The Making of the South Park WoW Episode

Via GameSetWatch, an interview with South Park Producer Frank Agnone, Tech Supervisor J. J. Franzen, and Director of Animation Eric Stough. The discussion, on the Machinima.com site, goes into a lot of detail on how the South Park WoW episode was made, their rationale for doing it, and the amount of assistance they received from Blizzard. From the article: "Q: How long did it take to capture, puppeteer, and edit all the WOW footage? JJ: Uhm... A really really long time. We decided early on to treat the in-game capture sessions as regular film shoots. Our 'set' ended up being the lobby of the studio we produce South Park in. We rented 12 PCs, set up a bunch of folding tables, and were basically good to go. I decided that it would be best to capture on a Mac, since we would be able to capture directly to a quicktime file, which would make getting the captured footage onto the editing system a lot quicker. So, I hauled my shiny new MacPro out into the lobby and spent the next two weeks in a much bigger, if less private, new office. We had 5 'shoot' days, the first on the 20th of Sept. which lasted about 3-5 hours. The next was on the 26th of Sept. which also lasted about 4-5 hours., and then we shot almost every other day up to the last few days of production Monday and Tuesday were full days, with the last day going from 10am Tuesday morning to around 3am Wednesday morning the 3rd of Oct,, the day the episode aired."

Comments

How they did it:

[drsquare]

1. Write down a load of world of warcraft references and in jokes.
2. Add a couple of toilet jokes.
3. Profit!

Re:How they did it:

[JohnSearle]

1. Use cliched South Park joke.
2. ?
3. Mod points!

- John

Re:How they did it:

[slughead]

1. Write down a load of world of warcraft references and in jokes.
2. Add a couple of toilet jokes.
3. Profit!

I have to agree (before you get modded down as the dirty troll you are!).

I don't play WoW, but I've been a gamer since I was 10 years old (which was before you were born, whoever you are). I understood all the jokes and even knew enough about WoW to appreciate that it was right on the money.

Also, the way that they talked was hilarious--the sort of condescending borderline malaise in the vocal commands from Cartman to the other 3--that was spot on.

All in all, though... It just wasn't... that ... funny. A lot of WoW players I know thought this was an epic event and were actually giddy that Trey and Matt decided to shed light on their somewhat lame past-time. All I'm saying is, it could've used more fart jokes.

Re:How they did it:

[wizzard2k]

All I'm saying is, it could've used more fart jokes.

Mom?! Bathroom!
What hun?
Bathroom! BATHROOM!!!
*********
Oh, that's a big boy, isnt he!

That wasnt enough for you?

Re:How they did it:

[fermion]

Really, every south park episode is like this. The only issue is that some people are so sensitive that they can't stand being made fun of, and as a result run home, hide in their parents basement, and post scathing online rebuttals.

What South Park does is makes us all look at the inane things we do, and in the process, at least for those of us that are reflective, gives us the opportunity to look at these things from the perspective of others. It is high end requirement for enjoying such a low brow show, but hey, that is why South Park is not Family Guy.

As has been mentioned on numerous occasions, the show does not in particular hate anyone, except for Barbara Steisand, and has no problem with anyone, except for pompous actors, politicians, and other persons. And the one thing we have seen this season, if we can't make fun of everyone, then we shouldn't make fun of anyone.

My solemn hope is that the WOW folks, and other folks who take video games so seriously that they have become so myopic that they cannot phantom anything outside of the game, will complain so much that we have an even more scathing episode, a la Sally Struthers or Scientology. We call it '40 years old and living in your moms garage.'

Re:Close

[tgtanman]

FTA: "We have been producing our episodes in this fashion for years, routinely finishing within 12 hours of the episode going on the air."

Re:Close

[Monkey-Man2000]

Panic is a great motivator. . .

Unbelievable text formatting

[Toby The Economist]

After ten years of the Net, do they really not yet know that you don't center large amounts of text people are trying to read?

Re:Close

[c_forq]

I've heard the main reason they chose to do that is so they can stay extremely relevant. For example they can make fun of events within a couple days of it happening.

Re:Dude, your LSD is wearing off.

[Lemmy Caution]

At a certain point, it stops being humor and is just a Pavlovian response. Usually, the 3rd retelling.

Why is it geeky to repeat lines over and over? Because it reflects a desire for predictability, control, and safety. Instead of this vague "sense" of humor that seems abstract and fleeting, you have humor-as-algorithm. It is a reliance on the cliche in place of immediate experience. Two of the more interesting 20th century writers about aesthetics - Adorno and Deleuze - describe the cliche as the enemy of authentic experience.

There is no discovery when you repeat a joke. When something is found funny the first time, it is partially because it uncovers some absurdity or twist in the world.

Sex is different. Very different. And if one isn't careful, it too can become a cliche.