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    'South Park' creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker focus on storytelling, not 'disruption'

    'South Park' creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker focus on storytelling, not 'disruption'

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    Matt Stone Trey parker (Shutterstock)
    Matt Stone Trey parker (Shutterstock)

    Speaking to The New York Times, South Park and Book of Mormon creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker offered a nonchalant view on the role of media delivery technologies in their ongoing work — the duo prefers to focus on telling stories and creating content rather than worrying about how people receive it. "Disruption is overrated," Stone told the Times, "if you tell good stories, the platforms are sort of beside the point. We made the most analog thing you can think of, a play at the Eugene O'Neill Theater, and it worked out as well as anything we have ever done."

    "It's important to come up with work that we're proud of and will make people want to catch the show wherever they want to."

    Outside of the theatre, Stone and Parker have been wildly successful in large part thanks to their lucrative cable deal with Comedy Central, but they don't seem too worried about cable exclusivity. "In our first season, you had to show up on Wednesday nights at 10PM," Stone tells the Times. "Now, I don't even know where or how people watch our show. We sort of don't really care about ratings. It's more important to come up with work that will add to the library in a way that we're proud of and will make people want to catch the show wherever they want to." Viewers can currently watch the entire catalog of South Park for free on the show's website, Southparkstudios.com.

    "'South Park' has yet to meet a platform it hasn't been able to conquer."

    Stone suggested to the Times that each new distribution options has "become a window of opportunity" for the duo's content. "Nobody even cared about DVD rights when we got started," Stone tells the Times, "there was nothing there. But we started with shows on half-inch tape and people bought them, and then it was DVDs, and then the web, now iPads and Netflix. Each time, it worked out." Viacom president Doug Herzog shared Stone's optimism, telling the Times that "South Park has yet to meet a platform it hasn't been able to conquer."

    Stone and Parker plan to continue a laser-focus on creating original content, and plan on producing a single run of 10 episode of 'South Park' a year instead of its usual schedule of 14 episodes split into half-seasons. Comparing South Park to a rock band, Parker tells the Times that "instead of putting out two albums a year, we are only going to do one, which is more manageable and ensures that it will be something we are proud of."