< South Park

South Park/Tropes E-J


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  • Early Installment Weirdness: In Episodes 2 to 6 in the first season, Kyle was the one who says, "Oh my God, they killed Kenny!", rather than Stan. The seventh episode, the first Halloween Episode, had the line said by Stan as normal at the beginning, but the ending features a variant said by Kyle. Subsequent episodes have Stan as the primary deliverer of the line. On another note, "You bastards!" wasn't said in the episode "Volcano".
  • Easy Road to Hell: A definite example in the movie. Kenny has been killed (again) and his soul drifts up towards heaven. However, as soon as he touches it, he gets an "Access Denied" message and tumbles straight down to Hell, which has a "Population" sign showing a huge and ever-increasing number, whilst the equivalent sign for Heaven revealed a tiny population. And it's not as if Kenny has exactly had time to sin much. All Played for Laughs of course.
    • In the the TV series, the only people who can get into heaven are Mormons. Everybody else goes to hell.
      • Although in "Best Friends Forever", it was mentioned that heaven grew an army whereas the overly excited Mormons are pacifists (and are at a alarmingly smaller size than hell), so this most probably means that more people were allowed in.
  • Eccentric Townsfolk: And how.
  • Eek! A Mouse!: Parodied in the episode "Eek, a Penis!".
  • Egg Sitting: The plot of "Follow That Egg!".
  • Eldritch Abomination: Wall-Mart from "Something Wall-Mart This Way Comes".
    • Also, Cartman's Trapper Keeper.
    • Cartman himself seems to go to this level in the parts of "Tsst!" with the nannies, at least fitting the criteria of causing people to lose their sanity.
    • "Coon 2: Hindsight" has Cthulhu himself. And KENNY(!!!).
  • Eldritch Location: Imagination Land
  • Embarrassing Slide: "Cartman Sucks". Literally.
  • End-of-Episode Silliness
  • Even Evil Has Standards: Cartman, for all his atrocities, draws the line at shooting people in the dick. He also loves cats, going to a lot of trouble to protect them in one episode. And he adored the Jakovasaurs, though everyone else hated them.
    • In The Movie, the Mothers Against Canada (except Sheila) support war with Canada, but not if it means their children are in the middle of it. Sheila learned her lesson the hard way.
    • Even Al freaking Qaeda suicide bombs the "armies" of New Jersey to help America before the idiocy can spread to Afghanistan.
    • Satan does this often. In addition to hating his Jerkass boyfriend Saddam Hussein, he also despises rich, spoiled 16 year old girls (he fears that he might become one, but one of his minions tells him "you're not that bad") and thinks that someone dressing up as Steve Irwin with a sting ray through their chest at his Halloween party is offensive. Turns out that it actually is Steve Irwin, so Satan kicks him out for not wearing a costume.
  • Everyone Is Bi: Every guy's masturbated with another guy before. But not in a hot tub at a party.
  • Everyone Is Jesus in Purgatory: "The Tale of Scrotie McBoogerballs" deals with this In-Universe.
  • Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: In one episode, Cartman simply cannot wrap his mind around why Stan and Kyle feel bad that Butters is going to be punished for something they did. "Is it because you think you'll get in trouble later?"
  • Evil Twin: Spoofed in "Spookyfish".
  • Evil Versus Evil: Eric Cartman vs Saddam Hussein. Eric Cartman vs. Scott Tenorman. Eric Cartman vs. Osama bin Laden. The Coon vs. Professor Chaos. Celebrities vs. ginger kids in "200"/"201" (and they eventually team up).
  • Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Some of the news reporters are people like "a Hispanic Man with Some Gravy Stains on his Lapel", or "Midget Wearing Bikini".
    • There was also a reporter who was introduced by the anchor as "a normal-looking guy with a funny name" (his name is shown as "Creamy Goodness").
  • Excellent Adventure: Parodied in "I'm a Little Bit Country" where Cartman's refusal to study for a history exam like Stan, Kyle and Kenny leads him to intentionally attempt this based on his knowledge of it by harming himself in various ways to render himself unconscious and induce a flashback. His final plan involves electrocuting himself in a tub with a TiVo that he recorded to capacity with History Channel programs. And it actually works.
  • Excuse Question: The town once held a quiz show filled with these for the benefit of Jakovasaurs in an attempt to get rid of them. Unfortunately, they didn't get the correct answers, and Officer Barbarry forgot that he was supposed to be throwing the competition.
  • Expy: All of the children at the handicapped summer camp in "Crippled Summer" save for Jimmy and Timmy, are expies of classic Looney Tunes and Tex Avery characters.
  • Extreme Doormat: Cartman's mom.
  • The Extremist Was Right: Cartman in "Die Hippie, Die".
  • Eye Scream: In the first episode of Season 8, Butters gets a shuriken stuck in his eye. He screams.
  • The Faceless: Kenny, though his face has been seen at least six times: in The Movie, "Super Best Friends", "Good Times with Weapons", "The Jeffersons", "The Losing Edge" and "Major Boobage". This, is of course combined with You All Look Familiar: If you know he has blonde hair, there's no mystery.
  • Fail O'Suckyname: Sea Man from the episode "Super Best Friends". Not only do the superhero religions call him by a pun on "semen", but it doesn't help that he can communicate with fish, one of which is a sidekick named Swallow:

Narrator: Meanwhile, in the ocean depths, Seaman seeks out water to mix with the concrete.
Sea Man: Sea Man! Look, Swallow, we should be able to divert the water with that pipe.
Narrator: And so, Seaman and Swallow get to... get to work. *laughs*

    • The boys' school football team are the Cows.
    • Butters' real name, fitting for his Woobie status, is Leopold Stotch.
      • Leopold, in this troper's opinion, is an incredibly Badass name...
  • Fake Real Turn: The Obama administration.
  • Fan Disservice: Among others, Ms. Choksondik's enormous, sagging breasts and the sex scene between her and Mr. Mackey
  • Fan of the Underdog: Pip, Butters and Dougie are all "Melvins" prone to bullying at school, and so often act as their only friends. Stan and Kyle occasionally Throw the Dog a Bone as well (so long as no one else is around).
  • Fantasy Character Classes: The five basic classes in the South Park RPG are Fighter, Mage, Thief, Cleric... and Jew.
  • Farts on Fire: Cartman in the first episode. In the Pilot version, it was caused by eating extra spicy tamales that Chef gave to the boys to help give them an excuse to leave school. In the actual premire, his anal probe was causing this.
  • Fat Camp: Cartman was sent to a fat camp, and came back skinny but it was really another kid he paid to show up.
  • Fire and Brimstone Hell: Played straight sometimes, but more often subverted. Sure, there's plenty of flame, but as often as not it seems to be a pleasant and fun place, and just about everyone winds up there regardless of their goodness or badness.
  • Five-Man Band:
    • The Hero: Stan.
    • The Lancer: Kenny (or Kyle).
    • The Big Guy: Cartman (possibly subverted in the fact that although he can enact more damage (either directly or indirectly) on someone (via manipulation et al) he's fairly weak and whiny physically).
    • The Smart Guy: Kyle (or Kenny... particularly considering that in the earlier seasons Kenny was the only one who really understood things).
    • The Chick: Wendy.
    • The Heart: Butters.
    • Tagalong Kid: Ike.
    • Sixth Ranger: Jimmy, thought this can be any of the other kids depending on the episode.
    • Also, the fandom applies this trope to Craig's team as well:
  • Flatline: Present in some episodes where characters happen to be in hospital for various reasons.
  • Flat What: Cartman gives one in "T.M.I.", when he finds out that the school actually didn't post the boys' penis sizes.
    • Cartman also does it in "Crack Baby Athletic Association", when Kyle proposes using 30% of the company's profits to build an orphanage for the crack babies.
    • Stan is quite prone to these when something immensely strange, stupid or unexpected happens. Sometimes he upgrades it to a deadpan "Dude, what the fuck?".
  • Flaw Exploitation: Cartman's revenge plot against Scott Tenorman relies heavily on this. If Stan and Kyle didn't rat him out to Scott, or Scott himself had reacted differently, the whole plan could have fallen apart.
  • Fluffy Cloud Heaven: Limited only to Mormons. It's extremely dull as a result.
  • Foe Yay: Involving Cartman/Kyle, Cartman/Butters, Cartman/Wendy and Craig/Tweek.
    • The Cartman/Kyle foe yay is perhaps most evident in the Imaginationland storyline. The lengths Cartman goes to in order to make Kyle live up to their contract are phenomenal. The contract? If Cartman can prove the existence of leprechauns, Kyle has to suck his balls.
  • Food Porn: Taken to disturbingly literal territory with Randy's short-lived obsession with Food Network in the episode "Crème Fraiche".
  • Foreshadowing: In South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, when Kenny wants to go see the Terrance & Philip movie instead of going to church, his mom says, "Well, fine, you go ahead and miss church. And then, when you die and go to hell, you can answer to Satan!"
  • For Inconvenience Press One: In the middle of a Zombie Apocalypse.
  • Formally-Named Pet: Cartman's cat Mr. Kitty.
  • For the Evulz: Apparently, the Mongolians' only motivation for repeatedly destroying sections of the Great City Wall of South Park in "Child Abduction Is Not Funny".
  • For the Funnyz
  • Free-Range Children: Very possibly the most overt use of this trope in the history of Western media.
  • The Freelance Shame Squad: When Stan shows up to the class Halloween party dressed up as Raggedy Andy (and Wendy doesn't go through with dressing as Raggedy Ann), Mr. Garrison actually says "Let's all laugh and point at Stan, everyone", and they do.
    • When Randy gets a DUI in "Bloody Mary", Mr. Garrison gives a lecture on drunk driving, in which he brings Randy into the classroom to give a half-heated apology speech. Mr. Garrison then berates him quite thoroughly as he addresses the class as Stan hides his face in agonized embarrassment.
  • From the Mouths of Babes: The kids are usually a lot more worldly than one would expect from their age, but other times they are quite innocent.
  • Fully-Automatic Clip Show: When Cartman is not invited to Kyle's birthday party, the latter mentions the times Cartman teased him for being Jewish.
  • Fur and Loathing: Spoofed to hell. Don't throw paint on a gangsta rapper's clothes.
  • Gainax Ending: The end of the Coon and Friends arc. That is all.
  • Gambit Pileup: In "Cat Orgy", Shelly is baby-sitting Cartman and invites her boyfriend over. This leads to Cartman taking a picture of them making out with the intent to show it to his mother and bust them, and eventually this leads to a - likely on the fly - pileup between the two.

