entertainment starting the autumn of 2005.
Despite its reputation for toilet humor and outlandishness, many of the topics the creators take on are presented in realistic and unexaggerated yet absurd ways. For example, NAMBLA (North American Man/Boy Love Association) in episode #406, "Cartman Joins NAMBLA", is a real-life organization. Other targets, such as Scientology and Michael Jackson, have been satirized while portrayed mostly true to real life.
Series history
South Park began in 1991 when Parker and Stone, then film students at the University of Colorado, created an animated short called Jesus vs. Frosty. The crudely made film featured prototypical versions of the kids of South Park, including a character resembling Cartman but called "Kenny", bringing a murderous snowman to life with a magic hat. The baby Jesus then saves the day by decapitating the monster with a halo.
Executives at Fox saw the movie, and in 1995, executive Brian Graden commissioned Parker and Stone to create a second short film to send to friends as a video Christmas card. Entitled The Spirit of Christmas, it closely resembled the style of the later series, and featured a martial arts duel and subsequent truce between Jesus and Santa Claus over the true meaning of Christmas. This video was later featured in an episode of South Park in which Stan, Kyle, Cartman, Kenny, Mr. Hankey and his family "save" Christmas. The video was a hit and was quickly shared, both by underground duplication and over the then-burgeoning Internet. This led to talks to create a series, first with Fox, then with Comedy Central, where the series premiered on August 13, 1997.
August 13
The show's provocative, frequently offensive, and unquestionably adult-oriented material quickly drew howls of protest from various spokespersons, and South Park merchandise (especially T-shirts) were banned from a number of public schools, day care centers, and other public places in a manner similar to the prohibition of Bart Simpson T-shirts in the early 1990s after The Simpsons was accused of contributing to juvenile delinquency. Comedy Central defended South Park by noting that the show is given a "Mature Audiences" TV rating (TV-MA) and that it only airs the show during nighttime hours and never during the day when children may be more likely to see the show.
In February 1998, one episode of South Park posed the question of who Eric Cartman's father was. The episode ended with the announcement that it would be revealed in four weeks' time. Four weeks later, the airing of an episode about Terrance and Phillip (two Canadian comedians the main characters idolize) prompted outrage, and also prompted Comedy Central to push the true season premiere up earlier than expected. It was apparently a well-planted April Fools gag, meant to poke fun at season-ending cliffhangers.
The following year, the full-length animated feature film South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut was released to generally enthusiastic reviews. The film managed to satirize both itself and the anticipated reaction that it engendered from moral conservatives. It also presented a twisted but seemingly sincere tribute to the film musical with a number of songs, including "Uncle Fucka" and "Blame Canada". The latter was nominated for an Oscar and was performed by Robin Williams during the awards show. It has often been said that "Blame Canada" was chosen from other Oscar-worthy songs in the movie on the basis that it was the only one that could be performed on live TV with its lyrics relatively intact as the song contains only two swear words (while it is true that "Up There" by Satan contains no swear words at all, it would most likely have created far more controversy on religious grounds given its sympathetic portrayal of Satan and his justification of evil in the lyrics). A song by Phil Collins won the Oscar, however, which prompted a number of Phil Collins jokes in later South Park episodes.
On November 11, 1999 shortly after the U.S. theatrical release of South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, actress Mary Kay Bergman, who had provided all of the female voices on the South Park animated series and in the full-length movie, committed suicide in her suburban Los Angles home. After her death, it was revealed that she suffered from a severe form of clinical depression. Her husband, Dino Andrade, founded the Mary Kay Bergman Memorial Fund at the Suicide Prevention Center of Greater Los Angeles in an effort to help and educate people with the same type of depression that his wife suffered.
Mary Kay Bergman Memorial Fund
In the episode "It Hits the Fan", South Park broke the swearing record by saying the word "shit" a total of 162 times. (In a 22 minute episode, this means that it averaged one "shit" every 8 seconds). There was even a counter throughout the episode showing the number of times it was said. An example of how it was used was Mr. Garrison's song that went, "Hey, there, shitty shitty fag fag, shitty shitty fag fag, how do you do?" and repeated this for four verses. This was meant as a satire on a NYPD Blue episode released shortly before this episode where one of the main characters said the word "shit" without being censored, and the American public discussed this for weeks. (In an additional gag in this episode, homosexual characters were allowed to use the word "fag" freely, while heterosexual characters were bleeped when attempting to use the same word.)
On March 5 2005, South Park got to number 3 in the 100 Greatest Cartoons poll, losing to Tom and Jerry and The Simpsons. The nomination was for the funniest cartoon ever made, and was conducted by Channel 4. The series appeals to both adults and children (though they are not supposed to watch it).
