'South Park' creator on his tricky Obama-beats-McCain election episode

"South Park" co-creator Trey Parker was elated when he heard the news Tuesday night that Barack Obama had won the presidency. That's not because he bought into Obama's promises for change, or because he dislikes John McCain -- in fact, Parker says McCain is "a great guy."

Parker was crossing his fingers for an Obama victory because he wrote and directed an episode of "South Park," which aired Wednesday night, based on the premise that the Democratic candidate had won the night before. If the results had flipped, Parker says they would have aired the episode anyway, and later dealt with their own "Dewey defeats Truman" moment. (For a video clip of the Obama episode, click on the Read more line below and scroll down.)

The team considered doing an alternate version for a McCain win, but it proved to be ...

... too daunting a task. So, finally they decided, "Well, we're just going to make the Obama version, and if McCain somehow wins, we're basically just totally screwed," Parker said.

But throughout production, Parker says he had no doubt that Obama would win. That's because the sports betting website he uses to gamble on football games placed the odds heavily against the Republican nominee. "Who do we trust the most?" Parker said he asked himself when deciding whether to write the episode. "Who knows the most about who's going to win? And we just went to Vegas."

Parker even threw some of his own money on the line, placing a bet for Obama in October, when the odds were slimmer, he said. Just before the election, Las Vegas parlors upgraded their prediction to -800 -- what the odds might be for an NFL matchup between the undefeated Tennessee Titans and the winless Detroit Lions. (In other words, not close.)

Luckily for Parker, the house doesn't always win.

But just because the episode had been written before the election's fate had been decided doesn't mean Parker was partying in the streets Tuesday night. Like every Tuesday during a "South Park" season, he didn't get a wink of sleep.

The episode still wasn't completed on the eve of its air date. They needed to replicate the stage on which Obama gave his acceptance speech, and record voice-over excerpts from the transcript for the episode's cartoon reenactment of the oration. They finished production on the episode Wednesday morning, about three hours after they normally wrap.

Still, Comedy Central had only seen bits and pieces of it before airing at 10 p.m. One scene executives asked to see involved a joke about Obama's grandmother faking her death, which Parker says wasn't intended to be insensitive. "It's kind of nice," he said. "She's OK, and helping her grandson out."

Parker was committed to doing an episode on the election for this week's show once he heard about a McCain-Nazi joke on "Family Guy," which recently stirred some controversy. He called the scene, which showed the Stewie character dressed in a Nazi uniform and outfitted with a McCain-Palin button, "lame" -- amongst a series of expletives not suitable for publication.

"South Park" creators have publicly condemned "Family Guy" in the past, and Wednesday's episode was an attempt to one-up the Fox cartoon. But Parker wasn't going to make his version a political commentary.

"We've all heard about everything; we've talked about everything to death," Parker said of the exhausted political sphere. "And it's like, let's just put him in a diamond heist movie. They're just diamond thieves, and it's not about the politics at all anymore."

But what about change? Isn't Obama going to singlehandedly fix all our problems, and swiftly transform the nation into an eternal utopia? "I think this whole country is supposed to be based around the fact that one guy doesn't have that much power," Parker said.

-- Mark Milian

Photo credits: Comedy Central

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Comments

[npr]

Oh yeah, South Park. Used to be funny. Trey Parker should join McCain in the retirement home -- they can have good times complaining about other people's happiness.

[tbird]

After seeing part of last week's episode with the guinea pigs, I thought South Park was officially out of ideas. But I enjoyed this week's episode a lot. The parody was right on, and the partying/mourning after the election was very funny.

[Fred McCormick]

Do people still watch South Park? Whew, what a bunch of losers.

[Andrew]

Yes We Did etc. etc. Calm down, everyone. I like the guy too, but South Park is pretty spot on about overinflated expectations and the general mania that's swirled around him in the campaign.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKNf--N85dA

You have to admit that's funny stuff. And I'm one of the people who got misty-eyed during his speech...

