JOURNAL SENTINEL ARTICLE

'South Park' creators are zany kids at heart

Colorado graduates Parker, Stone can't help but pull for Denver

By Joanne Weintraub
of the Journal Sentinel

January 20, 1998

Pasadena, Calif. -- Don't hate them just because they're backing the Broncos.

Given that "South Park" creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone met in a filmmaking class at the University of Colorado, it's only natural that they'd come out onstage this week wearing orange-and-blue jerseys and spouting something about a Denver victory in San Diego.

Apart from their taste in teams, Stone, who has bushy brown curls and glasses, and Parker, who wears a baseball cap pulled low over lank blond hair, seem pretty likable and very funny. In fact, they're such animated animators that they've been cast opposite Jenny McCarthy and Yasmine Bleeth in a new Zucker Brothers movie called "Baseketball."

They're better known, of course, as the writers, directors and voices behind Comedy Central's surprise hit of the season, which is probably the only cartoon about second-graders that has ever worn a TVMA -- mature audiences only -- warning.

Parker, 28, and Stone, 26, have just signed a deal with the cable channel to do a second season of "South Park," which will begin airing in May. The current season includes four new episodes in February, the first of which involves a new kid named Damien and a pay-per-view slugfest between Jesus and Satan.

If that sounds unusual, you haven't been following "South Park," a comedy about electrocution, cattle mutilation, rhinoplasty and a character named "Mr. Hankie, the Talking Poo."

Parker does the voices of the series' Cartman and Stan characters. Stone is Kyle and Kenny.

Kenny, as fans know, is the kid who keeps dying and coming back to life in every episode -- except for the Christmas show, which he mysteriously survived.

Parker, apologetically: "You know, it was Christmas. You don't want to kill people on Christmas."

Stone, reassuringly: "But he'll be dying more. Soon."