Evolution of the series
South Parks early episodes tended to be shock value-oriented, but the more recent episodes are often oriented more toward poking fun at current events. This was very evident in the first half of Season 8: events in its episodes include Michael Jackson visiting South Park, the boys seeing The Passion of the Christ, blue-collar workers in South Park losing their jobs to immigrants from the future, and an episode featuring a "Paris Hilton" toy video camera. Season 9 premiered with the episode "Mr. Garrison's Fancy New Vagina," which incorporated uncensored footage of a farm animal being neutered.
The pilot episode was produced using construction paper and traditional stop-motion animation techniques, but current episodes duplicate the original, amateurish look using modern computer animation tools (first PowerAnimator, then Maya, which South Park creators have described as "building a sandcastle with a bulldozer"). This allows for a short production schedule that enables the creators to respond quickly to current events. For instance, the December 17, 2003 episode ("It's Christmas in Canada") depicts the capture of Saddam Hussein a mere three days after his capture by U.S. forces, even referring to the "spider hole" where he was found. In the case of this and the Elián González episode, the creators stopped and changed production of an episode to focus on these events. Another example is the "Trapper Keeper" episode which originally aired just eight days after the 2000 Election and featured a kindergarten class election being delayed by, among other things, an undecided girl named "Flora", a reasonably obvious reference to the undecided vote-count in the state of Florida.
In the audio commentary on the Season 4 DVD set, Parker and Stone remarked that beginning with episode 408, "Chef Goes Nanners," they began to consistently make episodes centering on a single issue, rather than having different sub-plots going on.
In 2002 the episode "Free Hat" was aired. In this episode, prompted by Kyle's comment on Ted Koppel's Nightline that changing E.T. would be like changing Raiders of the Lost Ark, the South Park depictions of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg decide to alter the first Indiana Jones film. Soon after "Free Hat" aired, the real Lucas and Spielberg announced that they would not be altering Raiders of the Lost Ark for DVD release (contrary to rumors surrounding it). Stone and Parker later claimed that their episode prevented any alterations from happening when they appeared on a VH1 special, Inside South Park.
While in college, Stone and Parker collaborated on the movie Cannibal! The Musical, a Western satire with humorous musical numbers. (The "Braniff" tune that plays at the end of many South Park episodes is an excerpt from the Cannibal! song, "Shpadoinkle".) Later, they created Orgazmo, a comedy about a Mormon starring in a pornographic movie, which found distribution thanks to the success of South Park later that same year. The pair also starred in the 1998 film BASEketball directed by David Zucker. (In a recent episode in which the boys see the Passion of the Christ and subsequently decide to get their money back for watching a lousy film, Stan comments to Kenny, "This is just like that time we got our money back from BASEketball," commenting on the film's box office failure). Their latest collaboration is the marionette action/comedy, Team America: World Police.
On September 9, 2005, Comedy Central struck a deal with Parker and Stone for three more seasons of the show. The network has committed to three more seasons of South Park over the next three years, 42 episodes (including those of the second half of Season 9), which means that the show will run until at least 2009. Parker and Stone will continue to write, direct, and edit every episode of the show. The order brings the series total to 182 episodes. It is currently in the end of its ninth season. A sanitized version of South Park began broadcasting in syndication on September 19, 2005.
Characters
The characters and backgrounds of South Park are made to appear deliberately crude, as if they are simply made of cut-out pieces of paper. Paper cutouts were indeed used in the original pilot Parker/Stone animation and in the very first Comedy Central episode, but every subsequent episode aired on TV has been produced by computer animation that provides the same crude look. The animation has become less crude over time, though. To put the efficiency of this process in perspective, consider that the average episode of The Simpsons takes eight months to create, while episodes of South Park have been completed in as little as three days (which explains why current events that occur mere days before episode airdates are often included). Some episodes contain sections of regular film as well (e.g., "Tweek vs. Craig" and "Cat Orgy").
Major characters
film
The main characters of the show are four elementary school students:
- Stanley "Stan" Marsh: Often the straight man of the group. Generally good natured and clear-thinking, he usually tries to come up with logical solutions to their outrageous situations. Stan acts as the alter-ego for creator, Trey Parker, and often summarizes the message or moral of the episode. He is best friends with Kyle and their relationship is central to many episodes.
