History YMMV / SouthPark

* JerksAreWorseThanVillains: [[Characters/SouthParkEricCartman Eric Cartman]] is a [[TheSociopath sociopathic]] VillainProtagonist who goes as far as murdering two innocent people and [[FamilialCannibalismSurprise feeding them to their offspring]] after processing their corpses through chili [[DisproportionateRetribution over $16.12]] in "[[Recap/SouthParkS5E4ScottTenormanMustDie Scott Tenorman Must Die]]". Nevertheless, he manages to be quite enjoyable primarily for being LaughablyEvil. That said, the most dislikable characters in the series are Butters' AbusiveParents, Stephen and Linda Stotch. They often ground Butters over such trivial matters and ignore him when he is in serious danger. They even went so far as to callously sell him to Creator/ParisHilton for $250 million in the episode "[[Recap/SouthParkS8E12StupidSpoiledWhoreVideoPlayset Stupid Spoiled Whore Video Playset]]". While Cartman's misdeeds are known to be hard to take personally due to them usually being very over-the-top, Stephen and Linda's overall treatment of Butters hits close to home for many people.

** Though it still has its defenders, Season 20 gets this the most out of all seasons, due to changing the status quo in such a way that many felt negatively affected the next few seasons, such as the gender war (including Stan and Wendy breaking up and not interacting until season 26), Garrison [[RealLifeWritesThePlot becoming the US president]] and not returning as a teacher until season 24, and Cartman and Heidi's relationship that carried over to season 21.

** The German-speaking fandom is the second largest after the English-speaking fandom. It has become so popular that the channel it airs on has started to show the newest episode 10 days after their US debut in English with subtitles not only giving German viewers the chance to see it earlier (until it has been properly dubbed) but also get a chance to hear the original voices and untranslated jokes.

** After the success of the Season 22 episode "Tegridy Farms", Season 23 was the season where [[BaseBreakingCharacter Randy]] officially [[SpotlightStealingSquad stole the show away from everyone else]], with every episode focused in some way around "Randy does something stupid to try and sell his weed." Many fans' opinion is that this disproportionate focus on Randy's antics ended up ultimately detracting from what were otherwise fine episodes like [[Recap/SouthParkS23E2BandInChina "Band in China"]] and [[Recap/SouthParkS23E4LetThemEatGoo "Let Them Eat Goo"]]. When the arc finally ended at episode 6, many fans were disappointed that Randy [[KarmaHoudini got away with everything]] Tegridy would later be brought back for the finale, which implied a venture into the cocaine business, though this was [[AbortedArc replaced with more weed humor]] in the hour-long special that premiered in Season 24's slot.

** At the end of season 21, Heidi breaks up with Cartman for good, and her ending implies that she’ll still be a recurring character, making amends with Kyle and the other kids and even having a more fleshed out personality besides being a former love interest of Cartman. Sadly, the ending seemed to be little more than an excuse to [[DemotedtoExtra put her to the sidelines again]], as she has not been even remotely relevant in later seasons. Given the controversial reception Matt and Trey received on their relationship with as well as serialized formats as a whole, it doesn’t appear Heidi will ever be given true justice.

** The infamous ColdWar between those who prefer ''South Park'' or ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy''. Fans of the former hate the latter for being too mean-spirited, offensive, [[GrossOutShow disgusting]] and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking not]] by Creator/TreyParkerAndMattStone. Fans of the latter hate ''South Park'' for relying too much on continuity to the point where it comes across as more {{Narm}}-y than funny and find that the show gets [[HypeBacklash too much attention and praise to the point where people are willing to ignore its flaws]]. That being said, there is still a [[TakeAThirdOption third party]] who likes both shows equally.

** Other fans go the other route and ignore the first six seasons due to the sheer ammount of EarlyInstallmentWeirdness, Stan and Kyle being much bigger jerkasses, Cartman being less evil and more bumbling, and Butters and Randy not being as prominent.

** Season 20 fell into this when its unusually complex StoryArc was abruptly altered by real world events. Parker and Stone hadn't prepared for the possibility that UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump, whom Mr. Garrison was serving as an {{Expy}} of, would be elected President of the United States over [[UsefulNotes/HillaryRodhamClinton Hillary Clinton]] (who was being used straight up), so the final four episodes had to be substantially rewritten in a very short span of time--in the case of the post-Election Day episode within ''less than 24 hours'' or risk coming off as completely irrelevant. The results were that several significant characters, in particular the Member Berries, fell OutOfFocus while most of the plot threads were not brought to satisfying conclusions.

