TVSquad

If you're a celebrity and you appear on TV's South Park, chances are it's not going to end good for you. You're either going to end up dead, in Hell, or dead and in Hell.

So you can probably imagine the reaction from the family of the late TV pitchman Billy Mays: exuberant joy and ecstatic excitement.

Billy's son Billy Mays III said on his Twitter page that he was "proud" and "honored" his late father was included in their "Dead Celebrities" episode. He's also trying to get a cel of his father's caricature autographed by Matt Stone and Trey Parker.

He hasn't said if he's gotten it yet or not, but he's reportedly sweetening the deal for the South Park creators by throwing in an extra bottle of Chipotlaway absolutely free. Matt and Trey, call now!

Since we've already covered one television-based iPhone and iPod Touch game with Dexter, I thought I'd try my hand at a different one: the recently-released South Park Mega Millionaire.

The game plays like a missing episode from the television show. Unlike the last game South Park Imaginationland, this one is not based on a pre-existing episode (unless it's one of the upcoming ones). The plot is that the boys appear on a Japanese game show in an effort to win money. Each boy then goes through various mazes on roller skates with embarrassing obstacles along the way.

The funniest bit is the dialogue between the Japanese game show host and the boys. While the game has no sounds (which is my only complaint about the game as I would love to hear Matt Stone and Trey Parker speak the lines), it does have word balloons. From that, you get a sense of how the lines would sound. It wouldn't surprise me if Trey and Matt themselves had a hand in this game. The app also allows you to listen to any audio track on the iPod while playing the game.

The characterizations of the Japanese in the game could be perceived as racist, but anybody who watches the program knows that such crass characterization is in the spirit of the show. Some of the prizes awarded include references to the show such as Chinpokomon. The game itself plays like such classics as Sonic the Hedgehog or one of the Super Mario Bros. games. It's simplistic but fun.

Currently the game is on sale for $1.99 (down from $4.99), possibly in anticipation of the new upcoming episodes. If you own an iPhone or iPod Touch and like South Park, I recommend it.

The first time I saw South Park, it was the original "Christmas card," Santa v. Jesus, that was floating around the Internet in 1996. I was living in Buffalo, and my roommates, who were also my bandmates, and also network administrators, had downloaded this new cartoon. As I remember, it took a while to download, more than an hour, possibly two. We watched it before band practice, several times, standing around the guitarist's computer in his room, all of us laughing our asses off.

It was crude in every way - the animation, the language, cheap shots at Brian Boitano for no discernible reason. Of course, rehearsal was repeatedly derailed that evening as we spouted all the wonderful new expletives we'd just learned, and accused each other of ham lust. When it was announced a few months later that Comedy Central had picked it up as a show, none of us could imagine how they would get away with it. It would have to be a completely neutered version of it to even make it on the air.

Tonight was the last episode of the latest set of seven from the South Park Studios. The new ones won't be shown until October.

It's been a pretty strong series so far. I didn't really like last week's with the alien gangster, but the season opener with the Jonas Brothers and "Mr. Mouse" was fantastic. This was followed by four additional strong episodes, including their superhero parody "The Coon," their take on the bailout with "Margaritaville," a gaseous battle of the sexes with "Eat, Pray, Queef," an appearance from army of robot Jews in "Fishsticks," and Cartman's piracy adventures in "Fatbeard."

I recall not being fond of Season 12 while initially watching it, although it grew on me as I watched it again on DVD. Season 13 has been much stronger. Having now watched all seven episodes, I think this season has so far been much better than last.

If you're reading this after watching "Fatbeard," what did you think? If you keep up with the series, what have you thought of the past seven episodes as a whole?

The South Park boys are back. And this time, they're bringing a little extra to their DVD set. This is the first set to be available on Blu-Ray, but I have not yet upgraded and only got my hands on the "regular" DVD. That's the one I'll be reviewing.

The season opened strong with the episode "Tonsil Trouble" (in which Cartman gets AIDS). On the commentary, it is explained that this was the "safe" episode that was partially finished in advance to taking a mid-season break. They showed it first because they couldn't decide which of the first three to begin the season with.

I recall not being impressed as the season progressed during its initial broadcast, but upon re-watching it, I changed my mind. This season had some clever themes and some pretty disgusting images, such as Randy Marsh at the computer.

The New York Times is reporting that Matt Stone and Trey Parker will be streaming the first nine seasons of South Park on Netflix. However, the factoid I found the most interesting was that they "retained non-television rights to the show as part of their original deal with the cable channel".

I often praise Matt and Trey and believe that under their guidance they produce one of the most witty, insightful and subversive shows on television. The fact that they had the foresight to retain non-television rights to their show in an era when television is becoming less important as a medium in our daily lives is outright brilliant.

Everybody knows an iPhone user who flaunts his phone to the world the way anyone of us would if we owned something that we believed contained the awesome power of God.

They are always checking their emails or giving you weather updates you never asked for. They always let their phone ring longer than necessary with some ridiculous sounds such as one of those dumb novelty "Pick me up!" chimes or the theme to Sanford and Son to make sure it grabs your attention. Pretty soon, every time they stroke their finger across that smirking touch screen, it subconsciously sounds like fingernails across a chalkboard.

