'South Park' animators stand up for creativity

PASADENA, Calif. — In an age when many in the media seem to have been muzzled by the power of huge corporations and big government, who would have thought that one of the few beacons of light would come from the creators of "South Park"?

It boggles my mind, too.

But Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the guys behind those foul-mouthed, badly animated, completely politically incorrect, often wildly funny kids in "South Park," have stood up for creative freedom where a lot of others would not.

Hey, they took on the Scientologists and Viacom at the same time.

Last year, not one but two episodes of "South Park" caused more than their share of controversy. There was the episode that mocked Scientology and, perhaps more importantly to Viacom (which owns Comedy Central), it mocked Tom Cruise. The second mocked Mohammed.

The episode aired, but then the network announced it wouldn't be repeated. Parker and Stone, in turn, announced that they might not be working for Comedy Central anymore, which would have been the end of "South Park."

"I don't know if we would have totally not worked on 'South Park' ever again," Stone said, "but we have a couple of movies with Viacom, and it's tough to go to work for people that you think maybe are holding one of your episodes hostage. But that's kind of water under the bridge now because it's going back on the air."

Indeed, Comedy Central has put it back in the repeat rotation — a move that (coincidentally?) came after "Mission: Impossible 3" had played out in movie theaters.

Parker and Stone insisted they were not the source of the story that Tom Cruise had threatened not to promote "M:I3" unless Viacom (parent company of both Paramount and Comedy Central) pulled the episode. But they both said they believe that's true.

"We can't think of any other reason," Parker said.

"Can you think of anything else?" Stone asked.

The episode also made headlines when Isaac Hayes, who voiced the character of Chef, quit because, as a practicing Scientologist, he was offended. "He asked us to pull the episode off the air (and not to) ever have it made into DVDs,' " Stone said. "We said, 'No, we're not going to do that.' He said, 'OK' and left."

The next thing you knew, Hayes was calling them "bigots" in the press and announcing he was quitting the show.