It’s been almost three decades since the show released its supposed series finale, but South Park is still going strong. So what kept this irreverent animated juggernaut alive after all these years?
Back in 1997, South Park shot out of the gate with the speed of a bullet. Fueled by word of mouth from its hand-crafted Spirit of Christmas VHS and animation festival buzz, the series premiered on Comedy Central in 1997 and became an instant hit. Stan, Kyle, Cartman, and Kenny, along with peripheral characters such as Chef, Mr. Hankey, Mr. Garrison, and Big Gay Al, quickly made a dent in the cultural zeitgeist as they were quoted endlessly and plastered on apparel in malls across America.
However, a mere few years later, it appeared as though South Park lost its heat as ratings began to dip for the raunchy toon. The third-season premiere of South Park drew 3.4 million viewers, a significant drop from the 5.5 million for Season 2.
“This movie happened after that second year. It was basically over. And we even thought it was over,” said Parker on the Blu-ray DVD commentary for South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut. “We thought, ‘Oh, we lasted two years? That’s pretty good.”
“It was definitely at the low part of South Park when everyone was just kind of like, ‘Well, that was fun, that was a fad. And now there is a movie coming out?” commented Stone. “I totally remember we were working through the spring and summer of ’99, and there was a real ‘swan song’ feeling to the whole thing. A real sense of, ‘Well, we came out to L.A., we got a TV show on the air, we made it to the cover of Rolling Stone, and now we are going to do this movie.’ It’s our big middle finger to … I don’t know to … even who? I don’t even know why we were so mad.”
“There was this attitude of, ‘We don’t care.’ Our careers are over. The show is over. So we don’t give a f**k what we do in this thing. We care about the movie, but we are going to do what we want to do, and we don’t care what bridges we burn,” explained Parker.
The duo then explained that in the summer preview issue of Entertainment Weekly that year, the blurb describing the upcoming release for the South Park movie was not only buried, but was partnered with a caption that dismissed the movie. “At the end of the summer movie preview, with documentaries from Iran and some weird independent films no one had ever heard of, there was the South Park movie, and it just said, ‘Ugh. Do we really need a bit of 90-foot Cartman?’” said Stone.
“But that’s why we had in our heads, ‘Well, no one is going to see this. This is going to be the end of South Park. So, let’s just totally do it the way we want to do [it], and we’ll leave this town with our heads held high?” explained Parker.
But fate has a funny way of working things out.
After its release, the R-rated, boundary-pushing, over-the-top satirical shocker — which featured a sexual relationship between Satan and Saddam Hussein, mocked parental groups, and skewered American culture — became both a critical and box office success. South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut grossed about $83 million on a $21 million budget, with critics praising its sharp wit, fearless social commentary, and surprisingly catchy musical numbers.
And in a surprising twist, the film would go on to be nominated for an Academy Award for best song for the tune “Blame Canada,” which was performed by Robin Williams at the 72nd Academy Awards.
The success of the film jump-started the series, giving it the boost it needed to convince the network there was still audience interest and persuading its creators to stick around for a while. But according to Parker and Stone, there was one final ironic twist.
“To this day, Matt and I have not really made any money off of this movie.”
“TV on the other hand, is very lucrative. And T-shirts. T-shirts are super lucrative.”
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