I vaguely recall hearing once that South Park can turn an episode around in two-to-three days, if absolutely necessary.

I see South Park is displaying its usual feather-light satirical touch and penetrating political wit. I hope there's some awesome poo jokes in this episode! That never gets old.

Streamlined animation technique + likely develops Plan B/Plan C sections to be made in case of current events going a different way

Or maybe they were pulling a Doonsebury. Did they need to change anything really?

They also could have either looked at the polls and made an informed guess, or prepared two episodes, the other being for a McCain win.

i bet they had more than one ep prepped. it was freaking hilarious though, loved it!

South Park's production schedule is really, really different from almost every other animated series.

Basically everything else is animated in Korea - directors in the US draw every important pose and the animators in Korea fill in the motions. I think the coloring is usually done in Korea too - mostly digitally, these days. Meanwhile, actors are recording dialog and other bits of production are happening stateside. The whole process means that there are 6 months or so between the final draft of the script and the finish product. Add to the extra oversight that networks-level programs are subjected to and you've got a slow process.

From what I can gather, South Park is animated entirely in the US, on computers. Matt and Trey do almost all of the voices and basic writing (with a team of writers to flesh it out), and it only takes about a week for them to produce an episode from start to finish. Comedy Central has learned to give them a long leash, I think, so they can pretty much do whatever they want, and the short production schedule is what they are always so topical. It wouldn't be hard for them to prepare a bunch of information beforehand and flesh it out after the results are in in time for it to be broadcast the next day.

they probably turned it around fast by planning ahead. basically the same way you put an election night photo on the cover of this week's issue.

btw: Law & Order also dropped an "obama administration" reference into last night's premiere.

I remember that when Saddam Hussein was found in the hidey hole, the South Park that aired two or three days later was an amazing musical Wizard of Oz story about it. My husband and I were freaking out, couldn't believe they'd done it. This time around, we expected it. Love that show.

...or they had two episodes in the can, with only slight differences, and will sell us the special DVD with the "unused McCain episode" when the market is ready.

I remember that Terri Schivo wasnt even cold before I saw the "Kenny's in a vegetative state" episode... I couldnt believe the speed of turn around.

Plan A/B/C wouldn't account for the fact that they quoted McCain's concession speech, unless they somehow got hold of it beforehand which seems unlikely. They probably had the rest of the ep ready to go and just threw together that part once it became public.

I read that as of this past weekend, they had two different episodes nearly-ready to go--an Obama one and a McCain one--with a few holes, like the spot for McCain's concession speech, left to be plugged.

Watch the episode. A lot of it could have been done ahead of time but there was about 5 minutes where they could only have done it yesterday. They did the whole stage and parts of both speeches. another reason South Park is the most awsomest show. That and the Daily Show and Colbert Report.

No need for two episodes. It's been obvious to anyone with a brain stem that Obama had the election wrapped up last week, if not a few weeks ago. That made it possible to focus on the main storyline and just drop in the extremely recent bits like Obama's puppy promise and bits from each candidate's speech.

It helps that "animation" is a really strong term for the extremely limited "art" process that goes into making a South Park episode.

It the POTUS election were like the Superbowl, the boxes of McCain's winner shirt would be on its way to a 3rd world country right now. There's always a Plan B when it comes to two sided contests.

They probably had their staff working for 24 hours straight after the speeches finished. I think they also have a program that automates speech animation by analyzing waveforms.

I love how an informed person will come on this bulletin board and detail EXACTLY how something is done...and everyone goes right on posting how they think it happens. Jason is right, Southpark takes about a week on their normal schedule, if rushed they can turn out an episode even faster. If anyone recalls, a few days after the 2000 election Southpark aired a "recount" episode. Does anyone really think they made "A" "B" and "C" episodes in the event that Gore won, or Bush won, or the election was too close to call?

Was that Iron Man in the preview picture? 8o

Considering that South Park isn't required to be either funny or well-drawn, I'd be surprised if the whole thing takes more than one day to throw together.

Obama had the election wrapped up the day after the Palin-Couric interview, as noted by FOX of all fucking people.

They probably started the episode immediately after viewing that catastrophic yet hilarious (and beneficial for us) piece.

@17, This isn't a "bulletin board" and no one here gives a shit or reads what anyone else is posting anyway, like every place else on the internet that allows commenting. It's just a bunch of retards shouting into an empty tunnel that smells a little like piss. At least it keeps the retards busy.

I like that this South Park clip is "via Sullivan" somehow, like he's somehow responsible for it being online in the usual place the day after it airs on Comedy Central.

Hiiiiiiiiiii-deeeeeeeeeee-hoooooooooooo!

Meh. Pretty light. The Onion is much much better.

Especially with the puppy line in there.

I watched the whole episode and it actually was very well done. Sarah Palin especially gave me plenty to chuckle over. I'm just the celebrating Obama was peaceful unlike on the show.

I think the funniest thing is that the candidates basically spent $1b of other people's money on a scheme to steal a $252M jewel. If that isn't a mirror of real-day politics, I don't know what is.

mr. garrison is a republican? interesting.........

They have a time machine.