The South Park Guide to Life

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Despite being wealthy enough to delegate, or to stop working altogether, they are as hands-on with South Park as when they started – writing, voicing and directing it. They will be personally involved with The Book Of Mormon for as long as it runs, moving their families from LA to England for the London opening at the end of next month. Chris Quinn (September 5, 2007). "Not Necessarily A Critic: South Park re-elected by a landslide for four more years". San Antonio Express-News. p.6T. When you grow up in Colorado, you don't think, 'I'll write a Broadway musical!' Or, 'I'll go to Hollywood and make a TV show!' That just doesn't happen," Stone says. "But in the 1990s, that was the heyday of independent films, so we thought, 'OK, we can make independent films and still live in Colorado.'" Stories abounded in the past two decades of Parker and Stone's frattish, brattish behaviour, from farting on colleagues' food to infamously attending the 2000 Oscars dressed as Gwyneth Paltrow and Jennifer Lopez while tripping on acid (their song, Blame Canada, from South Park: Bigger, Longer And Uncut, was nominated; it lost and they walked out). But today, Parker, 43, and Stone, 41, are a delight: friendly, warm, with none of the bullying or confrontational attitude that colleagues of old had reported.

a b c d e Delgado, Carlos (March 25, 2010). "TV Review: South Park – Season 14 – 'The Tale of Scrotie McBoogerballs' ". iF Magazine. FAQ". South Park Studios. April 26, 2010. Archived from the original on September 15, 2010 . Retrieved May 3, 2010. Perhaps the strangest thing that's happened to Stone and Parker is that, after years of being much beloved cult favourites, they are at risk of being taken in by the mainstream, all thanks to a musical about Mormons. "When people say, 'Will middle-aged people from middle America like this?' we're like, 'Middle-aged people from middle America made this,'" Parker says. Both have talked in the past about their fear of losing their edge with age, and they are in settled relationships. Stone has two children under three and Parker has one stepchild. Parker and Stone have always felt a bemused fondness for those in the faith, if not necessarily for the faith itself (they call the show "an atheist love letter to religion"). The lead character in their first film, Orgazmo, was a sweet Mormon who acted in porn films to fund his upcoming wedding. (It was not, to be honest, their finest hour.)

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Whether they're taking on American healthcare or religious tolerance, Parker and Stone overturn expectations hilariously but thoughtfully, and often with a sweeter aftertaste than you expect. I said to Isaac when he came in to see me, 'Look, my mother's Jewish and we've gone there, so come on, man.' It's all got to be OK or none of it is OK," Stone says with a shrug. Parker and Stone are on no one's side. In the 15 years South Park has been on cable TV, it has been accused of being too conservative, too liberal, too amoral, too moral, too sophisticated and too crude. It is also, repeatedly, cited as one of the greatest television shows of all time and has won a prestigious Peabody award. It has been criticised by the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation ( Glaad) for its use of the word "fag" ("They missed the point," Stone grumbles), and nominated for a Glaad award for outstanding TV for its episode titled Big Gay Al's Big Gay Boat Ride. But Parker still sounds forlorn: "We just felt sad for him, because he was caught in the middle of two things he loved, and he was a friend. He really loved South Park and he really loved Scientology, and I think he felt he had to quit."

