I’ve been a Primus fan for longer than South Park has been a show. Now that Season 27 of the legendary cartoon has started on the 2025 TV schedule (and started in true South Park fashion with a controversial episode), I’ve been seeing a lot of clips come up in my social media feed, and one of those features Primus’ fearless leader, Les Claypool, talking about the recording of the theme song. It turns out, the version at the end of each episode was supposed to be the opening theme. Here’s what happened.
The Original Idea Was The Slower Version
Recently, Claypool sat down for an interview with YouTuber Rick Beato, and while the full interview has not yet been released on Beato’s channel, the record producer did drop part of it as a YouTube short. In the video, Beato asks Claypool how it came about, and Claypool tells him,
The funny thing is, what you hear at the end of the South Park episode is what we actually gave them
That slower, more plodding version of the song heard as the end credits roll is the version Primus recorded. The crazy thing is, that’s the only version they recorded. Claypool explains that Comedy Central thought the theme song was too slow. Rather than re-record the song, which Claypool says Primus didn’t have time for, he told them to “speed it up.”
Of course, it’s not like the song sounds like the Chipmunks singing, so Claypool did have to re-record the vocals. So Parker and Stone went to a Primus show and had Claypool record it on the spot, as Claypool explains,
I re-recorded it into a little tape recorder, and they took it back and they took over the world.
Before doing the recording, Claypool and the other guys in Primus weren’t convinced the show would work anyway, hence their reluctance to let it take too much of their time, but it turns out that speeding it up was the best thing they could have done, as the driving twang is perfect for the subversive comedy.
Primus Was The Only Music Trey Parker And Matt Stone Could Agree On
The whole reason Primus was even asked to do the theme was, according to Claypool, because the quirky trio was the only band that Parker and Stone were both happy listening to. Claypool tells Beato,
From what I understood, as they were making the South Park pilot, they would listen to different music…Trey liked one thing and Matt liked another thing; the one thing they could agree on, from what I was told, was Primus.
It’s hard to imagine any other band fitting the vibe of South Park, and its many outrageous episodes, quite like Primus and their weird, unique, off-kilter sound. The theme song has even become a fan favorite among Primus fans, which isn’t always the case with artists who do theme songs. The show, like the band, is not like anything else, and it’s truly a match made in South Park hell, in the best way. After a short break, South Park is back with more from its latest season.
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