LOOKING AT IT WITH A SENSE OF HUMOUR ACTUALLY MAKES YOU THINK MORE CLEARLY ABOUT THINGS

at a friend’s house? Do the berries come in boxes or grow in bunches? Parker was in constant motion as he considered each question, walking many agitated laps around a long conference table.

Together, he and Stone improvised a scene in which the exhortations of the talking berries grow more sinister: “Remember Star Wars? Remember being a kid? Remember feeling safe? Remember no immigrants?”

As Parker stepped away to resume his solitary work, Stone explained that his role in these moments was to be a sounding board for Parker, but also to remind him that he’s simply got to write something down. “There’s no other way to do it,” Stone said. “If you don’t have that one perfect line, you can fix that later.”

In a telephone interview a few days earlier, Parker had explained how he and Stone had abandoned their preseason ritual of holding a writers’ retreat to think up ideas.

“As soon as we’re like, ‘ We could do this, this could be funny,’ we’re like, ‘ Stop talking about it,’” Parker said. “Because in two months, when we’re doing the show, it won’t be funny to us anymore.”

Being more extemporaneous, he said, led to unexpected discoveries like their 19th season in 2015, presented as 10 interconnected episodes that told a broader story about gentrification, identity politics and a perceived resurgence of political correctness.

Thereneweddebateaboutsensitivityinspeechandthepolicing of language was one that South Park could not avoid, for its own sake. “This might finally be the year that weget run out of town,” Parker recalled thinking at the time. “If we’re going to, let’s make fun of the fact that we’re the old guys at the table. All those shows were an honest part of us going, ‘ Should we go away?’”

Instead, the19thseason was a critical hit: in a review for The New York Times, James Poniewozik wrote that South Park had “gone and revitalised itself,” in part “byasserting that it takes an outrageous comedy to capture an era of outrage.”

He r z o g , who h a s worked wit h P a r k e r and Stone since the debut of South Park, said that they have Comedy Central’s “absolute, 1,000 per cent eternal trust”. As long as the show satisfies the network’s Standards and Practices department, he said, “we’re cool with the show.”

Yet that success created more angst for Stone and Parker as they approached Season 20. Were they obligated to tell a serialised narrative again? Did they have to dwell on the 2016 campaign, when their indifference to presidential politics is a well- worn subject?

All they can do, the South Park creators said, is to continue to apply a principle that has guided them from the beginning. No matter how serious an issue seems, Parker said, “Looking at it with a sense of humour is not only healthier for you, it actually makes you think more clearly about things — being able to make fun of either side of an issue, rather than just, ‘ Trump is evil and Clinton is good.’ There’s always room to equally rip on both of them.”

Comedy Central has signed Parker and Stone to keep making South Park through 2019. Garefino, who has worked on the show for 19 of its 20 years, suggested that they could stick around longer still. “They said they didn’t still want to be making South Park when they were 40,” she said. “I think they’ll be doing it when they’re 50.”

She tried to make herself sound as confident that the current episode would be completed by deadline. “There’s always a moment where Trey will fall in love with the show, and the pages start flowing,” she said. “Something will happen.”

Member Berries was broadcast at 10pm on September 14, but hardly without last- minute incident. That morning, South Park Studios suffered a system crash, and the episode’s audio went missing for an hour and a half.

When the episode was transmitted to Comedy Central, it had a mysterious six- frame sync problem that was finally fixed and delivered one hour before airtime.

The following day, Garefino said, “Trey’s like, ‘ I think, from now, we should think about getting the show in earlier.’” Let’s just say even South Park would have to bleep out Garefino’s response. sneak peek: 1 a scene from the recently released 20th season of Comedy Central show, South Park 2 animator katie Frasier works on an episode of the long- running series 3 a script for South Park’s Member Berries awaits the attention of animators, directors and voice artists

M for Mascot: Director subhash Ghai always worked with actresses whose names began with ‘ M’; ( top to bottom) Mahima chaudhry in Pardes, Madhuri Dixit in Ram- Lakhan, Manisha Koirala in Saudagar, Mishti in Kaanchi wknd@ khaleejtimes. com