It's a trap! No, wait, it's a gift!

I like reading about the creative process and how various people working in various mediums go about making something out of nothing. Here, in an excerpt from an Associated Press article by Frazier Moore published earlier today, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the creators of South Park, discuss the genesis of each episode:

By some accounts, the world was created in six days.

On the other hand, it takes Matt Stone and Trey Parker seven of them to create a "South Park" episode. But then they get no day of rest before they start on the next episode.

As you're reading this, Matt and Trey and the "South Park" team are back from their midseason break in their 15th year and are under the gun. The episode they started from scratch last Thursday morning will be finished just hours before it's delivered to Comedy Central for premiering Wednesday at 10 p.m. EDT.

How do they do it? And why do it that way?

Not long ago, while in New York to bask in the triumph of their smash Broadway musical, "The Book of Mormon," Matt and Trey took a few minutes to look ahead to the seven episodes of "South Park" facing them this fall.

"Comedy Central would love it if we did the shows ahead of time," Matt said. "But we just don't work as well that way."

"Our best ones," said Trey, "are always the ones where we come in on Thursday with nothing, and we come up with something and we get this energy — 'Ah, that's funny! That's funny!' — and we roll with it. The other way, we over-think things too much."

"I like the process of getting really excited about an idea on Thursday or Friday," Matt said, "and then there's a whole drama to the week: We jump into it, then on Saturday we go, 'Hmmmm. I don't know about this idea.' And you start questioning it."

"But you don't have a choice," Trey interjected.

"You're trapped!" Matt agreed.