South Park: 10 Best Episodes About Politics, Ranked

From online trolls to organized religion, climate change to social media, South Park has tackled dozens of satirical topics across its 23-season run. One of the wells that Trey Parker and Matt Stone frequently return to is politics, a subject that’s always ripe for a good satirical jab and constantly producing new material for comedy.

South Park‘s hectic six-days-to-air production schedule allows it to be a lot more current and topical than other animated series, whose episodes take months to create. South Park can lampoon elections just a day or two after the results have come in. The show has delivered a ton of great political episodes.

10 About Last Night…

Airing just one day after the 2008 U.S. presidential election, “About Last Night…” spoofs heist movies with a story about Barack Obama winning the election as part of a plan to steal the Hope Diamond from the Smithsonian. Parker and Stone were really banking on Obama winning to make the episode work.

America’s bipartisan political system is satirized in the B-plot, as Obama-supporting liberals drunkenly celebrate his victory in the streets, while McCain-supporting conservatives frantically prepare for the end times.

9 Where My Country Gone?

This is the episode in which Mr. Garrison became South Park’s stand-in for Donald Trump, probably because they didn’t expect his candidacy to be taken seriously. In “Where My Country Gone?,” Garrison decides to run for President after seeing the influx of immigrants (Canadians, that is) in South Park.

He pledges to build a wall along the U.S./Canadian border, only to discover that Canada already built their own border wall. Garrison sneaks across the border and finds that the rule of a Trump-esque prime minister has driven out all the Canadian citizens.

8 Dead Kids

In the season 22 premiere “Dead Kids,” Parker and Stone poked fun at blasé attitudes toward school shootings. Randy worries that Sharon is menopausal just because she expresses fear that Stan might get shot at school.

The frequency of school shootings at South Park Elementary became a running joke throughout the season, as gunfire could be heard over every establishing shot of the school.

7 Mystery Of The Urinal Deuce

Through the lens of Mr. Mackey’s investigation into who defecated in the urinal in the boys’ restroom, South Park lampooned the absurdity of 9/11 conspiracy theories in “Mystery of the Urinal Deuce.”

Stan and Kyle’s quest to get to the bottom of the 9/11 conspiracies once and for all leads them to the Bush administration, where they learn the shocking truth that the attacks were perpetrated by “a bunch of p*ssed-off Muslims.”

6 Let Go, Let Gov

The season 17 premiere “Let Go, Let Gov” lampoons claims that the NSA is monitoring the phone calls and emails of U.S. citizens with Cartman infiltrating the agency as a sort of Edward Snowden figure, exposing that they have Santa Claus hooked up to their computers, informing them of who’s naughty and who’s nice.

Meanwhile, Butters’ confusion over allegations that the government is watching him leads him to start a government-worshipping religion, with a DMV acting as their church.

5 Band In China

The aptly titled “Band in China” is the episode that got South Park, well, banned in China. Randy goes to China to sell his Tegridy weed to Chinese buyers and he’s imprisoned in a labor camp before he even leaves the airport.

It’s pretty ironic that a critique of the Chinese government’s media censorship got that media censored by the Chinese government.

4 ManBearPig

When Al Gore first suggested world-threatening changes in global climate patterns, he wasn’t taken seriously. South Park made fun of this in the episode “ManBearPig,” in which Gore wears a cape and tells everyone he’s “super cereal” about his cause.

As Gore warns the residents of South Park about a “half-man, half-bear, half-pig” creature coming to terrorize the world, they ignore his claims and think he’s just lonely and looking for attention.

3 I’m A Little Bit Country

For South Park’s 100th episode, Parker and Stone tackled the tenets of democracy. In “I’m a Little Bit Country,” the boys take part in a walkout to protest the U.S. invasion of Iraq just to get out of school early, then find themselves caught between both sides of the argument.

Meanwhile, Cartman takes a hallucinatory trip to the colonial era to avoid studying and learns that America’s two-party system was founded on the idea of simultaneously going to war and protesting it, or having your cake and eating it, too.

2 Margaritaville

From the opening “Aaaand it’s gone!” scene to Obama getting credit for Kyle’s final sacrifice, South Park tackled the recession perfectly in “Margaritaville.” Seeing the economy as a mythical thing that people see as significant without fully understanding it, Parker and Stone filled the episode with Biblical allusions.

The titular Jimmy Buffett novelty item serves as a perfect metaphor for American consumerism as Stan goes all the way to the U.S. Treasury in search of a refund.

1 Douche And Turd

After PETA puts the kibosh on South Park Elementary’s cow mascot, the school holds an election to replace it. Kyle and Cartman both put in joke ballots – “Giant Douche” and “Turd Sandwich” – and after butting heads over which one is funnier, they launch rigorous campaigns to get their candidates elected. Meanwhile, Stan’s refusal to vote gets him banished from the town.

Airing just before the 2004 presidential election, “Douche and Turd” perfectly encapsulates the libertarian political stance that Parker and Stone are often associated with.

About The Author

Ben Sherlock
(3465 Articles Published)

Ben Sherlock is a writer, comedian, independent filmmaker, and Burt Reynolds enthusiast. He writes lists for Screen Rant and features and reviews for Game Rant. He’s currently in pre-production on his first feature (and has been for a while, because filmmaking is expensive). You can catch him performing standup at odd pubs around the UK that will give him stage time. Previously, he wrote for Taste of Cinema, Comic Book Resources, and BabbleTop.

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