While conservatives were horrified, ratings kept growing. By episode four, Big Gay Al’s Big Gay Boat Ride, Comedy Central had committed to a full series and the show was on the way to becoming a sensation. South Park premiered on August 13, 1997, starting as it meant to continue with Cartman Gets an Anal Probe. On the back of the success, Parker and Stone were commissioned to develop some episodes for Comedy Central. It won them a highly prestigious best animation award from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association in 1996. They had already made another South Park short, The Spirit of Christmas: Jesus vs Frosty in 1992, plus various other short films, including musicals.īut it was Jesus vs Santa that really got the young filmmakers noticed. Trey Parker and Matt Stone made Jesus vs Santa in 1995, having met at the University of Colorado Boulder. STAN to KYLE: Dude, this is some pretty fucked up shit right here. SANTA (tossing kid off his knee and rising to his feet): This time we finish it. JESUS: I’m here to put an end to your blasphemy. JESUS: Christmas is for celebrating my birthday.
In true South Park style, it was a highly un-politically correct and sweary yarn that was really just an excuse for an extended fight sequence between Jesus and Santa Claus over the true meaning of Christmas: Animators, artists, writers, programmers and managers huddled around monitors to watch an animation made from crude – really crude – stop-motion style cut-out paper and cardboard. It was one of the first viral videos I can remember. Jesus vs Santa went around the studio like wildfire. We were mostly animating life-like characters, striving for photorealism within the limitations of the software of the time. I was fresh from art school and working as a 3D animator, producing “cut-scene” narrative shorts for computer games for some of the biggest companies in the field. My first visit to South Park was the animated short The Spirit of Christmas: Jesus vs Santa.
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