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Toby Morton
Born
Evergreen, Colorado, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
Occupations
Known for
  • Online activism
  • screenwriting
Political partyDemocratic
Children1
WebsiteOfficial website (archived)

Toby Morton is an American comedian, documentary filmmaker, online activist, political critic, and screenwriter.[1][2][3][4] A member of the Democratic Party,[4] he is well known for creating websites satirizing and antagonizing Republican figures for their stances on political subjects.[2][5] In addition, he has written several comedy series and shorts, including South Park (1997-) and Mad TV (1995-2016).[6]

Writing career

Thanks to several connections, Morton began working on South Park (1997-) as a production assistant in 2001, known within the studio as "the goofy guy who did all kinds of voices". As a result, co-creator Trey Parker offered him the role of Scott Tenorman in the episode "Scott Tenorman Must Die" (2002); the story saw Eric Cartman murdering Scott's parents after being scammed.[6][7] Following other roles in the series, Morton eventually served as a writer until 2005.[8][6]

In November 2006, the Fox Broadcasting Company announced that Morton joined the Mad TV (1995-2016) writing staff, creating animated segments for the twelfth season titled "Weekly Kid News with Toby". Written by Morton and produced by Corky Quakenbush, the shorts would cover controversial news stories from a child's perspective.[8] Following his departure from South Park, Morton created animated shorts for the internet. One of these films, Jo Jo Saves Jennifer Lopez from a Tree, earned him a writing position on Mad TV, where he conceptualized the initial idea for "Weekly Kid News with Toby". Under a four-day production time, each illustration is animated using Adobe After Effects before the narration is recorded on a computer; the footage is transported into iMovie and eventually sent to the post-production staff. These segments have garnered positive reception amongst viewers.[6]

Since 2006, Morton has developed several concepts for shows as he continues producing shorts online and working in animation for these formats; as of June 17, 2022, he now provides rewrites for production studios.[6][4] In March 2013, with the Colorado Cancer Coalition, Morton created an animated advertisement for the Love Your Patooty campaign, encouraging citizens to get a colonoscopy.[9]

Political satires

Morton has created numerous websites satirizing and antagonizing members of the Republican Party for their standpoints concerning gun law, the legalization of transgender youth, and other political subjects; he has condemned their stances as "regressive and dangerous", due to these members' positions on said topics, while caricaturing them as white supremacists based on their views.[2][4][10]

Despite growing up in a "fairly political environment", Morton, a Democrat, attempted to stay out of politics during his writing career until the 2016 presidential election. He felt the election's impact on the world was "too big to ignore" while viewing the Republican Party today as a group "trying to fuck with democracy".[4] In 2019, after mocking former U.S. representative Devin Nunes (R-CA) with a satire account on Twitter, "Devin Nunes' Cow" (@DevinCow), Morton made a website parodying him, inspired by a candidate who took his opponent's domain name to redirect to his site. Morton's page garnered traction after being shared online and, since then, has created over 70 websites.[5][4][11][10] Targets include Texas Governor Greg Abbott, Texas Senator Ted Cruz, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), and the Proud Boys, and representatives Matt Gaetz, Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), and Jim Jordan.[3][2][5][4] By June 2022, Morton planned to spoof Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), Kyle Rittenhouse, and Mitt Romney (R-UT).[4]

Morton has received both praise and backlash for his sites; he's received donations from fans to keep them up, helping the pages grow consistently. Other have strongly disliked the content for multiple reasons, often threatening him with legal action.[17]

Targets

In May 2022, Morton formed elisestefanik2022.com, a website teasing Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) and her Great Replacement conspiracy theory, a view claiming that immigrants and minorities outnumber white people in the United States; she shared the idea following the 2022 Buffalo shooting, which the shooter, Payton Gendron, also cited.[12][10] Morton had planned to publish the page the same day as the shooting but waited to do so later.[4] After sharing the page on Twitter, he direct-messaged Stefanik, replying, "You think the numbers from this tweet are impressive, just wait until I release the website traffic information from the first 24 hours".[12] The following month, Morton received an email claiming to represent Stefanik, demanding the site be taken down under a preemptive pardon given to Stefanik by Donald Trump. Morton pointed towards lacking evidence that she did this.[4]

