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* Tropes E-J [[South Park
* Tropes K-Q [[South Park
* Tropes R-V [[South Park
* Tropes W-Z [[South Park
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* [[Absurdly Powerful Student Council]]: Subverted and parodied in "Dances with Smurfs", and played straight in some episodes.
* [[Abusive Parents]]:
** Butters's parents, who will ground him for ''anything,'' including looking silly in his school pictures, even though he wasn't doing anything wrong. Once he was locked in the basement at the end of one episode, and was tellingly absent from the next episode, suggesting he may have been kept down there for up to a week. He sees his father as a kind of grounding-monster, suggesting that the beatings he has mentioned on occassion are more frequent than he lets on. Oh, and there was that whole bit about his mother {{spoiler|attempting to murder him}} in his very own episode.
*** With the reveal that even {{spoiler|his grandmother bullies him}}, it appears that Child Abuse runs in the Stoch family.
** Subverted with Mr. Garrison in "World Wide Recorder Concert": he's shown to have issues with his father for reasons of sexual molestation, but it turns out that he's upset because his father ''didn't'' abuse him.
** The McCormick kids' agnostic foster parents in "The Poor Kid". {{spoiler|But the good news is that Kenny, as Mysterion, sets them up to get drunk on Pabst Blue Ribbon and get arrested
** It has been suggested that Cartman has both witnessed his mother performing sex acts (which would scar him mentally), and that he himself has been abused sexually too.
** Clyde's mother, according to "Reverse Cowgirl". Her public humiliation of her son over the toilet seat makes you have to rethink Kyle's mom as the biggest bitch in the whole wide world. Lucky for him, {{spoiler|she dies near the end of the first act by falling into the toilet, because he left the seat up
* [[Achievements in Ignorance]]: In "The Wacky Molestation Adventure", Kyle's mother tells him he can only go to the Raging Pussies concert if he takes out the trash, shovels the driveway, and brings democracy to Cuba. Taking it literally, Kyle writes a heartfelt letter to Fidel Castro (complete with song), and Castro is so touched he ends the communist dictatorship. Kyle gets ''pissed'' when his parents still forbid him to go to the concert because they deliberately gave him a task that they thought was impossible.
* [[Acronym Confusion]]: "Cartman Joins NAMBLA" involves confusion between the North American Man/Boy Love Association and North American Marlon Brando Look-Alikes.
* [[Act Break]]: There are four acts to each episode, though the fourth one is usually [[The Tag]]. The TV pilot has a weird case, with ''five'' acts (the additional break occurring during the forest scene, right before Chef appears).
** However, ever since "The Death Camp of Tolerance", it had reverted to going on to only three acts ala like most TV shows.
* [[Action Girlfriend]]: Based on her fight with Cartman in
* [[Action Santa]]: He's [[Pals
* [[Activist Fundamentalist Antics]]: One episode ended with a ban on secular Christmas as well as religious Christmas, all thanks to Kyle's mother. The only song left for the kids to sing for Christmas was "Kyle's Mom is a Big Fat Bitch" (in D minor, no less).
* [[Actually Pretty Funny]]:
*
** "Stupid Spoiled Whore Video Playset" is an episode where the message is, "Do not let your kids idolize people like [[Paris Hilton]], she is a terrible role model", using a caricature of Hilton herself to emphasize it. Hilton herself claimed the episode was hilarious.
** "Butt Out". [[Rob Reiner]] is the antagonist, depicted as a rude and arrogant hypocrite who opposes smoking while constantly eating junk food. Reiner later said on Reddit that, "I thought it was funny, but I'm not quite that fat. (His words, not ours.)
* [[Ad Break Double Take]]: Stan aiming a gun at a disguised Cartman in "Volcano".
* [[Adults Are Useless]]: Pretty much every adult in South Park and then some is a moron, even when they're ''not'' subject to [[Plot Induced Stupidity]]. [http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/104377/i-learned-mongolian-in-college This clip] pretty well sums it up (you can skip the first minute of the clip).
** Most of the kids are either too scared of their parents to tell them the truth about anything (Kyle and Butters), are pretty good at manipulation (Cartman and to a lesser extent Stan) or are completely ignored most of the time (Kenny).
* [[Adventurer Outfit]]
* [[An Aesop]]: Spoofed, many times over, and used straight just as much! Always at the end of an episode, too.
** One notable subversion: in "All About
*** Although this is doubly subverted overall, as EVERY religion that gets the
** Another subversion is the episode where Kyle's stereotypically Jewish cousin, also named Kyle, comes to visit. In the end, the kids try to pull their usual "I've learned something today..." Aesop speech, only for it to die out several times when they realize that, no, they actually haven't learned anything this time.
** [[Defied Trope]] in [[Real Life]] in "201" when the entire Aesop, spoken by three people, was bleeped out by the network prior to airing, which may be some of the [[wikipedia:201
* [[Aesop Ju Jitsu]]: Sometimes the Aesop summation devolves into this, not that the straight Aesops make much sense to begin with.
* [[Affably Evil]]: Satan is portrayed as this. He's certainly less evil than Cartman.
* [[Affectionate Parody]]:
** The Osama bin Laden episode is a paean to the classic [[Wartime Cartoon
** In the Coon and Friends trilogy, this is done twice between Cartman and Cthulhu: one, a tribute to ''[[My Neighbor Totoro]]'', and the other is a nod to [[Looney Tunes|the Chuck Jones cartoon
** The [[Instant Awesome, Just Add Ninja|ninja]] episode. Someone had to have been an anime fan to be able to mock [[Gratuitous English]].
* [[Age-Inappropriate Dress]]: Mocked in a few episodes, "Stupid Spoiled Whore Video Playset" in particular.
* [[All Asians Are Alike]]: In "City Sushi", the City Wok guy tries to get revenge of the owner of City Sushi due to this trope.
* [[All CGI Cartoon]]: Switched to this format after the first episode. It, ''[[Beast Wars]]'' (released around the same time) and ''[[ReBoot]]'' were the only major ones of note that aired in America during the 90's.
* [[All Elections Are Serious Business]]: Shown in how serious the kindergarten elections are taken in "Trapper Keeper" and taken to the extreme in "Douche and Turd" over the school mascot election.
* [[Allergic to Love]]: Stan vomits every time Wendy talks to him. Though when they started dating as the show progressed (basically after [[The Movie]]), Stan stopped vomiting completely around her. However, in "The List", when {{spoiler|they discover feelings for each other again (after having been broken up for some time)}}, Stan vomits in front of her once more {{spoiler|before they can kiss}}.
* [[All Women Are Lustful|All Girls Are Lustful]]: All little girls want to get in the [[Jonas Brothers]]' pants, [[Refuge in Audacity|even if they're kindergarten age]]. Possibly [[Truth in Television]], seeing as the line "My giney tickles" was something the young daughter of one of the members of the production crew actually said at one of their concerts.
* [[Alliteration]]: "Allied Atheist Alliance. That way it has three aes! That is the logical choice!"
* [[All Jews Are Cheapskates]]:
** Kyle's parents and his cousin.
** Parodied ''viciously'' in "Two Days Before the Day After Tomorrow", where it seems that Cartman and Kyle are going to die, and Cartman demands Kyle's "Jew Gold". Kyle, appalled, tries to convince him that this is a Jew stereotype, but Cartman doesn't relent, and Kyle pulls out a small sack of gold that had been tied around his neck. Cartman proceeds to insist that all Jews carry a spare sack of Jew Gold, which is really fake, and demands that Kyle ''hands over an identical sack also tied around his neck''. Kyle didn't hand over the real Jew gold either, he threw it into a fire rather than let Cartman have it.
