South Park
Season 3
Home media release cover
No. of episodes	17
Release
Original network	Comedy Central
Original release	April 7, 1999 (1999-04-07) – January 12, 2000 (2000-01-12)
Season chronology
← Previous Season 2 Next → Season 4
List of episodes

The third season ofSouth Park, an American animated television comedy series, aired onComedy Central from April 7, 1999, to January 12, 2000.^[1] The season was headed by series creatorsTrey Parker andMatt Stone, who also served asexecutive producers along with Anne Garefino. The season continued to focus on the exploits of protagonistsStan,Kyle,Cartman, andKenny in the fictionalColorado mountain town ofSouth Park.

The season consisted of seventeen 22-minute episodes, which aired mostly in two groups separated by a three-month gap. Continuing their practice from previous seasons, Parker and Stone wrote and produced each episode within the week before its broadcast date. They produced the first half of the season simultaneously while working on the show's film adaption,South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut. The show's creators considered the third season an improvement on the previous season, due to a heavier focus on strong storytelling structure and character development, as well as increased creative control. In the second half of the season, the show was dealt a heavy blow with the death of voice actressMary Kay Bergman, who provided many of the female voices on the show. The remaining three episodes in the season are mostly absent of female voices for this reason.

The third season satirized such topics as theWaco siege,tropical rainforest conservation, andsexual harassment, films such asStar Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace,Tron, andGettysburg, and television shows such asScooby-Doo andPokémon. It also continues the show's tradition of lampooning celebrities, which in this season includeCher,Pat Robertson, andRod Stewart. The season features a guest appearance from both thenu metal bandKorn andFriends actressJennifer Aniston.

This is the final season to featureMary Kay Bergman as a series regular, who provided many of the female voices on the show. Bergman died bysuicide on November 11, 1999. The remaining three episodes in the season are mostly absent of female voices for this reason.

• Trey Parker asStan Marsh,Eric Cartman,Randy Marsh,Mr. Garrison,Clyde Donovan,Mr. Hankey,Mr. Mackey,Token Black, andPhillip
• Matt Stone asKyle Broflovski,Kenny McCormick,Butters Stotch,Gerald Broflovski,Stuart McCormick,Pip Pirrup,Craig Tucker,Jimbo Kern,Terrance,Tweek Tweak andJesus
• Mary Kay Bergman (Episodes 1–15) asLiane Cartman,Sheila Broflovski,Shelly Marsh,Sharon Marsh, Carol McCormick andWendy Testaburger
• Eliza Schneider (Episodes 16–17) asSharon Marsh, Ms. Crabtree & Various
• Isaac Hayes asChef

• Jennifer Aniston as Miss Stevens ("Rainforest Shmainforest")
• Jonathan Davis,James Shaffer,Brian Welch,Reginald Arvizu andDavid Silveria as themselves ("Korn's Groovy Pirate Ghost Mystery")

After thesecond season ofSouth Park, show creatorsTrey Parker andMatt Stone began to take more creative control of the show back, which they had delegated in the previous season to a writing staff.^[2] Parker and Stone have openly expressed dislike for the second season as a whole. "There's a lot of funny stuff in the second season," Stone remarked, but Parker agreed that they were still learning how to write for the show.^[3] They took the advice of friends in the television industry and let other writers on the staff write scripts and take more control of the show, which they later regretted.^[4] They even considered developing a show for broadcast television and leavingSouth Park, but they decided to continue working on it.^[4] On the DVD commentaries for the third season, Parker advised viewers to "throw away your season two DVDs. I don't like those shows."^[5] Parker would later say the same about the third season: "If I had to permanently erase anything from the library, it would basically be anything before season 4. 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.'"^[6]

Like manySouth Park seasons, episodes were mostly produced in the week preceding their original broadcasts.^[7]

Parker characterized the third season as "whereSouth Park turned the corner... and [became] good to us."^[8] The third season was produced simultaneously with the film adaptation of the series—South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut—and came at a time when the duo began learning more aboutstory structure and character development. They applied these lessons to the show as well.^[8] Parker noted that producing the film and season at the same time was "tough." The show and film occupied two separate buildings a mile apart that the duo would often have to switch between.^[8]Paramount Pictures was unhappy with the duo working on the show equally with the film.^[9] "Jakovasaurs" arrived at a peak ofpost-production work on the film.^[10] Parker and Stone claim to have no memory of making "Sexual Harassment Panda", the following episode, due to their exhaustion from working on the film: "We don't remember doing these shows at all," Parker remarked in the episode's commentary.^[11] Stone characterized the episode as "delusionary writing."^[12]

