History TearJerker / SouthPark

** The worst part is that he wasn't ''really'' voted the ugliest boy. It turned out that Clyde was put at the top of the girls' list so that girls would get to date him for free shoes (as his dad owns the shoe store), despite the fact that nobody thought he was attractive. This moved Kyle to the bottom of the list; if it wasn't for Stan showing up at the last minute, Kyle would've done something that wold have seriously damaged his life for nothing.

** Episode III is easily by far, more action packed compared to its predecessors. But has plenty of sad moments:

** However the Good imaginary characters' victory over the Evil characters is immediately and tragically cut short when Imaginationland (along with the Pentagon officials and generals) gets ''nuked'' into being a white void. Butters is able to save ''everyone'' and bring them all back to life.

[[AC:Imaginationland Episode II]]
* Kyle being pronounced dead after being crushed by Manbearpig, and [[PleaseWakeUp Cartman trying to revive Kyle, shouting at him to live]].

* In general this season has a stinging harshness to it as to why the boys made Butters their fourth friend: they did so just to fill the void Kenny left. They never actually liked him and just saw him as a ReplacementGoldfish for Kenny. This gets the point of having him wear Kenny's old parka and calling him Kenny in "Freak Strike".
** This is made all the worse in "Professor Chaos" where they basically fire Butters as a friend purely because he doesn't click with their group. It shows just how little they really cared about Kenny, let alone anyone around them by turning the fourth slot into a game a la ''Series/TheBachelor''. Something Clyde rightfully calls out:

** This is made all the worse in "Professor Chaos" where they basically fire Butters as a friend purely because he doesn't click with their group. It shows just how little they really cared about Kenny, let alone anyone around them by turning the fourth slot into a game a la "The Bachelorette". Something Clyde rightfully calls out.

* Again mostly PlayedForlaughs throughout the episode's subplot but the fact that Mr Adler has PTSD over his wife's death in a mysterious plane accident to the point he attempts suicide by saw blade in the Shop classroom only to be stopped in the nick of time by the brawl that leads to [[TheyKilledKennyAgain Kenny's accidental death]]. Whilst holding Kenny's body, he sees a vision of his wife and his family members who have passed telling him to let go of the past to which he promises to move on from her death. Some may consider this subplot somewhat HarsherInHindsight due to the fact that lead voice actress Creator/MaryKayBergman committed suicide a few months after this episode aired.

* In general this season has a stinging harshness to it as to why the boys made Butters their fourth friend: they did so just to fill the void Kenny left. They never actually liked him and just saw him as a ReplacementGoldfish for Kenny. This gets the point of having him wear Kenny's old parka and calling him Kenny in "Jared Had Aides".

* [[TheWoobie Butters]] [[TraumaCongaLine REALLY]] gets put through the wringer this episode. First a bit of playtime with the boys ends with Kenny throwing a ninja shuriken [[EyeScream into his EYE]], and we get to hear the poor baby screaming and sobbing in very real, understandable agony. Then, rather than try and help Butters, [[KickTheDog the boys elect to drag him around out of sight and dress him up as a dog]] [[ItsAllAboutMe just to avoid getting into trouble for their actions]]. Butters makes his way to a hospital, delirious from pain and blood loss and pitifully imitating barking to go along with the ploy, but [[AdultsAreUseless the doctors can’t see past his disguise]] and send him to a veterinarian. There the others dogs pee on the poor child and the vet decides he needs to be put to sleep. Thank God he was treated by end of the episode.

* In general this season a stinging harshness as to why the boys made Butters their fourth friend: they did so just to fill the void Kenny left. They never actually liked him and just saw him as a ReplacementGoldfish for Kenny. This gets the point of having him wear Kenny's old parka and calling him Kenny in "Jared Had Aides".

The Minorites in My Waterpark song was supposed to be PlayedForLaughs, but Cartman just sounds so disheartened in it, just listen to it for yourself. https://youtu.be/F6BUZZ3qvZM [[/folder]]

* Linda Stotch is completely hysterical at Butter's apparent death. She's screaming and sobbing over the adorable blue coffin and Stephen has to hold her back. We know he's alive, but she doesn't.

