"South Pork: From Mr. Hankey to Mr. Hanky-Panky, Trey Parker Blasts Off

with the Porn Parody 'Orgazmo'" -- by Jessica Shaw

Bluer than "Baseketball", more down and dirty than "South Park", able to

leap good taste in a single bound....Okay, so he won't be the next

superhero to grace a lunch box. But the titular character of "Orgazmo"

(due Oct. 23) does possess the formidable power of porn. Written and

directed by Trey Parker (and coproduced by and featuring his "South

Park" partner, Matt Stone), the movie follows that classic movie

archetype, the Mormon martial artist thrust into the world of adult

flicks, where he becomes Orgazmo, a Captain Marvel of kink who, with his

sidekick, Choda-Boy, tries to defend his friend's sushi bar from

gangsters. A midnight hit at the 1997 Toronto International Film

Festival and last January's Slamdance (the alt version of Sundance), the

$1 million indie film has so far been powerless against the ratings

board of the Motion Picture Association of America, which at press time

had slapped the raunch-fest with a preliminary NC-17. Here, Parker puts

it all in perspective.

>> Just how does one come up with a movie about a Mormon missionary who

becomes a porn star?

Our goal was to make really subversive s---, a movie about porno that's

really wholesome. Lately, comedy has been all about taking a normal

situation and putting some f---ed up characters in it, and that's what

makes it funny. We like to take pretty normal people and put them in

pretty f---ed up situations. The whole point of "Orgazmo" is, this the

ultimate wholesome guy in the ultimate unwholesome situation.

>> Why make the Mormon a martial arts expert?

I have a black belt in tae kwon do. My home movies had some kung fu

element, so this is basically my ultimate home movie.

>> With a title like "Orgazmo", a lot of people are going to assume it

IS a porn flick.

The movie is not about porno, though. It's about this guy who's in love

with his wife, and he does something because he loves her, but it's the

wrong thing.

>> Do you worry about all the dirty old men who might flock to this

picture?

We got offered to make this movie from people who thought it could be a

great titty movie. But I was like, no, it can't be that. The whole

point was not to do that. The only nudity you see are guys' asses,

because that's just a bummer.

>> Have you gotten any complaints so far?

It's funny, teenage boys are going to [advance] screenings and they're

p---ed off. The incredible irony is that it gets an NC-17.

>> What led to the NC-17?

It's insane. There's no sex. There's no violence except cartoonish

kung fu, and it gets an NC-17. [The MPAA] would never tell us why. All

we can think of is that it's gotta be the religious s---. If that's

true, that is so f---ed up. "Boogie Nights" got an R and it had

full-frontal nudity. In "Seven" a woman gets raped with a razor-bladed

dildo. [The MPAA pointed out that in "Orgazmo", this guy does have a

dildo on his head.]

>> Did you consider re-editing?

We said to the MPAA, "Tell us what [we have to cut to receive an R

rating], because if it's something small we can just do it." But they

said, "No, we can't tell you what to cut out because then we're a

censorship group." It's like, dude, you ARE a censorship group.

>> Had "South Park" become a full-blown phenomenon by the time you

finished "Orgazmo"?

No, right in the middle of the second week of shooting "Orgazmo", Matt

[told me] "South Park" got picked up for a series. We knew we'd get

through three episodes before we were canceled, so we knew we had to

work it. The very last day we shot "Orgazmo" I went right into "South

Park"....And then boom, "South Park" goes off with all the fans.

>> Are you at all surprised by all the attention this little film is

getting?

We just want everyone to realize that "Cannibal! The Musical" and

"Orgazmo" [are getting released] now, but "Cannibal!" was made five

years ago, and "Orgazmo" was an independent film. What sucks about it,

for me, is everyone is going to look at "Orgazmo" with a different eye

and say, "Okay, what has Trey Parker done now?" When the truth is, this

is what I did before "South Park". We love the movie, but it is what

it's supposed to be -- a small, low-budget, independent film. People

were supposed to go see it and be like, "Who the hell are these people

and what the hell is this movie?" Now it's like, "SOUTH PARK!"

>> Sounds as if you're saying "Orgazmo"'s not that good.

No, and obviously if I was in the boat I was in a year ago, I'd just be

stoked it was going to get seen. But now it's a different set of

circumstances. This is not my newest creation by any stretch.

>> Were you bummed that "BASEketball" tanked?

We did it for the learning experience, to be on a studio film without

being the director. [Director] David Zucker called us the morning after

it opened and said, "It's not like everyone saw it and then it nose

dived -- it's just that no one saw it." But we didn't care; it

certainly hasn't hurt anything for us.

>> Now that "South Park" is a merchandising machine, the feature version

is in production, "BASEketball" posters were on every bus stop and

billboard this summer, you've got a script to the "Dumb and Dumber"

prequel in the works, and "Orgazmo" is about to be released, are you

feeling a tad overexposed?

Yeah, we knew at the beginning of the year that all this was coming out

and it was going to look like we were completely bastardizing ourselves.

So we'll get ripped for it and next year will come and things will

mellow out.

>> Will they really?

Yeah, I don't think we could go at this pace for more than another year.

And the nice thing will be that once "Orgazmo"'s out, there's nothing

residual left -- unless they start releasing my home movies. I can just

see the billboard: "The brand-new thing!" And it'll be from when I was,

like, 12. "Trey Parker's potty-training tapes!"

What Makes Me Laugh (Trey Parker):

On TV: "Monty Python. Meeting those guys [at the U.S. Comedy Arts

Festival in Aspen last spring] was the coolest thing I've ever done.

Also, the reason we picked Comedy Central for "South Park" was that they

had shows like "Absolutely Fabulous" and "Kids in the Hall"

At The Movies: "I'm not really a fan of comedies. I kind of like

historical war stuff. Of all the comedies, I like the Zucker brothers'

movies the best."

Stand-Up Comics: "I'm a big fan of Andrew Dice Clay. Howard Stern

completely ripped off his act. Stern thinks he's so clever, but Clay

did it 10 years ago. [Stern] just says the most shocking s--- and hides

behind it being his character. I really hate stand-up comedy. It's

like sitcoms -- you can almost mouth the words along with them."