South Park: Ranking Every Season From Worst To Best

16. Season 3 (1999)

Fans of "classic" South Park look back upon the early days with rose-colored glasses. But while South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut was succeeding, its source material was not. Season 3 is the last in which the core of Cartman, Kyle, Stan, and Kenny carry almost every episode by themselves, and although their antics are still solidly entertaining, the best part comes when they're separated in the so-called Meteor Shower Trilogy - Cat Orgy, Two Guys Naked In A Hot Tub, and Jewbilee - and allowed space to develop.

Not only are we introduced to Butters for the first time, but we also get to see a Tron-like Moses in one of South Park's better religious parodies. The best individual episode, though, is Chinpokomon, a hysterical satire of Pokemon that works because it perfectly captures the essential stupidity of fads while mixing in parodies of the Japanese, giving Parker the opportunity to do probably his best accent.

Despite these highlights, you can feel the show beginning to stagnate a bit. Compared to the first two seasons, Season 3 doesn't seem markedly better, and it's peppered with some misfires, including Rainforest Schmainforest, Tweek vs. Craig, and Jakovasaurs. More importantly, none of Season 3's episodes is transcendent enough to make up for the slowdown that pervades it as a whole.

Episodes like the Meteor Shower trilogy, Chinpokomon, and even The Red Badge of Gayness may resonate with longtime South Park aficionados, but they're more like deep tracks on an unremarkable album.

Best Episode: Chinpokomon

Worst Episode: Jakovasaurs