- Kyle Broflovski: High-strung, skeptical, and at times self-righteous; yet is the most easily influenced. Kyle is effectively the alter-ego of Matt Stone, who, like Kyle, is Jewish. Along with Stan, Kyle often provides a reasonable perspective on the crazy behavior of the adult world around them, though is somewhat more excitable and childish than his best friend.
- Eric Theodore Cartman: Loosely inspired by Archie Bunker; he is campy, aggressive, sadistic, bigoted, spoiled, overweight, rude, and antagonistic. He is frequently the catalyst for the plot, regularly insulting Kyle for being Jewish and Kenny for being poor. Meanwhile, his pretentious and sociopathic ways often cause him to regularly be disdained by the other boys, who don't quite know why they put up with him. Many episodes have Cartman acting in a manner directly opposed to or against the wishes of the other three boys.
- Kenneth "Kenny" McCormick: Comes from an extremely crude, poverty-stricken family. Obsessed with sex and bathroom humor. His speech is difficult to understand due to his hood closed around his face, although all of his lines are real dialogue. During the first five seasons Kenny served as the eternal victim, who is routinely killed in a number of grotesque (yet often very entertaining) ways during each episode, only to miraculously reappear alive in the next episode. At the end of Season 5, Kenny is killed off for the next season and replaced by both Butters and Tweek as the fourth friend. He reappears as a regular character in Season 7, and while he does not necessarily die in every episode any more, on occasion he still meets a harsh fatality.
In recent seasons, three other characters have gained prominence:
- Timmy, a schoolmate confined by disability to a wheelchair. He has a limited vocabulary, usually only consisting of his own name, Jimmy's name, his pet turkey's name - "Gobbles","And the lords of the underworld", and his assorted gibberish. On occasion, has managed a few other words. As a standing joke, he was misdiagnosed with ADHD. After gaining popularity, he was featured at the beginning theme of the 4th season. He also replaced Kenny in the theme song in season 6 when Kenny remained dead for an entire season.
- Leopold "Butters" Stotch (replaced Kenny as a main character during the first part of the Season 6. Though Kenny was brought back for the 7th season, Butters has remained prominent): Nervous, naive, easily manipulated, and repressed — while at the same time remains ironically optimistic, and sometimes insightful. He is often callously punished by his overbearing and oppressive parents, and is meanwhile blatantly vilified, taken advantage of and/or disregarded by Cartman, Stan, and Kyle. Adding to the tragic nature of his character, his birthday is September 11.
- Tweek (replaced Kenny during the second part of the Season 6): Spastic, neurotic, wants to be left alone. He is the only kid known genuinely suffering from ADHD (referred to as ADD in the show). His problems are often glossed over by his very docile, Hallmark commercial-esque coffee-shop-owning parents. Although initially touted as one of the leading supporting characters, he has since been upstaged by the more viewer popular Butters and has returned to playing a minor role.
The show's earliest well-known gimmick, beginning in the first episode, was that in every episode, Kenny would die in some horrible, "unexpected" way. After this, Stan would shout, "Oh my God, they killed Kenny!" and Kyle would add, "You bastards!" Originally, the notorious "bastards" were the cow-aliens who shot Kenny with plasma; however, Kenny was in fact unharmed by this, and he was actually killed by Officer Barbrady's car after being trampled by Farmer Dinkins' cows. Kenny would be back in the next episode, the incident forgotten. In a clip show episode, one of Kenny's deaths was shown, and Stan and Kyle both act confused at it, implying that they literally forget Kenny's Death. For "Cartman%27s Mom is a Dirty Slut"/"Cartman%27s Mom is Still a Dirty Slut", since it is a bipartite episode, Kenny simply fades back into the picture at the beginning of the second part, only to be shocked to death by power lines in a snowstorm. For some time (after the fifth season episode "Kenny Dies"), Kenny had actually died "permanently." In the sixth season episode "A Ladder to Heaven", Kenny's soul became trapped inside of Cartman's body, but an exorcism performed by Chef's mother in "The Biggest Douche in the Universe" undid this.
Kenny came back to life for an unexplained reason in "Red Sleigh Down" and is now the same regular kid he was before, except his deaths are much more rare. Kenny was killed by Saddam Hussein in "It's Christmas in Canada", the final episode of Season 7. He was also killed once during the eighth season, out of his parka, by "Mr. Jefferson", an alias of Michael Jackson, in the episode "The Jeffersons", and in the ninth season, he was killed by the Chinese mafia in the episode "Wing", as well as the following episode, "Best Friends Forever" (in fact, he dies twice in the latter).
Recurring characters
There are many other frequently recurring characters, besides the boys and their families.
