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Come on down to South Park and meet some friends of mine!
Les Claypool
Infamous Animated Series, now in its thirteenth season, covering the misadventures of four grade school kids in the titular town of South Park, Colorado: Stan Marsh, the Straight Man of the group; Kyle Broflovski, a morally confused Jew; Eric Cartman, a fat, sarcastic, sociopathic young Nazi; and Kenny McCormick, a worldy-wise youngster who is rendered unintelligible by his tightly drawn orange hoodie and, in the first five seasons of the show, has a tendency to die horribly Once An Episode. These four boys and their friends and neighbors find themselves embroiled in all sorts of weirdness, ranging from cults, aliens, and monsters to exaggerated-for-comic-effect versions of Ripped From The Headlines problems.
South Park became highly controversial by being offensive in about as many ways possible - bad language, violence, nudity and perverse sexual references, and witheringly sarcastic, highly irreverent, and downright obscene approaches to race, religion, celebrities, politics, homosexuality, obesity, the mentally challenged and just about everything else it's possible for people to get riled up over. To add fuel to the fire, all the main characters were children, and the animation was done in a deliberately crude, brightly colored style that made it look like it was made for or by pre-schoolers (except for all the gore and naked people).
It initially relied on Toilet Humour (especially in the first season) but became more intelligent and satirical as time wore on, and even won a Peabody Award in 2006. The fact that the show has become smarter and more satirical in tone has caused some of the show's early fanbase - only there for the crude humor typical of the early episodes - to have long abandoned the show, shown by the fact that after its second season the show dropped from 9.1 million viewers to about 3 million viewers, a number which the show has hovered around ever since. Even before the switch in tone, the show was critically acclaimed for the way that it portrayed homosexuals (the show was nominated for GLAAD Award for the early episode "Big Gay Al's Big Gay Boat Ride") and people with mental and physical handicaps.
Also very funny, except for when the writers get wrapped up in just how clever and controversial they are. The subjects they mock usually target both sides: Conservatives and Liberals, Religiously Devoted and Dedicated Atheist, Industrialists and Hippies, etc. Usually there isn't a specific side taken but quite often it is a deliberate Author Tract. And other times it tends to be almost too topical, before the supposed controversy has properly taken its course.
Part of this apparent cleverness comes from an astonishingly short turn-around time, the show is produced using the same graphics engine that helped create the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park. It has been compared to building a sandcastle with a bulldozer. In some cases an episode can be produced a matter of days before it airs and allowing for current events to be parodied almost as soon as they happen (an episode about the outcome of the 2008 Presidental Election, for example, came out the day after the election, and South Park featured jokes about the capture of Saddam Hussein before some news outlets had reported it). Which, of course, also annoys the subjects of those events...
Trope Namer of:
This show provides examples of:
- Acceptable Targets - Pretty much everyone and everything on the planet, at one point or another, has been lampooned on the show.
- Action Girl - Based on her Crowning Moment Of Awesome in season 12, Wendy might grow up into one.
- Action Santa - He's pals with Kung Fu Jesus.
- Adults Are Useless - Pretty much every adult in South Park and then some is a moron, even when they're not subject to Plot Induced Stupidity.
- Aesop Amnesia: In the season 8 episode The Jeffersons, Michael Jackson is chewed out by Kyle for being a Man Child and agrees to give away all his possessions and act as a normal father. Skip ahead five seasons later to season 13's Dead Celebrities where Michael Jackson cannot pass on and posseses Ike's body. Why? Because he always wanted to be a little white girl.
- Oh no, but that was Mr. Jefferson in season 8, not Michael Jackson. *cough*
- All Take And No Give - Cartman to his mom.
- Allergic To Love - Stan, in early episodes.
- All Just A Dream - Sometimes played straight, but often subverted.
- Ambiguously Gay - Cartman. Just ... Cartman. He constantly says that girls as disgusting and vile, and he seems to have an extremely inaccurate idea of what sex with a woman even entails. Of course, he's 10 years old, so maybe that's to be expected.
- Then again, he's actually had oral sex with men on several occasions, including with Butters and with a random homeless man. So Yeah ...
- He presumably gave Ben Affleck a hand job as part of a bizarre plot to convince Kyle that his hand was a sentient con man named Mitch Connor who was impersonating a woman named Jennifer Lopez (much to the chagrin of the "real" Jennifer Lopez).
- To say nothing of his mother and the various Noodle Incidents surrounding her bedroom activities.
- His obsession with Kyle sometimes also takes a very weirdly sexual turn. This is taken to ridiculous levels in Imaginationland, where he embarks on an epic, cross-country, universe-hopping quest to force Kyle to suck his balls.
- It's stated that he is actually just really mentally messed up and not exactly gay, though his 'problems' do lead to ambiguously gay moments.
- If the times he's been overheard talking in his sleep are anything to go by, he's apparently been the victim of sexual abuse several times:
No, Paula Poundstone... leave me alone...
