In the most recent season of South Park, Trey Parker and Matt Stone turned their satirical eye on viral Internet videos. In the episode "Canada On Strike", the main characters try to create an Internet sensation so they can earn millions of dollars. What they learn instead is that the Internet is a wild (and in the show, deadly) frontier that nobody has mastered.
The episode’s masterstroke is the sweet and naïve Butters singing and dancing to a song “What What (In the Butt)”. The original “What What (In The Butt)” is one of the most viewed videos on YouTube – over 11 million views and counting. There is also a side-by-side comparison of the original video with the South Park copy, which reveals the close attention to detail that Parker and Stone paid to the source.
The original Samwell video was created by Bobby Ciraldo and Andrew Swant, who have a Milwaukee-based production company called Special Entertainment, with a subsidiary imprint, Brownmark Films. In addition to its YouTube success, the video was embraced by the blogosphere and many mainstream media outlets as well. The runaway Internet success of “What What (In The Butt)” put them squarely in the crosshairs of the Internet exploitation that South Park parodied, and in an interview, they reflect on the aftermath.
They also have a number of projects in the works. A new Samwell video is in the works, and their feature length project William Shatner's Gonzo Ballet is poised for release this summer. They can be reached via their website at Brownmark Films.
Before the episode of South Park aired, did Trey Parker and Matt Stone contact you for permission to parody the Samwell video? What was that process like?
We were completely surprised by the South Park homage — we were never contacted by anyone at South Park. We each had random friends call us up to say, "Dude! Your video is on South Park!"
Neither of us have cable so we had to run to our local bar – The Uptowner – they turned off the jukebox and turned on Comedy Central just for us. When Butters' "What What In the Butt" video came on we thought we were dreaming. We sent Trey and Matt a thank you email the next day but never heard back.
Are you South Park fans? How did you like Butters' version? Did Samwell appreciate it, too?
We've both been fans for a long time. Matt and Trey are incredibly smart. And Team America is a very important film.
[We think] the Butters version is great! Butters really stepped up to the plate and gave it everything he had, but let's face it: he's not as mysteriously unnerving as Samwell. Check out Samwell's smile at 1:27. But seriously, the attention to detail they put into the Butters version is very flattering. It's a full minute, shot-for-shot remake of something we put a lot of work into, by a show we respect a TON.
Samwell's pretty excited too. In his second YouTube interview, which predates the Butters version, he says he loves South Park: "I love South Park. What a BAD show. But I LOVE it!"
A big point of the South Park episode is that Internet videos don't generate any money for their creators. You created a huge Internet sensation; did you earn any money from the video? Or from the South Park licensing?
Brownmark [Films] recently became a "YouTube Partner," which means we get a portion of YouTube's advertising revenue for our videos. We became partners three months ago and so far we haven't seen a check yet, so in a way it's hilariously just like the "waiting room scene" in the South Park episode – we're waiting for our theoretical money. And since South Park never contacted us about licensing, we didn't earn any money there!
Do you feel that the YouTube and South Park fame has translated to opportunities to make money in other arenas? What did the 10 million plus page views do for you?
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