South Park’s Oscar-night disguise had a second twist
When South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone arrived at the 2000 Academy Awards in dresses, the outfits were the visible joke. They had copied the looks worn at the time by Gwyneth Paltrow and Jennifer Lopez, turning the red carpet into a send-up of celebrity fashion and Oscar formality.
The less visible part of the story was that the pair later said they had taken LSD, a hallucinogenic drug, before the ceremony. So the stunt was not simply a costume gag: they were navigating one of Hollywood’s most scrutinized events while under the drug’s effects.
A prank built for the red carpet
Parker and Stone were already known for pushing crude, irreverent humor into mainstream entertainment. Wearing conspicuous dresses let them carry that comic sensibility into a setting governed by polished images and strict ceremony. The borrowed celebrity looks made the gag instantly legible to viewers watching the arrivals.
Their later account of the drug use added a more chaotic layer to the stunt. It helps explain why the evening became more than a visual punchline—but the dresses themselves were the public performance, designed to make the creators’ irreverence impossible to miss.
