George Clooney had a special appearance in South Park that you probably forgot about

In the South Park episode “Big Gay Al’s Big Gay Boat Ride”, Stan (Trey Parker) gets a brand new dog that he names Sparky. Stan loves Sparky, and Sparky is well-trained, loyal, and friendly. Stan, as any dog ​​owner would, gets a little sad when Sparky meets other dogs and humps them in public. However, Stan’s friends notice that Sparky only pets other male dogs, and in this childish, homophobic way, they laugh at Sparky’s possible weirdness. However, the characters are all eight years old, and live in a very small community in 1997, so their knowledge of the strangeness is very limited.

Stan asks his teacher, Mr. Garrison (Parker), what it means to be gay, and the terrified and repressed teacher declares to Stan’s face that gay people are evil. Confused and frightened, Stan runs away. At home, Stan laments loudly that his dog is gay, and internalizes his teacher’s bigoted message. Sparky hears Stan and runs away. Sparky somehow comes to an animal shelter in the woods… a shelter for rejected gay animals. It is operated by A character named Big Gay Al (Matt Stone).

The early episodes of South Park rely on stereotypes, and much of the show’s “shocking” humor remains shocking today, but the ultimate message of “Big Gay Al’s Big Gay Boat Ride” is one of tolerance. Stan accepts Sparky for who he is, and they end the episode happily together again. It was rare for mainstream television series, especially anime, to discuss queer themes openly in 1997. Despite the stereotypes, The episode was revolutionary in its waywas nominated for an Emmy Award and a GLAAD Award.

In a strange reversal, Sparky’s barks and growls were provided by George Clooney.

One may remember that every episode of “South Park” began with the disclaimer that all the celebrities who appeared on the show were just bad imitators. In Clooney’s case, series creators Stone and Parker wanted the famous actor on their show, but not in a flashy way. According to the episode’s DVD commentary track, Parker and Stone indicated that they wanted “South Park” to be different from “The Simpsons” in this regard. “The Simpsons” has often had high-profile celebrity guests, often featuring celebrities playing themselves. “South Park” was always aiming to do away with the idea of ​​celebrity, and Parker and Stone regularly made fun of celebrities simply because they were famous. Remember when Barbra Streisand turned into a giant mechanical monster and fought Leonard Maltin and Sidney Poitier?

Parker’s spirit: “Let’s host celebrities, and have them do simple, unimportant things.”

As an antidote to the Simpsons’ cameo appearances, they offered Clooney Sparky, a non-speaking role. Clooney said yes, because he’s been a long-time “South Park” fan, even before it debuted. Stone noted that Clooney was a fan of their 1995 short film “The Spirit of Christmas,” and the actor’s spread of their short film — linked to his Christmas cards — was a big reason Hollywood villains knew who Stone and Parker were. The “Christmas Spirit” was one of the earlier viral memes that gained strength in the Internet era.

Stone noted Clooney’s spread of “The Spirit of Christmas” well, saying in a comment:

“George thought it was funny, too. It was actually easy to catch George because he helped start South Park. When we made the first strip, The Spirit of Christmas, legend has it that he single-handedly called it ‘The Spirit of Christmas.’ He repeated it 700 One time he sent it to people and the main reason it spread all over Los Angeles was because of George, he sent it to everyone he knew, he didn’t even know us. It turned out he was supportive of us. He was always great with us. He’s a good guy.

Clooney also participated In the 1999 feature film “South Park: Bigger, Longer, Uncut.” He played a very serious (but not very competent) version of his character from “ER,” where he works on poor Kenny (Stone) after he sets himself on fire. The doctor mistakenly replaces Kenny’s heart with a baked potato.

But his participation did not save Clooney from the ridicule of Stone and Parker. In the South Park episode “Smug Alert!”, they played clips of Clooney’s speech at the 2006 Academy Awards, where he said celebrities should use their backs to advocate for social change. Parker and Stone felt the speech was arrogant enough to be parodied on their show, and they publicly mocked Clooney’s seriousness. However, Clooney did not comment on the jibe, so one cannot be sure if he and the “South Park” castmates are still on good terms.