South Park: Kristen Schaal Talks About Getting Fired After Just One Month

Actress and writer Kristen Schaal has shared a story about getting fired from South Park after just one month on the job. Speaking to The Daily Beast, the Flight of the Conchords star discussed her journey with the show, which was just renewed for six more seasons as part of a $900 million deal for series creators Matt Parker and Trey Stone.

Parker and Stone reached out to Schaal to write for South Park Season 11 after they watched her Penelope Princess of Pets internet series with Kurt Braunohler. As a fan of the show, and someone who grew up in Colorado, Schaal jumped at the shot of writing for South Park.

"So I was in awe. And I didn't last long. I was there for like a month and I was told--I got a warning that I was talking too much," she said.

Schaal, who had never been in a writer's room before South Park, said she was pitching too many ideas. "I was pitching too much. I'd never been in a writers' room before. So I was just like, let me earn my keep. I was like, 'How about this? How about this? How about this?' And that's not how it works."

Schaal's ideas for South Park were out of sync with where the rest of the room wanted to take the show. At the time, South Park was crafting a lot of storylines that parodied movies, and Schaal admitted "my movie knowledge is not good."

"I couldn't go there, so I just kept pitching another thing. So looking back, yeah, they let me go. I could do a writers' room now, just for everybody listening, but I was too nervous and too excited to be in there," she said.

Schaal said she thinks "a couple" of her ideas made it onto South Park, but "can't remember specifically." She said there is no bad blood between herself and Stone and Parker, though she admits it was "devastating" when she got the call that she was let go from the show.

At the time, Schaal was living in comedian Tig Notaro's garage that was converted into a guest house. On the day she got fired, Schaal caught up with Flight of the Conchords co-creator James Bobin for drinks, and he gave her good advice about how to see the situation.

"He said, 'You're going to get fired, you're going to get hired, it's fine,'" she said.

Indeed, Schaal would go on to meet her husband, The Daily Show writer Rich Blomquist, while working on the Adult Swim show Snake N Bacon. Schaal herself then started working at The Daily Show, and later went on to voice roles on Bob's Burgers and BoJack Horseman. In 2019, she voiced Sayrna in BioWare's Anthem.

As for South Park, Stone and Parker's new deal covers 14 new movies for Paramount+ and six more seasons of the main show. A new South Park video game is also said to be included in the deal.