Who Inspired The Mayor of Imaginationland?

[cba20k]

Imaginationland (aka Kyle Sucks Cartman's Balls - The Trilogy) was re-aired last night and I couldn't help but point my browser to wikipedia just for fun to see what interesting tidbits of surely accurate information there was on the episode.

One thing bought my eye though (points if you get that reference).

According to Roger Ebert (and thus Wikipedia), the Mayor of Imaginationland was inspired by Mr. Sophistication from the 1976 movie 'The Killing of a Chinese Bookie.'

Frankly I think Roger has lost his head (not just his jaw, heyo!).

I was always under the impression that the Mayor was, at the very least, 95%+ inspired by the animatronic Dreamfinder character in the ride Journey Into Imagination that used to be at Disney World's Epcot Center back in the 80's and 90's.

Is there an official take on who or what the inspiration was behind the Mayor? Just wondering...

[Big-Will]

Yes, it's Dreamfinder from EPCOT's Imagination pavilion (thus the "Imaginationland" in the three episodes).


Trey was at Disney World the summer before this trilogy aired.

[cba20k]

Okay yeah, that's what I thought.

Ebert can suck it.

[Eduardohutch]

I think you must have misinterpreted what the wikipedia post said. It stated that the character was a pastiche between Dreamfinder and Mr. Sophistication. Most notably, the Mayor and Mr. Sophistication sing the exact same Imagination song.

As a curiosity, I was wondering whether or not the moderator of this board would mind checking in with the creators, and denying or confirming the part about the imagination song.

[Big-Will]

You tell me.

Then compare it to One Little Spark.

[Eduardohutch]

I'm well aware of the fact that "Just One Spark" has lyrics that go "Imagination.". I'm also aware of the fact that the Mayor's imagination song is exactly like Mr. Sophistication's song. I'm not saying that it doesn't allude to Journey Into Imagination. What I'm saying is that he's a pastiche: a combination of the two characters: he wears the big purple suit like Dreamfinder. He's a big fat guy with a pencil thin moustache like Mr. Sophistication. They both have imagination songs. Honestly it's a no brainer. But for some reason people don't accept the Mr. Sophistication thing. I guess because they've never heard of the movie?

[Big-Will]

I haven't seen or heard anything about it from Matt and Trey's commentaries, only the Disney references.

[Eduardohutch]

See that was actually what I was trying to ask: whether or not you had a direct link to them to ask in person, or if you only had the same resources the rest of us have to go by. Iapologize for not being more forthcoming about that.

Sorry again if I came off as confrontational. For some weird reason, I experience a certain amount of nerd rage over this particular nuance.

[Big-Will]

I'm sure to take Roger Ebert's observation over Matt and Trey's silence about it.