Oh my God, Kenny Turns 20!

An oral history of South Park as Matt Stone and Trey Parker (and the execs and talent who helped make their show happen) reveal for the first time that Scientologists may have urged Chef quit after the Tom Cruise episode, their acid trip at the Oscars and how to get an R rating (hint: just one rim job)

- Ryan Parker

Back in 1992, two classmates at the University of Colorado took a stack of construction paper, some scissors and an old 8mm camera and pasted together a five-minute stop-motion movie that would launch a cartoon empire. The animation in that first film was primitive, even by Matt Stone and Trey Parker’s lenient standards, but the contours of South Park were all there: A bunch of F-bomb dropping grade-schoolers bring a demonic snowman to life and ask Jesus for help (“Oh my God, Frosty killed Kenny!”).

In the years since, Stone, 45, and Parker, 46, have collaborated on many projects, including a smash Broadway hit (Book of Mormon) and a classic cult movie (Team America: World Police). But the two college pals’ very first endeavor — a dementedly brilliant twist on Peanuts, in which each week the tiny tykes of South Park, Colo., spout obscenities (in one episode, the word “shit” is uttered 162 times) and commit blasphemy on everyone from the Virgin Mary to Tom Cruise — likely will remain their greatest artistic achievement. “There was nothing like it on TV,” says Doug Herzog, the Comedy Central executive who green lighted the series and ushered its first episode on the air in August 1997. “In those days, there was no context for it at all.” Just The Simpsons — but none of those characters went as Hitler on Halloween (like Cartman) or gave themselves testicular cancer in order to get medical marijuana (like Stan’s dad).

Over the last 20 years — and 267 episodes — South Park has been a pillar of the network, remaining one of Comedy Central’s highest-rated shows (watched by more than 8 million viewers a week). It has been translated into 30 languages and shown in 130 countries, nominated for 18 Emmys (winning five), made into a movie (1999’s