*** [[Truth in Television]], but not specifically Jewish. Many European families of all ethnicities will have a stash of ''jewels'' for emergency purpose such as bribes to escape a country. This is very common in [[Genteel Interbellum Setting
** Subverted in "Night of the Living Homeless", when Kyle gives a homeless man $20. Because of that, all of the homeless invade South Park. {{spoiler|But it turns out that it wasn't Kyle's fault, but the fault of the neighboring town of Evergreen, who evicted the homeless
** And then subverted majorly in "Margaritaville", when he uses his American Express credit card (with no spending limit) to [[The Messiah|pay off the debts]] [[The Paragon|of all of South Park]], much to the dismay of his mother Sheila, who say he's ruining himself. This is all to make a point of the nature of the economy.
** In "Good Times with Weapons", Cartman mocks the fact that Kyle can't throw away his weapons because he paid money for them.
* [[All Just a Dream]]: Sometimes played straight, but often subverted.
* [[All Men Are Perverts]]: The plot of "Sexual Healing
** In the ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' episode, all the boy's fathers are very knowledgeable when it comes to porn, much to their wives' disgust.
* [[All of the Other Reindeer]]: While Butters is the most obvious victim, more recent seasons claim that not very many people beyond their clique like Stan, Kyle, Kenny or Cartman.
* [[All Take and No Give]]: Cartman to everyone, ''especially'' his mom. In Season
* [[All Women Love Shoes]]: "The List".
* [[Aluminum Christmas Trees]]: The episode where Cartman is excited to find candy-corn-filled Oreos, which Stan and Kyle are revolted by? Yeah, that was [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAiIhwWWHi8 a ''real'' Halloween-exclusive flavor of Oreos.]
* [[Amazingly Embarrassing Parents]]: See the above [[Adults Are Useless]]. The parents are some of the worst offenders.
** Randy's the [[Trope Codifier]] and many episodes starting from around
** Broflovskis have Sheila, whose [[Moral Guardian]] elements have a tendency of doing things like starting wars or ruining Christmas for the entire town. Gerald is less this, but his tendency to be an [[Amoral Attorney]] as well as his cat piss addiction had him veer into this.
** The McCormick parents joined a doomsday cult of Cthulu for free beer and are crackheads.
** Ms. Cartman is apparently a famous enough porn star to end up on the cover of Crackhead Magazine.
* [[Ambiguously Gay]]:
** Cartman. He constantly says that girls are disgusting and vile, and he seems to have an '' extremely'' [[Anatomically-Impossible Sex|inaccurate idea of what sex with a woman even entails]].
*** Then, of course, we have "Imaginationland", whose entire subplot is based entirely around Cartman's obsession with making Kyle suck his balls. Jimmy even points this trope out to him in part 1 of the trilogy.
*** "Cartman
** Jimbo and Ned. They're unrelated, live together, evidently have hospital visitation rights worked out. And then, [[N-Word Privileges|Jimbo can say "fag" without getting bleeped]], which according to Mr(s). Garrison means that he is one. All the other guys at the bar are bleeped when they say fag. Make of that what you will.
** Butters. He has been shown crossdressing, he's feminine, innocent, submissive, polite, and fits [[The Twink]] status. While he has shown affection toward girls, it's mostly blocked by his naivety.
* [[Anal Probing]]: Eric Cartman was probed by [[The Greys]] in the [[Pilot]] episode, appropriately titled [[Exactly What It Says
* [[Anatomically-Impossible Sex]]: For the boys themselves, we have these gems: [[Freud Was Right|Circumcision is castration.]] Urine is semen.
* [[And That's Terrible]]: The antagonists in "Super Fun Time" robbed a Burger King.
* [[Animal Athlete Loophole]]:
* [[Animal Wrongs Group]]: PETA is so insistent on paralleling vegetarianism with civil rights that they promote [[Interspecies Romance]].
* [[Animation Anatomy Aging]]
* [[Anti-Hero]]: All main characters verge on anti-heroism on occasion, though Cartman often verges on [[Villain Protagonist]]. Usually they learn their lesson at the end, however, and often are shown to be morally superior to the adults in town.
* [[Anti-Villain]]: Satan, though his antivillainy isn't really of the [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]] variety so much as the loser variety. His [[Card-Carrying Villain|expressed pride in his role in the world]] is always watered down [[Refuge in Audacity|by the way his gay lover, Saddam Hussein, treats him]]
* [[The Antichrist]]: Damien, though [[Anti-Anti-Christ|apparently he just wants friends and not to move around so much]].
* [[Anyone Can Die]]
* [[Apocalyptic Log]]: Parodied in
* [[Applied Mathematics]]: Underpants Gnomes. Step 1: Collect underpants. Step 2: '''<big>{{color|red|?}}</big>''' [[Step Three: Profit|Step 3: Profit!]]
** Cartman's formula for gold.
* [[Are You Pondering What I'm Pondering?]]?: In "
{{quote|
'''Cartman:''' That they should bring back ''[[
* [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking]]:
** Cartman in the episode "Scott Tenorman Must Die", where he {{spoiler|has Scott's parents killed, grinds their corpses into chili which he then feeds to Scott and causes Scott to cry in front of [[Radiohead|his favorite band]]
** In
* [[Art Evolution]]: The difference between first season episodes and recent episodes is like night and day, even though they have kept the simplistic cutout style. Early on, the show had incredibly crude character and background designs and the animation was very shaky and choppy, while today the animation can be very sophisticated, the backgrounds are rich in detail (actually having perspective and shading), the characters are much more detailed, and animals being realistic (compared to, say, the game in the first season episode "Volcano").
** Early on, the show tried to imitate some side effects of using construction paper, such as the
* [[Artistic License Medicine]]: In "Timmy 2000", the kids take Ritalin to get out of doing homework and it makes them calm. Several adults take some and they're also calm, but in [[Real Life]], Ritalin has the opposite effect on grown-ups.
** In "Cartmanland", Kyle is at near-death from a hemorrhoid. To answer your question, no, hemorrhoids can't kill you. However, this was intentional given the show's nature.
* [[Art Shift]]: Done several times: see "[[Pokémon|Chinpokomon]]", "[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons Already Did It]]", "[[Anime|Good Times With Weapons]]", "[[Heavy Metal (animation)|Major Boobage]]" and "[[World of Warcraft|Make Love, Not Warcraft]]".
* [[Ashes to Crashes]]: Cartman drinks Kenny's ashes, believing them to be chocolate milk mix. As a result of this, Kenny's soul becomes trapped inside Cartman, providing a story arc for the next few episodes.
* [[Ash Face]]: "Summer Sucks" ends with the town covered in ash. Chef arrives from vacation to find everyone in [[Blackface]] and orders everyone to get in line for a butt kicking.
* [[Asian Hooker Stereotype]]: On the episode "Cow Days", Cartman starts acting and talking like the Vietnamese prostitute of ''[[Full Metal Jacket]]'' after a [[Tap
* [[Asian Speekee Engrish]]: Basically, every single Asian character. Honourable mention goes to "''fucking Mongoriansh!''" Funnily enough, both creators are fluent in Japanese.
** Taken to extremes in one episode where a Japanese man and Chinese man argue with each other with the nearly the exact same accent and can't understand each other.
* [[Asshole Victim]]: {{spoiler|Clyde's mother, Betsy}} in "Reverse Cowgirl", to the point she's still one beyond the grave.
* [[An Asskicking Christmas]]: A few times, but especially "Red Sleigh Down".
* [[Ass Shove]]: Happens to Cartman. A '''lot.'''
* [[Ate His Gun]]: They ''love'' this trope.
** Parodied in "How to Eat
** When a line of pedophiles find out they've been lining up to see Chris Hansen, they immediately begin shooting themselves, one after another.
** Butters is told to do this by a meme-hating teacher in "Faith Hilling". He ends up frozen in his seat with the gun in his mouth for nearly the entire episode's length.