- The boys' teachers Mr. Herbert Garrison (currently Mrs. Garrison after receiving a sex change in Episode 901, "Mr. Garrison's Fancy New Vagina"), and Ms. Choksondik (pronounced "chokes-on-dick") who dies in Season 6.
- Big Gay Al, a recurring character since the first season, with a part as well in the feature film.
- Mr. Slave, Mr. Garrison's flamboyantly gay live-in lover until his sex change in Episode 901 (replacement for Garrison's beloved puppet companion, Mr. Hat). Mr. Slave is now married to Big Gay Al.
- Jerome "Chef" McElroy (voiced by Isaac Hayes), the school cafeteria chef whom the boys seek out for advice. He used to be shown in almost every episode, but has been seen less frequently in recent seasons (probably due to Isaacs scientology).
- Satan, portrayed as the insecure and overly-sensitive former lover of Saddam Hussein.
- Jesus Christ and Santa Claus, who have been depicted as gun-toting heroes.
- Mr. Mackey, the school counselor who often appends "M'kay?" to the end of his sentences.
- Officer Barbrady, the incompetent, mentally deficient town police officer.
- Wendy Testaburger, a schoolmate and Stan's girlfriend until Episode 714 ("Raisins").
- Jimmy, a physically-disabled schoolmate with crutches and a speech impediment. Famous at South Park Elementary for his stand-up comedy. He took steroids to win the Special Olympics.
- Token Black, a classmate who occasionally accompanies the boys on their adventures; his name is intended as irony: being the only African-American kid in town, he is indeed the "token black". Token is also a frequent target of Cartman's racism. His surname was at one point Williams but was changed, forgotten or "black" is his stage name.
- Starvin Marvin, originally appearing in Episode 109, he was sent to Stan, Kyle, Cartman, and Kenny after they donated 5 dollars to an Ethiopian fund for starving children (led by Sally Struthers) in order to earn a Teiko sports watch. They are accidentally sent a small Ethiopian boy they call Starvin' Marvin. When two agents appear to return Starvin' Marvin back to his home country, they accidentally take Cartman instead. Though the episode is set in East African Ethiopia, Starvin' Marvin speaks a language with click consonants, which are more often found in Khoisan languages such as those of the Xhosa people of South Africa. He later appears in episode 311 along with the alien Marklar race.
- Towelie, is a "super towel" created to dry a person, but while being studied he smoked marijuana and "just sort of wandered off". Towelie is frequently getting "high" and offers advice on towel usage. Towelie has only apeared in 4 episodes (508 Towelie): first introduced, (509 Osama Bin Laden has Farty Pants): He only says two lines in this episode., (606 Profesor Chaos): Is in the contest for new fourth friend., and (701 I'm a Little Bit Country): only seen in background has no line.
- The goth kids, including Henrietta, originally featured in Episode 714 ("Raisins").
- Scott Tenorman, a much older schoolmate, originally introduced when he tricks Cartman out of his allowance money in the episode "Scott Tenorman Must Die". Cartman later takes revenge on Scott at his infamous "Chili con Carnival." Scott has appeared in minor roles in at least two subsequent episodes.
Minor characters and celebrities
Scott Tenorman Must Die
Part of the show's surrealist nature derives from the minor characters who appear in the series. Notable appearances include God (who appears as a small creature resembling a hippo-rodent hybrid), Jesus (who owns a home and hosts a public-access television show in South Park (Jesus and Pals)), Satan (with or without his lover Saddam Hussein), Moses (who appears exactly as the Master Control Program (MCP) does in the Disney film Tron and demands macaroni pictures from his faithful), the alien Marklar race; the Jakovasaurs; Death; Mr. Hankey "the Christmas poo" (who adds to the holiday festivities in much the same spirit as the 1960s Rankin-Bass cartoons), and Towelie (who always gets (or wants to get) high).
Most celebrities who make appearances on South Park are usually "impersonated.....poorly" by the staff or others. See partial list below:
- Barbra Streisand, is transformed by a mystical artifact Cartman found while digging and became Mecha-Streisand, a Mechagodzilla-like creature.
- Kathie Lee Gifford, is nearly assassinated by Mr. Garrison in the episode "Weight Gain 4000."
- O. J. Simpson, is a member of a support group for relatives of murder victims in "Butters' Very Own Episode."
- George W. Bush, under the influence of Satan's advisor (a Wormtongue lookalike, who probably represented Karl Rove) fought against removing a feeding tube from Kenny in the episode "Best Friends Forever."
- The 1980s band Toto
- Brian Boitano, a figureskater who is a kind of superhero to the children of South Park first appeared in "The Spirit of Christmas" and then again in the South Park movie, "Bigger, Longer, Uncut."
