‘South Park’ at 200: Trey Parker and Matt Stone Apologize to No One
Ubiquitous
Maybe the secret to longevity isn’t clean living or exercise, but anger.
In its 13 years, “South Park,” the Comedy Central animated series, has
thrived on a diet of vitriol — usually directed at it by the targets of
its willfully crude satire. In recent seasons the show has taken aim at
Tom Cruise and the Church of Scientology, Kanye West (before he imploded
at the MTV Video Music Awards) and “Avatar” (saddling it with the
uncomplimentary nickname “Dances With Smurfs” before it opened); and
been protested by organizations from the Catholic League to the Gay &
Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.
If the “South Park” creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker are getting
crankier in their advancing age, at least they’ve got something to show
for it: amid the new batch of shows that starts on Wednesday night,
Comedy Central will broadcast the 200th episode of “South Park” on April
17. As this milestone approaches, Mr. Stone and Mr. Parker spoke with
ArtsBeat to account for their recent offenses and talk about the future
of the show. These are excerpts from that conversation.
Q.
When you first signed on to do “South Park” for Comedy Central, how long
did you really think it would last?
A.
TREY PARKER: We really thought six episodes. Because we got a deal for
six episodes.
MATT STONE: I totally remember having a big party just to celebrate
that.
PARKER: It’s pretty funny, too, because there’s tons of interviews,
right after its first year, when people asked us, “How long do you think
you can do this?” And there were so many times that we would answer
back, “Well, it’s not like we’re going to be doing this when we’re 40.”
I turned 40 in October.
STONE: And I’m almost 40. But we won’t be doing it when we’re 50.
PARKER: It’s not like we’re going to be doing it when we’re 45. [laughs]
Q.
Was there a moment when you thought to yourselves, this show could
really stick around for a while?
A.
STONE: The major turning point really was the movie. I remember it being
Seasons 2 and 3, and everyone was telling us, “Now you just sit back and
hire writers and let other people do all the work.” The movie came out
at a time when everyone was like, “Yeah, ‘South Park’s had its course.”
And the movie is what brought everything back. Not just in terms of fan
base but also in terms of us realizing, we worked really hard on that
movie, and we’ve got to work that hard on the show.
PARKER: There was definitely an impression — it sounds like ancient
history — back in the ’90s, that you started in cable, you graduated to
network. So we even toyed with that. And I remember we had this
conversation, like, “Let’s just stick with this.” That turned out to be
probably one of the best decisions we ever made.
Q.
Have you figured out yet what you’re doing for the 200th episode?
A.
PARKER: It’s pretty funny because the only show we have figured out is
the 200th, actually. We were looking at what a lot of other shows do
when they have a 100th or 200th episode, and we were like, Oh, they do
flashback episodes.
STONE: Clip shows.
PARKER: And we’re like, well, we’re not going to be that lazy. We’re not
going to do that. But what if we bring back the biggest moments and
revisit them – basically, we bring back everyone who’s [ticked off] at
us. All the people that are [ticked off] at South Park the town are
going to file a class-action lawsuit against the town. So basically it’s
going to be an all-star, who’s who. Tom Cruise and everyone’s going to
be back.
STONE: It’s everyone on “South Park” who doesn’t want to be on “South
Park.”
PARKER: Hey, guess what? You’re back on!
STONE: Really, to fit everyone it would need to be about eight hours.
But we’re just going to do standard length and pack it in.
Q.
Are you more proud of the fact that “South Park” was briefly banned in
Russia, or that an episode was pulled in Mexico because of its
depictions of Felipe Calderón and the Mexican flag?
A.
STONE: That’s so far away from us. We read that on the news, too, along
with everyone else.
PARKER: I don’t even know where Russia and Mexico are.
STONE: We really make the show for an American audience, and then if it
travels, that’s cool. If anything, every time we read about stuff like
that, we go, “Wow, they watch ‘South Park’ in Mexico? Awesome.” That’s
about our reaction.
