Donald Trump too hard to satirise, say South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone
Updated
The Donald Trump administration is too difficult to satirise because it is funny enough on its own, say Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the creators of South Park.
While the most recent series of their animated sitcom featured a character that clearly resembles Mr Trump, the pair made the decision to "back off" making fun of the latest US political events.
"It's tricky now because satire has become reality," Parker told 7.30.
"It's really hard to make fun of and in the last season of South Park, which just ended a month-and-a-half ago, we were really trying to make fun of what was going on but we couldn't keep up and what was actually happening was much funnier than anything we could come up with.
"So we decided to kind of back off and let them do their comedy and we'll do ours."
Mormons 'will out-nice you all the time'
Parker and Stone are in Melbourne for the Australian premiere of their stage musical, The Book of Mormon, which won nine Tony Awards on Broadway.
Creating a musical about the religion made sense, Stone said, because "there is something about Mormon culture and the big smiles they have, it just seems like they are always about to break out in song".
In Melbourne the Mormon church has taken advantage of the attention the musical is getting, booking advertising around the city which directs people to their website.
The church took similar action in the US.
"When we took the show to New York people were going, 'Oh man, What do you think the Mormons are going to do?' We're like, 'They're nice people, they are going to take out ads," Parker said.
"In New York they didn't just take out ads, they took out ads in our playbill, meaning they are paying us, and they put ads in saying, 'Hey, you've seen the show, now read the book.' And that is genius, they are so smart. I'm sure it is a tactic but it is also just who they are."
"They are going to out-nice you all the time," Stone said.
And Mormons who had seen the show seemed to enjoy it, he said.
"I think they like it. Not all of them, I'm sure that there are some that don't, and it's a self-selective bunch that comes to the musical," Stone said.
"I think they have a better sense of humour than people give them credit for and the show generally, it definitely has fun at their expense but the show kind of loves Mormons."
Parker added: "There is a select few that kind of view it as kind of their Fiddler on the Roof."
Topics: opera-and-musical-theatre, comedy-humour, animation, world-politics, melbourne-3000
First posted
