Death (South Park) - Production

Production

"Death" was written and directed by series co-founder Trey Parker and Matt Stone. It was the last of the original six South Park episodes ordered by Comedy Central before the network committed to a full season of 13 episodes. Parker long wanted to feature a Grim Reaper-like death character in South Park because since his childhood, Parker enjoyed drawing cartoon images of death riding on a tricycle. This was the inspiration behind a scene in which Death inexplicably rides a tricycle while chasing the South Park boys through the streets.

The subplot of Kenny's diarrhea problems came from a real-life high school experience from Stone, who said students used to offer each other $20 if they would pass a note to the teacher explaining they had "explosive diarrhea", like Kenny did in the episode. The image of Kenny sitting on a toilet in "Death" became a popular South Park poster. "Death" included a consistency error in that Mr. Garrison's classroom had its own separate bathroom, which was never again seen in future South Park episodes. During one scene, Cartman moons Kyle while making fun of Kyle's mother. Comedy Central censors forced Parker and Stone to remove the image of Cartman's bare bottom, although such images would be allowed in future episodes. A man named Mr. McCormick was killed in "Death" after he was flung via slingshot into the Cartoon Central building. The character's name led many to mistakenly believe it was Kenny's father, Stuart McCormick, but Parker denied this and said the similar character names were just a coincidence.