10 WTF TV Episodes That Came Totally Out Of Nowhere
6. "You're Getting Old" - South Park
South Park is a show entirely consumed with risque, anything-goes humour, and so just about nobody expected quite such a violent left-turn into serious territory with the all-timer season 15 episode "You're Getting Old."
The episode revolves around the onset of Stan's (Trey Parker) depression as he turns 10 years old and his parents separate, causing him to see the world gradually turning to literal feces.
Taking the show's penchant for scatological humour and flipping it on its head in a brilliantly creative way, it surely features less laughs and more maturity than any other South Park episode.
While on one hand You're Getting Old is a shockingly thoughtful commentary on mental health and the cynicism that comes with age, it was also interpreted by many as an allegory for Matt Stone and Trey Parker's own tiredness with the series itself.
Some commentators at the time even speculated that the episode was a surprise series finale, and though that ultimately didn't come to pass, this is nevertheless the realest that South Park has ever gotten.