Cartmen lets Shelly into his locked room.
Shelly: Haha! That was a turd trick! Your mom isn't really dead!
Cartman: Aha! I knew it was a turd trick, and I opened the door because Mr. Kitty is on his way right now to my mom's party with the picture!
Shelly: Aha! I knew you sent the cat, and that's why I went outside and got him. *Holds up the picture.*
Cartman: Aha! I saw you get the picture back from Mr. Kitty and that's why I wrote a letter to the press, to be opened in case of my demise. Should anything happen to me that letter will go out, and you will never find it.
Shelly: *Picks up the letter* You mean this one?
Cartman: ... Okay, let's see now... Aha! Umm... god damn it!

  • Game Show Appearance: "With Apologies to Jesse Jackson" opens with Stan's dad as a Wheel of Fortune contestant.
  • Garage Band: The Lords of the Underworld. They only become popular when they become Timmy and the Lords of the Underworld.
  • Genius Ditz: Randy Marsh is a brilliant scientist, but otherwise a complete idiot.
  • Genre Savvy: Subverted. The children (especially Stan and Kyle) seem to be at least partially aware of the insanity of their world and its other inhabitants, but are unable to change anything.
    • In "Stanley's Cup", the characters correctly realize that they are in a typical sports movie and thus are bound to win against all odds. They also understand that to achieve that, they need to invite a really good player to their team for the final match, which they also do. This is subverted when they turn out to be Wrong Genre Savvy and are beaten brutally: the opposing team were the real protagonists all along. Similarly, in "The Losing Edge", the team remarks that at this point of the movie, they should include a new, special player in the team to achieve their goals. Only their goal in to lose and the player is absolutely terrible.
    • Cartman plays this straight in "Spookyfish", when Stan, wanting to send Cartman to the 'evil' universe, is deciding on which one to send back. Cartman tells them to send both him and his good twin back, knowing that normally he'd never say something like that, and they send back his 'evil' self instead.
    • Also, Kenny as Mysterion is sort of Genre Savvy, treating his inability to die as a "super power".
      • Kenny in general is occasionally very genre savvy about his dying. In "Tweek vs. Craig", he avoids shop class knowing exactly what will happen (and does happen) the moment he gets around those dangerous power tools. In "It's Christmas in Canada", he's wary about getting on a plane because, saying (muffled) "dude, I'll fucking die." In "Cherokee Hair Tampons", when Stan is distraught about Kyle nearly dying, he points out with increasing irritation that nobody gives this much of a crap when he dies, before leaving in frustration (and instantly dying).
      • In fact, Kenny tends to be something of a genre-savvy straight man in general: the gag being that the audience can't generally understand what he's saying, even though it's a lampshade or something savvy.
    • Craig is this, especially in latter episodes.
  • Genre Shift: South Park initially started out as a simple surrealist comedy, but the creators later shifted it to a commentary of the real world, from everything such as politics to celebrities. The creators intentionally wrote Mr. Hat out of the show as a symbol of the transition.
    • In-universe: in "Sexual Healing", the video game franchise Tiger Woods PGA Tour turned into a pastiche of fighting games based on Woods' marital infidelity. Cartman, Stan and Kenny loved the game. Once Woods got over his sexual addiction at the end of the episode, the next PGA Tour game went back to the status quo, upsetting Cartman and Stan (Kenny, meanwhile, had died. Again.)
  • Get a Hold of Yourself, Man!: Said word-for-word to Butters in "Two Guys Naked in a Hot Tub".
  • Getting Crap Past the Radar: Despite the TV-MA rating, the show seems to have its limits as to what gets shown or heard on TV. Of course, since it's South Park we're talking about, they find loopholes...
    • According to an interview featured in This Film Is Not Yet Rated, The Movie's subtitle was supposed to be "All Hell Breaks Loose", but the use of the word "hell" was resisted. By the time that resistance figured out what else Bigger, Longer & Uncut can refer to, the authors could get away with saying they'd already ordered the posters and making new ones with the original title would cost them too much money.
    • Kenny's dialogue is not nonsensical mumbling, but just Matt Stone speaking into his sleeve. If you're able to decipher it Kenny easily has the most raunchy dialogue. Especially in the opening.
    • The Chinese man who owns the City Wok. Whenever he says "City Wok", his accent makes it sound like "Shitty Wok", much to the kids' amusement.
    • Most recently, DP-oil. Though they didn't simply get the crap past the radar, but sneaked in the control room and, well, DP-d the operator.
    • Muhammad was in the opening crowd shot for 27 episodes (from "Smug Alert!" to "The List").
    • On at least one occasion in the Coon and Friends saga, Cartman refers to Kyle as "The Human Kike" [1].
    • The bowling place in "You're Getting Old" has an arcade cabinet of Custer's Revenge [2].
