Terrance and Phillip
From Free net encyclopedia
Image:Terrance phillip.png Terrance and Phillip are a pair of fictional characters in the American animated series South Park. They are a comedy duo who live in Canada. Terrance (born as Terrance Henry Stoot in the "small 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 Montréal), voiced by Trey Parker, has blond hair and a blue shirt with a "P." Like virtually all Canadians in South Park, they 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. In fact, at the beginning of South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, Cartman states that the animation of Terrance and Philip is “all crappy,” but later in the movie characters interact with them as real people.
In South Park, Terrance and Philip are the stars of a popular children's TV show. This show-within-a-show serves an interesting role; the parents of the South Park characters view Terrance and Philip's obsessive fart gags in much the same way that many parents in the real world view South Park: with considerable contempt. The two characters have indeterminate heavy accents, inspired by the way many Americans hear the Canadian accent. (The "aboot" pronunciation has also been used in The Simpsons and Canadian Bacon). The fact that their career is based on an accidental fart Phillip made on The Ed Sullivan Show at the age of six, because that was the only part of their act Americans understood,[1] may be saying something about Canadian perceptions of Americans.
The duo popularized a catchphrase in the show-within-a-show, as they would invariably say "You FAH-ted!" and then giggle to almost any farting sound. The initials on their shirts may serve as another hidden joke. The letters P and T when pronounced in French sound like péter, slang for fart. TP is also a well known abbreviation for the words 'toilet paper', which can be heard frequently on the cartoon show Beavis and Butt-head where Beavis says "I am Cornholio... I need TP for my bunghole." Coincidentally, TP can also be an abbrevation of "Trey Parker."
Terrance and Phillip are huge celebrities within the South Park universe, and have won the Nobel Peace Prize. In one episode they briefly broke up, and we see Terrence become over weight because of this, but then were reunited. Terrance also married Celine Dion and had an illegitimate daughter named Sally because they were divorced before her birth. He attempts to reconcile with Celine Dion in Terrance and Phillip in Not Without My Anus, but fails because she is pregnant by another man. Terrence and Philop make cameo appearances in The Return of Chef and Cartoon Wars Part II, in these episodes we see that Terrence has become skinner, but is still over weight.
See also Wayne and Shuster.
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.
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 over Terrance and Phillip's show is meant as a statement of how real-world parents react to South Park.
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; that Terrance is played by Stone and Phillip by Parker is probably meant to be ironic.
Terrance and Phillip as a satire
Some South Park fans see Terrance and Phillip as a parody of Beavis and Butthead. The duo owe most of their fame to toilet humor and profanity, much like Beavis and Butthead. 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.
However, most fans see them for their Canadian stereotyping. Terrance and Phillip have most of the traits that most people make fun of in an average Canadian. 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" sports game, seeing as how Canada once had two sports teams with the same name. There is also a moose visible in this episode.
Obviously untrue stereotypes are their appearance. The most sriking being the beady eyes and flapping heads. When the Canandians talk, the upper half of their hole head moves, acting as their mouth. This is used for Saddam Hussein, as well. He is not Canadian, but they drew him as a Canadian to fit in with the backdrop of the episodes he starred in. They are also not as well drawn as the other characters, being only made up of squares and circles. Canadians in South Park also have their first initial printed on their shirts, and sometimes, their houses.
The Candian accent is also used humorously. Using the common "aboot" in place of "about". They also replace "er" sounds with "ah" or "uh" at times.
"Here" and "There" can sometimes be changed to "Heeya" and "Theya".