Why South Park's Matt Stone And Trey Parker Still Love The Show

In fairness, series creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone could have jumped ship from "South Park" 20 years ago and fans would have understood. The process of making the show from one week to the next, judging solely from the documentary "Six Days to Air," is a borderline-Olympian feat of creative efforts across a dozen fields of expertise. Writers, producers, voice actors, and a legion of Spartan animators conspire to create half an hour of original scripted television in less time than it takes to make a decent sourdough starter, with production of "South Park" managed down to the minute. 

Meanwhile, it seems like every time that the show goes on break, Parker and Stone carve their names into another corner of popular culture with a side project more ambitious than anything most people will accomplish. See: "The Book of Mormon," "Team America: World Police," and the military-grade bizarreness of "Sassy Justice."

In short, with a seemingly endless series of opportunities outside of the show and what feels like a guaranteed stress headache waiting every time they come back, it would make sense if Parker and Stone decided to leave "South Park" in their rearview mirrors. Year after year, though, they return to the quiet mountain town, and the reason, according to Stone, is dangerously close to wholesome: They just feel comfortable there.

Speaking to the Los Angeles Times, Matt Stone explained why he and longtime creative partner Trey Parker "always come back to South Park." The reason?

"It's always there for us," he explained, bumping right up against making readers feel feelings. Expressing a desire to keep stretching the duo's wings with other projects, he continued, "We definitely want to go do other s*** in life, whether it's creative or just travel or whatever ... We did Broadway and that was an amazing experience. But then you come back, and there's those four boys, and it's like we don't have to go into startup mode."

It's a nice thought, having a creative outlet that feels like coming home. Luckily, Parker and Stone seem to have found a particularly lucrative version of that best-case scenario — the duo signed a $900 million deal with Viacom in 2021 to keep "South Park" on the air through Season 30. With that kind of money, they might never have to go into startup mode again.