* [[Attack of the 50
* [[Author Appeal]]: This explains why a bunch of eight year old boys (in 1997) are gushing over [[The Cure|Robert Smith]].
* [[Author Avatar]]: Stan and Kyle were originally Author Avatars for Trey and Matt (hence the similar personalities), but they slowly grew out of it as the show progressed. In one interview, they said something along the lines of "He's supposed to be Stan, and I'm supposed to be Kyle... but really we're both Cartman."
** Terrance and Phillip also occasionally serve as author avatars for the duo, reflecting the reactions Trey and Matt expected their show to get from parents, most notably in [[The Movie]]. Terrance has black hair, as does Matt, while Phillip has blond hair, as does Trey - likely deliberate.
* [[Author Tract]]: Particularly in later seasons.
* [[Ax Crazy]]:
** Cartman, most famously in "Scott Tenorman
** Saddam Hussein.
* [[Back for
* [[Badass]]: [[Jesus Was Way Cool]].
{{quote|
* [[Bad Bad Acting]]: The live action reenactment sequence in "I Should Have Never Gone Ziplining" uses very deliberately awful, over the top acting by actors about [[Dawson Casting|15 years too old to play 10 year olds]].
* [[Bad Boss]]: Cartman in many episodes. Craig, too, in "South Park
* [[Bad Future]]: In "Trapper Keeper",
* [[Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work]]:
** South Park is saved from hostile takeover by the Jersey Shore by
** In
* [[The Bad Guy Wins]]: The ending of "Stanley's Cup" and "Scott Tenorman Must Die".
* [[Bait and Switch]]: If there is an episode where the preview involves anything that will get a large portion of the fanbase going "Ha ha, they're making fun of X", the actual episode will likely portray X in a much more endearing manner, while those that see it as a cheap, [[Acceptable Targets|Acceptable Target]] will be the ones on the receiving end of a [[Take That]]. These episodes typically center around [[This Loser Is You|Cartman]]
* [[Barrier Maiden]]: Terrence and Philip in the movie. Although theoretically ''any'' Canadian living south of the 49th parallel.
* [[Beard of Evil]]: [[Inverted Trope]] with Cartman in
* [[Beauty Is Bad]]: Subverted in "The List
* [[Beethoven Was an Alien Spy]]: Slash is really a mythological character based on the legend of Vunter Slaush. It was just one of their parents that actually played at Cartman's party.
** [[Fridge Logic|But, who was the guitarist for Guns N' Roses?]]
** ''One of their parents
* [[Believing Their Own Lies]]: Cartman works himself into quite the frenzy over his own fabricated mythos of Jewpacabra.
* [[Berserk Button]]: In "Conjoined Fetus Lady", Pip is one of the players on the dodgeball team. When he's called "French", he beats the world's best dodgeball team (who, of course, [[Running Gag|are Chinese]]) singlehandedly.
** Scott Tenorman doomed himself the moment he burned Cartman's money.
** ''Never'' call Bono #2, no matter how true it is. {{spoiler|Literally
** Cartman also does not like to be compared to ''[[
*** Cartman is not fat, he's [[Insistent Terminology|big boned]].
** Kyle isn't
*** ...or make fun of him being Jewish, or cross the line with Ike, or call his mum a bitch, or say something stupid within earshot. Kyle is pretty much built on this trope.
*** Cartman is quite possibly the ultimate [[Berserk Button]] for Kyle.
** "Are you looking at my [[Braces of Orthodontic Overkill|headgear]]?"
Line 145 ⟶ 147:
*** He gets another one in "The Poor Kid". Don't mess with his little sister.
** If you don't want to piss off Mr. Mackey, don't take a dump in the urinal. Or ruin the tooth decay play he worked on for six years. Or touch any part of the overwhelming trash and paper hoard that suddenly materialized in his traditionally clean office.
* [[Beware the Nice Ones]]:
** As proven in Season 1 - Don't fuck with Wendy Testaburger!
** Subverted with Butters, who adopts a secret evil identity and attempts to plunge the world into chaos by switching restaurant orders, hiding chalkboard erasers at school, running the water hose in his front yard non-stop, and using ineffective spray cans to destroy the ozone layer.
** Butters can be pretty badass if he wants to grow a spine. He's the [[Chosen One]] of "Imaginationland", and in "Butters' Bottom Bitch", he is temporarily the most successful pimp in Colorado. Yes, ''Butters
* [[Beyond the Impossible]]:
** In "Fishsticks", Cartman has a series of [[Self-Serving Memory]] [[Flash Back|flashbacks]] where he remembers how it was that the "fish sticks" joke was written. Eventually, the flashbacks extend to having him slay a dragon in Jimmy's house... and that's not the end of it.
** Cartman is so evil that he actually
* [[Big Brother Instinct]]: Most prominent in the relationship of Kyle and Ike as demonstrated repeatedly.
** You DO NOT want to fuck with Karen McCormick. You will invoke Kenny's wrath.
Line 158 ⟶ 160:
* [[Big Damn Movie]]
* [[Big OMG]]: Generally used whenever Kenny died [[Once Per Episode]]. A notable example outside of that context (when Stan's parents accidentally send a porno to Butters's house):
{{quote|
'''Randy:''' Yeah, it almost looks like... the ''[[The Lord of the Rings (
* [[Bilingual Bonus]]: Largely due to the fact co-creator Trey Parker is fluent in Japanese.
** The Japanese part of the song "Let's Fighting Love" is grammatically correct and translates into [[Refuge in Vulgarity|something befitting ''South Park'']].
** The name of the [[
** "Chinpokomon
** The running commentary of Butters crossing the border in "The Last of the Meheecans" refers to Cartman primarily as [[Fat Bastard|gordo]]
*** 'Mantequilla', Butters' pseudonym in the episode, is Spanish for 'butter'.
* [[Bitch in Sheep's Clothing]]: Don't fuck with Wendy Testaburger.
** Barbra Streisand in "Mecha-Sreisand", at first.
Line 171 ⟶ 173:
* [[Black and Gray Morality]]
* [[Black Comedy]]
* [[Black Comedy Rape]]: The ''[[Indiana Jones]]'' episode, "
** The Christmas Critters also gang-rape a platoon of US soldiers to death in "Imaginationland."
** The idea that Chef thought the boys took turns raping Ms. Choksondik and then murdering her afterward is played for laughs.
* [[The Blank]]: During woodworking class in "Tweek vs. Craig", Clyde informs Mr. Adler that some kid named Tommy got his face stuck to a belt-sander, and Tommy shows up with no face.
* [[Blessed
** Captain Hindsight. He knows instantly how a bad situation could've been prevented.
* [[Bloody Hilarious]]: ''
* [[Book and Switch]]: A rather reverse example, Stan Marsh hides a cookbook behind a [[Playboy]] magazine.
* [[Boomerang Bigot]]: In "The Entity", Kyle exclaims in horror that the presence of his cousin Kyle Schwartz has turned him into a self-hating Jew.
* [[Borrowed Catchphrase]]: Stan and Kyle do this to ''themselves'' in "Wing".
{{quote|
'''Stan:''' You bastards!
* [[Brains and Brawn]]: Nathan and Mimsey.
* [[Bratty Half-Pint]]: Most of the boys early on Cartman being most obvious.
Line 189 ⟶ 191:
* [[Breaking the Fourth Wall]]: "This is just like when we got our money back for ''Baseketball''."
* [[Breakout Character]]: Butters, Randy and Jimmy.
* [[Brick Joke]]:
** In [[The Movie]], the boys use the promise of [[I Was Told There Would Be Cake|punch and pie]] to get other kids to join [[La Résistance]]. Way later, in "Super Best Friends", a Blaintologist hands out pamphlets for the Blaintology cult during a David Blaine performance. [http://www.spscriptorium.com/Season5/BlaineWorkshop.jpg Guess what the pamphlet promises?]
