{"id":34849,"date":"2014-08-13T00:00:07","date_gmt":"2014-08-13T07:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/?p=34849"},"modified":"2014-08-13T00:25:14","modified_gmt":"2014-08-13T07:25:14","slug":"day-history-august-13th","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/2014\/08\/day-history-august-13th\/","title":{"rendered":"This Day in History: August 13th"},"content":{"rendered":"

This Day In History<\/a>: August 13, 1997<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"southpark-e1283929735479\"<\/a>Once upon a time, way back in 1992, there were two young students at the University of Colorado named Trey Parker and Matt Stone. They collaborated on a crudely done short film called \u201cJesus vs. Frosty\u201d which caught the eye of FOX exec Brian Graden in 1995. He hired the two lads to create another animated short that he could send to friends as a video Christmas greeting.<\/p>\n

Parker and Stone came up with another film called \u201cJesus vs. Santa\u201d (I\u2019m sensing a theme here) that featured a martial arts battle between the Christmas rivals, followed by a subsequent mutual meeting of the minds over the true meaning of the holiday. This video was shared widely on the Internet and led to the creation of a series on Comedy Central.<\/p>\n

The pilot episode of South Park, \u201cCartman Gets an Anal Probe\u201d aired on August 13, 1997, and quickly earned the highest rating of any basic cable program. The show, which chronicles the adventures of four third-graders named Stan (based on Parker), Kyle (based on Stone), Cartman and Kenny was an instant hit especially with younger audiences, and South Park viewing parties became popular on college campuses all over the country. You couldn\u2019t go anywhere without hearing the now infamous Stan and Kyle lament from the first few seasons: \u201cOh my God! They killed Kenny!\u201d \u201cYou bastards!\u201d<\/p>\n

The first season of South Park struck a level of vulgarity – and originality – that made the controversy surrounding the early days of the Simpsons positively pale in comparison. The Orlando Sentinel described the show as \u201csophomoric, gross, and unfunny,\u201d and while many would readily agree with the first two assessments, by the time the series aired its eighth episode its viewership and ratings had tripled. South Park was already the most popular series in Comedy Central\u2019s history at that point, and is credited with being a huge reason for the channel\u2019s success.<\/p>\n

South Park has been over-the-top from the get-go, but they don\u2019t play favorites when picking targets for their biting and often extremely clever satire. Trey Parker and Matt Stone describe themselves as \u201cequal opportunity offenders,\u201d and usually poke fun at a topic from all angles during an episode as opposed to championing one side of an issue. Conservatives and liberals are made to look equally as asinine \u2013 and hilarious.<\/p>\n

Of course, not everyone finds South Park\u2019s smashing of taboos and shock humor as charming and refreshing as others. The conservative watchdog group Parents Television Council<\/em> consistently complains about the show\u2019s supposed tastelessness… which some may argue is a very subjective term.<\/p>\n

The 18th season of South Park is scheduled to begin in the fall of 2014 and the series is slated to run at least through 2016. In 2007, it was included in Time<\/em> magazine\u2019s list of the \u201c100 Best TV Shows of All Time,\u201d and they named it \u201cAmerica’s best source of rapid-fire satire for the past decade.\u201d<\/p>\n

Looks like Matt and Trey got a good return on their initial investment of some construction paper to put together that original cartoon, not to mention using it as a platform to branch out into areas such as theater with their nine time Tony Award winning The Book of Mormon<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

If you liked this article, you might also enjoy our new popular podcast, The BrainFood Show (iTunes<\/a>, Spotify<\/a>, Google Play Music<\/a>, Feed<\/a>), as well as:<\/p>\n