They say that when you watch something you haven’t seen for a really long time, you look at it through a different set of eyes. Like the first time I saw an episode of my favorite childhood cartoon, Challenge of the Superfriends, as an adult. When I watched it as a child, it was the most amazing piece of cinematography I had ever seen. There they were, all of my favorite comic book superheroes, “The Justice League of America” – Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman and Robin, Aquaman, Green Lantern, Hawkman, Flash, Black Samurai, Black Lightning and Apache Chief – on my television, moving and talking and fighting against, “The most sinister villains of all time.” – Lex Luthor, Brainiac, Bizzaro, Sinestro, Captain Cold, The Riddler, The Scarecrow, Solomon Grundy, Grod, Black Manta, Cheetah, Giganta and The Toyman. To me, there was nothing better. But when I watched it again as an adult after not seeing the cartoon for over a decade, I realized that the animation was terrible, the jokes were campy – and the new Justice League cartoon series, which premiered on November 17, 2001 – is a grillion times better…

…but that first episode of Challenge of the Superfriends still brings me right back to the boy I was when I watched it.

This afternoon, I had an experience that was practically identical to that one. After several hours of burying myself in work, I decided to watch something I haven’t seen in close to five years. Something that, when I first watched it, would, unbeknownst to me, change the entire course of my life. A twenty-two minute program that has made me more friends and taken me more places than anyone or anything else I have ever been associated with – and something that brought me right back to exactly when, with who, how, where, for what – and why I watched it…

…Cartman Gets An Anal Probe – the very first episode of South Park.

Let’s start with the “when.” – it was early 1998. “With who” was my friend Brian who I worked with at The Marketeer. “How” we watched it is on our lunch hour because Brian brought a tape of the first episode of South Park to work. “Where” we watched it was at my mother’s house, which was only a few blocks from our office. “For what” and “why” I watched it was because Brian told me it was hysterical…

…and he was right.

From that very first episode, I became religiously addicted to this amazing cartoon with the same ferocity I had for Challenge of the Superfriends. Despite the fact that South Park came on every Wednesday, daily episodes were not enough to quench my “thirst” for the show. And when the movie came out, I wrote a review which made South Park become not only a daily part of my life – but the most important thing in my life to this day. The review I wrote eventually landed me a job with South Park – and the chance to work on the very show I loved from the first day I saw it. Since September 1, 1999, which was the first day I sent out a Digest as an employee of South Park – I have gained more from this Digest and the people who have subscribed to it than anything else I have ever done…

…and today, I watched that very first episode again, the episode that was responsible for bringing all this joy into my life – and today’s twenty-two minutes brought the last six years all back to me in an instant.

Before I get to what the episode brought back to me, let me start with what I saw of the episode after watching it for the first time in five years. Now that I watched it with a different set of eyes, I realized many things:

• I noticed that Bebe, Pip, Token and Butters are in the episode, even though they were not prominent characters until much later in the series.
• The alphabet is actually correct, not the way it is now with the Upper Case letters going the right way and the Lower Case letters going the wrong way (as in Az By Cx Dw Ev Fu Gt Hs…).
• On the blackboard, one of the sentences used to teach the boys grammar is, “I am not positive, but I think that Cathy Lee Gifford is much older than she claims to be.” – Knowing now that Mr. Garrison hates Cathy Lee Gifford and wants to kill her.
• When the visitors killed Kenny, we did not know that he would be back in the next episode, because he never died before.
• When Stan saw Wendy, he always threw up because he loved her – and now Wendy is with Token.
• It’s the first – and last time we see Mr. Garrison driving a car – with a Mr. Hat that has no eyes.
• It is the first and last time we hear the visitors speak.

And…
• The episode contains many phrases that we don’t hear anymore, but were instant staples when we first heard them:
o “I’m Not Fat, I’m big boned!”
o “Yeah, I want Cheesy Poofs!”
o “Kick the Baby”
o “No kitty! This is my pot pie!”
o “Oh my God! They killed Kenny! You bastards!”

I also realized something else – the animation was terrible, the jokes were campy – and the newer episodes of South Park are a grillion times better…

…but that first episode of South Park still brings me right back to who I was when I first saw it.

I am very grateful to Brian for introducing me to South Park. I am very thankful that I decided to write a review of the movie after I saw it and send it to Comedy Central. I am extremely indebted to Comedy Central for giving me the job as Moderator of the South Park Booster Club. I am forever appreciative to the members of the South Park Digest for all that they have brought into my life over the last five years and will continue to bring into my life as we travel down the road of existence together…

…and I thank God for the most important twenty-two minutes of my life.

“Thank God we live in this
quiet,
little,
pissant,
redneck,
Podunk
jerkwater
three corn,
one horse,
one hole,
chicken butt,
right wing,
missing stuff,
no mail,
truck driving,
old track,
spacey,
pea brain,
horsewhipped,
hungry,
unkept,
white trash,
kickass!..
Mountain Town!”
Trey Parker – Mountain Town (Reprise)