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Around this time last year few people had heard about South Park, but if you were lucky, one of your friends had a bootleg copy
of The Spirit of Christmas - the video short that gave the abrasive, animated show its start. In
1995, South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone produced this five-minute
Holiday special for Fox executive Brian Graden to send out as
a video Christmas card. In The Spirit of Christmas, Jesus asks the boys from South Park (Kyle, Kenny, Cartman and Stan) to help him find Santa and kick
his ass for selling out the holy holiday. Santa and the son of
God come to blows and it's up to figure skater Brian Boitano to
break things up. The Spirit of Christmas became an underground hit in Hollywood soon after it was released,
eventually inspiring Comedy Central to give Parker and Stone their
own show in the summer of 1997. But the cable network has no plans
to show the short. "It's not suitable for children," says a Comedy
Central representative. Yet South Park, which is filled with swearing and violence, isn't really appropriate
for young'uns either. Well, if you have access to the Web, you
can still check it out. The unofficial South Park site (http://members.aol.com/zebonehead/southpark.html) offers a transcription of the short and those with loads of
memory on their computers can download The Spirit of Christmas from Comedy Central's Web site (http://comedycentral.com). Just don't show it to your little brother before he goes to
visit Santa, he might get the wrong idea and kick St. Nick in
the groin. - Neil Gladstone and Rosemary Darigo
Season's Beatings