Braniff Inc./Summary

Background: Named after the defunct airline company of the same name, Braniff was the name of the production company that South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone used to produce the show. The production name was dropped in 2006 and is now simply known as "Parker-Stone Studios."

1st Logo

(1997)

Note: As this wiki is a family-friendly site, we do not allow photos or videos of this logo to be posted. The audio portion, as mentioned below, can be heard here.

Nickname: "Le Petit Package"

Logo: Shot in black and white, we see a group of six men with their pants down and a long black line covering all their private areas (the fourth is naked and holding some balloons, and the sixth is a clown). The men are dancing in a chorus line. The line displays the text "BRANIFF AIRLINES". "IN CONJUNCTION WITH..." then appears in place of the company name.

Trivia: The men are part of Le Petit Package, a short film that Parker and Stone developed during the making of the first episode of South Park.

FX/SFX: All live-action, with the camera moving a bit.

Music/Sounds: Just the men singing "Braniff Airliiiines!" off-key.

Availability: Ultra rare. Only seen on the unaired pilot episode of South Park, which can be found on Best Buy editions of the Season 2 DVD boxset (original Warner Home Video release only).

2nd Logo

(August 13, 1997-March 29, 2006)

Nicknames: "Braniff Airlines", "Braniff Airplane", "Believe it!"

Logo: On a sky background, we see a rather fake-looking Boeing airplane zooming in from the left, film footage from a Braniff Airlines commercial. Then, the red text "BRANIFF" zooms in from below, gets stretched across to the right as a white line is drawn through it, then snaps back to its original position. The text "BELIEVE IT!" appears under the "BRANIFF" text.

FX/SFX: The airplane and text forming.

Music/Sounds:
 * A happy 12-note xylophone ditty based on a song whose lyrics are "The skies are blue, and all the leaves are green...". This song is called "It's a Shpadoinkle Day," and is heard in Parker and Stone's film Cannibal! The Musical.
 * Starting in season 3, the music is overridden by either the show's closing theme or the song that the episode ends on. However, the original jingle can be heard on the season 3 episode "Mr. Hankey's Christmas Classics."

Music/Sounds Trivia: Strangely, at the end of episode previews of the Cantonese dub of South Park shown on Hong Kong cable TV during the late 90s-early 2000's, the 12-note jingle from pre-season 3 episodes plays.

Music/Sounds Variants:
 * On the Season 2 episode "Chickenpox", the theme is played in a style similar to The Monkees' song "I'm a Believer," which played over the end credits.
 * On the Season 6 episode "Child Abduction is Not Funny," the usual closing theme is interrupted by Tuong Lu Kim screaming "I'm gonna get you! You s***ty Mongolians!" in reference to events from earlier in the episode.
 * On the Season 10 premiere, "The Return of Chef," the logo is silent.

Availability: Still seen on South Park reruns on Comedy Central, but is plastered on syndicated ones. It is still intact on the South Park DVD box sets (although the 2004 Paramount reissue of season 1 contains no logo of any kind on the episodes). The version with the fanfare is much harder to find, as all early season Comedy Central reruns split-screen the credits with commercials, but prints of episodes on the DVDs (again, excluding the Paramount release of season 1) and streaming still have it, including the final version of the pilot, "Cartman Gets an Anal Probe." The logo's final appearance was on the second episode of season 10, "Smug Alert!."