South Park turns 20: How to make an all-time classic by insulting everybody

South Park premiered on August 13, 1997 after which Comedy Central committed to a full series

My first visit to South Park was the animated short The Spirit of Christmas: Jesus vs Santa. I was fresh from art school and working as a 3D animator, producing “cut-scene” narrative shorts for computer games for some of the biggest companies in the field. We were mostly animating life-like characters, striving for photorealism within the limitations of the software of the time. Then came Cartman, Kyle, Stan and Kenny.

Jesus vs Santa went around the studio like wildfire. It was one of the first viral videos I can remember. Animators, artists, writers, programmers and managers huddled around monitors to watch