As co-creator (with Trey
Parker) of
South Park, one of the most highly-rated original series
ever to grace Comedy Central, Matt Stone is responsible
for one of the most entertaining and gleefully disgusting
shows in television history, a cultural phenomenon that
has successfully polarised its equally fervent fans
and detractors.
Born May 26, 1971, in Houston, TX, Stone moved to
Littleton, CO, with his family when he was very young.
He attended the University of Colorado at Boulder as
a math major, and it was there that he met fellow student
Trey Parker, with whom he started making a series of
crudely animated cartoons.
In 1996, Parker and Stone collaborated on their first
film, “Cannibal! The Musical”, which caught
the attention of FoxLab executive Brian Graden. Graden
commissioned them to make a Christmas video card, The
Spirit of Christmas, a 5-minute cartoon that featured
the debut of the four foul-mouthed third graders who
would become South Park's stars.
The South Park characters are: fairly normal Stan
Marsh, neurotic Kyle Broslofski, perpetually doomed
Kenny McCormick, and fat and nasty Eric Cartman. The
video, “it’s language uncensored” quickly
became the talk of Hollywood, and the guilty pleasure
of watching four cartoon kids say bad words soon became
the privilege of anyone with the cable channel Comedy
Central.
Debuting August 13, 1997, South Park became both hit
and subject of controversy, as it was often invoked
as yet another example of the popular-culture depravity
corrupting America's children. However, controversy
did not stop the show's rapid ascent to a place of honour
in America's pop culture lexicon.
However, controversy did not stop the show's rapid
ascent to a place of honor in America's pop culture
lexicon. Following “Orgazmo” (1997), the
Parker film that Stone produced, and “BASEketball” (1998),
in which he starred with Parker, “South Park:
Bigger, Longer, and Uncut” hit movie screens across
the country during the summer of 1999.
The film became
a modest hit, further establishing Stone's reputation
as one of Hollywood's most successfully idiosyncratic
talents.
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