The first public scandal involving Tiger Woods actually had nothing to do with his personal life. Back in 1998, EA Sports decided to capitalize on the fledgling golfer’s newfound success by putting out a video game called Tiger Woods 99: PGA Golf Tour. Though the game was well-received, the PlayStation version sparked some mild controversy because of an Easter egg that an EA employee snuck onto the disc without telling anybody. Evidently, the person in question was a South Park fan and wanted to share his or her love for the series with Woods’s fanbase, as one does.
You see, a few months after the game was released, it was discovered that putting the PlayStation disc into a PC would reveal a hidden file labeled ZZDUMMY.DAT. Clicking on the file loads up a VHS recording of an early South Park short created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, which was included in its entirety. The 1995 film The Spirit of Christmas (also known as Jesus vs. Santa) ultimately served as the basis for the long-running animated series when it was pitched to Comedy Central later on. You can check out the short for yourself right here:
Before Tiger Woods Had Tabloid Scandals, His Video Game Had a ‘South Park’ Problem
Harmless as the gag may have seemed to whoever was responsible, it led to a mass recall in January 1999. As it turns out, a young boy had gotten the PlayStation version as a Christmas gift from his mother, who didn’t know it wasn’t playable on a computer. The kid popped the disc into his PC and was no doubt surprised to hear some colorful language coming out of the cartoon children who were now gracing his screen. He then told his mother about what he’d watched, and she proceeded to morph into a real-life Sheila Broflovski.
Following the offended mother’s complaint, EA recalled the first 100,000 copies of the game. Upon confirming the file’s existence, the company deemed the contents “offensive to consumers.” The employee who inserted the video onto the discs was fired shortly thereafter. Apparently, he or she didn’t know how to create a dummy file and threw the Jesus vs. Santa video on there to fill up disk space.