100 best South Park episodes

- IMDb user rating: 8.3
- Votes: 2,057
- Air date: Sept. 23, 2015

Taking direct aim at the political candidacy of Donald Trump, illegal immigration, and political correctness in general, the second episode of South Park’s 19th season uses former schoolteacher, Mr. Garrison, as the stand-in for all things xenophobic. Garrison, noticing an influx of Canadians in the U.S., composes a song called “Where My Country Gone” and announces his own candidacy for president alongside running mate Caitlyn Jenner.

The episode is a fascinating time capsule when looked at through the lens of the Trump presidency, especially when Garrison proposes to build a wall between the U.S. and Canada when he hears that South Park Elementary is forcing the teachers to learn a Canadian language.

- IMDb user rating: 8.3
- Votes: 2,089
- Air date: March 28, 2007

Playing on the height of the popular Fox Broadcasting drama “24,” Season 11's “The Snuke” follows Cartman as he suspects a new Muslim student and his parents of a terrorist plot to kill Hillary Clinton. Upon hearing that a Clinton rally is planned in South Park, Cartman alerts the CIA. CIA workers then discover the Russians placed a nuclear weapon inside of Clinton, dubbed “The Snuke.” After uncovering a secret plot by the British, who are using the Snuke as a diversion to take America back, Cartman comes to the conclusion that it was his racism that actually helped solve the case—once again not learning any real lessons along the way.

- IMDb user rating: 8.4
- Votes: 1,604
- Air date: Nov. 10, 2010

“Coon vs. Coon and Friends” is the final part of a trilogy of South Park episodes that feature the kids in superhero costumes with Cartman as “The Coon” and Kenny revealed to be the immortal “Mysterion.” In “Coon vs. Coon and Friends,” Mysterion tries to stop The Coon from using “Cthulhu” (an evil being created by sci-fi writer H.P. Lovecraft) from murdering hippies. Too late to save people at the Burning Man festival and from killing Justin Bieber, Mysterion turns to another immortal character, “Mint Berry Crunch” (the alter-ego of Bradley Biggle), who drags Cthulhu into the BP oil spill hole in the Gulf of Mexico.

- IMDb user rating: 8.4
- Votes: 1,681
- Air date: Nov. 3, 2010

Part of the “Coon and Friends” trilogy, “Mysterion Rises” follows the exploits of the Coon and Friends group that’s now led by Mysterion after banishing Cartman. Meanwhile, Cartman befriends the evil “Cthulhu” and goes on a path of destruction. Throughout the episode, Mysterion (Kenny) begins to uncover the mystery to why he can’t die, and it leads him to the Cult of Cthulhu where he finds out his parents were members (though just for the beer). Mysterion ends up dying again but always wakes up as Kenny in his own bed with all of his friends completely oblivious to his plight.

- IMDb user rating: 8.4
- Votes: 1,757
- Air date: July 19, 2000

After hearing a doomsday sermon by Father Maxi, the kids of South Park begin to wonder whether their Jewish friend Kyle and their handicapped friend Timmy will go to hell if they don't confess to their sins. In hell, meanwhile, Satan is racked with guilt over his relationships with Saddam Hussein and a man named Chris—and whom he should choose. The episode skewers Catholicism when the boys catch Father Maxi with a woman and Cartman takes it upon himself to preach to the people of South Park to confess their sins to him instead.

- IMDb user rating: 8.4
- Votes: 1,792
- Air date: Nov. 24, 1999

“The Red Badge of Gayness” makes light of Civil War reenactments as the townsfolk of South Park prepare to set a record for the biggest reenactment yet. The Confederate side of the reenactors get roaring drunk thanks to their liquor sponsor while Cartman dresses as Robert E. Lee to lead the Confederate side and attempts to actually win the battle. The drunken Confederate side gets so out of hand that it begins attacking other towns. Everything comes to a head in Washington D.C. where the Confederates try to blackmail Bill Clinton into a surrender. Stan and Kyle negotiate a way to end the conflict by promising the South a free year of Schnapps and thwart Cartman from seceding from the Union.

- IMDb user rating: 8.4
- Votes: 1,812
- Air date: Nov. 19, 2014

The Season 18 episode of “Cock Magic” makes fun of the actual game of Magic: The Gathering, cock fighting, animal rights, women’s sports, and puppetry of the penis all at once. In the episode, the boys wind up training a rooster for a cock magic fight (with roosters playing Magic: The Gathering) while Stan’s dad Randy puts on performances of magic using his penis under the stage name “The Amazingly Randi.” At the same time, the South Park Elementary girls attempt to garner interest for their volleyball games while the boys get squeamish about animal rights. In the end, the police bust up the cock magic fighting ring while Randy is performing his tricks and the boys figure out how to help the girls by combining the cock magic with volleyball to gain a larger crowd.

- IMDb user rating: 8.4
- Votes: 1,832
- Air date: April 2, 2003

After getting in trouble for making a clay penis in art class, the kids decide to get back at their teacher by toilet papering her house. The problems begin when Kyle feels overwhelmed with guilt and Cartman has to figure out a way to shut him up. The cops, meanwhile, interview a convicted toilet-paperer named Josh (in a sendup of Hannibal Lecter from “Red Dragon”) to attempt to crack the case. Cartman ultimately confesses to the crime, and in doing so gets less detention than Kyle, Stan, and Kenny. Josh is able to trick the police and escapes juvenile hall. The final scene shows him canvassing the White House with a large bag of toilet paper.

- IMDb user rating: 8.4
- Votes: 1,841
- Air date: Nov. 10, 2004

When Trent Boyett is released from juvenile hall, the kids immediately worry he’ll come after them. During a flashback, the kids are shown to blame Trent for a fire that left their teacher disfigured and he was put away as a result. In a spoof of “Cape Fear,” Trent returns to South Park Elementary to get back at the kids who seek help from the sixth graders and from Stan’s sister Shelley for protection. Just when the kids are about to confess their original sin of blaming Trent for the fire, they have a second mishap with the same teacher and wind up blaming Trent for that as well, which gets him arrested a second time.

- IMDb user rating: 8.4
- Votes: 1,922
- Air date: April 23, 2008

In a sendup of living history museums, "Super Fun Time" takes the kids on a school field trip to Pioneer Village, where all the employees act as if it's 1864 and never break character. While there, a group of thieves fleeing the cops after robbing a Burger King wind up in Pioneer Village, taking everyone hostage—everyone except Cartman and Butters who were ditching the trip to play games at an arcade named Super Phun Thyme. The kids have to convince the workers of Pioneer Village that there's an 1864 reason to help them thwart the thieves while Cartman and Butters sneak back into the village, thinking that the police are there because they had gone missing. Ultimately, the police raid the village and save the kids, while Cartman and Butters escape without getting caught.

- IMDb user rating: 8.4
- Votes: 1,961
- Air date: Dec. 16, 1998

Going way back into the second season of South Park, “Gnomes” takes aim at corporations and the implications of organizations like Starbucks (named Harbucks in the episode) driving smaller companies out of business. In the episode, the kids are convinced to write a paper against Harbucks and the town rallies to keep the coffee conglomerate out of South Park. This is the first time that the character Tweek is introduced, as his parents are the small coffee shop owners fighting to keep Harbucks out of town. As for the episode title, the kids discover there are gnomes in South Park who say that they’re business experts and can help explain the conflict of Harbucks to them through a basic three-phase plan: 1. Collect underpants. 2. ? 3. Profit. The gnomes’ plan has been used countless times to spoof shoddy business practices or failed government policy proposals.

- IMDb user rating: 8.4
- Votes: 2,050
- Air date: April 16, 2003

In one of the more surreal episodes of the show, Cartman uses his hand to mimic Jennifer Lopez. The hand-version of Lopez begins to take over and the real Lopez and her fiancé Ben Affleck come to South Park to put a stop to it. Cartman’s Lopez then records a hit record and Affleck falls in love with the hand as well. The real Lopez attempts to kill the hand-version when Cartman reveals that it wasn’t Lopez, but a con man named Mitch Connor who was impersonating her the entire time.

