When a show’s been on the air for more than a quarter of a century, has lasted 20+ seasons, and has more than 300 episodes, it’s understandable that not all are going to be winners. These numbers are all applicable to the long-running animated sitcom that is South Park, which debuted on Comedy Central all the way back in 1997.
To the show’s credit, there are of course plenty of iconic episodes, and few that can be considered genuinely terrible. South Park is a TV show that aims to make fun of everything and pumps out new scripts remarkably fast, but this can lead to a slight sense of things being hit-and-miss. To highlight some of those not-quite hits, the following episodes make up South Park’s lowest-rated according to IMDb users.
South Park
- Release Date
- August 13, 1997
- Seasons
- 26
- Studio
- Comedy Central
13 “Going Native” (Season 16, Episode 11)
IMDb Rating: 6.7/10
Though it’s not one of South Park’s finest hours (or finest half-hours, to be more precise), “Going Native” is an episode that has worth for people who like Kenny and enjoy episodes that feature him fairly prominently. He’s paired here with Butters throughout much of the episode, with the plot involving Butters acting out in some strange ways, and then learning unusual facts about his past and the town he lives in.
So, because of that dynamic, and the fact it features plenty of Butters and Kenny, “Going Native” does have some moments, and it at least feels somewhat unique. It’s certainly not funny or dramatic enough to qualify as an all-timer by any means, but as far as the low-rated episodes of South Park go, it’s certainly not abysmal or 100% worth avoiding by any means.
12 “Royal Pudding” (Season 15, Episode 3)
IMDb Rating: 6.7/10
Perhaps a little like “Going Native,” there’s an argument to be made that “Royal Pudding” is actually a bit of an underrated South Park episode or, at the very least, an over-hated one. It aired one season earlier than that aforementioned episode, and revolves around Canada being thrown into chaos because a bride during a televised Royal Wedding gets kidnapped, leading to mayhem and violence.
There’s also a subplot that feels very disconnected at first, given it centers on a dental hygiene-themed kindergarten play that similarly spirals out of control. Things kind of end up clashing in unexpected ways by the end of “Royal Pudding,” and the boldness of the plot does make the episode at least a bit of fun. It’s not South Park at its most essential, by any means, but some might find it to be surprisingly decent.
11 “South Park: The Streaming Wars” (Season 25, Episode 7)
IMDb Rating: 6.7/10
As South Park has gone along, recent years have seen more and more non-traditional episodes getting released, notably with lengthier streaming specials, some of these often feeling like event episodes. One of these was the two-parter known as “The Streaming Wars,” which came out in 2022 and revolves around a “streaming war” that actually revolves around farmers and their water sources, a typically South Park play on words.
“The Streaming Wars” disappoints a little across its two parts, but perhaps there was just a little too much hype around it, and the finished product didn’t quite live up to those expectations. Still, it gets high-stakes in the way you’d expect an extra-long event episode/special to be, and there’s perhaps some novelty in seeing things in South Park get big and “epic,” at least in the show’s own unique way.
10 “Spring Break” (Season 26, Episode 6)
IMDb Rating: 6.6/10
Generally, South Park‘s earlier seasons are seen as the better ones, though that’s not a hard and fast rule when it comes to talking about the show and its ups and downs in quality. It’s a show that finds new targets to go after and ways to reinvent itself, which has led to some surprising longevity.
Still, Season 26 is something of a disappointment, running for just six episodes and having its final one, “Spring Break,” be arguably the low point. It’s an episode centered around Mr. Garrison falling back into his old ways while on vacation, and recycles certain jokes/ideas that no longer feel super fresh or funny. South Park is always going to be hit-and-miss when it’s as far into its run as 26 seasons, and something like “Spring Break” makes this fairly noticeable.
9 “The Streaming Wars Part 2” (Season 25, Episode 8)
IMDb Rating: 6.6/10
IMDb will tell you that “The Streaming Wars” and “The Streaming Wars Part 2” both fall within Season 25, but they’re considered specials independent of any season according to other sources. The two episodes tell a story about the show’s titular town being brought to the brink of destruction thanks to a disastrous drought.
Both parts are twice as long as the average South Park episode, meaning watching them together effectively makes for something feature-length. Perhaps there was a great deal of anticipation for what South Park could do with two such specials and a story told on a particularly grand scale, but neither Part 1 nor Part 2 of “The Streaming Wars” were quite as good as hoped. But hey, for what it’s worth, the streaming wars are genuinely talked about now (revolving around streaming services) as a big thing going on in the world of TV, so at least the title of this episode feels topical.
8 “Back to the Cold War” (Season 25, Episode 4)
IMDb Rating: 6.6/10
“Back to the Cold War” is an episode largely revolving around Butters, as a good part of it sees him competing in a horse riding tournament. Of course, the other large part of the episode revolves around the war (sort of) referenced in the title, with this being the first scripted TV episode to reference the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. Other media took some time to catch up, owing to how much quicker South Park produces episodes, so some credit has to be given there.
For that, it can be held up as another timely South Park episode that was, like in many instances before, able to comment on something long before other shows could. However, the execution here beyond that leaves something to be desired, with “Back to the Cold War” feeling a little shallow when it came to the usual attempts at scathing humor and political commentary.
