Stone. It was the last of the original six South Park episodes ordered by Comedy Central before the network committed to a full season of 13 episodes. Parker long wanted to feature a Grim Reaper-like death character in South Park, as he had enjoyed drawing cartoon images of Death riding on a tricycle since his childhood. This was the inspiration behind a scene in which Death inexplicably rides a tricycle while chasing the South Park boys through the streets. The subplot of Kenny's diarrhea problems came from a real-life high school experience from Stone, who said students used to offer each other $20 if they would pass a note to the teacher explaining they had "explosive diarrhea", like Kenny did in the episode. The image of Kenny sitting on a toilet in "Death" became a popular South Park poster. "Death" included a consistency error in that Mr. Garrison's classroom had its own separate bathroom, which has never again been seen on the show. During one scene, Cartman moons Kyle while making fun of Kyle's mother. Comedy Central censors forced Parker and Stone to remove the image of Cartman's bare bottom, although such images would be allowed in future episodes. A man named Mr. McCormick was killed in "Death" after he was flung via slingshot into the Cartoon Central building. The character's name led many to mistakenly believe it was Kenny's father, Stuart McCormick, but Parker denied this and said the similar character names were just a coincidence. The character appears again very briefly in a later episode, "Starvin' Marvin". Themes During the first few weeks of South Park run, Parker and Stone received criticism from some commentators and media outlets that the series was little more than flatulence jokes and primitive animation, and thus must be a simple show to produce. "Death" was written in response to that criticism. The episode introduced Terrance and Phillip, a comedy duo with a popular cartoon series within the South Park universe, whose show is literally nothing but a series of flatulence jokes, with even cruder animation than South Park itself. The episode's script parodied parents who voiced strong opposition to South Park, portraying them as so invested in fighting the television program that they fail to pay attention to what is going on in their children's lives. This is illustrated in the episode when Stan calls his mother seeking help because Death is