15: Dances with Smurfs – Season 13, Episode 13
Dances with Smurfs was a great episode anyway, but rewatching it the parallels between Donald Trump’s ‘Make America Great’ campaign and Cartman’s ‘What’s happened to my School?’ are particularly relevant. The episode, at the time at least, was an attack on the likes of Alec Jones and Glenn Beck, people who ask questions with no knowledge, or without ever offering any real sort of solution to rally the masses.
Whilst the episode is an hilarious spoof of Avatar, it also an attack at the dangers of a demagogue and populist politics, it is South Park at its most biting and on top of that it is also absolutely hilarious.
The opening scene, where the school announcer is murdered after being mistaken for a 40 year old truck driver is both disturbing and hysterical, whilst it still remains criminal that the character Casey Miller has only appeared in this episode to date.
14 : Cartman Joins NAMBLA – Season 4, Episode 5
South Park is a show about 8 year old boys, and this episode one of those 8 year old boys joins becomes the poster child for a group of pedophiles and another tries to perform an abortion on his mother with a plunger, and it is one of the funniest episodes the show has ever produced.
Cartman Joins NAMBLA has some hilarious moments – Eric’s attempts at talking to the aforementioned pedophiles online never fail to raise a chuckle- ‘I am eight and a half inches’ ‘Sorry, I don’t want to make friends with a midget’ being my personal favourite. The scene where Cartman poses in a red g-string for the association is one of the episode’s best visual gags, and the chase sequence at the end is both hilarious, and a great homage to animation capers of the past.
Also, The North American Marlon Brando Look Alikes may be one of the silliest gags of the early seasons, Investigative Reports with Bill Curtis may be one of the funniest fictional board games of all time (sorry Jumanji) and The John Denver Experience is perhaps one of the cruelest gags the show has ever done, and that’s really saying something. What an episode.
13: Awesome-O – Season 8, Episode 5
Yet another Cartman and Butter’s classic, Awesome-O sees Cartman trick Butters into believing he is a robot, only for Butters to reveal he has an incriminating video of Cartman, forcing Eric to stay put as the robot through a number of increasingly ridiculous situations.
The episode is both one of South Park’s sweetest and its funniest. Butter’s naivety is on full display here and it makes for some great moments, whilst Cartman’s increasing desperation is always a hoot.
A particular highlight in the episode is Cartman pitching movies to a movie studio, all of which involve Adam Sandler in some sort of ridiculous situation.
12: You’re Getting Old – Season 15, Episode 7
One of South Park’s most emotionally charged episodes felt like the show’s most important episode over the last 5 seasons. Arriving in the middle of South Park season 15, the episode almost felt like Trey Parker and Matt Stone arguing between themselves as to whether or not their show had run its course.
The episode is certainly not as funny as other entries on this list, but it is certainly one of the show’s most thought provoking, dealing with the nature of cynicism, growing old and in many ways depression. Above all else, You’re getting Old is a triumph of script writing and is very deserving of its place on this list.
11: Good Time With Weapons – Season 8, Episode 1
A greatest South Park episode list wouldn’t be complete with out this absolute classic from season 8. A comment on America’s obsession with weapons, the episode combines social satire with beautiful animation and some classic gags.
The anime inspired sequences are brilliant and the return of Professor Chaos is always a treat. Cartman sneaking onto the stage at the end of the episode in his birthday suit is an hilarious sequence as well.
Originally published December 14, 2016. Updated April 16, 2018.
