South Park’s twenty-seventh season has been firing on all cylinders so far, with each controversial episode making headlines. For example, the fourth episode of the current season saw the Prince of Darkness and United States President Donald Trump expecting a baby of their own. Recently, an old video emerged of creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker discussing their process in forging stories for Kyle, Kenny, Cartman, and Stan, which might give animation fans a better idea of the stories that were made and the stories that have yet to come.
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Around eight years ago, Parker and Stone visited the Tisch School of The Arts to discuss their writing process and the rules they hold dear in bringing South Park to life. Trey kicked things off by discussing the writer’s room for the series, “Our whole South Park writers’ room, one whole wall is a whiteboard. We have it split up into three acts, and I walk around with markers to create funny scenes. Each individual scene has to work as a funny sketch, and we found this really simple rule. We can take these beats of your outline, and if the words, ‘And Then’ belong between those beats, then you’re f***ed.”
South Park’s Biggest Rule
Parker continued explaining the methodology, “What should happen between every beat that you’ve written down is either ‘therefore’ or ‘but.’ So what I’m saying is, you come up with an idea and THEN this happens. No no no, it should be ‘this happens’ and ‘therefore, this happens.’ BUT ‘this happens’ therefore ‘this happens’. Sometimes, we’ll literally write this out to make sure we’re doing it. There are so many scripts from new writers and things we see that break this rule.”
Clearly, Parker and Stone have seen serious success with this method as South Park has become a juggernaut for both Paramount and the animation world. Holding twenty-seven seasons of a series is a worthy enough accomplishment, but Parker and Stone have already been confirmed to create four more seasons for the studio past this current outing. With the creators routinely waiting until the very last minute to forge stories, this can mean that the animated show can venture into wild territory, though this comes with a caveat for the latest season.
While South Park seasons in the past have released episodes weekly, this current season needs a little more time than usual to forge its stories. A bi-weekly approach has been taken for recent installments, meaning viewers have to wait a little longer for each episode to arrive. Considering how long fans waited for season twenty-seven, it shouldn’t be a big deal, especially when looking at the staggering ratings that South Park continues to produce at this time. As we’ve seen from the latest episodes, it definitely seems as though Parker and Stone are staying true to their writing rules.
Want to see if Parker and Stone stick to their number one rule in the future? Follow along with ComicBook.com for the latest updates on South Park and hit us up in the comments.
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