Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo classic Christmas specials with their own irreverent "South Park" twist, and so they watched the famous 1965 "Peanuts" special, "A Charlie Brown Christmas", repeatedly during the production process. Parker said, "At this point, we just sort of wanted to do a Charlie Brown Christmas "South Park" version. That [special] was definitely a huge part of my life growing up." The episode was considered the first "South Park" musical episode, and included such songs as "Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo", "A Lonely Jew on Christmas" and "Kyle's Mom is a Big Fat Bitch". Parker and Stone were initially concerned about making
What a Cartoon! of a theatrical cartoon, with each film being based on an original storyboard drawn and written by its artist or creator. The series first aired on February 20, 1995, and the shorts were promoted as World Premiere Toons. During the original run of the shorts, the series was retitled to "The What a Cartoon! Show" and later to "The Cartoon Cartoon Show" until the final shorts aired on August 23, 2002. The project served as the launching point for multiple Cartoon Network animated television series, including "The Powerpuff Girls" (1998–2005), "Dexter's Laboratory", "Johnny Bravo", "Cow and Chicken", "Courage the Cowardly