The Huffington Post profilesSouth Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone. Here's an excerpt:
They have certainly mocked conservative groups and people on their show, but they tend to skewer liberals more often. Why? "Ripping on Republicans is not that fun for us only because everyone else does it," Matt explained. "It's so much more fun for us to rip on liberals only because nobody else does it, and not because we think liberals are worse than Republicans but, just because…"
"…it's like fresh snow. I mean how're you gonna rip on Sarah Palin in a new way?" Trey pointed out.
"I think sometimes we do gravitate towards things other people haven't done and a lot of times that makes us gravitate away from ripping on Republicans cause it's just done very well by a ton of people. It's hard to compete with Jon Stewart, etc—those guys are brilliant."
For any of you who are wondering how to react if South Park mocks you in a future episode, take a tip from Kanye West:
I asked the men which celebrity had the craziest reaction out of any they mocked.
"Well the craziest was probably Kanye last year. We thought we would be more like 'Holy shit should I get a body guard? Should I get a gun?' and instead the next day he wrote in all caps 'YEAH YOU GUYS ARE RIGHT. I'M SORRY,'" Matt said in wonder.
"We were like 'Dude, what?' and for the first time it made us feel bad. If Sean Penn is like, 'Hey what do they think they're doing,'" Trey said in a voice halfway between Cartman and Penn, "We're just like, 'Hey dude, fuck you.' But for someone to actually say, 'Yeah it really hurt my feelings and I really should look at myself,' it's kind of like punching the kid and then he just sits there and cries."
Bonus links: Nick Gillespie and I interviewed Parker and Stone in 2006. I wrote an appreciation of the series in 2004. And back in 2000, when the conventional wisdom still had it that the show was unspeakable filth, Barry Fagin explained to Reason readers why he let his kids watch it anyway.
