Writers Finally Revealed Where Exactly 'South Park' Takes Place

The grungy, edgy, and choppy humor of South Park won over a generation. The show takes place in a small town in Colorado where the main characters find themselves in odd predicaments and approach everything with a blunt, often inappropriate demeanor.

While we know that's where the creators claim the animated series takes place, we're not sure if it's actually a real place. It turns out that the answer is more complicated than they probably even intended.

Is South Park, Colorado a real place?

On the surface level, no, or at least that's what most residents of the state would tell you. However, upon further investigation, there is an area, not a town, with the name. It's more of a region that encompasses a few different towns, including Fairplay, Alma, and Como, according to Colorado.com . It's not necessarily an official term for the region, either, just one that became popular among trappers and hunters in the 1840s.

The area became developed after word spread that it was full of gold, luring people to the land. Now, of the towns in the area, Fairplay is largely considered to be "the" South Park as it relates to the show. In fact, the locals embrace that as their claim to fame and lean into the tourism opportunities it brings.

The town is small — like, really small — with only 1,000 people in its population. At first glance, it resembles the animated version pretty well with similar backdrops and quiet energy. To elevate the experience a bit more, characters from the show are often depicted around town, including on their main street.

As for the specifics, Stark's Pond is very much real. It exists outside of town a bit, but that location is one that fans will be thrilled to know exists. There aren't necessarily many direct connections otherwise, but there is a coffee shop called Java Moose that is similar to Tweek's Coffee, according to the Denver Gazette .

What's super odd, though, is that Fairplay is actually mentioned in the show a few times. It's supposedly a town that's "4 miles away" from South Park. So, maybe it's not the exact quite town, but this theoretically confirms the region is correct, right?

To double down on that, in Season 22 the South Park Police Department actually shows a map of the area, placing the town pretty close to Fairplay as well as Harstel, Breckenridge, Leadville, Como, and Mala Vista. So, while South Park is confirmed to not be Fairplay itself, it looks like this is the closest fans have to the show's imaginary town.

It's important to note, though, that this is all sheer speculation. The creators of the show are very much from Colorado, but they've never made a direct note about whether Fairplay played into their creative process at all or acted as actual inspiration. In fact, real fans are much more adamant that the characters themselves are giving vibes that they might be from Boulder, C.O. instead.