Lambert, David (July 2, 2011). "South Park - 'The Complete 14th Season' Formally Announced; Seems it Really IS Complete!". TVShowsOnDVD. Archived from the original on September 19, 2012 . Retrieved February 12, 2011. After Hayes left, Stone and Parker wrote an episode claiming Chef had been brainwashed, absolving the character of blame and urging the people of South Park instead to "be mad at that fruity little club for scrambling his brains". Two years later, Hayes died and Stone and Parker dedicated a show to him. Given their impatience with simplistic absolutes, it is unsurprising that the pair are no fans of certain prominent fellow atheists. "I'm counter-influenced by the neo-atheists, Richard Dawkins and those guys," Stone says. "I'm not convinced that truth is the most important thing in the world. Humans tell stories – that's what happens. I don't get [Dawkins'] trip." This is something of an understatement: when Dawkins made an appearance in South Park he was portrayed as an intolerant snob who was so unobservant he didn't notice the person he was sleeping with was a man. (Dawkins, to his credit, merely complained they got his English accent wrong.) They're glad that America's most famous Mormon, Mitt Romney, didn't win the election, but only because they think he wouldn't have made a good president, not because of his religion. When I ask if they saw the widely circulated five-minute clip of Romney appearing to flip out about his religion on a radio show, Stone admonishes me for having watched only the shortened version as opposed to the full 20-minute one. "In the original clip, it's the other guy who's really pushing him. Someone cut it to make Romney look bad, which I thought was really shitty." Summer of South Park Season 7 Battle Royale". South Park Studios. Archived from the original on 16 June 2013 . Retrieved 12 January 2022.a b c d e f O'Neal, Sean (March 24, 2010). "South Park: "The Tale of Scrotie McBoogerballs". The A.V. Club . Retrieved March 12, 2022. Even harder to fathom: Sean Penn went to see The Book Of Mormon. Penn, Stone and Parker have been engaged in a war of expletives ever since the pair satirised the actor's doe-eyed idealism in their puppet musical, Team America: World Police (2004). In that film, which made fun of warmongering conservatives and self-righteous celebrity liberals alike, Penn in puppet form was held up for special ridicule. It's weird, because in many ways what we do now is the same as what we did when we were 21. We're just trying to make each other laugh." They have been described as both nihilists and libertarians, suggesting that to make fun of everything is to believe in nothing (or everything). Yet, beneath the simplistic animation and jokes about Hillary Clinton hiding a nuclear device in her vagina (Parker still sniggers at the memory of that episode), South Park is a deeply moral show. Parker and Stone almost never vote, "because we're not allied to one particular side, so it feels painful", Stone says, but it's safe to assume that they veer more towards the left in their attitudes (in one South Park episode, Satan muses how he can win over the people on a particular issue. "I'll do what we always do," one of his assistants replies. "Use the Republicans.") Yet of all the demographics they've teased in their time, the one that has given them the most grief is liberals. South Park calls Sarah Jessica Parker a 'transvestite donkey witch' ". Metro. March 25, 2010. Archived from the original on March 3, 2016 . Retrieved March 26, 2010.

The big lie of our whole career is that rightwing fundamentalists are always trying to shut us down," Stone says. "It has literally never happened. The Mormons haven't, the Christians haven't – OK, the Scientologists did, but they don't count. But when we make fun of liberal people, they're like, ' What?!' I think religious conservatives are more used to taking a beating." And as if to antagonise their long-suffering liberal fans even more, Parker announces that the two causes he and Stone believe in are "gay marriage and guns. We're for both of those." [This interview was conducted before the recent shootings in Sandy Hook]. At South Park there are two LTA licensed coaches, who provide tennis coaching and activities to the local community in South Fulham. They offer a range of sessions including individual coaching lessons and group coaching for adults and children, of all ages and abilities. We're from Colorado, and look at the way Colorado's gone politically in the last few elections," adds Stone, "it's now gay-friendly, weed-friendly, gun-friendly. There's an element of Colorado that I think is in us." Parker nods stoutly. a b c Trey Parker, Matt Stone. South Park: The Complete Seventh Season: "All About Mormons" (DVD Audio commentary). Comedy Central. Doug Fabrizio (May 28, 2007). "Mormonism and Popular Culture". Radio West . Retrieved April 20, 2018.

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That said, I wouldn't be surprised if a British journalist turns up in a future South Park episode, asking annoying questions and ending up getting mangled in some terrible accident. As one of their colleagues said in a 2011 New York magazine profile of the pair, "They're not snotty until you leave the room." Production and theme [ edit ] South Park co-creator Trey Parker wrote "The Tale of Scrotie McBoogerballs". Trey Parker and Matt Stone talk at The Amazing Meeting 5, in January 2007. JREF (August 4, 2010). "Trey Parker & Matt Stone - SouthPark Creators". Vimeo . Retrieved April 20, 2018.