South Park: Kenny’s 12 Greatest Deaths

12. Laughs To Death

Kenny’s death in this episode is relatively mundane: after seeing a video of Cartman performing a song and dance routine dressed as a pig, he is so overcome with hysterics that he laughs himself to death. It happens fairly early on, and is not exactly remarkable in its presentation.

What it does do, though, is kick off one of the most famous and beloved episodes of the show’s entire run. Cartman is made to look a fool by his rival, ninth grader Scott Tenorman. Not one to take this kind of effrontery lying down, Cartman proceeds to put into event a sequence of events which results in Scott eating his own parents in a bowl of chilli, after Cartman lures them to their deaths on a farmer’s field.

It’s pretty much the moral event horizon for young Eric: wher he was crude and annoying before, from here he becomes a monster.

Really, you can take Kenny’s death as the moment the show changes forever. Prior to Kenny laughing himself to death, South Park is a silly and gross comedy about kids swearing. Post-death, it’s a show capable of astonishing darkness.