Here are some things that Trey Parker and Matt Stone hate: Scientology, liberals, radical atheists, conservatives, the Motion Picture Association of America, Glenn Beck, the TV show Whale Wars, and Sean Penn. Also this interview. "We didn't do press for a long time," said Parker recently, sitting on a couch on the seventh floor of MTV's New York headquarters. "We were able to ride on the South Park thing. Then we had to do a big press push for The Book of Mormon. And for some reason, we're doing press again and it's really starting to piss me off. Right now."

"We've gotta quit doing these interviews. This is the last general Matt-and-Trey interview we're going to do," Stone said.

Parker and Stone disclose their disdain for talking to reporters with such openness, such gusto, such feeling, it's hard to be offended.

Which is, of course, their secret: Say something offensive but deliver it in the least offensive way possible. A wolf in sheep's clothing. Or in South Park terms, an anal probe disguised as a harmless poke.

Consider any episode of South Park in the past fifteen years. They've had shows featuring 162 mentions of the word shit. They've had a chain of humans sewed mouth-to-anus by Steve Jobs, may he rest in peace. They've featured a Richard Gere — inspired gerbil plot. But they've delivered the shiv via cute paper cutouts of big-eyed ten-year-olds.

Since March, they've been doing the same trick on Broadway. Their musical, The Book of Mormon, makes repeated references to baby-raping, mutilated genitals, and a Ugandan phrase meaning "Fuck you, God" — all sung with a Rodgers-and-Hammerstein-like joy and innocence that keeps Nebraska grandmothers in the audience tapping their toes. The result? Mormon has brought in $37 million and nine Tonys, and quite possibly rescued the Broadway-musical genre.

A decade and a half after these two film-class buddies from the University of Colorado began insulting everything we love about this great country...