South Park/Trey Parker and Matt Stone are Awesome

[AWK]

New season starts next Wednesday, March 17.  Can't wait.  Here is an interview with the NY Times that was released today.

‘South Park’ at 200: Trey Parker and Matt Stone Apologize to No One
By DAVE ITZKOFF

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.

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/10/south-park-at-200-trey-parker-and-matt-stone-apologize-to-no-one/