Posted on 12/14/2006 3:12:54 PM PST by DogByte6RER
Loud and lewd but sweet underneath
FRAZIER MOORE
December 14, 2006
ONE reason South Park is so good is the united front, the shared vision, of co-creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker.
"Me and Matt love to argue," says Parker, "but in general our sense of humour is pretty much alike."
"We never have that problem where I want something one way and he wants it another," Stone adds. "It never happens, and, when it does, we usually realise there was a flaw in the idea in the first place."
As ever, their surrogates are Stan, Kyle, Kenny and Cartman, four bratty, perpetually bundled-up youngsters in an unhinged Colorado cartoon town.
But this past year South Park has been a particularly outrageous place, stirring up more mischief than usual.
The scathing two-part Cartoon Wars episode ripped the Comedy Central cable station in the US for timidity in not airing an image of the Islamic prophet Mohammed, even as the show displayed Jesus Christ defecating on President George Bush and the American flag.
Another headlines-generating episode, "Trapped in the Closet", may or may not have riled mighty Hollywood star and Scientologist Tom Cruise for its mocking treatment of Scientology (and him) - so much so that Cruise may or may not have pressed Comedy Central never to air it again. (It has since been repeated.)
From the start of South Park in August 1997, the catch-as-catch-can crudeness of the series, where nothing was sacred or apologised for, was celebrated as its signature. But to the surprise of Stone and Parker, South Park seemed to have potential to be even more than that.
"Instead of being crappy," says Parker, "we decided we better figure out how to actually make it good."
Doing so, they seldom had a moment to focus beyond their week-to-week scramble to produce the next episode. The seasons flew by.
"It's only been in the last two years that I'm thinking, 'We might be here for a while,' " says Stone. Now he and Parker, both in their mid-30s, are signed to produce 30 more episodes through 2008.
"What we're always looking for is weird social issues and weird connections to make," says Parker. Lucky for them, there's no shortage of material.
Just consider how freckles and red hair provided them a way of addressing racial strife as Cartman rallied fellow "ginger" kids to strike back against their blond and brunette oppressors.
Creatures from the year 4035 flooding into South Park through a time portal served as a pointedly absurd way of looking at the dicey topic of illegal immigration.
Reflecting the series' startling timeliness (each episode is created from scratch and aired within a week), South Park in October 2005 framed the failure of government agencies to respond to Hurricane Katrina in terms of a dam that flooded a nearby town, amid much finger-pointing but nobody helping.
And then there was the episode in March 2005 that seized upon the highly charged issue of a patient's right to die, even as Terry Schiavo lay comatose, a political and media circus raging around her.
What drives Stone and Parker to mine laughs and truth-telling from places that good sense, and certainly good taste, would declare off-limits?
"We're the guys who, if someone says you really shouldn't do an episode making fun of Scientologists, we say, 'Whatever,' " Parker explains. "Someone says, 'They might come try to burn your house down,' we say, 'We'll just get another one.' "
But their comedic defiance is tempered by another quality that's seldom acknowledged.
South Park is often loud and lewd but it has an underlying sweetness. "We try to never be cynical," Stones says. "I think we're really optimistic, happy people, and we want the show to have an optimistic message."
"It's not like we have a formula," Parker adds, "but I think one of the reasons this show has survived is that it has a big heart at its centre. Other cartoon shows have people crap on each other and make racist jokes but I don't think people tune in for that. I just don't think a show lasts for 10 years without a heart."
Heart, and some semblance of balance.
"You can take any issue, no matter what side you're on, and make fun of the far extremes," says Stone. "So much of South Park is a group on this side and a group on that side, all screaming at each other. And the boys in the middle are going, 'What are you all doing this for?' "
However hilariously scandalous South Park may be, the message in the end is wholesome and uplifting. As Kyle squawked to a network president in Cartoon Wars: "Do the right thing!"
That's the Gospel of Stone and Parker - out of the foul mouths of babes.
SP Ping!
I love South Park. Sometimes I find it too offensive, so I just turn it off and go read a book. I don't always agree with it either, but I appreciate how they always try to show (and ridicule) both views. On this particular episode, I think they ultimately came to the wrong conclusion, but that's the beauty of it. It's okay to disagree.
This marklar really marklars the marklar every marklar.
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TIMMAH!!!!
Thanks for the ping OMG ES other night they show Passion of the Jew where they goof on Mel Gibson
You know, I learned something today . . . .
I'm a south park conservative through and through.
Conservative, but with a strong sarcastic sense of humor.
Like a lot of other things in life, some people simply cannot acknowledge the message because they will not understand the medium.
Ah man. I saw this ping and thought there may be a South Park showing. They always make my night!
I thought the last two episodes were big wet steamy piles of marklar.....I think I'll go marklar them again ;'}
I love it, thanks!!!
One guy where I work says that it's because ComCen has given them license to do a lot more (oh?), so they're losing their edge. I think it's because the general public is having trouble understanding anything that goes beyond d!ck-n-fart jokes.
I learned that the Japanese have no souls.
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