In all of television history, there may have never been a more controversial program than South Park. Some viewers absolutely adore this cartoon for its willingness to step outside the boundaries of what is “socially acceptable” for the sake of comedy, while others find the show despicable for its use of crude comedy at the expense of marginalized groups. Whatever side you stand on, one thing is clear: the show’s creators, Matt Stone and Trey Parker, really don’t give a shit. These are two guys who included a depiction of the Prophet Mohammed on television despite receiving numerous death threats. They also showed up to the Oscars wearing dresses and tripping on LSD.
Yes, it’s clear that Matt Stone and Trey Parker aren’t very reserved when it comes to their brand of comedy. And their devil-may-care attitude has made them quite a few enemies along the way. In fact, members of every major religious sect, sexuality, and ethnic group have probably expressed their dislike of Stone and Parker at some point. But, among the over 300 episodes of South Park that have aired to date, some have caused a particularly significant amount of outrage.
So, in this article, we’re going to look back at the long history of South Park (which goes back to the show’s original air date in 1997) and identify the 5 most offensive South Park episodes of all time. And I think it’s pretty clear that none of these episodes would be allowed to be made today.
1. The Death Camp of Tolerance (Season 6, Episode 14)
The episode titled “The Death Camp of Tolerance” from Season 6 of South Park is extremely controversial due to its use of hateful slurs and its portrayal of a death camp similar to those operated by the Nazis during the Holocaust. While these words and images are used in jest, many still believe that South Park creators took things entirely too far with this episode.
At one point during the episode, the boys’ parents bring them to the Museum of Tolerance, where they are instructed to enter a tunnel. Inside the dark tunnel, a formless voice shouts horrible slurs at the children. Then, once out of the tunnel, the boys take a tour through a series of wax sculptures that depict heinously offensive racial and religious stereotypes. To top things off, when the boys speak out against their homosexual teacher, Mr. Garrison, they’re sent to an Auschwitz-style Tolerance Camp. It seems that the whole episode was meant to be a dig at the “woke” movement, but they took things too far in this episode (as Stone and Parker are known to do).
2. Cartoon Wars (Season 10, Episode 3)
When you think of offensive or controversial South Park episodes, the first thing that comes to mind is probably the time that the creators received death threats for alluding to the fact that they would show the Prophet Mohammed in an upcoming episode. In fact, a man named Jesse Curtis Morton (who went by the name Younus Abdullah Muhammed) used his website Revolution Muslim to encourage fellow extremists to commit acts of violence against Matt Stone and Trey Parker. Luckily, the two South Park co-creators were never harmed. But Morton was eventually arrested in connection with this incident.
The episode in question was “Cartoon Wars” from Season 10, which was split into two parts. Instead of actually showing the Prophet Mohammed, a black screen with writing appeared, saying, “In this shot, Mohammed hands a football helmet to Family Guy. Comedy Central has refused to broadcast an image of Mohammed on their network.” So, while they didn’t actually show the Prophet (as they did in another episode several years earlier), they still pulled a pretty sneaky and potentially offensive move. While no one should ever be murdered for what they put in a cartoon, showing the Prophet Mohammed is still offensive to all Muslims (including the billions of non-extremist Muslims worldwide).
3. Crack Baby Athletic Association (Season 15, Episode 5)
In the wildly offensive “Crack Baby Athletic Association” episode of South Park Season 15, Kyle goes to volunteer at the hospital after seeing a depressing commercial about “crack babies” on TV featuring Sarah McLachlan. But, when he arrives there, he discovers that Cartman is already volunteering there. Suspicious, Kyle follows Cartman and discovers that he’s started a new business called the “Crack Baby Athletic Association,” in which he enlists “crack babies” to fight one another over a ball filled with crack.
First of all, the term “crack babies” alone is wildly offensive. Then, you mix in the scene where Cartman acts as a slave driver (which is actually kind of funny, considering it’s criticizing the NCAA for not paying its student-athletes). Overall, this entire episode makes light of the crack epidemic in the United States, which hit American Black communities worst and first and has led to generational cycles of poverty. So, this episode of South Park is definitely pretty damn offensive.
4. The China Problem (Season 12, Episode 8)
In “The China Problem” from South Park Season 12, Cartman is plagued by worries about the Chinese taking over the world after watching the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics. In response, Cartman formulates a plan to stop the Chinese, which he shares with his friends. Cartman tells the plan to his friends Stan, Kyle, and Kenny, who all inform him that he’s being racist. Shocker: Cartman is, in fact, being racist. The whole episode is rather insensitive to Chinese people and features some awful stereotypes.
At one point, Cartman and Butters dress up in “traditional” Chinese garb and visit a P.F. Chang’s to hold everyone hostage at gunpoint. Butters then accidentally shoots an innocent person in the dick. Meanwhile, the rest of the show’s cast is on a quest to stop George Lucas and Steven Spielberg from destroying Indiana Jones’s legacy. This episode was super controversial for fearmongering about a Chinese invasion and for painting Chinese people as villains.
5. Here Comes the Neighborhood (Season 5, Episode 12)
In the “Here Comes the Neighborhood” episode of South Park Season 5, Token (whose name is already offensive considering he’s the only Black child in the show’s main cast) gets ridiculed for being the richest kid in town. So, in an attempt to attract more rich families to South Park, Token starts a campaign to have more rich families move to town. However, all of the new rich individuals that move to town happen to be Black, including Snoop Dogg, Kobe Bryant, and Will Smith. This causes resentment among the town’s poor population (which consists entirely of white people), who begin referring to the new Black residents as “richers” (an obvious homophone for a much more sinister word).
At a certain point in the episode, the white townspeople decide to dress up as ghosts (in costumes that look remarkably similar to those worn by the Ku Klux Klan) to try and scare the “richers” out of town. Then, they burn a “lowercase T” (which resembles a cross) on a Black person’s lawn to send a message. And, for the cherry on top, Mr. Garrison even begins to say the N-word just before the episode ends. For obvious reasons, this episode is extremely offensive to the Black community, the racism they experience, and the history of oppression in the United States.