- Poundstone was a comedian (essentially, an unfunny version of Rosie O'Donnell) who was accused of molesting her neighbor's children.
No, Uncle Jesse! No!
- Though, this could simply be a Dukes Of Hazzard reference.
- An Aesop - Spoofed, many times over, and used straight just as much!
- One notable subversion: in "All About the Mormons", Stan delivers what appears to be an Aesop about blind faith and gullibility, only for the episode's true Aesop to be delivered shortly after, stating that it doesn't matter that a religion makes no sense if it still inspires its members to lead good lives.
- Animation Anatomy Aging
- The Antichrist - Damien
- Anti Anti Christ - Apparently he just wants friends and not to move around so much.
- Anti Hero - Eric Cartman.
- Also, Craig. He is implied to have bad behaviour, and is referred to as "the biggest trouble-maker" in his class, along with Tweek. Unlike Tweek, who doesn't have any of the trouble-maker's tendencies, Craig is actually an assertive bully, he's constantly flipping people off and has a darker personality than the rest of his classmates, being pragmatic, monotone and ironic.
- Anvilicious - Ironic, considering its stance on Aesops.
- Art Shift - Done several times: see "Chinpokomon", "The Simpsons Already Did It", "Good Times With Weapons", and "Major Boobage".
- Ass Shove - Happens to Cartman. A lot.
- Bad Boss - Cartman in many episodes. Craig, too, in "South Park is Gay!".
- Base Breaker - Cartman. There are two types of fans; those who love him for his extreme Jerk Ass behavior, and those who absolutely hate him for being a Complete Monster who commits Moral Event Horizon grade evil acts at least once a season. The creators seem to be aware of this and try to cater to both (the second half via entire episodes dedicated to making Cartman suffer such as when Wendy beats the crap out of him in season 12).
- Big Damn Movie
- Bilingual Bonus - Largely due to the fact co-creator Trey Parker is fluent in Japanese, the Japanese part of the song "Let's Fighting Love" is gramatically correct and translates into something befitting South Park.
- Black And Gray Morality
- Breakout Character - Butters and Randy.
- Broken Base - Male and female fans. Very prominent in Fan Art. Subverted since interaction between them is fairly low.
- Brother Chuck: Major character Pip went from featuring heavily and even getting his own solo episode, to vanishing permanently and never being mentioned again.
- A lot of early season characters on South Park haven't been seen much (or at all) in later episodes, such as:
- Officer Barbrady: Last time Barbrady was seen was on the season nine episode where Jimmy (the handicapped comedian kid with the leg braces) tries to stop having erections. Now Barbrady's gone and replaced by the police detectives from season seven.
- Kenny's brother, Kevin (the dirty kid who speaks like a hick [if he even speaks at all]). He was only seen on "Starvin' Marvin" (from season one), "Chickenlover" (from season two), and "Chickenpox" (also from season two). His most recent appearance (I think) was at the end of season 12 where he's at the dinner table and Kenny gets shot by a stray bullet (with no one in the family doing the "Oh my God! They've killed Kenny!" bit).
- Butt Monkey / The Chew Toy - Butters; originally Kenny filled the role.
- Captivity Harmonica - In The Movie, by Ike. Also in episode 1311 "Whale Whores" by Eric Cartman.
- Car Meets House - Played with in the episode that covered the dangers of elderly drivers. Said old people chase the boys through the house serial-killer style, using their cars.)
- Catapult Nightmare - South Park loves this trope!
- Catch Phrase - Stan and Kyle's "Oh my God, they killed Kenny!" "You bastards!" exchange, Cartman's "Screw you guys, I'm going home!"
- They also toyed with the "They killed Kenny" line a lot; one of the best was when it became a version of "Marco! Polo!" to let Stan find Kyle in "Super Best Friends". Then there was the "I found a penny!" bit from "Chef's Chocolate Salty Balls".
- Catchphrase Interruptus
- Children Are Innocent - Usually subverted, most often with the murderous Cartman and the sex-crazed, glue-sniffing Kenny. It's also often played straight. Butters is most usually portrayed as innocent, while other children are sometimes shown to be uncorrupted by various stupid or disgusting aspects of adult culture.
- Christian Rock - Parodied in "Christians Rock Hard".
- Clip Show - Spoofed in "City On the Edge of Forever", in which all the flashbacks are incorrect.
- Specifically, they all inexplicably end with the characters involved eating ice cream.
- Now that's what I call a sticky situation!
- Cloudcuckooland: Canada.
- Comic Book Time - The boys started out as 8-year-olds in 3rd grade. In season 4, they moved onto 4th grade and are now 9-year-old boys. They have remained 9-years-old and in 4th grade ever since (though occasional recent episodes make reference to them being either 8 or 9).
