Ever since its start, South Park has been pushing the boundaries of what was possible
on television by delving into topics that were far too taboo for other shows.
This has led to many funny, offensive and shocking moments…
Many of which would be considered very dark.
And sometimes South Park reaches a new level of dark and twisted, even for a show notorious
for that type of humor.
Which makes us wonder… which were the most messed up moments that have occurred in this
quiet little mountain town?
I’m Brab with WickedBinge and these are The Darkest, Most Messed Up South Park Moments.
As we stated, South Park is an incredibly dark show from the get go.
This is the series that featured a child dying in almost every episode of the first five
seasons as a punchline, after all.
So it took some time to try to narrow down this ranking.
With that said, let’s jump right into it…
We’re going to start out by talking about one of the most popular episodes of all time,
Scott Tenorman Must Die.
Yeah, you all knew it was going to be on here.
If you’re one of the few South Park fans who has yet to see this episode, it involves
Cartman attempting to enact revenge on a 9th grader named Scott Tenorman who tricked him
into buying his pubes.
All of Cartman’s schemes end up backfiring in his face, kind of like Wile E. Coyote attempting
to take down the Road Runner.
This causes Cartman to gradually become increasingly hateful and malicious toward Scott Tenorman
as his plans get darker and more elaborate.
This all erupts in an ending sequence in which Cartman sets up Scott Tenorman’s parents
for death, steals their bodies, grounds them up into chili and unknowingly feeds them to
Scott.
This twist ending was a huge shock for many viewers at the time.
While the series has definitely delved into equally if not darker territory since then,
Scott Tenorman Must Die went a lot further than most viewers were expecting based on
the first four seasons.
Not only that, this is a huge character defining moment for Cartman as it’s really the first
time we saw how dark and psychotic this bratty little kid can be.
He’s gone from being the annoying fat kid who annoyed everyone around him to tasting
the tears of sadness from a kid who just lost… and ate… his parents.
If that wasn’t enough, episode 201 explains that Cartman and Scott Tenorman are half-brothers,
revealing that Cartman actually killed his own father here.
Which only makes this moment all that much darker.
Another season five episode that has to be featured is the one called Kenny Dies wherein,
you guessed it, Kenny dies.
Except this time Kenny was almost killed permanently until he was brought back one season later.
After getting sick from muscular dystrophy, Stan, Kyle and Cartman are informed that Kenny
is most likely going to die from his disease, causing Cartman to study stem cell research
in order to save Kenny’s life.
While this is going on, Stan tries to come to terms with facing Kenny in his hospital
bed.
By the time he finally gathers the emotional strength to do so, Kenny has already passed
away, leaving Stan without the chance to say goodbye.
Kenny’s funeral is then interrupted by Cartman who reveals he has used the stem cell research
to… duplicate a Shakey’s Pizza rather than helping Kenny, causing Kyle to beat him
senseless.
This was largely considered to be the most emotional episode of South Park at the time
of airing and for good reason.
Sure, we all know Kenny eventually came back to the cast but for a while, we figured this
was the last time we would ever get to see him.
Even with that context, the episode manages to explore some very dark feelings with Stan
coping with the death of his friend.
Even Cartman’s side plot of using stem cells to replicate a Shakey’s Pizza… is pretty
morbid in its own right.
As dark as Scott Tenorman Must Die and Kenny Dies were, the South Park creators almost
managed to outdo themselves once again that same season with Butters’ Very Own Episode.
Sweet, innocent and loveable Butters always finds himself in some of the darkest situations
and his very first starring role in an episode is no exception.
In this episode, Butter’s mother Linda sends the young boy to spy on his father Stephen
in order to determine what the best anniversary gift for him would be.
Doing this reveals Stephen partaking in various gay affairs which Butters innocently reports
to Linda.
This causes Linda’s mind to break as she attempts to drown Butters in a river and end
herself, both of which dramatically fail.
Stephen and Linda have never been portrayed as the best parents in South Park but this
episode really exposed how unhinged their relationship is.
It’s a good thing Butters is so naïve that he doesn’t let the events of the episode
phase him in the moment, even if he admits in the end he was probably scarred for life.
This was the first episode to introduce Butters to the main cast as part of season six following
the nearly permanent death of Kenny.
Needless to say, Butters found himself in many more dark situations that followed, all
of which can be traced back to this monumental episode.
South Park has made many iconic holiday specials but by far their best and darkest episode
in this genre comes in the form of Woodland Critter Christmas.
This episode follows Stan being asked by a group of animals to help make a manger for
the birth of their upcoming savior.
Stan does so, along with killing a lion that threatens the critters, but is shocked to
find that the Woodland Critters are actually Satanists giving birth to the Antichrist.
Stan then recruits the lion mountain cubs to find out how abortions are performed so
they can remove the Antichrist from Porcupiney’s womb…
You know, typical Christmas plot-points.
This episode is often praised as one of the greatest in the entire series for how well
it contrasts dark themes with the lighter tone of Christmas.
You can literally find Christmas song parodies and a rhyming narrator in the same episode
that features some of the most screwed up themes and visuals in the entire series.
It’s later revealed that this is actually a story created by Cartman, which makes a
lot of sense given how brutal yet innocently childish the plot can sometimes be.
Any episode featuring the death of a beloved character is naturally going to come off as
quite dark and The Return of Chef more than delivers on that expectation.
The tenth season of South Park began with the creatures addressing the departure of
Isaac Hayes following the controversy of the Scientology episode from the previous season.
Here, we find out Chef has joined the Super Adventure Club to travel around the world.
