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For the song that plays during the title sequence, see South Park Theme.

The South Park title sequence is the film segment that opens the show. Generally, it starts with the disclaimer, lasts 30 – 40 seconds, and always has the theme song over the top.

So far, the titles have undergone four major overhauls, although there are always minor tweaks made to them every season. Very few episodes ("Pip" and "Starvin' Marvin in Space", for example) has skipped the titles to go straight into the episode.

Season One - Season Four[]

The first title sequence started with various pieces of character and scenery coming in from off-screen, then a lanky man, based off singer Les Claypool, with an acoustic guitar sings the theme song (with Kyle, Stan, Cartman and Kenny singing their own lines) while the boys headed to school on the bus. Mr Hankey comes in after the characters are in place.

When the bus leaves, characters can be seen behind. The shot later turns to Stan & Kyle singing their lines with cows, an eagle, & Officer Barbady coming in. The next shot shows City Hall & Jimbos Guns with Randy & Shelley, along with Mayor McDaniels. You can also see a clip of Jesus vs. Frosty on a TV. Cartman sings his line while we also see a moose skateboarding and Chef waving at the audience. Then it gets to a shot of Aliens doing a barbecue with cow skeletons along with a pig running by. A clip from Jesus vs. Santa plays on a billboard. The boys arrive at school and getting off the bus. Kenny is saying his line and we can see Wendy, Pip, & Mr. Garrison on the windows while some rats and a bear go out of the window. Then we see one more shot of the sequence showing a crowd of main and reccuring characters at the time. The South Park logo later gets hit by Ike (Season 1), Mr. Hankey (Season 2-3) and God (Season 4a). Various characters and events briefly appear in the background - for example, the volcano and the Chef Aid concert can both be seen since Season 2 and 3 respectively, and among the appearing characters are the Mayor, Tweek, Jesus, and Mr. Hankey.

The song style used was very basic - it involved vocals, and a heavily sped-up backing track consisting of an electric guitar, bass and rudimentary percussion. The theme was altered starting with Season 3, with a tweaked instrumental and the boys' lines re-recorded.

Season Four - Season Five[]

Titles 45

Stan's segment of the titles from late Season Four.

From "Fourth Grade", the titles were completely redesigned. They began as the old ones did, with pieces of character and scenery drifting in, then the original song slowed down to a halt. The words "4TH GRADE" then burst out of the ground, and various clips of previous episodes are played in the background. During each character's line, a rotating 3D model of them appeared, with various labels and stats running down the side of the model, including "Snackyvision" and "Stealth motion".

4thgradehd

The "4TH GRADE" at the beginning of the intro.

Along the bottom of the screen were various different appearances - for example, Stan can be seen dressed as Raggedy Andy ("Pinkeye"), Kyle can be seen in a Chewbacca mask (also "Pinkeye"), Kenny can be seen in a wig ("Cartman Joins NAMBLA") and Cartman as a sumo wrestler ("Tweek vs. Craig"). Text flickering between character quotes and random punctuation can be seen along the right hand side of the screen (except for Kenny, who's quotes are all along the lines of "Mmph mmffr mmf mph ph"). At the end, Timmy can also be seen. The titles finish with live-action shot of a man jumping over a crate with an explosion behind him (a clip from the 1997 film, Darkdrive).

The music for these new titles was also revamped, to a modern hip-hop/techno style, with various sound effects (including Cartman saying "West siyeedah!" from "Cartman's Mom is a Dirty Slut") throughout. As well as the guitar part being redone with the various sound effects, heavy use of drumkit was used.

Season Six - Season Eleven[]

Titles 611

Cartman's segment from the early Season Nine titles.