- Completely Missing The Point - Cartman tends to exemplify this one, though the "Major Boobage" episode in particular. Mainly due to the sub-plot of his rescuing the cats from being put into the pound (eventually taking in around 100). When asked by Kyle (a Jew) why the cats are in his attic, he replies with "They're innocent victims in this! They have to hide or they'll be put to death. Something you just can't understand." By the end, we have this exchange between Cartman and Kyle - Cartman:"But ya know, we've all learned something, you guys. We can never persecute living beings and force them into hiding. It's wrong." Kyle:"And you don't see any parallel between that and anything else in history?" Cartman:"Hmmm, nope. I have no idea what you're talking about Kyle." Although, since it IS Cartman, this could just be him being a Jerk Ass.
- Complete Monster - Cartman sometimes shows traits of this, especially in the episode "Scott Tenorman Must Die", when the extent of his revenge is revealed at the chili con carne competition: Mr. and Mrs. Tenorman are the chili and Scott is humilated when Radiohead, his favorite band, taunt him for crying. Trey and Matt state that this was the point where Cartman went from being "Archie Bunker if he was an eight year old" to being a complete psychopath.
- Conservation Of Competence
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Mickey Mouse.
- And, to tease Disney and mock it's legalistic ways that result in lawsuits, Mickey mouse turns into a giant monster that breathes fire all over South Park. So Yeah...
- Other Corrupt Corporate Executives included several Native Americans owning a large casino who threatened to tear down South Park to make way for a highway, and the CEO of Wal-Mart in another episode.
- Chef-Aid. "I am above the law!"
- Country Matters: The only swear word they refuse to touch is that one.
- Except for a few times they sneak it in.
- Presumably that is referring to when Stan tried to get Wendy back by having Jimmy tell her she was a "continuing source of inspiration" to him and his stutter made it sound like... that.
- Courtroom Antic - Spoofed in "Chef Aid".
- Crack Pairing - Subverted since many of them are actually canon. For an example: Ike and Ms. Stephenson
- There are really popular crack pairings in fandom, like Craig/Tweek, which is the most popular couple, after Stan/Kyle and Cartman/Kyle.
- Other fairly popular pairings are Damien/Pip, Cristophe/Gregory and Kenny/Butters.
- Crapsack World
- Critical Research Failure - The episode "Canada On Strike" basically said the recent WGA strike was pointless, since asking for money from the internet wouldn't bear fruit for years. What that ignores that the WGA can't just go for that money once it bears fruit. Their contracts are made for a set time. They can only renegotiate when a current one runs out.
- Also, they weren't striking due to not making money off the internet. They were striking because they weren't getting paid for their scripts because it would be on the internet.
- The episode about hate crimes comes to mind as well. Assaulting a black person is not a hate crime in an of itself; it has everything to do with the motivation behind the attack.
- "The Ungroundable", the episode parodying the whole Twilight craze, also deserves a mention. Though there are people who act like that, it's highly unlikely that the books influenced them, as most hardcore vampire fans think they're a joke. It would have been more reasonable to parody all of the fangirls fawning over Edward and trying to bag a vampire boyfriend of their own.
- When the "vampire" kids are first seen, they're gushing about
Mary Sue Bella, and how they need to buy more body glitter to create the illusion of "sparkling." It was most certainly a Take That at the idiots who follow Twilight.
- Crosses The Line Twice
- Crowning Moment Of Awesome - Robin Williams performing "Blame Canada!" at the Oscars with every Canadian stereotype known to man running around behind him: Lumberjack, hockey player, mountie, etc.
- Crowning Music Of Awesome - Chocolate Salty Balls. Say everybody, have you seen my balls? They're big and salty and brown!
- Cut The Juice - In the 24 parody episode.
- A Day In The Limelight - Jimmy in "Erection Day", the Goth Kids in "The Ungroundable", Wendy in "Stupid Spoiler Whore Video Playset", and many others.
- Deadline News - In "Night of the Living Homeless".
- Deadpan Snarker - Stan and Craig. Especially Craig.
Craig: This is fun. Let's walk for miles through a spooky jungle. It just keeps getting better and better.
- Dead Baby Comedy
- Defictionalization - "Cheesy Poofs" were sold in stores for a time; they were just repackaged Cheetos.
- Defied Trope - In the smoking episode, Kyle attempts to avoid Cannot Spit It Out, only to get Cassandra Truth.
- Deconstruction - In "Kenny Dies," they took their Overused Running Gag of Kenny dying and played it absolutely straight.
- Demoted To Extra: Most of the characters from the first few seasons, particularly Mr. Barbrady and Dr. Mephisto, who were major characters in many episodes, and often had whole shows featuring them (both later vanished, and South Park even got a real police force). The Mayor appeared far less as time went on, and even Chef was showing up less and less (after being more or less the fourth most important character on the show) before he was killed off. Most of the one-off characters, too.
- The Devil Is A Loser: Originally a headstrong rebel and pretty badass his first appearance, his later appearances he's a whiny little bitch. God calls him out on this.
- Did Not Do The Research - In the episode 'Pinewood Derby' the Australian Prime Minister is shown to be John Howard. While John Howard was our Prime Minister for quite a while, our current PM is Kevin Rudd. It was still nice to be included anyway.
