Saturday, August 13, 2011

South Park Bottom 10

I love South Park. It is easily my favorite show on TV, I own every season that has come out on DVD and I've watched most of the episodes many, many times.

Well, in celebration of that, my brother and I started putting together a top 10 list of the best episodes. We quickly realized that said ranking would require a lot of thought, because there are just so many episodes that are hard to leave out of the top 10. Most seasons, though, have 1 or 2 duds that just don't live up to the quality of the series as a whole. So instead of a top 10, we decided to put together a list of the 10 worst episodes (in our opinion) that the show has ever aired.

If there's one that you really hated but you don't see it here, feel free to chime in. It's not often that you'll get to hear me knock South Park, so enjoy this rare opportunity.


THE BOTTOM 10 EPISODES OF SOUTH PARK

10. The Return Of Chef (Season 10)
This one was my brother's choice to include. Personally I'm willing to grant forgiveness for the lackluster episode and the sad departure of Chef, since with Isaac Hayes leaving the show's hands were tied. Taken in isolation from its real life context, though, this one just isn't much fun.

9. Starvin' Marvin in Space (Season 3)
Novelty character episodes have fallen rather flat in most TV shows, and South Park is no exception. Starvin' Marvin is not only uninteresting, he's also at the helm of some uncharacteristically ham-handed social commentary. This was not his first appearance, but I think this one was worse than the original Starvin' Marvin episode.

8. Towelie (Season 5)
Again, novelty characters are typically a bad idea. This episode has its moments, but it earns a spot on the list for introducing arguably the most annoying and pointless recurring character the show has ever had.

7. Crippled Summer (Season 14)
Just a stupid episode that served as nothing more than a place filler. Jimmy and Timmy are the only recognizable characters to appear, and the whole thing is pretty much Wacky Races but with South Park animation.

6. Lice Capades (Season 11)
Yet another episode killed by a stupid novelty character. The goings-on with the kids are entertaining, but far too much time is spent with the dreadfully stupid and annoying insect trying to escape with his baby.

5. Eat, Pray, Queef (Season 13)
I think many people enjoyed the feminist statement this episode made. I'm not going to dispute that, but the episode itself is just not entertaining. The Queef Sisters are annoying (one set of Terrance and Phillip is ok, but a second is just too much), and the closing statement song comes across really forced and poorly executed compared to their typical witty endings.

4. Stanley's Cup (Season 10)
Needlessly dark and depressing. This episode doesn't suffer from poor execution, but it's so grim that it's just no fun to watch.

3. Jackovasaurs (Season 3)
The title character ranks up there with Jar Jar Binks on the list of most annoying figures in the history of fiction. He and his obnoxious family make you, like the town's residents, feel relieved when the whole thing is finally over.

2. Mr. Hankey's Christmas Classics (Season 3)
Since it's nothing but a collection of Christmas carols, this barely even qualifies as an episode at all. A few seasons have featured rather weak Christmas specials, but this one takes the cake for pointlessness.

1. A Million Little Fibers (Season 10)
This episode is flat-out awful. The three central characters are Towelie, Oprah's anus, and Oprah's vag. So yeah, that pretty much sums it up right there.

4 comments:

  1. What about that new one, where everything sounds like shit? That was pretty bad, and needlessly disgusting. Yes, it had a good point, and I think it was a meta-statement about other people's opinions about the show, but it was too gross without being funny.

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  2. Funny you should mention that one, because I actually thought it was particularly good.

    I guess that just illustrates how different one person's taste can be from the next, even within a fairly narrow field.

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  3. True. Like I said, I appreciated the point, because I've found myself becoming like Stan as I get older (kind of), but if you're going to make it that gross, you need to make it that much funnier to get people past it. I think so anyway.

    As far as favorites, I have by no means seen all of them (or even 10%), but I really enjoyed the testicular cancer / medical marijuana / KFC episode, as well as the one where Butters gets hurt really bad because they're pretending to be ninjas.

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  4. Hmm, I really liked the Starvin' Marvin in space episode. Mostly because of the Marklars.

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