[Andrea]

The episode was awesome! But Trey's comment about one guy not having that much power misses the point. Obama does not have that much power -- we do. He will lead us and we'll all fix this mess together.

[Failin' w/ Palin]

I watched South Park and some of the jokes went over my head. Like the guy who was drinking beer to excess and singing songs like "Obama" to the tune of "Mandy." Obamsters don't drink beer. We're chardonnay-sippers and tea-totallers at that. Except Bill Ayers, of course. And the conspiracy between McCain and Obama, what was the hidden message there? The Hope diamond-heist was crucial to the satire, but the strife between Michelle and Barack -- more likely to be between Cindy and John. And (finally, whew) there was no depth to the Palin characterization (what a minefield!) Maybe npr and tbird are right. I don't of course define myself as a loser. He did win by 7.5M votes, and I voted for him.

[Lola]

Dude this episode was awesome!

[jeebus]

South Park is STILL on?? Are you kidding me? Has it been on all this time, or did it go off and come back on? Man, when I think of South Park I think of 1997.

[Nutcracker]

Although once it was a miracle, South Park is dead several years ago. Its ideological bias, especially bashing of opposite-minded picked personas, started to become just too visible and it never reached or even attempted to reach such a full-spectrum agreement as Simpsons.

[Nath]

I loved this episode, because instead of making fun of the contenders, it made fun of the people of this nation. It didn't potray eith Obama negatively, which was suprising, seeing how conservative the show is. And Randy's outburst after finding out he got fired was really nice social commentary about people expecting way too much out of politicians

[Liz]

This has to be the only smart thing I've heard about this election. And leave it to Trey Parker to speak of it, it's this kind of intelligence that makes South Park the best show on TV ever!

By the way, this was a great episode. I was waiting since October to see an election epi. Great job!

[Ole Oleson]

"Man, when I think of South Park I think of 1997."

Then you have missed some of the best episodes of animated television, hell some of the best complete seasons.

[IrishDaze]

To all you haters out there -- I think South Park is still a great show! The humor has changed a bit over the years, but that's A Good Thing. South Park originated intelligent GenX-targeted satire, then kept topping itself. Nothing can keep topping itself forever, and I'm good with its niche. Comparisons to the Simpsons are like apples vs. oranges - Compare South Park to Futurama because the target audiences are the same. I also agree with the South Park team on Family Guy - I've found every episode I've ever tried to watch to be pointless and therefore stupid.

[karinova]

Wow. When I realized the episode was going to be McCain/Obama, I actually girded my loins for something awful. But South Park NAILED it-- I can't believe it. I had long since thought their time was past (especially after that Indiana Jones thing-- shudder). But nobody has come up with a way to joke about Obama, and you can bet this will now be it: Obama as ridiculously suave. I love him, and I can laugh at that. Even if you hate him, you can laugh at that.

[Jim]

Nutcracker: The Simpsons is far from full-spectrum. It's a clearly liberal-oriented show, as Matt Groening is heavily biased towards the left.

Regarding the show, I thought it was great. I'm a huge fan of true crime and heist films, and they did an excellent sendup. Plus the parodying of the gloating Obama supporters and doomsaying McCain backers was hilarious.

[philip]

I agree with the south park guys about familyguy.Familyguy has become a preachy political show that just isnt funny.Its like the writers over at familyguy have to remind us every week that there liberal and that everyone else is stupid if there not.Im glad to see someone like matt and trey doing something different with there show and just bashing the hell out of everyone and not showing any favortism towards any political party.

[jdfsadff]

Start really watching South Park before talking crap about it. How can you guys say that you didn't know it still existed, but at the same time say that it's lame and stupid. You're basically saying that you haven't really watched it, but you somehow hate it. Typically americans. Some of you just cant stand hearing the truth, so you banish south park from your lifes for telling it, even though you have no idea what it's about. fuk u.

[Yourmom]

First of all, whoever said that South Park's viewers are "a bunch of losers" is a loser themself because they are wasting time out of their life to complain about a show that they can choose not to watch if they don't like it.

