The problem Thom Yorke had with his ‘South Park’ cameo
It’s one of the most iconic guest spots in South Park history. At the tail end of the insanely dark and hilarious episode ‘Scott Tenorman Must Die’, just after the titular villain has been fed the remains of his dead parents in a chilli, his favourite rock band comes out of the woodwork to make fun of his unfathomable sadness. That band is Radiohead, cameoing as themselves.
South Park had their own twisted approach to letting celebrities guest star on the show. When George Clooney offered his talents to the show, Matt Stone and Trey Parker responded by offering him the role of Sparky, Stan’s dog. Clooney accepted, and so did Jay Leno when the late-night host was offered the role of Cartman’s cat, but not everyone was on board. Jerry Seinfeld wanted to guest star on the show, but pulled out when he was offered the role of “Turkey #2” in the episode ‘Starvin’ Marvin’.
Radiohead was among the first wave of guest stars who played themselves. When Stone discussed his history with the show to Pitchfork, he signalled out the members of the band for being game. When Radiohead was performing close to the South Park offices, Stone went to a recording studio to get the members to record their dialogue.
“The other thing that’s cool in this episode is we got Radiohead to do voices in it,” Stone said. “They were on tour and they were in Santa Barbara. I drove up to Santa Barbara from LA to direct them in the studio. They were at a concert that night in Santa Barbara.”
“I just remember how funny it was I was sitting there trying to direct Thom Yorke to emote more,” Stone added. “I just remember that being one of those really funny moments of my life. This guy just emotes so heavily when he sings and he was sitting there reading the lines. I was like, ‘Emote more.’ They were really cooperative and really cool.”
“They liked that people were made into chilli,” Parker offered up. “There’ve been several times in South Park we’ve had Cartman say under his breath, ‘I’ll make you eat your parents.’”
Check out the stomach-turning guest spot down below.
