Top 20 Times South Park Roasted TV Shows

Unlike some of the other shows that they’ve taken shots at, Trey Parker and Matt Stone have praised “24,” especially its fifth season. As binge-worthy and nail-biting as the Emmy-winning drama can be, it’s not without tropes that are beyond parody. When Hillary Clinton becomes a target, Cartman channels Jack Bauer. The creators observed that even when Jack isn’t under intense circumstances, he’s always out of breath and whispering loudly. The episode also pokes fun at the show’s formula, which usually involves Jack torturing somebody until they cough up an answer and an authority figure saying they’re in charge until somebody else declares otherwise. The “24” crew nonetheless loved the episode, sending them a suitcase nuke prop as a sign of goodwill.

Long before its creator fell into infamy, it was hard to imagine “Fat Albert” as anything other than wholesome fun. Feeling that Terrance and Phillip are a bad influence, Sharon encourages Stan to instead watch “Fat Abbot,” an obvious send-up of Bill Cosby’s creation. Stan and Kyle are disappointed until Fat Abbot opens his mouth, talking more like somebody on “The Wire” than the Cosby Kids. Turns out that Abbot and his friends aren’t as innocent as Sharon remembers. “Fat Albert” tackled its fair share of serious issues, but seeing Abbot ask a young girl how she got a black eye will warp your fragile little mind. Bill Cosby himself makes a profane appearance, which almost feels like a foreshadowing of things to come.

Watching “My Super Sweet 16,” a lot of people have the same thought: these teens are little devils. “South Park” took a literal approach, casting Satan as a spoiled brat who’s never satisfied even as the universe revolves around him. The creators decided to target “My Super Sweet 16” because, in Parker’s words, it’s “probably the most disgusting, foul show ever made.” For all the controversy “South Park” attracts, Parker argued that the MTV reality show is far worse because the central figures are celebrated for being “evil” and “horrible.” At least Satan learns his lesson, finding that friendship is more important than Ferrari cakes, especially when there’s nothing wrong with an Acura cake. So basically, the girls on that show are worse than Satan.

The summer of 2009 saw a staggering number of celebrity deaths, turning little Ike into Cole from “The Sixth Sense.” To help Kyle’s brother, the boys enlist two trained professionals, Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson of “Ghost Hunters.” The Atlantic Paranormal Society founders have starred in their paranormal reality show since 2004, but “South Park” questions exactly how many genuine ghosts they’ve hunted. Although Ike is actually being visited by ghosts, Hawes and Wilson seem more concerned with random objects and noises. The two do such a good job at scaring themselves that they ruin their pants, fleeing before any real ghosts surface. The episode never clarifies if the hunters are playing it up for the camera or if they’re just dumb. Either way, burn!

Between “Three’s Company” and “Step by Step,” Suzanne Somers starred in “She’s the Sheriff,” which ran in first-run syndication. Only lasting two seasons, the sitcom has been ranked as one of the worst shows of all time. Even a decade after it first aired, the show remained infamous enough to be referenced on “South Park.” When the parents succeed in getting “Terrance and Phillip” off the air, the program is replaced with “She’s the Sheriff.” Although the boys protest at first, the parents are horrified to find that the sitcom is an even worse influence as Somers exchanges vulgarities with a perp. The parents set out to protest again, leaving their children unsupervised and ready to make some bad decisions.

We’re starting to get the sense that Stone and Parker aren’t the biggest fans of TGIF stars. The Season One finale not only mocks Bob Saget’s iconic “Full House” role, but also his stint as the host of “America’s Funniest Home Videos.” In the “South Park” universe, the “Funniest” is replaced with “Stupidest.” The boys aren’t impressed with the host’s cheesy jokes and the audience seems equally unimpressed until they inexplicably burst out laughing. Most of the videos submitted aren’t that funny either with Saget’s observations adding little. Honestly, though, watching Kenny get run over by a train is made even more disturbingly hilarious by Saget’s corny commentary while the audience cracks up over his ghastly demise. America, this is you.

