I was all prepared to rant about patriarchy and entrenched sexism and privileged white dudes not caring about other people in this country. But then I slowed my roll and read the full quote, and now I’m not so mad. First, some backstory: many conservatives believe that South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker are closeted Republicans/conservatives, and years ago, there was this movement amongst Young Republicans to call themselves South Park Republicans or whatever. I always thought that belief – that Parker and Stone were secretly conservative – came from the fact that they lampooned both sides of the political debate pretty equally. In previous interviews, Stone and Parker identified themselves as more libertarian, and they’ve said they hate both political extremes equally.

They’ve been talking more about politics this year in interviews though, and a few months back, they did a great piece with NY Mag about how much they hate their “anti-PC” comedy is being repurposed by Trump-supporters and Trump himself. Then, over the weekend, Parker and Stone did an event at the Paley Center to celebrate twenty seasons of South Park, and they answered some political questions. Some highlights:

Trey Parker on the election: “It doesn’t matter who wins. I mean, either way, it’ll be great. Either person that wins will be great for comedy…. If Trump becomes President, I’m moving in with Barbara Streisand,” said Parker, before Stone added: “And she’s moving to England, and I’ll have to move down the street from Trey, so we’ll be in England with Barbara Streisand.”

Why they included Donald Trump in last season’s South Park: “We thought we’d better do this before it goes away. When you’re doing something that contemporary, you’re worried that it will drop out [of the news] the next week.” They thought people might wonder why they were doing an entire episode about such a “marginal character” in the election. They did not expect he would go on to become one of the two major party nominees.

In the new season, they’re using Mr. Garrison as a Trump stand-in: They decided to do that in the first place because they “didn’t really want to service Trump as a character,” according to Parker. As Stone added, “We were like, f–k him, we don’t want to give him the satisfaction.”

Their own political views: As for their own political views, Parker and Stone said that while they have been labeled as “libertarian” in the press over the years, all they would say is “we believe in liberty.” If he thought there was “any chance in hell” that Gary Johnson could win, Parker said he would “probably” support him over either Trump or Clinton, who he described, jokingly, as “the giant douche and the turd sandwich,” without specifying which is which.

Don’t expect direct comedy about the election: “Good political satire has a point. And for us, it would be such a sacrilege—South Park is the most important thing.” They never want to “use” the show for a political end. Instead they see figures like Trump, Clinton, and other celebrities as “serving” the show.

[From NYDN & The Daily Beast]

I mean… we could still potentially rant about Stone and Parker’s privilege, that they don’t have to take this election seriously because they’re not the people a President Trump would want to bomb, destroy, censor, deport, malign or kill. That being said, they’re entitled to their opinions and it sounds like they’re as appalled by Trump as everybody else.

Embed from Getty Images

Embed from Getty Images

Photos courtesy of Getty, WENN.