- 17 hours ago
Time can change everything, even satire! Join us as we revisit South Park episodes that hit differently today than when they first aired. From Steve Irwin's helicopter accident to ManBearPig's climate warnings, these stories took on new meaning as real events unfolded. Which episodes do you find most disturbing in retrospect?
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00:00You all stole my stick!
00:02Yes!
00:04Welcome to WatchMojo!
00:06And today, we're looking at South Park episodes that played differently since the first airing because of what we've since learned.
00:12Puff Daddy?
00:13Your friend Kyle told me you don't understand the importance of voting.
00:18Prehistoric Iceman
00:20In this 1999 episode, the boys discover a man who has been frozen since the prehistoric year of 1996.
00:27But we found a frozen Iceman from the past!
00:31I found this frozen guy in the woods today.
00:33No, I found this frozen guy in the woods today.
00:35When he's defrosted and goes missing, they enlist a certain crocodile hunter to help.
00:39Steve Irwin was at the peak of his popularity at the time, making him ripe for satire.
00:44The hunt goes off the rails as Irwin is sent flying toward a helicopter, getting shredded to pieces.
00:50Wow, that is the goddamnedest thing I've ever seen.
00:52As ridiculous as his demise is here, it took on a more disturbing sentiment several years later, when the real Irwin died following an encounter with a stingray.
01:02We doubt Matt Stone and Trey Parker have any qualms about this episode, though, since they'd make fun of Irwin twice in the wake of his tragic death.
01:10It's just not super cool. You gotta leave.
01:12Man Bear Pig
01:13As Al Gore warned the public about global warming through his documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, he also dropped by South Park to caution them about Man Bear Pig.
01:21Don't worry, it's not really Man Bear Pig. It's me, Al Gore.
01:27We know.
01:30Dude, what are you doing?
01:31I'm spreading Man Bear Pig awareness.
01:33The former vice president is depicted as a dollard so desperate for attention that he makes up a fictional threat.
01:39South Park doubled down on the Imagination Land trilogy, where it's implied that Man Bear Pig is no more real than the Lollipop King.
01:46What is it? It's like a half man, half bear, and half pig!
01:51In the years since Man Bear Pig's introduction, the evidence supporting climate change has only become harder to ignore.
01:57While there may always be climate change deniers, even South Park relented in 2018, confirming that Man Bear Pig is real,
02:05and we should have gotten cereal over a decade ago.
02:08We didn't listen then and now, it might be too late.
02:11Say, you're sorry for making fun of me.
02:17We're sorry for making fun of you.
02:20That didn't sound cereal at all.
02:23Butter's very own episode.
02:25This episode was always among the darkest,
02:28seeing Linda attempt to drown Butters before trying to take her own life.
02:32No, Jesus, Linda, what were you thinking?
02:34I wasn't thinking!
02:36It's only grown more disturbing considering how three real-life figures are depicted,
02:40as Butter's parents cover their tracks.
02:42They receive support from John and Patsy Ramsey,
02:44who, some suspected, were involved in the murder of their daughter, JonBenet.
02:49They're also paid visits from Gary Condit, who had an affair with Chandra Levy, a murdered intern.
02:54I spoke with the FBI and some Puerto Rican guy has just made their number one most wanted.
02:59Oh good, maybe now they'll catch him.
03:01The episode ends with Butter's father calling them out,
03:05although further evidence suggested that the Ramseys and Condit likely weren't behind these killings.
03:10Stone and Parker acknowledged that they were wrong ten years later,
03:13but their regret seemingly didn't extend to O.J. Simpson, who was also parodied here.
03:18Hey guys.
03:19Chris, Linda, you know O.J. Simpson.
03:21Oh, sure.
03:22Britney's new look.
03:24No program prides itself on mocking celebrities like South Park.
03:28It was surreal to see Matt and Trey, of all people, standing up for Britney Spears when she was at her lowest.
03:34I can't take it anymore.