* The episode starts off funny enough, when a "news" segment called "Britney Watch" shows her taking a piss on a ladybug while camping in South Park, with only her face being censored. You can tell Trey and Matt are about to totally rip on her. Then, when the boys get to her hotel room to get an embarrassing picture of her to sell to the news, it shows Music/BritneySpears, completely in tears under severe stress from constantly being harassed and degraded by the press and photographers. When Stan, Kyle, Cartman and Butters (the latter who doesn't want to go through with it) show up, she decides she's had enough, grabs a gun and [[AteHisGun blows her brains out]], '''''right in front of them.''''' She survives, but [[AndIMustScream is unable to see, hear, or smell anything, and can only speak in a weak gurgling noise.]] [[MGodWhatHaveIDone Stan and Kyle are horrified when they see what their actions resulted in]], and, with the help of Britney's manager, try to get her away from the paparazzi, who are ''still'' chasing after her...only for her manager to immediately force her into the recording studio for a singing session, being made fun of by several of the staff. He then forces her to perform onstage, and the audience members make fun of her, too. Finally, Stan and Kyle decide to get her to the North Pole, '''and the paparazzi follow her all the way there.''' They then reveal that their purpose is to [[HumanSacrifice kill her as a sacrifice for a corn harvest,]] and proceed to take photographs of her, until she lies on the ground dead. [[TraumaCongaLine Britney is harassed, humiliated, ridiculed, and her life is completely ruined, and even after the media push her over the edge and force her to go through with killing herself (which ultimately failed), they weren't satisfied until she was finally dead at their feet.]] '''''DAMN.''''' [[MoralEventHorizon The "friendly faces everywhere" from the opening song can officially be taken out]].

* The episode starts off funny enough, when a "news" segment called "Britney Watch" shows her taking a piss on a ladybug while camping in South Park, with only her face being censored. You can tell Trey and Matt are about to totally rip on her. Then, when the boys get to her hotel room to get an embarrassing picture of her to sell to the news, it shows Music/BritneySpears, completely in tears under severe stress from constantly being harassed and degraded by the press and photographers. When Stan, Kyle, Cartman and Butters (the latter who doesn't want to go through with it) show up, she decides she's had enough, grabs a gun and [[AteHisGun blows her brains out]], '''''right in front of them.''''' She survives, but [[AndIMustScream is unable to see, hear, or smell anything, and can only speak in a weak gurgling noise.]] Stan and Kyle are horrified when they see what their actions resulted in, and, with the help of Britney's manager, try to get her away from the paparazzi, who are ''still'' chasing after her...only for her manager to immediately force her into the recording studio for a singing session, being made fun of by several of the staff. He then forces her to perform onstage, and the audience members make fun of her, too. Finally, Stan and Kyle decide to get her to the North Pole, '''and the paparazzi follow her all the way there.''' They then reveal that their purpose is to [[HumanSacrifice kill her as a sacrifice for a corn harvest,]] and proceed to take photographs of her, until she lies on the ground dead. Britney is harassed, humiliated, ridiculed, and her life is completely ruined, and even after the media push her over the edge and force her to go through with [[DrivenToSuicide killing herself]] (which ultimately failed), they weren't satisfied until she was finally dead at their feet. '''''DAMN.''''' [[MoralEventHorizon The "friendly faces everywhere" from the opening song can officially be taken out]].

* The whole damn climax and ending, but particularly "Chef... we love you" and then Kyle's usual CatchPhrase only this time it's so much more. And Cartman's attempt at a HopeSpot makes it even more heartbreaking.

* Bradley's reaction to realizing he may have romantic feelings for Butters. While his panic and Butters's ignorance is mostly PlayedForLaughs, it's heartbreaking for anyone that knows how that kind of homophobic Christian damage feels.

* When Kyle's at the Tourette's building and sees kids who actually DO have Tourettes, one of them, Thomas, gives a very sad story about his dad divorcing his mom simply of his son's illness. Thomas ends the story saying that his mom would probably be better off if he was dead. It makes Cartman's abuse of it all the more infuriating-maybe until you get to the above, but still.

