Posted on 07/19/2008 8:41:37 AM PDT by chasio649
Based on prime-time precedent and the general laws of television, South Park - the animated Comedy Central series created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone that's currently in its 12th season - should have degenerated by now into a pathetic parody of itself that has fans and critics calling for its immediate demise.
Yet the general consensus about South Park is that this savagely funny satire has never been as biting and relevant as it is now.
All of which begged this question during a phone interview earlier this week with Parker and Stone: How did the pair ward off the inevitable decline that afflicts most long-in-the-tooth programs?
"Part of is that it just sucked so much when it started, that it had nowhere to go but up,'' jokes Parker, 38. "When it started, we knew how to be brash and deconstructionist, but we didn't really know how to write. We've learned how to be writers as the show's gone along.''
Staying intimately involved with the day-to-day production of the show is also key to its enduring quality, Stone adds.
"With most shows, you come up with a good idea, you work really hard on it for a few seasons, and then it kind of takes on a life of its own,'' explains Stone, 37. "If you're the creator/executive producer, you then hand it off to somebody else, take a step back and figure out how you can become a multiple- show person, like Dick Wolf or David Kelley, and multiply your money.
"We haven't done that. We still work on every single show. It's our main thing - actually it's pretty much all we've done with our lives.''
For the uninitiated, South Park focuses on the consistently bizarre happenings among the denizens of the fictional Colorado town that gives the series its name, all filtered trough the prism of Stan, Kyle, Cartman and Kenny, the four boys at its heart. The series has garnered multiple Emmy wins and even a coveted Peabody for its unsparing satire, which has trained its lens on everything from religion to politics to celebrity culture.
Unlike many shows that trade in "equal-opportunity'' offending, South Park's off-kilter take on social, cultural and political matters truly defy convention and expectations.
"The only thing that we always fall back on is that extremists are extremists - to us, the super-hardcore liberals are just as lame and stupid as the super-hardcore conservatives,'' says Parker. "They're the same people to us - people who can only see one side, their side, of an issue.''
Being flexible, as opposed to adhering rigorously to any kind of pre- ordained views on a given topic, can often lead to conclusions that surprise even the show's creators, Stone says.
"Sometimes we set out to say one thing and we actually end up saying the exact opposite,'' he explains. "You'll start writing a story and you try to make it resonate on a human level, aside from just the jokes, and you end up talking about in the writers' (meeting), where sometimes we argue - and sometimes we'll put those arguments in our characters' mouths - and it comes out completely differently from than you'd planned. I think those are the best shows: where we kind of work out our s-t in front of people.''
"And it's not like we sat down when we were 25 years old and said, "OK, here's our completely coherent political philosophy that we will unfold over 10 or 12 years. A lot of times we'll even do stuff that we don't actually believe, just because it's funny.''
Parker and Stone have committed to doing another three seasons for Comedy Central - the show airs on the Comedy Network in Canada - and fans who are worried that the pair might be getting bored or feeling creatively constricted in the South Park universe can chill out.
"Eventually we're going to have a season where we realize that it wasn't very good and that we're tapped out,'' Parker says. "But it's the kind of show, being about a town and not just about a specific character, that you have so many places you can go with it.
"It's funny because as we're getting older, we're almost becoming less inclined to do other stuff because we're so creatively satisfied doing South Park. I never feel like we have such a great idea but we can't really do it. We can always figure out a way to do it on South Park.''
ping
Montreal let this be published in English?
I guess so...
cool drawing.
I think what gives them the ability to NOT be bored is that the show is often topical, and the town/characters are just hangers to put the wardrobe on, so to speak. The news writes the shows for them. You couldn’t envision Election 2000, Janet Reno and the Texas stuff, Katrina, the Iraqi invasion etc ahead of time, but if it was based only on the development of the characters it gets burned out. Cartoon characters don’t age.
