15 Worst South Park Episodes Ranked

Summary

• “White People Renovating Houses” lacked satirical punch, missing the mark.
• “Stanley’s Cup” stands out with a dark, bizarre storyline in season 10.
• “A Million Little Fibers” offers odd, incohesive plots that disappoint fans.

Like every show, there’s bound to be a few bad installments — here are the worst South Park episodes. The long-running animated hit South Park has certainly seen its slew of beloved episodes, many of which hit the funny bone of fans with its zany premises and clever satire. Characters like Cartman have some of the funniest quotes in the series, while Stan and Kyle are given the best storylines and Kenny the most unique. With this quirky cartoon extending all the way back into the 90s and the series renewed to air through 2027, there’s certainly no shortage of hits.

Still, given its long history and hundreds of episodes, there are bound to be some bad ones. Whether it is oddball concepts, off-color gags, annoying characters, South Park‘s trademark dark storylines, or just jokes that fell flat, there have been a few efforts that managed to disappoint audiences and even co-creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker. While a lot of these examples tend to come from earlier seasons before the show gained its footing with its topical commentary, later seasons aren’t immune from bad episodes. Here are 10 of the worst South Park episodes that the show has ever aired in its two-decade run.

15 Spring Break — Season 26, Episode 6

Attempts To Lambast Right Wing Culture Fall Flat

While the newer seasons of South Park continue to be strong, the season 26 finale — “Spring Break” — fell flat for a variety of reasons. Firstly, both narrative arcs in the episode simply weren’t exciting. The episode focuses on spring break, which Mr Garrison and Rick decide to celebrate by going to Myrtle Beach, while Randy is at home with Stan while Sharon and Shelley go on vacation. Neither reaches the kind of thrilling and bombastic climax the show has been known for, which, especially given that it was a season finale, meant the whole episode felt quite flat.

However, where “Spring Break” truly suffers is that it attempts to parody a lot of Alt-Right culture, with figures such as Andrew Tate and Donald Trump being lambasted, but completely fails to make any kind of meaningful point.

However, where “Spring Break” truly suffers is that it attempts to parody a lot of Alt-Right culture, with figures such as Andrew Tate and Donald Trump being lambasted, but completely fails to make any kind of meaningful point. Randy espousing the views of Andrew Tate and protesting that he’s simply trying to teach his son about masculinity when questioned could have been much funnier than it was. As for Mr Garrison’s arc, suggesting that Trump (who he was South Park‘s version of) is addicted to political rally’s may have elicited a single chuckle at first, but it was far from funny enough to carry an entire episode.

14 Mr Garrison’s Fancy New Vagina — Season 9, Episode 1

Perhaps The Most Transphobic Episode Of South Park

While there are multiple episodes of the show that have aged poorly, few can contend with season 9’s “Mr Garrison’s Fancy New Vagina”, which ranks as one of the worst South Park episodes when viewed retrospectively. The period of South Park where Mr Garrison identified as Mrs. Garrison has always been on shaky ground, but the episode where he undergoes sexual reassignment surgery is pretty difficult, if not impossible, to defend.

The South Park episode is making no point beyond “Mr Garrison has his penis cut off”. It makes the procedure the butt of the joke rather than offering any kind of substance, argument, or insightful take — and the decision to include actual footage of the procedure was difficult to stomach even when the episode first aired. Add in that gender reassignment is compared to, for example, Kyle undergoing surgery to make himself Black to be better as basketball and his father being turned into a dolphin, and “Mr Garrison’s Fancy New Vagina” pretty clearly becomes a South Park episode that harkens back to the show’s most distasteful period.

13 The Return Of Chef — Season 10, Episode 1

South Park Creators Trey Parker And Matt Stone Let Personal Feelings Take A Joke Too Far

The controversy surrounding the exit of the late Isaac Hayes from South Park was well-documented at the time, and creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone decided to address it in season 10’s “The Return Of Chef”. The episode was a response to Hayes’ comments following the show’s criticism of Scientology in a prior episode. While it’s understandable that there were tense feelings, and Park and Stone certainly had valid criticisms by pointing out that Hayes had no issue when other religions were made fun of, the episode that wrote Chef out of the show for good was still one of the worst. In “The Return Of Chef”, audio of Hayes in earlier episodes is badly used to make it seem as though Chef has been brainwashed.