** The worst part is that he wasn't ''really'' voted the ugliest boy. It turned out that Clyde was put at the top of the girl's list so that girls would get to date him for free shoes (as his dad owns the shoe store), despite the fact that nobody thought he was attractive. This moved Kyle to the bottom of the list; if it wasn't for Stan showing up at the last minute, Kyle would've done something that wold have seriously damaged his life for nothing.

* While it might have been PlayedForDrama, Jimmy going through a HeroicBSOD(beating up his girlfriend Nancy and even his mother, and breaking down shortly after) is pretty hard to watch.

* What about when the real version of "Landslide" started playing? Not some usual ''South Park'' parody, but the real freaking song as sung by [[Music/FleetwoodMac Stevie Nicks]]. And seeing Sharon packing up the china. It doesn't hit you that there would be no crap-people, no Satan dressed as Music/BritneySpears, no Creator/TomCruise or government conspiracy to save the day. And that hurt. We have grown up on this show, and to see it come to it's end is painful. That's the TearJerker here. That a show we have grown-up with and and loved will end soon.
* Stone and Parker confirmed that the show ''will'' continue, which makes you wonder what this episode was all about.
* What ''generally'' seems to have happened, among other things, is that Stone and Parker were feeling kind of down from keeping up the frenetic pace of producing 14 episodes per season - actually, split into two micro-seasons per year of 7 episodes each, one in spring and one in fall. They were noticeably cranking out some filler episodes and overall don't seem to have been satisfied with the situation. "You're Getting Old" was the mid Season 15 finale. But then, starting with Season 17, Stone and Parker abandoned this split-season model to make only 10 episodes per season, all aired in fall instead of spread across the year. They explicitly said they wanted to do this to focus on quality over quantity - and seasons since have received ''widespread acclaim'' from critics for their quality and innovation. Starting in Season 18, they even started experimenting with making season long story arcs. The point of this long explanation: don't walk away from the above feeling depressed, things ''were'' pretty shitty by Season 15, but they got better.

* You can't help but cheer for Liane for finally growing a spine and promising to never put up with her son's bullshit again. But after she drags Cartman literally kicking and screaming all the way back to his old bedroom and leaves him bawling his eyes out, she looks down with an almost resigned expression on her face as she closes the door, implying she still cares just enough about him to be sad that he's learned ''absolutely nothing'' from the experience and is likely never going to change.

* You can't help but cheer for Liane for finally growing a spine and promising to never put up with her son's bullshit again. But after she drags Cartman literally kicking and screaming from the hot dog stand and leaves him bawling his eyes out in his bedroom, she looks down with an almost resigned expression on her face as she closes the door, implying she still cares just enough about him to be sad that he's learned ''absolutely nothing'' from the experience.

[[AC:"[[Recap/SouthParkS2E3IkesWeeWee Ike's Wee Wee]]"]]

* Stan telling Wendy that he wished she were dead, after she donated her Halloween candy to starving children in Nairobi, and Stan wanted to trick-or-treat with her.

* Cartman exploiting Butters' goodwill to the point that he effectively steals from him. Butters, who was convinced by Cartman to bankroll the hot dog stand, has worked hard in his job, he comes home and finds his parents are furious with him, demanding to know why he has no money in his bank account, and accusing him of lying about having a job. Butters' reaction when he realises what Cartman did is palpable.
* While Cartman definitely [[LaserGuidedKarma deserves to have his dream taken away from him at the end of the episode]], consider this. By the end of the episode, his mother has NoSympathy for him, Butters has a good reason to hate him, and Cartman's incredibly workshy attitude has shown that him getting a job is not going to end well. Remember Cartman's [[CrazyHomelessPerson terrible fate]] in the [[WesternAnimation/SouthParkPostCovidTheReturnOfCovid future]]? This episode more or less proves that Cartman's fate is now ''[[ForegoneConclusion inevitable]]''.
* Kudos to Liane for finally growing a spine and promising to never put up with Cartman's bullshit again, but after she drags him literally kicking and screaming from the hot dog stand and leaves him bawling his eyes out in his bedroom, she looks down with an almost resigned expression on her face as she closes the door, implying she still cares just enough about her son to be sad that he hasn't learned ''anything'' from the situation.