South Park: Kenny’s 12 Greatest Deaths
3. Zapped By Saddam Hussein
After Kenny died for real in Season Five, Parker and Stone put the brakes on their most famous running joke for a while. Kenny returned after a little time away, and instead of being primarily a throwaway character good for a violent gag, he was simply part of the group, allowed to live his life along with Stan, Kyle, and Cartman.
The writers didn’t throw out the formula altogether, though, and Kenny was still there to be killed when it served a purpose, or made for a good laugh. His first death after returning to the show was a particularly notable one - he is vaporised by the prime minister of Canada, who turns out to be Saddam Hussein.
South Park is known for its speedy turnaround, but they excelled themselves here, coming out with an episode spoofing the dictator’s capture mere days after his discovery.
Kenny’s latter-day mishaps perhaps undermine the significance of his emotionally substantial “permanent” death, but in episodes like this they’re used to great effect to up the stakes in one of South Park’s most impressive (from a technical perspective at least) instalments.