Matt Stone and Trey Parker silly little cartoon about kids who never get older and the glorification of Christmas turds has had quite an influence on the world in general. Not only did South Park unleashed the shock animation renaissance, but media outlets far and wide found themselves increasingly commenting on every other episode’s latest controversy.
South Park influenced the law
In the second-season episode, “Chef’s Aid”, Chef Alanis sues Morissette for alleged plagiarism. Johnnie Cochran appears as Morissette’s attorney and uses the “Chewbacca Defense,” which goes like this:
Since its debut, the Chewbacca Defense has been used to describe any attempt by a criminal defense attorney to confuse a trial jury rather than go against the prosecutor. It is also used in reference to political commentary because no one likes to talk nonsense like a politician. In 2022, a prosecutor made headlines during a federal tax fraud case for supposedly using the Chewbacca defense through bring it up to prove that the defense attorney was actually full of bullshit.
‘South Park’ led to Brian Boitano’s cooking show
Boatano went from Olympic figure skating champion to semi-recurring superhero character South Park. Must be fun. He also gets a big shoutout in it South Park: bigger, longer and uncut musical number, “What Would Brian Boitano Do?”
In 2009, the Food network decided to capitalize on Boitano’s cartoon fame by having him host a cooking show with the devious name, What Would Brian Boitano Make? The show enjoyed two seasons where Boitano came up with recipes for his on-screen friends.
‘South Park’ has inspired college courses
Back in 2008, Brooklyn college became the first registered institution to teach a course in television and radio studies South Park and the theory of political correctness. Others have followed with similar courses, and many universities to have published articles discuss different aspects of the performance.
‘South Park’ provided cover for the Coinye cryptocurrency
In 2014, a script-based cryptocurrency was mentioned Coinye West was released, shamelessly drawing on the likeness of Kanye West. When the rapper fell into disgrace South Park character sent a cease and desist order to the developers, they responded by removing “West” from the title and to report that it wasn’t based on Kanye, but rather a “half-human, half-fish hybrid.”
‘South Park’ spawned real Cheesy Poofs
Yes, Cartman’s favorite cheese-flavored snack went from fictional to real. Mentioned in South Parks very first episode and sporadically throughout the first two seasons, Cheesy Poofs disappeared for a while, but made a comeback in season 10 when Cartman poured a box on the road to thwart Kyle during a tricycle chase scene. More important, though, is the time when Cartman did a commercial dressed up as one of his favorite chips.
Comedy central released for the first time a limited edition of the cheesy chips in 1998 through their website, all packaged in the box as seen on the show. Meanwhile, in 2011, she formed a team with Frito-Lay to celebrate the show’s 15th season and bring Cheesy Poofs to Walmarts across the country.
‘South Park’ got the creators of ‘Game of Thrones’ to shake things up
Hey, remember when South Park did that one Game of Thrones episodes? Here’s a quick refresher:
Parker and Stone denounced everything from the HBO show’s slow pace, repetitive sequences, and even the iconic intro theme of use a version of it with “wiener” dubbed over the melody. Yet it was the mockery of characters who always walked around in a garden and made plans Game of Thrones creators the hardest. In the season four DVD commentary they say revealed that the episode about the boys being hanged Play stations And Xboxes convinced them to stop all those leisurely strolls through manicured gardens while characters plot a murder.
‘South Park’ has become a genetic marvel
In 2002, a scientist at the University of Strasbourg discovers a gene that causes fruit flies to die just two days after contracting a specific bacteria. She appropriately named the gene hold1 in honor of the little man who died at the end of just as many episodes.
