Jeri Jacquin
Hall H was packed late Friday afternoon for Comedy’s Central’s Adult Animation panel. South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone (their first time in 10 years), took the stage along with Beavis and Butt-Head creator Mike Judge and Digman! Star and co-creator Andy Samberg. Moderated by Josh Horowitz, excited fans were treated to stories, laughs and what is coming next for these beloved and iconic shows. It must also be said that fans were talking before the panel began about the recent South Park Season 27 with the teeny, tiny DJT character – oh hell, the whole episode had every recalling and laughing.
Horowitz addressed Parker and Stone with the unbelievable apology of “we’re terribly sorry”. Personally, I don’t think they have anything to apologize for since signing their $1.5 billion (with a b) deal with Paramount to continue South Park which means that neither writer is afraid of Oompa Loompas!
Samberg said South Park was a college get together, as well as Beavis and Butt-Head and it meant everything to him. Judge talks about how he thought he would be recognized for his work for Beavis and Butt-Head, but he wasn’t. Stone and Parker agree but also say that Comic Con fans are so nice. They also admit they may use their character voices from time to time.
Asking
about their influences, Stone and Parker met over MONTY PYTHON’s Flying
Circus on PBS on a Thursday night. Meeting in film school, the two guys
were in classes and they were the only two that wanted to do comedy. “The
internet was just coming out but it was the VHS that went ‘viral’ yet me and
Matt were sleeping on couches to get to meetings”, says Parker.
Judge
agrees that it was the PBS series and that Terry Gilliams animation was
everything. He also mentioned National Lampoons Magazine saying the animation
in the 80s was bad unless you went to creative festivals. A personal note,
Judge does sound like Beavis! He tells the story of the Beavis-laugh inspired
by a student crushing on a calculous teacher who was a former Dallas Cowboy
cheerleader.
Stone says he loves animation because they don’t age. They last and it was a good creative decision for both Stone and Parker. “We got to create these characters and stick with them for a long time”, Stone says. Parker also admits that he has no idea what the next week episode is going to be and it’s “super stressful”. The timeline is admittedly unique and Judge says it has changed some and it takes time doing storyboards and vocals etc. “It’s getting a little faster”, he says. Parker says, “what is great for animators today is that it can all be done in one building so we can make changes. That’s the beauty of it”. Samberg did his at home which allowed him to make changes. “I think for us it was more about timing. SNL was people talking about it and over a period of time people would get a shirt that says “Making Copies!”. That’s why SNL did the same characters over and over. Digman!, my friend Neil Campbell wanted to do an animated show. I did Nic Cage impression on SNL but I wanted to keep doing it after so we reversed engineered it and went from there.” Asked if he was up to going to 25 to 30 seasons, Samberg replied, “Gawd, I would do anything to do that yeah. It is pretty amazing to be on here with my show but I’m going to roll with it.”
Stone
says there is always competition with TikTok saying, “I’m jealous of how they
can edit on their phone and what took us so much longer, people have these
creative tools. It feels competitive, that’s something that keeps us going.
Everyone is doing it.”
Horowitz asks if there is a keeper of the knowledge of South Park or Beavis and Butthead? And Parker points to the audience and says, “It’s them! We just go on the internet and see what people are saying and we can look at a fanbase and find out ‘oh yeah that’s who his mom is’ and the audience has said it”. Taking a break for Judge he says, “Not to bash on MTV, we had an ugly relationship for a while and we were doing too many too fast. There was no quality control but I loved doing it. I was relieved to be done but over the years I missed it. When we rebooted it, I did have all the model sheets and it was a good thing because no one else had them. I felt like I needed a break at the time but I did miss doing it and happy to do it again.”
The guests have maintained control of their projects, Parker says, “For us, we always like to think we were a band. It was like we go into a new season it’s like going into the studio together not knowing what was going to come out. WE have no idea what this album is going to sound like and every episode is a song. Even like last night, that show ended up a certain way and now we can react to that. When the season is done, okay, that’s a good album or not. It’s that creative thing. For us, we are either on or off. We have to have that energy otherwise we get lazy.”
Thoughts on being pitched live action for their characters? Judge says, “From the very beginning we were pitched and I’ve come close to wanting to do it. We did a casting session when the pandemic started, I’m open to it if something pops. There was one guy who did Beavis and it was funny. Then SNL did it with Ryan Gosling and I thought ‘that was pretty cool’ so many you never know.” Stone says they have never been approached but Parker says they have seen fan made things. Samberg believes, “In some ways the scale of things is so much less than live action which is what I like about it. It’s cartoon pace and it’s what we love and that’s why I think animation is so good for comedy. We are generation Sponge Bob now and that’s what people are coming up on. I like the jam of jokes and bigger, if it’s making us laugh, we will do it.”
Satirizing public figures over the years, Horowitz asks if each of them has a favorite? Somehow, I feel this is a loaded question but okay. Samberg believes its Nic Cage doing Nic Cage on SNL. Bringing up Matt Damon for Team America, Stone jumped in with, “Matt was super cool because he knows that all came from making puppets. They showed us the puppets and said that it didn’t look like Matt Damon. It looked like something was wrong with him! I just did the thing and oh well.”
Finally, who inspires these clearly creative geniuses? Stone was the first to chime in with, “YouTube, I will find a random person doing a random thing and it reminds me of high school and making all those movies. Chocco-dogger and I watch him eat for two hours.” Judge says, “There is a guy on TikTok who does an imitation of Tucker Carlson and it’s him reading Dr. Dre lyrics and it makes me laugh. I’m the same way; I find these funny people on Instagram etc.”
What is amazing is that the same things that make us laugh, like a dog eating sandwiches on YouTube are the very same things that make Samberg, Judge, Stone and Parker laugh. That might very well be the key to their success. The more twisted and unusual, the more we as a collective group of carbon-based units who are starving for hilarity, are going to watch their work religiously. Ren & Stimpy me started down the rabbit hole helping to look for magic nose goblins, followed by Beavis and Butthead and my teenagers (at the time) repeating lines and embracing Cornholio like the character was a member of the family! When The Simpsons aired, every t-shirt in the house had Barts face on it and gawd forbid the dryer cracked the applique or a kid would go nuts! South Park roped me in tight and Cartman felt like a brother from another mother because I felt it in my soul when he yelled, ‘you will respect my authoritaaaahhhhyy’ and gawd forbid the applique cracked in my nightshirt. Digman! keeps comedy animation moving forward alongside with the same laughs and shocks that has gently shoved me towards my Amazon cart to order a new nightshirt. Damn washer better not crack the applique!
Look, grasp that adults need their cool stuff too!
