South Park Theory: The Town Is Purgatory For Dead Idiots

"South Park" has inspired many fan theories and conspiracies about what's really going on in the kooky fictional animated Colorado town. One minute, fourth-graders are discovering interests in very real pop culture fads such as "World of Warcraft" and "Pokémon" (known as "Chinpokomon" in the universe). But in another moment, they'll be battling Satan or dealing with the town's probing alien invaders, aka "visitors."

It seems unlikely that "South Park" takes place in any sort of real universe, even though they take on issues plaguing today's world. Beyond taking on an audience's suspension of disbelief when dealing with the show's supernatural characters, some fans think that the town of South Park is actually a certain type of purgatory.

Redditor u/yay855 posited that the town of South Park is actually a purgatory for idiots, as in people who aren't good enough to get into any sort of heaven, but dumb enough to not be considered actually evil and warranting a trip to hell. They said, "Businesses are successful despite using methods that are beyond convoluted and inane, and the adults are rather successful despite having no common sense."

They mention the appearance of Jesus and Satan in the show as further evidence of the afterlife. Plus, fourth-grader Kenny dies a lot and is reborn over and over again, suggesting that he has to return to this purgatory after his "death." But if the town is a purgatory for stupid adults, why there are (mostly) innocent children like Kenny, Stan, Kyle, and Cartman stuck in the town on the show?

The Reddit thread theorized that the children of "South Park," such as series leads Kyle, Stan, Kenny, and Cartman, are actually child angels sent to observe this madness and help the people of the town learn from their mistakes while also learning to be better themselves. They also speculate that Chef is an angel as well, sentenced to purgatory for indulging in too many pleasures of the flesh, but ultimately wanting to help the children of South Park learn important moral lessons.

Further, the poster said that the afterlife for the not-so-bright adults is a place "Where they are given a playground to be stupid in without bothering other souls. Characters like Jesus and the Devil are common because they are some of the only people who actually care about the morons there, both of them trying to get the souls into heaven or hell, respectively."

The concept of how the rulers of heaven and hell are depicted also plays into the theory. Jesus, who is a Colorado citizen who also has his own TV talk show, has views similar to those represented in the Christian Bible, but he does not try to convert others or force his views onto anyone else. Satan is not an evil ruler torturing souls, but a guy who got stuck at a job for helping create free will and temptation.

Reddit User u/lordalador took the question posed by the original Redditor a step further by asking, "So does that make Butters Jesus? Always nice to everyone, and forgives all the horrible things that everyone seems to do to him." Another user, u/Klaerebaere, reminded the thread of a specific episode of the show saying, "In one of the Satan episodes, it shows that only Mormons go to heaven, and everyone else is in hell with Satan. Maybe the South Park people are just bad Mormons; not good enough for heaven, but still Mormon enough to not go to hell." 

One user, u/tree_lined_mind, thought this all added up saying, "This town is full of strange goings-ons, and Moron Purgatory makes the whole thing more logical somehow." Fans think that this all could be reading too much into things as well, but there's certainly a lot of evidence to support the radical idea. This is just another layer for fans to keep an eye out for as they binge their favorite foul-mouthed animated show over and over again.