- IMDb user rating: 8.4
- Votes: 2,054
- Air date: March 13, 2002

Mocking classic ski movies like “Ski Patrol,” “Better Off Dead,” and “Aspen Extreme,” “Asspen” takes place at the real ski resort destination of Aspen, Colorado, where the kids are harassed by an older skier named Tad. In a classic movie-esque trope, the kids find out that Tad’s dad wants to destroy a beloved youth center but if Stan races Tad and wins, the center will be saved. Stan ultimately beats Tad in the race, saving the center while the kids’ parents are tricked into purchasing a timeshare at the resort.

- IMDb user rating: 8.4
- Votes: 2,054
- Air date: April 28, 2004

Another episode tackling the issue of illegal immigration, “Goobacks” is about people from the future who can’t find work and travel back in time to work for practically nothing. This directly affects the boys in South Park when they lose their snow-shoveling jobs to the Goobacks. Stan’s dad Randy takes up the cause of the South Park denizens who devise a plan to combat the Goobacks by participating in a gay orgy using the theory that gay men can’t reproduce so there will be fewer people in the future. Stan, embarrassed by his father, says that society should try to make things better so that in the future the Goobacks will have better jobs, which ultimately causes them to fade away and disappear. Of course, the South Park residents prefer the gay orgy and decide to stick with that instead.

- IMDb user rating: 8.4
- Votes: 2,079
- Air date: Aug. 8, 2001

Season 5, Episode 8 marks the first of many episodes where the lab-created character Towelie makes an appearance. Towelie first appears when the boys are playing on a new gaming console and asks them if they "want to get high" (Towelie's catchphrase, along with "don't forget to bring a towel"). When the gaming console goes missing and a ransom note offers it up in exchange for Towelie, the boys get caught between the military and a corporation vying for the technology that created Towelie in the first place. The boys only care about getting the gaming device back while a plot to take over the earth by an alien race using artificially-created smart towels is uncovered. The boys and Towelie ultimately escape and they get their game back as well.

- IMDb user rating: 8.4
- Votes: 2,134
- Air date: March 18, 2009

In the first of a three-part trilogy, “The Coon” is Cartman’s superhero alter-ego who acts as a vigilante to help thwart crime in South Park a la Batman. Wanting to gain fame for his crime-fighting abilities, The Coon tries to alert the police to meaningless events when he confronts another masked character named Mysterion. Cartman attempts to defeat and unmask Mysterion with the help of Professor Chaos (Butters) when he plants explosives in a hospital. Cartman and Mysterion square off and Cartman convinces him to share his identity or he’ll continue wreaking havoc throughout South Park. Mysterion agrees, but the audience doesn’t get to see the identity of the masked character.

- IMDb user rating: 8.4
- Votes: 2,186
- Air date: April 22, 1998

The second in a two-part episode (following the Season 1 finale “Cartman’s Mom is a Dirty Slut”), the show picks up the thread where Mephesto is about to reveal the identity of Cartman’s father when he’s shot and rushed to the hospital. Outside, there’s a massive blizzard in South Park, causing the power to go out all over the town. Kenny saves the day by electrocuting himself but restoring power to the hospital and saving Mephesto. It’s then that Mephesto reveals that Cartman’s mom is really his dad since she’s a hermaphrodite and that means his real mother is actually someone else. That mystery doesn’t get solved until Season 14.

- IMDb user rating: 8.4
- Votes: 2,298
- Air date: Nov. 7, 2007

Playing off the international craze of the “Guitar Hero” video games, “Guitar Queer-o” follows Stan and Kyle as they become internationally famous for their “Guitar Hero” prowess. The episode plays on classic rock band stereotypes when Kyle and Stan break up, and Stan falls into the trap of playing a more relaxing game called “Heroin Hero.” After the rise and fall of “Guitar Hero” fame, Stan and Kyle make up, discard their record contract, and try to crack the million-point mark of the game together. When they do, the game simply insults them, and they give it all up for good.

- IMDb user rating: 8.4
- Votes: 2,366
- Air date: Oct. 29, 1997

For Halloween, the kids all compete in a costume contest to win two tons of candy. When Cartman dresses up as Hitler, the principal makes him a ghost costume that ends up looking like a Ku Klux Klan robe instead. Meanwhile, Kenny is killed when the Mir Space Station lands on him and he turns into a zombie, which no one realizes because it’s Halloween. As Kenny begins biting and infecting people, everyone mistakes the zombie symptoms for pink eye and Kyle has to kill Kenny for everyone to go back to normal.

- IMDb user rating: 8.5
- Votes: 1,839
- Air date: Dec. 11, 2013

In one of the multiple episodes mocking Kanye West, the episode of "The Hobbit" has West attempting to convince people that Kim Kardashian is not a hobbit. The episode dives into body-shaming and how Photoshop manipulates bodies and instills insecurities in people. Everything starts when Butters turns down a girl who asks him out, claiming that she doesn't look like Kim Kardashian. Wendy says Kardashian looks like a hobbit, which causes Kanye to go on a tour to convince the world otherwise. Wendy crusades about the use of Photoshop to paint unrealistic images of girls, but ultimately succumbs to the same pressure when Kanye reads her a heartwarming tale about a hobbit by her bedside.

- IMDb user rating: 8.5
- Votes: 1,952
- Air date: Dec. 10, 2003

The boys try to cheer Stan up after his girlfriend breaks up with him by taking him to Raisins, a spoof of Hooters but with heavily made-up pre-teen girls. The gambit doesn’t work, however: Instead, Stan starts hanging out with the goth kids at school. Meanwhile, Butters falls in love with one of the Raisins girls who uses him for his parents’ money. When Butters realizes he’s being used, the goth kids invite him to join as well, but he declines and convinces Stan that moping with the goths just prolongs his misery instead of allowing him to get over it.

- IMDb user rating: 8.5
- Votes: 1,961
- Air date: Oct. 27, 2004

“Douche and Turd” delves into the value of voting when all the choices feel exactly the same. PETA protests the use of a cow as the school mascot, so the kids decide to choose between two alternatives: a giant douche or a turd sandwich. Stan finds the entire process meaningless and ends being banished by the town for refusing to vote. In the end, the PETA members are gunned down by Sean “Puff Daddy” Combs who was trying to murder Stan for not voting and the school realizes that they can simply keep the cow as the mascot, making Stan’s stance truly meaningless.

- IMDb user rating: 8.5
- Votes: 1,963
- Air date: June 20, 2001

To punctuate absurd profanity rules set by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), “It Hits the Fan” uses the word “s**t” more than 100 times. In the actual episode, the kids are excited when one of their favorite shows “Cop Drama” announces that they will say the S-word on TV for the first time. The show normalizes the word and "South Park" characters begin saying it all the time. But the excessive use results in the return of the Black Death and the awakening of a killer dragon. Kyle ultimately slays the dragon using ancient magic and all is restored to normal again. Since this episode aired, the S-word has become commonplace on the show.

- IMDb user rating: 8.5
- Votes: 2,000
- Air date: March 19, 2003

For the opening episode of Season 7, Cartman has an alien probe antenna placed inside his butt and the kids discover Earth is simply part of an intergalactic reality TV show. When the kids find out that the show “Earth” is going to be canceled and therefore destroyed, they figure out a way to blackmail the network producers (who are aliens typecast as Jewish stereotypes controlling all the media in the universe) so they can’t destroy Earth after all. When they return home, the aliens successfully wipe everyone’s memory—but the kids still have a photo, proving that the aliens exist.

- IMDb user rating: 8.5
- Votes: 2,016
- Air date: March 24, 2004

Cartman decides to fake being handicapped so he can compete in the Special Olympics in order to win $1,000 in prize money. At the same time, Jimmy begins taking steroids so he can win as well. As the games approach, Jimmy's steroid use begins to affect everything in his life and he loses friends and his girlfriend. When the games commence, the honorary members of the Olympic committee are revealed to be notorious performance-enhancing drug users Barry Bonds, Jason Giambi, and Mark McGwire. After coming in first, Jimmy confesses to drug use. Cartman, meanwhile, is so out of shape that he comes in last but he still receives a special spirit award for participating.

