This Is the Sitcom That 'South Park' Creator Trey Parker Hates More Than Anything

Whatever happened to predictability? Well, ABC turned it into eight seasons of the single most trite sitcom on TV.

Through 27/28 seasons of South Park, series creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone have used their iconoclastic comedy to settle dozens of personal scores and express their own petty gripes through the lens of TV-MA-rated satire. From Barbra Streisand to George Lucas, Parker and Stone have excoriated the most powerful figures in entertainment over their own tastes, which sure makes it seem like this one first-season South Park punching bag got it pretty easy, all things considered.

In the beloved Season One South Park episode “Big Gay Al’s Big Gay Boat Ride,” Parker and Stone poked fun at another 1990s TV comedy darling when they debuted the one-off character Richard Stamos, brother of Full House star John Stamos. 

According to the DVD commentary for “Big Gay Al’s Big Gay Boat Ride,” the creation of Richard Stamos came from Parker’s personal distaste for “big douche” Stamos and his smash-hit sitcom, which Parker described as “the most horrible thing ever put on television.”

In “Big Gay Al's Big Gay Boat Ride,” the fictional Richard Stamos signs on to be the half-time musical guest at the showdown between the South Park Cows football team and the Middle Park Cowboys, a performance which Jimbo and Ned involve in their convoluted bomb plot. For his song of choice, Richard sings an uninspiring rendition of Minnie Riperton's hit single “Lovin' You.”

“We didn't know John Stamos at the time, but we just thought he was a big douche,” Parker explained of the fictional brother they invented to indirectly mock the Full House star and sex symbol for stay-at-home mothers in the 1990s. However, Parker and Stone would later change their tune on Richard Stamos' more talented older brother, as Parker revealed. “We had a chance to sort of meet John later on, and he's actually a really, really cool guy,” Parker admitted.

“He's a very nice guy,” Stone agreed.

“I think he was stoked about this,” Parker said of Stamos' reaction to his South Park parody.

As for the song used for Richard Stamos' performance, that choice was similarly spite-motivated. “I just always hated that song,” Parker explained of Ripperton's 1974 hit, “I hated, hated – I hate any song from that era, really, I think it was just a horrible time for music.”

Thankfully, Parker and Stone didn't go too hard on Stamos, seeing as they would later come to respect the Full House star and singer – though their hatred for Stamos' most recognizable work (and the soft-pop of the mid-1970s) has seemingly never abated. Still, it's nice to hear that Stamos was a good sport about his parody – and he can probably hit a high F, too.