Now, you can one-up your personal iPhone a-hole with this comforting fact: Their almighty cell phone from God won't let them watch South Park because it thinks it's too offensive for their delicate sensibilities.

The prospect of a news show featuring people with disabilities interviewing celebrities and people on the street sounds like a sick way to spend a Sunday evening. That assumption doesn't help when you see South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker's names under the executive producer heading, two guys who made the phrase "Timmy!" and "cripple fight" part of the American pop culture lexicon.

But as Stone said himself in my soon-to-be awarding winning interview (my boss said he would put a gold star on my next paycheck), How's Your News? -- which premieres at 10:30 tomorrow night on MTV -- aims to change the audience's perspective on more than one level.

It's a journey of self-discovery for both the participants and the viewers and that's a big step for a network that has had a hard time figuring out what it's supposed to be.

Matt Stone and Trey Parker are the modern day equivalent of a young Orson Welles arriving fresh off the boat to Hollywood, only with a lot less farting and jokes about having an ass the size of a mid-sized sedan. That part of Welles' life doesn't parallel Matt and Trey's until post-Touch of Evil.

The creators of Comedy Central's South Park have a rare, carte blanche contract to write, produce, star and create just about whatever they want. If they think it's cool or funny or particularly meaningful, that's enough fuel to get things burning.

One of those projects found its way to the small screen, a weekly travel news show called How's Your News?, which premieres on MTV this Sunday at 10:30 PM ET. It features a band of handicapped reporters talking to celebrities and on-the-street schmoes about anything that's on their minds. It started as a series of short films and turned into a critically acclaimed documentary. Stone told me that this time, the ambition and imagination that fueled this project came from its true stars.

Thanksgiving isn't just about completing your Seven Deadly Sins check list before the year runs out. Thanksgiving is about family; learning where they've been, where you are, and where everyone in your life is going. Food and football are just gravy ... sweet, delicious, artery-clogging gravy.

This year, my brother and I flew home with my old man - who hates it when I call him "my old man" - the day before Thanksgiving. That's when a shocker of "Who shot J.R."-esque proportions dropped on the table.

My Dad officially announced that he watches South Park.

Our resident Spaced-nut Annie mentioned the upcoming region 1 DVD set back in March. If you haven't seen the show, just the fact that it's coming out is reason enough to go pick it up. It really is as good as everyone says. But if you have seen the show, it looks like this one will be worth checking out for you as well.

As I was going about my workday, a little blurb popped up on twitter from Diablo Cody that said, "SPACED (The ORIGINAL!) is coming out on DVD soon! (And a lucky bitch named Diablo Cody got to contribute commentary.)" That's interesting enough, and you should check out her Twitter feed. It's an entertaining read. Even better though, she goes on to add that we can also expect commentary from Bill Hader, Patton Oswalt, Quentin Tarentino, Matt Stone, and Kevin Smith. Sign me up for that.

A curious search later, Google sent me to spaced-out.org.uk, which confirms the commentary and goes into further detail about the extras included on the new set. They also have some fun quotes about the show from J.J. Abrams, Kevin Smith and Matt Stone.

(S12E03) To begin, for those unaware, South Park Studios has started to offer full episodes of the show on their official site with limited commercial interruption. I originally reported this in November.

I'll say this: when the South Park team put their minds to it, they can come up with some fantastic animation. When you watch the crudity of the animation in standard episodes, it's easy to forget that they're pretty damn talented at their craft.

It's time for us to give away some stuff ... again! One of today's giveaways is for five copies of Christmas Time in South Park on DVD, which is already available in stores. All you've got to do is submit a comment below before 5PM Eastern, November 30, and mention your favorite Christmas moment from the series. We'll randomly choose five winners to receive the DVDs!

Some other details:

• To enter, leave a confirmed comment below stating your favorite Christmas moment from South Park.
• The comment must be left before November 30, 2007 at 5:00PM Eastern Time.
  
• You may enter only once.
• Five winners will be selected in a random drawing.
  
• Five winners will receive a copy of Christmas Time in South Park on DVD (valued at $19.99).
  

Click here for complete Official Rules.

Geeks get treated pretty badly in the media. Thanks to the fact that most people who get above-the-line credit in Hollywood are anything but geeky, when a script calls for a socially maladjusted character, it's almost always a terrible caricature of true geek culture. For years little geeklings only had the likes of Steve Urkel to look up to and that's not right (believe me, Jaleel White, when the geek revolution comes, you'll be the first one guillotined).

The fact that I'm about to become the father of my own little geek-spawn has led me to start looking around the current TV landscape, looking for appropriate geek role models. I was surprised to find so many...

If you've been paying attention to the credits during the last few years of South Park, you'll notice that Trey Parker has directed and written every episode. I've noticed this, too, but in my reviews I've always mentioned the two men together because the show still feels very much like a joint venture to me.

The question remains, though: what is Stone's role if he's not writing the episodes? This article helps explain. It seems that Stone, in addition to serving as an executive producer, doing voices and contributing ideas, also serves as the mouthpiece for the show while Parker works on the creative side of things. Parker would rather create than have to deal with censors and network executives, so Stone steps in to fight those battles.