South Park has over three hundred episodes under the belt, the first of which premiered more than 25 years ago. Attempting to direct the play to only five basic episodes is an almost impossible task, but we will try it out.

The purpose of this list is not to recommend the five best episodes, and even the five episodes that most influence the larger plot of the series. No, the point is to offer five episodes that will give viewers the best idea of ​​how the show is developing. I am separating the play into five different epochs and I will choose one episode of each of them, which I think is typical of that period. There is "South Park" evolved constantly during the decade -long timeand unlike Other animated sitcomsIt cannot be easily divided into a "good" early era and "bad" later.

Tragically, this approach means that my personal favorite episodes of the show - which include the one where Wendy beats the nonsense of the Cartmann and the one where children are trying to lose their small league tournament - will not be here. These may be the most fun, but I don't think they are most essential to understand the show.

This is a regular walk in season 3 broadcast in June 1999, and I chose it not only because I am a Sender of Hardcore Creek. (View #7 from my list of best episodes of the best South Park). If you are more familiar with the later seasons of South Park, the main thing that can be held with a "tweet against Craig" is how different Kyle and Stan are. Both are total holes in this episode, causing a great fight between the innocent Craig and Twic for no other reason except that they think it will be fun to watch.

In a few years, the show will firmly establish Kyle as a righteous character in the group, the one who is likely to strive for what he believes, even if it is easier to bother his business. In the meantime, Stan will be established as calmer to both; He will generally agree with Kyle's situation, but he would rather make peace between the two combat groups. However, in "Tweek vs Craig", Kyle and Stan are interchangeable cramps not better than Cartman.

Speaking of Cartman, you will notice that he is not a villain in this episode. He is also at the same moral level as Stan and Kyle, which is a pair of course in the early seasons. Until the next episode on this list, Cartman will probably be abused than being bully himself. Stan and Kyle were often cramped for his appearance with a little provocation, the dynamics that would greatly depart.

Outside of the specific character dynamics, "Twin Against Craig" is a version of the show that is particularly children. Subsequent seasons will give the show more time and depth, but Season 3 was more content to leave their third grade characters (not yet in fourth grade) to retain the central phase.

Season 8 is firmly in the post-Scottish tenorman years, which means that Cartman has accepted his evil ways and now enjoys his role as the main villain of the show. For this list, I wanted to choose an episode that really highlights Cartmann on his worst. Do I choose the one where he pretends to have Tourett so he can call the people who argue in public? The one where he tries to start a second Holocaust? I almost focused on Cartmann's worst crime of all: when she ate all skin from those chicken wings of KF, before the other boys eat them.

I decided on the "incredible gift of Cartman", which highlights not only the preservation of a carbon for cruelty, but also its total unconsciousness. Cartman strikes his head after he stupidly tried to fly, and then begins a career as a mental resolution of murder. He destroys the lives of countless people in this work until he has managed to capture the real serial killer of active killer clothing.

This is a typical format of the South Park episode at this point in the show: Cartmann is a threat, Kyle is trying to stop him, but adults at South Park are so incompetent that children are finally closing to Cartmann's antiques. We may be eight seasons at this point, but this is the South Park era that most people think when you mention the series.

I should admit: I do not love this episode, but I still include it because there are several important moments in the history of the show. The first such moment is the infamous excuse of Randy's slurry at the live of "Wheel of Fortune" episode. It is a uncensored moment that demonstrates how far the South Park is ready to go in shock humor. Several networks would allow their sitcom to make a joke like this, and a few shows would dare to write the joke in the first place.

The other thing that has been noted is that "with an apology to Esses Acksecson" includes a kind of "South Park" plot for more abundant viewers often ignore it: Cartman sometimes wins the victory. Here, Cartman has successfully tormented a man with a dwarf, driving the boy to recently abundant. In the end, the man decided to resist the level of kartmann and challenged him in a fight, only to conquer him with ease. It is a story that I think is pretty spiritual and frustrating to watch, but for some reason it is well accepted by South Park fans in general. For one thing, I hate it when Cartmann wins the victory, but ordinary viewers need to understand that this is something that always happens and again.

Perhaps the most important thing is that you can really see Randy's rise on the screen here. Adults are written with increased depth and focus as the show continues, and Stan Randy's stupid dad is the clearest example of this. SeeEe see that he really drives the plot in this episode, something that will be Only occur more often than this point forward.

After enjoying a surprising long and late Golden Age phase (I would set him up to 6 to 13 seasons), the quality of South Park stagnated in his years of teenagers. Fans are worried that her best days have ended, that writers are growing boring and running out of ideas. But then came season 19, which took a serial approach that gave the show burst energy. Season 19 promised a bold new era for "South Park", and although season 20 could not deliver it, Season 19 itself was still a fun ride.

The premiere, "Stunning and Brave", Introduces a computer directorA character that represents politically correct liberal surplus in the mid-2010s. I think the computer director is fascinating because he is a character who could easily fall flat; By 2015, there was no lack of reactionary comedy that was whining about the culture of computers, but the shooters Trey Parker and Matt Stone managed to take the crop into a computer in a way that mostly felt fresh and tinted. The computer director is not a caricature of the liberals; He is a really funny person alone. He even beat Cartman in this episode, making him a winner in my book.

"Stunning and Brave" introduces viewers to South Park on perhaps its most ambitious and sophisticated. It offers us a show that has matured over time and effectively plays around with its own history and expectations of viewers. Most sitcoms do not do it at all in the 19 season, let alone the 19th season to finish as one of their best.

So far, Season 27 is a mirror image of the 19th season. While the former dealt with the zenith of obvious awakened culture, the latter deals with his Nadir. The Director of the computer now calls himself "the main power of Christ", and Cartman is overwhelmed because he no longer stands out in a world filled with awkward, selfish, provocative cramps.

Most importantly, the premiere season 27 injects another burst of energy in the show. From Kovid, the series was defined by constant specials and shortened seasons, combined with the general sense of pointlessness by the show. The energy of the season 19 seems to decrease until the 27 season returns to it with revenge.

What has changed? Well, the new tone of the show seems to be the result of Trump's catastrophic second term and the procedures of the parent company South Park, Paramount. Not only does Paramont's merger with "Skien Media" delay the season for several weeks, that openly criticized the showsBut they have also unnecessarily decided a lawsuit with the Trump administration to protect their profitable merger of Trump's mixing. Around the same time, CBS (Paramount owned) fired late at host Steven Colbert Just days after criticizing Paramount's actions, the speculation about the netting that other satirical shows owned by Paramount (such as the Daily Show and South Park) can be moved from any cruel comment to the current administration for fear of retaliation.

These factors are all combined to make South Park angry at the current presidential administration than they have ever been, and for that anger to feel important in a way that rarely does in this fractured modern media landscape. They have introduced a brand new Trump cornerAnd this has a lot more bite than their G -Din Garrison approach than previous years. "Mountain Sermon" introduces viewers to a new new era of the show; Time will say how this is released.