What’s it like to write a successful animated comedy for over 30 years? South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone know the business of making relevant TV is ever evolving and changing. That certainly includes whatever is going on politically, and the two funnymen recently admitted they’ve been hated on by people on both sides of the political spectrum at different times.
The two men don’t do a ton of interviews, but spoke to the Television Academy this week as part of a larger comedy video. When interviewed, they discussed free speech, targeted jokes, and getting hated on by both political parties. Of the latter, Trey Parker got really candid about what happens as time passes and they keep making the animated series.
For 30 years, you've always had some group trying to tell you what you can and can't say. And that group has changed. That group’s been liberal. That group's been Republican. We've always known that our job was, we're supposed to be the joker. You need that. You need someone just making fun of things. It's a great thing to be able to be. And unfortunately, right now, we have a President who thinks his job is to be the joker.
First of all, let’s just take a second to acknowledge that South Park has been doing the dang thing for 30 years. Secondly, what they say is true. The last few seasons have been devoted to taking shots and Trump and others in the administration. This includes J.D. Vance, who took it with good humor. Taking more shots at the Republican party has meant they've got more criticism from Republicans, but that's just a continuation of a larger pattern.
There have been times in the past when South Park has been very critical of social issues, woke culture or politicians on the left. At those times, an overwhelming amount of the criticism has come from liberals. The backlash is almost always very subject-matter specific, and it's also been why so many people have been defensive of the show throughout its run.
To many fans, it's never felt like South Park has had an agenda or a specific point of view it has tried to convey, even poking fun at itself on more than one occasion. Instead, some of South Park's best episodes have simply been trying to clown on whatever bit of pop culture is buzzy at any given moment. If Republicans are in power, it'll dunk on Republicans. If Democrats are in power, it'll dunk on Democrats. If some weird subgroup is suddenly in the news or a new fad is sweeping the nation, that's going to be the target.
Some of that is due to how how the show is made. Parker and Matt Stone are able to produce episodes on the fly. Because they aren’t doing the series nine or 10 months in advance, jokes in the moment are easy for them to dive into, which certainly is not true of most series. It really only works, Stone says, because they’re such “procrastinators."
I think when the show first started we were definitely making fun of television and celebrity culture a little more, maybe? As the show went on, it wasn’t by design, it was more like, ‘We got a show on the air next week, what should we do? It’s like, well you’d read this thing in the news and then you’d start riffing on that.
Above all else, Matt Stone also said that really the thing he and Parker are always pushing as hard as possible is the “freedom of speech” aspect.
The part I guess that both of us probably relate to is the freedom of speech. Like, that is the one thing we’re supposed to be involved with. Especially with satire and parody. I feel like we’re old soldiers in that fight.
That focus on free speech has seemed even more relevant than usual the last few years. The FCC has gotten more involved in television content, and late night host Jimmy Kimmel was even briefly suspended from the air and “micromanaged” over comments he made about the late Charlie Kirk. Talking heads like Megyn Kelly have gotten involved. Even shows like The View and Saturday Night Live have suddenly started getting questions about who they have on as guests and whether they should be forced to provide equal time.
Fortunately, Parker and Stone have proven over the years they're going to say what they want to say, regardless of how people feel about it. As history shows, if a group is mad about these opinions one year, chances are they might be celebrating their take the next year.
