CHICAGO – The much-heralded 2011 Broadway hit, the bitingly satiric “The Book of Mormon,” has piled up awards for everything from scenic design to musical score to orchestration, and is truly an artistic phenomenon.

That it also goes over the top with profane, irreverent humor should come as no surprise, given how the snappy adult musical comedy, now settling in for a long Chicago run, is the work of Trey Parker (book), Robert Lopez (music) and Matt Stone (lyrics), who created “South Park,” a popular sitcom famous for its crude dialogue and dark, surreal humor.

In “The Book of Mormon,” directed by Casey Nicholaw and Parker, no subject is too sensitive to escape its rapier wit, including homophobia and maggots. It tracks a pair of newly minted missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), the supercilious Elder Price (Nic Rouleau) and the insecure, nerdy Elder Cunningham (Ben Platt), as they embark on a two-year assignment to convert natives of a remote, impoverished village in Africa.