COMEDY CENTRAL Home Entertainment Celebrates 10 Years of 'South Park' With the DVD Release of 'South Park The Hits: Volume 1' (October 3) Featuring Trey Parker and Matt Stone's 10 Favorite Episodes and, for the First Time-Ever, 'The Spirit of Christmas' An

Includes Emmy Award-Winning 'Best Friends Forever,' Emmy-Nominated 'Trapped In The Closet,' Four Bonus Episodes and New Audio Commentary From Parker and Stone

NEW YORK, Aug. 3 -- "People always ask us, 'What's your favorite episode?' And I say, 'It's so hard. It's like choosing between your children.' But then I would have no problem choosing between my children. It would be the tall, smart one," say Matt Stone and Trey Parker. "South Park The Hits: Volume 1" DVD arrives in stores nationwide on Tuesday, October 3, released via COMEDY CENTRAL Home Entertainment and will also be available at http://shop.comedycentral.com. "South Park" now in its 10th season, will feature seven all-new episodes beginning on October 4 at 10:00 p.m., coinciding with COMEDY CENTRAL's celebration of the series' 10th season.

For the first time ever, the infamous animated short "The Spirit of Christmas" will be available. "The Spirit of Christmas" was created as a video Christmas card commissioned by current MTV executive Brian Graden to send to friends and colleagues and centered on four foul-mouthed third graders forced to intervene in a fight between Santa and Jesus.

In a perfect storm of events, the video arrived on the scene just as the Internet was becoming ubiquitous in homes across the country and it was soon burning up the information highway as fans passed it along to their friends and colleagues, turning the short into the first, and arguably most successful, viral video in the history of the medium. "South Park," which launched on August 13, 1997, remains to this day COMEDY CENTRAL's highest- rated and most-viewed series.

"South Park The Hits: Volume 1" DVD also features 10 episodes (with new audio commentary) chosen by Parker and Stone as their favorite "top ten" to date. The DVD also includes four fan favorite bonus episodes: "Fatt Butt & Pancake Head" (a.k.a. J. Lo and Ben Affleck), "It Hits the Fan," "Timmy 2000" and "The Death Camp of Intolerance" (the introduction of Lemmiwinks).

The following episodes appear on "South Park The Hits: Volume 1" DVD with audio commentary from Parker and Stone:

"Awesom-O" - Stone: "This episode has one of my favorite scenes of any 'South Park' ever...which is when Cartman gets off the plane. He gets to Los Angeles and he has to eat the toothpaste 'cause he's so f***ing hungry. That just totally makes sense that you'd be that hungry where you'd just eat toothpaste."

"Best Friends Forever" - Parker: "We went out to the animation staff and we're like, 'Okay, good news. We've come up with a show idea for this week. It's going to be a final battle between heaven and hell.' And they were just like, 'Oh, s***.'"

"Casa Bonita" - Stone: "This episode perfectly explains Cartman's character. It's not really about the experience, he doesn't want friends there." Parker: "Yeah. He would rather be the only person on the planet." Stone: "To me, that perfectly encapsulates what's wrong with Cartman ... he sucks so bad."

"Good Times with Weapons" - Parker: "The thing I'm most proud of in this episode is the song. I think we hit the song perfectly. I think we got the anime pretty good, but that song ..."

"Red Hot Catholic Love" - Parker: "For some reason we thought the imagery of someone crapping out their mouth would work ultimately in a show. And then luckily a bunch of priests got caught molesting kids. And we're like, 'Bingo.'"

"The Return of the Fellowship of the Ring to the Two Towers" - Parker: "This episode is just a perfect example, to us, about how much fun the show can be when it's just kids being kids."

"Scott Tenorman Must Die" - Parker: "This is a very important episode in the 'South Park' library because it did definitely change Cartman. I mean, it took from kind of a little s*** head to probably the most evil kid in the world."

"Spoiled Whore Video Playset" - Stone: "Most of the time when people ask us about, you know, ripping on celebrities and featuring celebrities in the show, I always say, 'Well, you know, it's not personal. It's just ripping on the idea of celebrity itself. You know, it's just kind of this absurdist thing that we do.' But then you look at this episode and it really isn't that. We have to stop little girls from looking up to Paris Hilton."

"Towelie" - Parker: "We rented a houseboat on Lake Mead with a bunch of our friends who are also writers on 'South Park' and we were getting into a boat, and everyone was like, 'Yeah, did you bring a towel? Everyone bring a towel? You -- you got a towel?' And then people just started going, 'Don't forget to bring a towel.' And that, for some reason that caught on and then it became, 'Towelie says, don't forget to bring a towel.' And then that became 'Towelie.'"

"Trapped in the Closet" - Parker: "We're pretty sure it's going be one of our most infamous ever, I think, just because of all the hubbub it caused. I don't think we've ever had a single episode that has stirred up this much unwanted and wanted attention."

Launched in 1997, "South Park" remains the highest-rated series on COMEDY CENTRAL. The animated series was honored earlier this year with the prestigious George Foster Peabody Award in the 65th Annual Peabody Awards competition and has been nominated for six Emmy Awards (including this year's nod), winning the Emmy last year for Outstanding Animated Program (less than an hour). Trey Parker and Matt Stone are co-creators and executive producers of "South Park," with Anne Garefino also serving as executive producer.

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