It took 17 seasons, over 240 episodes, and a power outage for South Park to miss a deadline for the first time in history.
Thanks to their (masterpiece of a) documentary 6 Days to Air: The Making of South Park (2011), we all know that the team at South Park works like a freshman class. Trey Parker spews cringe-worthy yet hilarious R-rated jokes about Cartman getting “beeep”-ed by God while Matt Stone gasps for air through giggles and their producer looks like she might implode from embarrassment. They draw poop on the white board and order junk food. Until the panic sets in – oh! That episode is due tomorrow? Time for an all-nighter!
And then a miracle happens. They finish the episode minutes before deadline and it goes right to air.
Last Wednesday, a collective scream was heard from South Park fans when instead of a brand new episode, they found a re-run of season four’s “Scott Tenorman Must Die”, which just happens to be South Park’s 69th episode. Obviously.
The studio attributes the missed deadline to a black-out, so there might be higher powers at work here. Parker and Stone famously bash any and all celebrities, religions, and inanimate objects. What if there is something in Episode 1704 that someone doesn’t want us to see? Comedy Central offers this insight into the lost episode, “Goth Kids 3: Dawn of the Posers”: “The Goth kids are being sent away to a camp for troubled children.”
Not much evidence for celebrity sabotage, but any number of power players could be responsible for keeping the episode off the air last week: the Pope, Tom Cruise, Honey Boo Boo, Oprah, Oprah’s vagina… you can find a full list of suspects here.
We will have to see for ourselves when “Goth Kids 3” airs tonight at 9:30 p.m., half an hour before the usual 10 p.m. new episode, which is only referred to by its numeral name (1705) until after its debut on Comedy Central. Hopefully, this means the team is back on track, as in back to producing entire, quality episodes in under a week.
P.S. Trey and Matt. We know Halloween is coming up, but please don’t scare us like that again!
Watch some of the sickest mutilations of showtunes ever by Cartman and team via FilmOn here.