** In "Jared Has Aides", Cartman pretends to be Butters and gets his parents angry by swearing at them over the phone. Later at the end of the episode, Butters' parents come to [[Abusive Parents|beat the stuffing out of him]]. Butters later refers to this very incident in "
** In "The Poor Kid", the Agnostic foster parents make an offhand mention of a giant reptilian bird. It shows up at the end of the episode to deliver some [[Laser-Guided Karma|Karmic]] [[They Killed Kenny|(In)]][[Laser-Guided Karma|Justice]].
** In "The
** The entire plot of "
* [[Bridal Carry]]: Jimmy and the prostitute in
* [[Broken Aesop]]: Comes with the territory when your primary goal is to offend everyone. See examples under [[An Aesop]], [[Aesop Amnesia]], [[Green Aesop]]. Or [[All Jews Are Cheapskates]], Anvilicious, [[Children Are Innocent]], [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]], [[Country Matters]]... oh, hell. Just look anywhere on this page.
* [[Brown Note]]:
** "World Wide Recorder Concert" involves Cartman trying to discover the ''actual'' Brown Note.
** ''The Tale of Scrotie McBoogerballs'' makes people throw up if they read just two seconds of it.
** The porno
* [[Brutal Honesty]]: Craig in "Pandemic", but Kyle also frequently veers in this territory.
* [[The Bully]]: In "Butterballs", Butters is secretly bullied and beat up by his own grandma. She even follows him to school and bullies him in the bathroom. It's a running gag in the episode where people go to the bathroom to find a bully there waiting there for him.
** Cartman seems to be the most evident in South Park Elementary, once even spearheading a tirade of abuse on a kid until he committed suicide. [[Characterization Marches On|In earlier episodes]], Stan and Kyle also had shades of this, it's implied even Cartman suffered heavily from them.
* [[Bumbling Dad]]: Randy Marsh. ''Dear God Randy Marsh''. He makes [[The Simpsons (animation)|Homer Simpson]] look like [[Leave It to Beaver|Wally Cleaver]]. Some of his brilliant exploits include:
** Attending Little League games for the express purpose of getting into fights with competing team members' dads.
** Driving drunk, then after attending [[Alcoholics Anonymous]] {{spoiler|shaving his head chemo-style and residing himself to a wheelchair under insane delusions of disease
** Listening to music he really perceives as shit, then performing said music in order to be "cool" and "in tune with" the "kids today".
* [[Buried Alive]]: Cartman in "Go God Go", necktie variant.
* [[But Thou Must!]]: In the episode "Woodland Critter Christmas", after Stan {{spoiler|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 {{spoiler|take her now-orphaned cubs to learn how to perform abortions. With a forceful "[[Punctuated! For! Emphasis!|YES. HE. DID!]]" the scene jump-cuts to an abortion doctor, with Stan and the mountain lion cubs there}}. Stan is not amused.
** Earlier than that, Stan attempted to stay home after learning the Critters' true nature.
{{quote|
but his conscience caught up with him and to the forest he did flee.
''(Stan stays put.)''
He thought he could hide from his problems - not true!
He knew in his heart the thing he had to do!
''(Stan is getting annoyed by the persistent narration.)''
He knew that only by going to the forest could he--
''(Stan finally gives in and leaves the house.)''
* [[Butt Monkey]]: Kenny filled the role due to his constant deaths. Pip was the other buttmonkey who is constantly humiliated until his spot was taken by Butters.
** Clyde in some episodes.
* [[But You Screw One Goat!]]:
** Several episodes and [[The Movie]] reference or, God forgive, portray zoophilia [[Played for Laughs|for comic effect]].
** In a strange variation, Cartman attempts to train a pony to bite Scott Tenorman's penis off. He builds an effigy of his enemy, and attaches a hotdog to represent the
* [[Cain and Abel]]: Lemmiwinks and Wikileaks in "Bass to Mouth".
* [[The Cake Is a Lie]]: Sorry if you came to [[La Résistance]] hoping for [[I Was Told There Would Be Cake|punch and pie]].
* [[Call Back]]: In the first Halloween episode, Wendy wins the school costume contest with a [[Star Wars|Chewbacca]] mask. In the third, Kenny enters the contest with an insanely elaborate [[Humongous Mecha]] costume and seems a shoo-in to win... only for Wendy to win again with the ''exact same'' mask. They might even have relooped Mr. Garrison's announcing her winner for that one.
** Also in the first Halloween episode was a conversation where Cartman [[Chewbacca Defense|got confused about what planet Wookies come from...]]
** In the
** In the Season 8 episdoe "
** In "Elementary School Musical", the boys are asked rhetorically "where have you been" when they say they don't know anything about ''[[High School Musical]]
* [[Came Back Strong]]: Parodied when Cartman throws himself off a roof and wakes up from a coma in the hospital, and the cops who have the [[Idiot Ball]] believe he has precognition. Kyle later does the same thing at the end of the episode so people will believe him about the serial killer and Cartman. Eerily, the lights flicker violently when he gets frustrated.
* [[Came Back Wrong]]: When Butters fakes his death, his dad buries the mutilated pig remains he thinks is Butters in an Indian burial ground - when Butters goes back home his parents assume this is what's happened, and chain him up in the basement.
* [[Canada, Eh?]]: Canadians are usually portrayed as having floppy pac-man esque heads and black beady eyes.
** All Canadian anatomy and technology is shown to be rather, uh, odd. Terrance and Phillip seem to have square testicles—yes we've [[Refuge in Vulgarity|seen them]] on screen. Canadian automobiles are shown to have square wheels.
* [[The Can Kicked Him]]: The fate of
* [[Captain Ersatz]]: [[The Movie]] featured an assortment of original songs that were obvious tributes to numbers from classic American musicals. ''Oklahoma!'' got quoted quite a bit ("Mountain Town"/"O What a Beautiful Morning"; "Uncle Fucka"/the title song; and even "It's Easy, Mmmkay?"/"The Farmer and the Cowman"), but there were others. "Kyle's Mom's a Big Fat Bitch" was a pretty generic tribute to early 1900s musicals in general, complete with a "showstopper" climax followed by a "Good evening, friends!" finale.
** In terms of characters, the [[
* [[Captain Obvious]]: Captain Hindsight is a hop and a skip away from this.
* [[Captain Superhero]]: Captain Hindsight.
* [[Captivity Harmonica]]: In [[The Movie]], by Ike. Also in "Whale Whores", by Eric Cartman, and in the
* [[Car Meets House]]: Played with in the episode that covered the dangers of elderly drivers. Said old people chase the boys through the house serial-killer style, using their cars.
* [[Cassandra Truth]]: Often happens, somewhat justified as some of what the boys say is hard to believe, but this is ''South Park'' after all. Sgt. Yates never seems to listen to Kyle. Stan trying to prove that John Edwards is only conducting a parlor trick, or that there is a fish that is out for blood.
** "I broke the dam".
* [[Catapult Nightmare]]: ''South Park'' loves this trope.
* [[Catch Phrase]]: Stan and Kyle's "Oh my God, they killed Kenny!" "You bastards!" exchange, Cartman's "[[Screw This, I'm Outta Here|Screw you guys, I'm going home]]!", "Respect mah authoritah!" and "Goddamn it!" with cocking head and squinted eyes.
Line 251 ⟶ 252:
** The classic Butters catchphrase: "Oh, hamburgers!"
*** In "Butters' Bottom Bitch", he learns a new one off the pimps, with it becoming increasingly natrual for him to say...
{{quote|
** Randy Marsh: "Well, ''that'' sucks."
* [[Catchphrase Interruptus]]
* [[Caught
* [[Censored Title]]:
** The episode "Chicken Lover"—the name of the villain is actually "Chicken Fucker", but the name of the episode was changed.