In August 2022, Morton launched senatorronjohnson.com,[13] a site he had teased in June parodying Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI).[4]

In October 2022, Morton created karilake2022.com, satirizing Kari Lake. Lake had offered Morton 150 dollars in September to get the domain, but when he refused, she blocked him on Twitter afterward.[15]

Miscellaneous

Since 2021, Morton has had conflict with Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO).[2] He received a cease and desist letter from her press secretary in May after a site he had started in January mocking her.[18] Boebert confronted Morton and another individual filming a documentary centered on her the following July. Upon speculation that Boebert ordered law enforcement during the May and July incidents, Morton contacted local and state authorities by October to conduct an investigation.[2]

On November 4, 2022, following his acquisition of Twitter, CEO Elon Musk criticized activist groups that contacted advertisers to quit doing business with the company, concluding in his tweet, "They're trying to destroy free speech in America". On the same day, Morton compared the post to an image from Donald Trump's account on June 8, 2018, written the same way and promoting the same theory at the end; Twitter would add a context note stressing that the original comment from Trump was photoshopped while also adding a message on Musk's initial tweet which shared links confirming his rant.[19]

On November 6, 2022, Morton began renting vehicles for rides across the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex in preparation for the 2022 Texas gubernatorial election. He had been in Texas looking after his family and was encouraged to transport citizens of the state to vote after coming across people with no interest.[20]

Personal life

Originally from Evergreen, Colorado,[21] Morton spends his time between Los Angeles and Tulsa, Oklahoma. He has one son.[4]

Filmography

Film

Year Title Producer Note Ref.
TBA The Real Lauren Boebert Yes In production [4]

Television

Year Title Animator Artist Editor Producer Writer Other Voice role Note Ref.
2001-05 South Park No No No Yes Yes Production assistant Scott Tenorman Voiced various characters [8][6][9]
2006 Mad TV Yes Yes Yes No Yes No Toby [8][6]

Web

Year Title Other Note Ref.
TBA Jo Jo Saves Jennifer Lopez from a Tree Creator Short film [8]
TBA Bad Kitty Creator Short film; in production
2013 Love Your Patooty animation Creator Advertisement [9]