    • About halfway through Season 15, the original broadcast version of episodes have now become able to say "shit" without being bleeped out, although other episodes didn't follow this. "Fuck" is still unable to be said uncensored.
  • Gilligan Cut: "Asspen" opens with all the boys' parents having drinks together, and the Stotches saying how glad they are that Butters finally seems to have finally made some close friends. Cut to the kids watching TV, and Cartman urinating on Butters while he's asleep.
    • In the episode "Woodland Critter Christmas", after Stan kills the mountain lion and finds out that the animals he had helped to build a manger are actually Satan worshipers, he repeatedly refuses to take her now-orphaned cubs to learn how to perform abortions. With a forceful "YES. HE. DID!" the scene jump-cuts to an abortion doctor, with Stan and the mountain lion cubs there. Stan is not amused.
  • The Gods Must Be Lazy: In The Movie, Satan and Saddam Hussein rise up from hell and take over earth. Only the fact that Saddam is such a Jerkass and Satan is a Jerk with a Heart of Gold saved Earth from being plunged into a 1000 years of darkness, and yet God does not seem to be doing anything to stop him. It's especially jarring considering that Jesus and God are both recurring characters, and you can actually briefly see Jesus in the background of one of the shots in the movie (when the soldiers are marching in front of Kyle's house). Also, in the newest episode "Mysterion Rises", God and Jesus don't seem to care that Cartman and the evil god Cthulhu are taking over the world.
  • Gonk: Subverted with Ugly Bob, who is by all accounts extremely hideous but has the same facial and bodily features as his fellow Canadians. This is, of course, Played for Laughs.
    • Sarah Jessica Parker is portrayed as this.
  • Good Angel, Bad Angel: Spoofed in "Ike's Wee Wee".
  • Good Angel, Bad Angel/Power Trio: Nowadays, there is a tendency for Kyle to act as the superego (good angel), Cartman act as the Id (devil), and Stan be the ego. Of course, like all things on South Park, this is played with immensely.
  • Good Girls Avoid Abortion: During the Stand and Deliver episode, one of the students is pregnant but refuses to have an abortion. Cartman convinces her otherwise (since it's "cheating").
    • There was also an episode where Cartman's mom wants to abort Cartman and slept with many politicians in order to allow abortions in the 40th trimester. It turns out, however, that she confused "abortion" with "adoption".
  • Good Is Not Nice: Kyle. Seeing some of the conflicts between him and Cartman out of context wouldn't make all that clear that Kyle's supposed to be the good guy.
    • This only happens in "Le Petit Tourette", though, in the perspective of the adults. Cartman fakes Tourette's Syndrome to get what he wants, and Kyle, who's known Cartman all his life, gets annoyed and says that he doesn't have Tourette's, and an authority figure that hears it accuses Kyle of being a bully and he is taken to observe various kids with Tourette's (with lack of swearing). He is then forced to apologize to Cartman. However, when Cartman plans to bad-mouth Jews, it's the straw that breaks the camel's back, so Kyle devises an elaborate plan that actually saves Cartman from going in too deep.
    • In earlier episodes, Stan and Kyle were essentially lower scale Jerkasses that actually joined Cartman in bullying or manipulating others when they weren't the target (usually Butters, Pip or Kenny). It was only around Cartman that they looked moralistic (though admittedly they are far more toned down and sympathetic in later episodes).
  • Good News, Bad News
  • Good Ol' Boy: Many locals, particularly the "I'm a Little Bit Country" guy.
  • Good Thing You Can Heal: In the Coon and Friends trilogy, it's revealed that Kenny coming Back from the Dead isn't just a gag, but an actual superpower. That he's had to use his power hundreds of times by the time he's turned ten is apparently a coincidence.
  • Gosh Dang It to Heck: Usually, Butters. Aversions are notable, such as the end of "Imaginationland" and the entirety of "Butters' Bottom Bitch".
    • An example that could be considered subtle in the episode "All About Mormons" is that Butters refers to Gary, the new kid, as a peckerface, but it's quiet and in the background.
    • At the end of "Christian Rock Hard", when Cartman's plan to achieve a platinum album by appealing to the CCM masses is foiled when he's told that Contemporary Christian albums go myrrh instead of platinum, he suddenly goes nuts and curses the very deity he, um, "praised" to get there. After a much offended crowed disperses, Butters, the drummer for his band, approaches Eric and farts on his face. He then flips him off, saying "Fuck you, Eric", and walks off.
  • Got Volunteered: A Running Gag with Butters, usually suggested by Cartman and agreed by Stan and Kyle.
  • Gratuitous English: Spoofed in "Good Times with Weapons".
  • Gratuitous Japanese: "Over Logging", in which we find out that Randy Marsh has a fetish for Japanese girls puking in each other's mouths (among other perversions), said porn features "dialogue" along the lines of "kawaii deshou" and "watashi wa * barf* daisuki..."
    • This gets even more amusing when you remember Trey Parker speaks fluent Japanese.
  • Gratuitous Rap:

Cartman: Well I'm a Badass cowboy living in the cowboy days. A wiki wiki scratch yo yo jiggy jiggy. Me and Artemis Clyde frog from the big metal spider. A wiki wiki what.

  • The Grays: The aliens in the first episode who put satellites in people's butts are this. This later turns out to be a plot point in a later episode they re-appear in. They are also seen in the background in nearly every episode.
    • When the series started, that part of Colorado ranked very high in UFO-related claims. Trey Parker claimed to have been abducted and probed in his first Tonight Show interview.
  • Greedy Jew: Cartman uses the term "Covetous Jew".
    • Played with heavily. Gerald Broflovski is a lawyer and has invoked this from time to time, most notably in "Sexual Harrassment Panda". It's also implied that Kyle's family is a little better off than much of the town (but nowhere near the Blacks). Kyle himself usually averts this trope despite Cartman's (hands down the most greedy character) constant ripping on Jewish sterotypes.
  • Green Aesop: Sometimes spoofed, but more often subverted in that the Aesops are anti-environmentalist. Going as far as to flat-out say that rainforrests are evil, and there's no evidence of global warming.
    • One of the creators of the show actually visited Costa Rica and... well, during the commentary for the episode "Rainforest Schmainforest", they said that Cartman's view of the place was about the reaction they'd had to seeing the rainforest and Costa Rica
  • Grotesque Cute
  • Growing Up Sucks: "You're Getting Old".
    • As it turns out, "1%" is about that too.
  • Half Arc Season: Season 6 had most of the episodes deal with Butters and Tweek as Kenny's replacements, and later Cartman being possessed by Kenny's spirit.
    • While they have different plots, most of the "non-issue" episodes in Season 4 tended to revolve around Cartman's various attempts at getting $10 million. In Season 12, it's the boys' gradual discovery of their unpopularity.
  • Handicapped Badass: Timmy and Jimmy. In "Cripple Fight", they manage to beat each other up despite being unable to walk, and Timmy is perfectly capable of... well, doing whatever it's funny for a retarded kid in a motorised wheelchair to do.
  • Hannibal Lecture: Played with in "Toilet Paper".
  • Happily Ever After: Subverted in some episodes:

"And they all lived Happily Ever After, except for Pocket who died of hepatitis B."
"And they all lived Happily Ever After, except for Kyle who died of AIDS two weeks later." ("Goddamnit, Cartman!")

