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Matt Stone and Trey Parker have been writing South Park for decades. There are over 300 episodes of the animated series, and the show has faced multiple eras throughout its impressively long run.

But because there have are so many episodes, there are some that Parker is admittedly embarrassed about. In fact, he has gone so far as to call these episodes “terrible.”

Cartoon TV show "South Park", including Elton John (rear) with (from L to R) Kenny, Stan, Kyle and Cartman are featured in a 1998 episode
‘South Park’, including Elton John (rear) with (from L to R) Kenny, Stan, Kyle and Cartman are featured in a 1998 episode | Getty Images

How long has ‘South Park’ been on the air?

The series about the potty-mouthed fourth-graders initially premiered in 1997 on Comedy Central.
As of 2021, the show is still up and running, and it doesn’t seem to be running out of steam anytime soon.
One might wonder how the series manages to stay so fresh after all these years on air.
And according to Parker and Stone, the reason the series stays relevant is because they are constantly switching things up.

South Park writers/creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker arrive at "South Park's" 15th Anniversary Party
South Park writers/creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker arrive at “South Park’s” 15th Anniversary Party | Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

“For whatever it’s worth, we still do everything we did when we first started,” Parker tells Vanity Fair. “We really haven’t handed the show off to anyone. So for better or worse, it’s not like people trying to constantly recreate what South Park was—we’re constantly trying to figure out something new for it to be. And I don’t even know if it’s totally conscious—it’s just that we come in, and we don’t want to do the same thing, because it sounds boring to us. So we come to every season trying to say, ‘All right, what can we do totally differently?’ And that’s part of what makes it fun for us.”

“And I think we’ve been doing it long enough, hopefully, that we’ve gotten a little bit better at what we do, like anybody who’s done something long enough,” says Stone. “So we need to keep it exciting for ourselves, and maybe we’ve gotten a little bit better.”

As it turns out, Stone isn’t the only one who thinks they’ve gotten better at their craft as the series progressed. According to Parker, he can’t stand the first three seasons of South Park.

Trey Parker is ’embarrassed’ by the first three seasons of ‘South Park’

Stan And Kyle From The Episode 'Clubhouses'
Stan And Kyle From The Episode ‘Clubhouses’ | Getty Images

According to Parker, he isn’t proud of his first three seasons of the mountain town series. In fact, he’s so ashamed of seasons 1-3 that he wouldn’t be upset if they were permanently erased.

“If I had to permanently erase anything from the library, it would basically be anything before season 4,” he revealed to Entertainment Weekly. “It’s just embarrassing to watch. OK, we were, like, 26, 27. But it’s like, ‘Really? We thought that was funny? We thought that was well-written? Oh my God, this is terrible.'”

Matt Stone and Trey Parker think their show stopped being funny at one point

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‘South Park’ Creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker Claim This Episode ‘Has Not Aged Well’

As Parker and Stone continue to make South Park episodes in 2021, they are under the impression that their show stopped being funny at one point. Then, miraculously, it managed to get funny again, simply because they were still going at it.

“You know how they have that saying—a joke’s funny, and if you keep doing it, it starts to be not funny, but if you keep doing it, it starts to be funny again?” asks Parker. “I think that’s sort of what we’re doing. We’ve been around so long. It’s like it was funny, and then it started being not funny, and now we’re 47-year-old men doing fart jokes, and it’s starting to be funny again. Because it’s like, “Dude, really? You’re still really doing that sh*t?”

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