The decision to have Chef be a member of the “Super Adventure Club” and an outspoken pedophile seemed, especially in hindsight, to be somewhat childish and vindictive.

While this could have been a funny concept, the decision to have Chef be a member of the “Super Adventure Club” and an outspoken pedophile seemed, especially in hindsight, to be somewhat childish and vindictive. Chef was a beloved character, and Hayes a respected musician, so this was an instance where Parker and Stone severely overestimated how much many viewers held the decision to leave against him, leading to one of the worst South Park episodes because the extent the show went to tearing Chef apart felt petty at best.

12 Chickenlover — Season 2, Episode 4

An Episode Focusing On An Incredibly Unfunny South Park Character

Many of the earlier South Park episodes don’t hit the mark quite as well as more recent installments. However, this doesn’t automatically make them among the worst episodes of the show, despite how much the quality of both the animation and satire has improved over the decades. Season 2’s “Chickenlover” is an exception, however, due to the focus on a single character — Officer Barbrady. Barbrady was later written out of South Park, and with good reason. As a character, he’s simply not funny, and since “Chickenlover” focuses on him so heavily, it really hasn’t stood the test of time.

Officer Barbrady was initially conceived as a “stupid cop” stereotype, though he was taken to the extreme. However, in “Chickenlover” this is taken a step further when it’s revealed Barbrady is illiterate — something a criminal tries to help him with by sexually assaulting poultry and leaving Barbrady crudely written notes. It’s an episode with no real underlying satire or point to make, and instead just comes across as puerile (even by the standards of South Park). In defense of “Chickenlover” though, it does also introduce Cop Cartman and his “respect my authoritah” catchphrase, though later episodes do it better.

11 Poor And Stupid — Season 14, Episode 8

The Entire Premise Of The Episode Falls Flat

Season 14’s “Poor And Stupid” is one of the worst South Park episodes because, like several others, the very concept falls flat and doesn’t really have enough humor to it to carry an entire episode. In the episode, Cartman reveals that he wants to be a NASCAR driver when he grows up, but believes he can’t because he’s not (as he puts it) “poor” or “stupid” enough. That’s literally the extent of the plot, and the rest of the episode then unfolds in what feels like a very paint-by-the-numbers way, with Cartman trying to make himself poorer and less intelligent, getting into the NASCAR circuit, then failing miserably.

It doesn’t really have anything interesting to say about NASCAR either, and it definitely feels like the show could have done more when choosing it as a target.

Not only does “Poor And Stupid” feel far too predictable for South Park, it’s also taking a somewhat unfair jab at NASCAR fans and working-class people. While many groups are the butt of the joke of South Park, “Poor And Stupid” simply feels like an entire episode that exists only to laugh at those in less fortunate economic circumstances. It doesn’t really have anything interesting to say about NASCAR either, and it definitely feels like the show could have done more when choosing it as a target.

10 White People Renovating Houses — Season 21, Episode 1

A Misfire In South Park’s Satirical Arsenal

South Park often nails it in terms of its topical humor and sociopolitical commentary, though “White People Renovating Houses” has been viewed as a weak example of this. Given the bizarre and turbulent political climate circa 2017, these things would seem to provide great fodder for comedy. Yet, more often than not, the jokes come across as a bit too blatant and “on the nose” for a great many.

In one of the worst South Park episodes, audiences got a weird hodgepodge of social satire, home makeover spoofs, and a commentary on the impact of smart devices. It all tends to lack cohesion or direction, especially without knowing the topical context. All in all, the undertaking may have just been too ambitious, and it felt like the South Park creators were simply trying to tackle too many topics at once.

9 Stanley’s Cup — Season 10, Episode 14

A Jarring Departure In South Park

The 10th season of the series contained some of the best episodes of South Park, which is why it’s so surprising that Parker and Stone decided to close out the installment with one of the worst South Park episodes. South Park season 10 was filled with absolute comic absurdity, which is why the down-to-earth storyline of “Stanley’s Cup” was a somewhat unwelcome surprise. In the episode, Stan is tasked with coaching a pee-wee hockey team. One of its members, Nelson, has cancer and asks Stan to win a game for him.

