Summary
- South Park's Halloween episodes are not as popular as its Christmas specials due to scheduling changes and a lack of consistent Halloween-themed episodes.
- The Halloween episodes often parody popular culture, with varying levels of success, such as the homage to Cloverfield in the "Pandemic" two-part episode.
- Some of the Halloween episodes miss the mark by focusing on secondary characters, like the goth kids in "Goth Kids 3: Dawn of the Posers," instead of the main characters that fans love.
The South Park Halloween episodes aren’t as popular as the Christmas specials, but this is mostly because the animated adult comedy doesn't have one every season. Over the course of 25 seasons, there have been 10 legitimate Halloween episodes and at least six more that fit into the theme of the October holiday season. Created by Matt Stone and Trey Parker, South Park tells the story of four foul-mouthed and curious kids in the small Colorado town of South Park and the show remains popular for its lampooning of popular culture, almost as it happens. This remains true for the Halloween episodes.
The very first South Park Halloween episode arrived in season 1 with "Pinkeye," and it set off the tone many fans expected to see in the future for Halloween episodes from Stone and Parker. Sadly, there haven't been that many in the show's history. One of the big reasons that there aren't very many Halloween episodes is because of scheduling changes, which means new episodes of South Park don't always air in the month of October. However, Stone and Parker try to add an episode celebrating the spooky season every chance they get, often with varying levels of success.
14 Pandemic Homages Cloverfield
Season 12, Episode 10
The Halloween two-part episode “Pandemic” follows the aftermath of the boys trying to form a Peruvian flute band to make money, only for the world to be consumed by masses of giant guinea pigs, including some in Halloween costumes. Randy tries to capture the events on a new video camera, overreacting as he stares into the lens and proclaims how startling everything is. "Pandemic" was meant to capitalize on the success of the then-recently-released movie Cloverfield, using shaky cam and a plot about giant monsters. However, outside that homage, it doesn't offer much more, as one of the lesser Halloween episodes.
13 Pandemic 2: The Startling Concludes The Two-Part Halloween Episode
Season 12, Episode 11
This is the sequel to the Season 12 episode “Pandemic.” The story from the previous episode about giant guinea pigs continues, taking the boys to the jungles of Peru where they explore the lost ruins of an ancient Incan temple that predicts how Peruvian flute bands (and Craig) will be able to drive off the giant guinea pigs. Sometimes, the silly over-the-top nature of episodes works, but this is not such an episode. The entire two-part horror tale was a take on Cloverfield, but it didn't rate as high as other South Park Halloween episodes in the series.
12 Goth Kids 3: Dawn Of The Posers Features The Goth Kids
Season 17, Episode 4
“Goth Kids 3: Dawn of the Posers” has a fun take on goth and emo culture, imbuing it with vampire fiction and a parody of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, but unfortunately, the goth kids have to carry the episode. This Halloween episode really misses Stan, Kyle, Cartman, and Kenny. The horror aspects are clearly there, including references to Edgar Allen Poe and a hidden TV horror show, but the goth kids really didn't have what it took to be as entertaining for an entire episode on their own. Missing the four main characters is the one thing the most divisive South Park episodes have in common.
11 Dead Celebrities Brings The Dead To South Park
Season 13, Episode 8
In 2009, several celebrities died, and the summer was coined “the Summer of Death.” South Park tackled this with a spooky parody of movies like Poltergeist and The Sixth Sense in which Ike sees dead celebrities. The episode has the boys call in the Ghost Hunters team and then even get help from a doctor at the hospital who is based on Zelda Rubinstein's character from Poltergeist. It turns out that Michael Jackson is keeping all the dead celebrities from crossing over because he refuses to accept his death. The Halloween episode even has a dark twist at the end when the dead celebrities finally on.
10 The Scoots Terrorizes South Park With eScooters
Season 22, Episode 5
“The Scoots” is a South Park Halloween episode that takes on the e-scooter craze and Fortnite, all while playing like a Halloween-themed parody of Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds. The episode sees the boys realizing that the only way they can get as much candy as possible on Halloween is by using e-scooters to get around town as quickly as possible. No one in town knows where these scooters came from, and the townspeople are worried about how much money all this candy will cost them when the e-scooters descend upon the town. Hilariously, the entire episode is bookended by adult Kenny as the narrator.
"The Scoots" is the only South Park Halloween special to actually air on Halloween.
9 Spookyfish Brings Spooky Vision To South Park
Season 2, Episode 15
“Spookyfish” is a second-season episode presented in what South Park refers to as “Spooky Vision,” which means Barbra Streisand’s face is on every corner of the screen. The best part of the episode featured Cartman's evil twin. The punch line was that everyone liked him better than the "good" Cartman. The episode also introduces Aunt Flow, who visits once a month in a cheap gag that mostly confuses the young South Park kids. The actual horror comes with the Spookyfish, which is a goldfish that kills innocent people and frames Stan for the murders. When Sharon starts cleaning up the dead bodies to protect her son, it hits its mark.
8 City Sushi Brings Turf Wars To South Park
Season 15, Episode 6
"City Sushi" might not technically count as a Halloween episode, since it aired in June 2011 and its plot doesn’t revolve around Halloween, but there are enough spooky moments and horror movie spoofs in “City Sushi” to make it at least a semi-Halloween episode. Butters hands out fliers for a new restaurant called City Sushi, but when he gives one to Lu Kim, the owner of City Wok, it starts a turf war and the police blame Butters. When his parents decide he needs to undergo therapy, Butters ends up in danger when the therapist begins terrorizing the child. The episode parodies Paranormal Activity with an ending that mimics the end of Psycho.
7 Tegridy Farms Halloween Special Brings The Zombie Pot Apocalypse
Season 23, Episode 5
The “Tegridy Farms Halloween Special” follows Randy and his business growing and selling marijuana from Tegridy Farms. When Randy decides he needs a new strain of weed to sell for Halloween, he and Towelie make a new hybrid which they call their “Halloween Special.” However, Randy’s daughter Shelley has a problem with his marijuana business. To express her disapproval, she pours a vat of chemicals all over the new strain of marijuana, causing it to grow Lovecraftian vines. When people smoke it, they hallucinate a zombie apocalypse. It shares a lot with "Pinkeye," one of the better early South Park episodes.
6 The Magic Bush Is A Butters' Horror Episode
Season 18, Episode 5
“The Magic Bush” might not be a proper Halloween Special, but it has definite horror elements to it and first aired on October 29th, 2014, so it fits the bill. When Cartman, Butters, and Kenny use Butters’s dad’s new drone without permission, they spy on Craig’s mom while she is undressed, then a video of her onto the internet. Butters’s dad begins to suspect his drone is flying by itself and is terrified it has become sentient, which makes more sense to him than thinking his son Butters would fly it without permission. The perceived fear of drones and the lampooning of leaked celebrity nudes helped this episode hit at the time.
5 Korn’s Groovy Pirate Ghost Mystery Stars The Real of Korn
Season 3, Episode 10
Plenty of celebrities have guest-starred in South Park, but they’re usually used for an ironically small role, like when Jay Leno played Cartman’s cat. In “Korn’s Groovy Pirate Ghost Mystery,” the entire band Korn plays themselves in a parody of Scooby-Doo. From the Antonio Banderas sex doll that Cartman mistakes for a Christmas present to jokes about necrophilia, this episode is full of the inappropriate, hysterical humor that made South Park a cultural phenomenon in the first place. Plus, the spoofing of Hanna-Barbera’s animation style comes off brilliantly, with all the recognizable colors, quirks, and visual reference points.