- IMDb user rating: 8.5
- Votes: 2,057
- Air date: Oct. 21, 2015

In its seemingly never-ending battle against political correctness, this episode of South Park tackles the idea of safe spaces. When Cartman gets an onslaught of negative comments from a picture he posted of himself, P.C. Principal makes Butters filter out the negative remarks so Cartman can no longer see them. Eventually, Butters has to filter out comments for celebrities as well like Demi Lovato, Steven Seagal, Vin Diesel, and others. At the same time, Randy tries to turn Whole Foods into a safe space when the cashier continuously guilts him into making charitable donations. With all the negativity directed at Butters, he gets hospitalized and the rest of South Park raises money for starving kids so they can have iPads and filter out negative comments about them as well.

- IMDb user rating: 8.5
- Votes: 2,062
- Air date: Dec. 1, 2004

During the height of Paris Hilton’s fame, Trey Parker and Matt Stone decided to write an entire episode mocking Hilton and her effect on young girls wanting to be like her. In the episode, the town’s young girls idolize Hilton, buying her merchandise and reenacting her sex tape. Wendy wants it all to stop, and she recruits Mr. Slave to put an end to it. Meanwhile, Hilton adopts Butters as her newest pet and offers his parents millions of dollars to keep him (which they have to think about). Butters escapes Hilton’s clutches and Mr. Slave has a slut-off with Hilton which ends with him stuffing Hilton inside his butt and castigating the parents of South Park for not teaching their kids why being a slut is actually a bad thing.

- IMDb user rating: 8.5
- Votes: 2,069
- Air date: Oct. 19, 2005

In “Two Days Before the Day After Tomorrow,” South Park takes aim at a number of targets including George W. Bush, the movie “The Day After Tomorrow,” the media’s coverage of Hurricane Katrina, and more. In the episode, Stan and Cartman accidentally crash a boat into a beaver dam that floods the town of Beaverton. Not wanting to get into trouble, they keep the accident to themselves which sparks a wave of speculation that causes the people of South Park to blame the flooding on everything from global warming to Crab People. When Stan confesses, the townspeople don’t believe him and instead take the blame themselves in a show of solidarity—much to Stan’s dismay.

- IMDb user rating: 8.5
- Votes: 2,093
- Air date: Nov. 14, 2007

When the girls make a secret list that rates the boys on their level of cuteness, it sends shockwaves throughout the school, especially when Kyle is rated last with Cartman right above him. Kyle goes into a funk and plans to set the school on fire when it’s revealed that the list was rigged in favor of Clyde, whose father owns a shoe store. The girls secretly wanted Clyde to come in first in the hope of securing free shoes. Bebe tries to stop Wendy from revealing the truth by holding her up at gunpoint, but the cops show up, apprehend her, and her stray bullet ends up killing Kenny instead.

- IMDb user rating: 8.5
- Votes: 2,129
- Air date: Oct. 8, 2014

Sick of the boys bathroom always being taken, Cartman pretends to be transginger [sic] and begins using the women's bathroom instead. This sets off a firestorm in the school and leads to mass confusion for the students. At the same time, Randy has a gender issue of his own when it's revealed that he's actually the singer Lorde and has been using the women's bathroom at work to find inspiration for his/her songs. The school decides that the kids can use whichever bathroom they feel most comfortable in and build a new bathroom that's labeled "Cissy" for anyone who has a problem with transgender people.

- IMDb user rating: 8.5
- Votes: 2,179
- Air date: Oct. 18, 2006

When Kyle finds out that his little brother Ike is having an affair with his kindergarten teacher Miss Stevenson, he alerts the police, who take it lightly because it’s a young boy with an older woman. At the same time, Cartman becomes a hall monitor in a spoof of “Dog the Bounty Hunter” and takes his job incredibly seriously, which ultimately leads to him busting Ike and the teacher. Ike’s teacher is forced to go to rehab and when she gets out, she tries to take Ike with her out of the country. When Cartman (and eventually the police) try to stop them, Miss Stevenson kills herself, thinking that Ike will join her, but Ike holds back at the last minute after Kyle pleads with him to stop.

- IMDb user rating: 8.5
- Votes: 2,198
- Air date: April 7, 1999

Voiced by Jennifer Aniston, the kid’s teacher Miss Stevens takes them and the rest of their choir group to Costa Rica where they’re supposed to perform for the president in a joint effort to help save the rainforests. While touring the forest, their guide is eaten and the group is left scared, alone, and abandoned. Encountering dangerous natives and wild animals, the kids manage to make their way back to safety when Cartman finds some loggers who destroy that part of the forest. The kids come to hate the rainforest and change the song they were supposed to sing for the Costa Rican president into one that decries everything about the forest itself and expounds on all its dangers.

- IMDb user rating: 8.6
- Votes: 1,866
- Air date: April 23, 2003

When the kids play a game of junior detective and attempt to solve petty crimes around the neighborhood, they wind up getting recruited by the actual police to help them solve drug crimes. The kids end up busting a meth lab, taking part in shootouts, and uncovering corruption on the police force. With South Park cleaned up, the cops offer to make them real detectives, but they decline after realizing how intense the ordeal really was. The episode is a spoof of crime dramas on TV like “CSI” and plays on the popularity of police procedurals in general.

- IMDb user rating: 8.6
- Votes: 1,879
- Air date: July 24, 2002

The parents of South Park are overwhelmed with news of child abductions and decide to elicit the help of City Wok owner Mr. Lu Kim to build a great wall around the town. As Mr. Kim finishes, the wall is immediately attacked by Mongols who continuously try to break through throughout the episode. When a new report comes out that parents are most likely to abduct their own children, the kids take it upon themselves to join up with the Mongols and blow up the wall. The parents finally come to their senses as the kids make them realize how much they’ve been overreacting to the news.

- IMDb user rating: 8.6
- Votes: 1,892
- Air date: Dec. 4, 2002

Trying to teach their kids a lesson about drugs, Stan and Butters' parents hire actors from a company called Motivation Corp to convince their kids what they'll be like in the future if they take drugs. Stan—immediately on to his parents' ruse—calls a revenge hotline that's run by Cartman. Cartman offers to kill Stan's parents, but Stan instead plays a trick on them to force them to admit their lies. Stan's parents come clean and apologize for lying, as do Butters' (who hired Cartman to smear his house with feces in revenge) and tell them that drugs can lead to bad things but aren't all bad. Cartman is then visited by his future self who is a trim, good looking CEO of a time-traveling company. But Cartman doesn't believe him, thinking his mom paid another actor from Motivation Corp. Instead, Cartman carries on the way he always does, which changes the man into a poor, fatter version, revealing it was actually Cartman coming back from the future.

- IMDb user rating: 8.6
- Votes: 1,900
- Air date: Dec. 6, 2000

The episode of “Fat Camp” has two competing storylines. The first involves Cartman being sent away to fat camp and scheming his way to get food smuggled in. The second involves Kenny, who, in the fashion of shows like “Jackass,” starts doing crazy stunts and eating weird things for money. While Kenny starts to get famous and Cartman begins selling candy to other kids at fat camp, Kyle begins to suspect what Cartman is up to and figures out that he was using an imposter to pose as a skinnier version of him back home. Kyle then blackmails the imposter to act as Kenny for one final stunt—spending hours inside Mrs. Crabtree’s uterus. When the time runs out, the imposter (dressed as Kenny) flings out of her uterus, but now dead from the pressure. Cartman, of course, is kicked out of fat camp and banished from ever returning.

- IMDb user rating: 8.6
- Votes: 1,934
- Air date: Aug. 1, 2001

Completely oblivious to sexual education, Cartman thinks he can “milk” his own dog. When Stan shows his parents the same thing, he gets grounded and the school winds up having to teach the kids sexual education. The teachers, not exactly experienced in their own right, cause even more confusion, making the girls think all boys have STDs and the boys think they need to wear condoms at all times. Chef finally intervenes and chastises the parents for not properly teaching the kids about sex, leading to a better understanding in South Park as to how STDs are transmitted and babies are made.

- IMDb user rating: 8.6
- Votes: 1,935
- Air date: April 10, 2002

The kids get tired of Butters as their Kenny replacement and decide to kick him out of the group and hold auditions for a new friend. Bitter, Butters decides to bring forth his supervillain alter-ego, Professor Chaos, who vows to create disruption all over the world. Dougie is one of the early losers of the kids’ auditions and joins Butters as General Disarray and the two of them try to destroy the environment with aerosol cans. The auditions for a fourth friend come down to Towelie, Tweek, Timmy, and Jimmy and they ultimately decide on Tweek for no discernible reason.

