10 Most Controversial South Park Moments

When South Park introduced Timmy in season four, it seemed that Parker and Stone may have crossed a line too many. A severely disabled child who can only say his own name could easily have taken the show from edgy to downright unpleasant.

In fact, the show’s handling of Timmy has been highly intelligent, and at times downright sensitive. Timmy and his disability are seldom the direct subject of the joke; more often the humour is derived from how he is misunderstood by the incapable adults of South Park. In his debut episode, he is diagnosed with ADHD by clueless school staff.

Boundaries are pushed even further the following season with the addition of Jimmy, another child with unspecified special needs. While the writers feel slightly more able to poke fun at Jimmy’s condition, he has become one of South Park’s best characters, is clearly one of the smartest people in town, and is always portrayed as popular and talented.

Whether the writers felt reluctant to mock disabled kids or decided to skewer expectations, Timmy and Jimmy are fully developed and well fleshed out disabled characters on a popular TV show, which remains something you don’t see all that frequently.