It’s difficult to believe that any show could still be going strong after 22 seasons. Very few shows enjoy even a fraction of that longevity, and the ones that do, like The Simpsons, usually go downhill long before season 22. But, South Park is a different breed; a show that’s been on the air for more than two decades and still manages to knock it out of the park on a regular basis.
It may have had some ups and downs over the years, but, on the whole, South Park is still as sharp, insightful, and hilarious as it ever was. From criticizing Clinton to poking fun at the pandemic, here's how every season of South Park stacks up in terms of quality.
Updated on October 26th, 2021 by Tanner Fox: Only two episodes of South Park's twenty-fourth season have aired so far, but they've been two of the most hilarious and poignant installments in the long-running series to broadcast in quite some time. Both "The Pandemic Special" and the "South ParQ Vaccination Special" are as irreverent as can be, and they harken back to the jet black comedic leanings for which the series was originally known.
The rest of South Park's season 24 is said to be forthcoming, but there's no shortage of material to check out from past seasons. Be it the crass comedy of season 3 or the profane political perspectives of season 20, almost every chapter in the South Park continuity is worth checking out.
Season 20
While South Park didn’t quite nail serialized storytelling in the few years in which the creators experimented with it—which they reference themselves in the title of the season 20 finale “The End of Serialization as We Know It”—this season came pretty close.
Online trolling, nostalgia, and the 2016 election were covered extensively and woven together in a 10-part narrative that was nothing if not interesting. The season also had some surprisingly powerful moments, like when all the girls follow up on their promise to break up with their boyfriends if the trolling didn’t stop, culminating in Wendy’s heartbreaking “I can’t fix you” note to Stan. That said, five years on, the season already comes across as dated.
Season 21
South Park continued its long-running crusade against political correctness in its 21st season. After getting off to a somewhat rocky start with the premiere episode “White People Renovating Houses,” season 21 delivered some classic episodes. Depicting a nursing home as a drug-infested prison in “Hummels & Heroin” was a stroke of comic genius.
Tackling everything from the controversy surrounding Columbus Day (“Holiday Special”) to the #MeToo movement (“Sons a Witches”), on the whole, season 21 was a doozy.
Season 1
Though it blossomed into a major success during subsequent seasons, South Park's original outing, which premiered in August of 1997, wasn't all that memorable. It did feature a few iconic episodes like "Cartman Gets An Anal Probe" and "Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo," but it lacked the biting satire and crass irreverence for which South Park would later be known.
South Park's first season mostly focuses on the mundane lives of four elementary-school boys. It may have stood out against comparatively tamer series at the time, but the show obviously had yet to find its footing.
Season 2
Featuring some of the most iconic moments involving Chef, South Park's second season represents a marked improvement over the previous outing, though it was still far from the adult animation juggernaut it would become in the early 2000s.
Like most seasons of South Park, season 2 was not without controversy; the final episode of season 1, "Cartman's Mom Is A Dirty Slut" promised a revelation concerning Cartman's parentage, but the second season's debut episode, "Terrance and Phillip in Not Without My Anus" ignored previous continuity entirely to the displeasure of fans.
Season 15
Though it features a few noteworthy episodes, South Park's eleventh season, which aired from April to November of 2011, was fairly uninspired. Poking fun at everything from broadway musicals to the success of Apple's iPad, the season offered up a watchable, albeit fairly milquetoast roasting of then-current events.
The most memorable episode was "City Sushi," which mostly focused on gags centered around the mispronunciation of the word "sushi." There's enough here to entertain dedicated South Park fans, but casual audiences will likely be a bit let down, and the many dated references make for less then enthusing topics ten years after the fact.
Season 12
South Park's twelfth season is generally regarded as a meat-and-potatoes edition of the series. 2008, the year in which the season premiered, marked the beginning of a global recession, but the show couldn't capitalize on these events until later.