- IMDb user rating: 8.6
- Votes: 1,959
- Air date: Dec. 8, 2004

There’s a serial killer in South Park, and Cartman claims to have psychic powers in order to help the police find him. Kyle, knowing that Cartman is full of it, takes it upon himself to investigate a suspicious man named Deets. When Kyle finds evidence and shares it with the police, they disregard him, following Cartman’s alleged psychic powers instead. Kyle then has to pretend he’s a psychic in order for the police to believe him. Kyle points the cops in the direction of Deets, who has taken Cartman hostage for crediting the wrong people with Deets’ crimes. The cops get to Deets at the last moment, killing him before he’s able to murder Cartman. Kyle is then looked at as a real psychic before he lectures everyone that there’s no such thing as psychics and he was faking it the whole time.

- IMDb user rating: 8.6
- Votes: 2,016
- Air date: Oct. 28, 1998

For their Halloween special, Season 2's episode of "Spookyfish" finds a nice and normal Cartman in South Park causing the other boys to get suspicious. At the same time, Stan's mom says that Aunt Flo has come to visit and gives Stan a goldfish to keep him away. Right away, Stan thinks the fish is evil and turns out to be right when he finds a murdered body on his floor. The nice Cartman turns out to be from an alternate universe and Stan and Kyle try to figure out how to swap the normal Cartman with the alt Cartman. Everything comes to a head at an ancient Indian burial ground pet store, where they find the portal to the alternative universe and try to send back normal Cartman. Unfortunately, normal Cartman tricks the other boys and the alternate Cartman gets sent back to the parallel world.

- IMDb user rating: 8.6
- Votes: 2,031
- Air date: Nov. 3, 2004

Wall-Mart comes to South Park and while the townspeople love the cheap bargains, all the small businesses around them begin to shut down. Desperate to make it stop and take Wall-Mart out, the boys travel to Arkansas to confront Wall-Mart at their headquarters. There they find out the only way to stop Wall-Mart is to take out its heart. When the boys return home, they enter the Wall-Mart and find the heart, which is just a mirror, symbolizing that Wall-Mart only lives off the selfish consumerism of its customers. The kids break the mirror and Wall-Mart then implodes on itself. The townspeople take the lesson to heart but then repeat the same mistakes over and over again with other major businesses.

- IMDb user rating: 8.6
- Votes: 2,043
- Air date: March 30, 2005

Playing on the national debate around the Terri Schiavo case, the episode of “Best Friends Forever” pits the town of South Park against one another over whether it’s okay to pull the plug on people in a vegetative state. When Kenny is kept on life support, he can’t get into heaven where God is amassing an army to fight Satan. When the kids eventually find the last page of Kenny’s will, it categorically tells them that if he is in a vegetative state, no matter what, don’t put him on television. Kenny’s tube is then removed, and he floats to heaven to lead God’s army against Satan. The episode won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program.

- IMDb user rating: 8.6
- Votes: 2,102
- Air date: Oct. 15, 2008

Cartman mocks Wendy while she gives a presentation in class on breast cancer awareness. Tired of his antics, she challenges Cartman to a fight and rallies the entire school around her. Afraid that if he gets beaten up by a girl, no one will ever think he’s cool, Cartman goes to extreme lengths to get out of fighting. Wendy and Cartman’s parents get involved and Wendy backs down. But when Principal Victoria tells Wendy that she’s a cancer survivor and that cancer doesn’t play by the rules, Wendy takes it as approval to fight Cartman and beats him up badly. Cartman, misinterpreting the kids’ reactions for pity, walks away feeling better about himself, once again learning nothing from this experience.

- IMDb user rating: 8.6
- Votes: 2,140
- Air date: March 25, 2009

With the global recession in full swing, “Margaritaville” was South Park’s attempt to lampoon America’s infatuation with the market while having virtually no understanding of it. Kyle tries to explain to people that the market is simply a manmade construct and that people should spend money to get out of the recession. Meanwhile, Stan tries to return Randy’s Margaritaville mixer but because it was bought on a payment plan, he can’t figure out who to return it to since the debt was collateralized (mocking the housing crisis at the time). Stan makes it all the way to the United States Treasury where he finds a group of men playing a game with a cut-off chicken’s head, deciding whether to bail an industry out or not. Kyle becomes a martyr for the entire town as he uses his American Express card to wipe out everyone’s debt, which helps bring things back to normal again…for now.

- IMDb user rating: 8.6
- Votes: 2,222
- Air date: April 21, 2004

"The Jeffersons" takes a scathing look at Michael Jackson, portrayed as Mr. Jefferson. When Mr. Jefferson and his son Blanket move to South Park, he immediately wants to play with the boys and have them over to his house. The boys all think he's creepy, except for Cartman who thinks Mr. Jefferson is his new best friend. Meanwhile, the cops are tipped off that there's a rich black man in South Park, and because they can't have black men with more money than them, try to frame Mr. Jefferson. The only problem is that when they see Mr. Jefferson appears to be white, they abandon their plan. Later, the cops realize their mistake, but not before Mr. Jefferson kills Kenny and is scolded by Kyle to act like an adult since he now has kids of his own. Mr. Jefferson takes the lesson and gives his money to charity, prompting the cops to leave him alone because there are already too many poor black men in prison.

- IMDb user rating: 8.6
- Votes: 2,222
- Air date: April 16, 2008

Parodying “The Grapes of Wrath,” the denizens of South Park begin to head west when their town suddenly loses Internet. The episode follows Stan and his family as they flee to California with the promise of more Internet. Randy has been secretly watching Internet porn and becomes addicted, so he needs it more than anyone. When they arrive in California, they’re put up in an Internet refugee camp where they’re permitted less than a minute of Internet each day. The government is flummoxed for why the Internet went down, but Kyle figures it out by unplugging a machine and then plugging it back in. Everything goes back to normal and Randy says that people need to stop hoarding Internet time—unless it’s for porn.

- IMDb user rating: 8.6
- Votes: 2,293
- Air date: June 8, 2011

When Stan turns 10, everything around him begins to look and sound awful. His parents take him to a doctor who diagnoses him as a “cynical asshole.” His friends begin to avoid him because of his incessant cynicism and, in a shocking twist, Kyle and Cartman become friends. Stan’s father, trying to recapture his youth, begins performing tween music, which leads to he and Sharon separating and selling their house. The end of the episode leaves Stan in a funk, with nowhere to turn, and seeing everything in the world as literal feces.

- IMDb user rating: 8.7
- Votes: 1,706
- Air date: April 21, 2010

The title of the episode is also the 201st overall episode of the series. This episode is particularly memorable because of the creator’s desire to use the image of the Prophet Muhammed without any censorship. Throughout the episode, Muhammed is obscured by a black box that simply reads “censored.” Cartman, meanwhile, squares off with his nemesis Scott Tenorman who reveals that Cartman’s father was Denver Broncos player Jack Tenorman.

- IMDb user rating: 8.7
- Votes: 1,915
- Air date: April 12, 2000

After Cartman accidentally hits Token with a rock that was intended for Kyle, he’s accused of a hate crime and tried in criminal court. Cartman is sent to jail for his crime, which leaves the kids without an anchor for their sledding team. The kids quickly realize that Cartman’s weight is their secret weapon to winning the competition and come up with a plan to free him from jail. The kids wind up giving a presentation to the Governor of Colorado, who decides to pardon Cartman just in time for the race.

- IMDb user rating: 8.7
- Votes: 1,984
- Air date: Oct. 2, 2019

The Season 23 episode "Band in China" is particularly notable because it's the episode that got the show banned in China. Randy, looking to expand his marijuana business, turns to China as a potential market. Upon arrival, Randy is arrested with a suitcase filled with his product and sent to prison. At the same time, Stan is offered a movie deal for a biopic on his band Crimson Dawn. He's excited until he realizes all of the sacrifices he'll have to make to appease the Chinese market. While in prison, Randy meets Winnie the Pooh (who was banned in China because people compared him to the country's leader Xi Jinping) and ultimately beats the bear to death so he can sell his weed in the country. Back at home, Stan is ashamed of his father as dump trucks of money pile up on the farm.

