How ‘South Park’ Brought Two Comedy Icons Back Together After a 15-Year Split

Despite having been on the air for 28 seasons, South Park hasn’t racked up a ton of celebrity cameos over the years. Don’t get us wrong, some pretty famous people have lent their voices to the series, from George Clooney to the members of Korn, but the number isn’t anywhere close to that of, say, The Simpsons.

Two of the more noteworthy—and quite frankly, impressive—guests that showrunners Trey Parker and Matt Stone were able to land were legendary stoner comics Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong, known collectively as Cheech and Chong. The duo’s joint appearance (no pun intended) in 2000’s “Cherokee Hair Tampons” is especially interesting when you can consider that, as a team, they’d been broken up since 1985.

In the 15 years between their break-up and their reunion on South Park, Cheech and Chong had only collaborated on two projects: the 1992 animated film FernGully: The Last Rainforest and a 1997 episode of Marin’s TV show Nash Bridges. For “Cherokee Hair Tampons,” the pair play a couple of Mexican con artists who pose as Native Americans. Chief Running Pinto and Charles Ramirez, as they’re referred to, operate a phony business out of a holistic medicine shop owned by a woman appropriately named Miss Information, where they sell bogus products like dreamcatchers that are really just overpriced coat hangers.

‘South Park’ Helped End a 15-Year Rift Between Two Comedy Icons

But getting Cheech and Chong back together was a little tricky for Parker and Stone. They reached out to each of the team’s respective agents, and both of them seemed open to doing it, but neither thought that the other would be willing. Then there was the issue of not being able to get the duo to record their lines in the same location. Although their characters interact on-screen, only Chong physically went to Parker and Stone’s studio for the gig; Marin ended up recording his part in San Francisco while Parker gave him instructions over the phone. 

“It was my son who turned me on to them, and I swear I’ve never laughed so hard,” Chong said of Parker and Stone’s show in 2016. “We were more than thrilled to be a part of it.” Cheech and Chong officially reunited as a team in 2008 and embarked on a nationwide tour that same year. They’ve worked together on a number of projects since then, including the 2013 film Cheech and Chong’s Animated Movie! When asked about linking back up with his old partner in 2009, Chong credited the South Park episode as the thing that ultimately led to the pair’s comeback.

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