My Top Ten South Park Episodes

South Park is one of those long-running television series that you either have come to like...or hate.  One problem that some folks have with it is the lack of respect it shows for the taboo subjects in our society...in other words, it's an equal opportunity iconoclastic satire show, destined to challenge your cherished notions if you watch it for any length of time.  I'm not too keen on the extensive profanity, and some of the shows that focus either on private body functions or religion don't seem very amusing to me.  But from time to time, South Park strikes a chord and comes out with a memorable episode.  It's an animated series set in the small city of South Park, Colorado.  The main characters are late-elementary school buddies Stan, Kyle, Cartman, Kenny...and occasionally Butters. Stan's father Randy, along with some of the school staff, figures in several of the stories. To date, this series, begun in 1997, has 260 episodes.  However, I haven't seen most of the more recent ones, and if I peruse the TV schedule, I usually pass up on most of the episodes featured...I'm interested in only about fifty of them.  For those who have seen this show and like at least some of the episodes, here is my personal top ten list of favorite episodes...

1-THE LOSING EDGE--Stan's South Park little league baseball team is glad to finally be finishing their boring season...the kids are now looking forward to getting back to what they really want to do all summer: play video games.  But they find out that because they're such winners, then they'll have to keep playing other statewide teams for the championship.  They desperately try to throw games, but discover that their opponents are also desperate to lose to them!  What makes this episode the best is the role that Stan's dad takes as the "fighting father" who always end up arrested for fighting an opposing father. The ending is classic.

2-PINEWOOD DERBY--Stan's entry in the annual Pinewood Derby is illegally altered by his dad Randy, who has inserted a supermagnet after breaking into the Hadron Collider in Europe.  The model car goes shooting out into space...only to be picked up by an alien ship on the lookout for planets developing space travel with warp speed.  Randy takes over from here...

3-TWO DAYS BEFORE THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW--Stan and Cartman drive a boat into a beaver damn and cause a neighboring community to be flooded.  The adults determine the flooding's cause to be global warming...and the panic ensues...

4-SMUG ALERT--Kyle's dad has a new hybrid Prius and he nags the rest of the town about how they are ruining the environment with their gas guzzlers. When they object, he moves Kyle and his family to San Francisco where he can live among like-minded people.  Stan writes and performs a song to change South Park residents' minds about hybrids...with unintended consequences.  Meanwhile, Cartman, without Kyle to torment, desperately schemes up a mission to San Francisco to rescue him and bring him back...

5-SOMETHING WALL-MART THIS WAY COMES--When a new Wal-Mart comes to South Park, its residences find themselves irresistibly drawn to its doors.  Meanwhile, other businesses in town close down and the boys find themselves walking through a squalid ghost town...that's what's left of South Park.  To rid themselves of Wal-Mart, they travel to company headquarters to air their grievances...while Cartman fights their efforts...

6-RAISINS--Partially a parody of Goth culture and partially a parody of the Hooters type of restaurant chain, Stan, after his girlfriend dumps him, is depressed.  His friends take him to Raisins, where they hope the pretty girls working there will cheer him up.  Instead, Stan feels worse and decides to join up with the morose and cynical Goth kids at school.  Meanwhile, naive Butters falls in love with a Raisins girl who leads him on for tips...

7-UP THE DOWN STEROID--Crippled Jimmy is determined to win the Special Olympics and finds himself hooked on steroids.  Meanwhile, Cartman, upon hearing that the winner receives a big money prize, decides to enter as being mentally-challenged...

8-THE BIGGEST DOUCHE IN THE UNIVERSE--The highlight of this episode, in which Kenny's soul is trapped inside Cartman's body, is the conflict between rationalist skeptic Stan and John Edwards, the Sci Fi Channel charlatan who claimed to be able to talk to dead people.  In frustration, Stan nominates  Edwards for (the episode's title)...leading to one of the funniest endings in the series...

9-MANBEARPIG--This episode is all about Al Gore and his fascination with...himself. Gore is on a mission to educate the public about the extreme danger of "Manbearpig", which he sees signs of everywhere he looks.  Never a fan of Al Gore, I think he nevertheless would have been a better choice for president in 2000 than Dubya.  Still the guy IS a bit of a head case, isn't he?

10-THE UNGROUNDABLE--Butters becomes part of the "vampire" movement at school so he can avoid obeying his parents.  Meanwhile, the Goth kids take offense at the vampire kids' similar appearance...