"Volcano" was written and directed by series co-creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone. The episode was inspired by volcano-related Hollywood disaster films, such as "Dante's Peak" (1997) and "Volcano" (1997), which came out around the time they were writing the script; Parker and Stone considered the films two of the worst ever made. Stone said, "If you watch this episode and then go watch "Volcano", this makes more sense than "Volcano" does." Debbie Liebling, who served as a "South Park" producer at the time of the episode's broadcast, said the volcano erupting in South Park helped establish the setting as a place where "anything can happen". Although Stone and Parker acknowledged that a volcano could not actually erupt in this Colorado town, they felt they were entitled to create the episode anyway because the "Volcano" film was set in Los Angeles; Stone said, "If they could do it, we could." Similarly, the duo acknowledge the tunnel built in the episode would not really divert the lava, but they included it because Parker said, "Any movie today, that's basically how dumb they are."