5 South Park Episodes That Are Unwatchable Today

For decades, "South Park" has made a name for itself by ruffling pretty much everyone's feathers at some point. You may giggle at one episode believing its making fun of a celebrity or politician you hate, but then it'll turn around the next week and target someone you actually care about. It should come as no surprise that many celebrities have hated their portrayals on "South Park," yet such controversies only seem to fuel the show's fire.

There have been numerous controversial "South Park" episodes, but even if you have a dark sense of humor, you have to admit that certain episodes just haven't aged well. Some have even become downright unwatchable — and no, we're not even talking about the "South Park" episodes that have been banned. Those are literally unwatchable, but we're talking about the ones that are available to watch on Paramount+ that just leave a bad taste in your mouth, like you just ate chili containing the corpses of your parents.

We want "South Park" to take things too far, but these were a step further than most. Whether it's due to a celebrity facing real-world scandals after the fact or touching a sensitive topic in an extremely poor manner, these are the most unwatchable "South Park" episodes of all time.

In 2002, "South Park" kicked off Season 6 with the episode "Jared Has Aides." Back then, Subway spokesperson Jared Fogle hadn't been arrested and imprisoned for the distribution of child pornography and online solicitation of minors. He was just a guy who got famous for losing weight by eating sandwiches. The episode sees him visit South Park and reveal to the core boys that he also lost weight thanks to his "aides," which help him with diet and exercise, but it keeps getting misinterpreted as "AIDS."

Compared to some of the other celebrity portrayals in "South Park," it's a fairly tame depiction. Fogle's inclusion mostly functions to make a bunch of AIDS jokes that comes full circle at the end when the town declares that it's finally okay to make jokes about AIDS. But the episode is nausea-inducing these days, considering everything that came out about Fogle in the years that followed. The episode sees him going around telling everyone, including children, he wants to give them AIDS.

"I offer to give aides to kids, and everyone wants me dead!" That line just hits different now, and we'd rather skip this episode on rewatches.

"South Park" makes fun of everything and everyone. Over the years, it has had racist, anti-semitic, and homophobic jokes alongside skewering of folks in both political parties. The show's an equal opportunity offender and should be watched as such; but, ideally, an episode about sensitive topics at least has worthwhile satire and nuance. Unfortunately, "Mr. Garrison's Fancy New Vagina" forsakes all of that for shock gags at the expense of the transgender community.

Mr. Garrison seeks out gender confirmation surgery to identify as a woman. Right from the start, you know you're in for a rough ride, as the story cuts away to real-life surgical footage. The idea seems to be, "Look at how gross this kind of surgery is!" Things don't get much better from there, as Kyle soon undergoes a surgery to become Black in one of the cringiest moments ever on "South Park." Gerald also gets a surgery to become a dolphin. The off-putting messaging from the episode appears to be that changing gender is tantamount to changing race or species.

"South Park" would have a much better trans-centric episode later with Season 18's "The Cissy," where Cartman pretends to be transgender to get his own bathroom. The episode mocks transphobes rather than the transgender community, meaning it's punching up rather than down. "Mr. Garrison's Fancy New Vagina" makes no attempt to understand the real issues, so it comes off as mean-spirited rather than pointed satire.

The following slide includes references to sexual assault.

Season 10's "Miss Teacher Bangs a Boy" has a worthwhile satirical target, honing in on the media double standard of when an adult woman is caught having a sexual relationship with a minor compared to when the gender roles are reversed. This manifests when Ike's kindergarten teacher begins grooming and having a sexual relationship with the child, and all anyone can say about it is, "Nice."

However, this also means that much of the episode is devoted to depicting this inappropriate sexual relationship, resulting in scenes of the two in bed and sharing a bath together. Unfortunately, the message at the heart of the episode is still far too relevant today. Even now, it's not unheard of for a case of an attractive female teacher grooming a male student to arise only for social media to talk about how "lucky" the boy is. But watching Ike get put into these situations and get taken advantage of repeatedly is hard to watch all the same.

If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).

"South Park" has no problem going dark. Fans expect it. However, even the most ardent of fans would probably agree that "Britney's New Look" is downright unwatchable due to the fact the titular pop star spends most of the episode with half of her head blown off.

The episode skewers the rampant media attention Britney Spears received in the 2000s. When the main boys pull a prank on her, it causes something in her to snap, leading to her blowing her head off with a shotgun. But she lives, and even as she's paraded around and doing shows without a head, the general public still criticizes her about how she has gained weight or is an unfit mother.

Watching Spears gargle everything since she doesn't have the top half of her jaw does drive home the point. A celebrity could be suffering in full view of everyone, yet they won't get the help they need until it's too late. Even now, when celebrities undergo mental health problems in public view, too many people are concerned about offering a hot take rather than wanting them to get the help they need. Still, this is truly one of the most horrific "South Park" episodes ever. It's just unpleasant to watch.

"The Human Centipede" often ranks as one of the most disturbing movies ever made, with its central premise of a scientist surgically sewing multiple people together mouth-to-anus. Naturally, "South Park" had to get in on such a diabolical idea with "HUMANCENTiPAD," as Kyle becomes an unwitting participant in a similar experiment being conducted by Apple because he agreed to the Terms and Conditions without reading them first.

That means Kyle becomes the middle portion of Steve Jobs' HUMANCENTiPAD, where he gets put through various attempts to try to get him to actually read the Terms and Conditions before agreeing to anything more degrading. There's a salient point to be made about how we all just agree to whatever tech companies put in front of us without seeing what we're surrendering, but this episode mostly exists to have a man defecate inside Kyle's mouth repeatedly.

"South Park" is no stranger to scatological humor. After all, this show has Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo, as a character. But watching a man violently defecate into a main character's mouth time and time again is just too unsettling for our taste. There's a fine needle to thread when it comes to offering social commentary through extreme scenarios, and "South Park" usually knows how far to go. But in these few cases, these just aren't stories we particularly want to revisit.