History SouthPark / TropesAToD

** The "Secret Society of Cynics" in "Ass Burgers". Since their name never appears in written form (excluding UsefulNotes/ClosedCaptioning), it's possible to [[SpellMyNameWithAnS spell "Cynics" with an "S"]].

** Kenny's lines in the show were originally described as muffled speech, but in later seasons, the UsefulNotes/ClosedCaptioning actually indicates what Kenny is saying, whether viewers can make it out on their own or not. Kenny's lines in the opening theme are still unspecified, though, but enough people have deduced it to lay out some [[https://southpark.fandom.com/wiki/South_Park_Theme#Kenny_McCormick.27s_Lines official translations]].

** Ike Broflovski gets into kindergarten a year early because he is a child prodigy in "Trapper Keeper", and goes on to seduce an older woman in "Miss Teacher Bangs a Boy", participate in a successful diamond heist in "About Last Night", and slay a monster and save a princess in "Royal Pudding". Yet in "#Rehash" we see that his preferred pastime is watching [=PewDiePie=] and eating Cheetos.

* ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve: Spoofed. In "Happy Holograms", when "[=CartmanBrah=]" is trending so much he might take over the world, Ike and the other little kids beg us to trend "I Believe In Him", to summon the one who can save us all - LetsPlay/PewDiePie.

* {{Cloudcuckooland}}: {{Canada|Eh}}. The entire country is obsessed with farts, all vehicles have square wheels, and traditional weddings involve a giant bowl of butterscotch pudding, the guests tossing Captain Crunch, and the groom shoving the bride's severed arm up his anus. Watch out for Scott!

* CanadaEh: Canadians are usually portrayed as having floppy VideoGame/PacMan-esque heads and black beady eyes.
** All Canadian anatomy and technology is shown to be rather, uh, odd. Terrance and Phillip seem to have square testicles--yes we've [[VulgarHumor seen them]] on screen. Canadian automobiles are shown to have square wheels.
** Averted with some actual Canadian celebrities who have been caricatured on the show, including Music/AlanisMorissette, Music/JustinBieber, Music/SarahMcLachlan, and professional wrestler Wrestling/{{Edge|Wrestler}}. They are portrayed in the "normal" style despite being Canadian.
** Inverted with UsefulNotes/SaddamHussein, who has the top of his head flap up whenever he talks as Canadians do, but he is Iraqi.
** In "Canada on Strike," the Danish, who are in-episode portrayed as being Europe's equivalent to North America's Canadians, have craniums that flap up like the Canadians do, but their eyes are of the "normal" style.

** UsefulNotes/SegaDreamcast is changed to UsefulNotes/PlayStation in the Polish translation simply because no one there knew what a Dreamcast was.

* [[Aesop/SouthPark An Aesop]]

* ArtisticLicenseEducation: Most of the staff at South Park Elementary are extremely incompetent at their jobs. The closest thing the school had to a competent, responsible adult was Chef, a womanizing {{Casanova}} whose advice often caused misunderstandings, but he was eventually KilledOffForReal. Things only get worse when Principal Victoria is replaced by [[PoliticalOvercorrectness PC Principal]], who yells at his students and is willing to ''[[WouldHurtAChild assault them]]'' just for using microaggressions.

* {{Catchphrase}}:
** Stan and Kyle's "Oh my God, they killed Kenny!" "You bastards!" exchange. This gets [[PlayingWithTropes toyed with]] in later seasons that still used the RunningGag; 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".
** Cartman's "[[ScrewThisImOuttaHere Screw you guys, I'm going home]]!", "Respect mah authoritah!", threatening to kick someone "Squa' in the nuts/balls", and "Goddamn it!" with [[CharacterTic cocking head and squinted eyes]]. He also has "But mo-o-o-o-om..." when trying to get what he wants from his mother. When he negotiates with someone, he'll respond to an offer he dislikes with "Aw man, you're breaking my balls."
** Cartman says "Seriously" so much that he says it even when he should just say "serious," like "I'm seriously, you guys!"
** The classic Butters catchphrase: "Oh, hamburgers!" When he gets excited, he often shouts "Fellas! FELLAS!"
** Stan has "Goddammit!", "Oh, ohhhhhh!", and in the earlier seasons, a simple "Dude", or "This is pretty fucked up right here!"
** Everyone from New Jersey: "It's a Jersey thing!"
** More of a Catch Conversation, but in the early seasons, Chef would often have this exchange with the boys:
--->'''Chef:''' Hello there, children!\\
'''Boys:''' [in unison] Hey, Chef.\\
'''Chef:''' How's it goin'?\\
'''Boys:''' [one or all] Bad.\\
'''Chef:''' Why bad?
** Chef says "Children" so often that he says it even when he's speaking to or about one child.
** Mr. Slave says, "Jesus Christ!" with a stereotypical gay lisp.
** Mr. Mackey says, "Mmmkay?" to the point that it's the subject of a song in TheMovie.
** Caitlin Jenner says "Buckle up, Buckaroo!" before driving... and inevitably killing someone with the car.
** Randy develops one in season 23, usually in response to someone calling out his weed farming practices: "Heh, hey...fuck you!"