** [[Characters/SouthParkKyleBroflovski Kyle Broflovski]] is meant to be sympathized with because he (along with Stan) is the OnlySaneMan and constantly has to deal with Cartman's shit, but at times, he ends up looking like a [[HolierThanThou self-righteous]], [[EntitledBastard entitled]] {{Hypocrite}}. Season 5's "[[Recap/SouthParkS5E6Cartmanland Cartmanland]]", shows that his faith in God depends on [[PayEvilUntoEvil Cartman's misery]]. Episodes like "[[Recap/SouthParkS8E1GoodTimesWithWeapons Good Times With Weapons]]", [[Recap/SouthParkS8E8DoucheAndTurd Douche and Turd]] "[[Recap/SouthParkS11E14TheList The List]]", "[[Recap/SouthParkS13E7Fatbeard Fatbeard]]", and [[Recap/SouthParkS21E9SuperHardPCness Super Hard [=PCness=]]] also show how easily he can be driven to commit atrocities for petty reasons. Unlike Stan (who is no stranger to WhatTheHellHero moments), Kyle is rarely meaningfully called out for any of these events (sans the latter example), except by Cartman, who is usually meant to be in the wrong anyways.

** Because of how divisive the later seasons are, some fans like to watch the first six seasons and ignore everything after that.
** A lot of events get this treatment by fans, such as Chef's death and ''especially'' Mr. Garrison's sex changes.

* FirstInstallmentWins: The first six seasons are the most well-received of the show, with the others being [[ContestedSequel contested at best]] and [[SeasonalRot hated at worst]].

** Eric Cartman showed he can be a [[MoralEventHorizon horrifyingly]] competant [[TheChessmaster Chessmaster]] in "[[Recap/SouthParkS5E4ScottTenormanMustDie Scott Tenorman Must Die]]". He executed a flawless BatmanGambit to punish Scott for humiliating him and not giving him back his money. Bonus points as up until the final moments, he looked like an [[IneffectualSympatheticVillain Innefectual]] SmugSnake until he was proven to be a NotSoHarmlessVillain

** '''Scott Tenormann'''. He was shown to be one of the ''very'' few characters on the show who's capable of going toe-to-toe with ''Cartman'' in terms of manipulation and scheming and overall being very smart in the debut appearance. And yet he doesn't return until a whopping ''9 seasons later'' when he tries get revenge on Cartman [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext for getting his parents killed and turning them into chili]]. He also drops the bombshell that Scott's father and Eric's father were one and the same, meaning the two of them were '''half-brothers'''. However, despite this shocking revolution and [[WeWillMeetAgain Tenormann himself vowing he'd return]], he still has yet to make a proper reappearance. Roundtable had created [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7rWITBeIfs two separate videos]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLnbrgFChI0 about this subject]], where they speculate potential storyline ideas involving Scott.

* DontShootTheMessage: The anti-PlayingTheVictimCard message at the end of 21 comes off as rather shoddy to say the least. Not once does anyone admit that [[NoSympathy their attitude]] is the reason Heidi and Kyle acted the way they did or do Heidi's friends show Heidi any sympathy for how Cartman abused her after going back to him (which is the reason she turned against them in the first place). While their retribution was overblown (especially Kyle's), neither Kyle or Heidi's friends receive any punishment for borderline bullying them, [[DoubleStandard with only Cartman, Kyle, and Heidi's actions being taken accountable]]. The message instead can come across as "FreudianExcuseIsNoExcuse justifies not giving said people any support for what they've gone through".

** [[spoiler:Stan's parents getting back together at the end of "[[Recap/SouthParkS15E8AssBurgers Ass Burgers]]".]]

** UsefulNotes/OsamaBinLaden was shot in the face by a US Marine in "[[Recap/SouthParkS5E9OsamaBinLadenHasFartyPants Osama Bin Laden has Farty Pants]]" [[UnexplainedRecovery He returns in "It's a Jersey Thing"]] and gets shot again.

** The mayor surviving her suicide attempt in "[[Recap/SouthParkS9E2DieHippieDie Die, Hippie, Die]]". There was no way she could have put a bullet through her head and be healed in a couple of days.
** Mr. Garrison getting rid of Mr. Hat after "[[Recap/SouthParkS6E14TheDeathCampOfTolerance The Death Camp of Tolerance]]" offscreen. The show revealed many times that Mr. Hat was a split personality of Mr. Garrison's, and it seems odd that a mental disorder like that was cured so easily.

** Randy Marsh. Fans either love his wacky antics or see him as everything wrong with the later episodes. A third camp thinks he's funny, but only when he plays a small role in an episode. The later episodes making him a CreatorsPet (as Parker and Stone began to project onto him more than the kids) to the point that he's the star of Season 23 only makes this divide more aggressive.