Instead, season 12 features a few episodes highlighting the wild antics of Eric Cartman, and it includes homages to parodies of famous novels and movies like The Grapes of Wrath, Twilight, and the 1981 cult film Heavy Metal. It also contains an over-the-top two-part episode titled "pandemic" in which South Park must contend with an invasion of giant guinea pigs.
Season 16
Season 16 was a bit hit-and-miss in the minds of most fans, with only a few stand-out episodes included among a slew of mostly forgettable offerings. The most memorable installment in the season is likely "I Should Have Never Gone Ziplining," a hilarious parody of the at-the-time popular show I Shouldn't Be Alive. There's also the excellent "A Nightmare on Face Time," which is a parody of Stephen King's The Shining.
However, episodes like "Reverse Cowgirl" and "Faith Hilling" come across as lackluster and somewhat dated, and the season mostly failed to leave a lasting impression on audiences.
Season 19
Hilariously lampooning the rise of political correctness, South Park’s 19th season was its first to feature an overarching narrative thread. This experiment would end up having mixed results, but season 19 was a strong start.
From Yelp reviewers to online safe spaces, Trey Parker and Matt Stone chose satirical targets with plenty of potential for season 19 and mostly hit the mark.
Season 5
Starting with the meta premiere “It Hits the Fan,” South Park’s fifth season has some of the show’s finest episodes, including “Scott Tenorman Must Die,” which is widely regarded to be the best South Park episode of all. The season has a ton of great installments: “Cartmanland,” “The Entity,” “Here Comes the Neighborhood,” “Osama Bin Laden Has Farty Pants”—the list goes on.
The season’s penultimate episode, “Kenny Dies,” killed off Kenny for a whole season in a brilliant commitment to a running gag, while the finale, “Butters’ Very Own Episode,” turned Butters into the character fans know and love today in anticipation of him taking Kenny’s place.
Season 3
In its third season, South Park morphed from an overbearingly crass spectacle into a more refined piece of political and cultural satire. While there was still plenty of low-brow humor to go around—particularly in episodes like "Cat Orgy" and "World Wide Recorder Concert"—season 3 featured some beloved early episodes—the Pokémon riff-fest "Chinpokomon," in particular.
The season also does quite a bit to establish the late Isaac Hayes' Chef as a character, and a notable improvement in animation quality compared to previous installments further helped to solidify the show's status among after-dark TV icons.
Season 17
South Park’s 17th season was filled with terrific episodes. The season premiere “Let Go, Let Gov” took on all the conspiracy theories about the NSA. “World War Zimmerman” satirized the George Zimmerman trial through a parody of World War Z. “Ginger Cow” saw one of Cartman’s pranks bringing peace among the world’s religions.
On top of these great episodes, the M.V.P. of season 17 is the “Black Friday” trilogy, three episodes that lampooned the Black Friday traditions via a spot-on spoof of Game of Thrones.
Season 4
With three seasons and a feature-length movie under their belts, Matt Stone and Trey Parker returned to produce a season starkly different from those which came before. Season 4 seemed more keen to poke fun at cultural zeitgeists and current events of the time, and it played with scope and continuity in ways not often seen in animated shows at the time.
Introducing fan-favorite characters like Timmy and Ms. Chokesondik, season 4 represented the beginning of a new era for South Park, and staple episodes like "Timmy 2000," "Fat Camp," and "4th Grade" are as enjoyable today as they were two decades ago.
Season 23
After airing some particularly off-the-rails—even for South Park standards—episodes in previous seasons, South Park's twenty-third season ops for a more focused approach, primarily concentrating on Randy's new marijuana farm venture.
Perhaps best remembered for the episode "Band in China" which lampoons Hollywood's interest in Chinese markets, season 23 was as flippant as could be. Mocking nearly every facet of modern-day American politics, the show's most recent season is easily one of its most controversial.
Season 7
From Jimmy and Timmy joining a street gang in “Krazy Kripples” to a metrosexual craze hitting the town in “South Park is Gay!” to a then-timely examination of the Iraq War in “I’m a Little Bit Country,” season 7 was definitely one of South Park’s finest years.
