South Park Creators: Comedy Central Tried to Kill Killing Kenny & More

You know two things if you’ve been checking out the 26th season of Trey Parker & Matt Stone‘s South Park on Comedy Central. First, the series’ comedic edge is just as shape as ever. Second, that sharp comedic head gets them just as many headline as they used to. But for this go-around, we’re taking a break from looking at what’s to come for a chance to listen to the long-running animated series’ creators discuss how the series came to be, fought through some serious waves of resistance, and continues to be as influential as ever. Parker & Stone checked in with hosts Doug Herzog (former network executive at MTV, Comedy Central, Fox) & Jen Chaney (TV critic at New York Magazine/Vulture) on this week’s episode of Basic!, a podcast series offering a look back to the glory days of basic cable history.

While we don’t want to spoil the episode for you because it’s definitely a must-listen for fans interested in knowing a lot of the behind-the-scenes happenings, there were some highlights that we wanted to point out. First up, that MTV passed on the series outright, while FOX was only interested if the series could be adjusted to focus on a family and not four kids (looking to apply to South Park what they thought it was about The Simpsons that made it work).

And at around the 21:20 mark, we have to give Herzog a ton of credit for throwing himself on his creative word by admitting that he tried to stop Parker & Stone from killing Kenny every week. That conversation segued directly into how Mr. Hankey, The Christmas Poo (S01E09), helped “mainstream” poop, as well as a great anecdote about how many a piece of poop was a bridge too far for one Comedy Central executive.

And then, starting around the 28:20 mark, the trio discuss the “The Gauntlet” short created for the 2020 MTV Movie Awards, spoofing Russell Crowe‘s Gladiator and John Travolta‘s Battlefield: Earth. When word hit that the short ended with a Cartman/toilet paper joke that wasn’t too flattering to L. Rob Hubbard (author of Battlefield: Earth), Dianetics & Scientology, Isaac Hayes (Chef), who was a Scientologist, asked the show’s creators if a Scienologist rep could see the short before it aired. Now, we get the backstory on how The Church of Scientology learned what was in the short at the same time as the rest of us did.

Now, here’s you chance to check out the entire episode for yourselves: