My Top 6 Favorite South Park Episodes
As you read this, I am hip deep in cows, fart jokes and biting social satire on a quest to uncover the Stick of Truth! The long-awaited South Park RPG was released yesterday, and I tell you without a hint of remorse that I dipped into my savings to buy the game as soon as possible. So far, Stick of Truth is as glorious as we all hoped it would be. And I am definitely in a South Park mood.
So how about we talk about our favorite episodes?
Is it OK if I love them all?
I have been a South Park fan since before my dad would even let me watch it. I can still remember begging him to record an episode so that my brother and I could watch it later, because it aired after our bedtime. It was the first season episode where the boys get into a race with Death because Stan’s grandpa wants to die…or something. My memory is fuzzy. But what’s not fuzzy is that unlike other venerable animated series, South Park has remained as funny and as sharp as ever even though they’re nearing 20 seasons.
Putting together this list was tough, but I think I have my narrowed down favorites! And please share yours in the comments. I’d love to hear them.
6. Towelie
“Don’t forget to bring a towel.”
Towelie was just damn funny. He’s a walking, talking towel who is always reminding the boys to keep a towel handy…at least when he’s not toking up and getting high (do kids still say ‘toking up’?). The story goes that Matt and Trey wanted to create the least-merchandisable character ever, and they almost succeeded, because while Towelie is insane, he’s also hilarious. His deadpan requests that the boys “always bring a towel”, coupled with the fact that the boys are not the least bit put off by his very existence, made Towelie’s debut absolutely hilarious. And the boy’s desire to just play video games in the middle of an escalating war between two rival towel-cloning companies is near and dear to my heart.
5. The Wacky Molestation Adventure
I think The Wacky Molestation Adventure was one of the first times South Park really messed with the normal set up of an episode, and it still stands out to this day. Gone is the normal, mountain town, replaced by a forsaken land of lost children and John Elway statues. When Cartman discovered that dropping the dreaded ‘M-word’ to the authorities would get their parents taken away, the children of South Park take over the town, and within days, it’s turned into a post-apocalyptic madhouse. The story is told from the point of view of a young couple whose car breaks down just outside of town, and they are forced to deal with the Mad Max-style weirdness that has taken over the kids. Everything from Butters running the repair shop and totally disassembling their car to Cartman screaming “Outlander!” as he marches down mainstream is pitch perfect.
4. You Got F’d in the A
You got served! This episode is, hands down, one of the outright funniest I can ever remember watching on South Park. From the insane dance challenges, to the seriousness with which Randy Marsh takes the whole competition, to the horribly tragic ending, You Got F’d in the A is just South Park at its satirical best. Of course, I’d never seen the movies this episode was mocking, but who needs to go that far? This episode tore our whole idiotic culture down around our ears, while being infinitely quotable. “You got served!” should forever and always only be used ironically. And Butters accidentally killing everyone again at the very end of the episode? Deliciously South Park.
3. Cartoon Wars
There are few political statements I loved more from South Park then their stance on portraying the Muslim prophet Muhammed. Especially since they wrapped it up in a love/hate tribute to all of the other popular cartoons out there, like Family Guy, The Simpsons and King of the Hill. This two-parter was all about Kyle trying to get the executives behind Family Guy to air a joke depicting Muhammed, and Cartman’s attempts to stop him. The episode was so controversial that Comedy Central itself was unwilling to listen to Kyle, and went ahead and censored South Park’s Muhammed. Kyle’s speech in this episode was one that has stuck with me stronger than most, that defines my outlook on the world and my sense of humor to this day: “Either it’s all okay, or none of it is.” Truer words, my friends. Truer words.
Then Kyle came back with an even better, though more satirical speech in the follow-up episodes 200 and 201. The entire speech was censored by Comedy Central, but the Internet recently unearthed the scene. You can’t watch it anymore, because the video was taken down, but you can read about it here, and it is still hilarious all these years later.
2. Best Friends Forever
Best Friends Forever is my favorite stand-alone episode because it’s non-stop funny the entire way through, and tells such a compelling and exciting story. For once, Kenny’s death means something, because he has been recruited by the forces of Heaven to lead their armies in the final battle against the forces of Hell. But Kenny is brought back to life by medical treatment before the battle begins, only to be stuck in a vegetative state. The episode was in response to the controversy surrounding Terry Shiavo in 2005, and South Park’s humorous digs at the political and media circus surrounding the issue were wickedly funny. When Satan uses the Republican Party to talk Congress into keeping Kenny alive, it is gut-bustingly hilarious. Of course, I also loved the idea that Kenny must lead the armies of Heaven in an epic, glorious battle. That stuff is fun too!
1. Imaginationland
Jesus vs. Alien
If we don’t count South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, then the three-part Imaginationland episodes are South Park’s opus. A larger than life deconstruction in the ways that the rhetoric surrounding the War on Terror is destroying our ability to think for ourselves, Imaginationland involves the boys traveling to the world of our imagination, where we are treated to a wonderful montage of fictional characters living and singing happily together. Ronald McDonald, Popeye, Luke Skywalker, Santa Claus, Gandolf, the Flash, Jesus; the list goes on and on. It’s a delightful cameo buffet.
But all is not fun and games when terrorists invade Imaginationland, setting off a bomb and starting a war between the good fictional characters and the evil ones. Butters is The One, and must travel across the land to help lead the forces of good in their struggle. It’s a wonderful adventure story, populated by everybody’s favorite fictional characters, while delivering a message about the dangers of rhetoric. Imaginationland is South Park at its very best, as far as I’m concerned.
