< South Park

South Park/Tropes R-V


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  • Race Against the Clock: "Sorry, boys. No ticket stub, no candy shopping spree. If you find it, you can come back, but you only have one week to claim the prize. That's called 'The Ticking Clock.' Works great in the movies."
  • Raging Stiffie: Jimmy had that for practically all of "Erection Day". It got even worse in his dream, where his boner just kept growing. Not surprisingly, the audience chortled at it.
  • Rashomon Style: Cartman, with himself regarding the invention of the joke, in "Fishsticks".
  • "Reading Is Cool" Aesop: In "Chicken Lover".
  • Reality Is Unrealistic: When Edge appeared in the wrestling episode, he was animated to look like any other character on the show. Edge is actually Canadian, and we all know how ridiculous they're normally made to look, so it was probably done on purpose to avoid ruining the scene.
  • Reality Subtext: In the episode "Fishsticks", Jimmy writes a joke that Cartman seeks to publicize as their joke, even though he sat on the couch and ate chips while Jimmy came up with the actual joke (although Cartman remembers it as being the other way around). Much of the episode is dedicated to this conflict, and the episode ends with Cartman apologizing to Jimmy - for not accommodating Jimmy's belief that he wrote most of the joke. The season that contains this episode was the first to not co-bill Matt Stone as a writer for the show, and during Jimmy and Cartman's interview with Ellen, Cartman is shown with the same hair and clothing that Trey Parker is seen wearing in interviews. However, nobody on the Internet has commented on this because everybody focused on the episode's treatment of Kanye West.
    • Stan's whole final speech in "Ass Burgers". The previous episode "You're Getting Old" had looked like it might change the show dramatically, and fans (mirroring Stan in-universe) were worried that the change would be bad for the show. So in-universe, Stan gets over his emo phase, gives a whole Aesop about how things can change for the better with the entire speech Leaning on the Fourth Wall... only to play Status Quo Is God, hit the Reset Button, and return the show to exactly where it was.
      • And note that it's note the original status quo, but the last episode where Stan was depressed. Meaning that Stan is still, even if more so, depressed while everything else is the same. Meaning, Kyle, Cartman, and Kenny still hang out with Stan, he lives in the same house, goes to the same school, his parents still live together and all this with the added bonus that Stan turned to alcohol to try and be happy.
      • At least he isn't hearing any shit from Big Harry and Mike in the Morning anymore...
  • Reasonable Authority Figure: Chef and Principal Victoria. Also, President Bush, as he was the only one in "Cartoon Wars Part II" who defended the Family Guy writers rights to free speech instead of having them arrested like many people were recommending.
  • Recycled in Space: Played completely straight. There was an episode "Starvin' Marvin", followed two seasons later with "Starvin' Marvin IN SPACE".
  • Redheaded Hero: Kyle.
  • Redheaded Stepchild: The episode "Ginger Kids".
    • It turned out, in the episode "201", that Cartman got half his genes from Scott Tenorman's father. He is very upset over being half-ginger, though he calmed down when told he is also half Denver Bronco.
  • Red Oni, Blue Oni: At first, Stan and Kyle had pretty similar personalities, but later on, as the series progressed, they were differenced. Stan was deadpan, impassive, more introvert and sensible, while Kyle was impulsive, outward-looking, sociable and rash, especially when he wanted to stop Cartman.
    • This is available for Craig (Blue) and Tweek (Red), too.
  • Red Shirt: In "City on the Edge of Forever", the unnamed kid who gets off the bus after Mrs Crabtree warned them that "A big scary monster WILL EAT YOU!!" is actually wearing a red Star Trek shirt.
  • Reference Overdosed: And how.
  • Refuge in Audacity: As a prime example, the episode "It Hits the Fan". Matt and Trey couldn't get the network to agree on letting them say "shit" uncensored normally, however, when Trey said, "What if we said it like...200 times in a single episode?", the network exec in charge of censorship responded, "That's... an interesting idea."
    • Inverted Trope in a sense in "201", when Comedy Central wouldn't allow them to air Muhammad's image. Censoring the image? Ok, whatever. Censoring EVERY SINGLE TIME they mentioned his name, at least 100 or more bleeps, as well as the entire "I learned something today..." speech at the end? They actually crossed the line twice in the OPPOSITE direction.
      • This may unfortunately be due to the death threat by a radical Islamic group, who were offended by the previous episode's depiction of Muhammad in a bear costume. (Turns out that was actually Santa Claus in the costume. Ahem.)
      • A death threat posted on a website owned, run, and completely managed by people in New York, something that Jon Stewart did not let slip by.
    • The episode "Medicinal Fried Chicken". Many of the men get testicular cancer, causing their testicles to swell to enormous size. They then start running around town, bouncing on their grotesquely swollen balls as though they were hippity-hops. And getting a ridiculous little melody playing whenever they pass.
        • A particularly complicated example in which Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, John McCain and Sarah Palin are all jewel thieves trying to steal the Hope Diamond from the White House. Boom, baby.
  • Refuge in Vulgarity: See above.
  • Refusal of the Call: Craig in "Pandemic". Repeatedly. Emphatically. Unsuccessfully.
  • Remember the New Guy?: In "Red Man's Greed", there's a random kid acting like a regular. He wears a sweatshirt that says "Alex" so we'll know who he is. (Of course, at the end of the episode, Stan asks who he is and we find out that he got to come on and do the guest voice thing.)
  • The Renaissance Age of Animation
  • Rent-A-Zilla
  • Replacement Flat Character: Butters, created to fill the Butt Monkey role better than Pip.
  • Replacement Scrappy: In-universe example, both Butters and Tweek get this treatment from the boys themselves in attempts to replace Kenny as the token fourth friend -- Butters for his innocence and lack of backbone (to the point where an entire episode revolved around the boys kicking Butters out and running a contest for a new replacement), Tweek for his paranoia. Ironically, for all their guilt trips and manipulation involving Kenny's death, the boys had in fact nearly completely got over it and all but forgotten about "that asshole". The sixth season was generally one giant Kick the Dog for the three main boys.
  • Reset Button: Kenny's death, sometimes even lampshaded.
  • Resurrective Immortality:
    • Kenny has this power. This was confirmed in the episode "Mysterio Rises" as he explains that he dies but wakes up in his bed the next day, and no-one else has any memories of his death, but this had been hinted at several times before, notably after the episode where he was Killed Off for Real and replaced by Tweek, and later Butters.
    • Jesus. In one episode, he escapes from a jail cell (in the Vatican) by having Kyle kill him and resurrecting on the other side of the door. He can only do this on Easter though.
  • Revenge Before Reason: Cartman, usually disproportionate to the offense. Kyle, who is usually the most logical of the boys often devolves into this when Cartman is involved.
  • Right for the Wrong Reasons: In "Cartman Finds Love", Cartman tries to force Token and Nicole together just because they're both black, but it turns out they're perfect for each other anyway.
  • Right Place, Right Time, Wrong Reason: Cartman decides in prejudiced irrationality that the new Arab student is a terrorist and pulls out all the stops to save Hillary Clinton, who, coincidentally, is in South Park that very same day. Even though Cartman's theory is completely unfounded, it turns out that there are terrorists plotting to kill Hillary Clinton (Russians secretly working for the British)--but the only reason we found out about them is thanks to Cartman's prejudice. This is Lampshaded heavily at the end, when they deliver the story's moral about tolerance only for Cartman to point this out.
  • Ripped from the Headlines: Because of the short time to animate episodes, they can be far more topical than nearly any show on TV.
  • Risky Business Dance: Kyle does this when his parents are arrested for child molestation, leaving him to take care of himself.
  • Robeast: Barbra Streisand undergoes a henshin-style Transformation Sequence into Mecha-Streisand, a blatant Expy of Mecha-Godzilla. Comes back in the episode "200".
  • Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Kyle in "Tonsil Trouble", when he finds out Cartman infected him with his AIDS virus.
  • Robosexual: Parodied a few times.
  • Rodents of Unusual Size: Giant carnivorous guinea pigs.
  • Roger Rabbit Effect: Said guinea pigs. This was an interesting example, as they were giant.
  • Rule of Cute: According to the commentary, the logic behind "The Losing Edge" was "Wouldn't the boys look cute in baseball outfits?".
    • There was a similar reasoning behind "Pre-School".
  • Rule of Funny: This show is probably the ultimate litmus test for it. If they can't make it funny, no one can.