- IMDb user rating: 8.7
- Votes: 2,037
- Air date: Nov. 27, 2002

In a scathing rebuke of psychics, in particular TV psychic John Edward, “The Biggest Douche in the Universe” picks up from a previous episode where Kenny’s dead spirit possesses Cartman. In an attempt to heal Cartman, Chef convinces everyone to take him to John Edward so he can speak to Kenny from the dead. Stan thinks Edward is a phony and when he’s not able to heal Cartman, Chef takes them to Scotland where his parents perform an exorcism. When Stan reveals Edward as a fraud, he calls Edward the biggest douche in the universe, which causes an alien spaceship to crash on Earth. The aliens are the nomination committee for Biggest Douche in the Universe and Edward wins the prize.

- IMDb user rating: 8.7
- Votes: 2,076
- Air date: Nov. 8, 2006

In the sequel to “Go God Go,” episode 13 of Season 10 starts with Cartman still trapped in the year 2546 after he thought freezing himself would help alleviate the agony of waiting for the new Nintendo Wii. While in the future, Cartman encounters three groups of atheists who are all at war over the “great question,” which just turns out to be over the best name for the atheists to adopt. Using a time phone, Cartman inadvertently reveals to Richard Dawkins that Mrs. Garrison is a post-op transsexual, which ends their relationship and completely alters the future. The atheist war ends and they send Cartman back to the present day where he now has to wait two more months for the release of the Nintendo Wii.

- IMDb user rating: 8.7
- Votes: 2,100
- Air date: April 6, 2005

The kids really hate playing baseball, and when they win the last game of the season, they’re thrilled that they can play video games all summer instead. Unfortunately, because of their win, they now have to compete in the playoffs, causing them to devise a plan to lose every game. Randy, a big proponent of the team’s success, becomes a belligerent dad on the field, fighting with anyone who confronts him. The kids are unsuccessful in their bid to lose games as all the other teams want to lose too and are doing it better. In the championship game, the kids look like they’ll win and have to compete on the national circuit when Randy starts a major fight that ultimately disqualifies the kids’ team, alleviating them of having to play any more games.

- IMDb user rating: 8.7
- Votes: 2,108
- Air date: Nov. 20, 2002

Mr. Garrison goes to extreme lengths to get fired by the school for being a homosexual, with the plan to then sue for millions of dollars. The plan backfires, however, because the school and South Park parents go overboard to show that they’re tolerant of homosexuality. Realizing what Garrison is up to, the kids call him out but are then sent to a tolerance camp. One of Mr. Garrison’s gambits involves shoving the class gerbil, Lemmiwinks, inside Mr. Slave’s rectum, which leads the gerbil on a quest, reminiscent of “The Hobbit.” The episode ends when Principal Victoria has Mr. Garrison and Mr. Slave sent to tolerance camp so they can accept their own behavior while Lemmiwinks emerges from Mr. Slave as a newly crowned Gerbil King.

- IMDb user rating: 8.7
- Votes: 2,154
- Air date: Nov. 1, 2006

In the first of a two-part episode, Cartman is enraged that he has to wait weeks for the new Nintendo Wii to come out. As a result, he devises a plan to freeze himself in snow, so he won't have to feel time pass by. At the school, Mrs. Garrison refuses to teach evolution and so they hire renowned biologist Richard Dawkins to teach it instead. Dawkins and Garrison end up in a relationship and Garrison becomes a devout atheist. Meanwhile, Cartman is buried by an avalanche and is found and woken up in the year 2546 where three different factions of atheists are at war with one another. All Cartman cares about is finding a Nintendo Wii but he can't get access to one until he tells one of the atheist factions what he knows about a particular person from his time.

- IMDb user rating: 8.7
- Votes: 2,235
- Air date: Oct. 14, 2009

After Butters pays Sally Darson for his first kiss, he forms a kissing business. Trying to get better at management for the business, Butters attends a pimp convention to learn more tricks of the trade. Sergeant Yates, seeing a surge in prostitution in the community, goes undercover as a prostitute to start making arrests. Only problem is, Yates gets so deep that he eventually falls in love with his own pimp, Keyshawn. Over time, Butters finds more and more actual prostitutes seeking his services as he helps them get medical benefits and loans for housing. Yates (undercover as Yolanda) ends up marrying Keyshawn, but while they’re on their honeymoon in Switzerland, he finally breaks cover and arrests Keyshawn for good. Butters gives up his business and lets the prostitutes take over so they can work for themselves.

- IMDb user rating: 8.7
- Votes: 2,303
- Air date: April 5, 2006

“Cartoon Wars: Part 1” finds South Park in a censorship snafu again over the depiction of Muhammed. The episode starts with the denizens of South Park worried that the show “Family Guy” is going to show Muhammed and that terrorism will run rampant in the country as a result. “Family Guy” ends up censoring the depiction but plans on revealing Muhammed in a follow-up episode. Kyle and Cartman go to Hollywood to try to get the second episode pulled from the air, but Cartman hopes to get “Family Guy” canceled altogether. The episode ends on a cliffhanger, revealing that it’s only part one of a two-part episode.

- IMDb user rating: 8.7
- Votes: 2,368
- Air date: April 7, 2010

Stan wants nothing to do with Facebook, but when his friends create an account without his consent, he begins to be confronted by friends and family for disregarding them online. Stan’s friend numbers skyrocket, even though he wants nothing to do with it and he decides to delete his account. He is inserted into the online world (a la “Tron”) where he has to confront his online self in a game of Yahtzee in order to be freed of the account. Stan wins and transfers all of his friends to a kid named Kip Drordy who had no friends online after Kyle deleted him for not being cool.

- IMDb user rating: 8.7
- Votes: 2,380
- Air date: March 31, 2010

South Park’s KFC is replaced by a medicinal marijuana business after the state bans fast food because of its health issues. As a result, Cartman goes into business for himself selling black market fried chicken. Randy, wanting access to the marijuana facility, gives himself testicular cancer and has to carry his now enlarged testicles around in a wheelbarrow. Cartman is recruited by a local underground fried chicken dealer and ends up meeting Colonel Sanders, who wants Cartman to kill Jamie Oliver before he can speak to the United Nations about the dangers of fast food. With an increase in testicular cancer cases, Colorado surmises that fried chicken was actually preventing people from getting cancer and decides to outlaw marijuana and revoke the ban on fast food.

- IMDb user rating: 8.7
- Votes: 2,398
- Air date: March 31, 2004

After seeing "The Passion of the Christ," Cartman becomes the president of the Mel Gibson fan club and insists on Kyle seeing the movie. After watching it, Kyle feels guilty about his Jewish heritage and thinks Jews are at fault for killing Christ. Stan and Kenny, meanwhile, hate the movie and want their money back. They travel to Malibu to confront a deranged Mel Gibson and steal $20 from him. Enraged, Gibson follows them back to South Park while Cartman starts a rally reminiscent of Nazi Germany. When Gibson arrives, Cartman tries to worship him, but crazy Gibson simply defecates on his face. Stan then gives an impassioned speech that people should follow Jesus' teachings and not focus on how he died, which appeases Kyle's guilt.

- IMDb user rating: 8.7
- Votes: 2,531
- Air date: Feb. 25, 1998

The Season 1 finale, “Cartman’s Mom Is a Dirty Slut” is the first in a two-part series where Cartman tries to figure out who his father is. In his search to figure it out, Cartman first thinks his father is a Native American named Chief Running Water. That leads him to Chef, which then leads him to Mr. Garrison, and so on. To solve the issue, Dr. Mephesto says he’ll run a DNA analysis but needs $3,000 for the test. To get the money, the kids enter a video they took of Cartman to the show “America’s Stupidest Home Videos.” The video enrages Cartman as it shows him having a tea party with his stuffed animals. The kids win second place and use the money for a DNA test. Before the results are revealed, the episode ends, enraging Cartman even further.

- IMDb user rating: 8.7
- Votes: 2,616
- Air date: March 26, 2008

The newest drug craze in South Park is called “cheesing,” wherein people get high off of cat urine. Kenny falls victim to the craze and during his urine-induced trip, he’s introduced to a woman with enormous breasts and all the buildings and landmarks start to look like breasts as well. It’s later revealed that Kyle’s dad used to be addicted to cat urine as well and has a relapse so he can once again see the large-breasted woman. The town of South Park ends up banning cats, as Cartman hides Mr. Kitty in his attic. The episode is an allegory for the “Diary of Anne Frank” but the meaning is completely lost on Cartman.