The episode sticks out like a sore thumb compared to the rest of season 10

The episode ends with the pee-wee team going up against the actual Red Wings and getting massacred. What was supposed to be an apt parody of underdog sports team movies ended up being a bizarre entry to one of South Park‘s darkest storylines. Choosing to kill Nelson and have the Red Wing team beat the pee-wee team to a pulp while celebrating to Queen’s “We Are the Champions” was a bold choice that unfortunately didn’t pay off. The episode sticks out like a sore thumb compared to the rest of season 10.

8 Pip — Season 4, Episode 5

A Dickensian Departure In South Park

South Park‘s best parodies are well-known, and Matt Stone and Trey Parker’s ability to create poignant satire is renown. However, when the series tried to parody Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations, it ended up being one of the worst South Park episodes. The installment follows the basic storyline of Dickens’ famed novel, with its own brand of humor, of course, except the ending is markedly different.

Pip finds out in the end that Miss Havisham has been making Estella break boys’ hearts for their tears to power her “Genesis Machine,” a device that will enable her to switch bodies with Estella. It’s an odd turn, to say the least. While Stone and Parker had an origin for Pip planned from the very beginning, “Pip” ended up being a little too weird, even for South Park. It would’ve been better if the parody had a deeper message about Dickens’ tale, but this obviously wasn’t the case.

7 The Problem With A Poo — Season 22, Episode 3

A Convoluted Satire Of Outrage Culture

One of the worst South Park episodes runs with a satirical title — which is a clever play on words from the 2017 documentary, The Problem with Apu. Yet it also similarly runs with a few political hot-button issues and meshes them together into one weird episode featuring Mr. Hankey. The talking Christmas poo’s uncharacteristically angry demeanor didn’t quite land with fans of the show, nor did the excessive use of the annoying crying “PC Babies.”

South Park
does its best to mock both sides of the coin, but this episode failed to truly make anyone laugh about it.

The episode aired in the wake of and addressed several high-profile events at the time, such as the Roseanne reboot’s cancellation due to Barr’s offensive tweets and the confirmation hearings of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Beyond a bit of commentary regarding outrage culture via social media, there’s just not much going for this one. It tries to cover quite a bit from a topical standpoint but ends up odd and convoluted as a result. South Park does its best to mock both sides of the coin, but this episode failed to truly make anyone laugh about it.

6 Royal Pudding — Season 15, Episode 3

A Toothless Canadian Parody

Episodes that hone in on South Park‘s silly Canadian caricatures tend to be hit-and-miss with various viewers. This one, which has managed to slip under the radar for all but the most diehard fans, tends to fall into the latter category. One of the worst South Park episodes has just as many headscratchers as it has “laugh out loud” moments, and isn’t likely to land for many other than the biggest fans of Ike as well as Terrance and Phillip.

This romp shifts between a massively formal and hyped royal Canadian wedding and a b-plot featuring an oddly enraged Mr. Mackey as he tries to get his students to perform a play about dental hygiene. While it was supposed to be a critique of the American obsession with the royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton, this strange oscillation between tooth decay and Canadian tropes had a lot of viewers more than a bit confused.

5 A Million Little Fibers — Season 10, Episode 5

An Incohesive And Bizarre Misstep

Another topical conversation that ended up falling flat was “A Million Little Fibers,” one of the worst South Park episodes. Fans have largely described this off-kilter episode of South Park as two weird b-plots cobbled together to form one incohesive jumble of a show. First, there’s the constantly-stoned talking towel trying to sell his autobiography, parodying the A Million Little Pieces author’s famed Oprah interview in which she calls him out for lying in his book, but it only gets weirder and more juvenile from there.

As one might imagine, the notion of drug-using towels and talking genitalia didn’t quite connect with the bulk of fans, making it one of the worst
South Park
episodes.

