Sometimes, bad ideas sound like good ones when you’re all hopped up, Charlie Sheen-style. That was the explanation that South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker gave David Letterman about their hilariously ill-advised appearance at the 2000 Academy Awards.
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A song from their movie, South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, was nominated that year. At first, Parker and Stone were reluctant to attend the lame Oscars ceremony at all. “And then we were like, well, how can we not go to the Academy Awards?” Parker told Letterman. “So, we decided to go in dresses.”
Boy, did they. Stone pulled off an iconic ensemble made famous by Gwyneth Paltrow, while Parker draped himself in Jennifer Lopez’s famously revealing gown.
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It seemed like a funny idea the month before, when Stone and Parker ordered the costumes. The afternoon of the event, however, reality crept in. “We had a limo, and we had people doing our makeup,” Parker remembered. “We’re like, ‘Oh, let’s not do this.’”
The solution to their anxiety? “We did some Charlie Sheening, and we were fine,” Parker said.
“We were just Sheening our heads off,” agreed Stone.
“Charlie Sheening” was Parker and Stone’s way of saying they dropped acid at the Oscars in language that CBS censors would allow. As Letterman showed a picture of Stone and Parker in their gowns, Stone noted, “You can tell that we’re both Sheening pretty hard right there.”
Sheening in glamorous gowns is fun for a while. “And then you lose to Phil Collins,” Parker remembered. “You don’t feel that cool…”
“Once the Sheen wears off,” added Stone.
In The Making of South Park: 6 Days to Air, Stone and Parker were more candid about their plans. The pair had considered showing up in clownish duck costumes, but figured that would give Oscar frumps an actual reason to turn them away. “But if we’re wearing what other people are wearing,” Parker figured, “they really can’t say, ‘You can’t come in.’”
Bravery came in the form of sugar cubes laced with LSD. Parker can’t believe he went along with the Sheening. “The whole idea you would take acid and go to the Oscars? I’d be like, ‘No, dude, I’m not doing that because I don’t know what I’m going to end up doing. That would be too scary.’”
But they did it. And they were coherent enough to stick to the bit. At no point did they acknowledge they were dressed in a peculiar way. When anyone asked them to explain the gowns, they ignored the questions and responded with lines like, “It’s a magical evening! All the stars are out!”
Eventually, karma kicked in for Stone and Parker the way it did for Charlie Sheen. “You’re coming down off the acid,” Parker remembered, “and you’re having to now sit through the Oscars, which fucking suck.”
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