South Park has been on since 1997 and is still the funniest animated program, in my opinion. Ever since its 5th season, it has stopped focusing on random, stupid toilet humor and started having better plot structure, completely non-biased views on political issues, and humor that is very relevant to modern society. And this episode is no different. It manages to point out how stupid extreme supporters of Obama and McCain can be. And the Sarah Palin character in this episode was definately hilarious.

If anyone wants to complain and whine about South Park making fun of Obama's supporters, than go back to watching stupid mindless crap like Family Guy. Family Guy basically just makes cheap jokes about Republicans without explaining its viewpoints and then implies that you suck if you don't think the exact same way on everything. I actually voted for Obama, but I would rather watch a show with hilarious and brilliant humor about both candidate's supporters than a show with cheap, unfunny, one-sided humor.

[Jonny Hero]

Honestly, if you live in the United States but weren't aware that this show is still on the air then you probably aren't very aware of anything... On top of remaining as Comedy Central's highest rated show, South Park has made the headlines more times in the last 3 seasons then they had in the 8 years prior combined. The last two years has seen the show awarded its first Emmy Awards while it has cemented its reputation for being the timeliest animated program in history.
If you were aware that the show was still on, but think that it has lost the humor it once had, you probably have either stopped watching altogether or do not have much of a sense of humor. South Park has evolved into the sharpest and most relevant satire on television. While its graphic nature certainly is not for everyone, saying that the show is altogether "unfunny" or that somehow Parker and Stone have lost their edge is kind of ridiculous...

[RB]

I personally found the episode hilarious, although of course everyone has their own opinions. Half the country is partying way too hard, and the other half is attempting suicide or hiding in shelters. Meanwhile, the candidates were actually planning something completely different and basically screwing over the country. Exaggerated almost beyond recognition, but still right.
And to Failin' w/ Palin: Clearly you don't watch South Park too often. "The guy drinking beer to excess" was Stan's dad Randy, who drinks too much. All the stuff he was doing was partly exaggerated satire, of course, but it was also completely in character.

[i eet ur sole.. Or something to that extent]

I still like South Park, and I still like Family Guy. It's one thing to be pissy, it's another to actually catch the joke. You want pissy and over done, then by all means, write Foamy a fan mail and wait a week. Obama won, yes we do drink beer, I love me some Nazi-Stewie Palin/McCain jokes, and South Park is STILL around, and I STILL like it. Now could you all just calm down before I send dead rabid turtles to your doorsteps? Great.

[iluvkenny]

Hilarious episode!! I didn't expect anything like that. Trey and Matt are GENIUSES.

[bobmarley]

i love this show so much...its better than any other animated comedy and all the rest of you who disagree can go die. its a great show with great points. i LOVE you kyle...i love you.

[LOADFASTER]

South Park is change....

South park I think is the best animated sitcom on TV right now.

I dont like the direction the simposons have gone this year. (Im not sure what bothers me about the simpsons right now. I just no Im disapointed).

Family guy in my books hasent changed much in my mind.

South Park... The one main thing bothering me on sout park is CARTMANS VOICE! Its not as good as it was in the earliest seasons.... His voice cracked me up WAY WAY more in the earliest seasons... No adays Cartman sounds almost exactly like Stan...

Thats south parks only big problem. make his voice sound like it used to in the early days... thatll cure 85% of south parks beefs with me.

[Joe]

People who are bashing South Park clearly are close-minded. South Park only rebels against what is around them...namely Los Angeles. People think that just because they don't give the blinded, liberal, one-sided, everything hard-core Dems do is perfect and awesome, that means they are "close-minded." Please, they stick up for gay rights, they stick up for freedom of speech, they make fun of both sides of the aisle. They are one of, if not THE, only show in Hollywood that actually takes both sides into account. It's not just this Sean Penn or Michael Moore "I'm so smart look how dumb people who disagree with me are." Anybody who actually watches the show consistently knows that they show both sides of an argument and then come to (gasp) rational conclusion! Also, the show didn't die YEARS ago...this season, not so consistent, but the show has been really getting better for a while (until this season).