Trey Parker & Matt Stone - TAM 5

well I want to make this as brief as I can for about oh I guess four years of these conventions in talking to everybody the question always comes up where are the people that don't look like us where are the younger people why don't TV people care about skepticism and I've given one answer over and over again and that is South Park I believe that South Park is yes there's yes there's myth busters but the the strongest force for critical thinking and clarity on TV and also two of the funniest writers that are alive work for and created and direct and produce and do the voices for South Park it's the greatest and so I thought this year rather than me talking about them we would have them here to answer your questions they're not gonna do any prepared speech it'll talk a little bit to you and then they'll take questions from you like we all did yesterday and I just want to say that with all due respect to everyone in this room and having having tried it myself the best explanation of talking to the dead john edward cold reading was done on South Park and Matt and Trey get some of that information from Randy they are there there are two men who are friends of mine and two men we asked the question about Heroes the other day two men of my absolute heroes ladies gentlemen Trey Parker Matt Stone South Park hello okay we disagree we think we do kind of look like you actually yeah so we we were told when we were asked by a pin to come out and do this not very long ago just like a week or two ago um we we both knew James Randi mostly front we remembered him as a kid we remembered seeing him on on some shows and and when we wanted to do a show about John Edward I remember we have been doing the show already for about four years and the whole crew and everyone in the office was always just agreed yeah stick it to them yeah stick it to them that's cool sticking them that this week and and then we were like oh this John adores guy we got to take this guy down right so we so and then we're like so we're going around telling the office yeah we're gonna take we're gonna take on John Edwards and so many people people in the office we're like well that stuff's true you know well no come on you know it's it's an obvious trick and and they're like and then even some people were like yeah John it you're right he's full of crap and he screws it up for the people that really can do it and so I'm that episode actually was the first time that we and not the last time but the first time that we did go to James Randi site because we knew we remembered him and we we said alright there's got to be a trick to this remember that guy James Randi I bet I bet he can explain this and we got on the internet like we do every week and and we just read it through and basically what ended up in the show which Penn says is the best explanation of how it works was from James Randi actually not and so um penn said that we could just sort of come up here and open it up to questions because we definitely are not speakers we're cartoon makers so as you'll see we're not very eloquent speakers and we don't have much to say well then why don't we go to questions you guys we're big fans I was just wondering when you watch the show that John Edward is the douche Stan seems to always be like the voice of reason do you guys kind of base your opinions or do you kind of speak through him or is it just well in that show Stan is the voice of reason but we we always we kind of change it I mean sometimes Kyle is and sometimes for a long time in the beginning tala g12 he was like the yeah he was that's true I don't know I mean it but it it kind of goes back and forth because you know the end of the day we have to tell a story and so while we're trying to make these points and we're trying to be you know critical of certain things it's at the end of the day we got to tell the story but in that in that episode definitely like Stan is just being James Randi you know and so but it changes you know from episode to episode could you give us the backstory to the Scientology episode why was it pulled off the air for a while and then how did it how did you get it back on the air and just tell us what was going on there ooh everyone pull up a chair that's a lot that's how long it's a long story but briefly I mean we wanted to do a Scientology episode since the show started mostly because Scientology is just funny and I mean you know it's like at the end of the day like we like you know as like tracy said bringing people down but Scientology's just hilarious it's just funny and you mean you got to come up with comedy you know there's this big fertile ground yours like let's go over there and make fun of that and but unfortunately Isaac Hayes was a Scientologist so just out of politeness really and just to be nice to heizak for years we didn't touch it and I just think it was a couple years ago we couldn't think of anything else one day we were out of ideas and I'm a member trades like let's do a Scientology episode and we kind of I remember I was like look the lawyers won't let us do it because Scientology's so you know a lawyer heavy they sue everyone who tries to do anything about him and we called Comedy Central to call me such was credit they said yeah go ahead and do it and it aired and then you know everything kind of started hitting the fan for them and but it really started hitting the fan about three months later now Isaac could quit the show we thought it all happened and then we got a call on Wednesday morning that that Wednesday nights rerun of the Scientology episode was not going to air because of some producers of Mission Impossible 3 that didn't want it to air and