"You know what this means? AIDS is funny now!"

  • Run for the Border: Inverted in "The Last of the Meheecans". Butters inspires a resurgence of nostalgia, homesickness, and nationalism that causes Mexican emigrants to the United States to cross the border back into Mexico. Border patrol guards eventually have to guard the border on the U.S. side instead to prevent the loss of menial labourers to the American economy.
  • Running Gag: Other than the obvious ones, such as Kenny dying, there are other, smaller ones such as Cartman's almost unvarying goal to get "ten million dollars". It's never explained why he wants exactly ten million dollars, and the closest they get to it is when another character reveals their own plan to get ten million dollars, they say "that's how scams work".
    • In "Cartmanland", it is revealed Cartman always wanted one million dollars to buy a theme park. Why he wants the other nine is never shown.
    • THEY TOOK OUR JOBS!
    • During the earlier seasons at least, there is at least the outline of one of the aliens from the first episode's heads once per episode. EVERY. SINGLE. EPISODE.
    • On the DVD release of the first season, Matt and Trey have "Fireside chats" between the episodes, in which they have a dog named "Old Scratch" who changes breed (and even changes into stuffed animals) each time he is seen.
    • There was also more than one mention of Cartman wanting to give Kyle AIDS. Until he does.
    • Scott is a dick.
  • Running Gagged: Kenny's deaths. They were about once an episode before the end of Season 5, where they killed Kenny in the most dramatic way possible in an episode called "Kenny Dies". After staying dead for about a season, he came back and only dies approximately once a season, if not at all.
  • Sadist Teacher: Mr./Mrs. Garrison is sometimes one.
  • Safety Worst: In "Broadway Bro Down", Larry is a little boy with very overprotective parents; his parents always have him wearing a life vest to prevent drowning. During the episode, Shelley convinces him that he doesn't need to wear the vest all the time. Ironically, (Death by Irony) Larry drowns at the end of the episode, and the news reporter comments that he might have survived if he was wearing a life vest.
  • Sanctuary of Solitude: In "Cartmanland", after Kyle gets a hemorrhoid, he goes to the church to contemplate by himself. He yells at God and wonders how this could have happened to him.
  • Sanity Slippage: It is subtle but the episode "%1" ends with the implication that Cartman's sociopathic tendencies are growing into a full blown psychosis.
    • Even without any greater implications, you can see his sanity suffer with each stuffed animal destroyed.
  • Satan: Portrayed as half of a homosexual pairing with Saddam Hussein. The submissive half.
  • Saw Star Wars 27 Times: Eric Cartman claims to have seen The Passion of the Christ 34 times (in movie theaters) in the episode "The Passion of the Jew".
  • Scam Religion: Has portrayed both Scientology and Mormonism is this way (and the AA movement, too). Ironically, other episodes have shown that Mormons are the only people who get into Heaven, so it's not taking itself that seriously.
    • Nearly every religion spotlighted in the show is depicted as having corrupt or hypocritical undertones. That said, it is often balanced with a redeeming view of it's followers (Mormon Gary for example views that even if his religion is a scam his family have happy satisfying lives as a result of the ethics it teaches). This extra complexity is interestingly left out during the show's jab at Scientology (when it seems this moral is about to given the Scientologist members all throw tantrums and threaten to sue anyone that mocks their religion).
      • The voice actor for Chef (A CLOSE personal friend of the creators) left the show over Scientology, so they're probably, quite understandably a little bitter about that (they also think Scientology contributed to his eventual death, which...).
  • The Scottish Trope
  • Second Place Is for Winners: "The Losing Edge", where the boys try to lose at baseball because they don't want to play. Everyone else has the same idea.
  • "Seen It All" Suicide: Attempted by Cartman after being introduced to High School Musical.
  • Selective Enforcement: With all the terrible things Cartman has done, the one thing that got the other kids to give him the silent treatment was his eating the skin off the KFC.
  • Self-Deprecation: In "A Very Crappy Christmas", after the boys created The Spirit of Christmas and showed it to the town:

Mayor: Kids, that cartoon was fabulous. How would you like to have your own show and make 100 more of them?
Stan: Are you kidding? I think we'd rather stab ourselves in the head.

    • Terrance & Philip" mocks their potty humor and jokes.
  • Self-Made Orphan: Cartman. Well, half way at least.
    • Scott Tenorman, indirectly.
  • Self-Serving Memory: In "Fishsticks", Cartman repeatedly recalls to the origin of the fishsticks joke, each time getting more and more fantastical.
  • Sensitivity Training
  • Serenade Your Lover: Stan is advised to stand outside Wendy's window and play Peter Gabriel. He picks "Shock the Monkey"...
  • Series Continuity Error: Unsurprising in such a long series.
    • Randy (a geologist) is mentioned as the only scientist in town, but later Token's mother is said to be a chemist, and Clyde's father a geologist.
      • And later, Clyde's father is not a geologist but a shoe store owner.
    • Kenny is revealed to have a younger sister in "Best Friends Forever", when previously the McCormicks were stated to have two children. Unsurprisingly, she hasn't appeared since and Matt Stone admitted that she was an oversight.
      • Apparently, they decided to roll with it after all and actually featured her in the episode "The Poor Kid".
    • Sometimes Kyle's family are the only Jews in South Park, sometimes there are more.
    • They're particularly bad with names:
      • Jimbo Kern/Kerns.
      • Also, Jimbo was supposed to be Sharon's brother, but then they gave her the maiden name "Kimble", so he was Retconned as Randy's half-brother.
      • Jimmy Swanson/Vulmer.
      • Stephen/Chris Stotch.
      • Token Black/Williams.
      • Bob/Steve Black/Williams.
      • Alphonse/Alfonz Mephesto/Mephisto.
      • Clyde Donovan/Harris.
      • Casey/Sky/Kevin. Fans tried to reconcile the first and the third by changing "Casey" to "KC" (with "C" being an initial for his surname). It worked well enough until his surname was revealed to be "Stoley".
      • "Broflovski" is often misspelled.
      • "McCormick" was spelled "McKormick" in both the Season 5 opening and in "Kenny Dies".
      • Sheila Broflovski and Sharon Marsh were both called Carol in the episode "Death".
      • Butters was referred to as "Swanson" in Season 2's "Conjoined Fetus Lady", while a female classmate Annie was called "Jordan".
      • Ethan/Herbert/Janet Garrison.
    • They frequently go back and forth on who's aware of Kenny's deaths.
      • In "Cartmanland", when Cartman is sued for Kenny's death at his theme park, Cartman bursts out, "Who, Kenny? He dies all the time!"
      • In "Chinpokomon", Cartman repeatedly has to fend off rats from Kenny's catatonic body, saying, "No! He's not dead yet!"
      • In "Chef Goes Nanners", Kenny dies from ingesting antacid tablets he thought were mints. After he explodes, the boys simply respond with "That was a good one!"
      • In "Gnomes", Stan, Cartman and Kyle are completely indifferent to the gnomes killing Kenny. The gnomes are horrified, but the three boys make it explicitly clear they just don't care.
      • On the OTHER hand, Kenny is the only one aware of his deaths in other episodes. In "Cherokee Hair Tampons", Stan is distraught over possibly seeing Kyle die from kidney failure. He opens up to Kenny about how lost he feels watching a friend die, to which Kenny responds (muffled) "You never seem to care when I die!". Stan doesn't acknowledge Kenny spoke.
      • In "Tweek vs. Craig", Kenny is terrified to take shop class. When he is finally transferred into the class, much to his distress, one of the other boys tells him, "Come on, Kenny, you're not going to die!".
      • "City on the Edge of Forever" is mostly clip shows with altered endings from old episodes, all of which the boys remember despite the screwed up, ice cream-centric endings. However, Stan and Kyle call Cartman out on 'lying' about a past episode because Cartman's recount of it included Kenny's death from that episode.
      • And of course, there's the Mysterion arc of Season 14, which focuses almost entirely on Kenny's power. He dies a total of 4 times in the arc--3 of them by suicide--in an attempt to prove to the other boys that he does, in fact, keep dying. Despite pulling the trigger on himself in front of six of the other boys, he's never able to get any of them to remember his death after he comes back to life.
  • Serious Business: At this point, making a list of episodes that DON'T feature this trope would be much shorter. Whatever form it takes, Randy Marsh usually gets involved in a big way.
    • What really takes the cake is "Cartoon Wars". Many characters treat Family Guy like World War Three, and Kyle nearly dies trying to stop Cartman from getting it canned.
  • Sex as Rite-of-Passage: Butters getting his first kiss in "Butters' Bottom Bitch" is an obvious metaphor for this trope.
  • Shaped Like Itself: The episode "Cartoon Wars Part I" gave us the quote, "If we're still alive in the morning, then we'll know we're not dead."
  • Shell Shocked Senior: "The Mole" in The Movie, despite being the same age as the boys.
  • Shipper on Deck: Surprisingly, Cartman in Episode 230. He goes to great lengths to pair Token up with the new girl in school. True to form, however, it's only because she's also black and Cartman thinks they should be together solely on that racist notion.
  • Shmuck Bait: Poor, poor Butters. Every single time. And a lot of the time he just never catches on.
  • Shoot the Shaggy Dog: "Stanley's Cup".
  • Shotacon: A bit of a running gag.
  • Should Have Thought of That Before X: In the "Cartman's Mom Is a Dirty Slut" two-parter:

Liane: I mean, what right do I have bringing another child into this overpopulated world? Then again, I should have thought of that before having sex...

  • Shouldn't We Be in School Right Now?: Handwaved in "Kenny Dies".
    • In the beginning of "Ass Burgers", Kyle, Kenny, and Cartman leave the bus stop moments before the bus arrives to ask Gerald if Aspergers Syndrome is real. At class, Officer Barbrady shows up with them, saying they were caught playing hooky.
  • Shout-Out: Shout-outs have their own page.
  • Show Within a Show: Terrence and Phillip, Jesus & Pals, among others.
  • Shrunken Organ: Osama bin Laden's penis.
  • Side Bet
  • Similar Squad: Craig's Gang.
  • Skewed Priorities: At the end of "The Death Camp of Tolerance", the boys are pulled from the Tolerance Camp after a huge misunderstanding. "You have no idea how much we've suffered!" said Sheila Broflovski to the emaciated Stan, Kyle, Cartman and Butters, in full Heroic BSOD mode.
  • Skyward Scream: Cartman doesn't react well to Scott burning his money.
  • Slash Fic: Oh, God, almost Everyone Is Gay in the South Park Fan Fiction.
  • Small Town Rivalry: A three-way one between South Park, North Park, and Middle Park.
  • Smoking Is Glamorous: Actually, not smoking is stupid and dorky, based on an assembly hall presentation.
  • Snap Back: Kenny's deaths, destruction of the town.
    • Subverted hard in "Mysterion Rises". After 14 seasons, it turns out that Kenny is completely aware of every single death.
      • And going right into a Crowning Moment of Funny, when Kenny gets fed up with the gang and decides to just go to bed and get a good night's sleep. ...By shooting himself in the head.
  • Soapbox Sadie: Wendy, especially if the creators are trying to deliver a heavy-handed liberal Aesop.
  • Sociopathic Hero: In "Scott Tenorman Must Die", Cartman starts as this, going up against Scott Tenorman, who is portrayed as even worse than Cartman. But then the ending comes and subverts it, showing that Cartman is actually much, MUCH more sinister.
  • Solid Gold Poop: "How about a taco...that craps ice cream?"
  • Something Completely Different: Many, many times, including "Butters' Very Own Episode", devoted to side character Butters Stotch; several musical episodes; "It Hits The Fan", which set out to break the world record for the number of inclusions of the word "shit" (162 in total); "Good Times with Weapons", an Affectionate Parody of Shonen fighting anime that spent half its running time as anime; "Pip", which was devoted entirely to spoofing the Charles Dickens story Great Expectations, etc. One of the most notable is probably The Movie, which is both deliberately cruder than the TV series (it has an anti-censorship theme, as well as an "R" rating), and a full-fledged musical.
    • First seen in "Terrance and Phillip in Not Without My Anus", which was a complete Terrance & Phillip half-hour TV special. It might have been more popular if it hadn't aired on the night when viewers were expecting to see the second part of a Cliff Hanger.
  • Son of a Whore: Cartman. In the first season finale, he learned that his mom had slept with the entire named adult population of South Park.
    • ...including Jesus.
    • ...and the entire roster of the 1989 Denver Broncos.
    • ...and a black guy.
      • All of which were being tested to find out who had fathered Cartman at the 12th Annual Drunken Barn Dance. So yeah...
      • And one of the Denver Broncos turned out to be the father of Scott Tenorman and Cartman both.
    • ...but Halfy didn't sleep with her.
      • How can he? He doesn't have any legs!
  • Sorry, Ociffer...: "What seems to be the officer, problem?"
  • Soundtrack Dissonance: Professor Chaos' pitiful attempts at committing evil are only made all the funnier by the genuinely sinister and dramatic orchestral Leitmotif accompanying his schemes.
    • Later episodes often have this melodramatic piano music or orchestra playing in some scenes that are actually funny in the right context.
  • Space Whale: The plot of "Free Willzyx" relies on this trope.
  • Space Whale Aesop: From "Fun with Veal":