I don’t like South Park and don’t let my kids watch it on TV - however my 12 year showed me this on his PC:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=NQvH-iGMBVU
Their “Global Warming” program was screaming funny.
A must see. Would love to tie Al Gore to a chair and force him to watch it for weeks on end.
O.C. ?
If you can’t laugh at that...then there’s no help for you! :D
I can't wait to see what they're going to do with MacCain and Obama.
SOUTH PARK PING!
For those who don't know how you got on this ping list: the initial ping list was created by copying member names from past South Park threads.
Please ping me with any South Park related articles. Thank you!
If you want on or off this ping list, please FReepmail me.
This is expected to be a low to medium volume ping list.
* South Park TV schedule at Comedy Central
* Watch episodes online at South Park Studios or South Park Zone
* Official South Park site: South Park Studios
* Create a South Park character of yourself at Planearium.de or SouthParkStudios.com.
* South Park products available at Amazon and Comedy Central.
* Download South Park episodes in bit torrent format at South Park Complete or MrTwig
* Read scripts of South Park episodes at South Park Stuff.com
* The South Park Scriptorium, a good all around site for South Park information.
* The Wikipedia article on South Park.
* Search for previous South Park articles at Free Republic by title or keyword.
* List of Ping Lists
Ping
The Simpsons did it first!
Is that the episode that they couched as head lice? It seems to me that they never tire of mocking Al Gore and ‘global warming’. There may be another that I missed.
I love the one titled A Critter Christmas. I’m giggly by nature, but I’ve never cried from laughing too hard. That episode brought me close to tears and incontinence both at the same time.
All about Mormons was also so great. I saw that right after reading Under the Banner of Heaven. It was very funny and timely.
You should also see Mystery of the Urinal Deuce. They take a hatchet to the 9/11 "Truther" retards.
That is a good one in any language.
Smug Alert (makes fun of Prius-driving ecotards)
The Snuke (Hillary)
Two Days Before The Day After Tomorrow (Hurricane Katrina victims, ecotards)
Mr. Garrison's Fancy New Vagina (sex changes)
Goobacks (illegal immigration)
South Park is Gay (Metrosexuals)
Butt Out (Rob Reiner, anti-smoking zealotry)
Death Camp of Tolerance (political correctness, the homosexual agenda)
Rainforest Schmainforest (Ecotards, diversity-worshp)
And finally, Miss Teacher Bangs a Boy, proof that Parker and Stone are FReepers and veterans of the Naught Teacher Threads.
See #24 and #19. Political incorrectness at it’s best. These guys are the Aristophanes of our time.
My wife an I did just laugh our asses off last night at the episode “Eek! It’s a penis.”
It won't be another Douche and turd...that's too close to reality.
Best show on TV.
Thanks for the zing!! ;))
I’ve been saying that for a while...i can’t wait till the new episodes in october...that show brings much joy to my life.
I’d like to see them do “Team America II”
I think they outdid even themselves with that one. We watched it online, and I've been laughing about it every since.
Matt and Trey said they would never do another show like that...the costs were huge and it was very difficult to make.
The N-word one with Jesse Jackson was awesome.
Things that annoy you
N_TS
I have been wondering what the comparison would be this time. Calling McCain a turd sandwich and Obama a giant douche is being too mean to turd sandwiches and giant douches.
LOL
Excellent. Thank you both for bringing this to my attention!
I’ve seen that one. It was great, as are most episodes. As I said, they mock the Emperor Al Gore and his new global warming clothes all the time.
Thank you for the links.
Thanks for the article! My annual trip to Casa Bonita from the South Park episode of the same title is in a few weeks.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casa_Bonita_(South_Park_episode)
Best. Episode. Ever. (except for all the others).
http://www.casabonitadenver.com/ It’s exactly as it is pictured in the episode, which makes it a somewhat surreal experience to visit there. Same with Cave of the Winds (ManBearPig episode).
Dude! Team America will save us again!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.