Take that TERRORISM

Matt Stone and Trey Parker have been shocking America with their unique blend of socio-political satire and potty humor since the premiere of "South Park" in 1997. The writing and directing team has faced its share of censorship and controversy, but even the White House is speaking out about their new film, "Team America: World Police." "Team America" is Stone and Parker's take on living in post-9/11 America with a focus on the war on terrorism. But this isn't another "Fahrenheit 9/11." In fact, Stone has described the film as, "non-partisan" and both Parker and Stone have kept quiet about their specific partisan views and focused instead on denouncing the recent trend of celebrities claiming to be political experts. Instead of focusing on footage of President Bush, the film's main roles are portrayed by 22-inch marionettes. Here Matt Stone opens up about politics, the future of "South Park" and what it's like to be half of the duo known as, "the 'South Park' guys." Q: What's your take on the recent trend of using films and documentaries to criticize the government? Was that your intention with "Team America"? MS: I haven't seen any of them, so I don't really know.
Truthfully, Trey and I are like most people. We're kind of down the middle with our political affiliation. With the movie, we tried really hard to not make it really bend one way or the other politically.
Most people have had mixed feelings about where America's place is in the world in the last three years. Most of us have been somewhat conflicted between being proud to be an American and sometimes being ashamed. It's about those feelings, not about the politics that come out of those feelings. I think "Team America" is non-partisan. Politics is the theme or the backdrop, but it's more about the emotions behind the politics.
It's also about this idea of America being the world's police. It's a uniquely American conundrum. When America does something in the world, there are people who hate us. And when we don't do something to stop injustices in the world everyone looks to us and says, "Why the fuck aren't you doing anything?"
I think Trey and I are both pretty optimistic people and, to me, the movie is kind of an optimistic antidote to what's going on today. Q: Do you think you're an important political influence on your viewing audience? MS: I have no idea, but I sure hope not. I would hate to think anybody took their political views from me or Trey because we're pretty fucked up people. At least we can admit it. That's where we're different from other celebrities. At least we admit that we have fucked up political views. Q: You said "Team America," is an optimistic take on current events. Do you feel like the rest of your work has had a similarly optimistic outlook? MS: I do. I feel like "South Park" is a big-hearted show. I think that's why it's been successful. Just having kids say, "Fuck this," and "Fuck that," and all that shit just isn't interesting. To me, "South Park" is successful because it combines funny shit and edgy shit but at the end of the day it's a warm-hearted show that believes in people. I really think that's the difference between "South Park" and a lot of other things that are considered edgy. Being edgy for the sake of being edgy is a fucking bore. Q: Do you think that you've raised the bar with the public as far as what's considered "edgy?" Is it harder to offend people now? MS: Sure. If you look back at the first season of "South Park," all of that stuff was a big to do, and now it seems so tame. I can't believe that was ever a big deal.
We've always been kind of offensive, but we've never really set out to offend. That's not the way we think about things. It's not like we set out going, "Who can we offend?" In talking about things, we just tend to come up with offensive takes on it, I guess. Q: You've always battled censors in your work. What's the difference between fighting TV censors and fighting the Motion Picture Association of America over movie ratings? MS: With the television show there are clear guidelines and we can argue directly with them. And a lot of times it's a back and forth and we can say, "Well, here's what we're trying to say," and they can say, "But we don't get that out of it." With the MPAA, it's like this weird shadowy organization that you send your tape to and you don't really get to argue with them. It's just a decree. Q: What compelled you guys to do this movie with puppets? MS: It came from watching "Thunderbirds" on TV. It had such an interesting look and feel, but it was so boring and shitty. So we started talking about how great it would be to do a movie like that.
I don't know if you've watched "Thunderbirds" or any of Jerry Anderson's stuff, but they all take themselves so seriously. It was one of those things that he never intended to be funny, but now is really funny. So it was kind of watching "Thunderbirds" and then combining that with wanting to make fun of big action movies. Q: A lot of people don't realize that this film is a musical, like, "South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut." Is the musical aspect of your films more difficult than screenwriting? MS: The script is definitely our Bible. The script is what we think about all the time.
The music is really Trey's thing. I get to be involved in coming up with ideas for songs and helping him out, but that's his deal.
Once he gets an idea, he's so prolific and he's so fast at writing, it's really amazing. But usually that comes out of spending a lot of time on the script and then thinking up a song along the way. Basically, everything comes from the script. Songs come from the script, moments come from the script, everything. That's what we spend all our time talking about.
But we love playing music. In "Team America," there are six or seven songs and usually, for us, that would be our favorite part of the whole process. We would get a studio and we would go fuck around and play music. But we, literally, didn't have time, so we had to have other people record the songs this time. They're still Trey's compositions and he sung them, but we didn't have time to go in and record our own guitar tracks and drum tracks. So that was kind of a bummer. Q: Are there any plans in the works for a full-length DVDA (Trey and Matt's band) album? MS: No, which is bullshit, because we would love to fucking do one. Our biggest regret of this whole fucking thing is we came to L.A. to be in a band and we got sidetracked by this stupid fucking television thing. But we should do a full-length DVDA album. That's what we should do. Q: Are there any plans to do another movie? MS: No, not right now. In fact, I think we've kind of sworn off movies after this. I think "South Park" is all we're going to do for the next year or two, because this movie almost fucking killed us.
I like the fact that we do an episode of "South Park" in one week. You come with an idea, you get psyched on it, you live with it for a week, you laugh about it for a week and then it's on the air and it's gone. The reason movies are so hard is because you come up with jokes that you live with for two or three years. After you live with a joke for three years, it's just not funny anymore. Q: Do you see "South Park" slowing down any? MS: No. In fact, last year we had the best ratings we've had since the first season. It'll slow down when Trey and I slow down, but that probably won't be for another three or four years. Q: Do you have a personal favorite episode? MS: There are a few, but they're generally the weird ones that no one else really likes. We did one last season where the kids turned into anime characters that I thought was really great. To this day, I still think the "Terrance and Phillip" episode is one of our proudest moments, even though everyone hated it. Q: Do you guys ever get tired of being "the 'South Park' guys?" MS: No, not really. I mean, sometimes, yeah, you get tired of being "the 'South Park' guys." But at the end of the day, I'd rather be "the 'South Park' guys" than be a lot of other things. We're proud of "South Park," so it's not a bummer.
I think we probably will always be known as "the 'South Park' guys," and we've just got to be okay with that. You're always going to be known by your biggest success.