South Park: Ranking Every Season From Worst To Best

6. Season 9 (2005)

South Park has always thrived on creating controversy. But even by the show's standards, Season 9 made some serious waves. Within the final four episodes of the season are: Ginger Kids, which inspired legitimate bigotry against redheads; Bloody Mary, which aired on the day of a Catholic feast dedicated to the Virgin Mary; and, most notoriously, Trapped In The Closet, Parker and Stone's legendary takedown of Scientology that influenced Isaac Hayes' departure from the show.

The reason these episodes succeeded is because aside from their controversy, they were objectively excellent. Hilarious one-liners intermingle with big-picture storylines that use the show's characters perfectly to make statements about the world at large. Even some of the non-controversial episodes are rock solid. Randy Marsh has perhaps his most classic line in The Losing Edge, an episode that accelerated his transformation into a major character and the embodiment of white middle-class stupidity. Meanwhile, Two Days Before The Day After Tomorrow is a perfect lampoon of catastrophe, unlike later over-the-top episodes of South Park that get a little too far-fetched, precisely because it creates the perfect storm of disaster movie parody and real life disaster in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

There really isn't much bad to be said about Season 9...maybe that Wing is an average-at-best episode? With a number of standouts, a knack for creating the best type of controversy, and a high overall level of quality, Season 9 comes in strong.

Best Episode: Trapped In The Closet

Worst Episode: Wing