** %%'''Scott Tenormann'''

** Late into "[[Recap/SouthParkS1E13CartmansMomIsADirtySlut Cartman's Mom Is A Dirty Slut]]" we see that Gerald, Kyle's father, is among the many candidates for being Cartman's father. But after Kyle has an understandably negative reaction to learning this, Gerald is completely forgotten for the rest of the two parter, with the possibility of [[SitcomArchNemesis Cartman and Kyle]] being ''half-siblings'' not even being touched on.

* JerksAreWorseThanVillains: [[Characters/SouthParkEricCartman Eric Cartman]], is a [[TheSociopath sociopathic]] VillainProtagonist who goes as far as murdering two innocent people and [[FamilialCannibalismSurprise feeding them to their offspring]] after processing their corpses through chili [[DisproportionateRetribution over $16.12]] in "[[Recap/SouthParkS5E4ScottTenormanMustDie Scott Tenorman Must Die]]". Nevertheless, he manages to be quite enjoyable primarily for being LaughablyEvil. That said, the most dislikable characters in the series are Butters' AbusiveParents, Stephen and Linda Stotch. They often ground Butters over such trivial matters and ignore him when he is in serious danger. They even went so far as to callously sell him to Creator/ParisHilton for $250 million in the episode "[[Recap/SouthParkS8E12StupidSpoiledWhoreVideoPlayset Stupid Spoiled Whore Video Playset]]". While Cartman's misdeeds are known to be hard to take personally due to them usually being very over-the-top, Stephen and Linda's overall treatment of Butters hits close to home for many people.

* JerksAreWorseThanVillains: [[VillainProtagonist Eric Cartman]] is a [[TheSociopath sociopathic]] EnfantTerrible who is often LaughablyEvil, making him very entertaining despite committing such heinous acts as murdering two innocent people and [[FamilialCannibalismSurprise feeding them to their offspring]] after processing their corpses through chili [[DisproportionateRetribution over $16.12]]. That said, the most dislikable characters in the series are Butters' AbusiveParents, Stephen and Linda Stotch. They often ground Butters over such trivial matters, ignore him when he is in serious danger, and even callously sell him to Creator/ParisHilton for $250 million on one occasion. While Cartman's misdeeds are known to be hard to take personally due to them usually being very over-the-top, Stephen and Linda's overall treatment of Butters hits close to home for many people.

** In the two-parter episode "Pandemic", Craig is portrayed as being in the wrong for getting angry and constantly complaining about the ordeal that the main boys roped him into. While Craig was being a bit of a jerk and somewhat irritating with his complaining, how would ''you'' feel if someone convinced you to spend your birthday money on a scheme that ended up backfiring in the worst way, which resulted in you being kidnapped by the government and forced to be far away from your family and not even knowing when — or ''if'' — you'll ever see them again?
** Heidi Turner in the end of Season 21. While she does become a female Cartman, the show downplays her trauma as a case of FreudianExcuseIsNoExcuse as a means of making others unsympathetic towards her even though it was their lack of sympathy that gave Cartman a chance to swoop in in the first place. The narrative acted like her attitude absolved them of their faults.

** Kyle's meant to be sympathized with because he (along with Stan) is the OnlySaneMan and constantly has to deal with Cartman's shit, but at times, he ends up looking like a [[HolierThanThou self-righteous]], [[EntitledBastard entitled]] {{Hypocrite}}. Season 5's "[[Recap/SouthParkS5E6Cartmanland Cartmanland]]", shows that his faith in God depends on [[PayEvilUntoEvil Cartman's misery]], and episodes like "[[Recap/SouthParkS8E1GoodTimesWithWeapons Good Times With Weapons]]", [[Recap/SouthParkS8E8DoucheAndTurd Douche and Turd]] "[[Recap/SouthParkS11E14TheList The List]]", "[[Recap/SouthParkS13E7Fatbeard Fatbeard]]", and [[Recap/SouthParkS21E9SuperHardPCness Super Hard [=PCness=]]] show how easily he can be driven to commit atrocities for petty reasons, and unlike Stan (who is no stranger to WhatTheHellHero moments), Kyle is rarely meaningfully called out for any of these events (sans the latter example) except by Cartman, who is usually meant to be in the wrong anyways.

** Liane Cartman, especially in later seasons, is supposed to be sympathetic for having a horrific brat like Eric for a son. However, she's just as much to blame for Eric's behavior for spoiling him rotten, and she would only ever discipline him if his actions negatively affected ''her''. Even after her son ''tricked a kid into cutting his leg off''. The arc where the Cartmans live in an abandoned hot dog stand was supposed to be Eric's fault for his brattiness, but in the end, Liane still failed to put her foot down with him.