* DangerousInterrogative: A running gag prior to Ms. Crabtree's death is someone insulting Ms. Crabtree. She yells out her {{Catchphrase}}, "WHAT DID YOU SAY?!", only to [[MoodSwinger calm down immediately]] after they [[LameRhymeDodge say they said something that rhymed]].

** Throughout the pilot, [[RunningGag Eric keeps calling everyone he comes into a contact with "a dildo"]]. During the beginning of the second act of the same episode, Eric yells for his mother, telling her that "Kitty's being a dildo!" Eric's mother delightfully responds with: "Well, I know a certain kitty-''kitty'' who's sleeping with mommy tonight!"

* BecomingTheMask: In "Butters' Bottom Bitch", Officer Yates assigns an undercover agent for a series of prostitution busts: himself. During the operations, he makes his arrests ''after'' [[spoiler:performing the sex act]], each one becoming [[SerialEscalation more and more elaborate]], to the point of [[spoiler:gangbanging a college fraternity]]. He even [[spoiler:marries the BigBad pimp]] at the end of the episode, [[spoiler:[[HappilyMarried living with him in a Swiss chateau]] before finally deciding to place him under arrest on their anniversary]].

* AssociationFallacy: The show frequently indicates that a viewpoint or cause is wrong by having Cartman argue in favor of it.

** If there is an episode where the preview involves anything that will get a large portion of the fanbase going "Ha ha, they're making fun of X" the actual episode will likely portray X in a much more endearing manner, while those that see it as a cheap, {{acceptable target|s}} will be the ones on the receiving end of a TakeThat. These episodes typically center around [[ThisLoserIsYou Cartman]]. A notable example is "Poor and Stupid", with regard to UsefulNotes/{{NASCAR}} and its fan base.

** Craig was originally created with the RunningGag that he constantly flipped people off. Later he was positioned as the leader of a group that rivaled the main boys, but that was only used in a few episodes. The "Pandemic" two-parter [[ADayInTheLimelight put him center-stage]] and gave him [[DeadpanSnarker sarcastic]], GenreSavvy personality, which proved immediately popular and has remained ever since.

** [[WackyParentSeriousChild St]][[KnightInSourArmor an]] and Craig. ''Especially'' Craig.

* DoesNotLikeShoes:
** The Bulter of the Super Adventure Club is always seen barefoot.
** Kyle's character in ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft''.
** Mr. Service does not use pants, and goes barefoot anywhere.

** Most other birthday episodes, like "You're Getting Old" and "A Boy and a Priest," avert this by naming the kid's age (it's said that Stan turns 10 and Clyde turns 8, respectively), despite the show's ComicBookTime.

*** He seems to hold a revulsion for perfectly heteronormative sex, and he seems to have an ''extremely'' [[AnatomicallyImpossibleSex inaccurate idea of what sex with a woman even entails]]. [[labelnote:Curious?]][[ComicallyMissingThePoint "Get a boner, slap her titties around, stick it inside her and pee. If you don't want to get her pregnant you pull it out and pee on her leg."]][[/labelnote]]

*** And yet, in the episode "Stupid Spoiled Whore Playset," when the ladies have an "adult" party, the rest of the boys (being young boys) are scared of the girls' aggressiveness. Cartman is the only that shows up that seems to have ''any'' interest in what the girls are offering. Too bad none of them were interested, nor had he been invited.

** Stan and Kyle were originally Author Avatars for Trey and Matt, respectively (to the point that Stan and Kyle's parents have the same first names and physical appearances as Trey and Matt's real-life parents), but they slowly grew out of it as the show progressed. In one interview, they said something along the lines of "He's supposed to be Stan, and I'm supposed to be Kyle... but really we're both Cartman."