  • Hard Work Montage
  • Harmless Villain: Butters' "Professor Chaos" alter-ego.
  • Haunted House Historian: A parody of Judd Crandall from Pet Sematary.
  • Have a Gay Old Time: "The F Word" argues and advocates the notion that "fag" is no longer a derogatory term for homosexuals, but for loud, annoying douchebags. Like Harley riders.
  • Head Desk: In "Hooked on Monkey Fonics", Kyle falls in love with the Homeschooled Kids Rebecca, who is unfamiliar with the public school system. When he asks her to come to the dance, she says she might see him there. Kyle explains that he meant going to the dance with him, but Rebecca explains there is no need for that since her father will drive her there. Once she leaves the room, Kyle bangs his head against her chair.
  • Headless Horseman: In "Imaginationland", the Horseman is one of the "evil" characters that resides in Imaginationland.
  • Heart Is an Awesome Power: Parodied with Captain Hindsight, whose only superpower, besides Flight, is to tell people what they should've done before an accident happened. This somehow counts as saving the day.
    • Mintberry Crunch uses his abilities to defeat Cthulhu.
  • Heavy Voice: In the second episode, when Cartman gains a lot of weight, his voice gets deeper (and thicker). The same happens to all the boys in "Make Love, Not Warcraft".
  • Heel Face Revolving Door: Cartman has gone from being one of the team to actually being the villain of the episode and back again so many times over the years, he may as well be labeled the poster boy for this trope.
    • Cartman will generally do whatever will benefit him at the moment, but there a few episodes where he does something good even when he won't get anything out of it.
  • Hell of a Heaven: Heaven is full of Mormons. This was used to punish Sadam Hussein, actually.
  • Henshin Hero: Bradley Biggle plays this trope straight to become Mint Berry Crunch. Complete with a henshin phrase, a costume influenced by Kamen Rider, and a Transformation Sequence which is heavily influenced by Sailor Moon.
  • Hermaphrodite: Liane Cartman is revealed to be one at the end of the Eric Cartman's Father Two-Parter. Though recent events suggest this may have been a fabrication.
  • Heterosexual Life Partners: Stan and Kyle, though both Randy and Cartman have questioned the 'heterosexual' part.
  • He Who Fights Monsters: Although it's never explicitly shown or mentioned in the show, this trope has been very gradually wearing away at Kyle since the beginning of the series, owing to Cartman's constant verbal, emotional, and psychological abuse. As of now, Kyle has only reached Determinator status, but his obsession breaks through rather... darkly on occasion (e.g. "Ginger Kids", "Fatbeard").
    • Abiding by some circumstances, Cartman himself. While often depicted as a sociopath and a Jerkass it is made clear the other boys enjoy picking on him whether he provokes it or not, this perhaps becomes most coherent in "Cartman's Silly Hate Crime 2000" where after Cartman's departure, Stan and Kyle label Clyde the new fat kid and pick on him excessively for no reason until he gradually gains the same obnoxious temperament as Cartman. Indeed, a lot of Cartman's treatment may come off as rather cruel and sympathetic if not for the rather extreme manners of revenge he commits.
      • The plot of "Crack Baby Athletic Association" is heavily based on Kyle fulfilling this trope. In one scene where he attempts to justify Cartman's shady behavior to Stan, Stan repeatedly responds that it "sounds like something Cartman would say" as Kyle continues his monologue. Eventually Kyle becomes enraged at Stan's comments and snaps back "I do not sound like Cartman GODDAMNIT!", complete with raspy voice and grimacing face. He quickly covers his mouth in embarrassment and commercial break ensues.
    • An interesting pattern is given in both characters' behaviour as a result of their abuse, Kyle is tortured by Cartman and thus bullies fat people, Cartman is tortured by Kyle and thus is anti-semetic.
  • Hey, You: Shelley hasn't called Stan by his given name since Season 1, generally preferring "Turd" or, on special occasions, "Stupid Turd".
  • Hidden Depths: Lots of characters but Ike in particular. He is a conservative, intellectual, jewel thief, pirate, adopted, Canadian/American, Jew in Kindergarten.
  • High on Catnip: Parodied in "Cat Orgy". Kitty brings her tomcat friends in the house, dumps catnip on the floor, and one of the cats snorts it.
  • Hilariously Abusive Childhood: Considering the fact that all the protagonists suffer from some form of child abuse, this trope follows naturally.
  • Hippie Jesus
  • Hiss Before Fleeing
  • Hollywood Atlas: Mocked. The city of South Park is a send-up of the cliches and stereotypes about "flyover country".
  • Hollywood Sex: Subverted spectacularly when Mr. Mackey and Ms. Choksondik fall for each other.
  • Hollywood Tourette's: Played straight and deconstructed in the same episode.
  • Homage: Lots of them, many of very high detail. Some notable ones:
    • "Cripple Fight" (contains an elaborate shot-for-shot remake of the protracted fight from They Live!).
    • "Proper Condom Use" casts Butters as Humungus telling the girls to "Just walk away".
    • "Imaginationland Episode II" (Kyle's Disney Death is a sequence taken from The Abyss).
      • The Imagination Doorway in the same episode is also an homage to Stargate. They even include Kurt Russel (who played one of the lead roles in the movie) in the team that gets sent through the doorway, saying that he was "in that movie that was kinda like this."
    • "Major Boobage" (hallucinations with the rotoscoped animation, hypersexualized scenarios, and music from Heavy Metal).
    • "Super Fun Time" (Butters holding Cartman's hand in the same scenarios as Wai Lin when handcuffed to James Bond in Tomorrow Never Dies).
    • Wendy fighting Cartman in "Breast Cancer Show Ever" is pretty much shot-for-shot the final fight from Snatch.
    • "You Have 0 Friends" (Stan getting "sucked into" Facebook shares many scenes directly with Tron).
    • The opening of "The Coon" has a shot taken directly from Watchmen.
      • "Coon 2: Hindsight" (contains a remake of a scene from A Clockwork Orange where Alex puts his minions in their place).
      • "In Mysterion Rises", Cartman tries to manipulate the evil god Cthulhu, resulting in a relationship similar to Satsuki and Totoro from Miyazaki's "My Neighbor Totoro". Seriously.
        • And more specifically, exactly like (as in frame for frame), Feed the Kitty.
    • (A longer list is available on the Shout Out page.)
  • Horrible Judge of Character: Played in "Free Hat" for laughs. The episode's titular character, Hat McCollough, is a serial murderer of twenty-three babies, but a protest group wants him freed from jail, claiming he killed the babies in self-defense.
    • Cartman's mom seems to think he's a "little angel" to the point where she doesn't even question his story about why he has a picture of him with Butter's penis in his mouth in "Cartman Sucks". She also lets him get away with hell on earth, and always takes his side. However, this is played with in the episode "Tsst" (like all things Southparkian).
  • Huge Holographic Head
  • Hugh Mann: "Bill Cosby" in the episode "Trapper Keeper".
  • Humanoid Abomination: Kenny might be one of these.
  • Humans Are Morons: The episode "Cancelled" reveals Earth to be a giant Reality TV show for the rest of The Universe's silly amusement.
  • Humble Goal: Many episode plots involve the kids wanting something relatively mundane -- say, getting the latest gaming system, or returning a rented video on time -- but continually getting waylaid by assorted weirdness.
    • "Margaritaville". That is all.
  • Humiliation Conga: The entire episode "Awesom-O" is this to Cartman. Especially the ending.
  • Hypocritical Heartwarming: The only time Shelley shows any affection towards Stan is when it looks like someone else might have the privilege of beating him up.
  • Hypocritical Humor: In the Spanish dub of The Movie, since there isn't a word for "bitch" in Spanish, Cartman sings "la mama de Kyle is una puta" (Kyle's mom is a whore). And we all know about Cartman's mom...
    • From "My Future Self n' Me":