that's really what happened and it got pulled off the air so and we hit the roof and they said because they call us and they said listen guys we need to tell you were gonna pull this episode because certain people involved with Mission Possible three want it pulled off so we're gonna pull it off but we just don't want you to say anything to anybody and we honest to god I mean what was cool was we said we don't have to because you don't realize the world you live in now people are gonna notice it's gonna be on the Internet and sure enough without us saying anything the next morning at 6 a.m. it was Tom Cruise got the show bold to pop up here's how it went down and all this stuff and they thought it came from us and so but we didn't I really enjoyed the episode where I think it was Cartman had fell off the roof and ended up waking out in hospital and people thought he suddenly developed psychic powers I was wondering if he could just tell us a little bit about where that one came from I thought it was wonderful whether that was another jrf source for you background it was another it was off of that shows that psychic detective show you know because it gets hard believe me it gets after ten years it gets pretty hard to come up with this you know and and so so pretty soon you just start seeing something on TV and go okay let's do that you know and and so I'm yeah I mean I remember much about that episode people on our staff were like yeah but this yeah it really does use psychics and it really do work like no they don't like our whole staff and we'd love I mean we have like a bunch of people working for us who are great and smart and like we love and I was like only me and Trey were like they know that doesn't work you guys John Edward can't talk to the dead I guess he can it was amazing it was actually really it was amazing to us the but it was really like I was surprised how many people bought it you know what I mean but again like when you watch John Edward or you watch the psychic detective it's just funny you know it's just funny so you know we have to make fun of it I have to say ever since I started watching the show at a age of two I've um I've never been able to see you two as the principal voices for the four boys so I wondered are the voices digitally modified after recording or are you just extremely good at voice talents we are extremely good at voice talents however I mean when we went the first time that night we started this in college and we made a little short called the spirit of Christmas and it was just um well all that we did was at that time there wasn't even much digital recording equipment you could get in the home so it was just a little four-track recorder and we learned that we could do a voice and then just speed up the tape just a little bit and then that made that made the boys you know so obviously we do a lot of the voices that aren't the boys but for for anything that's a kid we usually speed it up three semitones for people that work in Pro Tools three semitones as I'm sure you're aware there's a major war going on a war against Christmas and I've heard from I've heard from a lot of people like Bill O'Reilly on this one person or one entity you I have not heard from his mr. hankey and we were wondering what side he might be on and does he remain the Christmas poo or is he a holiday poo or a seasonal poo or multicultural poo or something seasonal poo just doesn't work for me it sounds like good it sounds like a cooking ingredient no I mean I that's you know I obviously South Park's always had a lot to do with Christmas and it's just because I mean I grew up loving Christmas and loving Christmas icons and Christmas stories and I think mr. Hankey would always be the Christmas poo because that's what he is he's poo and he's about Christmas and he's totally loves everything else but he's all about Christmas so I don't think I hope will change up anytime soon love Orgazmo and cannibal the musical inside you said you wrote in and your playboy interview that because robert redford without having even seen south park was dissing it you had to drown him in a river of along with sundance festival do you find that now when people who may not like the show see you two coming they kind of turn away because or the people don't want to disagree with you because then they're going to have an episode where they're getting fisted by Cartman or something we have learned that I mean especially after Team America so much of Hollywood distanced themselves from us not really because of what we did to celebrities but because of sort of its point of view or lack thereof and just didn't agree with theirs and so but people I think definitely know not to piss us off either I mean look at Tom cook we got to Tom Cruise kicked out of paramount I really liked your intelligent design episode I thought the message was spot-on and like throwing the wee stuff and that making it accessible to the entire culture was great I just wanted about Richard Dawkins you pretty hard on in there we knew this would come up and I know just waiting yeah my question is he's a person I respect I don't know how you feel about him but you treated them fairly because that's how you treat all celebrities but do you do you ever like feel like you have to pull your punches on someone cuz or you feel sorry I wish I don't have to do this to this guy questions I think Matt should answer that well we're we're gonna pull punches on we're gonna pull punches on Richard Dawkins after all the stuff that we've done I mean we wanted to do a show on on atheism because it seemed to be this kind of like subject to juror with all the the new books that have come out and it also happened that