Matt Stone & Trey Parker are doing the unthinkable. They’re going for the EGOT. Rumors have swirled, but evidence is piling up. The Book of Mormon: The Musical will be released in 2013/2014. Take that to the bank.
What’s an EGOT?
It’s only the highest level of achievement available in performing arts. EGOT, a joke made on the once popular, once still-on-the-air television series 30 ROCK, is something the creators of South Park can actually achieve.
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EGOT is an acronym for Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony. The big-four awards. The boys from the wrong side of the tracks have already managed to score four Emmys (South Park), one Grammy (Book of Mormon) and a stunning nine Tonys (Book of Mormon). They got an Oscar nomination for the song “Blame Canada”, but did not win.
They’ve got three out of four down, and it appears they have the goods needed to get an Oscar, the fourth and final leg of that very real, imaginary honor.
If you are familiar with the South Park series you are well aware that it is nothing more than sophomoric jokes played around a hopefully fictional town. The characters show a beautifully innocent understanding of the basics of common decency, and spend more time offending major religions, corporations, and Hollywood elites than the Catholics do blaming parents for their priests’ behaviors.
The general fan base tend to be older, and while faithful, they will miss an episode if there is a Star Trek convention in town. The pair’s level of creativity has been compared to Seth MacFarlane, but with gay overtones, rather than in-your-face fabulousness.
For their presumed attempt at an Oscar, the dynamic duo have started their own studio and it appears they plan to bring out a movie version of their widely popular Book Of Mormon stage musical. This is most certainly going to gain them several nominations and the prized final piece of the EGOT.
What’s the evidence for a movie of Book of Mormon: The Musical?
1 – Creation of production company with details
It’s already widely reported that they’ve created a new company, “Important Studios”, with Hollywood venture capital money to the tune of $60 million in outside contributions. This company wasn’t formed for giggles, these investors want to see something made, and that something has no explanation but “Book of Mormon”.
2 – Too many details released
From who will direct (Parker) to who they’d like to star in it (Bieber) the South Park boys are not just allowing too much speculation, but actively feeding into it. Sure, they’ve trolled us before (damn you Terrence and Philip!) but not in this century, and not when it comes to a stage play that has already grossed over $200 million.
3 – Change in South Park production schedule
This is the biggest indicator. Going back to 2002 we’ve seen a pretty consistent production schedule. About 14 episodes with the first half coming out around March and the second half coming out around September/October. For ten years this has been steady and predictable. The coming season is different.
The 2013 season of South Park will consist of only 10 episodes, and will wholly skip the first half of the production year, beginning not in March, but in the last week of September. That leaves a whole lot of time to work on… something.
Many who have attempted to score the EGOT have failed. Could two smart assess who write juvenile comedy be the next ones who actually make it?
List of History’s only EGOTs
Only 11 have EGOTed before. They are Richard Rodgers, Helen Hayes Rita Moreno, John Gielgud, Audrey Hepburn, Marvin Hamlisch, Jonathan Tunick, Mel Brooks, Mike Nichols, Whoopi Goldberg and Scott Rudin. A few others have honorary EGOTs, but those can’t be taken seriously.
The fastest previous EGOT was 17 years (Rodgers in 1962 and Goldberg in 2002, assuming you actually include someone winning a Daytime Emmy.) Parker and Stone stand to win theirs in 15 or 16 years, making them the fastest to reach this rarest of achievement.
Just How Rare is the EGOT?
• More people have walked on the moon, than have EGOTed.
• More actors have played Doctor Who than have EGOTed.
• The US has more trillions of debt than there are people who have EGOTed.
• More people die of gun deaths every six hours in the US than there are people who have EGOTed.
• More Saudi Arabian citizens hijacked planes on 9/11 than have completed the EGOT.
• Almost five times more “Al Qaeda leaders” have been killed, than people have EGOTed.
Article co-written by Mike Kelly.
I REALLY WISH THAT MUSICAL
THE BOOK OF MORMON COMES ON DVD,REALLY PLEASE
This Musikal The book of mormon
must come in dvd i mean it
I WILL TAKE IT REALLY
SERIOUSLY
A very interesting article.
When I heard they wer making a musical about Mormonism I thought it was the stupidist idea for a play I had heard of short of ‘Nixon Goes To China’. Boy, was I wrong!
If Whoopie Goldberg and Mel Brooks can get EGOTed, then so can the South Park boys.
Interestingly, with reference to ‘sophomoric jokes played around a hopefully fictional town’, South Park is a county in the mountains of central Colorado. The main town there is Fairplay (pop. 670). The only concession to the TV show is a fairly large picture of Mr. Poo hung up somewhere.
I suspect South Park is more geared for a US audience. They always aim to be current and culturally relevant, but I don’t think they aim for broadest appeal. And the “G” in “EGOT” is not Golden Globe, so it won’t much matter what the foreign press has to say on the matter. 🙂
I find South Park difficult to watch because some of it just isn’t that funny.
I don’t think that they deserve an EGOT.