| [Fade in from commercial break. Paul Schaffer has the band play an 80's tune.]
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| Dave: | La la la la lala. Thanks very much. [to the audience] Our next guests are the creators of the Emmy-Award-winning animated series South Park, which begins its 10th season on March 22. Here they are, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, ladies and gentlemen. [Trey comes out first, then Matt. Both of them wave to the audience, shake Dave's hand, and take their seats. They look at the band, noticing the circus music they enter to] That a little something you requested?
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| Matt: | Yeah.
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| Trey: | Yeah, it's nice m-.
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| Matt: | How come we get the clown music?
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| Trey: | Sounds nice, doesn't it?
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| Paul: | Well?
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| Dave: | Eh, so ten years, uh the thing has been on the air, and and pretty much uh saved uh Comed- Comedy Central. Was it the- Well how did the thing go from being your little to actually getting on the network?
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| Matt: | Well, when we... we met in college, and uh, we made a little film called "Spirit of Christmas"-
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| Dave: | Mhm?
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| Matt: | - that was all about Santa fighting Jesus for the, for the spirit of Christmas - it's a long Christmas.
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| Dave: | And and and this uh kind of thing, everybody knew about, I mean-
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| Matt: | It was like, it was like this little shorts that, that was one of the first things to kinda hit the Internet and get passed around and get passed around, and we had a lot of Hollywood friends that, that passed it around, and, and uuuh, we got the show out of it. It really started from that short.
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| Dave: | Yeah...
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| Trey: | And we were sure, I mean, when we did the show we were sure we were gonna have six episodes. I mean, we we got an order for six amd 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,
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| Dave: | And, wa-was the, the early response a-a-always positive, or was it, was it mixed?
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| Matt: | God, I don't- I think it was pretty much positive. I mean, the ratings went really, like, you know... [motions upward with his left hand] it was a pretty meteoric rise as far as ratings went. It was kind of freaky at the beginning, but, and you know, and that's why we thought "well this won't last now," and, you know...
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| Trey: | And then, but there was a lot, there was certainly 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." [Dave giggles] "Right." [the audience laughs and applauds. Trey breaks a grin, then laughs]
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| Dave: | And you, you you mentioned that you uh m-met in college and uuh, found one another through filmmm school or something like that?
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| Trey: | We were taking film-
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| Matt: | Yes.
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| Trey: | -classes for cre- he was actually a math major and I was music major, and so we were just taking it for credits, but, we were theh- we had to make a, the first thing was a 5mm, er I mean a 16mm, five minute film, and so they said "Partner up," and we quickly realized that everyone else in the class wanted to make like black and white sexual exploration pieces and like, you know, things about, you know, being, you know, meat eating meat is bad and all this stuff, so we're like, "...Wanna do some fart jokes?" You know and- [laughter swells]
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| Matt: | It was, it was, across the room, it was love at first sight. Fart jokes. [Trey laughs]
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| Dave: | And, um, andandand and, to you guys, I'm guessing that this is just uh, another day in the office, but to to other people, uuuh, there is always controversy, and and, have 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 comes to you with the series.
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| Trey: | Yeah, it was actually yeah, I, I got reminded of this today - when I was a kid- I was in sixth grade, and there was a telent show, and I sort of wrote my first sketch, which was called "The Dentist," and I played the dentist and I 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 had to go to the kindergarten class and explain, "I'm just playing a character, I'm not really a dentist." I'm like "You know, it's sixth grade," [he and Dave laugh] and it was, and it's sort of the same thing I've been doing ever since.
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| Dave: | Yeah, it's kind of haunted and followed you, hasn't it? ...I think there is always a certain element of danger- I I I mean I believe I've read that people's heads actually have exploded at the dentist. I mean, I think it's happened, hasn't it?
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| Trey: | Yes! And just like now, we're just trying to inform people and some people get pissed off about it.
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| Dave: | [as Trey speaks] That's right... yeah, yeah... [picks up after Trey finishes] Uuh, and and and you're beginning now your uh tenth season, and uh how many shows do you put into a season?
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| Trey: | [lazily] Aaah, seven or eight or four or five- I don't know.
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| Matt: | Well now we... well it's gone... we do 14 a year.
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| Dave: | Fourteen a year?
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| Matt: | Yeah.
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| Dave: | What is, is the process? Uh, you you guys draw of these up and then send them to an animator, or the animator draws them up and sends them to you, or how does it work?
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| Matt: | Well we actu- we do the whole show in, in one building in Los Angeles, and, which, I mean ahm, 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 Korea to get it animated; we do everything in-house, on computers, so we actually do a whole episode, beginning to end, in... six days.
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| Dave: | And, and the voices are all taken care of?
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| Matt: | Yeah.
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| Trey: | We do all the voices, so it's
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| Matt: | Take care of is like, good enough, yeah.
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| Trey: | It's already taken care of, but we do it.
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| Matt: | They're done, somehow, by us.
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| Trey: | 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" and we'll run in the booth, record it, and we can see it animated in like, four hours.
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| Dave: | Now tell us-
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| Matt: | And all the characters sound alike, so you know...
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| Dave: | Well but but but that's the same, well like running a restaurant: you gotta be there every night.
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| Trey: | That's right.
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| Dave: | It's the same damn thing.
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| Trey: | It's just like running a restaurant.
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| Dave: | Why don't you open a restaurant, for God's sake? [Trey laughs] That's where the real money is, muffin man. Aaah, and ih is it Isaac Hayes who is not uh continuing with the show?
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| Trey: | Yeah, Isaac Hayes just quit.
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| Dave: | And he he was what? Was he-?
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| Trey: | He was the voice of Chef, you know, and he'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 kinda, we did a show last season about Scientology [winces and bobs around in fake pain]
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| Matt: | And Isaac is a- Isaac Hayes is a Scientologist.
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| Dave: | He's a Scientologist?
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| Matt: | Yeah
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| Trey: | And we, we knew, we knew, we're like "Boy, Isaac might quit over this" and sure enough, he did, you know, [the audience laughs] and so... [shrug] But uh... [shrug]
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| Dave: | Well, sometimes... [applause] Sometimes you go to the dentist, your head explodes, it's the same thing. Uuuh, t-ten years is just remarkable, and of course here's uh the question that everybody says: "Well, aaah, how many more years do you think you wanna do this?"
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| Trey: | Seventeen
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| Dave: | Seventeen is a good answer. [laughs as he says this]
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| Matt: | Exactly. Exactly 17.
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| Trey: | 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...
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| Dave: | There you go. That's all that counts.
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| Trey: | Yeah.
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| Matt: | Yeah.
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| Dave: | Aaah, beginning of the 10th season, March uh 22nd on Comedy Central. Great. Nice to meet you. [reaches out to shake hands]
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| Trey: | Nice meeting you.
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| Dave: | Thank you very much.
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| Trey: | Thank you very much.
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| Dave: | [shaking Matt's hand] Congratulations on ten years. [to the audience] Trey Parker and Matt Stone, everybody. We'll be right back.
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| [End of segment]
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