** Kyle's meant to be sympathized because he (along with Stan) is the OnlySaneMan and constantly has to deal with Cartman's shit, but at times, he ends up looking like a [[HolierThanThou self-righteous]], [[EntitledBastard entitled]] {{Hypocrite}}. Season 5's "[[Recap/SouthParkS5E6Cartmanland Cartmanland]]", shows that his faith in God depends on [[PayEvilUntoEvil Cartman's misery]], and episodes like "[[Recap/SouthParkS8E1GoodTimesWithWeapons Good Times With Weapons]]", [[Recap/SouthParkS8E8DoucheAndTurd Douche and Turd]] "[[Recap/SouthParkS11E14TheList The List]]", "[[Recap/SouthParkS13E7Fatbeard Fatbeard]]", and [[Recap/SouthParkS21E9SuperHardPCness Super Hard [=PCness=]]] show how easily he can be driven to commit atrocities for petty reasons, and unlike Stan (who is no stranger to WhatTheHellHero moments), Kyle is rarely meaningfully called out for any of these events (sans the latter example) except by Cartman, who is usually meant to be in the wrong anyways.
** Sharon in the Tegridy Farms arc is supposed to come off as a battered wife to Randy's delusional selfishness and entitlement. However, she never actually tries to take action against Randy and her attitude towards him is that of just insulting him rather than taking the kids and leaving him or trying to get him to admit to his actions on tape. She comes off more as guilty by association.
** Liane Cartman, especially in recent seasons, is supposed to be sympathetic for having a horrific brat like Eric for a son. However, she's just as much to blame for Eric's behavior for spoiling him rotten, and she would only ever discipline him if his actions negatively affected ''her''. Even after her son ''tricked a kid into cutting his leg off'' The arc where the Cartmans live in an abandoned hot dog stand was supposed to be Eric's fault for his brattiness, but in the end, Liane still failed to put her foot down with him.
** [[ArcVillain Arc Villains]] Gerald, Randy and Mr. Garrison in Season 25 and onward. While the narrative does holds them all accountable for their abrasive and selfish personalities (and it's not uncommon for some main or supporting characters to [[KarmaHoudini get away with reprehensible actions in an episode]]), their list of crimes in Season 20, 23 and 24 respectively is so large at this point that it pushes them past the MoralEventHorizon for many (namely Gerald's hidden identity as [=Skankhunt42=], Randy's murder of Winnie The Pooh and Garrison's murder of the pangolin that was meant to end COVID), making any attempts to portray them as anything other than [[VillainProtagonist Villain Protagonists]] fall flat for many fans. However, Season 24 only gives [[FatBastard Cartman]] any permanent KarmaHoudiniWarranty for crimes he committed [[KidsAreCruel as a kid]], while Gerald is EasilyForgiven by Kyle and Ike after a few seasons, Randy gets to keep his family (and possibly his business) in the revised future, and Garrison gets to be in a healthy relationship with Rick in Season 26, making them all effective [[KarmaHoudini Karma Houdinis]].

** The show is ''extremely'' popular with {{Yaoi Fangirl}}s on Website/FanFictionDotNet and Website/DeviantART. Blame all the ambiguous (and obvious) HoYay and interesting character interactions.

** Kyle's meant to be sympathized because he (along with Stan) is the OnlySaneMan and constantly has to deal with Cartman's shit, but at times, he ends up looking like a [[HolierThanThou self-righteous]], [[EntitledBastard entitled]] {{Hypocrite}}, like in "[[Recap/SouthParkS5E6Cartmanland Cartmanland]]", for example.

** Stephen and Linda Stotch were widely-hated for grounding and in some cases beating up Butters for very flimsy reasons, even when Butters had absolutely no control over a situation, giving the impression that they were {{Child Hater}}s who tortured Butters ForTheEvulz. In later seasons, both have become much more loving towards Butters, and only ground him when he actually deserves it.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: At the end of season 21, Heidi breaks up with Cartman for good, and her ending implies that she’ll still be a recurring character, making amends with Kyle and the other kids and even having a more fleshed out personality besides being a former love interest of Cartman. Sadly, the ending seemed to be little more than an excuse to [[DemotedtoExtra put her to the sidelines again]], as she has not been even remotely relevant in later seasons. Given the controversial reception Matt and Trey received on their relationship with as well as serialized formats as a whole, it doesn’t appear Heidi will ever be given true justice.

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny:
** The first few episodes of the show were very controversial when they first aired, but look rather tame nowadays. Even the foul language is more heavily bleeped than it would need to be today.
** ''South Park'' was largely responsible for a slew of "adult humour" imitators that relied chiefly on one-upping each other in sheer iconoclasm and CringeComedy, like the now-notorious ''WesternAnimation/DrawnTogether''. It's also very interesting to note how in the first seasons, ''South Park'' was compared poorly to ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' as a less intelligent show, but nowadays ''The Simpsons'' is compared poorly to ''South Park'' for being less daring and [[UnintentionalPeriodPiece up-to-date]].