- Think of it this way: you could have been Finland.
- Discriminate And Switch
- Disney Creatures Of The Farce: The Woodland Critters
- Disproportionate Retribution - The ending to the "Scott Tenorman must Die" episode.
- The Ditz - Butters
- Do They Know Its Christmas Time
- Double Standard - Spoofed quite a few times.
- Downer Ending - "Stanley's Cup." Some liked it, but some thought it was a Wall Banger because you could see it coming from a mile away given the nature of South Park.
- The Drag Along - The characters generally take turns with this. Craig spends two whole episodes lampshading this. But after years of improbable adventures it was about time somebody called them on it.
- Dropped A Bridge On Her - Halfway through the "Professor Chaos"/"Simpsons Already Did It" two-parter, Ms. Choksondik dies off-screen, with the cause of death never revealed.
- Dying Like Animals - The people of South Park are really prone to mass stupid behavior, regardless of age or gender.
- One of them even dies simply because he thought global warming was chasing him and he lagged behind too much.
- Then he checks to make sure.
- Eek A Mouse - Parodied in one episode.
- Embarrassing Slide - "Cartman Sucks". Literally.
- Ensemble Darkhorse - Everyone knows it's Butters! The character was promoted to a major role (after being seen in group shots as a generic student for years) because Matt and Trey found his kindness and innocence heartwarming. Also, they needed a character to fill the absence of Kenny for season 6, and they wanted to write up scenarios where his father keeps grounding him for ridiculous reasons.
- Even Evil Has Standards - Cartman, for all his atrocities, draws the line at shooting people in the dick.
- Everythings Better With Otters - "Go God Go".
- Evil Twin - Spoofed in "Spookyfish".
- Excellent Adventure
- Extreme Doormat - Cartman's mom.
- The Faceless - Kenny, though his face has been seen at least five times: In The Movie, Super Best Friends, Good Times With Weapons, The Losing Edge, and Major Boobage. This, is of course combined with You All Look Familiar: If you know he has blonde hair, there's no mystery.
- Fire And Brimstone Hell - Played straight sometimes, but more often subverted. Sure, there's plenty of flame, but as often as not it seems to be a pleasant and fun place, and just about everyone winds up there regardless of their goodness or badness.
- Flaming Cobra Sugar Cellar - With all the terrible things Cartman has done, the one thing that got the other kids to give him the silent treatment was his eating the skin off the KFC.
- Fluffy Cloud Heaven is only limited to Mormons. It's extremely dull as a result.
- Foe Yay - Involving Cartman/Kyle, Cartman/Butters, Cartman/Wendy and Craig/Tweek.
- For Inconvenience Press One - In the middle of a Zombie Apocalypse.
- From The Mouths Of Babes - The kids are usually a lot more worldly than one would expect from their age, but other times they are quite innocent.
- Fully Automatic Clip Show: When Cartman is not invited to Kyle's birthday party, the latter mentions the times Cartman teased him for being Jewish.
- Funny Aneurysm Moment - Isaac Hayes' death on August 2008 makes his character Chef's hilariously over the top dropped bridge extremely disconcerting.
- Saddam Hussein's execution since The Movie (1999) makes the climax of the movie feel very different.
- Fur And Loathing - Spoofed to hell. Don't throw paint on a gangsta rapper's clothes.
- Genius Ditz - Randy Marsh is a brilliant scientist, but otherwise a complete idiot.
- Getting Crap Past The Radar - According to an interview featured in This Film Is Not Yet Rated, The Movie's subtitle was supposed to be "All Hell Breaks Loose", but the use of the word "hell" was resisted. By the time that resistance figured out what else "Bigger, Longer and Uncut" can refer too, the authors could get away with saying they'd already ordered the posters and it'd cost too much to make new ones with a different title.
- Kenny's dialogue is not nonsensical mumbling, but just Stone speaking into his sleeve. If you're able to decipher it Kenny easily has the most raunchy dialogue.
- Good Angel Bad Angel - Spoofed in "Ike's Wee-Wee".
- Good Girls Avoid Abortion - During the Stand And Deliver episode, one of the students is pregnant but refuses to have an abortion. Cartman convinces her otherwise (since it's "cheating").
- Good News Bad News
- Good Ol Boy - Many locals, particularly the "I'm A Little Bit Country" guy.
- Gratuitous English - Spoofed in "Good Times With Weapons".
- The Grays - The aliens in the first episode who put satellites in people's butts are this. This later turns out to be a plot point in a later episode they re-appear in. They are also seen in the background in nearly every episode.
- When the series started, that part of Colorado ranked very high in UFO-related claims. Trey Parker claimed to have been abducted and probed in his first Tonight Show interview.
- Green Aesop - Sometimes spoofed, but more often subverted in that the Aesops are anti-environmentalist.
- To be fair the whaling episode actually seemed pretty pro whale conservationist. The only thing they actually criticize is Whale Wars for being boring and uninteresting.
