“South Park” creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone hit the Comic-Con stage on Thursday night, a day after the Season 27 premiere of their smash Comedy Central series, “Sermon on the ‘Mount,” made waves for taking on both Donald Trump and “South Park’s” Paramount corporate parents.
The duo were asked whether they got any notes from the network over the episode — and Parker and Stone said most of the debate revolved around the episode’s animated tiny Trump penis.
Said Parker: “it’s always like, ‘so we love the episode,’ but that’s what happened. They’re like, ‘OK, but we’re gonna blur the penis.’ And I’m like, ‘No, you’re not gonna blur the penis.’”
Added Stone: “We put eyes on the penis.”
Parker noted that he told the network “if we put eyes on the penis, we won’t blur it. And then that was a whole conversation for about four fucking days. It’s a character.”
Opening a Comic-Con discussion devoted to Comedy Central’s “South Park,” “Beavis and Butt-Head” and “Digiman!,” the panel moderator addressed the reaction to last night’s episode. “We’re terribly sorry,” said Parker with a bit of sarcasm, eliciting a big laugh from the crowd.
Later, the moderator joked that he had a subpoena for the duo. “That’s fine, man, I’m ready,” Stone quipped.
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In the episode, which took on Trump’s penchant for suing those who speak out against him (and Paramount’s decision to settle a Trump’s legally questionable lawsuit about “60 Minutes”), the president is seen begging for sex from Satan. It also included a Deepfake-assisted clip — satirically labeled as one of the public service announcements that incoming Paramount owner Skydance has reportedly agreed to give Trump — where Trump goes fully nude (“His Penis Is Teeny-Tiny, but His Love for Us Is Large”).
The White House trashed the episode: “This show hasn’t been relevant for over 20 years and is hanging on by a thread with uninspired ideas in a desperate attempt for attention,” White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers said in a statement to Variety. “President Trump has delivered on more promises in just six months than any other president in our country’s history – and no fourth-rate show can derail President Trump’s hot streak.”
That “fourth-rate show” is clearly seen as a valuable property for Paramount, which also just week sealed a rich new five-year deal with Parker and Stone (reportedly worth approximately $300 million per year for a total of $1.5 billion) that includes 50 new episodes of “South Park” plus all seasons of the show becoming available to stream on Paramount+ for the first time.
Earlier on Thursday, the FCC approved Skydance’s acquisition of Paramount Global, clearing the way for that merger after Skydance agreed to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and install a watchdog over CBS News. That was on top of the $16 million Paramount paid Trump over the CBS News lawsuit, and the additional $16 million that Trump has said Skydance agreed to pay via those “public service announcements.”
As part of the Skydance/Paramount merger, it was also confirmed that Paramount Global co-CEO Chris McCarthy, whose oversight included cablers like Comedy Central, will leave the media conglomerate.
Besides “South Park,” the Comedy Central Comic-Con panel also featured the new seasons of “Beavis & Butt-Head” and “Digiman!” — along with creators/stars Mike Judge and Andy Samberg.
The creators were asked about their comedy influences — and both Stone and Judge mentioned “Monty Python’s Flying Circus” — and nothing that they first discovered that British hit on PBS.
“For me and Trey, we met over Monty Python,” Stone said. “It’s no secret. That’s just the truth, and just in this day of PBS getting their funding cut, I have to say that’s how I found Monty Python. I mean, better or worse, it was on PBS in Colorado… That was the beginning and end of it. That’s how we we bonded on that.”
Added Judge: “Yeah, Monty Python for me as well. Monty Python was came on when I was in junior high in Albuquerque and, yeah, PBS of all places like Sunday night.”
Asked about their process, Parker said “South Park” continues to be produced right up to air — which means this week’s episode was only figured out a few days ago.
“Even, like last weekend. I mean, just three days ago, we were sitting there going, ‘I don’t know people are gonna like this,’” Parker said. “We’re just changing as we go over reading stuff in the newspaper, like, ‘oh, okay, let’s put that in there.’”
Parker noted that “I promise this is true. We were at ‘South Park’ this morning trying to figure out what next week’s show is going to be. Right now, we don’t know. But that’s how the show’s always been. And because it’s animated the way it is, if we can sculpt it and sculpt it and build it… we do it a lot like they did ‘SNL.’ The more we learn about their schedule, it seems like it’s pretty similar, actually.”
Responded “SNL” alum Samberg: “That’s crazy, by the way. Like, the stress we getto get to the end of our week and have to go live. I think making a story that makes sense that fast is much harder, having done both.”
As for what else is to come this season of “South Park,” Stone and Parker reminded the crowd that they don’t have anything on their whiteboard. For a promo they produced a few months ago about the new season, they created a series of clips that were completely made up and will never be seen. Any ideas to come, however? “No politics,” Stone joked.
Asked about returning to “Beavis and Butt-Head” after taking a break, Judge said he was “happy to do it again” but needed a break after its original run. “Not to bash on MTV or anything, we had just such a kind of ugly relationship for a while,” he admitted. “We were doing way too many. We did over 100 in one year, so there was no quality control. I love doing it and I was relieved to be done but then over the years, yeah, I did kind of miss it.”
Judge also revealed that he’s been pitched doing a live “Beavis and Butt-Head” over the years, and “I’ve come close to wanting to do it.”
That includes actually holding a casting session for a potential live-action “Beavis” just as the pandemic started. “I’m open to it if something pops,” he said.
Most recently, the viral “SNL” “Beavis and Butt-Head” skit featuring Ryan Gosling caught his attention. “Okay, that was pretty cool,” he said. “It got me laughing, so I don’t know. Maybe, you never know!”
Asked about his film “Idiocracy,” which seemed to predict the political and social environment we now live in, Judge noted that “It’s sort of a mixed bag, because it’s nice to have people call me a prophet, but then the reason they’re calling you down is all that great.”
At the end of the panel, Stone and Parker were honored with a Comic-Con International Inkpot award for excellence in animation.
From Variety US