7 Most Controversial South Park Characters

With political commentary, movie references that push people’s buttons (e.g. with Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull), and language some consider foul, Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s South Park is designed to offend. And, given the fact it points its satirical lens at everything, some characters are utilized to get its point across that, at first at least, don’t sit well with every viewer. Then, of course, there are those who criticize the show without ever having actually seen it. What follows are the characters that have made headlines over the years, and not for a good reason. They aren’t necessarily characters who are designed to be lame and divide audiences (looking at you, Towelie), they’re characters who outright generated controversy at one time or another.

Parker and Stone have no desire to end South Park anytime soon, so who knows what further feathers it will ruffle. But, if it never introduces another character who does so again, it will still have a stable of characters who have — some of whom seem to have been retired from the show permanently.

Mr./Mrs. Garrison

Mr. Garrison is one of South Park‘s most beloved characters, having a presence on the show ever since the pilot. But his sex change didn’t sit well with everyone in the audience, but the reason is a bit more complicated. Season 9’s “Mr. Garrison’s Fancy New Vagina” premiere itself generated controversy, not so much for Garrison’s transition, but for footage of an actual gender reassignment surgery.

The controversy stemming from the character himself (then herself, then himself again) has to do with a few of his lines. For instance, “Eek, a Penis!” has him tell a coworker at South Park Elementary School to get an AIDS test because his wife can’t have children due to ovarian cancer.

Mr. Hankey

“Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo” was a controversial episode at the time of release, as was much of Season 1 (even though it’s incredibly innocuous in hindsight). The Christian community likes Christmas to be left alone, and this episode has a talking piece of feces with a Santa hat on. It’s easy to see why such a character design might drive a poor knee-jerk reaction.

Stone has said that some viewers were horrified by the character when the episode debuted in 1997. It’s odd, because outside of being a literal piece of poo, there’s nothing about the Mr. Hankey character himself that’s offensive. He just likes Christmas and tries to bring people together.

Ms. Crabtree

Towelie was designed from the ground up to be divisive (hence the live-action fake ad sequence in his title episode showing “I Love Towelie” and “I Hate Towelie t-shirts). Ms. Crabtree, the loud and volatile school bus driver from the first few seasons, was not. Yet, they both received the same response from audiences.

There’s a reason South Park permanently retired (a nice way of saying killed off) Ms. Crabtree in Season 8’s “Cartman’s Incredible Gift.” She hadn’t been on the show for a while and, suffice it to say, audiences didn’t miss her much. In that episode’s mention of her demise, it goes so far as to say she’s “an ancillary character” the viewers “wouldn’t miss much.” The issue with Ms. Crabtree was that her character had a one-note execution. It worked well in the first season or two, but after a while, hearing her scream, “Sit down and shut up!” gets old.

Officer Barbrady

Fans have been divided over Officer Barbrady’s apparent removal from South Park ever since his final appearance in Season 19’s “PC Principal Final Justice.” Parker and Stone have confirmed that his absence isn’t accidental, he’s fully been written out of the show. The reasoning behind this is a bit of a mystery.

Naturally, the topic of law enforcement can be a combative one given frequent headlines about police brutality. But Barbrady was never the type who harmed people (except in “Chickenlover”). He was more just dumb. Perhaps it’s for the best, because, like Dr. Mephisto and Ms. Crabtree, he’s one of those characters who was prominent in the first few seasons only to see his presence become gradually diminished. There weren’t many new interesting directions to go with his limited character, but even still he wasn’t inherently problematic enough to warrant getting written out.

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PC Principal

PC Principal exists solely to try and make South Park (and, by extension, South Park) more politically correct. This raised eyebrows from some fans who questioned whether he was a presence that was actually required. To some, South Park shouldn’t be PC, or at least go out of its way to be PC, so why start now?

Then there was the fact that PC Principal stuck around. After a while, like Ms. Crabtree, he grew to be insufferably one-note. Then again, since that time he’s grown as a character, not so much in the form of losing the PC element but showing a likable side in his fatherhood to the PC Babies. Still, for a while there, many wanted PC Principal out of the picture.

Pip

Some episodes of South Park are underrated, while others are pretty much universally derided for good reason. Such is the case with Season 4’s “Pip.” The same pretty much applies to the character Pip himself.

There’s such an odd disparity between Pip and Butters. Pip came first (Butters’ first prominent role in an episode was Season 3’s “Two Guys Naked in a Hot Tub”) and was meant to be the butt of jokes. Butters was much the same. But the viewers hated Pip too, right from the jump, whereas Butters was swiftly embraced to the point he pretty much became the fifth protagonist alongside Stan, Kyle, Cartman, and Kenny. Pip is a controversial character in that he turned everyone off, and it’s questionable whether he was supposed to generate that ire as opposed to pity.

Timmy

Viewers have often misinterpreted Timmy as a one-dimensional joke at the expense of people with intellectual disabilities. But he’s proven himself to be an empathic and sweet-natured character (e.g. with Gobbles the turkey in “Helen Keller! The Musical”) with more depth than expected.

Even still, before Season 4’s “Timmy 2000” episode aired, Comedy Central was very antsy. They pushed Parker and Stone to remove the character. But then the character ended up being a major hit with fans of the show, so Comedy Central fully changed its tune. In short, Timmy could have been a far more controversial character than he actually ended up being.