On Saturday, South Park turns 25. It is a tremendous achievement for a show that, when it debuted, looked as if it would probably amount to nothing more than a short-lived slice of nihilistic juvenilia. But, as the show has aged, it has managed to grow wildly in ambition. South Park is now a fully fledged topical satire, picking off targets both big (all of religion) and small (Game of Thrones) as creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone see fit.
The anniversary is not the end of South Park by any stretch – Parker and Stone have signed a $900m deal to keep producing the series (plus 14 hour-long specials) for another five years. But this is still a time for reflection, so let’s look back at South Park’s greatest episodes so far.
