When Bill Hader Worked on a Season of ‘South Park’

Hilarious and multi-talented, Bill Hader has come a long way in the last two decades. After breaking through as one of his generation’s stars on Saturday Night Live, the Oklahoma native successfully segued to film acting and has been reached new heights of acclaim both in front of and behind the camera with HBO’s Barry. But perhaps a lesser-known chapter in his prolific career was his involvement with one of television’s longest-running animated series. As it entered its 12th season in 2008, Hader joined South Park as a creative consultant and voice actor, and years later he’d work as a staff writer and producer, contributing to some of the series’ most memorable and sidesplitting episodes.

South Park

Follows the misadventures of four irreverent grade-schoolers in the quiet, dysfunctional town of South Park, Colorado.

Release Date

August 13, 1997

Seasons

26

Studio

Comedy Central

How Did Bill Hader Join ‘South Park’?

Between his third and fourth seasons on SNL, Bill Hader was filming Forgetting Sarah Marshall in Los Angeles when he first met South Park co-creator Matt Stone. « We just hung out and got along really well, » Hader told Vulture. « So we became friends first. Then, I met Trey Parker and South Park writer/producer Vernon Chatman and producer Anne Garefino. » While working on a project in Canada the following year, Hader traveled to Seattle to join Parker and Stone for a South Park retreat in which the writers and producers get together and flesh out stories for upcoming episodes.

In May 2013, after an eight-year run that gave SNL some of its biggest laughs ever, Bill Hader left the show. Having relocated to Los Angeles as South Park‘s 17th season was approaching, the opportunity to work on the show presented itself once again. Hader recalled to Vulture, « Matt said, ‘If you want to come and work for a full season, we’d love to have you.’ I think one of their writers went to another show or something, so it was just Matt and Trey and Vernon. It’d be the four of us. I went, ‘Oh my gosh, that’d be a blast.' »

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Bill Hader Is Responsible for ‘South Park’s « Fishstick » Episode

One of the earliest episodes Hader was involved with has gone down as one of the series’ best and most hilarious, even incurring the ire of a megalomaniacal megastar. Dubbed « Fishsticks, » the episode saw Jimmy and Cartman craft a joke in which the punchline was that Kanye West is a gay fish (yes, really). After a humorless West fails to understand the joke, he becomes hellbent on tracking down the person responsible for making it popular and ultimately crosses paths with comedian Carlos Mencia, who had developed a notorious reputation for stealing the jokes of others. Regarding the organic and spontaneous evolution of the episode’s creation, Hader told Vulture:

« Kanye West wants to kill the person who came up with the joke. And then, a guy comes in and says, ‘Hey Kanye, we’ve got the guy who invented the joke.’ We’re all going, ‘So oh my gosh, Kanye caught Cartman.’ That’s the way the whole room’s going, and then Vernon’ll say, ‘And it’s Carlos Mencia.’ And the whole room just loses it. We all start laughing. »

Another memorable episode that saw Hader’s input revolved around Cartman attempting to procure slaves. Hader told Vulture, « It’s just Matt saying, ‘I was reading this article about the NCAA and how they don’t pay anybody but they have these video games.’ They make a shitload of money off these kids, and they don’t pay them at all. He’s like, ‘It’s slavery!' » Taking the idea and the episode’s narrative further, Parker suggested that Cartman would hope to acquire slaves, and Hader pushed the concept even further and pitched, « Oh, so he should come in like an old school plantation owner. » In describing the foundational building blocks and how they naturally fall into place, Hader remembers, « Trey will just do that voice in the room and everyone will start doing that voice in the room for, like, five minutes. And then I’ll go, ‘Oh, good. I’ve contributed today. »

The Lessons Bill Hader Learned on ‘South Park’ Can Be Felt in ‘Barry’

Though South Park is largely known for its overtly silly and often controversial yet topical sense of humor, it’s easy to overlook the collaborative and linear nature of how such seemingly simplistic and crude ideas evolve throughout a brainstorming session. Perhaps surprisingly, Bill Hader took an interest in the level of importance that Trey Parker and Matt Stone placed on the emotional undercurrents that drive their characters and the actions they undertake, regardless of the over-the-top comedic outcomes. He told Vulture:

« That’s another thing I’ve learned at the show is it’s gotta be an emotional story. You hear Trey say that a lot. If we’re telling a story that has to do with Cartman and we’re telling another story that’s about Kyle, he’s always saying, ‘What’s Cartman’s emotional story here? He goes from this emotion to that emotion. What’s Kyle’s emotional story?’ That’s really what drives the thing. »

Having come from a sketch comedy background, which, of course, is thought out and planned but flexible enough to allow for improvisation and a hit-or-miss approach, Hader’s time spent hashing out stories for South Park proved valuable in learning about the comedic structure and logical progression of events that lead to big laughs. What began as casual and periodic involvement in the writers’ room ultimately led to him joining the creative team full-time during the series’ 17th season. He told Vulture, « Yeah, I’d love to. I learn so much by working there. You just learn how to break story. »

Perhaps it’s no wonder that since working on the series, Hader has taken greater creative control of some of his work. Years after his stint with South Park, he wrote numerous episodes for the comedy series Documentary Now! and, in addition to headlining the cast, co-created HBO’s hit series Barry and wrote and directed several episodes. While discussing the writing process of Barry, Hader spoke about writing in terms of emotion and logic in a way very reminiscent of his experience with South Park. He told The New Yorker, « You’re always trying to keep them in balance, and sometimes you go way far with emotions or the logic’s way over here, and it’s just a slow balance of trying to get those two things to lock in together. » Whether contributing to something as wacky and larger-than-life as South Park or exploring that same level of creativity with an acclaimed dark comedy like Barry, Hader’s application of emotion and logic to storytelling has evolved and refined itself over time, and his limited tenure on the former series has proven invaluable in his creative growth as an artist.

South Park is available to stream on Max in the U.S.

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