** [[ArcVillain Arc Villains]] Gerald, Randy and Mr. Garrison in Season 25 and onward. While the narrative does holds them all accountable for their abrasive an.d selfish personalities (and it's not uncommon for some main or supporting characters to [[KarmaHoudini get away with reprehensible actions in an episode]]), their list of crimes in Season 20, 23 and 24 respectively is so large at this point that it pushes them past the MoralEventHorizon for many (namely Gerald's hidden identity as [=Skankhunt42=], Randy's murder of Winnie The Pooh and Garrison's murder of the pangolin that was meant to end COVID), making any attempts to portray them as anything other than [[VillainProtagonist Villain Protagonists]] fall flat for many fans. However, Season 24 only gives [[FatBastard Cartman]] any permanent KarmaHoudiniWarranty for crimes he committed [[KidsAreCruel as a kid]], while Gerald is EasilyForgiven by Kyle and Ike after a few seasons, Randy gets to keep his family (and possibly his business) in the revised future, and Garrison gets to be in a healthy relationship with Rick in Season 26, making them all effective [[KarmaHoudini Karma Houdinis]].

** Ike's birth name, Peter Gintz, references the real-life patrilineally Jewish [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petr_Ginz Petr Ginz]], who was the editor-in-chief of ''Vedem'' while stationed in the Terezín concentration camp, an amateur literary magazine much like the plot of today's ''Manga/{{Shy}}'', [[note]] which, incidentally, is part of a shonen magazine [[/note]] chronicling American novels and Petr's own drawings of famous dignitaries and astronauts, in addition to him ''already'' having written several novels since the age of 8. As you can probably tell, he himself was a ChildProdigy (and, unfortunately, only a short-lived TeenGenius gassed to death at age 16).

* TheScrappy: [[Recap/SouthParkS1E9MrHankeyTheChristmasPoo Mr. Hankey the Christmas Poo]]--first appearing in Season 1's ChristmasEpisode--was originally intended to be an EnsembleDarkhorse BreakoutCharacter à la Slimer (although... see ''Franchise/{{Ghostbusters}}'' for how that turned out), and was heavily marketed and designed to be quite MerchandiseDriven. However, his shrill annoying voice, general lack of personality, and role as a pointless gross-out prop led to unpopularity with fans. He has been entirely phased out of later seasons--with Towelie largely taking up his former role, and specifically being designed to parody mascot characters--and he only appeared once in a "Hey, remember me?" kind of gag and is forced to leave South Park in "[[Recap/SouthParkS22E3TheProblemWithAPoo The Problem With A Poo]]".

** Mark and Rebecca, particularly the latter, from "[[Recap/SouthParkS3E12HookedOnMonkeyFonics Hooked On Monkey Fonics]]". Their nerdiness and naiveté as a result of being homeschooled provided some interesting contrast with the other kids, and while they end up attending normal school with the other kids at the end of the episode, Mark is relegated to a silent background character and Rebecca ''never'' appears again. This is especially frustrating as the latter's awkward tics, general strange behavior, and eventual exaggerated "slutty" persona let her stand out among other female students. It's possible Rebecca may not have appeared again simply out of respect, due to being one of the last new characters voiced by Mary Kay Bergman before her suicide.

** Liane Cartman, especially in recent seasons, is supposed to be sympathetic for having a horrific brat like Eric for a son. However, she's just as much to blame for Eric's behavior for spoiling him rotten, and she would only ever discipline him if his actions negatively affected ''her''. The arc where the Cartmans live in an abandoned hot dog stand was supposed to be Eric's fault for his brattiness, but in the end, Liane still failed to put her foot down with him.
** [[ArcVillain Arc Villains]] Gerald, Randy and Mr. Garrison in Season 25 and onward. While the narrative does holds them all accountable for their abrasive and selfish personalities (and it's not uncommon for some main or supporting characters to [[KarmaHoudini get away with reprehensible actions in an episode]]), their list of crimes in Season 20, 23 and 24 respectively is so large at this point that it pushes them past the MoralEventHorizon for many (namely Gerald's hidden identity as [=Skankhunt42=], Randy's murder of Winnie The Pooh and Garrison's murder of the pangolin that was meant to end COVID), making any attempts to portray them as anything other than [[VillainProtagonist Villain Protagonists]] fall flat for many fans. However, Season 24 only gives [[FatBastard Cartman]] any permanent KarmaHoudiniWarranty for crimes he committed [[KidsAreCruel as a kid]], while Gerald is EasilyForgiven by Kyle and Ike after a few seasons, Randy gets to keep his family (and possibly his business) in the revised future, and Garrison gets to be in a healthy relationship with Rick in Season 26, making them all effective [[KarmaHoudini Karma Houdinis]].

