Trey Parker makes a child's petulance funny without asking us to find it endearing. His voice work thrives on quarrels and a little cruelty, though his appetite for repeating a joke can outlast ours.
Fi1m perspective
When Eric Cartman starts quarrelling in South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999), Parker lets him stay thoroughly unpleasant. We laughed at his petulance; Parker never spoils it by asking us to find him lovable. Matt Stone's Kyle Broflovski gives the exchanges a less abrasive rhythm. The contrast gives us a break from Cartman's indignation without making him any nicer.
The musical side of Parker's work was already there in Cannibal The Musical (1993), which he wrote, directed and acted in. On South Park (1997–), he writes and directs as well as supplying several of the voices. He later directed the puppet film Team America: World Police (2004) and co-created the Broadway musical The Book of Mormon (2011) with Stone and Robert Lopez. The move towards a full stage musical makes sense when the songs in the 1999 feature already earn their place.
The feature's script, by Parker, Stone and Pam Brady, gives the swearing a target in adults who blame entertainment for their own failures. As a performer, Parker benefits from Mary Kay Bergman's audible shifts between children and adults, and Isaac Hayes's calmer pace as Chef. The trouble comes when he keeps pressing a joke after its point is clear, with subplots running on and the pace beginning to sag. More swearing cannot rescue those stretches, though they do not undo our warm recommendation.
As Goomi in Pierre Coffin's Minions & Monsters (2026), he gets the gleeful, slightly unkind tone right. It is a useful reminder that his comic instincts can serve somebody else's film, though the well-chosen cast is used unevenly. The pleasure is in hearing him fit the joke without softening it. Start with the South Park film for the quarrels and the songs; the first barrage will tell you whether to stay.
Biography
Trey Parker is an American writer, director, producer, voice actor and musician. Born on 19 October 1969 in Conifer, Colorado, he is best known as co-creator, with Matt Stone, of the animated series South Park (1997–present), on which he also voices characters including Eric Cartman and Stan Marsh.
Parker directed and co-wrote the films Orgazmo (1998), South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999) and Team America: World Police (2004). He voiced the character Goomi in the animated film Minions & Monsters (2026) and has also been credited as Juan Schwartz.
