6 Days to Air: The Making of South Park

As a fan since the beginning I thought I knew everything about South Park but I learned a lot from this documentary. This is a must see for all fans.

Why I saw this just now is something I can't explain to myself. I was actually watching some youtube and ended finding little bits of it, dealing with the way Trey Parker does the voice of Cartman – this got my attention as I don't think I've seen him doing that before (aside of that funny bit from BASEketball in which he turns into Cartman). Later, I found the clip of Trey doing some voice work together with Bill Hader. I did know Hader (yes *the* Bill Hader from SUPERBAD) was working for SOUTH PARK but watching the actual thing with him and Trey just laughing hard made me think something like "wait a minute, why I haven't seen this documentary? I even own the damn thing on Blu-Ray!"

What "6 Days to Air" offers is a look at how the first Season 15 episode ("HUMANCENTiPAD") got made. Also, we have stuff dealing with the story of the show. Is worth pointing out that hard-core fans of the show will find some great and unique material even from the bits with well-known stuff like the story behind "The Spirit of Christmas" or the going-to-the- Academy-Awards-with-dresses-and-on-acid anecdote. The rest of it, well, it's clearly priceless material – is seeing with your own eyes everything you have heard or read before; I mean, is seeing how Trey Parker and Matt Stone come up with pretty much everything (6 days before the airing, certainly) and their ability to basically hear an idea and immediately start to think with Cartman or Kyle's mind to create the dialog. Bill Hader has the dream job of being a writer who does basically nothing aside of laughing hysterically thanks to the whole making of a SOUTH PARK show. And you'll laugh hard too!

*Watched it on 09 September, 2012

Not sure what's the point of this 40 min "documentary".

It might appeal to die hard fans. For the rest of us: it might actually push some people away from ever watching any SP episode.

Now: I used to watch South Park (maybe the first 5, 6 seasons) then I guess I grew up and found most of the sexual and poop related "jokes" as being lame and fillers to carry on an otherwise empty episode.

But anyway.

The topic of the human centipede is just unwatchable stuff for anyone not familiar with SP; the unnecessary punishment to push through an episode in 6 days is not entertaining and definitely not meaningful at all (ok, it can help to work under pressure, but there are limits and they are not presented on screen). The pressure the animators, editors, etc are subjected seems like mobbing.

This is a sort of reality show that has been obviously heavily edited (even though the several black frames here and there tell us whoever reviewed it did a sloppy job). It seems the goal is to place the couple of Matt and Trey on the pedestal and see how they operate, rather than the process of making an episode. Again: cool stuff for a long time fan, useless for someone who doesn't knoew much.

The parts about the book of mormon, the oscars awards and how they started are cool yes, but totally unrelated to the premise of the documentary.

There is not much that made me say: "hey now I see how collaboration between different people can help trigger the creative process".

This documentary is pretty much exactly what it says: a look inside the studio and how a small group of dedicated people are able to bring a cartoon to your home each week with only days to go from scratch to screen.

My biggest disappointment is the length of this thing. Clearly it was designed to fit within an hour of television, but I would think they could have put more for those who did not watch the original run (I saw it on Netflix, for example). There was not much discussion of the movies these guys made, and how films like "Cannibal the Musical" fit into the story of Parker and Stone.

That aside, I think it was a good peak at how these guys work, and it is interesting to see Bill Hader in on the fun, too. I knew some episodes were made last minute, but I was not aware that the show consistently worked that way. It is an amazing feat.

I think the main reason why South Park will never be among one of the top ten animated programs of all time is because it's a show that centers around crudeness, vulgarity, and very controversial subject matter. Shows like The Simpsons overshadow South Park because of the fact that a show like that is on network TV and it's more family-orientated. South Park is and always will be in its own world.

The Making of South Park: 6 Days to Air is a special that is definitely overdue and under-stayed. This is a forty minute behind-the-scenes look at the making of the show and how everything is done in six days. During the summer and winter seasons the creators take a much needed break, while in the fall and spring seasons the animators, writers, and directors work hectically to try and put together seven or more episodes.

I always wondered why the creators don't work during the months the show is off the air. Then I figured it out; if they worked during the months the show was off the air and created episodes that centered around pop culture things set in the month of, say, June, then by the time they aired in October they'd be outdated because surely new tabloids have come out by then.

During the spring season many running jokes about actor Charlie Sheen surfaced since he was hogging the public light, and making himself out to be one of the biggest goofballs on Television. But in recent months his popularity has simmered and now no one even references his many catchphrases. Imagine if South Park made an episode about him during the June months and aired it in the months of October. It would be so outdated and old ratings might be hurting.

That's why, I believe, the show has such a strict week schedule. Every episode is created within six days, hence the title. Trey Parker and Matt Stone state that they spend so much time in the writing room before giving the idea to the animators for them to quickly animate and create it. The two also state that if they come up with some cockamamie idea (IE: people bouncing on their over-sized testicles) the animators need to find out how to make that happen. Nonetheless in a six day period.

The stress is sometimes unbearable, and the turnout isn't pleasing all the time. Trey Parker states that more often than not he is disappointed when the episode is finished, but can't hold onto it for a day more. It has to be turned in. He said that if he delayed some episodes he could be working for several more weeks to perfect it to his personal standards. And who's to say that the episode would even please him? 6 Days to Air shows the production of the episode "HUMANCENTiPAD," which was the season premiere for the show's fifteenth season. The episode is one giant joke about the lengthy and repetitive "Terms of Use" policy iTunes makes you agree to every few months. The joke is that everyone reads it except Kyle, and Kyle learns he has agreed to a very disgusting, inhumane project by Apple.

One thing the special should've included more of was the voice acting by Parker and Stone. Somehow, it's hilarious to see two grown men, one voicing a Chinese guy who is about to have diarrhea and the other voicing a young boy who is about to have a very unpleasant experience. The way they bounce back in forth, voicing almost all the male characters in the show is creative and nothing but sheer enjoyment.

I think it's because we (a) never see Parker and Stone together on camera and (b) we never really get a good look on how South Park is made. 6 Days to Air only scratches the surface on how the show is crafted, and at forty minutes, how much can you truly show and say? This is the first South Park documentary made since Going' Down to South Park in the early nineties. Maybe in another ten years we'll get a near two hour documentary with more extensive scenes of an episode's creation and more scenes involving the animators discuss the stress and frustration of working on such a show.

What we get is very good, and a long overdue project. But the result is it's under-stayed and leaves much more to be desired. There has to be more to the writing and animating process we see. Maybe next time we'll detour a bit and talk to both creators about their reactions on their films BASEketball and Team America: World Police. There is so much more to these creators than we see on this special. It seems they just don't want to show it.

Starring: Trey Parker and Matt Stone.