our next guests are the creators of the Emmy award-winning animated series South Park which
begins its 10th season on March 22nd here they are Trey Parker and Matt Stone a little something you
requested yeah how can we get the clown sounds nice well so 10 years the thing has been on the
air and pretty much uh saved uh Comedy Central was it well how did the thing go from being your
little project actually getting on the network well when we we met in college and uh we made a
little film called Spirit of Christmas that was um all about Santa fighting Jesus for the for
the spirit of Christmas and this is the kind of thing everybody knew about I mean it was like it
was like this little short that it was one of the first things to kind of Hit the internet and get
passed around and passed around and we had a lot of Hollywood friends that that pass it around and
and uh we got the show out of it it really started from that short yeah and we were sure I mean when
we did the show we were sure we were going to have six episodes I mean we got an order for six
and we're like let's just make six you know really messed up episodes and then we know we'll we know
we'll be kicked out of Hollywood after that and you know and what was the the early response uh
always positive or was it was it mixed God I don't I think it was pretty much positive I mean the
ratings went really like you know it was a pretty meteoric rise as far as ratings went it was kind
of freaky in the beginning but you know and that's why we thought okay well this won't last now
yeah and you know and but there's a lot there's definitely a lot of things people coming out and
critics saying well it's just really bad animation and fart jokes and we're like right right
and you you mentioned that you uh met in college and uh found one another through film school or
something we were taking film classes for he was actually a math major and I was a music Major
and so we were just taking it for credits but we were there we had to make a the first thing was
a five millimeter or I mean a 60 millimeter five minute film and so they said partner up
and we quickly realized that everyone in the else in the class kind of wanted to make like
black and white sexual exploration pieces and like you know things about you know being you
know me eating Meads bad and all this stuff so we're like want to do some fart jokes you know
it was a cross room was love at first night and uh and and and to you guys I'm guessing that this
is just uh another day at the office but to to other people uh there's always controversy and
and have you put up with that in other parts of your life I mean did it happen early on or is
this something that just come to you without exactly yeah I I got reminded of this today
when I was a kid I was in sixth grade and there was a talent show and I sort of wrote my first
sketch which was called the dentist and I played the dentist and had my friend play
a patient it was sort of what can go wrong at the dentist and and I just remember I had lots
of fake blood and everything and like finally his head explodes and it was basically like and
um my parents got a call from the school they were really upset and the parents were really offended
and The Kindergartners were all crying and freaking out and so I remember I had to go to the
kindergarten class and explain I'm just playing a character I'm not really a dentist and I'm like
you know it's sixth grade and it was and it's sort of the same thing I've been doing ever since yeah
I think that there is always a certain element of danger I mean I believe I've read that people's
heads actually have exploded at the dentist I mean I I think it's happened yes and just
like now we're just trying to inform people that some people get pissed off yeah uh and and you're
beginning now your uh 10th season and you how many shows do you put in a season uh seven or
eight or four or five I don't know no now we well now it's done we do 14 a year 14 a year yeah what
is the process uh you guys draw all of these up and then send them to an animator or the animator
draws them up and sends them to you or how does that work well we actually we do the whole show
in in one building in Los Angeles and which I mean there's not many animated shows that do that
they usually send their stuff to Korea like The Simpsons family guy they they send it to uh create
a animated we do everything in-house on computers so we actually do a whole episode beginning to end
and six days right and and the voices are all taken care of we do all the voices like that's
a goodness taken care of but we do they're done somehow but it's great because we have you know
we still write produce and direct every episode ourselves so it's it's like we you know that's
really important to us not to hand it off you know and we basically we can do the show where Saturday
Sunday we're in there we're like this doesn't work let's try something else we'll run in the
booth record it we can see it animated in like four hours and all the characters sound alike so
you know uh but that's the same way like running a restaurant you got to be there every night exactly
the same day it's just like running around why don't you open a restaurant for God's sakes that's
where the real money is uh and is it Isaac Hayes who is not uh continuing with the show yeah Isaac
Hayes just quit uh because he was the voice of Chef you know and it's been you know actually in
the last five years he hasn't been a huge part of the show but uh he um you know we kind of we did
a show last season about scientology and Isaac is Isaac Hayes is a Scientologist and we knew
we knew we're like boy you know Isaac might quit over this and sure enough he did you know and so
but uh well sometimes
you go to the dentist your head Explorer same thing uh 10 years is just remarkable
and of course here's the question that everybody says well how many more years
do you think you want to do this 17. 17 is a good one exactly yeah we always you know
we said after three years we're like wow we've done this a long time we really should quit but
after every season we feel really good about the season you know so that's all it counts
yeah uh beginning their 10th season March 22nd on Comedy Central great nice to meet you nice
to meet you thank you very much Ray Parker and Matt Stone everybody we'll be right back
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