The Best Movie References in South Park

Oftentimes, South Park uses well-known pop culture to comment on the goings-on in the real world and in current movies. For instance, the “Chewbacca defense” in Season 2’s “Chef Aid” or the Matt Damon urine-drinking commercial (a stand-in for his Crypto.com ad) in “The Streaming Wars Part 2.” Then there are the times, not unlike The Simpsons, it outright predicts the future, e.g. with Hello Kitty Island Adventure in Season 10’s iconic “Make Love, Not Warcraft.” Not to mention, the character Dr. Alphonse Mephesto and his assistant, Kevin, are blatant imitations of Marlon Brando and Nelson de la Rosa’s oddball pair in The Island of Dr. Moreau.

The series has made a number of movie references over the years, and what follows can be of any type, whether they’re from aforementioned categories or not. They just have to be two things: funny and about a movie. From Wild Wild West and The Shining to Braveheart and Speed, here are the best movie references throughout South Park‘s storied history.

Volcano and Dante’s Peak in “Volcano” (Season 1, Episode 3)

Technically, Season 1’s “Volcano” references both Dante’s Peak and Volcano (both also released in ’97, South Park‘s first year). But, by their own admission, it mostly comes from Trey Parker and Matt Stone watching the latter and thinking it was an incredibly stupid movie. They weren’t wrong.

To play on that stupidity, they resolve the episode’s conflict by having Randy devise a plan to divert the incoming lava from South Park via a trench. It wouldn’t work, they knew it wouldn’t work, but figured if Volcano could treat logic like it’s disposable, why couldn’t they? The episode’s highlight, though, is the play on the Duck and Cover animated social guidance film from 1951. In that case, the children were supposed to duck and cover in the case of a nuclear explosion. Here, it’s in the case of a volcanic eruption. Suffice it to say, the tactic doesn’t help them avoid the flowing lava.

Wild Wild West in “Cat Orgy” (Season 3, Episode 7)

The first entry of the “Meteor Shower Trilogy” is also the best, and not just because it has an iconic running joke about the box office bomb Wild Wild West, which had been released about two weeks prior. It’s a Cartman-centric episode, and he kicks it off as Will Smith’s Jim West (the role for which he turned down The Matrix) with the required badge and sunglasses. Next to him is Clyde Frog, renamed Artemus Clyde Frog after Kevin Kline’s U.S. Marshal Artemus Gordon.

The best part is the song Cartman belts out off-key that seems to be a clear reference to Smith’s (Golden Raspberry Award-“winning”) theme tune, “Well, I’m a badass Cowboy livin’ in the Cowboy days. Wiggy, wiggy, scratch, yo, yo, bang, bang! Me and Artemus Clyde Frog go save Salma Hayek from the big metal spider! A wiggy wig wig wiggy wiggy wig. Fresh cowboy from the west side…”

Speed in “Fourth Grade” (Season 4, Episode 11)

Speed is a terrific film, but it can play a little fast and loose with logic. South Park takes things a step further than the bus with a bomb by having Timmy strapped to a wheelchair with a highly volatile time machine propelling it forward.

A few hilarious moments come courtesy of this plot point. For one, Kenny’s death here is an all-timer. Two, the fact that the time machine ends up working, sending the helpless Timmy back to the Jurassic age, is pure gold.

Braveheart in “The Passion of the Jew” (Season 8, Episode 3)

Braveheart is actually most directly referenced in Season 1’s “Starvin Marvin,” but its usage in the perfect Season 8 episode “The Passion of the Jew” is the best. Actually, several Mel Gibson movies are referenced, by the show’s rendition of Gibson himself, much less.

Though, while his quoting The Road Warrior is funny, his screaming of “Rawr rawr rawr” while donning William Wallace’s face paint is enough to make you wheeze laughing. Toss in the pouty face and it’s just sublime, especially considering there’s literally no reason for Gibson to be wearing the face paint to begin with.

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The Shining in “A Nightmare on FaceTime” (Season 16, Episode 12)

It wasn’t the first time South Park had referenced Stanley Kubrick’s classic, but “A Nightmare on FaceTime” essentially revolves its whole plot around the horror flick. It’s an episode that doesn’t really have an A and B plot so much as two plots of equal importance. The Shining one is Randy’s, while the boys’ plot is also a movie parody. Specifically, The Avengers.

But this is Randy’s episode all the way. He steals all of his scenes, especially when yelling “Stannny boy!” or giving a Nicholson-esque look directly at the camera. It’s one of Season 16’s best episodes, and the literal icing on the cake is the closing shot of a frozen Randy giving Sharon his McDonald’s order.