page_title: Mecha-Streisand
section_title: Production
hierarchical_section_title: Mecha-Streisand / Production
caption_attribution_description: Matt Stone and Trey Parker at The Amazing Meeting on January 20, 2007
context_page_description: "Mecha-Streisand" is the twelfth and penultimate episode of the first season of the American animated television series South Park. It originally aired on Comedy Central in the United States on February 18, 1998. In the episode, Barbra Streisand obtains the Diamond of Pantheos from Stan, Cartman, Kyle and Kenny, and transforms into a giant mechanical dinosaur called Mecha-Streisand. She is ultimately defeated by The Cure frontman Robert Smith, who himself transforms into a giant moth monster.
  The episode was written by series co-creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone along with writer Philip Stark, and was directed by Parker. "Mecha-Streisand" parodies numerous popular Kaiju films and features portrayals of actor Sidney Poitier and film critic Leonard Maltin.
  According to Nielsen ratings, "Mecha-Streisand" was seen by 5.4 million viewers, a record high viewership for a South Park episode at the time. Streisand herself was critical of the series and her role in "Mecha-Streisand", although Leonard Maltin was complimentary about his portrayal.
context_section_description: "Mecha-Streisand" was written by series co-creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, along with writer Philip Stark, and was directed by Parker. "Mecha-Streisand" first aired on Comedy Central in the United States on February 18, 1998. Robert Smith, lead vocalist and guitarist for the English rock band The Cure, makes a guest appearance as himself, marking only the second time a celebrity guest played a major role in an episode, after Natasha Henstridge in "Tom's Rhinoplasty". Following the success of "Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo", a large number of celebrities started contacting Comedy Central with the hopes of making guest appearances in South Park episodes, allowing Parker and Stone to practically take their pick of guest stars. Parker, a fan of The Cure, said it was his lifelong dream to meet Smith, and he was one of the few celebrities Parker specifically requested to make an appearance. Smith performed all of his lines via telephone and Parker used the first reading of each line, even though they were executed in a very dead-pan voice.
  When Parker and Stone made fun of celebrities in previous South Park episodes, they were chosen at random; however, they chose to mock Barbra Streisand based on a strong distaste for the actress. Part of the reason they disliked her was that after Colorado passed Amendment 2, an amendment to the Colorado state constitution forbidding homosexuals from being recognized as a protected class, Streisand made a public statement speaking out against the state and all its citizens, promising she would never visit Colorado again. Parker said he also finds her singing voice annoying, which inspired the scene with Streisand torturing the boys by singing to them. The duo tried to make Streisand's portrayal as "sick and disgusting as possible" in "Mecha-Streisand". Mary Kay Bergman, a voice artist who had done most of the female voices on South Park, portrayed Barbra Streisand in the episode.
  South Park animators created the episode using PowerAnimator, the Alias Systems Corporation animation program most commonly known as "Alias". Eric Stough, director of animation for the series, said "Mecha-Streisand" was slightly more challenging to animate than other first-season episodes due to the laser beam-type effects featured in the final monster fight, which were specifically designed to resemble a low-budget monster movie with poor graphics. The scenes with an instructional guide taking the kids on a fossil hunt were based on real-life arrowhead-digging excursions Parker and Stone went on in Red Rocks Park during their childhood in Colorado. During a scene with Chef and Leonard Maltin driving in a car, actual video footage of Colorado roads is visible through the back window of the car. The footage was shot by a friend of Parker and Stone and used because the animators did not yet know how to create roads in perspective.
caption: South Park co-creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone wrote "Mecha-Streisand"
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