References

  1. ^ Luning, Ernest (May 4, 2021). "Boebert opponents auctioning off Shooters Grill logo in response to demand to shut down parody site". Colorado Politics. Archived from the original on May 5, 2021. Retrieved March 11, 2023. After securing the trademark in February, the group tweeted, its organizers had "mostly forgotten about it" until Toby Morton, a Colorado native and onetime contributor to the "South Park" TV show, posted an image of an email online Tuesday and asked legal experts to weigh in.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Luning, Ernest (December 2, 2021). "Boebert faces calls for federal, state investigations into abuse of authority allegations". Colorado Politics. Archived from the original on December 2, 2021. Retrieved March 11, 2023.
  3. ^ a b Bohlen, Teague (May 5, 2021). "Boebert Watch: Intellectual Property and Some Dumb Moves". Westword. Archived from the original on May 5, 2021. Retrieved March 11, 2023.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Goforth, Claire (June 17, 2022). "'Prepare to meet our lawyers': Comedian's satirical websites for prominent GOP lawmakers leave them seething". The Daily Dot. Archived from the original on June 17, 2022. Retrieved March 11, 2023.
  5. ^ a b c Garcia, Ariana (June 3, 2022). "'South Park' writer creates parody campaign sites mocking Greg Abbott, Ted Cruz and other GOP leaders". Chron. Archived from the original on June 3, 2022. Retrieved March 11, 2023.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Ball, Ryan (November 10, 2006). "Mad TV's Animation Mad Man". Animation Magazine. Archived from the original on February 28, 2023. Retrieved March 11, 2023.
  7. ^ Rivera, Damon (November 9, 2022). "The One South Park Episode Fans Want First-Time Watchers To See". Looper. Archived from the original on November 14, 2022. Retrieved March 11, 2023. In Season 5, Episode 4, Eric Cartman (Trey Parker) gets conned by ninth-grader Scott Tenorman (Toby Morton) and decides to get even by making the kid eat his own parents, which results in one of the most pause-worthy South Park moments ever unleashed.
  8. ^ a b c d e Baisley, Sarah (November 2, 2006). "MAD TV Gets More Animated on FOX". Animation World Network. Archived from the original on December 3, 2014. Retrieved March 11, 2023.
  9. ^ a b c Shute, Nancy (March 28, 2013). "'Love Your Butt' Ads Try To Conquer Colonoscopy Fears". NPR. Archived from the original on September 8, 2015. Retrieved March 11, 2023.
  10. ^ a b c d Kelly, Griffin (July 9, 2022). "Republicans not laughing at comedian Toby Morton's nearly 70 parody campaign sites". New York Post. Archived from the original on July 9, 2022. Retrieved March 11, 2023.
  11. ^ a b Flynn, Sheila (June 22, 2022). "Satirist targets 'dark comedy' of current US politics with parody GOP websites". The Independent. Archived from the original on June 22, 2022. Retrieved April 2, 2023.
  12. ^ a b c Blanchet, Ben (May 17, 2022). "'South Park' Writer Beats Rep. Elise Stefanik To Her Own Website". HuffPost. Archived from the original on May 17, 2022. Retrieved March 11, 2023.
  13. ^ a b Bice, Daniel; Chute, Nate (August 9, 2022). "Former 'South Park' actor launches parody Ron Johnson website, Republicans counter with Mandela Barnes link". Journal Sentinel. Archived from the original on August 10, 2022. Retrieved March 11, 2023.
  14. ^ Vaughn, Jacob (August 30, 2022). "Former South Park Writer Toby Morton Gets Lots of Hate Mail over Greg Abbott Parody Website". Dallas Observer. Archived from the original on August 30, 2022. Retrieved March 11, 2023.
  15. ^ a b Sandlin, Jennifer (October 11, 2022). "South Park writer buys domain names for MAGA and Q-loving politicians and fills them with content about the candidates' shortcomings". Boing Boing. Archived from the original on October 11, 2022. Retrieved March 11, 2023.
  16. ^ Bilderbeck, Poppy (October 12, 2022). "South Park writer is trolling MAGA and QAnon-supporting politicians with genius move". UNILAD. Archived from the original on October 12, 2022. Retrieved March 11, 2023. One of Morton's followers responded: "I think you might be my favorite person on the internet." "Toby, I don't know why I follow you, or how I stumbled upon this, but this is genius," another said. A third resolved: "You might be my new hero."
  17. ^ [12][4][11][10][13][14][15][16]
  18. ^ Masnick, Mike (May 3, 2021). "Rep. Lauren Boebert Decides To Streisand Parody Site Making Fun Of Her, Threatens To Take Legal Action Against It". Techdirt. Archived from the original on May 5, 2022. Retrieved March 11, 2023.
  19. ^ Garcia, Arturo (November 4, 2022). "Were Elon Musk and Donald Trump Both Complaining About 'Activists'? - Truth or Fiction?". TruthOrFiction.com. Archived from the original on November 4, 2022. Retrieved March 11, 2023.
  20. ^ Vaughn, Jacob (November 8, 2022). "Former South Park Writer Toby Morton Offers Free Rides to North Texas Polls on Election Day". Dallas Observer. Archived from the original on November 8, 2022. Retrieved March 11, 2023.
  21. ^ Swanson, Conrad (June 15, 2022). "Lauren Boebert target of wild claims spreading despite lack of evidence". The Denver Post. Archived from the original on June 15, 2022. Retrieved March 11, 2023. Morton, who is from Evergreen, said he's not under any illusion that his websites are going to change the world, but he hopes they do encourage unaffiliated voters to go against Boebert.
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