By Robert Scucci
| Published
When the term “studio interference” is uttered, it’s safe to say that whatever film has succumbed to its executive overlords is going to be an insult to its creator’s original vision. For Trey Parker and Matt Stone, they saw the pushback they received from Paramount as the challenge of a lifetime while working on South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut because they thought their series was going to end unceremoniously after its first few seasons, and decided that they didn’t want to go quietly into the good night without unapologetically doing things on their own terms.
Facing new challenges from the studio every step of the way, Parker and Stone found and worked through a loophole in system by taking the notes they received to tone down some of the more risqué sequences, and making South Park: Bigger, Longer, & Uncut a far more profane and tasteless movie than the original script could have ever dreamed of being if they were simply allowed to do what they wanted to do in the first place.
Doubling Down On The Profanity
In the commentary track for South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, Trey Parker talks at great length about how in order to placate the censors, he’d push back with something worse that would somehow make it into the final cut. The most notable sequence that resulted from this back-and-forth between the show’s creators and Paramount involved a scene in which Liane Cartman is seen starring in a full-blown German scat film in place of a scene that simply implied that she was copulating with a horse.
The original scene, as written for South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, involved an off-screen exchange where the audience would have heard neighing and other sounds suggesting that Cartman’s mom is enthusiastically engaging with an equestrian. The updated scene, which made it into the final theatrical cut, actually shows what’s happening on-screen, to which the censors must have thought, “fecal fetish films are just fine for some reason.”
One joke that went over the studio executives’ heads is the title of the film itself. Since Paramount thought that the original title, South Park: All Hell Breaks Loose, would be a detriment to the movie’s box office returns, Parker and Stone decided to go with Bigger, Longer & Uncut, which is a euphemism for the kind of male who didn’t get a certain procedure performed on their private parts when they were young.
A couple weeks after the title we’re familiar with was pitched, the South Park creators received a call from the studio executives about the double entendre that they didn’t notice at first, to which they replied, “sorry, we already had 10,000 posters printed up to promote the film.”
Behind The Scenes Antics
South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut was also subjected to a number of pitches from the studio, like getting Kid Rock to perform a rap rock cover of “Kyle’s Mom’s a B*tch.” Desperately trying to avoid having a Kid Rock song tainting their legacy, they refused this request, and instead recorded a punk folk version of “What Would Brian Boitano Do?,” complete with a music video featuring a portrayal of the figure skating legend eating chicken wings to a heavy metal breakdown, in its favor.
Promoting South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut was another arduous ordeal that culminated in Matt Stone stealing Paramount’s version of the original trailer – complete with needle drop gags and a wacky voiceover that he and Trey Parker absolutely hated – and hiding it in the trunk of his car over a long weekend.
After being advised by their attorney that he needed to return Paramount’s property because he just committed a felony, Stone reluctantly gave the film reels back to the studio.
Having lost the battle over the physical property that he didn’t want to see the light of day, the war was won by the South Park creators because they successfully convinced the studio that they wouldn’t move forward with the project unless they could use the trailer they created themselves.
Stuck To Their Guns, And The Rest Is History
Trey Parker and Matt Stone sincerely believed that South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut was going to be their swan song before fading into obscurity, and as a result fought tooth-and-nail to make sure that their vision was fully realized.
This nothing-to-lose mentality served them well because the movie was a massive success, generating over $83 million in revenue against its reported production budget of $21 million.
By staying true to themselves and nurturing their creation every step of the way in the form of fighting with the studio every chance they got, the South Park creators put out a film that they can say they’re proud of, and thanks to their willingness to push the envelope turned their flagship series into the juggernaut that’s just as relevant today as it ever was.