we um this summer was there was really a like we we learned something so we were surprised to find out that there was a common perception that we were a theists that Trey and I were avowed atheist and we were asked in this interview if we were avowed atheist and we said no and I and we both kind of said no for own reasons this is why I'm not Nathan's mom at it and then the next day we got this really nice email from Penn our best friend Ben and it really got us thinking about it you know I mean I mean as much as a lot of the show comes from our life and this was just something that was happening you know swear for the first time we're like oh yeah you know am I an atheist no because we don't we never attack we make fun of religion and we we have fun with all of its icons and all its myths and stuff but I'm also fascinated with it and I think trey is too and there's a lot of good stuff there as far as storytelling and it's part of America so like if you want to do a comedy show about America you can't not do it about religion that being said my personal view of Richard Dawkins is he's the smartest dumbest person in the world I probably won't come across through it well in this room but like the that's kind of the message you know our message in this show was that people will fight about anything Richard Dawkins is obviously a brilliant man but some of his book it was frustrating to read because you'd read something so smart and then to me something so he like what you know you need something that was just so like how could you say this so we had him fall in love with mr. garrison you know I don't know why that proves anything about mr. garrison I was just really excited about the week coming out and and so we can't actually it was a great experience because we it was one time that we when we have a sort of topic show we do try to research it a lot and we get into it and and try to really figure out what we're saying and we don't come into a show we try never to come in and show saying let's say this let's make this point we try to always say let's tell the story and then come Monday or Tuesday morning when the show's done we're like oh look that's our point you know we we really try to to do that but it was a great experience because we we actually went back and forth a lot with Penn and we got on the phone with man a lot and we're just because we needed things clarified you know because a lot of people in this room and and know Dawkins more than just that one book which is all we knew and so again it wasn't what can we say about Dawkins what can we do about Dawkins it was the weeds coming out I'm super excited Cartman should be excited too and meanwhile all this other stuffs happening you know well I was with Dawkins the very next morning after your show aired and he was most upset that you didn't get his accent correct yeah we heard that which means I guess he thought he looked just like himself well my name is Margaret Downey I'm the newly elected president of the atheist Alliance International and I wanted to tell you that the 15 year long feud between American atheist and atheist Alliance International is officially over yeah but the otters are coming is going to tell you that we're still battling the otters thank you yesterday Penn told us that you're in a position to do pretty much whatever the hell you wanna comedy central's so I have to ask if the decision not to show Muhammad in that episode which you would have done for the second time was yours or no we absolutely couldn't and it's a pretty interesting story because we had actually shown Muhammad like five years ago we did an episode called the super best friends and it had all the religious leaders working together you know and and Muhammad I believe had the gift of fire and could like burn things with his hands and stuff like that so but you know and and and so the show came and went and I remember people telling us when it was happening they said you know you can't show an image of Muhammad and I was like I can't and they said no it's against the no I'm not Muslim I can show Muhammad fine don't worry about it and and so it you know we heard that a few times and then nothing happened and then I was actually on my honeymoon in in Disneyworld a year ago and turned on the TV and there's all these people Muslims rioting riding and down the bottom it says cartoon sparks protests and I was like holy it took that long and I got my wife and I was like we gotta get out of Disneyworld right now and and and then finally you know it kept going and it said it was this and I was like oh that and so so then of course you know we're only two months away from airing new episodes we got together for the writers retreat to see what we're gonna talk about is like well cartoon where it's called cartoon wars how can we not do that and we said to Comedy Central oh great news you know we got a great idea for first episode we're gonna show Mohammed and talk about you know why you can't show him and they're like no no no no no no no no we said no we're going to and they said no and we came up well what if we do it this way no what if we do that would know and but finally we kind of we bent because they were on it they didn't hide behind cuz the network didn't hide behind anything of like you know we have to respect their beliefs and all that they said we're scared of being bombed it was like okay at least you're being honest so you're scared of being bombed and you don't want to take the responsibility but on the other hand we have to talk about this and we've learned through you know nine years of doing the show that there's lots of ways to approach things and do it where your audience can still totally