03:36That's not to say this episode doesn't take shots at her,
03:39but the real targets are the paparazzi in public who kicked Spears while she was down.
03:43Using Kyle as a surrogate, the South Park creators make a plea to back off Britney.
03:48We should have just left her alone, but we just had to push her.
03:52How could we know she would?
03:54Oh, we suck so hard.
03:56People are unmoved, insisting that Britney must be sacrificed for their corn harvest.
04:02While Spears thankfully survived this agonizing period,
04:05many have reassessed how the media contributed to her personal crisis.
04:09Looking back, it's unbelievable that South Park was among the few shows that said,
04:14Hey, Britney's a person.
04:16Right, enough already.
04:18This has all gone on long enough.
04:20The Passion of the Jew
04:21The Passion of the Christ was already controversial before it hit theaters in 2004.
04:26How do you know?
04:27I've seen The Passion 34 times now, Kyle.
04:29You haven't seen it once.
04:30While supporters presented director Mel Gibson as a deep, spiritual man,
04:34South Park argued that something was very off about this guy.
04:38As Gibson soon found himself embroiled in a series of legal troubles and PR nightmares,
04:42including anti-Semitic comments, this episode started to feel prognostic.
04:47That's Mel Gibson.
04:49He's not quite as eloquent as I had pictured.
04:52Gibson's downfall isn't the only reason why we look back at this episode differently.
04:57Dressed as Hitler, Cartman starts a neo-Nazi group, attracting oblivious followers.
05:02At the time, this might have been an exaggeration.
05:04In an era where many fear that America is heading in a fascist direction,
05:08neo-Nazism is feeling less and less like a thing of the past,
05:12especially among young men like Cartman.
05:14Now I believe we should take to the streets and march in unwavering support of this important
05:19movie.
05:20Oh, great idea!
05:21It'll be like a parade!
05:22Good idea!
05:23Super Best Friends
05:26There are five South Park episodes you won't find on any major streaming services.
05:31Hi, Jesus.
05:32It's me, Stan Marsh.
05:33Of course I know you, my child.
05:34Come in.
05:35All of them have Muhammad in common.
05:37There wasn't much of an uproar when Muhammad popped up in Super Best Friends,
05:41fighting alongside Jesus, Buddha, and other religious figures.
05:45After Muhammad was depicted in an editorial cartoon from a Danish newspaper,
05:49his image suddenly became taboo.
05:51We can get anybody for you.
05:53Muhammad.
05:54The prophet of the Muslim faith.
05:57Ooh.
05:59That's tricky.
06:01South Park pushed back against this controversy,
06:03trying multiple times to get Muhammad past the censors again.
06:07Every attempt has brought challenges, however.
06:10Aside from a few sneaky Easter eggs,
06:12Super Best Friends remains the only episode where an uncensored Muhammad appears.
06:17The fact that we can't legally stream it
06:19is a reminder about how threats of violence can impede freedom of speech.
06:23If Muhammad appears in South Park, we get bombed!
06:26Hooked on Monkey Phonics
06:28In terms of content,
06:30there isn't anything particularly controversial about this episode,
06:33which centers on homeschooling.
06:35This year's gonna be different.
06:37Look, I got you hooked on Monkey Phonics.
06:39What makes Hooked on Monkey Phonics so unsettling is a tragedy that occurred behind the scenes.
06:45The day after it aired,
06:47Mary Kay Bergman, who voiced most of the show's female characters,
06:50took her own life amid severe mental health struggles.
06:53Bergman's voice can be heard in the subsequent episode,
06:56Starvin' Marvin in Space.
06:58While archival recordings were used in Mr. Hankey's Christmas classics,
07:02Shut up, Perks!
07:04Moving forward,
07:05South Park required multiple voice artists to fill the void that Bergman left behind.
07:09When Hooked on Monkey Phonics debuted,
07:11nobody was prepared to say goodbye to Bergman.
07:13Rewatching the episode today,
07:15It's hard not to get choked up.