- IMDb user rating: 8.8
- Votes: 1,946
- Air date: April 14, 2010

Through years and years of mocking celebrities, the A-list stars have finally had enough and file a class-action lawsuit against the town of South Park. The only way to get the suit dropped is if they can arrange a meeting between Tom Cruise and the Prophet Muhammed. The only problem is that depictions of the Prophet set off a firestorm and the entire town is afraid they’ll be subject to terrorism if they arrange the meeting. Meanwhile, the Ginger kids want Muhammed as well and threaten to destroy South Park if they don’t get him. The town agrees to give Muhammed to the Gingers, which enrages the celebrities who then use a mechanized version of Barbra Streisand to attack the town. At the end of the episode, Cartman finds out that everyone lied to him about who his father was, an identity that is ultimately revealed in the episode “201.”

- IMDb user rating: 8.8
- Votes: 2,020
- Air date: Dec. 4, 2013

“Titties and Dragons” is the third in a three-episode arc that follows the kids in a “Game of Thrones” spoof over buying video game consoles on Black Friday. The kids are separated into two groups, with Kyle and Stan on opposite sides competing against one another. As Black Friday gets closer, the kids scheme to get the consoles while shoppers murder each other for deals. It comes down to Microsoft Xbox One vs. Sony PlayStation 4 when Bill Gates kills the head of Sony for video game console supremacy. The kids wind up with an Xbox but ultimately realize the game to get the game console was actually more fun.

- IMDb user rating: 8.8
- Votes: 2,078
- Air date: Dec. 13, 2000

When Kyle asks his parents if he can go to a Raging Pussies concert, they tell him that if he can accomplish a bunch of chores and bring democracy to Cuba, he can go. To their utter shock, Kyle accomplishes everything, but they still won't let him go. Cartman suggests to Kyle that he tell the police his parents molested him so he can get his way. Eventually, all the kids in South Park start turning in their parents for molestation and soon enough the town is parent-free. The town devolves into anarchy with divided factions until an out-of-town couple drives through South Park and reminds the kids what it's like to actually have parents. The couple is able to convince the police that the parents have been falsely accused and everything goes back to normal—except the parents now believe they've been cured of their sexual urges.

- IMDb user rating: 8.8
- Votes: 2,111
- Air date: Nov. 6, 2002

Desperate to find a ticket stub that will earn them an all-you-can-grab prize of candy, Kyle, Cartman, and Stan rummage through Kenny’s belongings, since he was the last one to have the ticket before he died. Cartman finds Kenny’s ashes, and not understanding cremation, mixes them with milk and drinks them. The kids, thinking they can find Kenny in heaven, decide to build a ladder so they can ask him where they can find the ticket stub. The rest of the world fixates on what they think is the kid’s altruistic reason to find Kenny and help build the ladder with them. Country singer Alan Jackson even writes a song about it (which the South Park creators made to mock Jackson for his 9/11 song). Meanwhile, Cartman begins having visions of Kenny, which he realizes is because he drank his ashes. With each vision, Cartman figures out where the ticket stub is, eventually leading the kids to get their candy and ditch the ladder.

- IMDb user rating: 8.8
- Votes: 2,131
- Air date: Oct. 26, 2005

The girls use a paper fortune teller to see into the future as a game but the boys think they’re using an advanced level of technology that they have to steal. By faking Butters’ death, the boys then dress Butters up as a girl named Marjorine so that she can infiltrate the girls and steal the technology. Butters’ parents, now thinking he’s dead, decide to bury his remains (actually a pig that the kids used for their ruse) in an Indian burial ground, thinking it will bring him back to life in a clear nod to Stephen King’s “Pet Sematary.” Butters ultimately steals the fortune teller from the girls and tells his parents that he’s alive. Unfortunately, his parents now think he’s a demon-child and murders someone for him to feed on.

- IMDb user rating: 8.8
- Votes: 2,232
- Air date: April 12, 2006

In part two of the “Cartoon Wars” arc, Cartman tries to get “Family Guy” canceled when they plan on depicting the Prophet Muhammed in one of their episodes. Cartman pleads with the network executives to censor the episode, thinking this will be their undoing, but Kyle tries to stop him. Before Kyle can stop Cartman, he’s knocked out by Bart Simpson, who, like Cartman wants “Family Guy” to go away. After finding out the “Family Guy” writers are just manatees who use pop-culture reference balls to come up with ideas, Cartman steals a ball so they can’t work. With a decision looming for the head of Fox, Kyle is able to break away and convince the network president to air the episode. Comedy Central ultimately intervened and presented Muhammed as a black screen.

- IMDb user rating: 8.8
- Votes: 2,245
- Air date: Nov. 9, 2005

Cartman hates "ginger" kids—red-headed kids with pale skin and freckles—and claims they’re a scourge on society. The ginger kids in school are then treated like second-class citizens and picked on by everyone else. Kyle, Stan, and Kenny decide to teach Cartman a lesson by sneaking into his room at night, dying his hair, making his skin pale, and giving him freckled tattoos. Suddenly Cartman is the outcast, but he then rallies the gingers to rise up as a dominant race. Everything comes to a head when the gingers begin kidnapping other kids and are about to sacrifice them. It’s then that Kyle whispers into Cartman’s ear that he’s not actually ginger, causing Cartman to make an impassioned speech for everyone to get along with each other.

- IMDb user rating: 8.8
- Votes: 2,292
- Air date: Nov. 3, 1999

The obsession with Chinpokomon, an animated Japanese cartoon, takes over South Park and all the kids want to do is talk about it and buy Chinpokomon merchandise. Through the course of the episode, it's revealed that the Chinpokomon universe is all about converting American kids into child soldiers fighting for Japan through subliminal marketing methods. With the kids totally brainwashed, the parents realize the only way to break the spell is to pretend to like Chinpokomon themselves, making the fad instantly uncool. Their plan works, and the kids swear off fads for the time being.

- IMDb user rating: 8.8
- Votes: 2,317
- Air date: March 16, 2005

With a hippie music festival coming to South Park, Cartman is enraged and begins imprisoning hippies in his basement. After he’s arrested, the town of South Park is overrun by hippies and there’s no one there to stop them. Tired of the hippie onslaught, the town begs Cartman to rid them of the nuisance and he rides on a giant drill to bore through the hippie crowd. He then blasts death metal music, knowing that the hippies will hate it and they eventually disperse, bringing things back to normal in South Park.

- IMDb user rating: 8.8
- Votes: 2,505
- Air date: April 18, 2007

The Season 11 episode of “Night of the Living Homeless” is a satire that plays on the way America treats its homeless through the lens of classic horror movies like “Night of the Living Dead.” In the episode, a homeless epidemic begins to rear its head in South Park and the boys discover that the homeless came to South Park because neighboring town Evergreen advertised it as a great place for them to live. The kids take the same idea and advertise California as the ultimate place for the homeless to live, saving the town.

- IMDb user rating: 8.8
- Votes: 2,679
- Air date: April 8, 2009

Jimmy creates the ultimate joke about fish sticks and when it becomes a national sensation, the only person who doesn’t understand why it’s funny is Kanye West. At the same time, Cartman tries to take credit for the joke, leading to a confrontation between him and Jimmy. Kanye refuses to let anyone explain the joke to him because he claims to be a genius. The episode plays on the scandal of Carlos Mencia stealing jokes and also comes on the heels of Kanye interrupting Taylor Swift at the VMA awards.

- IMDb user rating: 8.8
- Votes: 2,742
- Air date: March 7, 2007

The entire episode of “With Apologies to Jesse Jackson” is dedicated to the N-word and all its connotations. While on an episode of “Wheel of Fortune,” Randy mistakes an answer for “naggers” as the N-word and is immediately lambasted by society. Randy then joins a group of other celebrities like Michael Richards and Mark Fuhrman who were also cast aside because of their use of the N-word. At the same time, Cartman mocks a dwarf and Token is pissed at Stan for not understanding why the N-word is so offensive.