think about it and talk about it without having to hit it over the head and so we did do the show with Mohammed and of course we made it on Family Guy so that they would get in trouble not us but because that was our first idea was like let's just do it all like Family Guy and they said we're scared of getting bombed we said what if we do a whole show like Family Guy so that then when the Muslims see it they'll be like oh it's Family Guy and Obama there and they're like that's not cool that's really not cool we're not really that brave that was the point by the time it gets over there to look like Family Guy and then we can I as a former Mormon or as I call myself a foreman I've always wondered about your fascination with Mormonism can you explain that well we we grew up in Colorado so there was there was a lot of Mormons around like you know a couple of my really good friends in elementary school were Mormons and so there was a lot of influence there I just I'm totally fascinated with Mormonism I and I don't know why it's like it's a good storytelling thing and like Orgazmo or i mean other things because it it's like shorthand for naive and like super religious white people right you know just like like that's you know that's like you'd say more it's like Nazis a you know a shorthand for bad guy Mormons or Trevor like not even and so they're great story you know for storytelling with that but it's just when you read the beginnings of Mormonism you read the Joseph Smith story here's like wow wow really I just the idea that like and it's in cults and it's and religions stuff for the idea of anybody that can get like Joseph Smith like people to give him money and let him have sex with their wives I know respect is the wrong word but there's something like incredible about you know that's like I want to know more about those guys just like fascinating that's all I think that what you've been able to accomplish is nothing short of amazing and I just wanted to take this unique opportunity to say thank you well thank you is there a chance of seeing maybe another version of that's my bush perhaps after the next election maybe fantastic shot the only story we have about that is that um we got together we wanted to do a sitcom about the president and at that we were sure it was going to be al gore and it was gonna be called absolutely our life so gore right something like that and so we go we got together with the writers on on the night of the election and we're just like okay as soon as this elections over we can be sure we can start going and then that of course was the election where it got recounted and recount recount and so we had to actually push production back and back and back because it wasn't sure who it was gonna be and then the thing and so a lot of people thought we were you know we had set out to make a big anti-bush show and in fact it wasn't it wasn't set out to be an anti gore show either it was just we want to make a sitcom about the real president and so would we do it again I don't think so just because cartoons are a lot more fun this was there any reaction from Salt Lake about the Mormon episode and how can I get that great dum dum dum dum song out of my head I'll tell you what you know we we go different places we go in the country it's really fascinating because we'll go some places and they'll be like self-park guys wow you know we'll go to other places nope yeah the bass ketball guys oh god no and but when I really I've said this to a lot of people I don't there's like I get a whole different vibe when I'm in Salt Lake City ins not what you would think I'm like treated way more like a hero there than anywhere else and of course it's not by the older crowd but but so many of the the you know younger kids or at least kids at the time you know we're we're just like are such huge Orgazmo fans it was like it was pretty cool and and so we go to Salt Lake City all the time in fact we're we're working right now in a Broadway musical about Mormons and and so we've been to Salt Lake a few tight because I love going to Temple Square and just walk around and laughing it's just great that was a tough doing that episode was because in the episode it basically tells the Joseph Smith story the beginnings of Mormonism and it was really tough we run into this sometimes making fun of John Edwards or the Scientology's perfect example or morons where you're trying to tell like okay we want television Joseph Smith and went and dug up the plates and then a salamander talked to him and it's like well people are gonna think we just made that up and so you have this whole problem you know or Scientology when we did the Scientology creation myth it's like it's so stupid that it looks like we must have made that up swear to put this thing at the bottom that said you know this is actually what they believe and I remember that was a big problem with the Mormon episode ii was making it funny but making sure people understood that this is this is real you know this is really what they think and maybe the dum dum dum song kinda helped that make sense um how much longer could we expect to see South Park on the air and win is dvd-a gonna go on tour man you guys that come Chicago yeah touring our band which we do that DVD we played like three live shows about 12 years ago and we've been honest ever since so maybe we have got to come back to earth we should put together and as far as South Park I mean it's still fun and and it's not fun all the time but it's we go through these kind of once you know we do two runs a year and once every run we definitely think that's is it we can't come up with anything and then we have you know it seems like by the next time we