The Time Trey Parker, Matt Stone and Danny DeVito Trolled Pay-Per-View Customers
Back in the pre-streaming era of television, big ticket events were often available via pay-per-view, the service that allowed cable customers to pay an extra fee in order to access premium content, while also allowing teenagers to watch adult films that looked like RoboCop’s acid flashbacks.In 2002, Trey Parker and Matt Stone decided to get in on this trend with the South Park 5th Anniversary Special. For just $6.95, fans could celebrate five years of South Park by virtually attending a crazy party hosted by its creators, one which featured clips from the series and special celebrity guests.
But those who shelled out the seven bucks may have been surprised to find that the gathering wasn’t quite the rager that the commercial promised.
Presented as a fake episode of a Wild On!-like show called Wild Parties, the special begins with the host welcoming viewers to the “hottest, wildest party in all of Hollywood.” But once inside the venue, it turns out that Parker and Stone are the only ones who actually showed up.Matt and Trey are still super-pumped and continue drinking, dancing and doing whippits – and by that, we mean inhaling air from balloons – all while the bartender and TV presenter sit around looking bored and depressed. There are a few celebrity guests, including Jay Leno and Hugh Hefner, but they appear live via satellite. At one point, American Pie star Chris Klein pops by the empty club and then promptly bolts. The highlight of the show is when Danny DeVito shows up… sort of. In a clip that recently resurfaced online following DeVito’s 81st birthday, Parker and Stone conspicuously green-screen the Twins star into the event as if he were one of the Space Jam toons.
“This has certainly been a memorable party,” the host concludes. “I’ll remember it in my dreams for many nights to come. And wake up screaming.”Of course, Parker and Stone did eventually attend some genuine commemorative shindigs for South Park, like the 15th anniversary party in 2011, which included non-green-screened guests like Duran Duran.
And of course there was the big 25th anniversary concert in 2022.
In retrospect, the South Park 5th Anniversary Special was a pretty hilarious send-up of self-congratulatory Hollywood celebrations. By turning their pay-per-view event into a kind of anti-special, Parker and Stone were able to mark five years of South Park while still maintaining a semblance of outsider cred.Of course, that’s easy for us to say now that all 9 minutes of original content is free on YouTube, not $6.95 on PPV.
