Tiger Woods PGA Tour Golf was a series of annual golf games made by EA Sports.
It's unlikely that PGA Tour Golf would be something you think about when it comes to
a climatic showdown between Santa Claus and Jesus Christ, but perhaps after watching this
video that might change.
The Tiger Woods series started with Tiger Woods 99 PGA Tour Golf back in 1998 and it's
here where somebody working on the game did something that if happened nowadays would
make global news all around the world.
You see for the PlayStation version of the game, somebody snuck an animation by Trey
Parker and Matt Stone, creators of South Park, into the game's files.
This could then be accessed by putting the PS1 disk into a PC and the animation is Jesus
versus Santa.
Jesus versus Santa is pretty much a pilot episode of South Park and within it is many
common themes that would be seen with the South Park show.
It features all four of the boys and they look pretty much how they will be later depicted
in the actual show.
It also introduces many other common elements for the first time - for instance Kenny being
killed... and then later getting at by rats, Kyle being a Jew... and Cartman being Cartman...
It also features a cameo appearance of a girl who looks very much like Wendy Testaburger
sitting on Santa’s lap.
Also of course this is a game that was rated E For Everyone by the ESRB organization and
of course a lot of this content is not exactly something that would be rated E For Everyone.
But first for those not familiar with Jesus versus Santa, here's some info on how these
shorts came about.
So prior to South Park and also prior to Jesus versus Santa, back when Trey Parker and Matt
Stone were students at the university of Colorado, in 1992 they created a short called Jesus
versus Frosty.
Now this short is similar to the Jesus versus Santa one but less polished in nature.
Now when both of these animations were produced, this was a time in the world where, nowadays
when we think of things like viral content and memes we think of things like social media
platforms and platforms like YouTube and Twitter.
However back in the 90s these platforms didn't exist and one thing that was very common instead
would be these types of content being shared via email.
And so the original short back in 1992 of Jesus versus frosty ended up becoming a big
email viral hit.
This was great news for Matt and Trey and it would lead in 1995 to a Fox Broadcasting
Company executive paying Matt and Trey two thousand dollars to make another animated
short, as a video Christmas card he could send to his friends.
This then led to the creation of Jesus versus Santa in 1995 and like the first video this
ended up going viral over email.
Also due to it being a Fox executive who got in touch, this led to the video being shared
all amongst Hollywood.
So this video was getting distributed by celebrities and network executives, which then led to
it getting in the hands of Comedy Central who thought it was hilarious, which then led
to them hiring Matt and Trey to create South Park in 1997.
In 1997 the Jesus versus Santa short also received a Los Angeles Film Critic Association
award for best short animation.
And then Tiger Woods 99 would come out the following year.
The rogue employee who decided to include the animation in the game's files ended up
causing some big issues for EA.
When the animation was discovered EA ended up having to pull all copies of the game from
shelves a few months after it was released.
They then reissued the game without the animation included.
However if you do get your hands on a copy, then again all you have to do is put it into
a computer and look at the game's files, and in the root directory there'll be a file called
zzdummy.dat which is over 51,000 kilobytes in size.
And then all you have to do is just open up the file with a video player.
And so for instance perhaps little Jimmy got the game as a present for his birthday and
wanted to check out some of the game's rocking music...
He then puts the disc inside of his PC trying to track down the music, but he instead finds
Jesus versus Santa.
Speaking about music, Jesus versus Santa also has some pretty interesting music choices.
Considering the animation was created whilst Matt and Trey were still in college it's unlikely
that copyright concerns was really at the forefront of their mind.
And so during several scenes, music from Mortal Kombat 3 can be heard.
And that means during the fight between Jesus Christ and Santa Claus, the music from Mortal
Kombat 3's Subway stage is blasting out...
Also prior to the fight, when Santa and Jesus are shouting at each other, the Mortal Kombat
3's menu screen tune plays...
And then right before the fight, you can hear the fatality sound effects...
And so that's how South Park got an E For Everyone rated EA game pulled off store shelves.
What are your thoughts about the South Park Jesus versus Santa being contained in Tigers
Woods 99?
As always let us know your thoughts below and until next time thank you for watching.