Toby Morton | |
---|---|
Born | Evergreen, Colorado, U.S. |
Nationality | American |
Occupations | |
Known for |
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Political party | Democratic |
Children | 1 |
Website | Official 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]
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]
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]
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]
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]
Originally from Evergreen, Colorado,[21] Morton spends his time between Los Angeles and Tulsa, Oklahoma. He has one son.[4]
Year | Title | Producer | Note | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
TBA | The Real Lauren Boebert | Yes | In production | [4] |
Year | Title | Animator | Artist | Editor | Proudcer | 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] |
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] |