6 Days to Air: The Making of South Park

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

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.

This was a documentary that Jaime, my wife, and I watched. We were tired so we wanted something that we could watch without fully paying attention. Seeing a documentary about South Park seemed perfect for that.

Now I've seen almost every episode of the show that they've put out. I own most of the seasons as well. I'm a fan of just how poignant they can be and on the ball with current events. This documentary shows how that happens. They make their episodes in six days. That seems like a lot of time, but considering other animated shows take months. It makes it that much more effective.

Here we get to see Trey Parker, Matt Stone and the rest of the writing room as well as the other teams involved with making the shows happen. This includes Bill Hader who worked in the writer's room at that time. It seems like an inclusive place from what everyone says. Bill also brings up how on Saturday Night Live, they must be careful who they mock. South Park doesn't and both sides are up for attack.

It makes sense why they put out so few episodes per season with how fast paced and stressful this is. We see the inception of HUMANCENTiPAD from beginning to air. This is one that Jaime also saw and we both thought was hilarious. Seeing how they came up with ideas and how they had a member of the team take it to the legal team to see what needs to be changed or what can fly. This is just a fun look at what they do.

This is a short documentary so they also include a bit of the history of the show. They get to know our main duo a bit as well. I thought that this was an interesting little look into the world of South Park that I wouldn't otherwise necessarily know.

My Rating: 7 out of 10.

6 Days to Air: The Making of South Park (2011)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

Fun documentary with the title referring to how long it takes the South Park group to come up with their ideas, write the dialogue, do the animation and get the finish product on the air. I think it goes without saying but this is mainly going to appeal to South Park fans, although I'm someone who hasn't watched the shows in ages yet it still kept me entertained and reminded me what a funny show it actually is. I really enjoyed seeing all of the behind the scenes stuff that's gone over as it really lets you in to see how tough the job actually is. Some of the best stuff happens in the writer's room where they discuss how for every one great idea they have a hundred bad ones. We see how they come up with the ideas, work them out and how they ultimately decide on whether or not to use them. From here we see the vocal work that has to be done and then of course there's the animation. The episode the guys are working on here is the one where Cartman keeps saying his mother is "screwing" him. Trey Parker and Matt Stone are both interviewed throughout the process and we also get a brief history of how the show started and their trip to the Oscars.

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".