Top 10 Times South Park Made Fun of Itself

South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone have gone on record saying that the “crab people” subplot of season 7’s “South Park is Gay” was the worst idea that they’ve ever had. The disdain for the “crab people” plot came out a year later in the episode “Quest for Ratings”. The episode centers around the boys and their TV news show. Sitting around a room, they can’t come up with any new ideas for their show. This of course parallels the struggles Parker & Stone have had coming up with ideas for South Park. However, the moment that most encapsulates their struggle is when Cartman exclaims [“Wait I’ve got it: crab people”], and Stan quickly responds by saying [“Dude, I think we can do a little better than crab people”]. Nothing beats mocking your own mistakes.

At the height of his popularity, Jared Fogle was a face many people recognized from his association with Subway. Forever promoting his record weight loss, everyone knew who “Jared from Subway” was. In one episode, South Park decided to poke fun at the excessive media attention Jared had been receiving and questioned his weight loss tactics. At one point, Fogel can be seen literally beating a dead horse with a baseball bat. Not only did this poke fun at the excessiveness of his media presence, it also took a shot at South Park’s overuse of a single joke.

Television shows are often noted for profiting off its own popularity and that of its characters, even if those characters in question contribute little to the overall plot and are considered a nuisance. Wanting to take a dig at this convention, the creators literally decided to follow it by creating Towelie, the epitome of terrible characters. He would exist solely to spout off catchphrases to be capitalized on while not really contributing to the episode’s storyline. It once again illustrates how the showrunners are not afraid to poke fun at all aspects of the business of television. And let’s not forget those “commercials” promoting the Towelie products...

During the show’s run, the boys have mostly been depicted wearing their winter attire. Aside from Cartman, their clothing is often the key characteristic to knowing which character is which. In Season 5’s “Super Best Friends” episode, the boys all join a cult belonging to David Blaine. It’s here the show pokes fun at the simplistic design of its characters. With all of their heads shaved, and dressed in the same clothes, no one knows who’s who. The simplicity of both the design style and the joke make it perfect for self-deprecating humor.

One of the key visual characteristics of South Park has been its animation style. Originally shot with construction paper cutouts, it was more akin to stop-motion photography than traditional animation. While it has evolved over time, the choppy motion became one of the show’s defining features.When the South Park movie came out in 1999, they took a jab at themselves. When the South Park movie came out in 1999, they took a jab at themselves after Cartman commented on how bad the animation in Terrance and Phillip is. It’s a hilarious nod to their own choices as animators.

At the end of season one, a cliffhanger ending kept fans wondering who Cartman’s father was. Of course, they expected the first episode of the following season to answer this question. Since it was airing on April Fools day, the creators opted to run an episode featuring only Terrance and Phillip, and no answers about Cartman. Fans were understandably put off by this. In a season 13 episode, the conclusion of a cliffhanger episode of Terrance & Phillip that the boys were watching was replaced by another program as part of an April Fools joke. Although the joke was made 11 years later, it’s nice to see Parker and Stone poking fun at their earlier choices.

Midway through season 15, “South Park” aired, “You’re Getting Old, one of it’s most self-aware episodes ever. After turning 10, Stan’s world seems to fall apart while his father comes to grips with how unhappy he’s become. Throughout this season, both Trey Parker & Matt Stone were entering their 40s and began feeling dissatisfaction towards the show, going so far as to admit that they hated the process of coming up with new storylines. This episode, and to a lesser-extent the following one, illustrated this attitude to a tee by showing Randy & Sharon’s marriage difficulties and Stan’s depressive feelings towards life. It’s not a direct pot-shot at the comedy per se, but it does speak to their attempts to remain topical and interesting.

If you go back and watch the first season of South Park now, the show seems so tame compared to what it is now. Yet at the time, popular media criticized the primitive animation and called it nothing more than a collection of fart jokes. Parker and Stone took this to heart and created the Terrance & Phillip show within South Park. Based on the creators themselves and the manner in which they interact with one another in real life, the characters do nothing more than pass gas on each other. This was a brilliant move by the writers to acknowledge and make fun of what had been said about their work. It also served as the launch point for the South Park movie.

With the ongoing pandemic, South Park has been limited to only releasing a handful of extended long episodes as specials, versus their week to week schedule. For the second outing of the 24th season, they decided to mock the entire QAnon conspiracy theories around vaccinations. This provided fans one of the most blatant self-references ever seen on the show. A Qanon advocate starts referring to the Hollywood elite, and saying [“They run the show. The whole damn show. It comes down to two people.”]. This of course refers to literal showrunners Trey Parker and Matt Stone. From there, you see the actual animators changing the conspirators look to ridicule him even more. It’s as meta as the show has ever gone and we absolutely love it.

We’ve mentioned several times on this list about how South Park’s animation style has been mocked. Never has this been more evident than in the season 18 outing“Grounded Vindaloop”. This time around, the boys are discovering the world of VR through an Oculus Rift headset. It goes back and forth from what they think is the real world to that of a simulation. When Stan finally is able to leave the virtual world, it cuts to four live action actors portraying the boys. When the “real” Kyle asks Stan what he thinks of the VR experience, to which Stan replies [“It’s pretty cool, but the graphics suck.”]. Pure. Comedic. Genius.