Q: Sure, now everyone loathes Jar Jar Binks. But how did the South Park movie get in a jab at the computer-generated goofball when Phantom Menace opened just weeks before?
A: ''We saw the first Phantom trailer way back in January,'' says Trey Parker, who cocreated South Park with Matt Stone. ''We were like, 'This is the new Ewok! This is what's going to ruin the new movie!''' The irreverent duo ran to their word processors and cranked out a riff on Jar Jar's signature line ''Yousa say peoples gonna die,'' which they plopped into a scene featuring the wholesale slaughter of a platoon of soldiers. ''Paramount didn't get it,'' says Parker, ''but we kept it in there.'' Even more presciently, they put the line in the mouth of an African-American soldier — foreshadowing charges that Jar Jar is a Stepin Fetchit stereotype. How'd that happen? ''Luck,'' laughs Parker, adding ''We didn't know that [Jar Jar] was going to be racist — just annoying.''
You Might Also Like
- Movie Review South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999) | Lisa Schwarzbaum
- Video Review South Park: Bigger, Longer&Uncut | Steve Daly
- Movie Review South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999)
- Internet Commentary Rating movies and their websites | James Oliver Cury
- Pop Culture News The search for a ''South Park'' theme song performer | Laura Morgan
- Reel World Reel World (1999) | Daniel Fierman
