Another influence on the plot was the large amount of hunting Parker and Stone saw around them while growing up in Colorado . Neither of them were hunters , and Parker said Stan 's hesitation about hunting was based largely on himself and his father , who hated the idea of killing an animal even though Parker 's grandfather , like Jimbo , was enthusiastic about the sport . Parker said he feels many of the first-season episodes considered taboo in 1997 would have been considered less controversial five years later , but that " Volcano " is an exception . Since the episode involved children drinking beer and threatening each other at gunpoint during hunting trips , Parker said he did not believe Comedy Central would have aired it following the Columbine High School massacre in 1999 . Parker said , " Back then , it was just sort of funny , kids pointing guns at each other , and it 's just not so funny now . " '' South Park '' animators spent the first four episodes of the show trying to perfect the animation of the characters . By " Volcano " – which was produced after " Weight Gain 4000 " – , Parker and Stone felt the textures were improved , as well as smaller details like the lines around the eyes of the characters . While the series pilot " Cartman Gets an Anal Probe " was animated with construction paper , subsequent episodes were made using computers . Nevertheless , Parker and Stone wanted the show to maintain its crude paper look ; for example , they specifically asked for the night sky in this episode to look like a black piece of paper with holes cut into it for stars , just as it was in the pilot episode . Stone and Parker were especially proud of the animation of the lava , which they said took hours to perfect , although they acknowledged it ended up simply resembling orange construction paper . The lava ball shooting out of the volcano and almost killing Kenny was directly inspired by the '' Volcano '' film . Parker and Stone came up with the character of Scuzzlebutt during a random conversation with Comedy Central executive Debbie Liebling . While meeting with her , they simply started drawing the character , and decided to add a celery hand and Patrick Duffy leg for no particular reason . Scuzzlebutt also appeared in a second episode , " City on the Edge of Forever " from the second season . Scuzzlebutt turning out to be a real character rather than a ridiculous story was the first instance of a common characteristic of the Cartman character , in which Cartman says outrageous and completely unrealistic things that turn out to be true . Stone commented , " He 's right more often than he 's wrong . " The " Volcano " episode was in production when '' South Park '' debuted on August 13 , 1997 . Comedy Central executives did not object to most of the content of the episode , but said the scene in which Kyle farted while talking to Stan should have been removed because nothing happened after the fart , and they said it was not funny . Parker and Stone , however , insisted it stay in the episode , and they said the lack of any reaction whatsoever to the fart was what made it funny . During close-ups of Cartman 's face while telling the story of Scuzzlebutt around the campfire , the flames from the fire stop moving . Parker and Stone noticed the consistency error after the episode was filmed , but they did not have enough time to go back and fix it before the broadcast date , so it was left in . A cat featured in the background of one of the outdoor scenes was designed to look exactly like Parker 's cat , Jake . The scene in which Ned catches fire was based on an experience Parker had during a Colorado camping trip where he tried to do an " Indian Fire Trick " , in which one pours gasoline onto a fire to create large flames . Although nobody caught fire , Parker said the trick misfired and he nearly burned down the forest . After finishing the episode , Parker and Stone realized " Volcano " was about two minutes shorter than the time length required for the episode . In order to add time to the episode , Parker and Stone added the scene with Ned singing the song " Kumbaya " around the fire , as well as the long freeze-frame on a shocked Chef and Mayor McDaniels reacting to the news of the volcano 's imminent eruption
Columbine High School massacre
Columbine High School massacre
Volcano (South Park)