07:17Eric,
07:18I got you a new history textbook.
07:19Why don't you come downstairs?
07:20Not right now, ma'am.
07:23Eric,
07:24please,
07:25we have to do some studying today.
07:26I am studying, ma'am.
07:28I'm learning with the Phonics monkey.
07:29The return of Chef.
07:30After South Park called Scientology a scam entrapped in the closet,
07:34Isaac Hayes stopped voicing Chef.
07:36I'm not the reincarnation of L. Ron Hubbard.
07:38And Scientology is just a big fat global scam.
07:42His absence was addressed in the season 10 premiere
07:45in which old recordings of Hayes were stitched together.
07:48The episode ends with Chef's demise
07:50being lost to the club that brainwashed him.
07:53For years, fans assumed that Hayes left on his own terms.
07:56We shouldn't be mad at Chef for leaving us.
07:58We should be mad at that fruity little club for scrambling his brains.
08:03According to Hayes' son, though,
08:05his late father would have never quit that show.
08:08He implied that Scientology made decisions on his dad's behalf
08:11following a stroke,
08:12which made it difficult for him to speak.
08:14While Stone and Parker apparently weren't aware of everything going on,
08:18the episode eerily mirrors what allegedly happened to Hayes,
08:21as others put words in a powerless chef's mouth.
08:25So have you decided you can still belong to the Super Adventure Club,
08:28but live here in South Park again?
08:30That's right.
08:32Jared has AIDS.
08:34For a brief period in the 2000s,
08:36this season 6 episode mysteriously disappeared from syndication,
08:40although not for the reasons you might expect.
08:42After a year of eating delicious sub sandwiches,
08:45I've proven weight loss is easy.
08:47Fans speculated it was either because of the numerous AIDS jokes
08:52or because of the episode ending with Butter's parents abusing him.
08:56Whatever the reason,
08:57it likely had nothing to do with Jared Fogle,
08:59who was then seen as an upstanding member of society.
09:03Hi, kids.
09:04Whoa, Jared.
09:05Dude, did you really lose all that weight eating nothing but sub sandwiches?
09:08I sure did.
09:09And, well, I also had a little help on the side.
09:12Oh, how wrong we were.
09:14Since revelations of Fogle's sex crimes came to light in 2015,
09:18people have debated whether this episode aged poorly
09:21or if it was ahead of the pack.
09:23Seeing everyone in South Park turn on the former Subway spokesman
09:26now comes off as foreboding,
09:28especially when Jared mentions his plans for children.
09:32Get him!
09:37Before we continue,
09:38be sure to subscribe to our channel and ring the bell
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09:53Got a nuts?
09:54In an episode that also made fun of Donald Trump, J.D. Vance,
09:57and Kristi Noem,
09:58Cartman's take on Charlie Kirk
10:00was almost an afterthought upon airing in August 2025.
10:04I'm sick of people stealing my stick.
10:06If anyone around here is gonna be a master debater,
10:09it's me.
10:10When the far-right figure was murdered that September,
10:13Kirk became this episode's key talking point.
10:15While Got a Nut remained available through streaming,
10:18it was pulled from reruns.
10:20It's not about belief, it's about truth.
10:22Science confirms life begins at conception.
10:24Some conservatives attacked the episode in the wake of his death,
10:27although the real Kirk had called the episode hilarious.
10:30Kirk's producer, Amy Colvets,
10:32also said that he would want the episode back up.
10:35Whatever your thoughts on Kirk are,
10:37it's chilling to think that within a month,
10:39he went from being parodied on South Park
10:41to the target of an assassination that made the nation stand still.
10:45Mom, you don't understand.
10:46I'm getting really good at this.
10:47I have my arguments down rock solid.
10:49These young college girls are totally unprepared,
10:50so I can just destroy them
10:52and also edit out all the ones that actually argue back well.
10:54It just feels so good.
10:55Which South Park episode do you find disturbing in retrospect?
10:59Let us know in the comments.
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