South Park creator’s 2007 digital ad revenue sharing clause

https://www.readtrung.com/p/south-park-and-the-greatest-tv-contract

by JustExAWS • 11 months ago

97 58 11 months ago

South park is one of my favourite shows. I think that matt and trey aren't the usual billionaires but it would still be cool if they actually donate some of that money since they feel like the guys who don't need a billion dollars and feel humble imo.

do_not_redeem• 11 months ago

One of the downsides of people knowing you have money is everyone on earth will judge you for what you do with it. I say let them enjoy it. If you must pressure someone to donate, pressure one of the "usual billionaires" who's funding their torment nexus with it.

shazbotter2• 11 months ago

There is no human alive who can ethically enjoy a billion dollars. Give them each a hundred million and say, you've hit your cap, everything else goes towards the public good.

A hundred million dollars buys you a life of comfort and luxury. Anyone with a billion has too much influence, imo.

skybrian• 11 months ago

I think it’s pretty cool that they bought Casa Bonita.

Imustaskforhelp3• 11 months ago

Yeah I agree.

rswail• 11 months ago

The article quoted that they take $10m salaries each and the business invests in more production (eg movies, Book of Mormon musical etc).

So whether they donate or not personally, their billionaire status is based on owning their company (ie that is their total worth, not liquid assets).

4gotunameagain• 11 months ago

What the hell does do with almost a million per month ?!

I'm not judging, I'm wondering.

not_your_vase• 11 months ago

It's very long, and seems to be stuffed with a copy of wikipedia, I ain't reading all that. What's that clause? Like Lucas had with Star Wars, they kept the monetization rights for some (at the time) dumb looking stuff, and they struck gold with it?

JustExAWS11• 11 months ago

They would get profit sharing for any income that didn’t come from airing on Comedy Central. This was in 1997 before online streaming was really a thing

em-bee• 11 months ago

it is disappointing and almost surprising that this is not the default. not doing this is how creators are get taken advantage of.

more futuristic, i think any profit that is not reinvested into the business, that is, any profit that the owners decide to keep for themselves should be shared in some form with all employees, like a tax.

extraduder_ire2• 11 months ago

It was directly in the era of home video though, and the show got picked up in the first place from people sharing tapes.

This is what enabled them to stream it online themselves from a dedicated website for years though.

waterhouse• 11 months ago

Looks to be (1269 words into the article according to wc):

[Parker and Stone]’s lawyer, Kevin Morris, insisted that any South Park revenue not derived specifically from broadcast on the cable channel would go into the pot for calculating the men’s share of back-end profits.

Though that might be a precursor to enabling this (400 words later):

With negotiating leverage, Parker and Stone agreed to a 4-year $75 million deal and, separately, a 50/50 cut of advertising revenue for any digital property…in perpetuity.

quietbritishjim• 11 months ago

And that second quote is taken from the cited New York Times article which is the real source

https://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/27/business/media/27south.ht...

blkhawk• 11 months ago

TLDR:

“A cut of revenue not derived specifically from broadcast on the cable channel” went from “meaningless” to “huge significance” to “boner-inducing” arguably the greatest clause ever in TV contract history…at a minimum, it’s one of the most improbable all things considered.

more_corn• 11 months ago

What the fuck kind of writing is that? Ge to the damned point.

dmazin• 11 months ago

As much I loved this show growing up, an interesting thing about South Park is that they essentially defined the alt right (in the sense of a disenfranchised young man, often lashing out at marginalized groups and political correctness etc). Am I wrong or did there use to be an article called “South Park conservative” that basically described what eventually became “alt-right”?

Edit: found it at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Park_Republican

righthand7• 11 months ago

You aren’t wrong that there is/was a group of people that consider themselves South Park Conservative but the creators reject the notion that South Park is specifically liberal or conservative, because their intent is to parody any people they can. The creators dislike political correctness but they also dislike the forceful nature of conservatives applying their beliefs on other people. Read the South Park wikipedia page, it explains it pretty well.

Insinuating that South Park conservatives evolved into the alt-right is doing a lot of heavy lifting. Trey and Matt didn’t invent disliking political correctness.

elefanten• 11 months ago

I concur with this take. Like many facets of culture, some people/groups will project what they want onto a given cultural entity (South Park, in this case), but that doesn’t mean one should assume they speak for it.

For example, the “men’s rights activists” group appropriated the idea of “the red pill” from The Matrix. They certainly differ wildly in worldview from the Wachowski siblings.

ChocolateGod3• 11 months ago

Disliking political correctness isn't even limited to the right on the political scale. Bill Maher has spoken out against it for example.

patates2• 11 months ago

A comedy show is just a comedy show. We're all responsible for who we become. If some purposefully terrible animated pixels inspire me to be a disgusting person, that's on me. If I play a shooting game and end up hurting someone, that's on me too (or my parents, if I'm young!). And if I spend too much time on HN, thinking AI is garbage, and then lose my job because I fell behind, that's also on me! (As well as starting to write my own comedy here on HN, knowing exactly what I'm getting into!)

01HNNWZ0MV43FF• 11 months ago

If something in the water makes a million people into disgusting mass shooters, we should look into it

JustExAWS11• 11 months ago

They had an episode mocking Al Gore about climate change and then did an episode years later where they basically admitted they were wrong.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ManBearPig

More to the point, you haven’t heard about their current season’s Trump episode?

The alt right aren’t exactly deep thinkers. It’s just like the police glorifying the Punisher.

https://www.newsweek.com/punisher-police-blue-lives-matter-s...

Or MAGA conservatives playing “Born in the USA” without listening to the lyrics.

South Park mocks everyone.

https://www.salon.com/2017/09/15/why-south-park-is-better-ar...

The “alt-right” have always been part of America or have you never heard of Jim Crow and segregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever”?

bigstrat2003• 11 months ago

They had an episode mocking Al Gore about climate change and then did an episode years later where they basically admitted they were wrong.

Eh, I wouldn't say that. Nor would I say they were really taking a stand on climate change in the first place. They just thought it would be funny to have Al Gore tilting at windmills (and indeed it was), and then thought it would be funny to have him proven right (and indeed it was). One of the things I appreciate about Trey and Matt is that they do what they think is funny first and foremost, rather than try to make the show a mouthpiece for their beliefs as many creators do.

hsbauauvhabzb2• 11 months ago

@dang can we change the title on this one, it’s clickbait mixed with an ai generated ramble.

scarface_74• 11 months ago

Can you think of another case where the creators got as rich from a TV production deal?

kolla• 11 months ago

Seinfeld

hsbauauvhabzb2• 11 months ago

Not the point, the title has now been changed.

extraduder_ire2• 11 months ago

You have to email him. @dang is a no-op. The title isn't the original one though.

Peteragain• 11 months ago

I'm tied and bored, and read the whole thing. The sponsor is an AI service provider - did I get that right? So, is the article AI generated? It certainly has all the hall marks.

South Park creator’s 2007 digital ad revenue sharing clause

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