The other narrative centers around the living, anthropomorphic private parts of Oprah Winfrey, who seeks to rob a bank and somehow make an escape to Paris. Yeah, this one is out there, even for the standards of South Park. As one might imagine, the notion of drug-using towels and talking genitalia didn’t quite connect with the bulk of fans, making it one of the worst South Park episodes.

4 Funnybot — Season 15, Episode 2

A Misfire In Comedy And Satire

There is no shortage of humorous moments featuring the stuttering amateur comedian, Jimmy Valmer and his best quotes. Yet, even this memorable character isn’t quite enough to redeem this tepid, head-scratching episode for many fans. One of the worst South Park episodes is primarily a spoof of the notion of comedy award shows, and ironically comedy itself. This makes for an oddball premise that many have a tough time appreciating.

There are some occasionally endearing Jimmy moments, laced with a slew of random comedian cameos, and a robot that’s assembled by Germany to be the perfect comedian when Jimmy makes the accusation that German’s are the least funny people. There’s also a rather jarring (and unfunny) moment in which the robot goes on a violent rampage, no doubt prompting some raised eyebrows among viewers. For an episode that deals with the idea of comedy, there sure aren’t many laugh-out-loud moments to be had.

3 Eat, Pray, Queef — Season 13, Episode 4

A Bold Yet Confused Mix of Juvenile Humor And Sociopolitical Commentary

This episode, named after the memoir by Elizabeth Gilbert, introduces what can be considered as the female counterpart to Terrance and Phillip, who revel in what’s essentially “frontal flatulence.” The episode cleverly, if not a bit strangely, twists this into a sort of inspirational feminist message, as all the guys in South Park are hypocritically repulsed by this, while finding their farts hilarious.

There’s a unique combination of juvenile humor and nuanced sociopolitical commentary in one of the worst
South Park
episodes, though it’s an odd mix that clashes.

There’s a unique combination of juvenile humor and nuanced sociopolitical commentary in one of the worst South Park episodes, though it’s an odd mix that clashes. Its focus on Terrance and Phillip, who aren’t particularly popular as main characters, also proved to be a turn-off for some. In the end, the newly dubbed “Queef Sisters” Canadian television program, starring Katherine and Katie Queef, turned out to be as equally, if not more, hated than Terrance and Philip, drowning out any semblance of a “feminist message.”

2 Terrance And Philip In Not Without My Anus — Season 2, Episode 1

The Controversial “Terrance and Phillip” April Fools’ Prank

For the record, this silly Terrance and Phillip romp has become something of a cult classic among some South Park aficionados. After all, it’s the first to really revolve around these now-iconic South Park characters, and sets the stage for the SP film with its introduction of Saddam. Still, it’s easy to see why this is one of the worst South Park episodes, especially given its context.

As the much-hyped season 2 debut, fans were anticipating the exciting reveal of Cartman’s father after the season 1 cliffhanger, only to be greeted by an April Fools joke by Matt Stone and Trey Parker. Instead of following up on that cliffhanger, they showcased an entire episode dedicated to these flatulent-ripping Canadians. The whole bit ended up angering a lot of fans, and it didn’t help that the humor was particularly juvenile and “surface level,” even for the standards of early South Park.

1 Jakovasaurs — Season 3, Episode 4

The Cringeworthy​​​​​​​ Mockery Of Jar Jar Binks

There have been more than a few complaints in regard to George Lucas’ creation for the prequel trilogy of Star Wars, Jar Jar Binks, who many fans regard as annoying and dimwitted, to put it mildly. Well, it would seem that showrunners Matt Stone and Trey Parker strongly share these sentiments, and they chose to show how they really felt with one of the worst South Park episodes.

Ironically, they managed to pull this off a bit
too
well, making it one of the cringiest and most difficult episodes to watch.

This early episode mercilessly mocks the loud and obnoxious Binks by featuring a blatantly satirical version of him, sporting the name “Jakovasaurs.” Clearly the aim was to make these guys about as excruciatingly annoying as possible. Ironically, they managed to pull this off a bit too well, making it one of the cringiest and most difficult episodes to watch. While the installment was annoying on purpose, the South Park episode is almost unwatchable because of the Jakovasaurs, meaning Trey Parker and Matt Stone did their job a little too well.