Q.
Are you disappointed that you weren’t able to produce any “South Park”
episodes that commented on the 2008 presidential election?
A.
STONE: It’s so tough, especially that election cycle kind of news, where
something can be true one week and then totally different the next. Even
if we were doing something really timely, we’re not going to be nearly
as timely as Jon Stewart. We did an Obama-McCain show that was right
after the election. But what was fun about that was it was actually
completely apolitical. When it’s something that is overtly political,
that’s just not the best material for us.
Q.
You have a knack for satirizing celebrities right before they
self-destruct – how did you get it so right with Kanye West?
A.
PARKER: Well, you could just see it coming. A lot of them, you’re like,
ah, they’re going down.
STONE: You could see him coming from a mile away.
Q.
Have you seen “Avatar” since you did your “Dances With Smurfs” episode,
and what did you think of it?
A.
STONE: I thought “Dances With Smurfs” was better, actually. Obviously,
we hadn’t seen it when we did that. We just had to guess what the movie
was about, based on the trailer. But I am surprised how close we got,
actually. I thought the movie was going to be a better version of
itself.
PARKER: We’re like, “We know that they’re trying to get something off
this planet, some resource. We should find out what they call it.” And
then someone said, “Oh, they call it Unobtanium.” And we were just like,
“Yeah, whatever, shut up. O.K., let’s find out what it’s really called.”
We were like, “No way. No. It can’t be that dumb.”
STONE: But it was that dumb.
PARKER: I actually took forever to go see it, but I finally went and saw
it like a month ago. After an hour, I was like, I am so done with this
movie. Because I know exactly what’s going to happen.
STONE: I have to admit, I had a fun time watching it. But I can’t defend
a single thing in it.
Q.
How is your relationship with the producers of “Family Guy” these days?
A.
STONE: They completely ignore us, so it’s fine. It’s a one-way war. We
don’t know anybody there, they don’t know us. I don’t think they’re much
bothered by us.
PARKER: They’re making a lot more money than we are so I don’t think
they care very much.
Q.
You don’t think there’s any chance they were offended by your “Cartoon
Wars” episodes?
A.
PARKER: Well, their show didn’t get any better. They didn’t take it too
personally because they didn’t work any harder.
Q.
Even in a general sense, you don’t feel that your show and “Family Guy”
are playing for the same team?
A.
PARKER: That’s the frustration where that show came from. We kept
running into people that are just like, “Oh, you guys do ‘South Park’ –
I love that show, and ‘Family Guy.’ That’s the best. You must love
‘Family Guy.’ ” And we were like, “No, we [really] hate ‘Family Guy.’ ”
STONE: It’s a frustration I’m sure they probably have, too. You get
lumped together with shows because you’re animated. There’s just not a
lot of similarity, we don’t think, between the two shows. By the way,
there’s not much similarity between “South Park” and “Beavis and
Butt-head.” Except for being animated, they’re very different shows.
Q.
Based on what you said earlier, I take it you’re not on any better terms
with the Church of Scientology, either.
A.
PARKER: No.
STONE: It’s pretty crazy, the stories that are coming out of
Scientology, with people getting abused. Anything that’s that secretive,
there just has to be some[thing] going down.
Q.
You weren’t fearful of any legal retaliation from the Church of
Scientology?
A.
PARKER: But it was so Emperor’s New Clothes. That’s what we kept hearing
and kept hearing and kept hearing. “O.K., you’re going to get it now.”
And we did it, and nothing happened. That entire episode was about the
litigiousness of Scientology and Tom Cruise. Putting him in the closet
and making the whole joke about that, it really was an episode about
suing people and parody, and figuring out a way to just barely able to
do it.
STONE: And once you get it on the air, it’s over. You can’t un-ring that
bell. They tried to get that episode pulled, and you just can’t do that
anymore.
Q.
Do you regret that that episode led to your falling out with Isaac
Hayes, a member of your voice cast, right before he died?