- IMDb user rating: 8.9
- Votes: 2,181
- Air date: Nov. 18, 2015

Jimmy runs the school newspaper, but when PC Principal censors him for using the word "retarded," Jimmy takes to hand-delivering the paper himself. At the same time, Jimmy starts to suspect something suspicious in town with sponsored content taking over all news sources and people getting addicted to their phones. Jimmy ultimately uncovers that ads are infiltrating everything in South Park and that he is the only one who can distinguish an ad from a real story.

- IMDb user rating: 8.9
- Votes: 2,196
- Air date: Nov. 20, 2013

In the second episode of a three-episode arc, the kids are divided into two groups when it's revealed that the Xbox One and the PlayStation 4 will be available on Black Friday. The episode is a spoof of “Game of Thrones” and finds the entire town in a frenzy, lining up outside the mall to get the best Black Friday deals. Cartman elicits the help of George R.R. Martin, but he simply regales Cartman with long-winded stories that have nothing to do with finishing the books. With Black Friday quickly approaching, Martin suggests that they move it one week later but give even bigger discounts to the first 100 people inside. This, predictably, sets up a huge fight in the already enormous crowd, and the episode ends on a cliffhanger leading to the third episode in the story arc.

- IMDb user rating: 8.9
- Votes: 2,454
- Air date: Dec. 5, 2001

What makes this episode so remarkable is that it marks one of the last times that the creators killed Kenny as a running gag. In “Kenny Dies,” Kenny is diagnosed with Muscular Dystrophy and confined to a hospital bed. Cartman, meanwhile, discovers that stem cells can be used to reproduce almost anything and convinces Congress to overturn a ban on them so he can sell fetuses in order to build a Shakey’s Pizza. Of course, he made everyone think he was hoarding fetus stem cells to save Kenny.

- IMDb user rating: 8.9
- Votes: 2,525
- Air date: July 25, 2001

After Cartman inherits one million dollars from his grandmother, Kyle loses all faith in God because he can’t imagine a world where that kind of luck could befall such a terrible person. Cartman uses the money to purchase an amusement park and names it “Cartmanland” after himself. Cartman wants the park all to himself, but when he has to start paying for security and maintenance, he’s forced to sell people tickets to keep the park running. With the stress of Cartman’s inheritance weighing on him, Kyle develops a hemorrhoid that pops while trying to sneak into Cartmanland and he nearly dies in the hospital. Kyle has a miraculous recovery, however, and his faith in God is restored when he learns that Cartman goes broke from paying staff, covering lawsuits, and owing the IRS back taxes.

- IMDb user rating: 8.9
- Votes: 2,539
- Air date: June 26, 2002

As Professor Chaos, Butters attempts to find ways to disrupt South Park, but his sidekick General Disarray tells him that every idea he has was already used in an episode of “The Simpsons.” While Butters is scheming, Cartman buys some Sea People (basically Sea Monkeys) and waits for them to hatch. To his dismay, they’re just brine shrimp, but when mixed with actual semen, the Sea People turn into a developed society that worships Cartman. The Sea People become so advanced that they eventually blow themselves up in a war and Butters comes to realize that “The Simpsons” have done everything so he shouldn’t get caught up with copying them.

- IMDb user rating: 8.9
- Votes: 2,597
- Air date: March 14, 2007

Cartman thinks he's pranking Butters by taking photos with his penis in Butters' mouth while Butters sleeps. Kyle points out that it actually makes Cartman seem gay and when Cartman loses the photos, he thinks Kyle and Stan are blackmailing him into being nice. While Cartman was taking the photos, Butters' dad walks in on them and ends up sending Butters to gay conversion therapy camp. While there, Butters witnesses kids killing themselves and the counselors covering it up. To avoid having to suck up to Kyle and Stan, Cartman decides to reveal a copy of the original photo to the entire class, thinking Kyle was going to instead.

- IMDb user rating: 8.9
- Votes: 2,645
- Air date: Dec. 12, 2001

This classic episode is devoted entirely to Butters and his excitement about going to Bennigan’s on his parent’s anniversary. Things go awry, however, when Butters discovers his father is having homosexual affairs and it sends his mother into a tailspin. Butters’ father comes clean about his affairs, but only after his mother thinks she’s drowned her son in a car. To cover up the murder, the Stotches claim that Butters was abducted and get emotional support from celebrities like O.J. Simpson, the Ramsey’s, and Gary Condit. Butters, however, didn’t die and when he returns, teaches his parents a lesson about lying and forces them to come clean about everything.

- IMDb user rating: 8.9
- Votes: 2,674
- Air date: Oct. 3, 2007

Cartman pretends to have Tourette Syndrome when he realizes he can get away with saying any swear word he wants as long as he blames it on the disorder. After going overboard with his language, Cartman inadvertently causes a real affliction where he’s unable to censor himself. Scheduled to appear on “Dateline” with Chris Hansen, Cartman goes into a panic, knowing that his now real affliction will cause him to humiliate himself on national TV. Kyle, not realizing that Cartman no longer wants to go on “Dateline,” devises a plan to have multiple pedophiles show up on stage as Cartman is about to appear. Because of the ensuing chaos, Cartman gets out of the show and thanks Kyle for helping him, to Kyle’s utter dismay for missing a chance to humiliate Cartman.

- IMDb user rating: 9.0
- Votes: 2,534
- Air date: June 21, 2000

Thinking his friends are too immature, Cartman goes on the internet looking for men who like young boys. Seeking additional help, Dr. Mephesto advises Cartman to look into NAMBLA. Cartman discovers the group North American Man/Boy Love Association (NAMBLA), when Mephesto was really telling him to look into the North American Marlon Brando Look-Alikes. Cartman is invited to a NAMBLA banquet and asked to bring his friends, which he begrudgingly does. The FBI ultimately raids the banquet as the boys are lured into hotel rooms of the NAMBLA members.

- IMDb user rating: 9.0
- Votes: 2,572
- Air date: Nov. 13, 2013

In the first of a three-episode arc that spoofs “Game of Thrones,” the kids learn that both the Xbox One and the Sony PlayStation 4 will be part of a massive Black Friday sale. Randy, meanwhile, takes a job as a mall security cop so he can sneakily beat the crowds on Black Friday before anyone else is let into the mall. Splitting into opposing groups, the kids team up to buy the gaming console and are at odds over which is the better gaming system. As the crowds begin to swell outside the mall, Randy is placed in charge of all security after his boss is murdered by the increasingly unruly crowd.

- IMDb user rating: 9.0
- Votes: 2,580
- Air date: Nov. 19, 2003

This episode of South Park delves into the story of Mormonism and the creators use a new family that moves to the town to mock the history of the religion in satirical ways. As the kids warm up to the seemingly perfect family and Randy converts to the religion, the episode goes back in time to follow the story of Mormonism's founder Joseph Smith. Revealing major inconsistencies in the religion's origin story, the episode points out hypocrisy in all religions and gives the kids a lesson in compassion over truthfulness. This episode is one of the springboards that led the South Park creators to write their incredibly successful Broadway musical "The Book of Mormon."

- IMDb user rating: 9.0
- Votes: 2,741
- Air date: Oct. 31, 2007

In the finale of the three-episode arc of “Imaginationland,” the battle for Imaginationland rages on and relies on Butters to use his imagination to conjure up enough good characters to defeat evil. At the same time, Cartman only cares about winning his bet with Kyle over whether imaginary characters are real or not. If he wins, Kyle has to suck Cartman’s testicles. Despite the government nuking Imaginationland, Butters uses his mind to bring everything back to normal and Kyle loses his bet to Cartman, who then conjures up imaginary versions of Kyle to, in fact, suck his testicles. The episode arc won a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program, and the creators released a movie version of the episodes fused together with added content.

- IMDb user rating: 9.0
- Votes: 2,759
- Air date: Oct. 24, 2007

In the second episode of the three-episode arc of “Imaginationland,” Butters travels through Imaginationland, witnessing the carnage that evil characters are enacting on the good. He must find the Council of Nine, which consists of characters like Luke Skywalker, Jesus, Popeye, Morpheus, and others who tell him that he’s the key to saving the land. Cartman, meanwhile, wants Kyle to pay up on a bet wherein he has to suck Cartman’s balls. Every time the bet is about to be consummated, something tragic happens and Cartman is forced to wait for Kyle to make good.

