South Park: Kyle's Best Episodes Of All Time

In a world where adult animated comedies are painstakingly created (every episode of Seth MacFarlane's "Family Guy" takes around 10 months to make, for example), "South Park" stands out from the crowd. Incredibly, it takes just six days to get an episode of "South Park" ready to air. This is made possible not only because of the comparatively crude animation style, but also because co-creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone are quick thinkers when it comes to comedy.

Through the lens of elementary school buddies Kyle Broflovski, Stan Marsh, Eric Cartman, and Kenny McCormick, Parker and Stone lampoon current events with a ruthlessness that fans of the show have grown to love. The counterweight to all the craziness is Kyle, who (along with his best friend Stan) is usually the voice of reason in a town where the actions of adults can seem completely unhinged. With his measured skepticism and intellect, Kyle is one of the most complex and likable characters in "South Park," and he's been at the heart of some truly memorable episodes. These are the best of the bunch.

Mel Gibson raised more than a few eyebrows with the release of his film "The Passion of the Christ," a retelling of the final hours of Jesus Christ's life. The film was slammed by the Anti-Defamation League for depicting Jews as a "blood-thirsty" mob, warning that it could "fan the flames of hatred" against Jewish people. The "South Park" episode "The Passion of the Jew" serves as Matt Stone (who is an atheist of Jewish descent) and Trey Parker's characteristically unsubtle reaction to Gibson's film, as told through Kyle's perspective.

After viewing "The Passion of the Christ," Stan and Kenny are appalled and set out to get their money back. They are informed that the only way they can get a refund is to ask Gibson directly, so they head to Malibu to seek him out. Meanwhile, the Jewish Kyle finds himself guilt-ridden by the film and seeks advice from the local rabbi, who tells him that "everybody knows this is just a movie" and that they "live in a rational community."

This, of course, isn't true. A backlash against Jewish people is in full swing when Gibson himself turns up in South Park, having chased Stan and Kenny all the way from Malibu. He crashes into the movie theater and then smears excrement on the building. This, along with a speech from Stan, convinces everyone that Gibson's film is not to be taken seriously.

Kyle's relationship with his adopted brother Ike is one of the more wholesome in the series. He often shows concern for Ike and he seems happy to take on the role of big brother, even if he occasionally gives Ike a hard time like brothers often do. So when that relationship starts to fall apart in "Taming Strange," Kyle does everything he can to put the pieces back together.

After the typically sweet kid transforms into a rude, out-of-control teenager seemingly overnight, Kyle realizes that Ike is going through "Canadian puberty." The episode, which was written during Bill Hader's tenure as a writer for the series, somehow manages to lampoon government healthcare, the then-popular kids' show "Yo Gabba Gabba," the Miley Cyrus-Sinéad O'Connor feud, and the growing emphasis of viral content over quality performances.

In their DVD commentary for Season 17, Matt Stone and Trey Parker cite the entry as one of their favorite episodes, noting the problems with the Canadian healthcare system were intended as a stand-in for the bumpy rollout of Obamacare. Amid all of the episode's bizarre, absurd, and frequently filthy humor, it's hard not to be moved by Kyle's commitment to connecting with his little brother, even when he's awfully hard to love.

The Season 15 episode "HumancentiPad" plays on the idea that people rarely read the small print when they sign up for a new streaming service or software subscription. Inspired by the body horror film "The Human Centipede (First Sequence)," the episode deals with Kyle's revelation that the small print he agreed to on his iPad came with a very disturbing clause — one that involves Kyle forcibly donating his body to Apple's next iteration of the iPad. Like the source material it references, this episode is one of the show's more unabashedly depraved, and although Kyle is its central character, he doesn't have many lines.

The episode's development was chronicled in the Comedy Central documentary "6 Days to Air," which documents how the writers and animators feverishly develop and pull together each episode in a matter of days. As revealed in the short film, Trey Parker's first inspiration for "HumancentiPad" grew out of his own frustration with constant iTunes updates, which caused him to wonder if he was actually agreeing to something terrible. Like many of the best "South Park" episodes, "HumancentiPad" features plenty of shocking humor and deals with Cartman's constant attacks on Kyle. But somewhere in all of that dark humor, the episode still manages to make a valid point, in this case about our relationship with technology.

Written during the height of the Pokemon craze, "Chinpokomon" finds the "South Park" kids wrapped up in their own Japanese toy fad — a fad Kyle is the last to get in on. By the time he finally starts picking up Chinpokomon figures, Kyle finds his friends have already ditched the toys and moved on to the video games, kicking off a frustrating game of catch-up he can't seem to win.

As the franchise turns out to be an elaborate scheme to brainwash American children into bombing Pearl Harbor, the parents of South Park realize the hidden cost behind mindlessly caving into commercialism targeting children. Their efforts to lure their kids away from the trend yield some amusing attempts at failed toy trends until they finally solve their problem with reverse psychology. 