Stan: It's wrong to eat veal because the animals are so horribly mistreated, but if you don't eat meat at all you break out in vaginas.

  • Spell My Name with an "S": Kyle's surname is usually Broflovski, but it has appeared as Brovlofski, Broflofski and Broflowski.
    • Many fans tend to leave out the second "e" in Shelley's name.
  • Sphere Eyes: The entire cast, of course, excluding the Canadians and Saddam Hussein.
  • Split Personality: In "City Sushi", it is revealed that the City Wok guy is actually a white man named Doctor Janus, who has at least 10 different personalities. The cops decide to let him live as the City Wok owner, as it is the strongest developed and most practical for the town.
  • Spontaneous Human Combustion: Kenny is shown dying via Spontaneous Combustion in one episode; it’s later explained that Kenny had a new girlfriend and was holding in all his farts.
  • Spoonerism: The boys make one on occasion. For example, in "Spontaneous Combustion", the boys confuse "an erection" with "a nerection", and in "Timmy 2000", when the boys learn about Attention Deficit Disorder, Kyle says, "Wait, I think maybe I have Attention Diffunction Disorder."
  • Springtime for Hitler: In "The Losing Edge", despite trying to get themselves eliminated from the baseball playoffs because they hate it and are pressured into playing it by their parents, the boys make it all the way to the finals because every other team is trying to do exactly the same.
  • Standard Police Motto: Parodied; the side of Officer Barbrady's patrol car has "To Patronize and Annoy" on it.
  • Star-Crossed Lovers: Parodied in "Miss Teacher Bangs a Boy" with Ms. Stevenson and Ike.
  • Status Quo Is God: Lampshaded multiple times.
    • The first time in the episode "Mecha Streisand", a reporter appears, saying that the town had managed to rebuild itself "just weeks after the devastating attack of mutant genetic creatures, zombies, and Thanksgiving turkeys." Then Mecha Streisand shows up and begins to wreck the town, prompting a "not again" comment from the reporter.
    • The second time in "201", after the main events of the plot is resolved, the mayor announces, "Alright, people, let's start rebuilding our town! ...for the 39th time."
    • In "You're Getting Old":

Sharon: "It’s like the same shit just happens over and over, then in a week it just all resets until it happens again. Every week it’s kind of the same story in a different way, but it just keeps getting more and more ridiculous."

    • And its sequel "Ass Burgers" has Stan accepting the change in his life, only to have everything change back to the way it was against his will. Sharon even remarks at how sometimes it's just best to stick with what you know.
    • A straight example happens when it is discovered that the City Wok owner is the psychotic, murderous Caucasian Dr. Janus. Since he's the only Asian restaurant owner left in town after the Japanese sushi chef whom he harassed killed himself after this reveal, the police lets him go away.
  • Stealth Pun: In "The F Word", the dictionary's head editor is Emmanuel Lewis.
    • In "Royal Pudding", the various Canadian wedding "traditions" that get increasingly bizarre and disgusting are being acted out by The Aristocrats who are getting married.
  • Stern Teacher: Ms. Choksondik.
  • Stock Ninja Weaponry: "Good Times with Weapons" sees the boys buy ninja weapons and run amok with them.
  • Stock Sound Effects: South Park just loves using these more than most of the shows.
  • The Stoic: Craig is like this, most of the time, especially when he flips people off.
  • Strawman Political: Sometimes Lampshaded, sometimes played straight.
    • The one consistent political message in South Park is that too many people pay way, way too much attention to politics. Anyone with a pet political cause of any kind almost always will be portrayed as a troublesome fool -- when not a villain.
  • Stuck on Band-Aid Brand: The Sega Dreamcast and Nintendo Wii have both appeared on episodes. Each console was mentioned repeatedly with its manufacturer's name, where a normal person would just say "Dreamcast" or "Wii".
  • Student Teacher Romance: Between Miss Stevenson and Ike. Ike is three years old.
  • Stupid Sexy Flanders: "Two Guys Naked in a Hot Tub" takes this one all the way.
  • Suck E. Cheese's: Whistling Willy's. Played straighter in its initial appearance, where it was called "Krust E.Crotch".
    • Raisins = Hooters for eight-year-olds.
  • Suckiness Is Painful: The Raiders of the Lost Ark special edition.
  • Sugar Apocalypse: The "Imaginationland" episodes.
  • Suicide as Comedy: Shows up with disturbing frequency. One has to wonder how this reflects on the mental health of the creators...
  • Suicide Is Painless: Averted. In "Night of the Living Homeless", a scientist tries several times to kill himself before the homeless get to him, but each shot just leaves him bloodier and more in pain until he finally, mercifully dies.
    • Though not technically a suicide, Jesus' death in "Fantastic Easter Special" is lengthy and bloody.
    • In "Coon vs. Coon and Friends", Kenny kills himself several times. Once, in a desperate attempt to get his friends to remember his many deaths; another time, to escape from an alternate dimension; and yet another because he was just tired. And as he reminds us in case we forgot after 100+ deaths through the shows history:

Kenny: [Immortality] is not cool, Kyle. It fucking hurts!

  • Superhero: Each of the boys has one, plus a few of their friends. Together they are... Coon and Friends!
  • Suspiciously Specific Denial: From "An Elephant Makes Love to a Pig", when Eric is trying to sound like he wouldn't as easily let a girl beat him up as Stan does.

Eric: If some girl tried to kick my ass, I'd be like "AY, why don't you stop dressing me up like a mailman, and making me dance for you, while you go and smoke crack in your bedroom, and have sex with some guy I don't even know, on my dad's bed?"
Stan: ...Cartman, what the hell are you talking about?
Eric: I'm just saying you're just a little wuss.

Randy: Hey, back off, cunt!
Sharon: *GASP* You said the c-word!!

    • Subverted in the movie when Cartman calls Kyle a "fucking Jew" in class.

Mr. Garrison: Cartman, did you just say the F-word?!
Cartman: "Jew"?

  • Take a Number: In the episode when the town loses all internet, Stan, his sister, and his dad have to take a number to get rationed web access at a refugee camp. Features both versions of the trope: the fighting and the closing.
  • Take Our Word for It: The entire plot of "The Tale of Scrotie McBoogerballs".
  • Take That: Almost every episode. One of the most elaborate ones they did was a slam against Family Guy and the "manatee gags" they always do. In the same two episodes, with just as much importance to the plot, they made fun against the overreaction to a cartoon with Mohammad.
    • Hell, in that very episode, they provide a Take That against themselves, as Kyle, the head of the CBC, and a passerby all express the idea that they like Family Guy because it's easy to watch, makes them laugh and doesn't get "preachy and up its own ass with messages."
    • The fishsticks (aka fishdicks or gayfish) episode was run repeatedly back-to-back on Comedy Central the Wednesday after Kanye's outburst at the VMAs.
    • The captain from Whale Wars got raked across the coals thoroughly.
    • In "Up the Down Steroid", Jimmy calls athletes who take steroids are "big fat pussies" as the camera cuts to close-ups of Mark Mc Gwire, Barry Bonds and Jason Giambi all idiotically grinning.
    • The entire episode "How to Eat with Your Butt" is just a twenty-minute buildup to an Incredibly Lame Pun about Ben Affleck.
    • "The Tale of Scrotie McBoogerballs" has an obvious Take That against banning books early in the episode when the boys are assigned to read the un-banned The Catcher in The Rye and find it boring. It's also a more subtle Take That against all the fans that read too deeply into what they bash or not, and claim South Park is one thing or another.
    • "Insheeption" is twenty minutes of "people who find Inception cool because they think it is complex are dumb, because it's actually pretty simple."
      • Unless, of course, it was a Take That against Inception for substituting convoluted, jargon-laden exposition for story and character development.
      • The episode straddles the line so it can be interpreted both ways. They didn't know whether to say it was good or bad, because they didn't watch the movie.
    • "Canada on Strike" was a massive Take That towards all those involved in the 2007/2008 Writer's Strike.
    • "Mystery of the Urinal Deuce" aired during the height of very public allegations that September 11th was a False-Flag Operation, saying those people are "retarded".
    • "Two Days Before the Day After Tomorrow" ridicules both the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina (specifically those that were more content to place blame than to help people) and those that believe in global warming.
    • "Make Love, Not Warcraft" is practically an episode-long Take That towards people who are obsessed with MMORPGs. With people often refering to players as "Ones with No Life".
    • The use of a real fraternity house (Alpha Tau Omega) in "Butters' Bottom Bitch" makes it pretty obvious who Matt and Trey had beef with when they were at Boulder.
    • Then in "Broadway Bro Down", Randy attempts to stop Shelley and her new boyfriend from seeing Wicked to protect her from "subliminal subtext". He cries "It's time to put an end to Broadway!" Then he dresses in a Spider-Man costume...
    • The Movie was basically a big Take That at Moral Guardians and scrapegoating. The last lines to the song "Blame Canada" pretty much spell it out.

We must blame them and cause a fuss.
Before somebody thinks of blaming us.

