I’ve noticed that a good portion of the episodes have Trey Parker listed in the credits as the sole writer. On the IMDB site, Stone is credited with writing five episodes of the show, but always in conjucntion with others. Parker writes all of the songs, it appears.
So, what’s his role in the Parker/Stone partnership? Is he the “idea guy”?
Hard to say but I also noticed that Parker seems to do all of the writing and he always struck me as the funnier of the two. That said, Stone might provide the dynamic Parker needs (either through ideas or stability) to write.
Parker and Stone are known as a team really in name. Parker does pretty much all of the work (and probably has a better contract) and Stone helps. He’s basically the tracer…
Matt Stone was a Math major in college, and I’m pretty sure Parker’s major was either Film or Music, so I always thought of them as the perfect team. Each represents one side of the brain.
I think Matt is just the shyer and (he would probably admit this) less ambitious of the two. I bet he does more than he gets credit for, though, and I also bet that’s ok with him.
Trey has always been more of the hands-on writer/director guy, while Matt has always been more of the idea man/advisor/sounding board. They still work closely together on the show, so I doubt Matt’s contributions are any less valuable than Trey’s, it’s just that Matt is probably happier to work on the sidelines. I get the feeling Trey is a bit of a prima donna while Matt is more laid-back and just happy to be along for the ride. Like others have mentioned, their personalities probably compliment each other very well.
In my opinion Matt is the better of the two voice talents (Kyle, Tweak, Butters, Mr. Slave, etc., etc.) although Trey can sing much better.