65 Best ‘South Park’ Episodes of All Time, Ranked According to IMDb

When going down to South Park, one can be sure to have themselves a time. Famous for toilet humor and topical satire, it’s difficult to pigeonhole this game-changing animated series. Parking may be ample, but so too are irreverent jokes and absurd twists. The series has built a reputation for crossing every line. But Trey Parker and Matt Stone have not only crossed the line, they have also done horrible things to the line, and now the line is crying – and audiences are loving it!

With over 300 episodes, it takes a lot to stand out in the canon – only time will tell if the ongoing 27th season of South Park will be remembered alongside its highest points. The best South Park episodes blend the crude and the clever, holding space for satire and silliness to coexist. The original songs hit all the right comedic notes, and the characters are so flawed that irreverence is an expectation. So come on down to South Park, and meet some of the show’s top-rated episodes on IMDb.

65

“Two Days Before the Day After Tomorrow” (Season 9, Episode 8)

IMDb Rating: 8.5/10

Using a parody of The Day After Tomorrow as a basis to criticize the media and public response to Hurricane Katrina and to lampoon the conversation surrounding climate change, “Two Days Before the Day After Tomorrow” flaunts every bit of South Park’s referential brilliance and satirical precision. It sees Cartman and Stan accidentally destroy a beaver dam, thus causing a devastating flash flood in Beaverton. Unwilling to confess, the boys sit silent as the townsfolk blame global warming for the destruction, sparking a wave of paranoia and panic that engulfs the nation.

Within its spoof story, the episode also features moments that mock Spartacus, Marathon Man, and even Kanye West’s infamous “George Bush doesn’t care about black people” quote—along with several other accusations of selective racism amid Hurricane Katrina evacuation efforts. With its cutting satire and its pop-culture playfulness, it is easy to see why so many fans love the Season 9 episode, and why it is such a defining highlight of the adult animated series.

64

“Best Friends Forever” (Season 9, Episode 4)

IMDb Rating: 8.5/10

Juggling a philosophical media war and an actual war between the forces of Heaven and Hell, “Best Friends Forever” exhibits South Park’s trademark storytelling efficiency and ambition in glorious fashion. Kenny’s skill in the PSP game ‘Heaven vs. Hell’ leads to God conjuring his death so he can lead Heaven’s armies into battle against Satan’s forces. However, Kenny’s duties are interrupted when he is revived but left in a vegetative state. Amid growing media attention to the case, Stan and Kyle implore that Kenny remain on life support while Cartman, eager to inherit his friend’s PSP, argues that prolonging his life in such a state is wrong and would go against Kenny’s wishes.

In addition to winning an Emmy, the episode has garnered enduring acclaim for its approach to right-to-die arguments and, more pointedly, how the frenzied popularity around such cases as Terri Schiavo’s—regardless of what side of the debate one stands on—is a grotesque trivialization of someone’s fate. Ferociously suggesting media personalities who do obsess on such cases—and people who only share their opinions to capitalize on the trending topic—are parasitic, “Best Friends Forever” represents South Park at its most piercing and precise, and is a highlight of the series’ ninth season.

63

“Professor Chaos” (Season 6, Episode 6)

IMDb Rating: 8.5/10

Having grown tired of Butters’ lame antics since he joined the group following Kenny’s death, Cartman, Stan, and Kyle evict him from their gang and run a contest to determine who will be their fourth friend. Setting up an elaborate range of challenges, the boys orchestrate a competition for the neighborhood kids. All the while, a rejected and disgruntled Butters becomes Professor Chaos, a nefarious villain seeking to destroy the atmosphere by spraying aerosol cans and flooding the world with a garden hose.

Lampooning reality TV shows like The Bachelor through Cartman, Kyle, and Stan’s story, while parodying X-Men through the focus on Professor Chaos, the Season 6 episode is a delightful highlight of South Park’s knack for mixing referential comedy with character-driven narrative. It is a defining highlight of the show’s sixth season, and has aged gracefully with its spoof gags and its origin story for the series’ most beloved supervillain.

62

“You’re Getting Old” (Season 15, Episode 7)

IMDb Rating: 8.6/10

Throughout its immense run, South Park has been everything from an irreverent and crude comedy to a sharp social satire, a profound and profanity-laden parody, and even an insightful political allegory. Even with such a range being considered, there is no episode quite like “You’re Getting Old.” Following his tenth birthday party, Stan develops a cynical outlook on life, leading him to ponder his existence as he begins seeing things in the world as literal feces.

It is a moody and dark episode, one that pushes past the ridiculousness of a child experiencing such feelings to present a rich and contemplative story of growing old and growing beyond things. Stan’s emotional melancholy is only accentuated by the subplot involving Randy and Sharon’s fighting, leading to divorce, and an alarmingly abrupt ending devoid of happiness and hope. Of course, South Park still injects the story with plenty of humor, but “You’re Getting Old” is one of the most striking and unique episodes the series has ever aired, and it is no surprise that viewers consider it to be among its better entries.