With the film completed for its June 30, 1999, release date, the duo still were contracted to produce three more episodes before taking a break. They came up with the idea to produce atrilogy of episodes—"Cat Orgy", "Two Guys Naked in a Hot Tub", and "Jewbilee"—which they called "the meteor shower trilogy." They felt "brain-dead" on ideas and created the idea to make things easier.^[13] "Two Guys Naked in a Hot Tub" features the first major appearance ofButters Stotch, who became a main character in the series in later seasons; prior to this episode, he was a nameless background character, having had a non-speaking background role in "Cartman Gets an Anal Probe".^[14] They based Butters on the show's animation director,Eric Stough, whom they mocked while working on the film.^[15] "Jewbilee", the trilogy's conclusion, became regarded as one of the duo's favorite all-time episodes. "We were literally crawling around the floor trying to finish the show but we were also all already on vacation in our minds," Parker remembered.^[16] To this end, they decided not to care about the episode's content and just make whatever came to mind. Following the episode's completion, the staff took a vacation for a month, returning later in the year to complete the rest of the season.^[16]

Their first episode back, in October 1999, was "Korn's Groovy Pirate Ghost Mystery". Parker remembered the making of the episode difficult, as they had been away for so long.^[17] "Chinpokomon" features the guest voice of Parker's old college friend Junichi Nishimura, and several elements of the script—namely, the Japanese having "small penises"—were inspired by a trip toBeijing with Nishimura. In the trip, Nishimura's boss kept referring to the size of his own penis as "so small", which became a joke in the episode.^[18] "Hooked on Monkey Fonics" was based on a friend of Parker and Stone's, who homeschooled his child.^[19] To Stone, the episode distilled down the essence ofSouth Park: that children are not innocent, but rather "little bastards."^[20] "Starvin' Marvin in Space" was produced aroundThanksgiving 1999, and the duo decided to write a sequel to the season one episode "Starvin' Marvin". The duo thought of it as not a regular episode ofSouth Park, but something wholly its own.^[21]

After completing the dialogue for the aforementioned episode,Mary Kay Bergman, the voice actress behind many of the female characters onSouth Park, was found dead ofsuicide. Parker and Stone, shocked by the news, made the remaining episodes in the third season revolve around mainly male characters, beginning with "The Red Badge of Gayness".^[22] "Mr. Hankey's Christmas Classics" is mostly an animatedmusic video, of sorts, to the album of the same name which was released one week prior. Parker and Stone had spent several weeks with composerMarc Shaiman, whom they had worked with onBigger, Longer & Uncut, to create an entire album ofSouth Park-themedholiday songs.^[23] "Are You There God? It's Me, Jesus" was made at the request of the network to produce an episode centering on theNew Millennium.^[24] "World Wide Recorder Concert" fulfilled their contractual obligations with the network, and required the team to come back after the Christmas break to complete it.^[5]

The central character in "Jakovasaurs" is based onJar Jar Binks fromStar Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999).^[10] Plot elements of "Two Guys Naked in a Hot Tub" were inspired by aHBO documentary on theWaco siege, perhapsWaco: The Rules of Engagement; Parker and Stone regarded the incident as a "disaster". They parody the pop starCher and her song "Believe" for the episode, used fortortuous purposes. The parody was performed by staff writerPam Brady.^[14][15] In "Jewbilee", theMoses character is patterned after theMaster Control Program from the filmTron.^[16] Thenu metal bandKorn guest star in the episode "Korn's Groovy Pirate Ghost Mystery". Korn approached the show's staff with the idea to premiere their new single, "Falling Away from Me", onSouth Park.^[17] Parker and Stone were at first unreceptive to the offer, but became more excited when the idea came to portray them in a cheesy fashion, like the appearances of theHarlem Globetrotters inThe New Scooby-Doo Movies. The animators attempted to model the animation afterHanna-Barbera's style.^[17]

"Chinpokomon" satirizes the phenomenon of thePokémon franchise, which at the time was at its peak of popularity. To prepare, the show's writing staff sat down and watched episodes of thePokémon anime, which they regarded as nothing more than marketing to buytrading cards.^[18] "Starvin' Marvin in Space" mocks media mogul and ministerPat Robertson and his program,The 700 Club.^[21] "The Red Badge of Gayness" referencesAmerican Civil War reenactments and parodies the filmGettysburg.^[7] "Mr. Hankey's Christmas Classics" features an obscure reference to a bootleg tape of the one broadcast of theStar Wars Holiday Special, in which a news reporter, teasing thelate-night news, remarks, "Fighting the frizzies, at eleven." Parker called it "one of the most obscure things we've ever done inSouth Park.^[23] "Are You There God? It's Me, Jesus" mocks the musicianRod Stewart and theBackstreet Boys, and its title references the bookAre You There God? It's Me, Margaret.^[24]

• South Park (Park County, Colorado)
• South Park City

• South Park Studios - official website withstreaming video of full episodes for the United States, Australia, and New Zealand
• The Comedy Network - full episodes for Canada

• South Park season 3 episodes
• 1999 American animated television seasons
• 2000 American animated television seasons

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