*** The term "Chicken Lover" ''was'' used in the episode, to be fair—three times by Officer Barbrady and once by Cartman.
{{quote|
** The episode "You Got Fucked in the Ass" as well, usually switched to "You Got F'd in the A" or just "You Got...".
** Also, in the newspaper's TV sections, "Make Love, Not Warcraft" became just "World of Warcraft", and "Miss Teacher Bangs a Boy" had the word "Bangs" removed, making the title just "Miss Teacher ... a Boy".
** "The Biggest Douche in the Universe" is truncated in TV listings to just "The Biggest". The two-parter that closes Season 1 ("Cartman's Mom
* [[Cephalothorax]]: The "girl born without a midsection" on the Maury Povich show.
* [[Cerebus Retcon]]:
** And it's not about Kenny's dad {{spoiler|getting raped by the 30 or so middle aged men in that episode}} either.
** You know all those wacky activities that Randy hilariously takes as [[Serious Business]]? Well, it turns out.... {{spoiler|that Randy was trying to distract himself from the fact that he's unhappy with his life
** It might have always been there, but "Cash
* [[Cerebus Syndrome]]: While the show is still very much a comedy, its tone has changed significantly over its run. Early seasons were silly and sitcom-like, with a sense of humor reminiscent of ''[[Monty Python's Flying Circus]]'' and ''[[The Simpsons]]''; later seasons became increasingly topical, with most episodes featuring recent political or social issues, while the [[Black Comedy]] became even blacker to the point of becoming a [[Dramedy]] with a [[Downer Ending]] or two and increasingly common and [[Squick|graphic]] [[Family-Unfriendly Violence|violence]].
** [[Cerebus Rollercoaster]]
* [[Character
* [[Character Development]]: In "Coon 2: Hindsight", Liane actually puts her foot down and disciplines Eric. Borders on an [[Out-of-Character Moment]]. This development continues in
** Cartman has developed both ways. At first, he was just a spoiled brat who got worse and worse. He evolved into a [[Manipulative Bastard]] capable of rounding up a lynch mob with a stirring speech, and rose to the point where the writers had trouble thinking up how to top himself. "Tsst" suggests an attempt to take him back down to sane levels. He's still spoiled, selfish and agressively dominant, but a few of the demons have been exorcised.
** "1%" appears to have furthered this development.
* [[Characterization Marches On]]: The children characters were generally more childish and [[Bratty Half-Pint]] early on. Stan and Kyle were generally lower scale bullies (compare their treatment of Butters in early and later episodes) while Cartman was less calculating and sociopathic and more just a [[Jerkass]]. That said, they can still be immature at times in later seasons.
** Stan went from your run-of-the-mill kid and low-grade bully to a cross between the [[Only Sane Man]] and [[Knight in Shining Armor|The Knight]].
** Kyle went from your average [[Pet the Dog|occasionally-caring-occasionally-kind]] young boy to a cross between [[The Paragon]] and [[The Conscience]] (except when it comes to [[Arch Enemy|Cartman]]).
** Cartman went from a cross between [[Bratty Half-Pint]] and [[Jerkass]] to [[Enfant Terrible|a complete psychopath]].
** Kenny went from [[The World's Expert
*** And that change may be [[Justified Trope|justified]] as him trying to live his life to the fullest, because he dies all the time, and really has no reason to avoid potentially life-threatening activities. Could also be considered [[Fridge Brilliance]].
**** That and the fact that the creators have stated that the "Kenny dying every episode" trope had gotten stale and/or they had reached the point where they had trouble thinking of original deaths (almost) every episode. This was one of the reasons for [[Mood Whiplash|the episode "Kenny Dies"]].
** Randy underwent a huge change. Compare his very first scene—where he casually sips coffee after learning of a volcanic eruption—to his main character trait later on, i.e. freaking out over every little thing, including non-existent threats.
* [[Chekhov's Boomerang]]: In the episode "200
* [[Chekhov's Gag]]: In "You're Getting Old", there's a joke where Stan can't tell the difference between a turd in a microwave and an ad for [[Kevin James]]'s ''Zookeeper''. In the following episode, at the very end, Stan's friends ask him to come watch a movie together. Guess which one it is a sequel of.
{{quote|
* [[Chekhov's Gun]]: The "goo" that came out of the Rob Reiner at the end of "Butt Out" has become a plot point in the episode "200".
** "The Death of Eric Cartman" establishes that the boys love KFC. KFC only serves as part of the [[Lead In]] for the episode. The plot of "Medicinal Fried Chicken" revolves all around KFC.
** {{spoiler|The V-Chip implanted in Cartman's head}} near the end of [[The Movie]].
** The "Kenny born for the 52nd time" gag at the end of "Cartman Joins NAMBLA" becomes a major plot point in the
** In "Margaritaville", Kyle holds a Sermon about the economy, saying he applied for an American Express Platinum card to prove a point, and holds it up to show his audience. Near the end of the episode, he uses that same credit card to pay off the town's debts.
* [[Chekhov's Gunman]]: In the
{{quote|
** Of note, this was done in such a way that many fans of Kenny/Mysterion were seriously pissed off, as the show completely swerved the viewers. Instead of giving us the actual backstory behind how the hell Kenny is apparently somehow {{spoiler|One of the Old Ones}}, we got a rip-off of ''[[Superman]]'''s origin with Mint-Berry Crunch. In the episode itself, Kenny was basically going ''what the fuck'' the entire time he's hearing this. It was actually a bit of a heartbreaking moment for Kenny, who goes through all that crap over the course of the series, creates a superhero alter ego who became something of an [[Ensemble Darkhorse]], and the creators screw him over instead of actually resolving how he gets his powers and why they work the way they do seemingly for the sake of a complete [[Screw You]] to him, his fans, and the entire concept of Mysterion. At the end of the show, he was so upset with the whole mess
*** On a more relevant note, many other fans realize the above was an example of the show's tradition of making something stupid become a major plot point and subverting the expectations of those taking the story too seriously, and are just fine with it, thanks. Compare with the Imagination Song.
**** Actually, it is revealed that Kenny got his "powers" because his parents went to the Cthulhu cult meeting that was mentioned earlier in the trilogy...
* [[Chekhov's Skill]]: Parodied in the episode "You Have 0 Friends" with Stan's ability to... roll Yahtzee?
* [[Cherry Tapping]]:
{{quote|
'''Cartman:''' I'm killing you. Unfortunately I could only afford a [[Nerf Arm|wiffle bat]], so it's gonna take a while.
* [[The Chessmaster]]: Both Cartman and Kyle frequently engage in this with one another. Typically involves Cartman developing a scheme and Kyle attempting to counter it. This can get quite elaborate as both are more than familiar with the other's capability.
* [[Child Prodigy]]: Ike is the most blatant version of this trope with his recreation of the last supper using macaroni and contributing to a diamond heist and becoming a knight in Canada before reaching 4.
** To a lesser extent, Kyle can be this. He has regularly been portrayed as the smartest in the 4th grade class. Existential philosophy, crossbreeding of animals, photoshopping well enough to fool a foreign government and single-handedly thwarting a terrorist plot while the government sits by idly isn't exactly typical of an eight to ten year old.
** Cartman may be somewhat [[Book Dumb]], but he is a certifiable master at scheming and manipulation and when enticed will go to great lengths to get what he wants. Is frequently capable of getting the better of Kyle's attempts to stop his plan of the week.
* [[Children Are Innocent]]: Usually subverted, most often with the murderous Cartman and the sex-crazed, glue-sniffing Kenny. It's also often played straight. Butters is most usually portrayed as innocent, while other children are sometimes shown to be uncorrupted by various stupid or disgusting aspects of adult culture.
