 An unnamed precursor to Kenny first appeared in the first The Spirit of Christmas short , dubbed Jesus vs. Frosty , created by Parker and Stone in 1992 while they were students at the University of Colorado . The character was composed of construction paper cutouts and animated through the use of stop motion . When tasked three years later by friend Brian Graden to create another short as a video Christmas card that he could send to friends , Parker and Stone created another similarly @-@ animated The Spirit of Christmas short , dubbed Jesus vs. Santa . In this short , Kenny is given his first name , and first appears as he does in the series . Kenny next appeared on August 13 , 1997 , when South Park debuted on Comedy Central with the episode " Cartman Gets an Anal Probe " . 
