Warning: This episode discusses some crude, mature humor.As a mainstay for such a long time, South Park has constantly been rattling cages with its content (South Park‘s very first episode is titled “Cartman Gets An Anal Probe,” after all). Having evolved past the early days of the one-note gimmick of kids swearing on TV and doing things they shouldn’t, South Park has become a cultural touchstone,



Where the other adult-oriented cartoons that have been on air for almost as long as South Park (Family Guy) or even longer (The SImpsons) have fallen by the wayside in terms of quality, South Park has somehow remained fresh and just as jagged, if not getting better with time. Their stories over the last decade or so, when focused, are sharp and critical of pop culture and modern day society, finding some of the strangest and stupidest routes to parody such things.

With its humor circulating around everyday racism, antisemitism, and blasphemy, atop poop and puke jokes, South Park‘s sensitivity is the last order of the day (though recent years have found them grappling with changing times, like when they reveal that Token, the only Black kid, is actually named Tolkien after the Lord of the Rings author). With such an eagerness to disrupt, South Park has consistently come under fire from the censors, and brought upon itself more than enough controversy. Here are some of the biggest disrupters.

7 A Million Little Fibers, S10 Ep5

In an elaborate plan to get Oprah fired from her job in order to spend more time with her, Oprah’s own vagina takes hostages in a plot that ultimately teams it up with her anus. Yeah, this one probably should have been left in the writer’s room, but was so ridiculous and personal that it tends to tip over from stupidity and offense into absurdist humor.

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Featuring multiple shots focused on Oprah’s crotch and a subplot of Towelie, the stoner towel, having just penned his memoirs (in a riff on James Frey’s book A Million Little Pieces and his confrontation with Oprah), while totally ignoring the town of South Park and its residents — this is a really weird one. Weirder yet is that “Mingey” talks with a cockney accent and Gary the As*hole is voiced somehow with an English/Welsh and Jamaican accent hybrid.

6 It Hits The Fan, S5 Ep1

When a show on TV promises to feature the first use of the word “shit,” the town of South Park (and subsequently the world) goes cursing crazy, releasing a gang of knights and a world-ending dragon. Far more common nowadays, at the time South Park — ever at the forefront of smutty revelation — managed to break new ground on television and ironically normalize the word in media. The word is uttered a gigantic 162 times in the episode (and seen in writing once).

5 Crippled Summer, S14 Ep7

In a parody of Intervention, this episode revolves around a summer camp for handicapped children that goes by “Lake Tardicaca.” With a focus on South Park’s Jimmy, his fellow campers are oddly shaped Looney Tunes caricatures. In a bid to be crowned winning team, a series of back and forth’s between Jimmy and the opposing captain, Nathan, results in a series of sabotages that keep backfiring. The B-story focuses on Towelie’s addiction to heroin, and Nathan is raped by a shark — twice.

4 Trapped in the Closet, S9 ep12

When Stan takes a personality test and is duped into giving money to the Church of Scientology, he is discovered to be the reincarnated body of founder L. Ron Hubbard. Calling out the movement as a straight-up scam, this one also includes trademark ribbing of celebrities (including now convicted pedophile R Kelly) and pushes big insinuations that Tom Cruise is gay. Every credit at the end of the episode is attributed to “John” or “Jane Smith” to protect the South Park team from getting sued.

Now, this one had a lot of fall out. Proud Scientologist Tom Cruise himself had refused to continue his Mission Impossible III press tour if the episode wasn’t pulled. Two months later the episode was finally aired by Comedy Central and the parallel controversy had brewed up huge anticipation for the particular episode. On Showbiz Tonight in 2006, Trey Parker said, “[It’s] like a publicist couldn’t have orchestrated this any better for us. You know what I mean? It’s like, it’s been phenomenal. Tom Cruise has done more for South Park than anyone I think in the world.”

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Isaac Hayes, voice actor for Chef, had hypocritically refused to commit his voice to anything critiquing the sect, and left the show. The actor (who would die in 2008), had suffered a stroke not long before this episode, however, and his son revealed that he was being led by his advisors: Scientologists. Chef would return once again in the next season where he was officially killed off, and finally as a bittersweet boss battle in the official South Park video game, The Stick of Truth, as a Nazi zombie.

On Hayes quitting, his son Isaac Hayes III, said to The Hollywood Reporter: “He was in no position to resign under his own knowledge [because of the stroke]. At the time, everybody around my father was involved in Scientology — his assistants, the core group of people. So someone quit South Park on Isaac Hayes’ behalf. We don’t know who.”

3 Band in China, S23 Ep2

When Randy is busted for bringing his weed into China, he is sent to a prison camp where he meets all sorts of sell-outs by way of the Disney corporation. In this really strong episode, the show comments on censorship and appeasement to please a dictatorship of a country as long as it means that ticket sales continue. In one scene, Stan is writing a script for his new biopic where a Chinese official is literally reading over his shoulder and altering the text when he sees something he doesn’t like, which I’m sure the South Park creators have felt more often than they would have liked (and happened in some way to Disney’s property, Marvel, with Chinese censors).

The nation of China would go on to ban South Park as a whole in their country, which really is something; China literally turned the episode’s title into a fact and national policy. Regular guest star, Mickey Mouse, would return for this episode — and Randy would strangle Winnie the Pooh to death reminding everyone that, yes, this is still a cartoon.

2 The China Problem, S12 Ep8

Following the release of Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, the boys haven’t properly recovered from what a mockery of a film it was, going as far as to say that Indiana Jones had been “raped” by creators George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. Shown (albeit in dream sequences) to be physically and graphically assaulted not once but three times on screen by the filmmakers, this one is pretty shocking and only gets away with it because the character is, well, fictional.

Meanwhile, Cartman believes the Chinese are going to invade and take over America, so he dresses up in stereotypical Chinese garb. Butters also shoots multiple people in the penis. Looking back on this episode now, pre-Star Wars and pre-Snyder fans, even pre-Trump supporters, this is an episode that somehow predates our current state of toxic fandoms. The upcoming Indiana Jones 5 will release in 2023, and hopefully he has a rape whistle.

1 Cartoon Wars, S10 Ep3-4

In this incredible two-parter, South Park teases the censors while actively crapping on fellow cartoon shows. When Family Guy threatens to show an image of the Prophet Muhammad in their show, Muslim terrorists threaten to enact revenge (again, South Park disturbingly predicted the future, with terrorists attacking and killing cartoonists who drew Muhammad with the Charlie Hebdo attacks). Actively goading parent broadcaster, Comedy Central, the South Park writers keep their tongues in their cheeks while pushing as many buttons as they possibly can.

As one of the best examples on this list, the episode gave an opportunity to demonstrate the question of where do we stand on free speech if we can be bullied with violence if our speech concerns certain imagery or content. Seeing The Simpsons/Family Guy/South Park crossover is excellent fanfare for the viewers, too. South Park and its creators would rattle chains again in the 14th series by featuring Muhammad, which Comedy Central would go on to obstruct on screen.