Parker and Stone thought “Ghost Hunters” was a show where nothing happens. They looked at that series slightly more favorably after seeing “Whale Wars,” however. On paper, “Whale Wars” sounds badass. A group of rebels set out to protect innocent sea creatures from Japanese whalers, resorting to extreme measures. Stan quickly finds that what’s being sold on TV doesn’t reflect reality. The episode portrays host Paul Watson as a phony who lies about attacking vessels to further his cause and satisfy his hunger for attention. After Watson is taken out in the most painful way possible, Stan steps up and delivers on what the show promised: an actual war on whalers. While they’re at it, the creators find time to ridicule “Deadliest Catch” as well.

In addition to normalizing seeing gay people on TV, “Queer Eye” turned metrosexuality into a fad. Not every gay person was pleased with the reality show, however. While making “Team America,” Stone and Parker spoke with producer Scott Rudin, a member of the LGBTQ+ community. Rudin hated “Queer Eye,” feeling that it perpetuated stereotypes and gave people outside of his community permission to appropriate their culture. The “South Park” crew ran with this setup, putting the “Queer Eye” guys at the center of a conspiracy. Garrison concludes that the Fab Five aren’t really gay, exposing them as… Crab People. Say what you will about the twist, but the Crab People theme paired with the “Queer Eye” theme makes for a catchy mashup.

He was born Duane Chapman, but the world knows him better as Dog the Bounty Hunter. Initially, Stone and Parker considered parodying Dog in Season 9’s “Die Hippie, Die.” They scrapped the idea since they weren’t sure how many people knew who Dog was. By the following season, they figured that Dog had become infamous enough to receive the “South Park” treatment. Cartman fills the Dog role with a mullet and beard thrown in for good measure. Without straying too far away from his usual “authoritah”-obsessed self, Cartman mimics Dog’s look, expressions, and theme song. He even assembles a crew with one member, Beth, resembling the real Dog’s wife, who has since sadly passed away.

“South Park” has roasted numerous celebrities worthy of being deemed the worst of the worst. While they considered giving “the honor” to Rob Schneider, they settled on “Crossing Over” host John Edward. Although some believe that Edward is a legitimate medium, the “South Park” crew thinks that he’s a pretentious fraud giving people false hope and making money off their grief with cheap tricks all while proclaiming himself as a link between worlds. As far as Parker is concerned, “John Edwards will burn in Hell.” The episode breaks down Edward’s cold reading techniques as Stan repeatedly compares him to a hygienic product. It turns out that Stan isn’t the only one who’s caught on to Edward, as aliens arrive to award him a special crown.

If you’ve felt that survival shows and docuseries tend to get a little over dramatic or lean too heavily into their intense subject matter, you probably got a kick out of “I Should Have Never Gone Ziplining”. In this episode, the boys go on a ziplining trip, or as the show puts it, “a trip from Hell”. While it seems like the episode is mocking Animal Planet’s “I Shouldn’t Be Alive”, it’s all in good fun, really, and they even got the show’s narrator, Eric Meyers, to act as narrator for this episode. Whether you love or can’t stand reality shows or overtly serious documentary shows, this episode is a must-watch.

Now, THIS was more mocking and criticism. “It’s a Jersey Thing” shows Kyle slowly coming to accept his New Jersey roots, going through transitions similar to that of a werewolf. In addition to poking fun at New Jersey folks and celebrities, the show went for some of the “Jersey Shore” cast, most notably Nicole Polizzi, aka “Snooky”. Surprisingly, the cast of “Jersey Shore” actually loved the episode, even going so far as to post and laugh about it on social media. Even Teresa Giudice of “The Real Housewives of New Jersey” said she was “honored to be mocked by them”.