- Gullible Guy Goes Gay
- Hard Work Montage
- Harmless Villain - Butters' "Professor Chaos" alter-ego.
- Heavy Voice - In the second episode, when Cartman gains a lot of weight, his voice gets deeper (and thicker). The same happens to all the boys in "Make Love, Not Warcraft."
- Hermaphrodite - Liane Cartman.
- Heroic Sociopath - Played straight at first, then subverted when Cartman becomes an actual sociopath. See: Scott Tenorman Must Die.
- Hes Just Hiding - Kenny, apparently, at the end of the sixth season.
- Heterosexual Life Partners - Stan and Kyle
- He Who Fights Monsters - although it's never explicitly shown or mentioned in the show, this trope has been very gradually wearing away at Kyle since the beginning of the series, owing to Cartman's constant verbal, emotional, and psychological abuse. As of now, Kyle has only reached Determinator status, but his obsession breaks through rather...darkly on occasion (ex: Ginger Kids). Of course, Your Mileage May Vary.
- Hidden Depths: Lots of characters but Ike in particular. He is a conservative, intellectual, jewel thief, pirate, adopted, Canadian/American, Jew in Kindergarten.
- High Octane Nightmare Fuel: A good number of things that Cartman has done surely counts. "Scott Tenorman Must Die", anyone? That episode is a combination of Nightmare Fuel and many consider it to be Cartman's number one Crowning Moment Of Awesome.
- Hiss Before Fleeing
- Hollywood Atlas: Mocked. The city of South Park is a send-up of the cliches and stereotypes about "flyover country."
- Hollywood Sex: Subverted spectacularly when Mr. Mackey and Ms. Choksondik fall for each other.
- Ho Yay - Mostly involving Cartman and Kyle, either together or with Butters and Stan respectively.
- Hugh Mann - "Bill Cosby" in the episode Trapper Keeper.
- I Am Big Boned - Cartman
- Instant Awesome Just Add Mecha - Mecha Streisand.
- It Is Always Spring - It is almost always winter in this show, even during times of the year when it shouldn't be. A rare exception is in "Summer Sucks", where humor comes from how quickly everyone gets bored with the lack of snow.
- Its Always Sunny In Miami - It is almost always snowing in this show.
- Its Been Done - "The Simpsons Already Did It"
- Jerkass - Cartman is one of television's most infamous examples.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Cartman has his days where he can be this
- Jesus Was Way Cool - Jesus is just a friendly guy living in suburbia and hosting his public access TV show.
- Until he went and sacrificed himself... to save Santa Claus from kidnappers in Iraq on Christmas Day, thus forever marking Christmas as a day to remember Jesus... for saving Santa Claus in Iraq.
- He came back on Easter Monday, to help put down the extensive corruption in the Catholic Church (with the help of its friendly, but somewhat impotent, pope)
- Jurisdiction Friction - Mocked. In "Lil' Crime Stoppers" the boys are playing city cops, and the kids playing FBI keep showing up to take their cases away.
- Just The Introduction To The Opposites
- Karma Houdini: Cartman does this a lot, usually when he crosses the Moral Event Horizon. Examples include Scott Tenorman, the "Ginger Kids" episode, trying to kill his own mother, infecting Kyle with HIV, and the hospital incident.
- Killer Rabbit: During the "Pandemic" two-parter, the world rounds up Peruvian flute bands to avoid their music...only to discover they were keeping giant killer live-action guinea pigs in cute costumes away. Also the Woodland Critters.
- One Winged Angel: The leader of the guniea pigs turns out to be the Director of Homeland Secruity, whose true form is...a Guinea Pirate. What would happen if he he met a Guinea Ninja is not discussed.
- Kids Are Cruel - Pretty much a series premise.
- Knight Templar - Rob Reiner is portrayed as an arrogant wealthy liberal who eats vast and unhealthy amounts of junk food, yet still harrasses people who smoke in "Butt Out". The tobacco company he attacks is shown to have a nice exectutive and happy workers, and in contrast, Rob Reiner is a terrorist with creepy followers who tried to kill Cartman.
- Kung Fu Jesus - In "Red Sleigh Down"
- Lampshade Hanging
- The famous "They killed Kenny!" exchange was played with more than once during the show, before it fell into disuse when Kenny stopped dying.
- The boys become Genre Savvy enough to avoid the entire plot of one episode. "Just keep walking."
- An episode that was about Jimmy and Timmy trying to start a group for natural born cripples called the "Crips", including having t-shirts made and venturing down into Denver to meet other "Crips" they think are members of their group, out of anger for the praise Christopher Reeve drew from the town. I'm gonna say the boys made a good decision.
- At one point, Kyle realizes that these plots always end up with two big crowds facing off at the end, and tries to avert it.
- Craig in the two-part "Pandemic", lampshades how everyone else in town has started to notice how the four main characters keep getting into trouble.
- In "Butt Out", Kyle points out that before Rob Reiner attacks the tobbaco company, they could simply tell the adults they smoked out of their own free will and simply get grounded for three weeks instead of having to preach to an entire town that's about to attack them. It doesn't work out.