- Russell Crowe, star of the TV show Russell Crowe: Fightin' Around the World, in which he travels the world in a cartoon tugboat and picks fights with random strangers based on perceived insults
- Madonna is ridiculed in the episode "Kenny Dies."
- David Blaine, founder of the fictional, suicide-cult-like "Blainetology" religion in the episode "Super Best Friends."
- Sally Struthers is portrayed as a Hutt (as in "Jabba the Hutt" from Star Wars) hoarding food while pretending to save "Starvin' Marvin" and his people.
- Michael Jackson appears as a new neighbor named "Mr. Jefferson" who moves to South Park with his young son Blanket to escape accusations of child molestation (such as those that were made against Jackson in late 2003).
- Paris Hilton as spokeswoman for the Stupid Spoiled Whore clothing store chain.
- Christina Aguilera is portrayed as a hideous creature; a hallucination of Cartman's when he starts ingesting Ritalin
- Jennifer López, who appeared in "Fat Butt and Pancake Head", where Cartman drew a face on his hand and pretended that it was J. Lo. She attempted to destroy Cartman's hand because it was ruining her career. Jennifer López also appears in "Cartmanland" and "Proper Condom Use" , where Kyle and Stan are burning an action figure version of her with a magnifying glass.
- Mel Gibson: In the acclaimed "The Passion of the Jew" episode, Kenny and Stan, after seeing "The Passion of the Christ" and hating it, go to Gibson's home to ask for their money back. They find that Gibson is a complete and utter lunatic who begs to be tortured and chases them all the way to South Park where the debate over his movie is about to break into a fight between the Jews and the Christians.
- Tom Cruise, Features as a follower of the Church of Scientology in episode 912 "Trapped in the Closet" - Where he locks himself in Stan's closet after being told "I don't think you're a better actor than the guy who played Napoleon Dynamite" by Stan - The "reincarnation" of the Church's former leader, L. Ron Hubbard. He then refuses repeated requests by Stan, Stan's family, and other celebrities to 'come out of the closet.'
Celebrities who have provided voice work:
- Robert Smith of the British rock/pop band The Cure, who transformed into a moth creature (a parody of Mothra) to battle Mecha-Streisand.
- The band KoЯn, solved a Scooby Doo-type mystery in the Halloween episode, "Korn's Groovy Pirate Ghost Mystery."
- The band Radiohead, appear in the episode "Scott Tenorman Must Die."
- George Clooney, portrays an emergency room doctor similar to his character Doug Ross in the TV series ER in the South Park Movie, "Bigger, Longer, Uncut." Clooney also appeared as a voice actor for Sparky, Stan's homosexual dog, in the episode "Big Gay Al's Big Gay Boat Ride", his only line being "Woof!".
- Jennifer Aniston, plays a choir teacher in the episode, "Rainforest, Schmainforest."
Political controversy
The political leaning of South Park has been open to some debate. With the exception of Cartman's hard-core conservative character being portrayed as a self-centered bigot, and Kyle being portrayed as reasonable yet liberal, the show is often criticized for having a supposed "conservative bias". Throughout the show, it may or may not be a coincidence that some celebrities mocked the most have been self-professed "Liberals". For example, in the season 7 episode "Butt Out," director and liberal activist Rob Reiner and his fellow anti-smokers are portrayed as a bunch of thieves, willing to lie and kill for the sake of putting out cigarettes for good - while the people working at the tobacco company are shown as comically friendly and happy.
Another potential example of a conservative slant might be their portrayal of President Bush. As president, George W. Bush is naturally a favorite target of cartoonists and comics, but South Park does not seem to make fun of him much at all. In fact, in the episode "A Ladder To Heaven" Bush is hardly recognizable, possibly because he's hardly exaggerated or caricatured, highly unusual for South Park, to say the least. This could be contrasted with President Bill Clinton in the earlier episodes, who is portrayed as a jackass with a wrinkly face and an exaggerated Southern accent.
Icons of American conservatism are by no means immune from ridicule, however. It should be noted that Bush was the central character in Parker/Stone spoof of 1950s era sitcoms, That's My Bush!, which aired briefly in mid-2001, but was cancelled prior to Sept. 11, 2001. Bush is also portrayed as a gullible moron in the aforementioned "A Ladder To Heaven" episode. For example, he explains to the UN that the US needs to bomb heaven because Saddam (through a series of unfortunate events) is in heaven and is making chemical weapons. One UN member replies, "Are you high or just very stupid?" To whi | | |