After seeing a WWE event, the boys sign up for wrestling at their school only to find out it wasn’t anything they had hoped for. Frustrated, they form their own pro wrestling organization, and this is where the show starts making fun of the “pro wrestling” aspect of WWE. Most of the matches are nothing more than talking trash to each other over ridiculous and petty things, and if there’s any fighting to be had, they’re just smacking chairs against each other. Of course, wrestling fans know there’s more to the shows than just that, but can you blame “South Park” for its “violent Shakespeare” take?

For a time, it seemed like TLC and other networks only wanted to make shows that focused on outrageous people and unhealthy lifestyles, and that’s what “Raising the Bar” centers on. Here, the show criticizes how unsavory shows like “Here Comes Honey Boo Boo” don’t seem to exist because they’re interesting or meaningful - it’s mostly there because of shock value. However, the end of the episode sees the show call itself out for sort of adding to the trend in their own way, having used shock value itself for years and years. It was an episode full of commentary and insight, earning the show yet another Emmy at the 2013 Primetime Emmy Awards.

Though this one was a bit more general, it’s still worth mentioning. “Cash for Gold” sees Stan trying to expose the manipulation behind home shopping networks, specifically the fictional J&G Shopping Network. The entire episode explains how shopping networks play a part in the vicious cycle of the “cash for gold” business model, showing how consumers can be cheated out of their money through cheap jewelry that will eventually be recycled into another piece of cheap jewelry. Though it ends on a rather sweet note, it has certainly made us more suspicious of the few shopping networks still lingering around today.

Cartman is such an unruly child that it seems impossible for anyone to gain control over him. This Season Ten episode sees Liane hire celebrity nannies to change her son. The show immediately does away with “Nanny 911” and “Super Nanny” as both Stella Reid and Jo Frost fail to get their methods to work on Cartman. And so, Liane is left with one last reality show star - Cesar Milan from “The Dog Whisperer”. Whereas Reid and Frost have yet to comment on the episode, Milan has publicly stated he’s seen it and thought both his caricature and the episode were “fantastic”.

If you’ve watched any show on The Food Network, you’re probably aware of the sometimes suggestive nature of their programs. “South Park” certainly noticed as evidenced by the “Creme Fraiche” episode. See, Randy seems to get turned on by the sight of pouring sauces over food, and it doesn’t help when personalities like Guy Fieri are remarking so much on meat juices. In addition to the questionably erotic terminology used by Food Network hosts, it also pokes fun at several of the network’s stars including Gordon Ramsay, Jamie Oliver, Bobby Flay, Giada De Laurentiis, and several others. Surprisingly, Ramsay has seen the episode himself and expressed his enjoyment of the show on Twitter.

Anyone who has heard of “Game of Thrones” knows about the show’s notoriously slow burn and tendency to kill off characters without a moment’s notice. While simultaneously showing their love for the show through plot parallels and references, Trey Parker and Matt Stone adapted their own version of the Red Wedding arc. As expected, characters are dying and betraying each other left and right, but it goes about it in ways that make sense outside of the sake of comedy. It also uses the violence and conflict to commentate on the absurd nature of console wars in the video game community. If you haven’t seen these episodes, you really should.

Butters, er, excuse me—Professor Chaos is ready to wreak havoc unto South Park once more, but he seems to be having some trouble this time around. According to his lackey, General Disarray, every plan in the professor’s book has been done already by “The Simpsons”. Indeed, “The Simpsons” has been around longer than any show probably should, even at the time this episode aired! But the way this observation is made is a relevant commentary on how it’s almost impossible to be completely original anymore, especially in the world of storytelling.

Of all the times “South Park” has mocked, lampooned, and scrutinized, this two-parter was the loudest of them all. Fed up with everyone comparing him to “Family Guy”, Cartman travels to FOX headquarters to get the show canceled forever with Kyle trailing behind to foil him. Throughout the episode, “South Park” criticizes “Family Guy’s” formulaic and seemingly random cutaways, going so far as to say that the show is written by manatees. Normally, this sort of thing would cause some drama between folks, but to everyone’s shock, “Family Guy” creator Seth MacFarlane praised the show and called the episode “accurate and funny”.