There’s a nice mixture of episodes that focus on the characters, like “Casa Bonita” and “Toilet Paper,” and episodes that focus on satirical critiques, like “Butt Out” and “Red Man’s Greed.”
Season 18
South Park dabbled in serialized storytelling in season 18 before doing a full-blown serial narrative in season 19. It was most effective in season 18 when the episodes were still standalone stories, but the consequences of previous episodes could be felt going forward.
For example, in the second episode, the boys are surprised that everyone remembers what they did in the first episode. The season tackles a plethora of satirical targets: drones, Uber, crowdfunding, gluten-free diets, the trans bathroom issue. The VR episode “Grounded Vindaloop” is a Matrix-style head trip and there’s a whole ongoing storyline that reveals Randy is secretly leading a double life as Lorde in one of the season's funniest pop culture references, which is as unusual and hysterical as it sounds.
Season 24
Fans have only been treated to two installments of South Park's 24th season, but the two specials that have premiered thus far—"The Pandemic Special" and "South ParQ Vaccination Special"—have been nothing short of hilarious.
Lambasting wildly controversial political topics, South Park remains unafraid to go where many of its contemporaries will not. The series has also managed to remain relevant and witty while avoiding many of the pitfalls suffered by modern installments of shows like The Simpsons and Family Guy. Time will tell, of course, if season 24 capitalizes on its strong start, but, at the moment, it's certainly a cut above its weaker more recent seasons.
Season 11
Why is bunny imagery used to celebrate a religious holiday? Do headlice have feelings? How many homeless people can Cartman jump on his skateboard? Season 11 answers those questions and more in true South Park fashion. The season opens with Randy Marsh saying an extremely offensive word on live television, which settles us in for a classic season of South Park.
This season has the Guitar Hero episode, the “Imaginationland” trilogy, the episode where Randy sets the world record for "biggest crap" and ticks off U2 singer Bono, and a parody of 24 starring Hillary Clinton’s “snizz.” Plus, Cartman pretends to have Tourette’s syndrome in a surprisingly insightful installment of the show.
Season 14
The series' fourteenth season combined both monumental multi-part episodes—like “200” and “201,” which was so offensive that the South Park episodes still aren’t available online or in reruns, and the three-part “Coon and Friends” superhero saga—and hilarious standalone episodes parodying then-current trends. “You Have 0 Friends” is a spot-on spoof of the Facebook craze that neatly ties its A-plot and B-plot together.
“Insheeption” parodies the confusing nature of Christopher Nolan’s Inception, as well as hoarding. “Medicinal Fried Chicken” uses a weed dispensary replacing a KFC franchise to put the show’s two funniest characters in the spotlight: Cartman gets involved in a Scarface-like drug ring slinging fried chicken, while Randy gives himself testicular cancer to get pot prescriptions.
Season 22
While many fans think that South Park has lost its way in recent years, its most recent season—its 22nd one, staggeringly—finally found the balance it’s been searching for in the past few years. It has a serialized narrative, but it doesn’t rely too heavily on that.
There’s a good mix of characters to avoid having too much of some and too little of others. Plus, it hit all of its satirical targets perfectly, from school shootings to climate change to legalized marijuana to anxiety. Plus, to top it all off, fans got Jeff Bezos as a Talosian in the two-part season finale.
Season 9
Season 9 has some of the show’s best character-focused episodes, like “The Death of Eric Cartman,” the Butters-centric “Marjorine,” and the Jimmy-centric “Erection Day,” as well as some of its best satire, like the global warming episode “Two Days Before the Day After Tomorrow” and the same-sex marriage episode “Follow That Egg!”
Also, “The Losing Edge” is perhaps South Park’s greatest sports-themed episode yet, with the boys trying to lose baseball games intentionally to avoid having to play all summer—only to find that the other kids are doing the same thing—making it the opposite of every sports story we’ve ever seen. Also, Randy’s obsession with getting into drunken fights at the games throws in some extra laughs for good measure.