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Honorable Mentions: Broadway Bro Down, World War Zimmerman, You’re Getting Old, The Last of the Meeheecans, You Have 0 Friends, Super Fun Time, Red Sleigh Down, Night of the Living Homeless, Make Love Not Warcraft, Good Times with Weapons, Goodbacks, Woodland Critter Christmas and so many, many more.
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So what are your favorite episodes? In researching this list, I found so many that I loved, and I know there are many I missed in Honorable Mentions that had me laughing non-stop when I waved them on TV.
Also, how are your Stick of Truth games going? Please feel free to share your progress in the comments!
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Posted on March 5, 2014, in Cartoons, Lists of Six!, Television and tagged South Park. Bookmark the permalink. 9 Comments.
Henchman-4-Hire 
my favorite is Make Love Not Warcraft
That was very nearly on my list. I love South Park, I love Warcraft, and the episode was perfect. Buuuut it got cut.
Tough list. I don’t know any of the titles. And there are so many great ones. I’ll see what I can do. Also, I think the delays were too long for Stick of Truth. I completely forgot it came out this week and I don’t really know if I’m going to go buy the game. I probably will, but I’ve been waiting so long that all the energy and desire for this game is faded.
6. Scott Tenorman Must Die. I think turning Cartman into an evil villain was overall, a bad idea. They’ve gotten a lot of mileage out of just how dark and twisted the little boy is, but that’s just it. I find the show funnier when it is mostly about them being little boys and the world is the one that’s messed up. But this particular episode is a bit of an exception because this was the first time they went so nuts and it was still really funny.
5. The One Where they kill Kenny for realsies. This episode was beautiful. The kids had to deal with real emotions for pretty much the first time ever on the show because Kenny was dying and they all had to come to terms with it. Stan was in denial and finally went to see Kenny but it was too late. Cartman cries on Kyle’s shoulder then goes and convinces Congress to legalize stem-cell research by getting the entire house to sing “Heat of the Moment.” All of it was beautiful…right up until Cartman uses stem-cells to make his own pizza shop. A later episode on this list points out why that wasn’t necessary.
4. The Lord of The Rings episode. Like I said, I don’t know all the titles and I’m not going to look them up. But this was great. They were just kids playing a game and in their world it is real enough for them to go on an epic quest to the video store.
3. The one where Butters dresses up as Marjorine and infiltrates the slumber party. In the same vein as the Lord of the Rings bit, the boys are just kids and fully believe that the cootie-catcher really can tell the future and they just roll with it from there. Plus Butters’s “suicide” was so funny. The pet Cemetery bit stunk…but whatever.
2. The Agnostics Episode. Kenny is the best. And his Mysterion persona proves it. He actually uses his immortality powers to help save the day for his little sister who up until this episode got absolutely no treatment. And I love that South Park attacks all forms of religious belief and finally got around to why Agnostics are also inherently funny. Dr. Pepper as an Agnostic beverage is great. I wanted to include Coon and Friends also, but the Cthulhu stuff and Captain Hindsight stuff was all awful and three episodes was too much.
1. The two-parter where Stan’s parents get divorced. Boy, that was some cliffhanger. The show could have ended right there and I’d probably be upset, but it would have been one hell of a move. It is like before with Kenny dying, the show needed to realize that it doesn’t need to end on a joke. It is South Park. It can do whatever it wants. Then the second episode ends in wackiness as a meta-commentary that the South Park writers are kinda stuck in a formula. And that’s funny in-and-of itself. But as good as it was I still think there may have been a better way to do all this.
I would have been absolutely stunned but thrilled if that episode had been the unexpected series finale of South Park. That’s almost exactly how I would want South Park to go out, on a dark, sad note. But they took us back from the brink, those bastards!
I usually can’t stand South Park, but there are some episodes I’ve actually not-hated, maybe even liked. Those are Worldwide Recorder Concert, Make Love Not Warcraft, Spontaneous Combustion, whatever Tom Cruise and the closet was called, and the one you have as number two. No idea why, I’ve just hated those the least.
That Tom Cruise episode was good too!
Yeah, it’s around the middle of my tolerable to likable scale. Of the ones I mentioned, Spontaneous Combustion is probably my favourite.
1. The series in which Cartman, as the Coon, allies himself with Cthulhu , while Mysterion reveals himself to be Kenny. Kenny confesses to having a secret power: He can never die. If he’s killed, he wakes up in bed the next day, remembering everything while none of his friends are even aware that he died. With that episode, everything suddenly came together with a reason for Kenny’s coming back every time, only to be killed once again.
2. South Park: Lord of the Rings. Immediately after seeing the Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, the boys roleplay character archetypes from the film. This leads them to being assigned an epic quest to return the tape to the rental store…only it’s the wrong tape. The tape they’ve really been given is, in fact, holds a power over men and 6th-levellers (and Butters) that can only be overcome by casting it into the return slot at the store from whence it came. I will never forget the hilarity of seeing Butters as Gollum.
3. Giant Douche v. Turd Sandwich. A prime example of the show’s biting political satire, the boys arrange an election for the school’s new mascot, between a Giant Douche and a Turd Sandwich. Through attack-campaigns and political debates, South Park gloriously lampoons democratic politics.
4. The Bad News Bears episode. This was Randy Marsh’s episode, from beginning to end. The boys don’t want to waste their entire summer playing baseball, so they attempt to lose their games so that their season can finally end. Unfortunately, every other team had the same idea, and as it turns out, some of them are very good at losing. But the real magic of this episode happens when Randy comes to the games drunk, and picks a fight at every one of them. As the boys become desperate to lose their games, Randy is in a tournament of his own; and there can only be one champion of the drunken-dad-sports game brawls.
Giant Douche vs. Turd Sandwich was another possibility for my own list! That may be their best political episode. Even better than the time Obama, McCain and Palin were all international jewel thieves together.