The titles were redesigned again as of Kenny's "permanent" death at the end of Season Five. For Season Six, his segment of lines were done by Timmy. The titles started with a sped up film of someone (the hands of then-animation director Eric Stough) making Stan out of construction paper from scratch. Clips from previous episodes were again utilized. This time, the character intermissions involved the singing person being re-created with construction paper. This was also the first titles to have a full "crowd" at the end of the titles - for Season Six, the crowd was different to what it had been previously due to Kenny's absence. For the first half of the series, Butters comes and holds a sign saying "The Butters Show" in front of the South Park sign. After he was ejected from the group and replaced with Tweek, Professor Chaos, Butters' evil alter ego, arrives and knocks the sign over. As of Season Seven, though, the crowd shot reverts to the old style one, with Kenny climbing over the South Park sign while the others stand next to it.

The new music was done in a country, "bluegrass" style with a banjo, fiddle, harmonica, acoustic bass and a more basic drumbeat. The music was changed to a rock version of the song, again performed by Les Claypool (sampled from Claypool's track "Whamola"), for Season Ten.

Season Twelve - Season Thirteen[]

Titles 1213

Stan and Kyle's segment for the early Season Thirteen titles.

The opening of the titles reverted to the early style of pieces of the scene drifting in, the most conspicuous difference being Stan's head, instead of coming from the bottom right corner, actually provides the black screen after the disclaimer - the camera "zooms out" of his eye. The titles continue with clips from old episodes. The character intermissions involve the people singing coming into shot from seemingly random angles, then changing angle for their second line (Cartman, for example, starts off upside down from the top of the screen for "Ample parking day or night", then he flips to the right way up for "People shouting 'howdy neighbor!'"). This is also the first titles since Season Four where Stan and Kyle have their intermission at the same time.

The music retains the rock version used in Season Eleven, with Les Claypool's "Whamola" instrument and heavy use of drumkit.

Season Fourteen - Season Sixteen[]

Titles14

Kenny's segment from late Season Fourteen.

The title opening remains the same as that of Season Twelve and Thirteen, with the camera zooming out from Stan's head, then once again stock clips are used. The character intermissions, though, are based from old clips as well. Stan and Kyle appear in their number at the end of "Elementary School Musical" while singing their title lines, Cartman slides down a ladder as "The Coon" from the episode of the same name, and Kenny appears next to his then-girlfriend Tammy Warner at the Jonas Brothers Concert in "The Ring". As they complete their lines, everything in the shot turns to monochrome aside from the singing characters. The monochrome background falls away, and the character moves closer. This sequence is notable since, aside from Kenny, none of the characters are wearing their usual garb - Kyle's ushanka is missing, Stan is not wearing his brown coat, and Cartman is wearing his superhero outfit.

Once again, the rock style of theme song is retained.

Season Seventeen - Season Twenty-Two, Season Twenty-Five[]

The title sequence underwent a full revamp for Season Seventeen. The use of stock clips that had been a staple for ten years was replaced with the original bus driving to school seen in the first three seasons. This time, though, the sequence is done with three dimensional models (generated in the same computer program as the rest of the show but without the flat panel), with characters overlayed in their usual style. The sequence

S17

The journey to school.

starts atop a hill overlooking the town with a graveyard atop it, with at least one grave marked Kenny McCormick, then moves to the boys boarding the school bus. Among other things they pass a herd of cows and Marvin Marsh reading a newspaper headlined "Who is Mysterion?". Officer Barbrady starts following them in his car and Mr. Hankey passes by. The crowd shot was also changed from its previous form - the boys now stand on the school roof with Kenny holding the sign and the crowd has a softer camera focus on it than before.

The theme music still remains unchanged and is as it was in the later half of Season Ten.

Since Season Twenty-Five, the MTV Entertainment Studios logo would be added in and would play before the disclaimer appears. HBO Max prints however, do not include this logo at the start.

