You wouldn’t think a TV show like South Park would still be dominating headlines some two decades after it initially premiered and yet it is proving to be more important than ever. The fact that it became and remains a cultural phenomenon is astounding, not only because of its “rags to riches” origin story but because it all happened thanks to a massive helping hand from George Clooney.
South Park began in the early 90s when the show’s creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, made a hand-animated short film called Jesus vs. Frosty. The short was crude and rough but it had all the elements that would eventually become South Park, right down to the deliberately crappy-looking animation.
Parker and Stone were later asked to create a second short film, titled Jesus vs. Santa, as a Christmas card for a friend who was a Fox Network executive. Their friend ended up liking it so much he began sharing VHS copies of the two shorts (both packaged under the title The Spirit of Christmas) to his pals.
Now this was when the internet was barely a thing and getting things to go viral was infinitely more difficult, but when there’s a will there’s a way.
The Spirit of Christmas became one of the very first viral videos, so much so people were falsely claiming credit for it and getting jobs as a result. For Trey and Matt though, the turning point came in the form of George Clooney.
The future Mr. Amal Alamuddin came across The Spirit of Christmas and thought it was so funny he apparently (via Fortune Magazine) made 300 VHS copies of the tapes and gave it to all his Hollywood pals.
One of these tapes found its ways into the hands of Comedy Central executive Doug Herzog, who thought was hilarious and gave Trey and Matt the greenlight to turn The Spirit of Christmas into a TV series and rest has since become history.
So how did Trey Parker and Matt Stone show their gratitude to George Clooney for essentially launching their now-successful career? By getting him to voice Stan’s gay dog.
So there you have it, if it weren’t for George Clooney pissing himself over a crude, hand-animated cartoon short about four foul-mouthed kids, we may not have gotten one of the most culturally important shows in recent memory. George has done many things in his career but helping to get South Park made is almost certainly his greatest achievement.