** In the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Fga_q5on1I commentary for the episode "Bebe's Boobs Destroy Society"
** Played straight in some episodes ''even by Cartman'', like the one where the kids simply cannot fathom that people kill each other for having different-colored skin, or when they use "fag" without implying gay (for obnoxious Harley riders).
* [[Christian Rock]]: Parodied in "Christian Rock Hard" as taking pop love songs and substituting "Jesus" for one's lover.
{{quote|
* [[Chuck Cunningham Syndrome]]:
** Major character Pip went from featuring heavily and even getting his own solo episode, to vanishing permanently and never being mentioned again until
** A lot of early season characters on ''South Park'' haven't been seen much (or at all) in later episodes, such as:
** Officer Barbrady: Effectively replaced by a full police force around
** Kenny's brother, Kevin (the dirty kid who speaks like a hick, when he speaks at all). He was only seen on "Starvin' Marvin" (from
** [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] in "Cartman's Incredible Gift", when Ms. Crabtree is murdered by a serial killer.
{{quote|
** Damien hasn't reappeared in years despite his father making numerous reappearances.
** Nurse Goodly (the nurse with no arms from "Cartman's Mom Is Still a Dirty Slut") hasn't made a reappearance in scenes taking place in Hell's Pass Hospital.
* [[Church of Happyology]]: Quite notably averted. Even ended the episode by daring them to sue.
* [[Circumcision Angst]]: Subverted: Kyle thinks they're going to cut off his brother's penis!
* [[Cliché Storm]]: Invoked in "About Last Night...." is intentionally full of [[Heist Film]] cliches.
* [[Clip Show]]: Spoofed in "City on the Edge of Forever", in which all the flashbacks are incorrect and all inexplicably end with the characters involved eating ice cream.
** "Now that's what I call [[A Worldwide Punomenon|a sticky situation!]]"
* [[Closer to Earth]]: Initially subverted, with most of the female residents often being twice as obnoxious as the males ([[Characterization Marches On|it's hard to believe that Randy Marsh was actually the more laid back of the two earlier on]]). Played more straight in later episodes where even the more obnoxious females such as Wendy and Sheila are far less shrill and prone to [[Idiot Ball]]s. [[Adults Are Useless|Of course for most of the adult characters, this is about only as "Closer To Earth" as Jupiter is to Pluto]] (and naturally all female celebrities are free game).
** Played pretty straight with Sharon. Paired with her husband they're pretty much the stereotypical "Woman smart, man stupid" sitcom couple.
* [[Cloudcuckooland]]: [[Canada, Eh?]]. Watch out for Scott!
* [[Cloudcuckoolander]]: Anyone from Canada of course. Butters and Cartman
** Also, Randy Marsh (Stan's father).
** President Bush. Apparently he thinks Saddam Hussein is Satan's gay boyfriend and that he is somehow building chemical weapons plants in Heaven. Subverted in that he is [[Cassandra Truth|completely right about everything]].
** '''Mel Gibson
*** "Ow, my nipples! They hurt when I twist them!"
** Hell, Parker and Stone are Cloudcuckoolanders ''themselves''. Seriously, many of the plots to these episodes simply have to be seen to be believed.
* [[Cluster F-Bomb]]: Happens a lot.
** Cluster S Bomb in "It Hits The Fan
*** Also contains a Cluster F Bomb of a different sort, in regards to Mr. Garrison.
** Cluster B Bomb in the "Kyle's Mom is a Bitch" song.
** Cluster N Bomb in "With Apologies to Jessie Jackson
* [[Color Me Black]]: One episode has the boys making Cartman think he's... a ginger. Freckles and hair dye. The episode then turns this trope on its head - rather than making Cartman rethink his horrible attitude, he actually ''starts a ginger supremacist movement''.
* [[Comedic Sociopathy]]: And how.
* [[Come to Gawk]]: Someone's about to get beaten up! Let's call the entire town, so that everybody can watch!
** ''"CRIPPLE FIGHT!!"''
** This is also what happens in "Breast Cancer Show Ever
* [[Comic Book Time]]: The boys started out as 8-year-olds in 3rd grade. In Season 4, they moved onto 4th grade and are now 9-year-old boys. They have remained 9-years-old and in 4th grade ever since (though occasional recent episodes make reference to them being either 8 or 9).
** In "Crack Baby Athletic Association", Stan says that everyone present (Cartman, Kyle, Butters, Clyde, and Craig) is ten years old. Later in "You're Getting Old", Stan himself turns ten, so this is probably the default age for all the kids now.
* [[Comically Missing the Point]]: Cartman tends to exemplify this one, the episode "Major Boobage" in particular. Mainly due to the sub-plot of his rescuing the cats from being put into the pound (eventually taking in around 100). When asked by Kyle (a Jew) why the cats are in his attic, he replies with "They're innocent victims in this! They have to hide or they'll be put to death. Something you just can't understand." By the end, we have this exchange between Cartman and Kyle:
{{quote|'''Cartman''': But ya know, we've all learned something, you guys. We can never persecute living beings and force them into hiding. It's wrong.
'''Kyle''': And you don't see any parallel between that and anything else in history?
'''Cartman''': Hmmm, nope. I have no idea what you're talking about, Kyle.}}
** Although, since it IS Cartman, this could just be him being a [[Jerkass]].
** In the episode "201": {{spoiler|Scott Tenorman's father was Cartman's father. Cartman killed his own father and ''fed him to his half-brother''}}. Cartman has a
** In "Death", the earlier airings feature the following exchange:
{{quote|
'''Cartman:''' That's a bunch of crap! Kyle's mom is a dirty Jew!
'''Liane:''' Ohhh, okay, hon.
:::: Later airings censor the word "dirty", making the joke seem less like Cartman's mother is ignorant of her son's racism, and more like she's just plain stupid.
* [[Coming of Age Story]]: "1%", in a rather twisted way.
** "You're Getting Old" was this for Stan.
* [[Confession Cam]]: Parodied heavily at the beginning of "It's a Jersey Thing", culminating with when Sheila admits she's from [[Joisey]].
{{quote|
'''Sheila:''' You wouldn't understand. It's a Jersey thing.
** And again in "I Should Have Never Gone Ziplining".
* [[Conservation of Competence]]
* [[Contemplate Our Navels]]:
* [[Continuity Cavalcade]]: "200".
* [[Continuity Nod]]: There's a Whale and a Tom Cruise on the Moon in
** Then we finally have Mysterion's identity and ''actual'' power explained.
** In "1%", an Okama GameSphere can be seen in Token's room.
* [[Contractual Purity]]: Parodied in
* [[Cooking Duel]]: When Stan battles his Facebook profile in a game of Yahtzee.
* [[Cool Teacher]]: Parodied with Mr. Cartmanez.
* [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]]:
** And, to tease Disney and mock its legalistic ways that result in lawsuits, {{spoiler|Mickey Mouse turns into a giant monster that breathes fire all over South Park
** Other Corrupt Corporate Executives included [[Native American Casino|several Native Americans owning a large casino]] who threatened to tear down South Park to make way for a highway, and the CEO of Wal-Mart in another episode.
** "Chef
* [[Counterpoint Duet]]: Between Randy and Skeeter in "I'm
* [[Country Matters]]: The only swear word that isn't thrown around with gleeful abandon. There are a few times they [[Getting Crap Past the Radar|sneak it in]] though.
** Stan tries to get Wendy back by having Jimmy tell her she's a "continuing source of inspiration" to him and his stutter makes it sound like... that.
Line 379:
** Russell Crowe starts to call a woman this in "The New Terrance and Phillip Movie Trailer", but it's [[Curse Cut Short|cut short]].
** And in Wendy's audition song for [[Boy Band|Fingerbang]]: "Balzac was a writer/ He lived with Allen Funt/ Mrs. Roberts didn't like him/ But that's 'cause she's a/ Contaminated water can really make you sick..."