Season Twenty-Three[]

The title sequence was changed to an intro of Tegridy Farms in the style of Green Acres opening, replacing the normal opening sequence since Season Seventeen. The clips from the intro contains various scenes from the season's episodes and the opening ends with the picture of The Marshes and Towelie behind the house. In the episode "Board Girls", the episode plays the PC Babies song along with the footage from the episode "Buddha Box". The episode "Turd Burglars" was an opening for the show within a show One For The Ladies in which features clips of female characters from the past episodes. "Basic Cable" features the full-fledged opening of The Scott Malkinson Show that parodies Cowboy Bebop and James Bond.

"Christmas Snow" returns the regular title sequence as it was all the way back from Season Seventeen.

There are variations of the theme song depending on the episode (except for "Board Girls", "Basic Cable", and "Christmas Snow"), which replaces the regular theme song.

Special Intros[]

Halloween[]

The Halloween intro was used in "Pinkeye", "Spookyfish", and "Korn's Groovy Pirate Ghost Mystery", which are the first three Halloween Episodes. Some of the changes in this intro include Stan having a Pumpkin over his head (except for the end of the intro), Les Claypool is now a skeleton, spooky sound effects (screams, bat squeaks, cat yowls, etc.) are added to the theme, Chef is replaced with Death, the school is replaced with a haunted house, and the sign at the end is replaced with a grave (which still has the text) and is hit with bats instead.

In the episode "Spookyfish", the intro returned with the "Spooky-Vision" graphics appearing during the intro, and in "Korn's Groovy Pirate Ghost Mystery", the intro now has a "Special Guest" graphic that is shown before Kenny's lines.

"Good Times with Weapons" (HD DVD release)[]

GTWW (HD Intro)

Stan and Kyle's part of the intro.

The remaster version of "Good Times with Weapons" released on HD DVD used a slightly different opening in comparison to the original one used at the time. The theme itself is the same, however it starts off the same way as the Seasons 1-4 intro, which then fades into the clips from before (which noticeably looked cropped). Then, instead of having the construction paper cut-outs, the intro uses the same character animations seen in the Seasons 12-13 intro, however they do not switch into the different angles and just stay in one corner. When this episode was remastered a second time however, the original opening was used instead.

"Goth Kids 3: Dawn of the Posers"[]

The title sequence in this episode was altered once again in this episode. It starts off just like the Season 12 and 14 intros, however the Goth Kids show up at the bus stop instead as we zoom out Michael's eye. Additionally, the sky is darker and looks more stormy, the sign is spray painted, and the trees in the background have died.

The theme changes then as they go onto the bus as it transforms into a goth version, each one of the goth kids sing a part in place of the boys. (Michael and Henrietta sing in place of Stan and Kyle, Pete sings in place of Cartman, and Firkle speaks in place of Kenny.) It also shows previous episode clips that show the goth kids being in them, some of the clips seen are from "Raisins", "The Ungroundable", and "You Got F'd in the A".

The ending then shows the Goth Kids on the roof with Firkle holding the sign, in place of the boys, which can be seen in the background alongside everyone else.

Syndication Intro[]

When the show was broadcasted into syndication starting in 2005, a special intro was created for these edited episodes. The base intro is the same one from Seasons 1-4, however the audio from Seasons 7-10 is heard with the cash ring in the start. Additionally, way more characters and references to other episodes were added from moments up to Season 8, resulting in tons of things going on at once for each scene, examples include Butters being added at the start as he tries to catch the bus, Jimmy and Timmy fight each other inside the bus, referencing "Cripple Fight", and the goth kids doing their "non-conformist" dance from "You Got F'd in the A".

The animation was also slightly tweaked, with more being added in. Cartman for example now moves a bit more when he performs his line in the theme, as does Kenny. The ending was also changed to the version used starting with Season 7.

Theme Song[]

Main article: South Park Theme

The theme song was written by Les Claypool and originally performed by PRIMUS. Aside from the style of the song, the only thing to change has been Kenny's lines, which generally change at the same time as the style. For his absence in Season Six, Timmy filled in for his lines.

Characters Featured in the Crowd[]

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