How SNL Alumni Bill Hader Helped Create South Park's PC Principal
Bill Hader is practically comedy royalty at this point. He broke onto the scene as a featured player on "Saturday Night Live," where he brought numerous recurring characters to life, including Stefon and Anthony Peter Coleman. After leaving the show in 2013, he went on to star in numerous films and TV series (although he was already well-versed in those mediums during his tenure on "SNL"). He was the leading man in "Trainwreck," and he starred in the likes of "Inside Out," "The Angry Birds Movie," and "Sausage Party."
Bill Hader has been involved in so many comedies that there's likely something on his resume you didn't even realize he was in. For instance, he's provided various voices over the years for "South Park" and even functioned as a creative consultant and producer on the long-running animated sitcom. In fact, if it wasn't for Hader, then there's a good chance one of the most iconic "South Park" characters to be introduced in later seasons wouldn't even exist.
A Bill Hader story caused Trey Parker to create PC Principal on the spot
Back in 2016, The Hollywood Reporter did a retrospective about the past 20 years of "South Park." It's hard to believe that six years later, "South Park" is still on the air and making people laugh just as hard as it did back in the '90s. THR spoke with various people involved with the series, including Bill Hader, who related a story about how his talking about a party he attended ultimately led to the creation of PC Principal.
Hader explained, "I was telling a story [in the 'South Park' writers room] about how I got yelled at [during a party] for saying something that wasn't PC, and then Trey just started doing PC Principal — he just started doing it in the room. That's when the best stuff happens — it springs out of Trey. It made me laugh so hard I fell out of my seat." PC Principal is arguably the most popular character to come out of the later "South Park" seasons. He's the newest principal at South Park Elementary who has a penchant for yelling at anyone who dares make a risque joke.
It's the kind of character that seems destined to make an appearance on "South Park" given the show's proclivity for making fun of every subject under the sun, no matter how taboo. However, if it wasn't for Hader making a distasteful joke at a party and telling that story all those years later, he may have never come to pass.