April 6, 2018
In 1996, the video Christmas card entitled "Jesus vs. Santa," created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, became an underground sensation thanks to the emerging "World Wide Web." The following spring, as president of Hamilton Projects, Debra Joester (now president and chief executive officer of The Joester Loria Group) jumped at the opportunity to represent "South Park," a TV series based on the short, which premiered on Comedy Central in August 1997.
"It was funny, it was fresh and it was the first 'for Gen X by Gen X' property that rang true," says Joester. "During Licensing Show 1997, we offended dozens of potential licensees by playing the 'Jesus vs. Santa' video for them. Few people believed Comedy Central would attract enough viewers to drive licensing sales and lots of people feared South Park couldn't be funny once the swearing was cleaned up. Needless to say, Stan, Kyle, Cartman and Kenny prevailed! South Park became a huge hit, generating more than $500 million in sales in the first two years."
Thirteen
years later, Matt and Trey continue to make us laugh with their "take no prisoners" humor as South Park licensed products continue to sell.
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