Sharon: Stan, what did I tell you about watching The Osbournes?
Stan: Aw, come on, Mom.
Sharon: It's going to make you retarded!

Stan: It's just a show! It doesn't have any fucking effect on me, for fuck's sake!

    • In the episode "Free Hat", the boys attempt to get George Lucas and Steven Spielberg to stop releasing updated and altered versions of their movies. Midway through the episode, there is an advertisement for a fictional updated rerelease of "Cartman Gets an Anal Probe" that includes things such as CGI, Star Wars characters, and other things Parker and Stone didn't have the budget for when they initially created the series.
    • In "I'm a Little Bit Country", Sheila is holding a picket sign reading "War Is Not My Voice" at the anti-war protest. Strange considering the fact that she once started one!
    • In "201", Jesus says that people get upset when Muhammad is made un of because he's a religious figure, immediately followed by Buddha doing crack in front of kids.
  • I Am Big Boned: Cartman.
  • I Am Not My Father: Stan in particular is pretty ashamed of his father most of the time and tries to avoid being like him, not that he always succeeds.
    • To a lesser extent, Kyle's like this, but usually with his mother.
  • I Ate What??:
    • Scott Tenorman's parents is the most infamous example.
    • The "chocolate milk mix" Cartman drank. It was actually Kenny's cremated body.
    • The baby (technically, since it doesn't say anything) in the Mr. Hankey Fake Commercial.
  • I Banged Your Mom: Cartman's mom is known for this. By everyone in town. Including the women. Including Jesus. Including the time traveling robot.
  • Icarus Allusion: In "Cartman's Incredible Gift", Cartman tries to fly from his roof with cardboard wings and ends up in the hospital recovering from head trauma. The cops believe that he now has psychic abilities because they have heard of similar cases; they take his advice and dismiss Kyle's. Kyle concludes he has to be as stupid as Cartman to be acknowledged. Before he does so, Butters tells him not to fly too close to the sun.
  • Idiot Ball: The adults always get tossed this.
    • In "Major Boobage", Kyle is handed one when he takes home a cat despite a ban on them because their urine was a drug for "cheesing".
  • I'm Mr. Future Pop Culture Reference: Parodied with VSM 471, a cyborg from the year 2034 coming to our time and adopting the name "Bill Cosby".
  • Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: Happens often with automatic weapons. Particular examples include "Wing", where multiple Chinese thugs fire at the boys and miss completely from mere feet away and "Medicinal Fried Chicken", when a bunch of heavily-armed gangsters are taken down slowly and one by one, in a close-range gunfight with South Park's incompetent police force, who are wielding only pistols.
  • Incredibly Lame Fun: In the episode "Here Comes the Neighborhood", while the rich kids play polo, the "normal" kids amuse themselves by running around and kicking each other in the balls.
  • Incurable Cough of Death: The episode "Kenny Dies" first shows Kenny coughing a bit, and it being commented that he's had the cough for a while. The titular death is the result of "a muscular disease".
  • Indian Burial Ground: They have a couple episodes with them, featuring full-on homages to Pet Sematary.
  • Informed Attractiveness: In "Pre-School", the Fifth Graders say Stan's mom has the hottest "bewbs" in South Park.
  • Informed Deformity: Played for laughs with Ugly Bob from "Terrance and Phillip in Not Without My Anus".
  • Informed Obscenity: In the episode "It Hits the Fan", The Knights of Standards and Practices each represent a different bad word. One of these: Mee Krob, the name of a really nasty Thai dish.
  • Infant Immortality: Subverted and played straight: while one of the recurring gags of the show is the death of Kenny, he keeps coming back at the next episode. Eventually is revealed that Kenny is indeed immortal. Played straight with Cartman, Stan and Kyle that, despite being put constantly on situations that normally would kill somebody (like for example, being in the middle of the war), they manage to survive.
  • Insane Troll Logic: How else can you get from buttsex (which wasn't even mentioned) to binary code?
    • Pretty much all adults (and often the children too though less frequently) use Insane Troll Logic most of the time. And that's all of them, in the world.
  • Inspirationally Disadvantaged: Cheerfully subverted with Timmy and Jimmy, who in addition to having plenty of achievements that have nothing to do with their disabilities also have dynamic personalities, with character strengths and flaws.
  • Instant Awesome, Just Add Mecha: Mecha Streisand.
  • Intentional Engrish for Funny: "Let's Fighting Love".
    • And, Trey Parker majored in Japanese. Translated, there are some jokes in there.
      • Some of the lines translate to things such as "I have a fantastic penis", "This English is screwed up". If you ever wanted to know the Japanese word for a man's jewels, it's in there as well.
  • Intercourse with You: Pretty much every time Chef sings, intentional or not.
  • Internal Retcon: The 200th episode revealed this to be the case with the early story arc concerning Cartman's father.
  • Invisible Streaker: Subverted in "Good Times with Weapons", wherein Cartman attempts this during the fairgrounds auction at the climax in the episode, but he was only imagining things -- he ends up nude on stage and causing bigger controversy than the sight of Butters with a ninja star impaled in his eye.