---> '''Bill Clinton''': What happened, son? Did a girl break your heart?
---> '''Butters''': (tearing up) [[BlatantLies ...No.]]

* JerksAreWorseThanVillains: [[VillainProtagonist Eric Cartman]] is a [[TheSociopath sociopathic]] EnfantTerrible who is often LaughablyEvil, making him very entertaining despite committing such heinous acts as murdering two innocent people and [[FamilialCannibalismSurprise feeding them to their offspring]] after processing their corpses through chili [[DisproportionateRetribution over $16.12]]. That being said, the most dislikable characters in the series are Butters' AbusiveParents, Stephen and Linda Stotch. They often ground him over such trivial matters, ignore him when he is in serious danger, and even callously sell him to Creator/ParisHilton for $250 million on one occasion. While Cartman's misdeeds are known to be hard to take personally due to them usually being very over-the-top, Stephen and Linda's overall treatment of Butters hits close to home for many people.

* JerksAreWorseThanVillains: [[VillainProtagonist Eric Cartman]] is a [[TheSociopath sociopathic]] EnfantTerrible who is often LaughablyEvil, making him very entertaining despite committing such heinous acts as murdering two innocent people and [[FamilialCannibalismSurprise feeding them to their offspring]] after processing their corpses through chili [[DisproportionateRetribution over $16.12]]. That being said, the most dislikable characters in the series are Stephen and Linda Stotch, Butters' AbusiveParents who often ground him over such trivial matters, ignore him when he is in serious danger, and even callously sell him to Creator/ParisHilton for $250 million on one occasion. While Cartman's misdeeds are known to be hard to take personally due to them usually being very over-the-top, Stephen and Linda's overall treatment of Butters hits close to home for many people.
* LGBTFanbase: The show garnered up a decent-sized one in the mid-2000s as the amount of fanfiction began to increase, due to the HoYay moments between Stan/Kyle, Cartman/Kyle, Cartman/Butters, etc. It grew even more upon the introduction of Website/{{Tumblr}} and Website/{{Reddit}}. It officially reached its peak when the Season 19 episode "Tweek x Craig", an episode where Yaoi art of Tweek and Craig causes the two to act like they're in a relationship, aired in 2015. The main reason for the show's LGBT fanbase is due to the prominent focus on the male fourth graders; it's worth noting that due to the lack of prominent female child characters other than Wendy, Bebe, and Heidi, femslash is a rarity in the ''South Park'' fandom and thus gets outnumbered by the slash.\\
\\
This is fairly odd given how the show has criticized the community many times or touched upon queer topics in a way several people in the LGBTQ+ community would find offensive, such as "Mr Garrison's Fancy New Vagina", "The Cissy", and especially "Board Girls". LGBTQ+ fans either choose to ignore these episodes or begrudgingly tolerate them as they feel the show has enough good episodes to outnumber the ones they consider problematic.

* AlternateAesopInterpretation: Much like with ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButtHead'', which Matt and Trey have both cited as being a huge influence, there are many fans who say that the show is actually in ''favor'' for what MoralGuardians think by showing that [[ThinkOfTheChildren the youth of America can only turn out poorly if they have absolutely no positive influence from the adults raising them]]. Around season 4, Matt and Trey explicitly stated that the overall message of the show is that [[HobbesWasRight humans are "born fucked up"]] and [[SocietyIsToBlame it's society's responsibility to just barely keep you in check]], which coincidentally was around the time [[CharacterizationMarchesOn the boys started to mature and gain more clarity]], effectively starting their journey of becoming more kind-hearted, all-American pre-teens who are WiseBeyondTheirYears, with a firm grip on practical and economic knowledge to match, even if they're still in the process of growing beside and understanding it for the sake of defying their guardians' low expectations (particularly Stan). Which all rings hollow for someone like [[TookALevelInJerkass Cartman]], who, you know, doesn't have a dad. ''Or'' a positive influence in his on-again off-again mom.

* ArcFatigue: While the Tegridy Farms arc wasn't too pervasive in season 22, it was accused of this quickly once it became the main focus of season 23, with people becoming sick of it by the third episode of the season. This goes hand-in-hand with Randy being a BaseBreakingCharacter. Even worse, despite having supposedly ended halfway through the season, they brought it back in the season finale with the implication the cycle was going to repeat but with Tegridy selling cocaine instead. The weed plot continued into the Pandemic Special, and even people who generally liked the episode were annoyed that it was yet another episode about Randy's weed business.

