Funny, sick, controversial, satirical, evil, crude, surreal, hilarious; these are all words that have been used at some point to describe Comedy Central’s most infamous and popular TV show, South Park. The series, which focuses on the extraordinary events in the lives of eight-year-olds Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman and Kenny McCormick, has spoofed everything from religion to mental illness and remained consistently good over the years. Here is the short run down of the best five episodes so far.
5. Good Times with Weapons (Season 8: Written by Trey Parker and Matt Stone)
Creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone refer to season 8 as “The Year From Hell” due to the writers block suffered while trying to make Team America: World Police at the same time. However, they did get off to a great start with this episode where the South Park kids buy Eastern weapons and pretend to be ninjas (complete with anime-style visuals).
An accident with a shuriken leaves Butters (aka Professor Chaos) severely hurt and the boys’ attempt to hide it by disguising him as a dog only makes things worse. Kyle and co. do get in trouble but only because Cartman walked in front of a crowd naked at the end thinking he was invisible – the message being that parents are more appalled by sex and nudity than violence, and made reference to the Janet Jackson incident at Super Bowl XXXVIII.
4. The Return of the Fellowship of the Ring to the Two Towers (Season 6: Written by Trey Parker and Matt Stone)
South Park deals with so many adult themes and contains some of the most outrageous scenes on TV that sometimes it’s hard to remember that the main characters are just children. The Return... isn’t about wacked out celebrities trying to destroy the town or messages about racism, it’s just boys being boys.
This episode is a proper childhood fantasy adventure. After becoming obsessed with The Lord of the Rings films the children decide that the “one video” (which against their knowledge is a porn film) holds too much power and must be returned to Two Towers video store. On the way they are pursued by 6th graders – as the ringwraiths – a crazy Butters demanding his “precious” video back and their embarrassed parents who accidently giving them the tape.
3. Kenny Dies (Season 5: Written by Trey Parker and Matt Stone)
Kenny dying in every episode was a staple part of the show in the early seasons of South Park, prompting reactions from Kyle and Stan of anger to just simple shrugs. But never has it really been taking seriously until Kenny Dies where instead of being run over or set on fire Kenny suffers from a terminal illness, with his friends coming to terms with mortality.
Going against an all out parody the South Park writers tackle the subject of stem cells with a very emotional story that does have hilarious moments, such as the final scene revealing Cartman’s true motive behind his support for stem cell research. Kenny disappeared for a full season after this, only to make suitably low key return at the end of season 6.
2. Scott Tenorman Must Die (Season 5: Written Trey Parker)
Not only is this one of the darkest episodes to date but also one of the funniest. This is the point where Cartman shows just how sadistic and evil he can be. After several humiliations at the hands of local teenager Scott Tenorman he devises a plan to get back involving Scott’s parents, chili, cannibalism and a cameo by the band Radiohead. Who said Eric Cartman isn’t a nice guy?
1. Make Love, Not Warcraft (Season 10: Written by Trey Parker and Matt Stone)
South Park has poked fun at just about every part of popular culture in its 13 seasons so it makes sense that the biggest MMORPG in existence would receive the same treatment. The kids have become obsessed with World of Warcraft, until a high level player starts killing their characters. After a pep talk from Cartman they decide to give up their lives to beat the player so they can save the World...of Warcraft.
Not only is it really funny – look out for the boys’ very accurate discussion of their tactics before the final battle – but a lot of work went into producing the episode with extensive scenes of 3D computer rendering (machinima) for the in-game moments, with help from WoW developers Blizzard.
Steven Cookson - Steven Cookson is a writer and attempted journalist based in Howden. Originally from Chester, that Hollyoaks place in North-West of ...
