South Park creators and their love of creating musicals
Trey Parker and Matt Stone are the brains behind South Park. But did you know they also love creating musicals? They both co-created South Park, which is such a hit with audiences that it’s taken home several Emmy Awards and is considered one of the most influential animated shows of all time!! This dynamic duo also co-wrote and produced the Broadway musical The Book of Mormon in 2011, which won an impressive nine Tony Awards, including Best Musical. But that’s not all, these legends were also the mastermind behind 1993’s Cannibal! The Musical, 1998’s BASEketball, and 2004’s Team America: World Police. Let’s explore the beloved South Park creators and their love of creating musicals…
How it All Started
Before South Park even hit televisions, Trey Parker and Matt Stone were already experimenting with musicals. Back in their college days, they joined forces to make a movie called Cannibal! The Musical. It followed a real-life prospector, Alferd Packer, who ended up eating his travel buddies during a brutal winter. Despite the super dark narrative, Trey Parker and Matt Stone kept it light by turning it into a hilarious musical full of goofy songs like “Let’s Build a Snowman.”
Music in South Park
When South Park started in 1997, it wasn’t just about crude jokes and animation. But, music quickly became a key aspect of the hit television show. Over the years, fans have been treated to hilarious songs like “Make Love, Not Warcraft.” And in the series, the dynamic duo often pays tribute to musicals like Wicked and Phantom of the Opera with episodes like “Broadway Bro Down.” Two years after the show launched, Trey Parker and Matt Stone released South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut. The 1999 movie turned the series into a larger-than-life musical, and it was such a big hit that the track “Blame Canada” won an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song!! How awesome is that?!
Their Big Broadway Hit: The Book of Mormon
Trey Parker and Matt Stone joined forces with Robert Lopez (the guy who wrote songs for Frozen) to create a Broadway musical, called The Book of Mormon. The story followed two Mormon missionaries sent to Uganda. As you can expect from a Trey Parker and Matt Stone production, the musical is super funny, but also explores important themes like faith, hope, and friendship. Songs like “Hello!” and “I Believe” became instant hits, and the show (unsuprisingly!!) won big at the Tony Awards!! The Book of Mormon swept the award ceremony, taking home a whopping nine Tony Awards and is now recognized as one of the most popular musicals of all time.
“If you’re lucky enough to somehow have a ticket for this, the most cryingly good night out to have come along for years, and are by any chance looking forward to a smug few British-liberal hours sneering at the mad imbecilities of self-righteous Americans and organised religion, I have to tell you that you’ll be disappointed. The Book of Mormon is far, far cleverer, far kinder, far more nuanced than that, and one of its many surprises is that it sent an enraptured, ecstatic audience home with an odd sense of having come, somehow, to really like Mormons,” cheers The Guardian.
Trey Parker’s and Matt Stone’s Inspiration
In an interview, Trey Parker and Matt Stone said they grew up watching classics like The Sound of Music and appreciate newer musicals like Les Misérables. “We’ve had musical stuff in the show [South Park] forever. That’s mostly because Trey’s a big musical fan, and he’s a great songwriter. He’s been writing songs his whole life,” said Stone. While discussing his approach to creating musicals, Trey Parker said, “When you sit down and write a song, you kind of have the idea for the song, and you sit there at the piano and you kinda just write it… There’s just something that happens there that doesn’t happen when you really give it a lot of time beforehand.”
Other Musical Projects
These talented guys also issued the cult favorite puppet-based movie, Team America: World Police. With Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s clever use of music, it’s no wonder the movie has become such a popular cult classic over the years. At its core, Team America: World Police is about an elite team of puppet operatives fighting to save the world from terrorism. The satirical action-packed comedy movie sees the team battle global threats, go up against smug Hollywood actors, and face the chaos of their over-the-top tactics. Packed with outrageous humor, political satire, and awesome musical numbers, the movie parodies action films, U.S. foreign policy, and global politics in a hilariously exaggerated way. Songs like “America, F*** Yeah!” make fun of patriotic music, while “Montage” pokes fun at the training scenes you see in action and sports movies.
Another musical project that highlights Trey Parker’s and Matt Stone’s incredible creativity is the South Park 25th Anniversary Concert. Held at the iconic Red Rocks Amphitheatre in 2022, this concert celebrated the show’s long history by bringing many of its best-known songs to life on stage. The anniversary features performances by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, along with guest appearances from artists like Primus and Ween (who helped shape the original South Park theme). As you can expect, the concert was nostalgic, irreverent, and incredibly fun. The audience was treated to live renditions of fan favorites like “Kyle’s Mom’s a B****” and “Uncle F***er.”
The Legacy of Trey and Matt’s Musicals
From their college days with Cannibal! The Musical to their smash hit on Broadway, Trey Parker and Matt Stone have always had a love for creating musicals. Over the years, they’ve shown the world that musicals don’t have to be serious… They can be funny, slapstick, and still full of heart. Whether they’ve had us in switches with Cartman’s latest song or stunning audiences on Broadway, the dynamic duo prove that they know how to mix music and comedy like no one else.