** Kyle went from your average [[PetTheDog occasionally-caring-occasionally-kind]] young boy to a cross between TheParagon and TheConscience (except when it comes to [[ArchEnemy Cartman]]). Much of his initial childish traits, such as in "Are You There God? It's Me, Jesus" seemed to be transferred over to Butters.

** To a lesser extent, Kyle can be this. He has regularly been portrayed as the smartest in the 4th grade class. He has shown to have affinities for existential philosophy, crossbreeding of animals, utilizing Photoshop well enough to fool a foreign government, bringing democracy to Cuba, and single-handedly thwarting a terrorist plot while the government sits idly by - not exactly typical of an eight to ten year old!

* ChurchOfHappyology: "Super Best Friends" features Blainetology, an obvious reference to Scientology that commits a mass suicide to try to achieve tax exempt status. The later episode "Trapped in the Closet", however, famously tackles the religion head on. The episode even ended with them daring Scientology to sue.

** When Stan battles his Facebook profile in a game of Yahtzee.

** Stan and Craig. ''Especially'' Craig.

** In "Stanley's Cup", Stan leads his Pee Wee hockey team against the Detroit Red Wings, firing them up as a battle against all odds to cheer up a cancer-stricken friend. The team goes out on the ice... and gets completely crushed with an end score of 32-2, because little kids have no chance against professional adult athletes.

* AccidentalVentriloquism: The plot of the episode [[Recap/SouthParkS4E2CartmansSillyHateCrime2000 "Cartman's Silly Hate Crime 2000"]] kicks off when Cartman threatens to hit Token with a rock if he calls him a fatass one more time. He turns around, Kyle calls him "fatass", then he throws the rock at Token, believing him to have said it.

*** "Cartman in Love" gives us [[spoiler:Cartman telling the new girl, Nicole, that he and Kyle are a gay couple, so that Nicole will be more likely to go out with Token]]. Cartman puts a ton of effort into convincing the town that his lie is true. Averted in just how obsessed and enchanted Cartman is with Nicole and Token- or more specifically, [[NobleBigot blacks belonging with other blacks]].

* AntiHero: All main characters verge on anti-heroism on occasion, though Cartman often verges on VillainProtagonist. Usually, they learn their lesson at the end, however, and often are shown to be morally superior to the adults in town.

* AssShove: Happens to Cartman. A '''lot'''.
** The premiere episode, "Cartman Gets an Anal Probe", culminates with an 80-foot satellite dish emerging from Cartman's ass.

** "Christian Rock Hard" has the four boys create a band called Moop, but they kick out Cartman because he wants to make Christian rock. Cartman forms his own Christian band, Faith +1, with Token and Butters, and competes with Moop to get to a platinum record. Cartman's band becomes much more successful as Moop gets caught up in a music piracy protest, but he gets a myrrh record, not a platinum record, and thus loses the bet on a technicality.

*** Or make fun of him being Jewish, or cross the line with Ike, or call his mom a bitch, or say something stupid within earshot. Kyle is built on this trope.
*** Cartman is quite possibly the ultimate BerserkButton for Kyle.

* BigotWithABadge: Parodied in later seasons, where the South Park Police Department is depicted as disproportionately focused on the town's people of color. For example, in "The Pandemic Special" when Cartman and Kyle get into a fight, the policemen (standing in as teachers) open fire and only shoot Token, the sole black kid in class. The police then try to cover up Token's shooting as related to COVID-19. Ironically, Officer Barbrady is fired in "Naughty Ninjas" for accidentally shooting two Latino children, despite being one of the few cops who isn't a brutal bigot.

** In "1%", an Okama [=GameSphere=] can be seen in Token's room.

** Token in "Here Comes the Neighborhood".

* TheDitz: Butters.

* DoggedNiceGuy: Both Kyle and Token in "Cartman Finds Love".

** It's not okay to show Mohammed even if he's just standing there looking normal, yet it's okay to show Buddha snorting coke and Jesus watching Internet porn.
** After the censorship debacle, Matt and Trey said they'd "come back next week with something completely different and see what'll happen". That "something" was showing a shark raping a mentally handicapped child. ''Uncensored''. '''''Twice.''''' Though Nathan did [[KickTheSonOfABitch sort of deserve it]] given that he was deliberately trying to get this to happen to Jimmy.