have to go and do more shows I don't know we've come up with more ideas so as soon as I don't know I think that day well I think it will present itself but I don't know for a few more years at least as long as people are stupid we'll probably be able to have a show so so that's at least another three or four years I think you mentioned you've gotten some resistance on your John Edward and psychic detective shows and I was wondering if you by the time those shows finished production had you converted any of your true what's interesting was that a lot of people were like you know what that guy is a douche but my aunt knows this guy that can really do it you know so it's just it's just it's that thing of you know you're never gonna you're never gonna convert anybody with with one show and with one probably with one book and probably with one anything but you know you just keep plugging away it was this year it happened we did a 9/11 conspiracy show and we in trade we had in the editing room with our editors and editors and some people working the show and like this 9/11 conspiracy I make fun of the people well you know the burning you know the burning temperature of propane isn't blown and these people start talking like oh no like half our office you know it was like 9/11 conspiracies like oh boy but see the thing is we're the boss so they have to work on the show even if they disagree with it but I don't know if we convert anybody in our office but they have to do it I live just up the street from my distinguished colleague mr. bit lock here in Colorado Springs and when our family goes skiing we'll drive up through a route 9 up through Alma and Fairplay and various things like that I'm just curious did you all when you were at UC did you spend a lot of time in South Park why South Park County and almond Fair plan zone as opposed to Elbert or El Paso or summit there's all sorts of interesting material because those places are weird right yeah thanks thanks very much I grew up in a town little town called conifer which was on 285 up towards South Park and so South Park was this big empty valley and it's sort of if you look at it on a map it's actually it's almost a perfectly circular Valley right in the middle of the Rocky Mountains so just that alone was just kind of weird and what happened when I was growing up it was the place where any weird story you would hear you know there was UFOs last week you know in South Park they canned all the cattle mutilations all that stuff it was always from South Park you know and so that was always just the weird thing you heard mythological stories from so I have a good friend who's a ralien and so I read their their main book and discovered they believe that Jesus and the other prophets were alien-human hybrids and that Jesus walked on water with anti-gravity guns and it's all in their main book I was wondering any any chance of doing the show on the Raelians I'd like to see the visual of Jesus I don't think you can make fun of that because it's I mean that just that sounds more reasonable to me than most things I've heard hi I have a quick question that just a quick personal aside um when you introduce a new character like Scott tenorman or something where do you come up with the name for him did you just make it up or is it somebody you know and then just to let you know I'm Steve Packard pa CK ard like the antique car like Hewlett Packard actually Stephens spelled with a pH I'm actually a junior my middle initial is M people call me dr. buzz oh that's my name on the form just under six two sideburns keep my hair short real nasal voice be careful what you wish for cuz usually names are pretty much random but uh watch who you're getting butt-fucked by next week on the show my name is still played I have two questions first of all when you started South Park did you have any idea it was going to become just the huge thing that it is today I mean did you have any idea that we wanted to do a skeptics conference in 12 years you know what the quickest easiest way to do that do you really model your characters after anyone or do you just make them up well both but a lot of a lot of characters are like sometimes it's like the drawings based on somebody or the voice is based on like like somebody you know like mr. garrison is based on a professor that Trey had in college he would make fun of and that's the voice that there's a professor and like butters is me making fun of our animation director and so and that's kind of you know I mean that's how a lot of people come up with characters as you start imitating and making fun of somebody and you know you can't you know you get their kind of essence or whatever and that becomes a character but to your first question I mean when South Park started we got an order for I mean first of all like to just have Comedy Central by our script for our show was this amazing thing you know we're just two guys from Colorado and then and then they ordered a pilot and it took us a year to make the pilot and just making a pilot I mean every step seemed like such a huge success you know for us and and I remember when you know when we got a six episode order that was the first orders like you're gonna have six episodes of television on the air I mean that's that's it like for when you just come from independent film that's you that's the dream it doesn't go any further than that so we've never thought more than past like the next run or the next year and now sudden is 10 years later and we're just as surprised as anyone how do you respond to the Family Values groups and the parents groups who complain that your show sets a bad example for kids because you have eight-year-olds cursing and