Terrance and Phillip

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Terrance (left) and Phillip (right), as seen in South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut.

Terrance Henry Stoot and Phillip Nyles Argyle are a pair of fictional characters in the American animated series South Park. They are a comedy duo from Canada.

Terrance (born as Terrence Henry Stoot in the "small Canadian village" 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 and a blue shirt with a "P." They may be named after Terrence Mann and Philip Quast, both famous for portraying Javert in the musical Les Miserables. 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 all fart jokes and thus invented Terrance and Phillip to show what a show that was all fart jokes would be.

Like virtually all Canadians in South Park, Terrance and Philip are geometrically-figured with small beady eyes and Pac Man-like heads which flap up and down whenever they speak. This may originally have signified they were an animated series inside an animated series, but was quickly retconned into a distinguishing feature of Canadians. An alternate theory on this is that they appear voicing themselves as animated characters in the film, and happen to look exactly the same in both cases, much like Mr. T in the Mr. T animated series. Interestingly, at the beginning of South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, Cartman claims that "The animation is all crappy," but later in the movie, characters interact with them as real people.

[edit] South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut

In the 1999 movie South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, 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 were resurrected at the end of the movie by Kenny's wish that everything should return to normal.

Asses of Fire grossed over $350,000,000 at the North American production cost, earning 50 times its budget back (the production and marketing costs were only $7 million; a joke on low-budget independent films), and it swept the Academy Awards winning 12 Oscars, including Best Picture, Director, Actor(s), and Original Screenplay, which the duo accepted. A sequel, Asses of Fire 2, was released to greater box office and acclaim the next year.

[edit] Similarities 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 "Terrance and Phillip: Behind the Blow," where the team breaks up. Terrance claims that part of the reason they broke up was because 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.

Terrance has black hair, as does Matt Stone, his voice actor. Phillip and Trey Parker both have blonde hair. This was likely intentional.

Also, Terrance and Phillip form Trey Parker's initials. This, however, was said to be a coincidence by Parker.

[edit] Terrance and Phillip as a satire

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. They also share the laughing that Beavis and Butthead is famous for and sit on a couch similar to Beavis and Butt-head's.

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".

However they originated, Terrance and Phillip are two undoubtedly Canadian stereotypes. In "Not Without My Anus", they are invaded by Iraq. This is a famous stereotype, saying that Canada could be easily invaded. In the same episode, they attend a "Roughriders vs Rough Riders" Canadian football game, seeing as how Canada once had two football teams with the same name. There is also a caribou 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 "ah" or "uh" in place of "er" sounds. "Here" and "There" are sometimes changed to "Heeya" and "Theya".