South Park’s iconic 2006 episode “Make Love Not Warcraft” may be one of the show’s most-loved outings, but series co-creator Trey Parker originally hated the episode so much that he pleaded with the show’s network to cancel its airing. Since beginning its long life as a rude, crude animated Christmas e-card that saw Santa fighting Jesus to the death, South Park has been the subject of plenty of protest, censorship, and occasional praise in the decades it has spent on-screen. The show continues to garner criticism and fan adulation in equal measure to this day, with the recent Pandemic Special splitting critics.
The ribald, anarchic animated comedy sees series co-creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone aim their comedic focus on a new target every week, and South Park’s incredibly tight production schedule has often resulted in up-to-the-minute, intensely timely satire. However, the show’s unusual production process, which sees the creators write, create, and animate an entire episode in just six days, has also resulted in some close calls for the series, as evidenced by Trey Parker asking the network to cancel an episode that ended up being a beloved classic among fans.
Thanks to the truncated production process of South Park, season 10’s well-loved outing “Make Love Not Warcraft” put Trey Parker under immense strain and left him uncertain whether he wanted to continue with the series. Parker asked the network executives at Comedy Central to put the kibosh on “Make Love Not Warcraft” the night before the show was released, begging them not to air the episode as he was convinced he was unable to write South Park‘s controversial brand of satire anymore. Parker worried that the episode, which he thought was terrible, would destroy South Park’s considerable TV legacy, leading him to beg the executives to cancel its airdate (to no avail, fortunately).
Despite Parker’s pleading for the episode not to be shown, “Make Love Not Warcraft” was not only well-received by critics but even went on to win an Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program. Parker has since more than mellowed in his view of the episode, with both himself and Stone later calling “Make Love Not Warcraft” their own favorite episode of South Park. To be fair to him, it’s often hard for South Park’s creators to tell which of their ideas will resonate thanks to the show’s tight schedule. In contrast with the episode’s kind reception, critics despised the earlier season 10 outing “A Million Little Fibers,” which aired shortly before “Make Love Not Warcraft” and was also disliked by both of South Park’s creators.
In that episode’s case, Stone and Parker were understandably burnt out by the show’s 200th episode controversy which occurred only a week before “A Million Little Fibers” aired and saw the creators receive death threats. However, the Christmas special “A Woodland Critter Christmas” and “The Quest For Ratings,” both of which were released when Parker and Stone were exhausted by their work on Team America: World Police, were both dismissed by Parker and Stone as lesser efforts, only for both to be beloved by many fans of South Park. In the case of those South Park outings, the self-referential jokes about their creator’s frustrating lack of ideas featured in both episodes may well contribute to the fandom’s fondness for them.