- Leatherman - Mr. Slave.
- Limited Wardrobe
- Literal Ass Kissing — Randy Marsh apologizing to Jesse Jackson.
- Liz Lemon Job - Stan, for all the adults, especially his dad. Kyle as well on occasion, as long as it has something to do with Cartman
- Machinima
- Mc Leaned - "The Return of Chef," where Chef gets quite possibly the biggest bridge dropped on any character ever.
- Almost all one-episode characters who die have this happen to them. Hell, almost every death period is this. Most of the time, characters die and it will never be mentioned again.
- Also arguably an instance of Real Life Writes The Plot.
- Medium Blending - The World of Warcraft episode.
- Memetic Badass - "What Would Brian Boitano Do?" from The Movie.
- Midlife Crisis Car - Stan's dad gets one.
- Mirror Universe
- Moral Event Horizon - Most people label "Scott Tenorman Must Die" as either Cartman's Crowning Moment Of Awesome or securing himself as a Complete Monster. Sometimes both. Cartman pretty much lives on the far side of it these days.
- Musical Episode - Several, including the movie.
- My Name Is Not Durwood - One of the teenage skiers in the "Asspen" episode kept referring to Stan Marsh as "Stan Darsh". Even his friends eventually found it annoying.
- One of the rare occasion where the german dub is better - it's Stan Arsch
- His grampa also always calls him "Billy".
- "My name's not Kenny!" "C'mon, Not Kenny" "C'mon, Not Not Kenny" etc
- Narrator
- Negative Continuity - Kenny's frequent deaths in the early seasons, and the town of South Park's penchant for being destroyed.
- Nixon Mask - The Chickenlover
- No Celebrities Were Harmed - Averted. Celebrities are parodied, mercilessly, by name and without warning.
- No Sell - Professor Chaos is strong enough to fight off four ninjas! But he is vulnerable to a ninja star to the eye...
- Non Human Sidekick - Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo. Towelie.
- Mr. Hat. Mr. Stick.
- Jennifer Lopez (no, not that one). Oh, God, I need the Brain Bleach...
- K-10.
- No Respect Guy - Stan and Kyle.
- Not Good With People - In the early episodes, Craig gave the finger to every single person. Damien had an aversion to people, too. But that was because of their families.
- Not Making This Up Disclaimer - their version of the story of Xenu was captioned "THIS IS WHAT SCIENTOLOGISTS ACTUALLY BELIEVE" because people would think they were taking the piss (as the show isn't averse to doing) otherwise.
- Obfuscating Stupidity - Ike of all people if you skipped a few seasons. It is most obvious in "About Last Night...", but by Fat Beard it has either become canon or Only Sane Man territory with nobody noticing.
- Once An Episode - Turns into an Overused Running Gag.
- Only Sane Man - Poor Stan.
- When he was around, Chef was usually one of the very few adults with any kind of common sense.
- Only Six Faces - The kids are defined almost entirely by their wardrobe, while the adults are only marginally more varied. In one episode, when the cast ends up in the same outfits and shaved heads, Stan and Kyle lose track of which of them is which and have to put on their hats to figure it out.
- This trope is important in the episode "The Coon". Though Mysterion reveals his face at the end, the face cannot be identified. The characters appear to know who the unmasked hero is, but the viewers do not. Cartman mentions that he guessed Mysterion's identity, but he guessed several different secret identities for Mysterion in an earlier scene, and the viewer is not told which guess was correct.
- Out Of Focus - Kenny, and indeed most of the original supporting characters.
- Pals With Jesus - His show isn't named Jesus and Pals for nothing, you know.
- Paper Thin Disguise - Used effectively quite a few times.
- Possibly the best is Towelie using a hat and moustache to pass off for human. No one notices this until Oprah's "minge" conspires to expose him.
- Parallel Porn Titles - Inverted, as they copied the title "Bigger, Longer, and Uncut" from John Bobbit's (Yes, THAT one's) porn movie.
- Perpetual Poverty - Kenny's family.
- Pet the Dog - Cartman is a really bad person, but he goes to extremes to protect the cats in the neighbor hood in one epsiode.
- Physical God - Apparently, Mickey Mouse is a powerful godlike entity limited only by his need to slumber in Valhalla after his destructive, fire-breathing rampages. Who knew?
- The Pig Pen - Dogpoo, a minor character.
- Ping Pong Naivete - Very. They swear like sailors, but they don't know that you don't have to wear a condom if you don't have sex.
- In one episode, Jimmy remarks that he and his girlfriend took ecstasy and stayed up all night having sex. In a later episode, he gets his first erection and doesn't have a clue what he's supposed to do with it.
- Planet Of Steves - Marklar, home of the Marklar. The episode was also a parody of Smurfing.
- Poor Communication Kills and all its subtropes - Very commonly used.
- Pretend Prejudice
- Properly Paranoid: Tweek. But that's only because he's addicted to coffee.
