EXPRESS ARTICLE
Thursday, July 23, 1998
Duo's having a ball South Park's creators branch out into movies with BASEketball
By STEVE TILLEY -- Express Writer BEVERLY HILLS -- Trey Parker and Matt Stone have covered all the classic elements of modern cinema in their relatively short careers.
They've done singing, dancing, flesh-eating gold miners. A kickboxing Mormon who lands the starring role in a porn flick. Then there's that little cartoon show called South Park, which has featured plots revolving around such oft-covered territory as alien anal probes and homosexual house pets.
Now, the creators of the toilet-talking third-graders who redefined the limits of humor are poised on the verge of acting stardom with BASEketball, a David Zucker (Airplane!, The Naked Gun) comedy about a hybrid of baseball and basketball that takes America by storm.
Due in theatres July 31, BASEketball is actually Parker and Stone's third movie.
The first was the born-in-film-school Cannibal! The Musical, about a prospector on an ill-fated expedition that began with a hunt for gold and ended with human hors d'oeuvres.
The second, filmed before BASEketball and due out in wide release this September, is Orgazmo, the story of an L.A.-based Mormon (Parker) who reluctantly agrees to star in a porn film.
BASEketball is not only the pair's first Hollywood film, it's also the first in which they didn't write the script themselves.
But the chance to work with Zucker made signing on a no-brainer.
"It was like, 'David Zucker! We could act for David Zucker!' It was such a huge thing," says Stone, the one with the pseudo-Afro.
Adds Parker, the one with the carefully unkempt dyed-blond locks: "It was a blast. It was a total blast. Unfortunately, we were doing South Park at the same time, so it was the most hellish time of our lives."
Parker and Stone are a pair of oddly gracious subjects, aware of, but not impressed, by their own fame, sprinkling their conversation with "dude", "rad" and cuss words while carrying on a semi-serious discussion about the dismal state of comedy films in this decade.
The almost-30 duo have agreed to produce at least two more seasons of South Park, seen locally Fridays at midnight on HC and set to premiere on the Comedy Network next month. South Park: The Movie, due in theatres in March, is gearing up for production.
When the two first moved to Hollywood from their native Colorado, they took any and every offer that came their way. Then, during the filming of BASEketball, South Park premiered on the U.S. cable network Comedy Central. Kaboom!
"When South Park hit, we were still taking every deal, but now, of course, there were a hundred of 'em," says Parker. "Then all of a sudden we were like, 'Dude, we're in pretty big trouble.' "
Can they fathom doing the 60 episodes of South Park they're under contract to produce?
"What's more difficult for me to fathom is not doing them anymore. These boys are just starting to have a life. I don't want to kill them," says Parker.
Zucker, who basically created the genre of sight gag-laden spoof comedy with brother Jerry and collaborator Jim Abrahams, says the duo's comic genius is born out of a willingness to back down from a potential laugh.
"It's no fluke that South Park is this big thing," says Zucker. "They're pushing the edges of comedy and they'll stop at nothing."
Somehow, Parker and Stone have managed to remain the same guys they were when they met in college, in what might go down as a moment in comedy history as significant as when Abbott met Costello.
"We still get in Matt's truck and go down to McDonald's and stare at hot chicks," says Parker. "It's what we've always done."