*** That song uses [[Subverted Rhyme Every Occasion|subverted rhymes]] on several curse words, and even outright uses the word "fuck" (bleeped on TV, of course, though in such a way that it's obvious what it was, as always with ''South Park''). Yet, the title of the song (never mentioned on TV) focuses on just one of the words so subverted - [[Captain Obvious|guess which one]]. [https://www.google.com/search?q=wendy%27s+cunt+song&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls\]
* [[Courtroom Antic]]: Spoofed in "Chef Aid".
* [[Coy Girlish Flirt Pose]]: [[Natalie Portman]] when she demurely turns down requests to [[It Makes Just As Much Sense in Context|open her wormhole]].
* [[Crap Saccharine World]]: The show in its initial state, before it became [[Darker and Edgier]].
* [[Crapsack World]]: Especially after the (relatively) [[Lighter and Softer|tamer]] and [[Crap Saccharine World|sillier]] early seasons.
** Gets a [[Literal Metaphor|literal]] treatment with "You're Getting Old"/"Ass Burgers":
* [[Crisis of Faith]]: Kyle has one when Cartman gets his own theme park and he gets... haemorrhoids.
* [[
** Cartman has dressed up as a girl a couple of times too.
* [[Cross Referenced Titles]]:
** "Do
** "Cartman's Mom
* [[Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass]]: Butters gets a surprisingly high number of these moments.
* [[Cruel and Unusual Death]]: The bubonic plague is portrayed in this setting as causing victims to vomit out their own intestines. The bubonic plague couldn't do that in real life, of course...but considering how horrifying it was at the time, it might as well cause people to vomit out their intestines. And yes, it happens to Kenny, though it's not so offensive when you consider that Kenny tempted fate before it happened.
* [[Crush Parade]]: [[They Killed Kenny|Kenny's first ever death]] on ''[[South Park]]'' sees him blasted onto a road by an alien raygun, trampled by a herd of stampeding cows, and the killing blow comes when he's run over by Officer Barbrady's police cruiser. After that, his body is eaten by rats.
* [[The Cuckoolander Was Right]]: In "Reverse Cowgirl", {{spoiler|Butters admits he thought the correct way to sit on the toilet was to sit inward so you can rest your reading material on the top and reach the handle without having to look down. Near the end John Harrington's ghost confirms that this is how he intended it to be used}}.
* [[Cultural Translation]]: Sega Dreamcast is changed into Playstation in the Polish translation simply because no one there knew what a Dreamcast was.
* [[Culture Police]]: Sheila is the freakin' CHIEF.
* [[Cure Your Gays]]: Butters sent to a camp.
* [[Cute Is Evil]]: The Woodland Christmas Critters.
* [[Cut the Juice]]: In the ''[[Series/24|24]]'' parody episode.
** And "Over Logging".
* [[Cutting the Knot]]: When Stan and Kyle try to destroy the [[Bland-Name Product|Wall Mart]] by destroying its core, they see that the core is a mirror. The Wall Mart CEO goes on about the symbolism about how it is the citizens of the town that are fueling the Wall Mart, etc. Stan shrugs and says the guy told them to destroy the core, so Kyle shatters the mirror which destroys the Wall Mart.
* [[Darker and Edgier]]: Pre-Season 5, the show was really silly and amusing. But once we get to the season of uncensored cursing, Cartman
** [[The Movie|"Bigger, Longer & Uncut"]]. Whenever it airs on T.V., it's always uncensored. On Comedy Central, it airs very late in the evening.
** The
* [[
** The Goth Kids in "The Ungroundable".
** Wendy in "Stupid Spoiled Whore Video Playset", "The List", "Breast Cancer Show Ever" among others.
** "Butters' Very Own Episode" deserves a special mention, although he [[Ascended Extra|later became a major character]].
** Jimmy is definitely a running second to Butters in this category. "Erection Day", "Krazy Kripples", "Crippled Summer", "Fishsticks", "Up the Down Steroid" just to name a few.
* [[Dead Line News]]: In "Night of the Living Homeless".
* [[Deadpan Snarker]]: Stan and Craig. ''Especially'' Craig.
{{quote|
* [[Deconstruction]]: In "Kenny Dies", they took their [[Overused Running Gag]] of Kenny dying and [[Killed Off for Real|played it absolutely straight]], with [[Drama Bomb|similarly unconventional results]]. [[Unexplained Recovery|For a while]].
** Also in the Coon and Friends trilogy, Kenny {{spoiler|as Mysterion}} finally decides to speak to his friends about the matter without the muffle, and completely seriously. It turns out that [[Weirdness Censor|no one has the ability to remember]] the deaths, and Kenny reappears in his bed, or occasionally somewhere else.
* [[Deconstructive Parody]]: "Crippled Summer" has one of ''[[Looney Tunes]]'' and its [[Amusing Injuries]].
* [[Defied Trope]]: In "Butt Out", Kyle attempts to avoid [[Cannot Spit It Out]], only to get [[Cassandra Truth]].
* [[Demoted to Extra]]: Most of the characters from the early seasons, particularly Officer Barbrady and Dr. Mephisto, who were major characters in many episodes, and often had whole shows featuring them (both later vanished, and South Park even got a real police force). The Mayor appeared far less as time went on, and even Chef was showing up less and less (after being more or less the fourth most important character on the show) before he was killed off. Most of the one-off characters, too.
** Hell, ''the boys themselves''. More and more episodes seem to follow the formula of "Randy does something stupid, while Stan
** Tweek, Pip, Wendy, Ike, Jimbo
* [[Depraved Homosexual]]: '''Mr. Garrison
** Though, as Chef once noted, "there is a BIG difference between gay people and Mr. Garrison." Liking men is the ''least'' weird thing about his sexual preferences.
** Cartman. Jimmy put it best in "Imaginationland".
*** And put on display (quite literally) in "Cartman Finds Love".
Line 431 ⟶ 428:
** Kyle at times too. Both can be pushed easily if it's at the other's expense actually.
** Butters in "Super Fun Time".
{{quote|
** Jimmy in "Erection Day" and "Up the Down Steroid".
* [[Deus Ex Machina]]: {{spoiler|Mintberry Crunch}}, full-stop. Also, the ending of the film.
* [[Devil in Plain Sight]]: Averted, in that many characters know that Cartman is a [[Jerkass]]. However, authority figures like Mr. Garrison, Principal Victoria, and Mr. Mackey oftentimes treat Stan and Kyle as if they're just as bad (or, in "Toilet Paper
* [[The Devil Is a Loser]]: Originally a headstrong rebel and pretty badass his first appearance, his later appearances he's a whiny little bitch. God even calls him out on this. He's also gay for some reason.
** South Park was actually fairly progressive in this area. He's gay because he happens to be attracted to males. It wasn't done for a quick gag or gay plot, it's just a personality trait.
** Possibly [[Fridge Brilliance]] - what other reason could the Bible have for condemning homosexuality?
* [[Diabolus Ex Machina]]: Quite common in the show, especially in later seasons, most notably in
* [[Did You Just Have Tea With Cthulhu|Did You Just Make Friends With Cthulhu?]]: Cartman did.
* [[Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?]]: {{spoiler|Mintberry Crunch}} did it using the power of {{spoiler|berries and mint}} before dragging him back to whence he came (then he {{spoiler|flipped off his fat sister}}).
Line 460 ⟶ 445:
** In the beginning of "Tsst!", Cartman is in trouble for chaining a boy to the school flagpole, telling him he poisoned his milk (and the only way to stop it is to cut off his leg), and (of course) supplying the poor boy with a hacksaw (it is implied the boy used it). This is a punishment for... calling Cartman chubby. Especially bad if you consider that Stan, Kyle, and Kenny regularly call Cartman ''MUCH'' worse names for "chubby".
