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Writer Pam Brady was the woman behind many of the jokes fans have loved on South Park over the last quarter century.
The Hollywood veteran was a writer and producer on the long-running series from its humble beginnings in 1997 to 2008.
Brady admitted that while she helped co-creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone set the tone for the controversial series, she recalled one time she went over the line.
Brady, who was at 2025’s South by Southwest (SXSW) Festival promoting the upcoming animated Prime Video series #1 Happy Family USA, revealed to Fox News what she believes was the worst joke she ever wrote during her South Park run.
“It was based on an old frat joke … one character said, ‘I don’t trust anything that bleeds for five days and doesn’t die,’” she said. “I remember it was just like the most misogynistic frat boy joke that I’d heard of at that point … but we’re reclaiming it.”
It was the character of Mr. Garrison, the kids’ fourth-grade teacher, who uttered the line in the 1999 film South Park: Bigger, Longer, & Uncut.
“I think there’s always improvement to be made,” Brady said as she shared her thoughts of Hollywood’s recent treatment of women.
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“I mean, women are 51% of the population, so it should always be 50% [female in writers’ rooms],” she continued.
“But I’ve been really lucky, you know, South Park’s writers’ room has always been 50-50, male-female … but the best part about Hollywood is that no one’s keeping women out. So I never feel like … [it’s] the old boys network.”
Brady did note that the changing culture has affected her joke-writing a bit.
“I do think you have to be more careful now, what you say,” she acknowledged.
“South Park had an episode where they represented … I’m not going to say what it was, but it was just someone you wouldn’t want to represent on a show … and you could do it 20 years ago, but you can’t do it now,” Brady explained.
“I’m sort of of two minds about it, because I think the idea of cancel culture and stuff you can’t say … I think times change and I think sometimes it’s good that you go, ‘Oh, you shouldn’t do something that’s like, a racist phrase that your grandparents would use.” And that’s sort of just evolving.”
But she added that she doesn’t believe comedy has necessarily been “stifled,” but rather, “you need to be smarter to make a joke” nowadays.
Brady said it’s all about building trust with your audience.
“[It’s about] knowing that someone is not attacking you,” she said. “And to earn that trust, it’s changed. But I think that’s the fun of it. How can you make a joke now, where everybody’s in on the joke? I think that’s the trick. Nobody wants to feel bad and, you know, we don’t want to do stuff that just makes people feel bad.”