stuff like that we completely agree with them and you know that I think I think pen touched on this yesterday too I mean it really is we get asked the question a lot you know and you know how how did how did you fight to get all this stuff aren't and it really we'd love to say that you know what we did is we stood our ground and we said no you know but the truth is we put fart jokes on TV and people started throwing money at us you know and we just and then we're like well how about this and they threw more money at us you know and and for the most part you know I mean the biggest backlash we've ever experienced in our careers was after Team America from the Liberals and I'm not exaggerating I mean that was the first time that we really had a large group of people saying how dare you and for the most part you know everything we heard from the religious groups were like this is wrong this is wrong which they're totally entitled to think so and whatever but Sean Penn was the first guy to write a letter and say you better stop this to us personally it was just like dude you know if I mean personally if I if we could and we haven't but I would like to secretly pay family groups to get mad at us it just gives us good press it's just the best you know I mean sometimes I mean and the big it was really helpful for us but they kind of lie the biggest lie about the beginnings of South Park was that that that even happened no one was mad I mean you know the beginning was like well the South Park's on the cover of Newsweek that kids shouldn't be watching this and they go find that one guy here says why can't remembers name and everyone's saying I don't want to give him them you know you know satisfaction I can't remember but it's some one guy they always call to get these quotes for but the truth was there was no groups getting mad it just it seemed like there should be you know and so like the press just kept saying it and we're like yeah people get mad yeah and it helped us out but it never really happened last see it was not last season because a lot but the seen him before last we're like every episode were like God people didn't get pissed at that Catholic leave we did this the Bloody Mary show when finally sort of get so like so the Catholic League of whatever that is this is some little it's a some guy in his 12 cousins have joined him thing it really is actually and and they pressured a Catholic board member of Paramount to have this episode rescheduled right around Christmas time last year when we got that call it really was or just a rescheduling and we were like you know it it made us mad but the other hand it was like you know it was the Virgin Mary blood on the Pope's face so you know like you got to choose your battles if so for us it's like alright you know it's like for us it's like we kind of were like sitting there going that really is pretty bad I don't know so we don't get too caught up on the little things anymore we feel like the big war we've won so this will be our last question I'm sorry hi I was wondering if there were any characters or episodes you kind of regret doing for a creative reasons or I guess political though I doubt that I regret all of season two and half of season three just because I mean it's hard it's really hard to I mean we've stuck with the show and a lot of TV shows you know people sort of set them up and everyone told us you know what you're set up now now you go away and you have other writers come in and do it and you collect your money and we just wanted to stay and do the show and it's nice that we were able to see it evolve but the other side of that is now we get to look back and see what we thought was funny ten years ago and for moat I think for most people in this room that would be painful you know to see I thought that was funny ten years ago you know so it it's always hard to look back but um yeah I don't well we've never regretted anything we've said politically or done politically just because oh yeah I'm the only time we we kind of after an episode aired and we're like I don't know we had this episode where the big joke at the end was aids AIDS is finally funny and it was this whole joke about I mean it was a whole statement on you know comedy is tragedy plus time which is just right I mean everyone knows that concept of like it's not funny and then like five years later girl laughing about it but we didn't really mean aids as funny we met it's okay it's finally time to make we can finally make jokes about AIDS but you know I mean it seems like you're splitting hairs but we you know it's it's a real fine light you want to be understood and when you're dealing with a lot of the subject matter sometimes like I think we could have said that a little better you know like is this more precisely what you wanted to say but yeah I think we regret any anything hope not some that's all we don't school thank you thank you got an award too well on behalf the James Randi Educational Foundation mr. Randi and it's a pretty big thrill for me I want to thank the guys from South Park Trey and man thank you so much

Channel: JamesRandiFoundation

Views: 357,327

Rating: 4.8962288 out of 5

Keywords: TAM, JREF, skeptic, James Randi, South Park, Trey Parker, Matt Stone, Penn Jillette

Id: xQ2pP4Bue00

Length: 35min 14sec (2114 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 26 2013

Reddit Comments

[u/Viking_Lordbeast]

Could the not afford a second mic?

[u/firex726]

Now I gotta watch to see who that one guy get's fucked by.

[u/anon3737]

Thanks for the link. Good stuff.

[u/rtfmpls]

26:52 is that David Cross? :D

[u/[deleted]]

So did anyone ask them about their portrayals of climate change or atheism?