7 “Pip” (Season 4, Episode 14)
IMDb Rating: 6.6/10
By its fourth season, South Park had already made enough of an impact to be considered among the great TV comedies, but by no means were its early seasons flawless. Season 4 in particular is home to one of the show’s strangest and most divisive episodes: “Pip,” which was inspired by Charles Dickens‘s Great Expectations. This makes it one of many, many adaptations of Dickens’s work, because the writer’s stories have been particularly popular to translate to film and TV.
It’s held up as one of the least favored episodes in the show’s history, though its willingness to do something entirely out of the ordinary is strangely admirable. It stands out as an even odder episode when watched today, as the one recurring character who does appear in “Pip” is its titular character, who was written out of South Park in 2010.
6 “Eat, Pray, Queef” (Season 13, Episode 4)
IMDb Rating: 6.5/10
The characters of Terrance and Phillip were a huge part of the conflict caused in the South Park movie, and they’re involved in causing chaos in this season 13 episode of the show, too. “Eat, Pray, Queef” is about their fart-filled show being replaced by a female-led comedy called “The Queef Sisters.” Naturally, it’s pretty classy stuff, as you can gather from that title and premise.
It’s an episode that has a good deal of commentary about crude humor and potential double standards within it. At least when it comes to gender, it was perhaps ahead of the curve by predicting the backlash that would come from an all-female Ghostbusters reboot. Still, the episode seemed to rub certain viewers the wrong way, and its IMDb rating overall is fairly low by the show’s standards.
5 “Jakovasaurs” (Season 3, Episode 4)
IMDb Rating: 6.5/10
“Jakovasaurs” can join Season 4’s “Pip” as a remarkably strange early episode of South Park that’s proven to be a divisive one overall. At least this one seems to take place in the usual continuity of the show, and features more of its recurring characters, though the premise is an admittedly bizarre one.
It involves Cartman discovering a species of dinosaur that never actually went extinct, with him being the only person in the entire town who doesn’t seem to find this type of creature completely annoying. The dinosaurs were apparently used to make fun of Jar Jar Binks from Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, a movie that had come out shortly before this episode, but that still doesn’t prevent the episode itself from being annoying.
4 “The Problem with a Poo” (Season 22, Episode 3)
IMDb Rating: 6.4/10
Mr. Hankey is one of those South Park characters who might’ve been funny for a time, but gradually wore out his welcome as the years went along. To its credit, “The Problem with a Poo” is an episode that tries to address how the character has run their course, and it marks the last time Mr. Hankey appeared in South Park. The title is a somewhat clever play on words, addressing when The Simpsons had a certain amount of controversy surrounding the character of Apu, particularly how he was voiced by a white actor.
Still, the problems arise when it comes to how this episode tries to comment on the trend of cancel culture, and how it relates to individuals and pieces of entertainment. There was potential for such commentary to be interesting or funny, but this episode largely – and regrettably – is something of a misfire.
3 “Funnybot” (Season 15, Episode 2)
IMDb Rating: 6.3/10
The Funnybot is one of many non-human characters in South Park, with this Season 15 episode revolving around its creation and dominance over the comedy scene. He’s created in Germany after the German people took offense to being called the least funny people on Earth, with this Funnybot becoming surprisingly popular.
“Funnybot” suffers from really only having one joke/observation and running it into the ground, and doing so in a way where most people aren’t going to find amusement for the episode’s whole duration. But then again, if the episode’s about a not-very-funny robot being found funny by many, perhaps it’s all part of the commentary… or something. It’s a swing and a miss, perhaps, but the idea was there and maybe, if approached a slightly different way, could’ve led to a pretty good episode.
2 “Terrance and Phillip in Not Without My Anus” (Season 2, Episode 1)
IMDb Rating: 6.3/10
If the title of “Terrance and Phillip in Not Without My Anus” didn’t already tip you off that this isn’t going to be your average South Park episode, then the premise will. This is a middle finger of an episode, done as the first episode of season 2 – thereby delaying the resolution of a cliffhanger from season 1’s ending – and also airing on April Fool’s Day 1998.
The episode revolves almost entirely around Terrance and Phillip and other ridiculous things happening in Canada, including Saddam Hussein trying to take over the entire country. Not everyone loves it as a result of its clearly inflammatory nature, but South Parkcreators Trey Parker and Matt Stone have listed it as a favorite. Still, characters like Terrance, Phillip, and Saddam Hussein were probably better utilized in 1999’s crass and hilarious feature-length musical, South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut.
1 “A Million Little Fibers” (Season 10, Episode 5)
IMDb Rating: 6.2/10
Season 10 of South Park is filled with classic episodes even casual viewers would’ve likely heard of or seen, including “Cartoon Wars,” the controversial “ManBearPig” episode, “Tsst,” and even the iconic “Make Love, Not Warcraft.” Released around the same time also came the show’s lowest-rated episode: “A Million Little Fibers.”
It features very little by way of main or recurring characters besides Towelie, with the premise involving him writing an official Book of the Month according to Oprah Winfrey, though controversy arises much like it did in the whole situation the episode is parodying: that of a memoir by James Frey being revealed as mostly fabricated. It’s a strange, not particularly funny, and one-note episode, and it’s not too surprising to see it stand as the lowest-rated according to IMDb.
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