Anyone who ever felt the sting of missing out on the latest toy fad growing up will relate to Kyle's plight as he finds himself going along with the crowd regardless of — and often unaware of — what he actually wants. In today's world of viral trends and influencers, where kids spend endless hours streaming content unsupervised, the episode is perhaps even more relevant now than when it first aired. 

One of a handful of episodes that deal with Kyle's relationship with his Jewish faith, "Jewbilee" finds Kyle and Ike heading off to a Jewish scout camp called Jewbilee (with Kenny in tow, despite Kyle's parents warning him that he might not fit in). The event coincides with a meteor shower and lines up with the other two episodes in the "Meteor Shower Trilogy," titled "Cat Orgy" and "Two Guys Naked in a Hot Tub."

At Jewbilee, camp elders separate the big kids from the younger scouts (called "Squirts"). They end up in the woods pursuing a bear as the rest of the scouts work on creating popcorn necklaces and macaroni pictures to appease Moses, who appears in the form of a hovering dreidel inspired by the Master Control Program from "Tron." When the prophet banishes Kenny as a Gentile, an anti-Semitic camp elder named Garth traps Moses in a conch shell, intending to summon Old Testament bad guy Haman and enslave all the Jews.

Fortunately, Kenny comes back just in time to save the day with the help of the Squirts. It's one of the few episodes where Kenny has a chance to shine, even if his heroics lead to his (predictable) demise. In their DVD commentary for the episode, Trey Parker and Matt Stone cite "Jewbilee" as one of their favorite episodes ever, despite it arising from extreme sleep deprivation.

A parody of "The Wizard of Oz," "It's Christmas in Canada" finds Kyle's parents faced with a crisis: the return of Ike's birth parents. They gave their son up for adoption during the Cola Wars, but the pair has come to regret their decision. When a new Canadian law comes into effect returning all Canadian-born children of adoption to their biological parents, the Broflovskis are forced to hand Ike over to his birth parents.

To help win Ike back, the good people of South Park give the Broflovski family their Christmas money so they can fly to Canada and convince the Prime Minister to hear them out. Kyle, Stan, Cartman, and Kenny set out on a journey of their own, crossing paths with several types of Canadians along the way and ultimately uncovering the man behind the Canadian Prime Minister curtain.

Despite airing a matter of days after Saddam Hussein was discovered and captured by U.S. soldiers near his hometown in Iraq, "South Park" still managed to work the recent news into its ending. A solid holiday tale and road adventure in its own right, "It's Christmas in Canada" is one of those rare heartwarming episodes that shows Kyle's humanity through his compassion for his brother.

"The List" finds Kyle hitting rock bottom after the boys stumble onto the class girls' list ranking every boy in their school from cutest to ugliest. After an elaborate plot to get their hands on the list, the guys discover Clyde scored the top spot and Kyle came in last, ranked even below the obnoxious, misogynistic, and sexist Cartman. As the revelation transforms Clyde into his most outgoing self, Kyle is relegated to a life among the "ugly kids," where he soon begins spiraling into toxicity, even planning to burn down the school.

The truth behind the list is revealed when Stan convinces Wendy to investigate. It turns out the list is rigged in Clyde's favor because his father owns a shoe shop, a shoe shop Bebe wants access to. Superficially, the story is full of the type of silly hijinks and gags that make "South Park" so much fun to watch. But, taken with many of the show's other Kyle-centric episodes, it paints a wider picture of Kyle's need to fit in and his troubled sense of self. In terms of broader "South Park" lore, it adds to the sense that Kyle maintains his troubled friendship with Cartman because looking down on him helps Kyle feel better about himself.

"South Park" occasionally manages to do a solid job of explaining fairly weighty subjects. The episode "Freemium Isn't Free" is a perfect example of this. This Season 18 entry takes on the subject of addiction in its critique of freemium gaming, a type of mobile gaming where users download the game for free but can pay for in-app purchases that specifically target the most addicted players with micropayments that add up dramatically over time. It's a world the boys are introduced to by Jimmy, who is quietly turning kids on to the freemium Terrance and Phillip game like a drug pusher in an after-school special.

While Cartman, Kenny, and Kyle find the game frustrating, Stan becomes a serious addict. Each of the boys play a part in helping their friend out with his freemium problem, but it's Kyle who first recognizes the issue and leads the gang's confrontation with Jimmy. "Freemium Isn't Free" is yet another example of Kyle's tendency to become his best self when someone he cares about is in need of help.

