The South Park Mormon Episode
What Trey Parker and Matt Stone Got Wrong about LDS History
One of the creators of South Park said that he grew up around Mormons. With films such as Orgazmo to his credit, whose subject matter in part deals with members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, this statement is probably true. In the 7th season of South Park, an episode of the popular and crude cartoon was called All About Mormons.
Much of the information contained in this South Park episode is an accurate portrayal of Mormon history, but the episode should not be used as a comprehensive guide. There are a few, although not many, historical inaccuracies and the portrayal of the Mormons reflects more of the LDS church commercials than it does the reality of a Mormon family.
Historical Issues with the South Park Episode
South Park's depiction of Mormon history is largely accurate. The process Joseph Smith used to translate the Book of Mormon is as Trey Parker and Matt Stone portrayed it. Although the episode gets many things right, All About Mormons is a fictional cartoon and should not be used as a guide to LDS history.
According to i4.com/think, a web site site dedicated to pointing out problems with Mormonism, the first vision story in the South Park episode is pure fiction. Joseph Smith did not write the earliest known account of the first vision until 1832. The story today appears as the last book of the Pearl of Great Price.
South Park creators also depict Joseph Smith using a seer stone rather than the Urim and Thummim when dictating to his scribes. The All About Mormons episode only shows one scribe, but other people, including early Mormon leader Oliver Cowdery, were involved in the translation of the Book of Mormon.
LDS Church apostle Russel M. Ballard confirms that Joseph Smith placed a seer stone into a hat to produce the Book of Mormon. In a July 1963 article of the Ensign, Ballard states, “Joseph Smith would put the seer stone into his hat, and put his face into his hat drawing it closely to exclude the light; and in the darkness the light would shine. A piece of something resembling parchment would appear and under it was the interpretation in English.”
The Lost 116 Pages of the Book of Mormon
The issue of the lost 116 pages that comprised the first part of the Book of Mormon is told in Section 3 of the Doctrine and Covenants, but the South Park episode departs from the historical record when telling this part of the story of the translation process.
The lost 116 pages of the Book of Mormon that are referred to as the Book of Lehi do not appear in the modern Book of Mormon, but the episode portrays Martin Harris's wife hiding the manuscript in disbelief. History records that the pages were simply lost. The Mormon prophet did not work on the translation of the Book of Mormon again for over half a year, and Martin Harris did not serve as a scribe after the pages from the first part of the translation were lost.
