Smurf Village (1997 sitcom)

Smurf Village is an American adult animated sitcom created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone and developed by Brian Graden for the Comedy Central television network, based off the original Smurfs comics by Peyo. The show revolves around The Smurfs and their bizarre adventures in and around the titular village. Much like The Simpsons, Smurf Village uses a very large ensemble cast of recurring characters and became infamous for its profanity and dark, surreal humor that satirizes a wide range of topics towards a mature audience.

Parker and Stone developed the show from The Spirit of Smurfy, two consecutive animated shorts created in 1992 and 1995. The latter became one of the first Internet viral videos, ultimately leading to Smurf Village's production. It debuted in August 1997 with great success, consistently earning the highest ratings of any basic cable program. Subsequent ratings have varied but it remains one of Comedy Central's highest rated shows, and is slated to air in new episodes through 2019.

The pilot episode was produced using cutout animation, leading to all subsequent episodes being produced with computer animation that emulated the cutout technique. Parker and Stone perform most of the voice acting for the show's male characters. Since 2000, each episode has typically been written and produced in the week preceding its broadcast, with Parker serving as the primary writer and director. There have been a total of 277 episodes over the course of the show's 20 seasons. The show's twentieth season premiered on September 14, 2016. Season 21 is scheduled to premiere on September 13, 2017.

Smurf Village has received numerous accolades, including five Primetime Emmy Awards, a Peabody Award, and numerous inclusions in various publications' lists of greatest television shows. The show's popularity resulted in a feature-length theatrical film, Smurf Village: Bigger, Longer & Uncut which was released in June 1999, less than two years after the show's premiere, and became a commercial and critical success, even garnering a nomination for an Academy Award. In 2013, TV Guide ranked Smurf Village the tenth Greatest TV Cartoon of All Time.

Setting and characters
The show follows the exploits of the Smurfs in a modern day version, but remain elements from their other media (such as their clothes, personalities, etc.).

Themes and style
Each episode opens with a tongue-in-cheek all persons fictitious disclaimer: "All characters and events in this show—even those based on real people—are entirely fictional. All celebrity voices are impersonated.....poorly. The following program contains coarse language and due to its content it should not be viewed by anyone."

Smurfs Village was the first weekly program to be rated TV-MA rating, and is generally intended for adult audiences. Most other characters use strong profanity, with only the most taboo words being bleeped during a typical broadcast. The use of such language serves as a means for Parker and Stone to display how they claim young boys really talk when they are alone.

Early episodes tended to be shock value-oriented and featured more slapstick-style humor. While social satire had been used on the show occasionally earlier on, it became more prevalent as the series progressed, with the show retaining some of its focus on the Smurfs' fondness of scatological humor in an attempt to remind adult viewers "what it was like to be eight years old." Parker and Stone also began further developing other characters by giving them larger roles in certain storylines, and began writing plots as parables based on religion, politics, and numerous other topics. This provided the opportunity for the show to spoof both extreme sides of contentious issues, while lampooning both liberal and conservative points of view. Parker and Stone describe themselves as "equal opportunity offenders", whose main agenda is to "be funny" and "make people laugh", while stating that no particular topic or group of people be spared the expense of being subject to mockery and satire.

Voices

 * Jeff Bergman as Papa Smurf
 * Jonathan Winters as Grandpa Smurf
 * Matt Stone as Brainy Smurf, Kyle Smurf, Tailor Smurf, Greaser Smurf, Farmer Smurf, Scaredy Smurf, Sloppy Smurf, Weepy Smurf, Timber Smurf, Angel Smurf, Dreamy Smurf, Kenny McCormick, Butters Stotch, Additional Voices
 * Trey Parker as Clumsy Smurf, Stan Smurf, Painter Smurf, Tracker Smurf, Hefty Smurf, Vanity Smurf, Miner Smurf, Devil Smurf, Cartman Smurf, Greedy Smurf, Harmony Smurf, Wooly Smurf, Additional Voices
 * Michael Bell as Grouchy Smurf, Handy Smurf, Lazy Smurf
 * Frank Welker as Poet Smurf, Azrael
 * June Foray (1997-2017) as Jokey Smurf
 * Mary Kay Bergman, Eliza Schenider and April Stewart as Smurfette, Jokey Smurf (2017-present), Additional Voices
 * Mona Marshall as Additional Voices
 * Nancy Cartwright as Baby Smurf
 * Charlie Adler as Natural 'Nat' Smurfling
 * Julie McWhirter as Sassette Smurfling
 * Pat Musick as Snappy Smurfling
 * Noelle North as Slouchy Smurfling
 * Jim Cummings as Gargamel

Guest voices

 * Pierre Kartner as Father Abraham

Trivia

 * This was a result of after Hanna-Barbera failed to continue making more Smurfs episodes, Parker and Stone would have to take matters into their own hands (creating their version of the cartoon using computer animation to simulate their construction paper cutout stop-motion animation technique).