Every time South Park begins a new season, the show’s creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, get arm-twisted into doing a new round of media interviews. Season after season, they don’t have much that’s new to say, but if you haven’t read an interview with them before, The Onion’s A/V club just posted a very good one.
The A/V club interviews them separately, which is an interesting choice. Parker and Stone understand the dynamics of their partnership well, with Parker being more the creative guy and Stone covering more of the business angle, and they’re quite candid about being creatively stronger when they’re working together. Both of them take a tremendous amount of pride in trying to deliver a good show, and understand that what they do is just a job like any other.
Read the full interview here, or just some choice excerpts after the jump:
AVC: A lot of the humor in South Park feels disgusted and frustrated with the world, like you’re basically asking “Why are people such idiots?” Are you actually emotionally involved in the issues you address with the show?
Matt Stone: Sometimes. But it’s cool, because we get to express our frustration through a little fat kid screaming at the top of his lungs. So it can be taken semi-seriously. We get to enjoy that same distance that the Jon Stewarts of the world get to too. They demand that they be taken seriously, and as soon as someone takes them seriously, they crack a joke. I love the fact that Trey and I have gotten awards for being topical and satirical, but at the end of the day, we are just making jokes. If you ask me how to really solve the health-care crisis, I have fuckin’ no idea, and I don’t want to be a part of it. But I can make a little fat kid yell some emotional truth about it. That’s what we’ve figured out over the years. If you’re gonna make it a TV show, you would never do the actual politics of something, but you would do the emotions behind the politics. Who cares if it’s a right-or-wrong policy—here’s how it makes me feel. You’re not gonna get into a policy discussion with Cartman and Mr. Hankey and Jesus and shit.
AVC: With that all said, do you still enjoy it?
Trey Parker: No. But I’ve never enjoyed it. That’s what’s so funny. People always think that making the show is so much fun. Especially people that don’t know what it’s like to write, and stuff like that. It’s always been totally stressful, totally just wanting to kill yourself every day because you’re under so much stress, and feel like there’s no way you can pull it off, and all of that stuff. And then when it’s over, when the season’s done and you’re proud of what you did, then you totally enjoy it. And when you’re out on the golf course thinking, “Wow, that was a good season,” then you really enjoy it. But coming here to work in the morning, I fucking hate it, and I always have. [Laugh.] Any job is a job. If you have to be doing something, then you’re probably not enjoying it.
You have to like that sentiment – any job, no matter how cool, is still a job. In an industry filled to the rafters with self-important egotists who think they’re curing cancer and changing the world, it’s nice to see that recognized once in a while.
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