Entertainment
South Park Episode Almost Ruined By A Single Song
By Robert Scucci
| Published
South Park has always been able to stay culturally relevant because of how quickly an entire episode is put together, as documented extensively in the 6 Days to Air documentary. While this “get everything done at the last minute” method has served Trey Parker and Matt Stone quite well over the years because the pressure forces them to execute against a seemingly impossible deadline week after week during an active run, one episode in particular, “I’m a Little Bit Country,” was almost ruined because its entire premise hinged on being able to secure the rights to the song that the episode’s title is referencing, Marty Cooper’s “A Little Bit Country, A Little Bit Rock and Roll,” which was made famous by Donny and Marie Osmond.
And I’m not talking about a situation where they could have swapped out the tune with something else and gotten away with it, because a significant amount of the plot for “I’m a Little Bit Country” actually relied on the citizens of South Park singing the iconic song throughout the entire episode.
Country, Rock And Roll, And The War In Iraq
Airing just three weeks after the US invaded Iraq in 2003, it’s no surprise that “I’m a Little Bit Country” would unpack how the town of South Park reacted to the war by pitting the redneck, pro-war citizens led by Skeeter against the more liberal, anti-war protesters led by Randy Marsh. According to Parker and Stone, they both noticed how most pro-war songs happen to be country, while most protest songs fall into the rock and roll genre, leading them to believe that the Osmond’s song would be instrumental in playfully ripping on both sides – allowing Skeeter and Randy Marsh to bust into blistering jam sessions in the town square when they weren’t beating the hell out of each other in the typical South Park fashion.
Given the tight timeline in which South Park episodes are produced – typically starting production on a Thursday night and being handed into the network the following Wednesday morning shortly before it goes on the air – “I’m a Little Bit Country” almost had to be significantly rewritten or scrapped entirely if they couldn’t get the song cleared on time.
Racing Against The Clock
Other series don’t run into the same problems that South Park faces when they need to secure rights for musical numbers because an episode of The Simpsons, for example, takes about six months to produce. According to Parker, going through the proper channels on any other show is basically a non-issue because it takes anywhere from a few weeks to a couple of months to get a song cleared while the producers figure out the licensing and negotiate payment with the owner of the song. In the case of South Park’s “I’m a Little Bit Country,” or any other episode for that matter, the luxury of time doesn’t exist, which results in conversations starting with “Hey, we wanna use your song on the show, it’s going to be on in four days, you in?”
Fortunately, the Sunday night before “I’m a Little Bit Country” was slated to air as South Park’s 100th episode, they got the green light to finish the episode as written, which is nothing short of a miracle because it means they were able to secure the rights in a matter of days, not months, without legal repercussion.
Everything Came Together At The Last Minute
Though you’d think that episodes like “I’m a Little Bit Country” would make Trey Parker and Matt Stone rethink how they produce South Park because of the amount of stress it could have potentially put on their crew, you’ve got to give them credit for sticking to what they refer to as their “Saturday Night Live production schedule.” It’s this level of recklessness that allows them to stay on top of current events without episodes seeming dated upon release in a world where a 24/7 news cycle means that most of our attention spans can only be measured in nano-seconds (had to drop a BASEketball reference here… rest in peace, Denslow!).
So, the next time you fire up “I’m a Little Bit Country,” you better thank your lucky stars that the Osmond estate was cool enough to allow their song to be prominently featured in an episode of South Park with little to no prior notice.
Entertainment
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Entertainment
BookCon 2026: Authors Rachel Reid, Stephanie Archer talk hockey romance and how it could change the sport for the better
With the fervor of Heated Rivalry, there’s a fierce desire among book readers for even more hockey. On Sunday, April 19, at BookCon, the “You Had Me at Hockey: A Look at One of Sports Romance’s Hottest Genres”, authors Rachel Reid (Heated Rivalry, Game Changer), Emily Rath (Pucking Around), Ngozi Ukazu (Check Please), Stephanie Archer (The Wild Card), and Kate Cochrane (Wake Up, Nat & Darcy) were joined by moderator and fellow author Bal Khabra (Collide) to discuss the rise and continued success of hockey romance.
Khabra kicked off the panel, asking just how hockey became so popular. Ukazu joked that it was as if the genre “escaped containment,” like when the Omegaverse went mainstream, while Reid described the mystery around hockey, saying, “what [the players] are doing seems impossible.” Archer also added that the sport itself is exceptionally hard on the body, and the celebrity around players, especially in Canada, is fun to play with.
But there’s more to the genre’s success than the tropes. “It has to be said,” Rath argued, “that the cornerstone of why this is so popular in publishing is racism.” She went on to say that straight, white women’s voices dominated the romance genre for so long, pointing out that hockey is also the whitest sport. Among major league sports, the NHL is the most predominantly white. In 2022, ESPN reported that 83.6% of league players and staff were white, compared to the NFL, where 25-27% of players are white, or the NBA, where white players make up 17.5% of the league.
Mashable Top Stories
Zooming into the genre, the authors also spoke about the writing process. They dove into the deeper aspects of their work, even the smut. Rath said, “I think the least sexy thing you can ever do is write a sex scene.” A similar sentiment came up during Reid’s Saturday panel, where she described using the sex scenes to further the emotional arc. When readers ask authors if they can skip the spice, Archer says of her own books, “No, you can’t skip the sex scenes. You’re missing so much character development if you don’t go on the journey with them.”
The panel turned to the future, too. Many of the authors write BIPOC and queer representation into their novels, in a genre that often centers on whiteness and homophobia. “We’re writing the world as we want it to be,” Rath said.
Reid has found that there is progress toward a future that these authors and their readers want to see, saying that the NHL is interested in working with them. “People on the inside, they really want to work toward change and want to make this happen.”
With the hockey fandom at an all-time high, there’s a whole team behind these authors ready to drive change.
Entertainment
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