Trey Parker Thought This ‘South Park’ Episode Would Destroy the Show’s Legacy
Trey Parker is extremely self-conscious of nearly every South Park episode he puts out. While he and his co-worker Matt Stone may seem like the most confident people in the world considering the boldness of their Comedy Central series, Parker is actually embarrassed about almost every South Park episode that airs. And one episode, in particular, made the South Park writer so self-conscious that he believed it would destroy the show’s legacy.
Which episode is Parker referring to?
Trey Parker has a lot of doubts when it comes to ‘South Park’
While South Park may be filled with low-brow humor and fart jokes, Parker actually cares deeply about his show’s legacy. His goal is to create genuine art for his fans, which is why he has so much self-doubt when an episode doesn’t turn out exactly how he’d like.
And during a podcast interview, the South Park writer was asked if he ever experiences doubt when it comes to his show. His response was to say that he doubts every single show.
“Every single show,” Parker admits. “Every show. You can ask anybody. Every show, I’m always saying, ‘Oh God, can we call the studio? Can we call Comedy Central and tell them there’s no show this week?’ And I always have to get talked down by Matt (Stone), and he goes, ‘Oh, come on, it’s funny!’ and I’m like, ‘But there’s nothing!’ You know, it happens every week. Almost every week, too, even by the time we’re done with the show, I’m like, ‘Oh my god. I’m embarrassed this is going on television.’ It’s not even finished, it’s not going to make any sense, everyone is going to be like, ‘that is the worst show ever.'”
Trey Parker believed that ‘Make Love, Not Warcraft’ would destroy ‘South Park’
Although “Make Love, Not Warcraft” is the most successful episode in the history of South Park, Parker believed that it would destroy the show’s legacy. Parker insisted that it was the worst South Park episode they had ever made. He even begged the series producer, Anne Garafino, to pull the episode from the air.
“I was like, please, begging Anne, do not let this go on air,” Parker told The Independent, “because I don’t want the South Park legacy to be ruined, and this show is going to ruin it because it’s so bad and I’m just going to feel terrible….”
Parker adds that he “just went home and was depressed and couldn’t sleep. And I got in the next day, and they’re like, dude, people really like that show. And it was the show about World of Warcraft.”
What is the ‘South Park’ creator’s favorite episode?
Despite feeling self-conscious about most of his shows, Parker has one South Park episode that he is incredibly proud of. In fact, he considers it to be his favorite show in the entire series.
“If I had to narrow it down to one favorite thing we’ve done, for me, it was ‘Imaginationland,'” he told Entertainment Weekly. “We started it as one episode, and it wasn’t until the Monday before it aired that we were like, ‘F— it, let’s not end this. We’ll do a two-parter.’ It aired, and I said, ‘What if we did a trilogy?’ I remember that Thursday morning writing every beat of the show on the board. It was the first time on a Thursday I stepped back from the board, and the whole show was there. It felt so good.”
