Kids Say The Darndest Things

Sometimes, the road to the American dream is paved with flaming flatulence and singing poo.

At least, it has been for Trey Parker, 28, and Matt Stone, 26, creators of “South Park”--the scatological animated series that has set these Colorado college chums on the path to riches and become the signature show of cable’s Comedy Central network.

Featuring a quartet of foul-mouthed third-graders--Stan, Kyle, the obese Cartman and ill-fated Kenny, who dies violently just about every week--”South Park” has quickly established itself as a major hit by Comedy Central’s modest standards and a media darling, landing on the cover of Rolling Stone.

Not for everyone, the series receives a TV-MA (mature audiences) rating and represents an evolutionary step in subversiveness beyond “Beavis and Butt-head” while using a cardboard-cutout animation technique that costs about $300,000 per episode--a pittance by the standards of prime time or even many animated series.

“South Park” has achieved its prominence on the strength of just nine episodes and one widely circulated video Christmas card, “The Spirit of Christmas.” In that expletive-laden first effort, Jesus and Santa Claus duke it out, as the wide-eyed children look on.

Since the series premiered in August, Stone and Parker suddenly find themselves in considerable demand. The pair are currently working on “BASEketball,” a feature film in which they’ll star, directed by “Airplane!’s” David Zucker, whom they cite as one of their influences, along with Monty Python.

Besides brutally skewering celebrities such as Sally Struthers and Kathie Lee Gifford, “South Park” displays an unabashed fascination with bathroom humor, ranging from Cartman’s bout with flaming gas in the opener to the musically inclined “Mr. Hankey, the Christmas poo” in December.

Even other producers marvel at some of the gags the show is able to use.

“In all the comedy shows I’ve worked on, we’ve made jokes like that in the room, but we’ve said, ‘Well, that’s funny for us, but we’re not going to put that on the air,’ ” said Greg Daniels, executive producer of Fox’s animated hit “King of the Hill,” who previously worked on “The Simpsons.”

That trademark irreverence is demonstrated in tonight’s “South Park” installment--the first of four consecutive new episodes--which features a Jesus vs. Satan pay-per-view event. The Feb. 25 episode, titled “Cartman’s Mom Is a Dirty Slut,” ends in a cliffhanger that will conclude on April Fool’s Day.

Thus far, the series has found a loyal and still growing audience of about 2.2 million people a week, appealing most strongly to young adults and teenagers. While puny compared to ratings for popular network series, with Comedy Central available in less than half of the 98 million television homes in the United States, the figure is impressive.

“My call sheet’s gotten a lot more interesting in the last six months,” said Comedy Central President Doug Herzog. “It’s been incredible.”

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Beyond writing and producing the show, the creators divvy up many of the key character voices. Parker does Cartman, Stan and their teacher Mr. Garrison, while Stone mouths Kyle, Kenny, Uncle Jimbo and Jesus.

Their mockery of hallowed traditions, they insist, should be taken for what it is--a romp lacking in major political overtones.

“We don’t think in terms of how outrageous we can be,” Parker recently told what was doubtless the largest group of reporters ever to attend a Comedy Central press event.

“When we sit down to write these we don’t say, ‘How far can we get? How can we offend people?’ . . . We’re not in the business of offending people. We’re in the business of making people laugh.”

Despite the fact that the show revels in vulgarity, the trade magazine Advertising Age reported that commercials in “South Park” sell for more than 10 times Comedy Central’s normal rate.

Comedy Central said a number of sponsors do avoid the program, but there are enough willing to support it. The network has also received plenty of favorable reviews for the show, a CableACE award and surprisingly few complaints.

“We knew that there would be people who liked it, but we thought there would be a hell of a lot more people who didn’t,” said Herzog, who anticipates that the program will help inspire more cable systems to carry the network because, he said, “we’ve got programming people want to see.”

The network also shares in what promises to be a vast merchandising empire. “South Park” has already grossed nearly $30 million from the sale of T-shirts and other items. Parker and Stone will receive only a small percentage of the revenue that comes to Comedy Central, but Herzog said the network is endeavoring to be fair in such matters.

“We want to keep Matt and Trey interested and happy,” he said.

Parker and Stone say the show’s success hasn’t changed their outlook. Though stars have expressed interest in doing voices, for example, Parker said their first priority was to meet “the chick from ‘Species’ ” (actress Natasha Henstridge, who’s part of the Feb. 11 episode).

Then again, they’ve scarcely had time to soak in implications of the phenomenon they’ve unleashed, or even how best to squander their new-found riches.

“I still hang out with the same friends, but it is tough to keep your head,” Stone said.

“Three years ago I was sleeping on a couch. I’m not sitting around going I need [to buy] a house. . . . All I do is work.”

The two met at the University of Colorado in Boulder, where they collaborated on student films before moving to Los Angeles in 1994. They were virtually broke when then-Fox executive Brian Graden (who subsequently moved to MTV) gave them $1,200 to produce “The Spirit of Christmas.”

Although the show has created numerous catch phrases--among them “Omigod! They killed Kenny!” and Cartman’s insistence “I’m not fat! I’m big-boned!”--Parker wants to guard against becoming predictable.

“As soon as it stops being funny to us, then that’s when we’re going to change stuff,” he said.

There are plans to double the “South Park” staff to quicken the production pace. After a glut of reruns, the series will offer new episodes with some regularity beginning in May. The goal is a pattern of six original episodes, followed by six weeks of reruns.

Parker and Stone, meanwhile, are active in features as well. Their independent film “Orgazmo,” featuring Parker as a Mormon who becomes a porn star to pay for his wedding, recently played at the Sundance Film Festival. They’ll follow “BASEketball” (about two guys who invent a basketball-baseball hybrid) by writing a prequel to “Dumb and Dumber.”

Even though Hollywood has come knocking, the pair pledge they won’t emulate former “NYPD Blue” star David Caruso (another of the program’s celebrity targets) and decide they have graduated to bigger projects.

“ ‘South Park’ is our baby,” Stone said. “We’re on the cover of Rolling Stone this week. What could have treated us better than this show?”

* “South Park” airs Wednesdays and Saturdays at 10 p.m. on Comedy Central.