On this day in history, in 1997, television took a bold turn. South Park premiered on Comedy Central with its first episode, “Cartman Gets an Anal Probe,” on August 3, 1997. The show was crude, loud, and impossible to ignore. Thus, a cultural phenomenon began shaking up the airwaves.

The Unforgettable Premiere

• The Setup: Four kids—Stan, Kyle, Cartman, and Kenny—navigated life in a quiet Colorado town. But “quiet” ended the moment aliens arrived and Cartman denied he’d been abducted.
• The Style: The pilot used actual construction paper cutouts, stitched together with stop-motion animation. The result? A deliberately jagged look that felt raw and rebellious.
• The Voices: Creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone voiced nearly every male character themselves, pitching their lines higher to mimic kids. Their hands-on approach gave the show its distinctive tone from day one.
• The Controversy: The show didn’t tiptoe. Profanity, toilet humor, and a dead Kenny in every episode were just the beginning. Critics raged. Kids quoted it. Parents freaked out.

But South Park wasn’t just shock value. Beneath the profanity and alien probes was something sharp.

• The Satire: It mocked everything—politics, religion, pop culture. Nothing was sacred, and that was the point. It was an “equal opportunity offender” with a moral compass buried in chaos.
• The Speed: Unlike traditional animation, which took months, South Park episodes were completed in just six days. That lets them tackle current events almost in real time. The show was fast, fearless, and often frighteningly timely.

Post-Premiere

It didn’t take long for the numbers to soar:

• Within weeks, South Park became the highest-rated show in Comedy Central’s history.
• College campuses turned weekly viewings into events.
• By spring 1998, it had eight of the top ten cable shows.

It almost didn’t happen. Comedy Central picked it up after Fox passed on the deal. Why did they decline? They didn’t like the talking poo named Mr. Hankey. Yes, Fox killed the deal over a piece of singing feces.

Comedy Central said yes. The rest is history. A boy got probed. A town got weird. And TV would never be the same again.