In Episode 12 of Season 7 of the irreverent Comedy Central cartoon “South Park” viewers were treated to a story “All About Mormons” (See the full episode on hulu.com). The episode included modern adventures of the South Park gang dealing with a new LDS family in town – but also depicted scenes from early Church history and in particular Joseph Smith and the events of early church history. This included the First Vision, the encounter with the angel Moroni, the translation of the Book of Mormon and the loss of the first 116 pages.

While  some of the events depicted, such as Joseph Smith placing seer stones in a hat and putting his face in the hat to translate, would be very surprising to most modern Mormons, they actually match the historical documentary records of the church. In fact, many critics of the church claim that the depiction of Church History in South Park was more honest and accurate than the Church’s own manuals and media – but is that true?

Just how accurate was the South Park episode? Did they get anything wrong? Why has no one taken the time to debunk the parody of Mormonism and caricature of Joseph Smith that Matt Stone and Trey Parker unleashed into modern culture?

Well, the wait is over – Historian Christopher C. Smith sits down in our latest episode of Talk on Things and Stuff and reviews South Park “All About Mormons” and tells you exactly what they got right and what they got wrong, according to the documentary record. You may be surprised that the Episode is not as accurate as you have been led to believe.

The segments from the episode have been somewhat altered to avoid them being flagged for copyright infringement. The use of the clips in the video fall under fair use for the purpose of parody and criticism.

The Videos

Just in case you would like to see the abridged History only segments of the episode, check out this video:

Christopher Smith

You can find Christopher C Smith’s articles and academic publications at the following locations:

• Articles by Christopher Smith at WorldsWithoutEnd.org
• Peer Reviewed publications by Christopher Smith at Academia.edu

Relevant Articles

During the discussion a few publications were referred to:

• “A Mormon Midrash? LDS Creation Narratives Reconsidered” by Anthony A. Hutchinson at Dialoguejournal.com
• Theophany Mine – 16 accounts which pre-date Joseph Smith’s First Vision
• Tale of the Twice Translated Scripture – Joseph Smith inadvertently translated a chapter of the Bible twice and each one was different.
• Glossary of Undue Influence – defines terms dealing with coercive persuasion such as “double bind” and “milieu control”

Can you identify any other errors in the episode? Post them in the comments below!