Why the test screening of the South Park pilot made people cry

Those who lived through 1995 will likely remember the sinister spread of Matt Stone and Trey Parker’s irreverent animated short “The Spirit of Christmas.” This was the moment when Jesus got into a fistfight with Jesus Christ, with each of them repeatedly dropping bombs. “Spirit” was surreptitiously passed around Hollywood and on college campuses — sometimes on VHS, sometimes via floppy disks and downloads — and gained a great deal of underground attention. The short eventually got its start in retrospective animation and, in my experience, gained significant popularity thanks to screenings at the annual Spike & Mike’s Sick & Twisted Animation Festival. By 1997, Stone and Parker were asked to develop “The Spirit of Christmas” into a television series produced by Comedy Central. The network wanted something as raw and irreverent as the short film, but on a weekly basis.

“South Park” managed to do just thatand gained a lot of attention – both positive and negative – for its crude animation style and even cruder sense of humor. The pilot episode was called “Cartman Gets an Anal Probe,” and it followed angry bully Cartman (Parker) after he was kidnapped by aliens, and yes, given the notable rectal action. His body will end up in a space satellite dish. “South Park” became an iconic text in the 1990s, using shocking humor to garner millions of fans.

Of course, as one might expect, that tasteless pilot episode wasn’t very good. It’s one thing to watch a foul-mouthed animated short on an illegal VHS device. Showing a short film about anal investigations to a studio test audience is another. according to An extensive oral history on electronic warfare“Cartman Gets Anal Probe” tested so poorly that some viewers broke down in tears.

Doug Herzog was president of Comedy Central at the time, and Brian Graden was a producer, and both remember very clearly how poorly the premieres went. The central joke of “South Park” was that its deliberately puerile animation stood in stark juxtaposition to its crude language, sexual references, and extreme violence. Garden noted that it was very shocking to some people, who felt that the movie “South Park” crossed the line by putting children in such situations. The performances were so poor that Graden immediately assumed that “South Park” was doomed to fail. As he said:

“We went to do a focus group. They were asked to rate the pilot on a scale of 1 to 10. There were 1’s, 2’s and 3’s all over the place. We made three people cry; they were saying it was inappropriate for kids to say things like that. Matt and Trey asked how it went. I’ve been to a lot of focus groups, but they didn’t do it. I’ve never seen a worse focus group than that. And I thought, ‘Well, this show’s not going to work.’ Be the next year of my life.’”

Garden talked about how he, Parker, and Stone had special T-shirts printed with “Check Minus” symbols, to mimic the poor grade kids used to get on school papers. The three wore those shirts to a Comedy Central board meeting, knowing they had just been criticized By the test audience. Comedy Central said they want an overhaul. However, since “South Park” is an animated film, an overhaul would take a very long time. Parker and Stone ended up making only minor improvements.

Naturally, even after the improvements, confidence in the project remained very low. South Park was sure to be a hit, but there was no guarantee in 1997 that it would be. When the series launched, everyone was surprised. However, given the nature of Hollywood and its false humanitarian ethos, some executives seem to have claimed that they always had faith in “South Park,” even from the beginning. Herzog points out that one should not believe their lies, saying:

“Anyone who tells you he knew it was going to be a hit — and the only people I’d believe if they said it would be Matt and Trey — those are just bulls***. Nobody knows, right? What we did know was that he was really funny. We thought he was smart. And for a network that was still struggling to reach 50 million homes, we said, ‘At least this will get attention.'” But then I lay in Bed Just nights before it was going to air, I was in a cold sweat—I swear to God—I was like, “Wait, can I have it?” Arrested For this? Is this legal?”

No one was arrested for the South Park filming, fortunately. Herzog noted that putting adult language, sex, nudity and violence on cable television was still fairly new at the time, noting that HBO had gained a lot of attention with shows like “Dream On,” a sitcom that regularly boasted topless women. “South Park” had an advantage over a lot of its peers, because it was actually very funny, very weird, and even clever. Well, at the very least, you could say it was a stupid, crude joke made by smart, thoughtful people.

“South Park” is currently streaming Its twenty-seventh season.