Knott's Berry Farm puts an awful lot of thought into all those celebrities that it skewers at Halloween Haunt

So what happens tonight after the last Hanging is held at Knott's Scary Farm? Well, the entertainment team at America's First Theme Park gets a well-deserved night of rest. But after that, these talented folks plunge right into compiling a constantly changing list of celebrity scandals, political faux pas, memorable movie moments and quirky pop culture phenomena which next year's Hanging can then be built around.

"Since we have to have a treatment of this show ready by the first week of May -- so that the people who handle Haunt then know what to budget for the Hanging -- we have to start that list very early on," explained Ken Parks, the Vice President of Entertainment at Knott's Berry Farm. "We're always on the look-out for that hit TV series or that piece of headline news that everyone's watching or that everybody knows about which can then serve as our parody center-pole. That comic thread which runs through the entire show."

"And some years, that event or news item that we can then build an entertaining Hanging around emerges very early on. And other years, it doesn't happen 'til much further on," Ken continued. "But by the first week of June, we have to have something down on paper because we need to start casting that year's show by July. And then - come August - the script for that year's Hanging has to already be in pretty good shape because, since rehearsals begin the day after Labor Day, we need to be in the studio recording the tracks for that show ASAP."

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