Daily Record from Glasgow, Strathclyde, Scotland • 26

Dally Record Wedne Page 26 FACT IS STRANGER THAN FICTION: HOWTHE CREATOR OF THE CONTROVERSIAL kffiSwiji Ui Spirit of Fairplay that is a cult phenomenon IT is teiet crudest definitel children Controversial Channel 4 show South Park has a huge cult following but what many fans realise is that it is based on real life Not only is there an actual South Park in Colorado it is also peopled by residents who bear an uncanny resemblance to some of the central characters The reason is simple the townsfolk were the inspiration for the creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone The sleepy town within South Park Fairplay-population 500 -is a dead ringer for the cartoon home of the colourful eccentrics The publicity-seeking figurehead is Mayor Bonnie whose real-life alter-ego is South Park resident Bonnie Edmondson Real-life Vietnam veteran Michael Smith finds himself represented in the show as a gun-toting headband-wearing hippie with a weird automated voice due to a tracheotomy operation Fortner school bus driver Maryjo Egloff is portrayed as a bad-tempered harridan who has a bird living in her hair Meanwhile the Chief of Police Rick Clark bears more than a passing resemblance to the Officer Bradbury And thought Kenny who meets a violent and bloody death in every episode is based on a local boy who persistently attempted suicide in a bid for attention Most of South cast are either dysfunctional foul-mouthed eight-year-olds or social misfits Should the people they are based on choose to sue they may have a strong case However they appear more than happy to have their lives parodied and their eccentricities grossly exaggerated Vietnam veteran Michael Smith aka Ned Gerblowsky says he knew Trey Parker well Trey lived near Fairplay during the eighties and met the co-creator Matt Stone at the University of Colorado Ordained as a minister of the Universal Church of God Smith 50 says that he used to teach the local children a combination of Christianity and Paganism He says: remember Trey He would come here with a pal of his and they used to ask me all the difficult questions had to sometimes go away and read up dll's rudest series and NOT for the By KAREN McVEIGH on all sorts of religious books just to answer He reckons Trey must have based Ned on his younger self and is happy to say so He explains: I was teaching the kids I used to have a little goatee and moustache just like in the cartoon also wear photosensitive glasses all the time like Ned I have a camouflage shirt but I had an army one I used to wear a lot And I sure do like to He adds: quite pleased Trey put me in a cartoon They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and Fm internationally known Smith insists most of the cartoon characters are real people Wendy Testerburger who makes one of the characters Stan so nervous that he vomits when she talks to him was another student of his he says the guys used to like her Her real name is Wendy Gamsey also a real-life Big Gay Al We just call him Big Al but he cross-dresses every year for Fairplay Day He lives out of town which is why Big Gay cartoon pet sanctuary is set out in the Battle favourite South Park episode is the award-winning Spirit Of which features a kung-fu fight betweenjesus and Santa It was he claims inspired by one of his lessons theory has always been that Christ was not bom at Christmas time but around Easter And the fight shows the constant battle between Christianity and paganism or traditionalism I really cracked up when I saw that one It really made me Pat Pocius who runs South Park Pottery shop believes Kenny- whose death in every episode gives the show its catch-phrase my God killed is also based on life in Fairplay She reveals: was a local boy who attempted suicide many times Once he drove a truck into a rock face he tried to hang himself a couple of times and then there were a few times that guns were involved It was always a cry for Pocius who sells South Park merchandise in her shop has no trouble believing that die foul-mouth eight-year-old are also based on real locals She says: might not hear kids talking to adults like that but I do believe they talk like that among themselves The ATTENTION SEEKER: Unfortunate Kenny gets killed in every episode People in Fairplay say he's based on a local boy UNTO THEMSELVES: But Rick Clark is more intelligent and better at his than Officer Bradbury LOCAL HE based Kyle other Sot people he who regularly threatened suicide are many people who like it mostly parents and political people And the school see the Phil Huntsinger Superintendent of South Park Junior High says: is very annoying the value system implied in the programme is very different to the value system taught in this school believe in violence here we believe in working out our problems without the use of violence the most part the kids are very well behaved I am opposed to our school being compared with the school in the The shows creators Parker 29 and LAW job Stone 26 admit that two of the kids Stan and Kyle are based on themselves But they make no claims about anyone else They included a joke disclaimer in their first South Park video which reads: characters and events on this show even those based on real people are entirely Video The two came up with the idea for the cartoon around Christmas 1995 Trey 29 says: were totally starving and a friend wanted us to do a video Christmas card We decided everyone at school had a kids round here are rude and crude and Pocius is delighted with the success Fans of the cartoon series anxious for mementoes have flocked to the town doubling her income in the process Her enterprising son Danny 16 has even set up his own website wwwrealsouthparkcom Danny denies that the local kids would stuff as stupid as the but then relents saying: guess on occasion we And he acknowledges that not everyone in the town appreciates being compared with the bizarre cartoon He says:.