By Trey Parker and Matt Stone's South Park returns for its 19th season tonight (September 16), kicking off with an episode surrounding Caitlyn Jenner. That's bound to turn out well.
After coming of age last month, and remaining as hilarious as it's ever been, let's mark the milestone with 18 amazing and intriguing nuggets of trivia that you may not have known.
1. Trey and Matt produce every episode in under a week
Other shows might take six months to animate, but South Park is done within days. The simplistic nature of the animation is quickly created using CorelDRAW and Maya, and changes can be made just hours before airing. The only time they failed to deliver an episode was when their studio had a power cut. Whoops.
2. Jerry Seinfeld refused to play a turkey
Comedy legend Seinfeld wanted to be in the show but turned down the offer after Parker and Stone wanted him to play Turkey #4 in 'Starvin' Marvin', which only made clucking noises.
3. But George Clooney was totally fine with playing a dog
The Hollywood star was an early fan of South Park, and had emailed pilot episode 'The Spirit of Christmas' to friends at the time. Two years later, he was cast as a gay dog named Sparky and performed a couple of barks. He later voiced Dr Douche in the 1997 movie and his Oscars speech can be heard in 'Smug Alert!' Also, Jay Leno once voiced Cartman's cat.
4. There's a celebrity in every episode
A celebrity is seen on screen in some capacity in every single episode, even if they might not speak. The constant mocking finally came to a head in '200', when Tom Cruise rounded up the stars to sue the town. The only celebrities to actually voice themselves (minus singing parts) are: Robert Smith, Jay Leno, Korn, Radiohead, Wing, Brad Paisley and PewDiePie.
5. Aliens appear in almost every episode
An urban legend suggests that Stone and Parker have placed a hidden alien in every episode since the pilot, but in fact they appear in around half of them. In the early seasons an alien can usually be seen hiding somewhere, but in recent years the easter egg was decreased. Unless they're really good at hiding.
6. Trey Parker hates the first three seasons
Stone has shared his love for the early days, but his co-creator has said he wouldn't mind if the first 48 episodes were deleted for good. He said in 2011: "If I had to permanently erase anything from the library, it would basically be anything before season four. It's just embarrassing to watch. Okay, we were, like, 26, 27. But it's like, 'Really? We thought that was funny? We thought that was well-written? Oh my God, this is terrible'."
7. Kenny says very rude words in the intro
You probably guessed Kenny was being naughty, but did you know what his muffled voice was actually saying? Warning: It's VERY rude
Seasons 1 to 2: "I like girls with big fat titties, I like girls with deep vaginas!"
Seasons 3 to 5: "Me, I got a 10-inch penis, use your mouth if you wanna clean it."
Seasons 7 to 10: "Someday I'll be old enough to stick my d*ck up Britney's butt!"
Season 10 to present: "I like f**king silly bitches and I know my penis likes it."
8. The voices have a formula
Rather than try to do a high-pitched voice, Parker and Stone always pitch up the kids' voices by three semitones, while Terrence and Philip go up by four and female characters up by two.
9. Kenny has been seen without his hood many times
Every now and then, Kenny appears without wearing his trademark zipped-up orange parka, but you may not have even realised it. For instance, in 'The Losing Edge' he is seen simply sitting alongside his pals wearing a baseball cap in full view but doesn't say a line. His unmuffled voice can also be heard in 'The Jeffersons' and 'Lice Capades'.
10. 'Chocolate Salty Balls' was almost a Christmas number one
Isaac Hayes's naughty ballad as Chef narrowly missed out on the UK Christmas number one spot in 1998 by just 5,000 copies to the Spice Girls' 'Goodbye', making it one of the closest festive chart battles ever. However, it climbed up to number one the following week, and eventually sold over 850,000 copies. Mr Hankey the Christmas Poo reached number four the following year.
11. The Simpsons are big fans
Following South Park's controversial and brave double-bill '200' and '201' which was centred on censorship and the Muhammad cartoon controversy, The Simpsons writers sent Parker and Stone flowers thanking them for their efforts. Bart's chalkboard gag that week read: "South Park - We'd stand beside you if we weren't so scared."
12. Matt and Trey invented derp
'Derp' is commonly used today as a phrase or meme to draw attention to an act of stupidity, but it was Stone and Parker who pretty much came up with it. It is derived from the character Mr Derp, a substitute teacher in 'The Succubus'. The word has been used on the show many times since, including all Rob Schneider's ridiculous film trailers.
13. Kyle was nearly killed off
By season five, Parker and Stone felt that Stan and Kyle were too similar, and for a time wanted to get rid of Kyle and bring in Butters as the fourth boy. However, in the end they decided to temporarily kill off Kenny for good to help promote Butters in 'Kenny Dies'.
14. Scientology spied on the creators
After Parker and Stone ripped apart Scientology in 'Trapped in the Closet', The Church of Scientology actually hired people to spy on them in the hopes of finding dirt to blackmail them with. However, their investigation didn't throw anything up, so they left them alone.
15. Butters was originally called Puff Puff
Everyone's favourite little worrier is loosely based on co-producer Eric Stough, whom Stone and Parker nicknamed 'little buddy' due to his reluctance to offend anyone. Butters was also referred to as Swanson until he finally had a speaking part.
16. Parker and Stone had no idea how South Park looked for years
It was only when the creators began creating the video game The Stick of Truth that they realised they had never actually mapped out the town, as scenes usually just cut from one place to another. A basic version can now be found when playing the game.
17. Chewbacca pops up every Halloween
In every Halloween episode of South Park, at least one character is seen wearing a Chewbacca costume. In 'Korn's Groovy Pirate Ghost Mystery', Wendy manages to win best costume, despite Kenny wearing a bipedal robot war machine.
18. Cartman has committed every crime imaginable
Despite being arrested only a handful of times, Cartman has a worse criminal record than Hannibal Lecter and Fagin combined. Among his crimes, Cartman has committed murder, rape, theft, arson, prostitution, cannibalism, attempted genocide, manslaughter, war crimes, hate crimes, animal abuse, grave robbery, child abuse, vandalism, piracy, embezzlement, terrorism, drug possession, smuggling and armed robbery.
South Park will return for its 19th season in the autumn on Comedy Central in the US and UK.
