Cannibal! The Musical: Trivia

• Based on a true story and shot in most of the actual locations the events occurred.
• Originally was a mock trailer for Trey Parker's film class, titled Alferd Packer: The Musical. His professor encouraged him to try to make into a full length feature, as did many others. He was later kicked out of school for spending too much time on the project and not enough in class.
• The original title was Alferd Packer: The Musical. After picking it up, Lloyd Kaufman suggested a change, since no one outside of Colorado knew who Alferd Packer was.
• According to Trey Parker's introduction to Lloyd's book Make Your Own Damn Movie, the meeting over Troma's distribution of the film took place in a Del Taco restaurant.
• Moira Kelly was originally slated to play Polly Pry. After fliers went around Sundance with her name attached to the project, her agent advised her not to. In the credits, a character named "The Dropout" is credited to "M.K." as a reference to this.
• When submitted to Sundance, after sending the $50 submission fee, they never even recieved a rejection letter. So, instead, they took Cannibal! to Park City, Utah and started their own film festival. Since then, several film festivals have sprung up around Sundance (including Troma's own Tromadance and Cannibal! producer Jason McHugh's Lapdance).
• Trey Parker used the psuedonym Juan Schwartz for his acting credit, which is similar to a name Alferd Packer used.
• Many of the cast members also worked on the crew. Robert Muratore, the director of photography, plays Frenchie Cabazon, for example.
• The effects in the opening scene cost around $4000.
• Trey Parker's dad plays the judge and Jason McHugh's dad plays the clerk at the store.
• The line "But that's not the way it happened" is a reference to a Star Trek episode called "Court Marshall."
• Most of the town shots were shot in Buckskin Joe's in Canyon City, CO, which is a restored ghost town.
• Several aliens are hidden in the film, most notably during the long shot of "Let's Build A Snowman."
• The makeup crew were unexperienced and made the beards out of spirit gum and crepe hair. Ian Hardin and Jon Hegel were the only crew members with real beards.
• Lianne is named after Trey Parker's fiancee. They were engaged for 2 years and all of the arrangements were made. Then, he found that she was cheating on him with a member from an acapella group.
• Shpadoinkle is a made-up word used as a filler for a better adjective, but then they decided to keep it.
• Trey fractured his hip when one of the Lianne horses sped off and he fell off. He's supposidly never had the surgery to correct it.
• Stan Brakhadge, the father of avant-garde cinema, has a cameo. He was one of the teachers at their college.
• Most of the film has the audio ADRed(redubbed), because the actors were told the way to act well is to speak very softly.
• The actor who warns the miners is the official Alferd Packer look-a-like.
• The story was reportedly based off of Homer's Odyssey.
• The woman assigned to hold the boom pole, reportedly recieved that job due to her large breasts.
• At the end of one shot in "That's All I'm Asking For", Trey says "Cut!"
• Jason McHugh wore a small pillow under his shirt to look fat.
• When the miners try to cross the river, the cast really went into the water, which was flowing full force.
• During "When I Was On Top Of You", Packer tells the "pus sucker Bill" joke to Lianne. This was Trey Parker's favorite joke at the time and it later appears in Orgazmo.
• When the miners reach the Grand Canyon, all of the shots were real, despite viewer claims that they are blue screen and stock footage.
• The coat Alferd Packer wears is Trey's great-grandfather's coat from World War I.
• The Japanese indians were chosen because real indians weren't availible.
• When Humphrey talks to the indians, the sign language he uses means "Jesus Christ is dead."
• Trey ADRed some of the Japanese lines.
• One of the lines the Japanese indians say is "This is a really stupid movie."
• Masao Maki is the owner of a sushi restaurant. He was put in the movie so the crew members could get free dinner.
• Dian Bachar jingles his car keys in a scene at the indian camp.
• The indian tribe is referred to as "the nihongin tribe." Nihongin is Japanese for "Japanese."
• Trey had to overdub Robert Muratore on The Trapper Song, however Ted Henwood's real voice is featured.
• The reason Alferd is making a dollhouse in his cell is because that's what the real Alferd Packer did.
• The verdict is exactly what was told to Alferd Packer. The old lady's line "You ferocious man eating son of a bitch!" is in the court report as well.
• Trey dated Toddy Waters after the film was made. The final scene where Packer kisses Polly Pry had to be shot after they started dating, because Trey was too shy to do it.
• Alferd Packer is prisoner #24601, the same as Jean Valjean in Les Misérables.
• There was supposedly a sequel planned called Alferd Packer: Trouble In Jamaica.
• The joke featuring Humphrey removing his hat to reveal a large afro was later used in an episode of South Park.
• Trey saw the movie Alive and was so humored by having a character cut out a part of someone's ass, that he made it a joke in Cannibal!
• The line "Ike!" is a reference to the film The Legend Of Alferd Packer, in which Alferd Packer awakes from a dream and shouts the same line.
• Matt and Trey dropped acid while shooting one scene and came up with the South Park character Chef.
• The Braniff logo at the end of each South Park episode features the melody to "Shpadoinkle Day."
• Trey Parker payed homage to Troma in his film Orgazmo, by having a video store feature several Troma films (including Cannibal!) on a shelf labeled "Classics", having a clip of Cannibal! playing on a TV and a poster all in the same scene, and giving Lloyd a cameo as a doctor at the end.
• Trey ex-fiancee Lianne (see previous entry) choreographed "Hang The Bastard!"
• Matt Stone appears in drag during "Hang The Bastard!"
• The bar fight originally included a rap song called "Shatterproof" that was cut from the final version because Trey thought Packer came off too tough. It can be heard in the trailer and there's a CD single of it at CrapTV.com.