Editing Mr. Hankey (section)

===Creation and Development===
Mr. Hankey was originally created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone while they had only recently met as students at the University of Colorado at Boulder, well before they concieved of ''South Park'' itself.

The concept for the character actually came from Randy Parker, Trey's dad - when his toilet-training son refused to flush the toilet, he threatened that if he did not flush, the remaining stool, 'Mr. Hankey' would come to life and kill him. Although we're left to assume Trey learned to flush, throughout his education from youth to adulthood, the character stayed in his mind, and he often drew the prototype for Mr. Hankey in class, looking much like his later incarnation, but wearing the cute sailor's hat, having no connection to the holidays at this stage.

Matt loved the idea, and they talked about doing a short film about a child who formed a bond with a talking stool, a prototype Mr. Hankey, who appeared alive to him but nobody else, planning various scenes - including the boy's parents finding him in the bathroom with feces smeared on the walls, the boy's counselor finding him in his coffee mug, both scenes that made it into "[[Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo]]". In the short film, however, it would turn out that Mr. Hankey was indeed a figment of the child's imagination and not real in the first place, a much bleaker ending than the episode. The short film was never made.

After completing their two animated ''The Spirit of Christmas'' shorts, Matt and Trey began developing an idea that is later titled ''South Park'', a show set in the fictional town of South Park, Colorado that revolved around four children characters, with Mr. Hankey being included in future supporting roles. They pitched the series to the Fox Broadcasting Company, as it was a home for prime-time shows such as ''[[The Simpsons]]'' and ''The X-Files''. However, Fox made it clear they didn't want the talking poo character in its network and repeatedly demanded the duo to remove the character in order for the show to proceed. In response, Matt and Trey completely severed ties with Fox.

No longer relying on Fox anymore, Matt and Trey began seeking other networks to develop their show. Comedy Central proved much more receptive to the idea of an episode about a talking poo character. According to Trey, "One thing we have to know before we really go any further: how do you feel about talking poo?" Many Comedy Central executives were receptive to this idea and this turned out to be one of the key reasons Trey and Matt chose Comedy Central as their television home. Trey originally considered MTV, but decided against it, fearing the network could turn it into a kids show and thus limiting the potential things that the show can provide.

The final component of the character came into play during production on the episode "[[Damien]]", then intended as a Christmas special, and including a cameo appearance from Mr. Hankey. After hearing stories and news reports about the removal of Christian symbolism, particularly nativity scenes, from public buildings, the relatively agnostic Matt and Trey found the whole thing pretty silly, and decided to redirect Mr. Hankey as a Christmas-themed character, who can show that the holiday "was about good and about presents, and it doesn't have to be this religious [stuff]". They took many ideas from their old short film, but decided to change the ending. Trey felt the imaginary nature of Mr. Snuffleupagus from ''Sesame Street'' ultimately "really bummed [him] out".

In line with these concepts, Matt and Trey tried to make Mr. Hankey seem relatively wholesome and moral, taking inspiration from [[Mickey Mouse]]'s first appearance in the original 1928 ''Steamboat Willie'' cartoon for his design, as well as Rankin-Bass Christmas specials and Trey's favorite, ''A [[Charlie Brown]] Christmas'', which was played around the office a lot during production. They still had a lot of trouble deciding on a final voice, but during a break from promoting the show in New York City, they figured it out while eating at McDonald's.

After the airing of his debut episode, Mr. Hankey proved to be a huge success with fans and critics alike, and was a star character in branding and merchandising for the show despite accumulating only a handful of appearances across the show's run.