Image:Courtesy of Comedy Central via southpark.cc.com

South Park fans turned out in force after the animated show’s producers put out an open request on their blog for yaoi fan art—a sub-genre of manga also known as “Boys Love”—depicting homoerotic scenes between the characters Tweek and Craig.

The episode “Tweek X Craig,” which aired on October 28 showed the school’s student body president Wendy Testerberger paying tribute to the town’s Asian American girls (a riff on the fact that yaoi is extremely popular among teen girls) and then presenting a slideshow of their Tweek and Craig art-actually consisting of yaoi that was submitted by fans.

The works varied from images that depicted the actual South Park characters to others that completely transformed them into pure Manga-style characters—often in risque positions.

The artworks prompted an innocent “awww” from the girls while the bewildered boys—including Tweek and Craig themselves—as well as characters Cartman and Stan expressed reactions like “What the F**k?!”

In an October 25 message on their blog, the show’s producers wrote: “Hey South Park Fans!! South Park is looking for fan artwork to include in THIS WEEK’s episode. Specifics: Slash/Yaoi. Tweek +Craig ONLY.”

A few days later a notice on the blog said submissions were closed along with the message: “Thanks South Park fans! We got some amazing submissions!! Tune in Wednesday night to see all the art that made it into the episode.”

Here are some artworks that made the final cut:

Image:Courtesy of Comedy Central

Image:Courtesy of Comedy Central

The characters’ faux romance becomes such an object of fascination in the town that Tweek and Craig eventually go along with the charade for the attention it brings. Our favorite scene—hands down—was the montage of the “Tweek x Craig” art, that included a scene at an art show, set to Peter Gabriel’s stirring rendition of “The Book of Love.”