A.
STONE: Yeah, because we always had a really good relationship with
Isaac. He was a really sweet guy. We were sitting there one day, trying
to figure out what to do, and what another episode could be. “We should
do a show on Scientology.” “Well, maybe we shouldn’t because of Isaac.”
And it was like, you know what, [forget] that, we’ve done everything
else. My mom is Jewish, we’ve certainly done our share of making fun of
Jews. It just didn’t feel totally honest not to do it because of that.
We thought Isaac would understand or be like, “Oh, I didn’t like that
one, but whatever, that’s your prerogative.” And we’ll never know, but
it seemed like he was getting pressure from other people around him. The
little bit that we knew Isaac, he was a really mellow, cool guy. I don’t
think he really cared that much. I don’t think he wanted to be in the
middle of it.
Q.
You had another episode recently, about the boys trying to change the
meaning of the word fag, that got you in trouble with GLAAD, and then
got GLAAD in trouble with its own constituents. What did you make of all
that?
A.
PARKER: What’s funny is we put all our thought into it when we’re
sitting there in the writers’ room. We want to make sure we’re saying –
if it’s not the right thing, we’re saying what we mean to say. That’s
hard to do. We talk through everything so by the time the show’s aired,
we’ve already really thought it through a lot. So we don’t feel like,
now we need to go say what we think, because what we think is in the
show, hopefully, if we do it right. We thought we were doing everyone a
big favor by taking fag and putting it as a label on Harley riders. We
really cannot stand Harley riders.
Q.
Do you think that advocacy groups sometimes go after you because you’re
such a prominent target?
A.
PARKER: We’re more surprised at how little they do, actually. There’s
some things that we put on where we’re like, “Oh, man, we’re going to
get it now.” And we hear nothing. When that happens we’re usually in a
run of shows, and by the time they’re saying, “Oh, these guys are upset
because you did that about the fag word,” we’re like, “We’re onto to
dolphins and whales now. We’re done with that.”
STONE: There is a difference – there’s no sense of pride about upsetting
GLAAD, in the same way as upsetting Scientology, let’s put it that way.
It’s a big difference between them and, like, the Catholic League.
Q.
You’re now about two years into the operation of your South Park Studios
Web site, where just about all the content is available for free. Does
the gamble seem to be paying off?
A.
PARKER: To be honest, we don’t care about the money. We both have all
the money we need. It’s really just about the survival of the show.
First hearing about, O.K., we’re going to be putting everything on the
Internet for free, I was like, Really? Wow, O.K. [laughs] That’s the
world we live in. I’m actually surprised at how smooth the transition is
going.
STONE: If we had years and years to discuss it, and we had determined
what the right course of action was – but we don’t have years and years.
We’re doing the show right now in 2010, and the reality is, we have to
have our show on the Internet. Would the network like it if everyone who
watched it for free on the Internet actually had to pay? Yes. But it
always ends up helping us when people can see the show.
Q.
What can you tell us about the musical you’re working on with the
“Avenue Q” co-creator Robert Lopez?
A.
PARKER: It’s about Mormons. When we met up with Bobby, we were like,
“What else do you think you want to do?” And he said, “I’ve always
wanted to do a musical about Joseph Smith.” Matt and I have always
talked about doing something with Joseph Smith. And so we’re like,
“That’s it.” Then we said, “Maybe it’s not the best to do a musical just
about him and people that lived 150 years ago. Maybe we get it a little
more mainstream.” After working on it four or five years, it became a
lot more, and bigger than that.
Q.
Was it inspired by the “South Park” episode you did about the Mormon
leader Joseph Smith?
A.
PARKER: Yeah, kind of. That was a very one-note thing, which you can do
in a 20-minute show. Obviously, with a stage musical, it’s got to be
many, many, many notes. Literally and figuratively. We’ve learned that
that’s why musicals, or at least good musicals, take a long, long time
to write. Not only can you not do it all yourself, like we do on “South
Park,” you’ve got to really spend the time to make it worthy of a
Broadway show.