- Raging Stiffie: Jimmy had that for practically all of Erection Day. It got even worse in his dream, where his boner just kept growing. Not surprisingly, the audience chortled at it.
- Red Headed Hero - Kyle
- Red Headed Stepchild - the episode "Ginger"
- Red Oni Blue Oni - At first, Stan and Kyle had pretty similar personalities, but later on, as the series progressed, they were differenced. Stan was deadpan, impassive, more introvert and sensible, while Kyle was impulsive, outward-looking, sociable and rash, especially when he wanted to stop Cartman.
- This is available for Craig(Blue) and Tweek(Red), too.
- Refuge In Audacity - As a prime example, the episode "It Hits the Fan". Matt and Trey couldn't get the network to agree on letting them say "shit" uncensored normally (back then anyway, they say it on occasion now). However, when Trey said, "What if we said it like...200 times in a single episode?", the network exec in charge of censorship responded, "That's... an interesting idea."
- Refuge In Vulgarity - See Above.
- Refusal Of The Call- Craig in "Pandemic". Repeatedly. Emphatically.
- Rodents Of Unusual Size - Giant carnivorous guinea pigs. No, I'm not kidding.
- Rule Of Funny: This show is probably the ultimate litmus test for it. If they can't make it funny, no one can.
- Running Gag: Other than the obvious ones, such as Kenny dying, there are other, smaller ones such as Cartman's almost unvarying goal to get "ten million dollars". It's never explained why he wants exactly ten million dollars, and the closest they get to it is when another character reveals their own plan to get ten million dollars, they say "that's how scams work."
- In "Cartmanland", it is revealed Cartman always wanted one million dollars to buy a theme park. Why he wants the other nine is never shown.
- Satan: Portrayed as half of a homosexual pairing with Saddam Hussein. The submissive half.
- The Scottish Trope
- Sensitivity Training
- Self Serving Memory - In 'Fishsticks' Cartman repeatedly recalls to the origin of the fishsticks joke, each time getting more and more fantastical.
- Serious Business - Parodied on several occasions ("Stanley's Cup", "You Got F'd in the A", "Make Love, Not Warcraft", "Guitar Queer-O", among others). Randy Marsh usually gets involved in a big way.
- One of the show's most common themes is the way adults live their lives through children, while children often have minds of their own. This results in two common formulas:
- Adults project Serious Business onto their kids: slot car racing, Little League baseball, the evils of Big Corporations, etc.
- Children assert their own Serious Business: the Okama Gamesphere
- Shallow Parody - Deconstructed in "Cartoon Wars".
- Shell Shocked Senior - "The Mole" in The Movie, despite being the same age as the boys.
- Shoot The Shaggy Dog - ""Stanley's Cup" and "Woodland Critter Christmas".
- Show Within A Show - Terrence and Phillip, Jesus & Pals, among others.
- Side Bet
- The Simpsons Did It - Former Trope Namer.
- Smoking Is Glamorous - Actually, not smoking is stupid and dorky, based on an assembly hall presentation.
- Snap Back - Kenny's deaths, destruction of the town.
- Solid Gold Poop - The alien that takes the form of a taco? Poops ice cream.
- Something Completely Different - Many, many times, including "Butters' Very Own Episode", devoted to side character Butters Stotch; several musical episodes; "It Hits The Fan", which set out to break the world record for the number of inclusions of the word "shit"; "Good Times With Weapons", an Affectionate Parody of Shonen fighting anime that spent half its running time as anime; "Pip", which was devoted entirely to spoofing the Charles Dickens story Great Expectations, etc. One of the most notable is probably the feature film, which is both deliberately cruder than the TV series (it has an anti-censorship theme), and a full-fledged musical.
- First seen in "Not Without My Anus", which was a complete Terrance and Phillip half-hour TV special. It might have been more popular if it hadn't aired on the night when viewers were expecting to see the second part of a Cliff Hanger.
- Son Of A Whore - Cartman. In the first season finale, he learned that his mom had slept with the entire named adult population of South Park.
- Sound Effect Bleep - Used very, very often over the course of the series, but also subverted during the "It Hits the Fan" episode. Jimbo complains about not being able to say the word "fag" without getting bleeped, while the gay Mr. Garrison could say it with impunity). When Jimbo says the word and doesn't get bleeped, Garrison teases him about it.
- Spell My Name With An S: Kyle's surname is usually Broflovski, but it has appeared as Brovlofski, Broflofski and Broflowski.
- Stock Sound Effects - South Park just loves using these more than most of the shows.
- Suck E Cheeses - In "The Losing Edge" and "Casa Bonita".
- Casa Bonita actually exists, and it is, if anything, even more ridiculous in person.
- Casa Bonita's wild appeal to that age group cannot be understated; as this troper, who visited it around the same age of The South Park Boys, can readily confirm.
- Oh man, Casa Bonita. When all my fellow Colorado-native friends and I watched that episode, we couldn't stop laughing at how accurate they got it. Worst food ever, but they do have Black Bart's Cave.