** Kenny [[spoiler:being a spawn of Cthulhu]] has been contradicted a few times. For starters, in "[[Recap/SouthParkS2E2CartmansMomIsStillADirtySlut Cartman's Mom is Still a Dirty Slut]]", Kenny spawned from thin air at the beginning of the episode after he died in the previous one instead of [[spoiler:literally being reborn from his mother]]. Another one is whenever Kenny's parents were surprised that he died when the "Coon and Friends" trilogy showed that they were aware Kenny kept dying and were more annoyed than distraught. The third is how the boys don't seem to remember when Kenny dies, even though there were moments where they did, like Cartman claiming he always dies in "[[Recap/SouthParkS5E6Cartmanland Cartmanland]]". (For the last point, it should be noted that it was at a time when his deaths were treated as a normal occurrence in early seasons. [[RetCon Past season 7 and of the Mysterion Arc]], only Kenny and his parents are aware of them now; everyone else is mind-wiped when he resurrects.)

** Randy Marsh. Fans either love his wacky antics or see him as everything wrong with the later episodes. A third camp thinks he's funny, but only when he plays a small role in an episode. The later episodes making him a CreatorsPet (as Parker and Stone began to project onto him more than the kids) to the point that he's the star of season 23 only makes this divide more aggressive.

** All of [[Recap/SouthParkS8E5AWESOMO AWESOM-O]]. Watching Cartman suffer for days, nearly starve to death, almost be killed by the government, and STILL lose and get embarrassed by Butters is a real treat. Especially since he intentionally did something similar to Butters in the season 7 episode "[[Recap/SouthParkS7E11CasaBonita Casa Bonita]]".

** Yes, Ike is voiced by Trey Parker's daughter Betty, but only in seasons 20 and above. He has always been voiced by various young children since the beginning, with Betty just being the most recent one and the only one presented with a behind the scenes video.

** Leslie Meyers is a sentient ad and the BigBad of season 19, masterminding the plot to take over the titular town for her kind. Masquerading as a 4th grader in South Park Elementary, she introduces everyone to PC Principal having him force the residents to gentrify their town. This results in the price of living in South Park to increase, causing people who can't afford living there to move out while her kind discreetly takes over having done so with many other towns beforehand. After being captured by the newsmen and exposed as an ad by Jimmy Valmer, she persuades Jimmy into helping her escape, before [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown beating him unconscious]] and ordering [[TheDragon Nathan]] to kill him. She then frames PC Principal for all her crimes and manipulates [[TheSmartGuy Kyle Broflovski]] into convincing everyone to leave South Park to find PC Principal, while she obtains complete control of their town.

** The show is also very popular in the former Soviet countries. First three seasons and movie were dubbed and translated by only one man, Dmitry Puchkov. Also, in the late 90s to late 2000s Russian censorship didn't affect the show.

* LGBTFanbase: The show garnered up a decent-sized one in the mid-2000s as the amount of fanfiction began to increase, due to the HoYay moments between Stan/Kyle, Cartman/Kyle, Cartman/Butters, etc. It grew even more upon the introduction of Website/{{Tumblr}} and Website/{{Reddit}}. It officially reached its peak when the season 19 episode "Tweek x Craig", an episode where Yaoi art of Tweek and Craig causes the two to act like they're in a relationship, aired in 2015. The main reason for the show's LGBT fanbase is due to the prominent focus on the male fourth graders; it's worth noting that due to the lack of prominent female child characters other than Wendy, Bebe, and Heidi, femslash is a rarity in the ''South Park'' fandom and thus gets outnumbered by the slash.\\

** Leslie Meyers crosses it in "[[Recap/SouthParkS19E9TruthAndAdvertising Truth And Advertising]]" when she gives Jimmy Valmer, a handicapped kid, a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown after emotionally manipulating him, thus revealing herself to be a bad guy and by extension the BigBad of season 19.

** Even those who could tolerate Cartman's selfish and bigoted acts of evil for being [[CrossesTheLineTwice ridiculously over-the-top]] found his treatment of Heidi in season 21 deeply upsetting due to how realistically the show depicted emotional abuse.

* RomanticPlotTumor: In season 20, Cartman gets a total personality change that leads him into a [[SickeninglySweethearts very mushy]] relationship with Heidi, which was a bit contentious since it relied on a season where Cartman wasn't much like [[{{Jerkass}} Cartman]] at all (though it's far from the [[ArcFatigue most]] [[FailedFutureForecast contentious]] [[AbortedArc decision]] in Season 20). It was the only plotline (besides the Garrison/Trump arc) to carry over to Season 21, this time with the relationship taking a turn for the toxic. It was fairly interesting and dramatic for those invested in the characters, but not exactly for those invested in the comedy and sick of the reliance on continuity.

** After years of environmental research made the climate change skepticism represented in "Manbearpig" look ignorant, Matt and Trey essentially admitted they were wrong with the season 22 episode "Time to Get Cereal," which turns the titular metaphor for global warming from an AttentionWhore's made-up conspiracy to a [[spoiler:CassandraTruth's real and dangerous prediction.]]