STONE: We work on it three weeks at a time, and then we have to go back
to “South Park.”
Q.
Do you think you’ll ever revisit the characters from your puppet movie
“Team America: World Police”?
A.
PARKER: Nope.
STONE: No, hell, no. We’re totally proud of that movie, but it was a
brutal experience.
PARKER: I’ve had so many great ideas for the sequel, and I do think
about it. But there’s no way I’d put myself through that again. There’s
no way.
Q.
In more recent years, since the days of “Team America” and “BASEketball”
and “That’s My Bush!,” it seems as if you’ve been more reluctant to step
into side projects that don’t directly involve “South Park.” Is that
because of the time commitment of producing the show?
A.
PARKER: Half of it’s laziness, but half of it is — like Matt was saying
— after year 3, we really learned our lesson. Which is, if you’ve got
something good, pay attention to it and do it right. We like to think of
ourselves as a band, just because it’s way cooler to be a band than to
be animators. We really just want to protect the band. With “South
Park,” we can do almost anything within that framework, so we feel
pretty creatively satisfied with it. And now, doing the Broadway thing,
that’s always been a dream of mine. I think I’m all dreamed-out after
that.
STONE: No more dreams.
Q.
Your current contract with Comedy Central takes you to 2013, at which
point you’ll have been doing “South Park” for more than 15 years. Could
the end of the show be in sight then?
A.
PARKER: Well, it’s not like we’re going to be doing this when we’re 45.
[laughs]
STONE: This is the entirety of our adult life, “South Park.” It’s been
good that we’ve gone and done the movie “Team America” and these other
things, because every time, we realize how great this job is. You go
deal with a movie studio for a few weeks and you’re like, man, I just
want to go back to my show.
Q.
Even so, you don’t have an idea locked up in a vault somewhere for a
possible final episode?
A.
PARKER: We don’t even know what we’re doing next week. I wish we did.
STONE: If we did, we would have already used it and done something else.
PARKER: During a run, we’re like, Oh, my God, we got no ideas. We got no
ideas. We would have pulled that out.
STONE: Nothing sits in the safe, because as soon as we put it in the
safe, we just take it out of the safe and use it.
--
It is simply breathtaking to watch the glee and abandon with which
the liberal media and the Angry Left have been attempting to turn
our military victory in Iraq into a second Vietnam quagmire. Too bad
for them, it's failing.
Metspitzer
wrote:
This clip shows Muhammad.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vp9bYLa5gaA
The new show calls Tom Cruse a fudge packer.
South Park is funny again.
Captain Infinity
Metspitzer wrote:
>This clip shows Muhammad.
>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vp9bYLa5gaA
My god, those guys are total flamers. Urg.
**
Captain Infinity
kapilbh...@gmail.com
Watch LIVE==>> http://tinyurl.com/MTVVMA2013
The 2013 MTV Video Music Awards will be held on August 25, 2013 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. This will mark the 30th installment of this award show, and the first held in New York City not to use a venue within the borough of Manhattan. Nominations were announced on July 17, 2013. Leading the nominees were Justin Timberlake and Macklemore and Ryan Lewis with six, followed by Bruno Mars, Miley Cyrus, and Robin Thicke with four.
Nominations
Video of the Year
Macklemore and Ryan Lewis (featuring Wanz) — “Thrift Shop”
Bruno Mars — “Locked Out of Heaven”
Taylor Swift — “I Knew You Were Trouble”
Robin Thicke (featuring T.I. and Pharrell) — “Blurred Lines”
Justin Timberlake — “Mirrors”
Best Male Video
Kendrick Lamar — “Swimming Pools (Drank)”
Bruno Mars — “Locked Out of Heaven”
Ed Sheeran — “Lego House”
Robin Thicke (featuring T.I. and Pharrell) — “Blurred Lines”
Justin Timberlake — “Mirrors”