Mr. Garrison: You see the damage you've caused, Eric Cartman? What were you thinking?!

Cartman: I told you it was a Wardrobe Malfunction!

  • Irony: In "Cartman Joins NAMBLA", Kenny spends the whole episode trying to stop his father from impregnating his mother, then when that doesn't work, he tries to get rid of the unborn baby anyway. In the end, Kenny dies (again) before the baby is born, and the baby becomes him.
    • That doubles as Fridge Logic/Horror, considering Kenny's immortality. This might have been his attempt to stop the cycle.
  • I See Dead People: Or Dead Celebrities.
  • It Got Worse: BP first drills into the ocean and creates another oil spill. Then they dig again and release monsters from another dimension. They dig into the moon now, can't get worse right? They release Cthulhu.
    • Oh come on, that's total bullshit... everyone knows Cthulu is sealed somewhere in the Atlantic near Antarctica!
  • It Is Always Winter: It is almost always winter in this show, even during times of the year when it shouldn't be. A rare exception is in "Summer Sucks", where humor comes from how quickly everyone gets bored with the lack of snow, which was probably a response to TV Guide claiming during Season 1 that Trey Parker was too stupid to animate the characters' legs.
    • Cartman makes a joke in one episode about having only two seasons in South Park: winter and July.
    • Semi-justified by the fact that South Park is a mountain town.
  • It Makes Sense in Context: In "200", when they discussed the last time Muhammad appeared in public.

Sergeant Yates: Muhammad showed up and there was no violence at all?
Stan: Well, this giant John Wilkes Booth shot Abraham Lincoln...[3]

    • In-universe example from the episode "Cartoon Wars Part II".

Cartman: Excuse me, Kyle, but I have some idea balls to remove from a manatee tank.
(turns and leaves)
Kyle: What!?

    • "Chef's Chocolate Salty Balls", which are actually balls made of chocolate which taste salty, not Chef's testicles.
  • It's Always Snowy in South Park
  • It's Been Done: "Simpsons Already Did It".
  • It's Popular, Now It Sucks: An In-Universe Parody: "If you work in the entertainment industry, and you make money, you're a sellout."
  • Ivy League for Everyone
  • I Was Told There Would Be Punch and Pie: The kids' lure to get people to join La Résistance.
  • Japanese Ranguage: "Herro, Shitty Wok!"
  • Jerkass: Cartman is one of television's most infamous examples, making Homer Simpson post-season nine look like Ned Flanders pre-"Alone Again, Natura-Diddly" (or pre-"Hurricane Neddy").
    • Also, Saddam Hussein.
    • Scott the Dick.
    • All of the adults have had their moments, as well. In particular, Sheila because she's overbearing, the school staff because they're incompetent morons, Butters' parents because they treat him badly, Officer Yates because of his Lawful Stupid nature, and Randy because he's Randy.
  • Jesus Was Way Cool: Jesus is just a friendly guy living in suburbia and hosting his public access TV show.
    • Until he went and sacrificed himself... to save Santa Claus from kidnappers in Iraq on Christmas Day, thus forever marking Christmas as a day to remember Jesus... for saving Santa Claus in Iraq.
      • He came back near the end of Holy Saturday (which is close to Easter Sunday), to help put down the extensive corruption in the Catholic Church (with the help of its friendly, but somewhat impotent, pope).

"I'm pretty sure that killing Jesus is not very Christian."

Chef: Children, playing football is like making love to a really beautiful woman. You can't always score, but when you can, it makes all the trying worthwhile.

  1. ↑ "Kike" is an offensive term for a Jewish person.
  2. ↑ Custer's Revenge is a notoriously pornographic video game from the early days of video gaming.
  3. ↑ In "The Super Best Friends", while the Blainetologists are trying to commit mass suicide, David Blaine brought the Lincoln statue at the Lincoln Memorial to life in order to attack the Super Best Friends. The Super Best Friends, in turn, create a statue of Booth to assassinate the Lincoln statue.
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