* TheScrappy: [[Recap/SouthParkS1E9MrHankeyTheChristmasPoo Mr. Hankey the Christmas Poo]]--first appearing in season 1's ChristmasEpisode--was originally intended to be an EnsembleDarkhorse BreakoutCharacter à la Slimer (although... see ''Franchise/{{Ghostbusters}}'' for how that turned out), and was heavily marketed and designed to be quite MerchandiseDriven. However, his shrill annoying voice, general lack of personality, and role as a pointless gross-out prop led to unpopularity with fans. He has been entirely phased out of later seasons--with Towelie largely taking up his former role, and specifically being designed to parody mascot characters--and he only appeared once in a "Hey, remember me?" kind of gag and is forced to leave South Park in "[[Recap/SouthParkS22E3TheProblemWithAPoo The Problem With A Poo]]".

** The Three Murderers from season 10's "Hell on Earth 2006". Satan decides to host a massive Halloween party, and assigns Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, and John Wayne Gacy to pick up the life-sized Ferrari cake Satan has ordered. This goes completely awry because in addition to being, well, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin three murderers]], they are also comically inept, and cannot stop infighting. Their subplot is often cited as one of the funniest bits of the episode, and they had a lot of potential to be recurring characters. While they end up killing one another by the end of the episode, they could've still come back since they were all dead to begin with and Satan has sent them back to earth. There was massive potential for some hilarious ''[[Film/TheThreeStooges Three Stooges]]''-style BlackComedy, but they never appeared again.

** Leslie Meyers. Despite being the BigBad of season 19, she doesn't get much prominence beyond being on a receiving end of a RunningGag during school assemblies, and even when she does get a major role during the last three episodes her personality isn't really fleshed out, and is basically treated as a GenericDoomsdayVillain. Thus some fans were disappointed that [[spoiler: PC Principal killed Leslie]] before she was given any character depth.

** [[ArcVillain Arc Villains]] Gerald, Randy and Mr. Garrison in season 25 and onward. While the narrative does holds them all accountable for their abrasive and selfish personalities (and it's not uncommon for some main or supporting characters to [[KarmaHoudini get away with reprehensible actions in an episode]]), their list of crimes in Season 20, 23 and 24 respectively is so large at this point that it pushes them past the MoralEventHorizon for many (namely Gerald's hidden identity as [=Skankhunt42=], Randy's murder of Winnie The Pooh and Garrison's murder of the pangolin that was meant to end COVID), making any attempts to portray them as anything other than [[VillainProtagonist Villain Protagonists]] fall flat for many fans. However, Season 24 only gives [[FatBastard Cartman]] any permanent KarmaHoudiniWarranty for crimes he committed [[KidsAreCruel as a kid]], while Gerald is EasilyForgiven by Kyle and Ike after a few seasons, Randy gets to keep his family (and possibly his business) in the revised future, and Garrison gets to be in a healthy relationship with Rick in Season 26, making them all effective [[KarmaHoudini Karma Houdinis]].
* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: Having run for [[LongRunners over twenty years]], the show is famous for being ''very'' topical in its humor, as its extremely short lead time (with each episode being [[ProductionLeadTime written, animated, and edited in the course of a week]]), allows for [[RippedFromTheHeadlines ''very'' precise and topical humor]] that often becomes dated in less than a year and, thus, it's easy for even a casual viewer to determine what year any given episode was first aired without viewing the end credits. As such, it has lampooned just about every hot topic in pop culture, politics, and American society (and the occasional CanadaEh) as a whole that has cropped up during its run, from Music/BarbraStreisand, ''VideoGame/{{Pokemon}}'' and ''Series/TheXFiles'' in the 1990s to UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror, ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'', and Creator/TomCruise's public meltdown in the 2000s to LetsPlay/PewDiePie, safe spaces, ''[[Literature/TheTwilightSaga Twilight]]'', ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'', ''VideoGame/{{Fortnite}}'' and pop culture nostalgia in the 2010s to the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic in the '20s. That said, being the textbook example of an AnimatedShockComedy, the cartoon's use of [[VulgarHumor raunchy]] and [[BottomOfTheBarrelJoke offensive humor]] rife with [[TheNewRockAndRoll controversial shock value]] that attracted the attention of MoralGuardians, endless celebrity-bashing, nihilistic attitude, [[FilibusterFreefall overly libertarian politics]] and [[BothSidesHaveAPoint "both sides" approach]] to every real-life topic identify it as a cultural product of the late 90s and 2000s (see one of the examples below).

** Kenny dying in every single episode. This was true of the first few seasons when the show was at its height, but Trey and Matt got sick of the joke and even kept him dead for a whole season before reviving him. After that, his deaths became far less frequent, with some seasons only killing him off in one episode or even none at all.