However, it turns out Chef was hypnotized by the club members into being…
What’s the most advertiser-friendly way to put this?...
physically attracted to minors.
Stan, Kyle, Cartman and Kenny go to rescue Chef from the club but Chef falls from a bridge
and dies after getting impaled and brutally mauled by a lion and bear.
Chef’s death scene is very brutal and the scenes prior featuring a hypnotized Chef talking
about various vile acts don’t make the episode any brighter.
This was obviously an episode made with a lot of malice, not so much towards Hayes but
towards Scientology which is parodied through the Super Adventure Club.
The end result certainly made for one of the most brutal death scenes in South Park history.
While many of the darker South Park episodes have been well received by the show’s fans,
one episode that was actually quite controversial amongst viewers for its dark themes is Stanley’s
Cup.
This episode, which is a parody of The Mighty Ducks and other such sports movies, follows
Stan coaching a pee wee hockey team who are performing very poorly.
One of the team members, Nelson, is hospitalized with cancer and asks Stan to bring the team
a victory to give him hope.
The doctor even tells Stan that if he doesn’t win the next game, Nelson will die “faster
than Steve Irwin in a tank full of sting-rays.”
When the opposing team doesn’t show up for a game, The Colorado Avalanche allows the
pee wee team to step in for them during a game against the Detroit Red Wings.
This results in The Detroit Red Wings beating the kindergarteners both literally and figuratively
and Nelson losing hope and dying in the hospital.
This ending divided fans of the show, many of which thought it was too far to witness
a dying child as a punchline for a joke.
Butters’ Very Own Episode may have been the first episode to feature Butters in such
a dark scenario but the creators arguably topped it with the release of Cartman Sucks.
This episode sees Cartman pulling a prank on Butters which results in Stephen and Linda
believing their son to be gay.
Butters is subsequently sent to a Christian conversion therapy camp which is off given
his father’s own secret acts in the previously mentioned episode.
The camp attempts to “straighten out” the kids which often results in the children
taking their own life as a result.
If you thought Stanley’s Cup was brutal, this episode basically exists to show you
how much further they can take the concept.
Cartman Sucks is a very brutal criticism of these types of camps but it’s through its
harshness that it’s able to make such a solid point regarding their practices and
the ramifications they have on children who are exposed to them.
Speaking of episodes like Stanley’s Cup which are dark enough to divide fans, that
is the case once again with Brittney’s New Look.
Stan, Kyle, Cartman and Butters find out that Brittney Spears is in South Park and pretend
to be her children in order to get pictures they can sell to the paparazzi.
This trick causes Brittney, who is already highly distressed from being constantly mocked
and prodded by tabloids, to shoot herself in front of the four boys.
The celebrity survives, albeit with two thirds of her head missing, and Stan and Kyle go
to apologize to her where they realize how crazy the paparazzi Britney has to deal with
truly is.
They devise a plan to take her to the North Pole but before they can do so, they are cornered
by the paparazzi who reveal Brittney has been chosen as a human sacrifice for a good corn
harvest.
The crowd proceeds to take pictures of Brittney until she somehow slowly dies before preparing
to do the same thing to Miley Cyrus for the next harvest.
South Park has made many episodes making fun of celebrities but in this case the show is
oddly sympathetic toward the struggles they have to deal with from the media.
The satire is spot on but this episode did divide people due to how grim the journey
was.
A lot of the time it seems like the episode isn’t even trying to be funny and sacrifices
humor in order to make it’s point clearer and more impactfully.
The end result may have rubbed some viewers the wrong way but it sure made for one memorable
episode of television, like it or not.
Another episode that sacrificed humor in order to make a point is The China Problem.
The A plot for this episode sees Cartman and Butters attempting to stop the Chinese from
taking over the world after watching the 2008 Olympics opening ceremony.
That’s all well and good but the reason this episode is ranked here is because of
the B plot.
Here, we see Stan, Kyle, Kenny, Clyde and Jimmy petitioning to have George Lucas and
Steven Spielberg arrested for “assaulting” Indiana Jones with the release of Indiana
Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
It may not sound like much, but the scenes with Lucas and Spielberg go on for a long
time and are shockingly grotesque and detailed, even by the standards of South Park.
Much like scenes in Brittney’s New Look, a lot of these parts are extremely dark and
contain very little humor to speak of, opting to shock and disturb the audience instead.
Trey Parker and Matt Stone claim this is because they wanted to replicate the feeling of pain
and suffering they received from watching the movie.
Finally, we finish off by touching upon what many consider to be the most emotional South
Park episode of all time, You’re Getting Old.
This episode doesn’t seem too dark at first and more plays out like a typical episode
with Stan having a birthday party and seeing entertainment as poop as a result of him growing
older.
Normally that would cause him to start enjoying things for adults but instead, he sees everything
as crap.
The doctor diagnoses Stan with “being a cynical butthole.”
What started off as a simple poop joke shifted into an existential crisis for Stan where
he can’t seem to be happy no matter where he goes.
What’s more is that this episode ended on a very dark cliffhanger set to Landslide by
Fleetwood Mac that really hammers Stan’s depression home.
This episode was so dark and emotional that many fans at the time considered this to be
the announcement of the end of South Park, pointing out how the episode seemed to be
touching on the creator’s own depression from work fatigue.
While Trey Parker and Matt Stone denied this being the case, it still makes for one touching,
emotionally layered and very dark episode of South Park.
Let us know in the comment section if you agree with our ranking, and tell us what we
should cover next.
Remember to hit that notification bell and binge our Good to Evil playlist, where we
break down the morality of the characters in your favorite shows.
But most importantly, stay wicked!