SouthParkStudios.com

The creators of “South Park,” the animated Comedy Central series, apologized on Friday to the creators of a Web comedy video satirizing the summer blockbuster “Inception,” following a recent episode of “South Park” that shared numerous similarities with the Web video, called “Inception Characters Don’t Understand Inception.”

“It’s just because we do the show in six days, and we’re stupid and we just threw it together,” Matt Stone, who created “South Park” with Trey Parker, said Friday in a telephone interview. “But in the end, there are some lines that we had to call and apologize for.”

The video, which was written by Dan Gurewitch and David Young, and posted on CollegeHumor on Aug. 2, is loosely modeled on a scene in “Inception” in which a team of extractors — who can manipulate and move in and out of other people’s dreams — are attempting to transport a wounded colleague while explaining their challenging situation to a new member of the team. In a similar sequence in the “South Park” episode shown on Wednesday, the “Inception” characters, one of whom is wounded, burst into a room and attempt to explain some complicated circumstances to one of the “South Park” characters.

Among the dialogue that appears in both skits:

CollegeHumor: “We need to move to the next dream level before these projections kill us.”

South Park: “We need to move them all to the next dream level before the projections kill them.”

In both skits, one character asks another to define what limbo is and is told:

CollegeHumor: “Shared unconstructed dream space.”

South Park: “Empty scary dream space.”

In both skits, a character is told by the “Inception” team how to escape from limbo, prompting the following exchanges:

CollegeHumor: “That doesn’t sound so hard.”

“It is.”

“Why?”

[a character groans in pain]

“We don’t have time for this.”

“O.K., fine, so next we’re going into Arthur’s dream, and then what?”

“Then we go into Fischer’s dreams.”

“O.K., got it.”

“But Fischer will think we’re in Browning’s dream.”

“O.K. Wait, who’s Browning?”

South Park: “That doesn’t sound very difficult.”

“It is.”

“Why?”

[a character groans in pain]

“We don’t have time for this.”

“O.K., fine, so you’re going to take my son to a dream within the dream, and then what?”

“Then we go into your husband’s dreams.”

“O.K.”

“But your husband will think we’re in Hasselbeck’s dream.”

“O.K. Wait, who’s Hasselbeck?”

Also in both skits, a character speaks the following line of dialogue: “Sometimes my thoughts of my dead wife manifest themselves as trains.”

On his personal blog, Mr. Gurewitch wrote:

I’m conflicted, because I absolutely adore ‘South Park.’ I admire Trey Parker and Matt Stone more than almost anyone currently working in comedy. To give them the benefit of the doubt, I’d say maybe it’s an homage — I’d be honored — but while our sketch was popular, it wasn’t nearly the national phenomenon it’d have to be for them to parody it. Maybe it was some staff writer, and Matt and Trey aren’t aware of the source material? Or something?

Mr. Stone said he and Mr. Parker wanted their “South Park” episode to satirize the verbal complexity of “Inception.” “It was like, ‘Let’s parody the gobbledygook – because honestly, that movie – all those explanations, and explanations of explanations,” Mr. Stone said.

When Mr. Parker and Mr. Stone could not find a movie theater showing “Inception,” and were unable to get a DVD screener of the film (or find a watchable version on BitTorrent), they turned to other parodies of that film on the Web, and found the CollegeHumor video.

“We thought their joke was that a lot of those lines were actually in the movie,” Mr. Stone said, “and they were banging them against each other, and showing that the ‘Inception’ characters didn’t even know ‘Inception.’ That was a mistake, and it was an honest mistake.”

Mr. Gurewitch later updated his blog to say that he and Mr. Young accepted the apology of the “South Park” creators.

“All is well,” Mr. Gurewitch wrote, “and we’re going to meet up with Matt and Trey when they’re in New York.”

Watch the CollegeHumor video “Inception Characters Don’t Understand Inception”:



Watch the scene from the “South Park” episode “Insheeption”: