I’ll admit that I don’t watch South Park that often, but when I do catch it, even I’m struck by the show’s wicked satire and parody of today’s current events. I knew about the first South Park episode Jesus verses Santa, which inspired Comedy Central to develop the short film into a television series. But even I never saw the short animation work Jesus verses Frosty, which caught the interest of Fox TV executive Brian Graden. According to Wikipedi:
In 1992, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, then students at the University of Colorado, made Jesus vs. Frosty, under the "Avenging Conscience Films" moniker. Parker and Stone animated the film using only construction paper, glue, and a very old 8 mm film camera, and premiered the film at the December 1992 student film screening. The movie features four kids who are very similar to the four main characters of South Park, including a character resembling Cartman but called 'Kenny', a hooded boy resembling Kenny, and two other nameless boys resembling Stan and Kyle. The film also includes some classic South Park ingredients, such as an absurd story-line, crude language, graphic violence and a 'moral' at the end.
The story is that the four kids build a snowman and, in the vein of Frosty the Snowman, put a magic silk hat on it to make it come to life. Unfortunately Frosty turns out to be evil and deranged, sprouting huge tentacles and killing the Cartman-resembling boy. This leads one of the boys to be the first to utter the famous line: "Oh my god! Frosty killed Kenny!". The boys go to Santa for help, but it's Frosty in disguise, and he kills the Kenny-resembling boy. The two remaining kids run away, and then find a nativity scene with a baby Jesus, who flies to the evil snowman and kills it by slicing off the magic hat with his halo. After seeing this, one of the two says another known line: "You know, I learned something today". The two kids realize the true meaning of Christmas: presents. So, as a deer nibbles on the Cartman-resembling boy, they go to their homes to find the presents hidden by their parents.
In 1995, Fox executive Brian Graden paid Stone and Parker $2000 to make another animated short as a video Christmas card he could send to friends. In turn, the duo created Jesus vs. Santa. This version of The Spirit of Christmas featured an animation style very similar to South Park, as well as more developed versions of Stan, Kyle, Cartman and Kenny (and a cameo appearance of a girl looking exactly like Wendy Testaburger, sitting on Santa's lap). It largely established the characters as they would be used in South Park. The movie also contains elements which would re-occur in the series, such as Kyle being Jewish and rats eating Kenny's corpse. The film reportedly had a budget of $750, with Parker and Stone keeping the rest of their commission. The making of the short was parodied in the South Park episode "A Very Crappy Christmas". (In terms of the South Park universe, Stan, Kyle, Kenny, and Cartman created the film to rejuvenate interest in Christmas, although Kenny's death is the result of him dying in "real life" and Stan dubs over Cartman's voice after he quits the project.)
The story differs significantly from Jesus vs. Frosty. Jesus descends to South Park where he meets the kids. He asks them to take him to the local mall, where he finds Santa. It turns out that Jesus has a bone to pick with "Kringle" - according to Jesus, Santa diminishes the memory of Jesus' birthday with his presents. Santa is aware of the feud, and claims that "this time" they will "finish it". They stand up for a fight (accompanied by sounds and music from Mortal Kombat) and duke it out, accidentally killing various bystanders (including Kenny) in the process. Jesus pins Santa down, and they both ask the boys to help them. Stan hesitates, and wonders: "What Would Brian Boitano do?" (this is later parodied as a song in South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut) The figure skater miraculously appears and delivers a speech about how Christmas should be about being good to each other. The boys transmit the message to the fighters, who ashamedly agree and decide to bury the hatchet over an orange smoothie. Just like in Jesus vs. Frosty, the boys again realize the true meaning of Christmas: presents. Kyle remarks that if you're Jewish, you get presents for eight days. The others decide to become Jewish too and, while rats are eating Kenny's corpse, leave the scene.
Graden initially distributed the video to 80 friends in December 1995, one of the friends rumored to be George Clooney. Brian Boitano ended up getting a hold of the tape, and was apparently flattered by his depiction. After months of being passed around on bootleg video and the Internet, the film caught the attention of cable network Comedy Central. The network hired the pair to develop South Park, which premiered in the USA on August 13, 1997.
In 1997, Jesus vs. Santa received a Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for best animation.
It is amazing how a Fox television executive such as Graden was willing to pay Stone and Parker $2000 for a short “South Park” animation film that he enjoyed, and wanted to share it with his friends and family, but who failed to realize the potential success this short film could become as a regular television series. Fox already had a successful animation series in The Simpsons. They could have had South Park as well. Unfortunately for Fox, Comedy Central saw the potential of this Graden “Christmas card,” and developed it into the series South Park.
Anyways, that is a little of the history on these two wonderful short films. I found them both through YouTube. So here they are for an early Christmas treat. The first is South Park Episode 0: Jesus verses Frosty. The second is South Park Episode 1: Jesus verses Santa.
Merry Christmas!
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