It really is crazy to think that we’ve been invited to come on down to South Park for almost two decades now. From the very first time way back on August 13th, 1997, to the recent season 20 premiere, we’ve had ourselves a time and did a lot of unwinding with Matt Stone and Trey Parker‘s animation institution. And during all that, there have been many iterations of those welcoming opening credits—did you know that? We certainly didn’t, not until this montage highlighting exactly how it has changed over the years.

We first saw the GameSpot video breakdown on Entertainment Weekly, and we have to say: they did some real yeoman’s work in here, taking years and years of opening credits and boiling them down into a three-minute video, analyzing changes both big and small. Like how—during different sequences—characters or events are added on a near-constant basis, changing the opening credits on a small scale.

On a macro scale, though, there are distinct eras—like when during the 11th episode of season four the boys went to fourth grade and the intro was dramatically changed, including a techno-style song. And seasons 6 through 11 were the “arts and crafts” credits, which were followed by the old clips-based intro of seasons 12-16 (until the 3D-style credits used from season 17 until today. They also included a couple of single episode special credits, like the first Halloween episode, the Game of Thrones parody credits, and when the Goth kids took over with new lyrics.

After twenty seasons changes both minor and significant are to be expected for any opening credits, but at least we know that no matter when we go down to South Park there’s always ample parking, day or night.

Which South Park opening sequence is your favorite? Go on down into our comments section and tell us yours.

Image: Comedy Central