61

“Go God Go XII” (Season 10, Episode 13)

IMDb Rating: 8.6/10

A direct follow-on from the previous episode, “Go God Go XII” sees Cartman stranded in the distant future where religion has been eradicated and atheists are entrenched in a struggle against super-intelligent sea otters. In the present day, Mrs. Garrison’s love affair with Richard Dawkins becomes all the more intriguing as audiences discover the duo play a vital role in the expunging of religion.

The Season 10 episode exemplifies the brand of efficient, large-scale storytelling South Park has always executed so well, with the episode juggling its interweaving plots with impressive grace and clarity while using the juxtaposition of the stories to conjure up laughs aplenty. In an interview with Playboy in 2012, Dawkins himself revealed he wasn’t a fan of the episode. That’s okay, though, because its impressive IMDb rating implies that nearly everyone else was.

60

“Up the Down Steroid” (Season 8, Episode 2)

IMDb Rating: 8.6/10

Following up the brilliance of South Park’s Season 8 premiere with another classic gem, “Up the Down Steroid” centers on several of the South Park students’ efforts to participate in the Special Olympics, a sporting event for youths living with disabilities. While Timmy and Jimmy are eager to represent Team USA, Cartman fakes a disability so he too can participate in the event. In the lead up to the games, Jimmy is convinced to take steroids in order to increase his chances of winning.

While the episode received some criticism for its similarities to the 2005 comedy film The Ringer, Parker and Stone defended their creative decisions, stating the basic premise was not at all difficult for anyone to come up with. The masses much preferred their approach to it than that of the 05 film’s, with the episode flaunting the series’ trademark irreverent humor and controversial zest.

59

“Something Wall-Mart This Comes Way” (Season 8, Episode 9)

IMDb Rating: 8.6/10

Serving as a direct parody of Disney’s 1983 movie Something Wicked This Way Comes, the Season 8 episode sees the pitfalls and allure of commercialism stand as the villain rather than a wish-granting carnival owner. A “Wall-Mart” store is built in South Park, and businesses in the town begin to fail as the residents become completely addicted to the outlet’s bargains. The four boys go to the company’s headquarters hoping to bring an end to the hysteria before it overruns the entire town.

Like many of the series’ best episodes, “Something Wall-Mart This Way Comes” excels by blending referential comedy and parody with a razor-sharp story targeting a contemporary flaw in society. While it is perhaps overshadowed by some of the other great episodes Season 8 has to offer, “Something Wall-Mart This Way Comes” still stands as a golden nugget of South Park’s scathing comedy. It still stands as a razor-sharp critique of unvetted capitalism over 20 years since it first aired.

58

“Die Hippie, Die” (Season 9, Episode 2)

IMDb Rating: 8.7/10

Another excellent parody episode, “Die Hippie, Die” mocks disaster films like The Core as South Park becomes overrun by a horde of hippies congregating for a music festival. Cartman, who has been working as a pest control expert specializing in the removal of hippies, stands as the town’s last chance for survival and begins working with political figures to enact a plan to rid the town of the anti-corporate invaders.

While it isn’t the most thematically pointed episode of the series, it still contains intriguing ideas about society’s attitudes towards hippies, and the questionable level of conviction many hippy-types have in their own espoused beliefs. It is a typically bold episode in this social commentary, but it is more famous for its disaster movie parody and its violent ending that includes Slayer’s “Raining Blood.” The episode also stands as the last to contain new voice dialogue from Isaac Hayes.

57

“The Jeffersons” (Season 8, Episode 6)

IMDb Rating: 8.6/10

As relentless a skewering of a celebrity personality as South Park has ever undertaken—with the possible exception of Katelyn Jenner—“The Jeffersons” is remembered by many as the episode where Michael Jackson moves to South Park. Another gem from Season 8, it sees the pop icon relocating to the Colorado town and changing his name to Michael Jefferson in order to escape the rigors of stardom. Jackson tries to grow disturbingly close to the boys. Local police, agitated at claims of there being a wealthy Black man in town, set out to frame him, but have a moral conniption when the target appears to be White.

The episode swings wildly in all directions, and the vast majority of the jokes they aim for land in emphatic fashion, offering non-stop hilarity from its opening moments. While its lens on racial prejudice in the police force may only be surface-level, it more than makes up for its thematic weaknesses with its all-out assault on Michael Jackson that remains as gasp-inducing and hysterical today as it was in 2004.

56

“The Biggest Douche in the Universe” (Season 6, Episode 15)

IMDb Rating: 8.6/10

While the serial, seasonal arcs wouldn’t become common practice on South Park until many years later, Season 6 does offer a consistent subplot in the form of Kenny’s spirit living on within Cartman after he mistook his friend’s ashes for chocolate milk mix and drank them. That subplot yields hilarious rewards in “The Biggest Douche in the Universe,” while the episode also offers stern skewering of celebrity psychics.

With Kenny’s spirit beginning to take possession of Cartman’s body, Chef and the kids decide to appear on a television psychic’s program to try to help Cartman, but are disappointed when they only get vague responses that offer no benefit. While Chef takes Cartman to his parents in Scotland to perform an exorcism, Stan strives to disprove the psychic publicly. It’s a hilarious take-down episode that features the creators at their scorching best.