- Raisins = Hooters for eight-year-olds.
- Sugar Apocalypse - The "Imaginationland" episodes.
- The Stoic - Craig is like this, most of the time, especially when he flips people off.
- Strawman Political - Sometimes Lampshaded, sometimes played straight.
- Take That - Almost every episode. One of the most elaborate ones they did was a slam against Family Guy and the "manatee gags" they always do. In the same two episodes, with just as much importance to the plot, they made fun against the overreaction to a cartoon with Mohammad.
- Hell, in that very episode, they provide a Take That against themselves, as Kyle, the head of the CBC, and a passerby all express the idea that they like Family Guy because it's easy to watch, makes them laugh and doesn't get "preachy and up it's own ass with messages".
- The fishsticks (aka fishdicks or gayfish) episode was run repeatedly back-to-back on Comedy Central the wednesday after Kanye's outburst at the VMAs.
- Talking To Themselves - Played straight at first and then Lampshaded pretty hard. Parker and Stone voice almost every character and even they admit they don't have much of a range.
- In the DVD commentary, they point out one episode where they're playing two nondescript extra characters who actually switch voices in mid-scene. It probably happened more than just the once.
- There Is A God: When Cartman lost his dream, it restored Kyle's faith.
- This Is For Emphasis, Bitch!: The Pal, Buddy, Friend exchange.
- Thousand Year Reign
- Time Passes Montage - Parodied in "Cartman's Incredible Gift"
- Token Minority - Conveniently named Token Black (although played with in that he's both the token black kid and the token rich kid).
- In "Here Comes The Neighborhood", Randy called them the Williamses. Possibly because the creators thought any viewers who didn't know Black was their last name might interpret "Isn't that the Blacks?" as Randy being racist.
- Too Hot For TV - Not just all the swearing, but parodied with a "Jesus & Pals" version.
- Too Soon - Revels in this trope.
- Took A Level In Badass - Ike goes from "Don't kick the baby!" in season 1 as a cheap joke to being a part of a plan to steal the Hope Diamond by Barack Obama and John Mc Cain. This is before he runs off to be a pirate having grown bored with middle class life.
- Tourettes Shitcock Syndrome - Played straight and subverted in the same episode.
- Toy Ship - Many, most canonically Stan and Wendy.
- Trope2000 - The first four episodes of Season 4 have "2000" in the title.
- Tunnel King - The Mole from South Park: Bigger, Longer And Uncut
- Uncle Herbie
- Undead Child
- Understatement - At the send of "Scott Tenorman Must Die":
Kyle: Dude, I think it might be best for us to never piss Cartman off again.
- The Unintelligible - Kenny.
- The Un Reveal
- Unstoppable Rage
- Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist - Several characters are this, though Cartman rises above the rest.
- Vagina Dentata - "The Gelgamek vagina is three feet wide and filled with razor sharp teeth! Do you really expect us to have sex with them?"
- Verbal Tic - Mr. Mackey, the school counselor, puts "mmkay" at the end of a lot of his sentences.
- Also Mickey Mouse in the episode "The Ring" usually ends his sentences with a "Hah-hah!"
- The head vampire (and Butters) in the episode "Ungroundable" ends his sentences with "per se" a lot.
- Victory Gloating - Cartman is just one of the characters prone to this.
- We Are Still Relevant Dammit - Most cartoons take too long to make to be truly topical, while this show takes days, making it a major aversion to this trope.
- Weaponized Landmark - Abe Lincoln vs. John Wilkes Booth statues.
- Weirdness Magnet
- What The Hell Hero - Said to Butters for accidentally shooting guys in their dicks.
- White Dude Black Dude - Cartman needs to form a band, he gets Token to play bass. Because he's black. When Token protests that he doesn't own one, Cartman tells him to look in the basement. Sure enough, there's one there. When Token further protests that he's never picked up a bass in his life, Cartman tells him that he's black. Sure enough, he can.
- Wiki Walk - In the episode "Cartman Gets an Anal Probe"
- With Friends Like These
- The Woobie - Butters. Stan also sometimes wanders into this territory being the Only Sane Man and other reasons.
- Wouldnt Hit A Girl - Often played straight, but sometimes averted ("Up the Down Steroid" and "Wing").
- Wouldnt Hurt A Child: Subverted in the case of Kenny and Butters quite often, and subverted to a lesser degree with Ike.
- Writer On Board - Cartman's mom, Liane, was named after Trey Parker's ex-fiance when he found out she cheated on him. So on the show we get a promiscuous hermaphrodite who has banged nearly every man in town along with at least one woman who is a terrible mother and an idiot to boot. There's Trey Parker upset, and then there's Trey Parker vindictive.
- Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe - Justified in that Randys an idiot.
- Zero Wingrish - Let's Fighting Love
- And, the writers speak Japanese. Translated, there are some jokes in there.
- Zombie Apocalypse - Played straight and parodied. In two different episodes.
- And pretty much every other trope in the book.
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