- IMDb user rating: 9.0
- Votes: 2,886
- Air date: May 3, 2006

No longer able to control her son, Lianne hires the Dog Whisperer Cesar Millan to use his methods on Cartman in the same way he does to train dogs. Though the methods are incredibly successful, Cartman secretly plots to kill his own mother, seething that he can no longer control his own behavior and for the fact that she hired Millan in the first place. When Millan turns Lianne down when she asks him out on a date, she asks Cartman to join her instead. Cartman refuses until Lianne says he can have anything he wants, ultimately breaking all the training that Millan instilled in him.

- IMDb user rating: 9.0
- Votes: 3,277
- Air date: Oct. 17, 2007

In the first of a three-episode arc, “Imaginationland” starts with Kyle and Cartman making a bet over whether magical creatures exist. If Kyle loses, he has to suck Cartman’s balls. When Cartman finds a real leprechaun, Kyle realizes he’s going to have to pay up. At this point, the kids meet the mayor of Imaginationland, who brings them to the fantasy world only to flee when it’s bombed by Islamic terrorists. The terrorists hold Butters hostage and the kids, along with the Pentagon, have to figure out a way to save Butters and the good imaginary characters, while Cartman only wants one thing—to make Kyle suck his balls.

- IMDb user rating: 9.1
- Votes: 2,740
- Air date: Oct. 29, 2003

While Kyle, Kenny, and Stan can't figure out what kind of band to start, Cartman, along with Butters and Token, forms a Christian rock band and bets Kyle that he can get a platinum-selling album first. Cartman's band immediately takes off when he begins changing love song lyrics by inserting Jesus in the songs. The episode takes aim at famous bands who complain about people pirating their music and they parody the likes of Metallica, Britney Spears, Meat Loaf, and many others. Cartman's rock band becomes a huge sensation, but he loses the bet to Kyle when he's told that Christian rock albums can't go platinum. Token and Butters beat Cartman up for spending all the money they made and Cartman loses all his fans when he screams out "f*** Jesus!"

- IMDb user rating: 9.1
- Votes: 2,831
- Air date: April 13, 2005

After Cartman crosses the line, again, the kids all decide to ignore him and get everyone else, including Cartman’s mother, to join in. Cartman deduces that he must be a ghost if no one can see him, but he can’t understand why he’s not going to heaven. Butters is the only person not in on the joke, so Cartman solicits his help to apologize for all his past sins. Nothing works, however, and Butters’ parents think that Butters has gone crazy and have him committed. With nothing working and having gone to great lengths to apologize for his sins, the kids finally let Cartman in on the ruse and Cartman immediately goes back to being the same terrible person he always was.

- IMDb user rating: 9.1
- Votes: 3,167
- Air date: Nov. 12, 2014

Cartman convinces Butters that he’s in a virtual reality (VR) world where he can do anything he wants. After Butters punches his own dad in the balls, he’s grounded, but still thinks he’s trapped inside the VR world. The episode becomes more and more convoluted as it’s unclear which characters are in the VR world, and which ones are simply trying to get customer service to fix their Oculus Rift VR headsets. In the end, it turns out that it was Stan in the VR world all along and he simply had to praise a customer service rep in order to get out.

- IMDb user rating: 9.1
- Votes: 3,313
- Air date: March 17, 2004

The kids trick a vendor into selling them Japanese weapons and when they get possession of them, the animation style of the show switches entirely to anime, where each of the kids is a superhero with special powers. When they don’t let Butters join them, Butters turns into his alter-ego Professor Chaos and battles with the kids. Unfortunately, the weapons are real, and Butters takes a ninja star to the eye and needs immediate medical attention. Not wanting their parents to find out about the weapons, the kids dress up Butters as a dog and try to take him to a veterinarian instead. The kids ultimately get busted, but the parents are more upset about Cartman streaking nude than the violence, which is directly aimed at American’s sensibilities when it comes to sex versus violence.

- IMDb user rating: 9.1
- Votes: 3,346
- Air date: Dec. 15, 2004

In the Season 8 Christmas special “Woodland Critter Christmas,” Stan comes upon a group of woodland animals who request his help with Christmas decorations. Stan slowly begins to realize that all the help he gives the critters is actually a ruse as they’re Satanists waiting for the birth of the antichrist, which Stan has inadvertently helped. As the story unfolds, it’s revealed that Cartman is reading a story to his classroom and that Kyle will end up dying in the story’s finale—though not in the way anyone expected.

- IMDb user rating: 9.1
- Votes: 3,596
- Air date: Nov. 16, 2005

"Trapped in the Closet" takes direct aim at the Church of Scientology when Stan fills out a personality test and finds out he has extremely high thetan levels. The Scientologists believe that Stan is the reincarnated form of the church's founder, L. Ron Hubbard, and famous scientologists like Tom Cruise and John Travolta come to pay their respects. When Stan tells Tom Cruise that his acting isn't that great, Cruise hides in a closet, along with R. Kelly and Travolta, mocking their suspected homosexuality. Much of the episode delves deeply into the actual story of Scientology, and the creators all but dare the church to sue them for slander.

- IMDb user rating: 9.2
- Votes: 3,012
- Air date: Nov. 12, 2003

Cartman will literally do anything to be invited to Kyle’s birthday when he finds out it’s taking place at the famed Mexican-themed restaurant and arcade Casa Bonita. Kyle decides to invite Butters instead of Cartman, so Cartman tricks Butters into thinking the world is about to end and confines him to a bomb shelter leading up to Kyle’s birthday. Butters eventually figures everything out just as the boys (with Cartman) are heading up to Casa Bonita. With the cops waiting for Cartman, he flees and runs into Casa Bonita to eat the food, watch the cliff divers, and play some arcade games, before eventually getting caught.

- IMDb user rating: 9.2
- Votes: 3,294
- Air date: April 14, 2004

In the Season 8 episode of “Awesom-O,” Cartman pretends to be a robot in order to trick Butters into giving him an embarrassing video he has of Cartman. As most things do in South Park, Awesom-O gets out of hand when Hollywood believes that the robot is the key to coming up with new movie ideas and the government believes that Awesom-O’s artificial intelligence can be used as a secret weapon. After uncovering the truth about Cartman, Butters gets back at him by screening the embarrassing video to the whole town.

- IMDb user rating: 9.3
- Votes: 3,798
- Air date: Nov. 13, 2002

Spoofing “The Lord of the Rings” movies, the kids are sent on a quest to deliver a video of “Lord of the Rings” to Butters’ parents. Randy, thinking he sent the right movie, quickly realizes that he sent a porn instead. Butters, having watched the porn version, begins to turn into Smeagol from the actual movie, hoarding the film to himself. The kids get the movie away from Butters, but then have to avoid sixth graders who want the video for themselves. When they finally reach the video store dropbox, Butters tries to stop them from returning the movie, but he’s instead tossed into the box with the movie, while the other kids’ parents desperately try to explain all the things that the porn movie was showing.

- IMDb user rating: 9.5
- Votes: 6,136
- Air date: Oct. 4, 2006

The kids are obsessed with the game “World of Warcraft,” but when an online player begins killing their characters, they decide to train like never before to stop it. Cartman, Stan, Kyle, and Kenny lock themselves into their rooms, eating junk food, and playing the game non-stop to get enough power to stop the other player. To help the players, the executives who created the game attempt to give them a special sword and use Stan’s dad Randy as the conduit. Randy sacrifices himself inside the game, the kids defeat the other player, and they can finally play the game as it was originally intended.

- IMDb user rating: 9.6
- Votes: 6,654
- Air date: July 11, 2001

Scott Tenorman is a ninth-grader who convinces Cartman that if he buys pubic hair from him, he'll reach puberty faster. Enraged, Cartman tries to get his money back, but Tenorman just humiliates him further. Cartman, inspired by revenge, finds out that Tenorman's favorite band is Radiohead and arranges a concert for him. He then finds a way to get Tenorman's parents killed, chops them up, makes them into chili, and tricks Tenorman into eating his own parents. Stan and Kyle are mortified by Cartman's actions, but also know there's no longer a line he won't cross.