** In "The Death of Eric Cartman", the boys pull one on Cartman just because he ate all the chicken skins on the chicken they decide to ignore him, despite him having done far worse things than that.
** A more meta-example would be the sex-change episode. Okay, we understand that Trey and Matt think that it's wrong but... did they have to have ''Mr. Garrison'' as the primary example? It's the equivalent of having Satan pop out of the ground and say how much he loves a political party!
** How about the one involving the OTHER Scott, [[Exactly What It Says
** In "Douche
** "Pandemic". The Department of Homeland Security takes every Peruvian flute band they can find and takes them away to Miami where they plan to make them spend the rest of their lives. Why? For the sole reason that they find them annoying.
** In "T.M.I.
** In "1%
* [[The Ditz]]: Butters.
* [[Divine Date]]: Satan and Saddam Hussein (later, Satan and Chris).
Line 472 ⟶ 457:
* [[Does Not Like Shoes]]: Kyle's character in ''[[World of Warcraft]]''.
* [[Does This Remind You of Anything?]]: "Crème Fraiche" has a meta-example with the Shake Weight, only taken [[Up to Eleven]].
* [[The Dog Bites Back]]: Butters occasionally gets back at Cartman and/or his relatives for their abuse of him; for example, "Awesom-O", "The Ungroundable" and "Cash for Gold".
** In "Poor and Stupid", the Vagisil CEO's wife gets in a race car and deliberately uses it to wreck the Vagisil car after he repeatedly humiliates her for her... feminine odors.
* [[Dogged Nice Guy]]: Both Kyle and Token in "Cartman Finds Love".
* [[The Dog Was the Mastermind]]: In the episode "About Last Night....", Kyle's toddler brother Ike was the key player in Obama and McCain's ''[[Ocean's Eleven]]''-style heist.
* [[Don't Explain the Joke]]: Subverted. In "Fishsticks", the [[Punny Name|fishsticks]] joke becomes funnier when, upon Cartman repeating the joke to Clyde and delivering the punchline, Butters runs up and explains the joke.
{{quote|Butters: You said you like to put fish sticks <ref>"fish dicks"</ref> in your mouth, {{spoiler|that makes you a gay fish}}!}}
* [[Do They Know It's Christmas Time?]]
* [[Double Aesop]]: "Simpsons Already Did It" tells us "Nobody cares if [[It's Been Done]]
* [[Double Standard]]: Spoofed quite a few times.
**
** After the censorship debacle, Matt and Trey said they'd "come back next week with something completely different and see what'll happen
** [[Double Standard Abuse (Female
** [[Double Standard Rape (Female
* [[Downer Ending]]:
** The Season 15 mid-season finale episode {{spoiler|"You're Getting Old"}} and its somewhat serious tone is likely to be debated among loyal fans for awhile. Either it is set up as a turning point in the series, or Parker and Stone {{spoiler|hit the [[Reset Button]] again in the subsequent episode "Ass Burgers"}}. Essentially, by the end, {{spoiler|Stan, who has celebrated his 10th birthday and become too cynical to hang around Kyle, Kenny and Cartman, is teased as splitting from the other three. His parents, Sharon and Randy, split up as Randy admits his man-child attitude is a cover for his unhappiness}}. Juxtaposing these points across Fleetwood Mac's "Landslide" and having no music play over the end credits, the episode creates intrigue on whether the show's character dynamic will be changed again, only this time without the [[Plot Coupon]] of {{spoiler|Kenny being [[Killed Off for Real]] in Season 5 and continuing to stay dead throughout Season 6}}. Not to mention that Kyle and Cartman, two characters who historically hate each other, are seen {{spoiler|playing video games together and smiling, a scene that may be [[Nightmare Fuel]]}}.
** The subtext of the episode, that Matt and Trey are "getting old" and outgrowing the show, led to speculation that they may be planning to either end or radically change the series. This turned out not to be the case, as they have since renewed the show for two more seasons and the next episode ends with all the changes of the previous one being undone (albeit with a lingering note of ambivalence - see below).
** In the return episode "Ass Burgers", the four boys, as well as Sharon and Randy, {{spoiler|have reunited tenuously by the end of the episode, again set to "Landslide"}}. Kyle and Cartman {{spoiler|go back to hating each other}}. The episode still ends on an ambiguously bitter note, as it is suggested that Stan {{spoiler|has not really overcome his cynicism, but merely learned to repress it for the time being}}.
* [[The Drag Along]]: The characters generally take turns with this. Craig spends two whole episodes [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshading]] this. But after years of improbable adventures it was about time somebody called them on it.
* [[The Dragon]]: Kenny or Butters usually act as this to Cartman.
** Cthulhu hmore or less became this to Cartman in "Mysterion Rises".
** General Disarray to Professor Chaos.
* [[Drama Bomb]]: As soon as Season 5, the show starts to have these, beginning with "Kenny Dies". Other episodes include "Fun with Veal", "The Death Camp of Tolerance", "Toilet Paper", "Red Man's Greed", "Raisins", "Preschool", "The Return of Chef"
** And in the case of Stan and Kyle's friendship, "Follow That Egg!" was the first of several episodes to have these dropped on it in contrast to earlier, sillier episodes such as "Prehistoric Ice Man".
** Cartman himself has quite a big one in "1%".
* [[Dramatically Missing the Point]]: Stan not getting what a terminal illness means.
* [[Dramedy]]: Believe it or not. The entire series became this as soon as "Kenny Dies" or as late as "Toilet Paper".
* [[Driven to Suicide]]: In "Coon vs. Coon and Friends", {{spoiler|Kenny/Mysterion}} attempts to goad Cthulhu into either removing his [[Cursed with Awesome|curse of immortality]] or simply killing him once and for all. After a particularly irksome situation where a mysterious stranger behind a CGI portal gives a revealatory speech about powers and destiny interplanetary origin etc. only to find out {{spoiler|he's talking about Mintberry Crunch}}, who then disappears along with Cthulu and Cartman, Mysterion goes back to headquarters/Cartman's basement after {{spoiler|Minteberry Crunch saves the world}}. There, he tells his gleeful superhero buddies that he wants to "take a nap" {{spoiler|then promptly shoots himself. For the third time in the trilogy}}.
** In "Pinewood Derby", Emmett Hollis' father shoots himself with a gun after feeling ashamed to have lost to Randy in the derby-''in front of Emmett''-much to his horror. Emmett than says, "He's okay, he's okay, he's okay..." quickly before the scene changes.
** In "Something Wal-Mart This Way Comes", the owner of the local Wal-Mart faces an angry mob of townspeople fed up with its influence, nervously going back and forth between lauding its qualities and expressing his own negative yet defeated opinion of it. During the conversation he writes and shows a note telling the crowd to meet him outside. After then townspeople leave the office confused and disappointed, {{spoiler|the owner suddenly jumps through the window, hanging by a noose. Seconds later, [[No Dead Body Poops|he craps his pants, proving Cartman right about the phenomenon]] to his satisfaction
* [[Dropped a Bridge on Him]]:
** Chef, literally.
** Halfway through the "Professor Chaos"/"Simpsons Already Did It" two-parter, Ms. Choksondik dies off-screen, with the cause of death never revealed.<ref>Though it may be safe to guess that her [[Meaningful Name|name is not meaningless.]]</ref>
** Pip in the episode "201" {{spoiler|gets stepped on by [[Instant Awesome, Just Add Mecha|Barbara Streisand]] for no reason}}.
* [[Dug Too Deep]]: BP in "Coon 2: Hindsight".
* [[Dying Like Animals]]: The people of South Park are really prone to mass stupid behavior, regardless of age or gender. One of them even dies simply because ''[[The Day After Tomorrow|he thought global warming was chasing him]] and he lagged behind too much''. Then he checks to make sure.
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