Terrance and Phillip

South Park character|

name=Terrance and Phillip
gender=Male
hair=Black (Terrance)
Blond (Phillip)
age= 30 and 32 [cite conference | first = South Park | last = Studios | title = SPS FAQ | booktitle = South Park Studios FAQ | date = 2008-10-08 | url = http://www.southparkstudios.com/fans/faq/archives.php?id=4753 | accessdate = 2008-10-08 ]
job= Actors and comedians
religion=Roman Catholic
start=Death
voice=Matt Stone (Terrance)
Trey Parker (Phillip)
|

In the animated TV program South Park, Terrance and Phillip are a comedy duo from Canada. Their show is Stan, Kyle, Cartman and Kenny's favorite.

Terrance (Terrance Henry Stoot of Toronto), voiced by Matt Stone, has black hair and wears a red shirt with a letter "T," while Phillip (Phillip Niles Argyle of Montreal), voiced by Trey Parker, has blond hair, diabetes, and a blue shirt with a "P." The characters were inspired by the number of complaints about fart jokes in "South Park". In commentary by Matt Stone and Trey Parker during the first episode Terrance and Phillip appeared, they complained of many people saying South Park was poorly animated and all fart jokes and thus invented Terrance and Phillip to demonstrate what a show that was all fart jokes would be, and made it even more poorly animated.

Terrance and Phillip are geometrically-figured with small beady eyes and "Pac Man"-like heads which flap up and down whenever they speak, as do all Canadians featured on the show. This may originally have signified they were a crudely-animated series within another crudely-animated series or as a reference to the circle shaped characters in Břetislav Pojar's Canadian animated short Balablok, but was quickly retconned into a distinguishing feature of Canadians (other notable examples of this include Kyle's adopted brother Ike and the episodes "It's Christmas in Canada" and "Canada on Strike"). It is revealed in Canada on Strike that Danish people also have these features, although the Danes have "American" eyes, as opposed to beady ones.

The duo briefly separated in the episode "," with Phillip having a "serious job" as an actor in "Canadian Shakespeare" plays. Terrance also becomes obese in this episode.

"South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut"

In the 1999 movie "", outrage on the part of American mothers to the duo's profane act (in particular their feature film "Asses of Fire" and the video for their song "Uncle Fucka") leads to their arrest when the duo appear as guests on the American late-night talk show "Late Night with Conan O'Brien", which in turn leads to a war between Canada and the United States. Their deaths at the hands of Kyle's mother Sheila cause the upwelling of Satan and his partner-in-evil, Saddam Hussein, from the underworld. However, they are resurrected at the end of the movie by Kenny's wish that everything should return to normal. Strangely, it is implied that the "Asses of Fire" film is animated, as Cartman notes the poor quality of the animation. T&P are in a sense like Beavis & Butthead because they are a comic duo that base their show (and movie) around toilet humor, which is why the two were on bad terms with several parent groups in the U.S.

imilarities to "South Park" creators

In "Bigger, Longer and Uncut," Terrance and Phillip go on "Late Night With Conan O'Brien," where Brooke Shields is also a guest. Matt and Trey actually did visit the show with Brooke Shields, and this scene was meant to be a parody. Also, South Park parents' outrage in Trey Parker and Matt Stone's movie "South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut", over Terrance and Phillip's movie "Asses of Fire" is meant as a statement of how real-world parents react to Trey Parker and Matt Stone's movie.

Another possible message comes from the episode "," where the team breaks up. Terrance claims that part of the reason they broke up was he, Terrance, wrote all the episodes of their show while Phillip just said the lines. This is likely based on reports that Trey Parker is the main writer of "South Park," with Matt Stone having less involvement with the creating process; the fact that Terrance is played by Stone and Phillip by Parker is probably meant to be ironic. This is most likely not the case, however, because, as stated in the commentary tracks, Matt and Trey have "no idea" who voices Terrence and Phillip and constantly take turns as each character.

Also, in the episode Canada on Strike, Terrance and Phillip strongly oppose Canada's strike. This is a reference to the fact that Parker and Stone both strongly opposed the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike.

Terrance and Phillip as a satire

Terrance and Phillip are most likely a self-parody -- that is, a representation of how many people viewed "South Park" at the time. Their comedy seems to mainly be based on fart jokes, which is how many people seemed to judge "South Park". Since then, Terrance and Phillip has been used as a plot device to reflect how Matt and Trey (or alternatively, "South Park") are viewed in the real world. [cite conference | first = Trey | last = Parker | title = South Park Comes Home | booktitle = The US Comedy Arts Festival | date = 1998-03-07 | url = http://treyparker.info/archives_transcripts_comedyarts_07mar98.htm | accessdate = 2007-05-04 ]

Some South Park fans see Terrance and Phillip as a parody of "Beavis and Butt-head". The duo owe most of their fame to toilet humor and profanity, much like Beavis and Butt-head. They are also known to have a bad reputation with the children's parents that both involved fire. They also share the laughing that Beavis and Butthead is famous for and sit on a couch similar to Beavis and Butt-head's. They have the same number of syllables in their names, have black and blonde hair respectively and sit on the couch in the same order by hair color. In the commentary for the 2006 DVD edition of "Beavis and Butt-head Do America", series creator Mike Judge relates how Parker and Stone once expressed their admiration for the show and how Judge offered them valuable advice when South Park was starting. According to Judge, Parker and Stone said that Beavis and Butt-head were like the blues in that it's the same kind of thing over and over again, but that the quality is always excellent. Judge took this as a high compliment.

Another quite plausible explanation of the basis for their creation is the Canadian comedic duo Wayne and Shuster. Wayne and Shuster made their debut on the Ed Sullivan Show, like the South Park characters. They also had a debate concerning whether or not a certain sketch would be suitable for American audiences; this can be reflected by the fact that in Terrance and Phillip's debut, the only part the American audience reacted to was an unintentional flatulence at the end of the performance. Many see this as a reference to the "Canadian perception of Americans."Fact|date=February 2007

However they originated, Terrance and Phillip are two undoubtedly Canadian stereotypes. In "Not Without My Anus," they are invaded by Iraq. In the same episode, they attend a "Roughriders vs Rough Riders" Canadian football game, seeing as how the Canadian Football League once had two football teams with near-identical nicknames. There is also a moose visible in this episode.

The Canadian accent is also exaggerated for comic effect, using the common stereotyped view of Canadian raising, that is, that Canadians say "aboot" in place of "about," and "eh" in place of "er" and "huh" sounds. "Here" and "There" are sometimes changed to "Heeya" and "Theya," and the words "Guy" or "Buddy" are usually added to the end of sentences. At times the pair also use the term "dehg" (similar to the American slang "dog") in referring to one another.

Episodes in which they are prominent

* Death
* Terrance and Phillip in Not Without My Anus
*
* The New Terrance and Phillip Movie Trailer
* I'm a Little Bit Country As background characters
* The Return of Chef As background characters
* Cartoon Wars Part II
* Canada on Strike!

References