Randy Marsh: "Alright, now, now listen, kids, there's some things we need to put into context for you. You see, a man puts his penis into a woman's vagina for both love and pleasure. But sometimes the woman lays on top of the man facing the other way so that they can put each other's genitals in their mouths. This is called "69ing" and it's normal."
Sharon Marsh: "See boys, a woman is sensitive in her vagina and it... feels good to have a man's penis inside of it."
Sheila Broflovski: "That's right, but sometimes a woman chooses to use other things - telephones, staplers, magazines. It's because the nerve endings in the vagina are so sensitive, it's like a fun tickle."
Gerald Broflovski: "Now, on to double penetration, boys. You see, sometimes when a woman has sex with more than one man, each man makes love to a different orifice."
Randy Marsh: "That's right. It's something adults can do with really good friends in a comfortable setting."
Sheila Broflovski: "It's also important that you understand why some people choose to urinate on each other."
Randy Marsh: "Going #1 or #2 on your lover is something people might do, but you must make sure your partner is okay with it before you start doing it."
Gerald Broflovski: "Okay boys. Do you have any questions?"
Stan Marsh: "...Wow."

  • Team Prima Donna: Cartman, when he founded the team "Coon and Friends".
  • Teeny Weenie:
    • In one episode, Osama Bin Laden is shown to have an absurdly microscopic penis.
    • One episode has the idea of compensating for a small penis as its entire premise. It turns out that all of the angry people in the world are just pissed off because they're below the average length. To fix the problem, the "average length" is shortened (although, ironically, Cartman still doesn't make the cut).
    • In an early Pokémon-centric episode, the Japanese creators keep talking about how small their penises are as opposed the well-endowed Americans. Sharon calls them out on this, saying that they're only saying this to distract the male Americans. While this is true, one of the creators proves that he's not lying about the size of his penis, either.
  • There Is a God: When Cartman lost his dream of owning his own amusement park, it restored Kyle's faith in God.
  • This Is a Work of Fiction: "All characters and events in this show —even those based on real people— are entirely fictional. All celebrity voices are impersonated ...poorly. The following program contains coarse language and due to its content it should not be viewed by anyone."
  • This Is for Emphasis, Bitch: The Pal, Buddy, Friend exchange.
    • In "Miss Teacher Bangs a Boy": "You just dealt with the Dawg, bitch!"
  • This Is My Side:
    • Played straight in "The Wacky Molestation Adventure", where all of the adults are gone from South Park and kids split the town into Smiley Town and Treasure Cove.
    • Parodied in "I'm a Little Bit Country", where the town attempts to split themselves into pro-war and anti-war halves, only to almost immediately find that certain needs of theirs are on the other side of the line they just made, and Skeeter concludes, "What we really should be doing is just beatin' the hell out of each other like we were."
  • This Trope Is Bleep: Used very, very often over the course of the series, but also averted (162 times!) during the episode "It Hits the Fan".
    • Also in that episode, Mr. Garrison discusses how he is allowed to say "fag" without being bleeped because he is gay, whereas everybody else in the room is censored... except, as it turns out, for Jimbo.
  • Thousand Year Reign
  • Time Passes Montage: Parodied in "Cartman's Incredible Gift".
  • Title Drop: Butters does this in "The Last of the Meheecans".
    • The Bass does this in "Bass to Mouth".
  • Title Sequence Replacement: The series has a syndication-only version of the Title Sequence.
  • Toilet Humour: Used in just about every episode. The boys of the show like to watch Terrence & Philip, a series comprised almost entirely of fart jokes. In some episodes, the plot is built around toilet humor: as a couple of examples, in "Spontaneous Combustion," people are urged to stop holding in their farts so they don't combust, and "More Crap" revolves around Randy Marsh trying to break the world record for taking the largest dump.
    • And let's not even start with "You're Getting Old". Hoo boy.
    • "Reverse Cowgirl" is toilet humor that actually focuses on the damn toilet.
  • Token Minority: Conveniently named Token Black (although played with in that he's both the token black kid and the token rich kid).
    • In "Here Comes the Neighborhood", Randy called them the Williamses. Possibly because the creators thought any viewers who didn't know Black was their last name might interpret "Isn't that the Blacks?" as Randy being racist.
      • ...why would they want to avoid giving that impression?
      • That was the first episode where Token's last name was mentioned. Most likely, they hadn't settled on his last name being Black yet.
  • Token Minority Couple: Parodied, and then reconstructed, in "Cartman Finds Love".
  • Tomato Surprise: The City Wok guy is really one of Dr. Janus' personalities.
  • Too Hot for TV: Not just all the swearing, but parodied with a Jesus & Pals version.
  • Took a Level in Badass: Ike goes from "Don't kick the baby!" in Season 1 to being part of a plan to steal the Hope Diamond by Barack Obama and John McCain. This is before he runs off to be a pirate having grown bored with middle class life.
    • Liane Cartman as of "Coon 2: Hindsight". She's actually refusing to be Cartman's personal servant for once, and punishing him for swearing and beating up his friends. It says something that this is a level in badass for her.
      • She quickly falls before the LeBron James Technique, however.
      • As of "HumamcentiPad", she has apparently stopped putting up with any of Eric's attitude, making her one of the few (if only) competent parents on the show. Of course, now Eric has started screwing her over the same way he does everyone else.
    • Kenny as of "Mysterion Rises".
    • Butters on numerous occasions:
      • "Super Fun Time": He will not let go of Cartman's hand. For anything.
      • "Christian Rock Hard": After Cartman's plan to scam the Contemporary Christian community falls flat on his face, breaking up his band and humiliating him in front of a deeply offended audience, Butters (a devoted Christian himself) farts in Cartman's face, then flips him off and says "Fuck you, Eric".
      • "Imaginationland": {{spoiler:Becomes Imagionationland's freaking messaiah by turning the war around with his own, well, imagination, and then completely fucking ressurecting it after a nuclear strike by imagining the whole fucking thing back into existence}}.
      • "The Tale of Scrotie McBoogerballs": His Take That at the main characters after the novel they wrote made him a worldwide celebrity.
      • "Butterballs": His "The Reason You Suck" Speech to his grandma.
    • Taken Up to Eleven with Wendy in "Breast Cancer Show Ever" by standing up to Cartman and then beating the snot out of him at the end.
  • Took a Level In Kindness: In the early seasons, Stan and Kyle were only slightly less obnoxious and self centered than Cartman, and often seemed to act as lower scale bullies at school. While they still have occasional Jerkass moments, they are much more rational and empathetic individuals (arguably the most so in the entire town), likely to contrast Cartman, who Took SEVERAL Levels In Jerkass.
  • Too Many Halves: According to Al Gore, the ManBearPig is "half man, half bear, half pig."
  • Too Smart for Strangers: Parodied three times over.
  • Tortured Abomination: Stan falls in with a bunch of extreme environmentalists who marry animals. The "child" of such a pair -- a man and an ostrich -- can only say "kill me."
  • Town of Adventure
  • Transsexualism: Mr. Garrison.
  • Traumatic Superpower Awakening: Parodied in "Cartman's Incredible Gift"; when Cartman wakes up from coma due to a head injury, he fakes psychic powers.
  • Triumphant Reprise: Parodied by Chef in the movie: Everything worked out/What a happy end!
  • Trope 2000: The first four episodes of Season 4 have "2000" in the title.
  • Troperiffic: Pick any episode and you'll probably find 5 tropes that haven't been added to this page in it.
  • True Companions: Lampshaded in "The Biggest Douche in the Universe", when Chef tells Stan and Kyle that Cartman is their friend whether they like him or not. This trope becomes more apparent in later seasons, once their Weirdness Magnet status has begun to wear old; the boys fall victim to All of the Other Reindeer more often, making it evident that, while their classmates may tolerate them, they don't really have any friends outside of one another. As much as they would hate to admit it, they're a textbook example of this trope.
  • Truman Show Plot: The episode "Cancelled".
  • Twisted Echo Cut:

Cartman: (watching the Queef Sisters at his house with his friends) Dude! What the hell is this disgusting crap?!
Phillip: (watching the Queef Sisters at CBC with Terrance) What the hell is this disgusting crap?!

Kyle: Dude, I think it might be best for us to never piss Cartman off again.

  • Unexplained Recovery: Happens a lot',' but one particular spoof on the concept: Cartman responds with this when Kyle taunts him by saying that he was a stillborn.
  • The Unintelligible: Kenny.
  • Unrobotic Reveal: In "Awesom-O", in which Cartman's robot disguise (consisting of a couple of cardboard boxes) manages to fool everybody (except Stan, Kyle, Kenny, and Butters's parents) until he gives the game away by farting.
  • Unspoken Plan Guarantee: Cartman is Genre Savvy enough to tell a fake plan to humiliate Scott Tennorman to Stan and Kyle (who of course warned Scott about it), and only revealed the real plan once Scott completely fell for it.
  • Unsportsmanlike Gloating: Cartman is the one main character prone to this.
  • Unstoppable Rage: Kyle in "Tonsil Trouble".
  • Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist: Several characters, though Cartman rises above the rest.
  • Unwitting Pawn: Stan, Kyle, and Scott Tenorman in "Scott Tenorman Must Die."
  • Vagina Dentata: From "Red Hot Catholic Love":

"The Gelgamek vagina is three feet wide and filled with razor sharp teeth! Do you really expect us to have sex with them?"

    • Hillary Clinton has...something in there, according to "The Snuke".
  • Vampire Vannabe: Butters, in "The Ungroundable".
  • Verbal Tic: Mr. Mackey (based on Trey Parker's actual school counselor) puts "mmkay" at the end of a lot of his sentences (it even crosses language borders; when speaking Spanish, he consistently ends his sentences with "bien" said with the exact same inflection as his "mmkay").
    • Also, Mickey Mouse in the episode "The Ring" usually ends his sentences with a "Hah-hah!"
    • The head vampire (and Butters) in the episode "The Ungroundable" ends his sentences with "per se" a lot, which is a parody of this guy who used to appear on a lot of television programs claiming he was a vampire. He did it a lot, too.
    • David Blaine ends a few of his sentences with "twah". The real Blaine doesn't. Trey and Matt, in their commentary for Super Best Friends, said they had no idea why they gave Blaine a Verbal Tic. Blaine even called them and asked why they gave him one.
  • Very Special Episode: Parodied in "Sexual Harassment Panda", complete with a closing Public Service Announcement against suing people to make money.
  • Victim Falls For Rapist: The notion that "Rape is love" is a view held by Mr. Garrison in "Worldwide Recorder Concert", where he thinks his father doesn't love him because he was never molested by him as a child. Oddly, his mother feels the same way.

"Th-that's not true! Your father loved you! Often!"

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