Thursday, October 27, 2016

Celebrating the 20th Season of South Park

Nathan Newman & Lear Asplundh
Staff Writers

With a new fall season upon us comes yet another new season of South Park. For years, Matt Stone and Trey Parker have been churning out episodes of the comedy. South Park is a satirical comedy that has been commended for its ability to add perspective to the latest current events every week. In this way, the show is extremely unique. The 20th season of the show debuted on Sept. 14, and has covered many controversial topics such as Colin Kaepernick kneeling during the national anthem and the 2016 presidential election.
 One reason why Stone and Parker are so successful at creating such contemporary shows is the process by which they make it. Episodes premiere every Wednesday night at 10 p.m. on Comedy Central; however, each show isn’t sent to the network until four hours prior to air. The entire show is written, recorded, and animated in six days. Stone and Parker usually spend about two days writing the show, while the animators begin to create the basic storyboard. Then the voice acting is recorded, and the show comes together as a whole.

 The South Park series was not just a successful television show. The South Park movie was a turning point for their franchise. With over $83 million worldwide box office growth is impressive especially for an animated film. A fun fact of the movie is it has the most cursing for an animated film totaling 399 words. This film was the highest grossing animated film with an R rating until Sausage Party outgrossed it in 2016. The movie was a success receiving a rating of 81% by Rotten Tomatoes. Another fun fact, in the movie, is that it is the first time Kenny is seen without his hood on. South Park also created a videogame called “The Stick Of Truth,” which came out in 2014. It earned a success rating of 10 out of 10 by Steam. The “Stick of Truth” has sold more than 1.6 million copies since 2014.