The Live-Action South Park Scene Fans Think Was Perfectly Cast
"South Park" is among the most successful animated series of all time (via Bloomberg). The series, which began with creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone making stop-motion scenes out of paper cutouts while providing crude voices, has gone on to spawn over 20 seasons of television and a theatrically-released film over the course of its record-breaking run.
The creators have managed to keep "South Park" relevant by regularly making the series on a timeline crunch that allows them to comment on events or moments in pop culture just as they're occurring or shortly thereafter. It's this sensibility that has allowed the franchise to maintain its cutting-edge sensibilities despite its creators seemingly aging out of being conventionally hip and modern.
However, another element that has made "South Park" continuously entertaining and funny over the years has been the willingness of Parker and Stone to experiment with fourth-wall-breaking shenanigans, absurd leaps of logic, and occasionally, total insanity.
The live-action characters are totally absurd
On the r/southpark subreddit, fans discussed one such scene from Season 18, Episode 7 ("Grounded Vindaloop"), which sees five central cast members from the series brought into the real world. After an entire episode of VR-related hijinks, friends Stan, Kyle, Kenny, Cartman, and Butters (all five of whom are voiced by creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone) think they've finally got things sorted when suddenly they find themselves in the real world.
u/leejtam asked their fellow "South Park" fans what they thought of the real-life versions of the characters in a popular thread. The appropriately named u/swisscheesefarts scored the top comment. "It was a good detail by them to not show Kenny's mouth," they observed. "Then I thought about how cool it would be to be these kids and be able to tell your friends that you're one of the South Park kids."
Though they're only small parts, there would definitely be some social cache in being in a popular TV show, particularly one that's meant for older kids and adults. "Way better than the one where they're on the boat and basically adults," observed u/itshukokay. The user is referring to Season 16, Episode 6 ("I Should Have Never Gone Ziplining"), which featured a live-action reenactment of the boys' "traumatic rescue" at the tail end of the episode. Humorously, all four characters were just played by adults wearing the iconic winter headwear of the kids.
It wasn't the creators' first time adapting to live-action
Some fans might not know that Trey Parker and Matt Stone were doing live-action before they were doing animation. Notably, the two made "Cannibal! The Musical," a low-budget indie horror-comedy that featured just the kind of ridiculous songs that "South Park" is regularly known to boast.
In a 1997 interview with Paul Semel, Matt Stone talked about the project and how it preceded their animated work. "We come from a live-action background. Trey and I met in film school, and we actually made a feature in film school called 'Cannibal! The Musical' that we all acted in," Stone explained. "Trey directed with my friend Jason McHugh. The reason the animation is so crappy is because we really aren't animators."
Luckily for the "South Park" creators, the show has since gone on to mega-success, ensuring the quality of the animation has improved as well. Now, with a $900 million deal with Viacom CBS and several movies in the works (via Bloomberg), Parker and Stone will be busier than ever working on the series.