Animators Matt Stone and Trey Parker have been proven wrong about their own series, “South Park.”

They were convinced not so long ago it was too unconventional to win an Emmy and, and because of language and content, would certainly never go into syndication. Yet here they are, in 2005, when “South Park” picked up its first Emmy, and dozens of local markets have started airing repeats in late-night blocks.

It also recently began a ninth season (10 p.m. Wednesdays on Comedy Central).

Such success tends to make Stone a bit paranoid. “We’re done. We won a (expletive) Emmy, and we can’t think of anything (more to write). Now we’re lame,” he deadpans.

“There’s that fear when you win an Emmy. You’re inside the party all of a sudden. Used to be that we were outside the party, making fun of people going in and flipping people off.

“When you win an Emmy, you feel like you have to behave or something.”

Don’t bet on Stone and Parker behaving anytime soon. The episode that earned them their first Emmy was titled “Best Friends Forever” and was a commentary on the Terri Schiavo controversy.

Parker and Stone were previously nominated for the episode about Osama bin Laden that aired six weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. It featured “South Park” kiddy Cartman as Bugs Bunny to Osama’s Elmer Fudd.

Both episodes will be seen in syndication. More than 100 episodes of the show have had slight revision in language to meet local FCC standards. Around a half dozen couldn’t make it into syndication either because of content or language. (Among those not making the cut: an episode in which Cartman uses a curse word, banned by the FCC for network use, more than 100 times.) At the time of this interview, Stone and the writers were contemplating how to address the Hurricane Katrina disaster in the current run of episodes.

“We have our own barometers about what is funny and how soon we should laugh,” he says. “We’re human beings. If we don’t laugh at (a taboo subject) then it probably isn’t funny.

“It’s not like we’d make fun of someone who died in something. That’s not funny. But it’s the job of people like us or (writer) Dave Barry to find humor (in) a situation so we can laugh again and get back to being human beings.

“I think a lot of mainstream comedy people are afraid of that, but that’s their job.”

Social commentary has always been a staple for “South Park,” though it may have all come by accident, Stone says.

“We never set out to do a topical show,” Stone says. “We kind of lucked into it. What happened was that we started procrastinating really bad. We started doing the show the week before it aired,” he says.

To fill out stories, the pair would often end up using topics that were current – though Stone says the show deals more with ongoing issues rather than specific events.

The Schiavo-inspired episode, for example, only made one direct reference to the comatose Florida woman who was at the center of a legal battle before she died this past March. The “South Park” episode was about Kenny, the show’s most-beleaguered character, who was on life support.

“South Park” will be around for three more years, as per a new agreement with Comedy Central. After that? “We’re trying to figure out how to graduate from ‘South Park’ and what to do creatively,” he says. “We’d like to graduate to a place where (we can help) other people make their own (projects).

“Trey and I know how to get (stuff) made in Hollywood. I think we can help the right people do their own thing.”

[ source: TELEGRAPH ]