New York ? With the political relevance of “The Daily Show” and the huge DVD sales (and subsequent hiatus) of “Chappelle’s Show,” it’s easy to forget about that other Comedy Central show, “South Park.”

But Matt Stone and Trey Parker’s crude cartoon began its ninth season at 9 p.m. – and it remains the network’s most-watched program. It is also, perhaps, still the most manic thing on TV, with entire episodes created just days before they air.

With a ripped-from-the-headlines approach, it’s the “Law & Order” of comedy. The first episode, “Two Days Before the Day After Tomorrow,” tackled Hurricane Katrina – by way of the neighboring town flooding.

Parker, who turned 36 Wednesday, and Stone, 34, last month inked a deal for three more seasons, and “South Park” has begun appearing in syndication in some markets – both of which assure the world of Cartman, Stan, Kyle and the rest will continue to expand.

Q: Cartman once described independent movies as “gay cowboys eating pudding.” Now we have “Brokeback Mountain,” an upcoming movie by Ang Lee about gay cowboys.

Stone: If they have pudding in that movie, I’m going to lose my mind.

Parker: No, if there’s pudding eating in there, we’re going to sue.

Q: Are you guys prophets?

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Stone: No, but Cartman is. (Laughs) We went to Sundance a lot in the mid-to-late ’90s, and you could just tell it was going toward gay cowboydom.

Q: The first episode was Wednesday … It’s a fast process for you, isn’t it?

Parker: It is. We take a lot of time before just to come up with the broad ideas, but until the Thursday before that Wednesday, that’s when we really sit down and go “OK, how can we tell this story?” And it leaves us a lot of room, too. A lot of times on a Thursday, we’ll sit down and go, “Hey, have you seen this Terri Schiavo thing? This is huge, we should do a story about that.”

Q: Does the fast process backfire sometimes?

Stone: I actually think that makes the show better in a weird way. It’s kind of a punk-rock ethic. Like albums that are too produced, you can tell they produced all the magic out of it.

Parker: It’s a little more White Stripes.

Q: Is there something you’re personally sensitive about, or is everything fair game?

Stone: We have a really funny breast cancer episode coming up. (Laughs) I just think it’s not contradictory to make fun of something and be sensitive about it. It’s just the way we examine the world. “Sensitive” isn’t the right word, but we actually have thoughts and feelings about all this stuff; it’s not just destruction-oriented.

Parker: Just last week we were on a plane and we were pretty positive we were going to die – and we were making jokes. It really, really felt like the end, and we were making jokes.