The two-part episode "Cartoon Wars" is among the "South Park" episodes banned by parent streamer Max due to discussion and/or depiction of the Muslim prophet Muhammad. Once again, Kyle and Cartman's rivalry takes center stage. The trouble begins when it's revealed that "Family Guy" intends to show an image of Muhammad in an upcoming episode. Most Muslims believe that "Muhammad, or any of the other prophets of Islam, should not be pictured in any way," per the BBC. Buying into Cartman's apparent concern that "Family Guy" will needlessly offend Muslims, Kyle accompanies his frenemy to Hollywood, but soon realizes that Cartman only cares because he hates "Family Guy" and wants to get it canceled.

Speaking to IGN, Trey Parker and Matt Stone noted that they clashed with Comedy Central higher-ups over "Cartoon Wars" showing Muhammad. "We fought and we fought and we fought, and the network was just like, 'We're not going to show Muhammad,'" Parker said. "And that was really hard to figure out how do we do this in a way that the audience knows we meant to show Muhammad and the network isn't showing Muhammad."

Despite Comedy Central's ultimate decision to censor the scene featuring Muhammad, the episode would become one of the most acclaimed in the series, with many viewers praising the creators' commitment to upholding free speech. As often is the case, it's Kyle who sums up those values when he tells the president of Fox, "Yes, people can get hurt. That's how terrorism works. But if you give into that, Doug, you're allowing terrorism to work."

Seeking help with their school Thanksgiving project, Kyle, Cartman, Stan, and Kenny turn to a History Channel "documentary" on ancient aliens. Soon, the History Channel learns of their report, taking it as support for their ancient alien claims. After the boys are invited to join the series, Kyle's frustrated, sarcastic remarks are taken out of context and instead presented as evidence for the ancient alien conspiracy theory, with the network citing Kyle as an "expert" on ancient aliens.

History Channel producers go down a rabbit hole following Kyle's facetious rant, ultimately uncovering an elaborate, epic space opera between the Natives and pilgrims. By the end of the episode, the "Ancient Aliens" spoof has devolved into a messy "Thor" parody complete with Thanksgiving stuffing mines, a wormhole, and "Keeper of the Wormhole" Natalie Portman. It's beyond absurd, but the best part is watching Kyle finally lean into the absurdity and accept the fact that aliens and Thanksgiving are intertwined.

Kyle gets the chance to invite three friends to Casa Bonita for his birthday in this Season 7 episode, and Cartman isn't among them. But, after Cartman musters a halfway decent apology for his past behavior toward Kyle, Kyle tells him that if Butters can't go for any reason, Cartman can take his place. Because Cartman is Cartman, he immediately convinces Butters the planet is about to be struck by a meteor and lures him into a bomb shelter, where he's supposed to remain for the duration of the party.

The plan almost works, but when Kyle learns Butters is missing, he postpones his birthday party to wait for his friend's return, forcing Cartman to improvise a more elaborate post-apocalyptic ruse. Just as he eventually ends up at Casa Bonita, the truth about Cartman's misdeeds comes out, causing everyone to turn on him. The episode as a whole is one of the series' best, with A.V. Club noting its role in drawing patrons to the real cult-favorite restaurant — a restaurant Trey Parker and Matt Stone have since purchased. It's also nice to see Kyle establishing boundaries for himself, even if those boundaries are immediately trampled on by Cartman.

The generational divide hits Kyle where he lives when his brother Ike blows off a chance to play the new "Call of Duty" game to watch PewDiePie talk about it instead. While Kyle expresses his dismay at the death of the family living room, Cartman senses a chance to capitalize on the trend and begins his own commentary channel — a channel that comments on everything Kyle, Stan, and Kenny do.

Kyle's frustration boils over when he catches Ike watching Cartman's "Let's Play" channel, a lazy, catchphrase-heavy mess lampooning the type of YouTube channels many in the younger generation grew up watching. While the episode takes plenty of jabs at the world of YouTuber commentary, Kyle's bafflement is as much about his own failure to get with the times as it is a critique of YouTubers. And like everything else "South Park" does, the show seems to understand both sides, a balanced perspective that's reinforced by the episode's PewDiePie appearance at the end.

Taking aim at New Jersey-themed reality shows like "The Real Housewives of New Jersey" and "Jersey Shore," "It's a Jersey Thing" sees the town of South Park rapidly taken over by New Jersey Syndrome after a New Jersey family moves in next door to the Marshes. Soon, "everything east of the Rockies" is New Jersey and South Park's residents are scrambling to stop the spread. Kyle's mother reveals her Jersey roots and the revelation has a profound impact on him: He soon finds himself gelling up his red hair and ripping off his sleeves.

Kyle's full Jersey transformation yields some of his funniest scenes in the series, culminating in a vulgarity-laden showdown at the Sizzler. While the episode doesn't contain a lot of meaningful social commentary, it has a rollicking good time making a mockery of Jersey reality TV personalities, many of whom apparently took the whole thing in their stride. Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi, who is depicted as a gremlin in the episode, tweeted that she'd "officially made it," while co-star Vinny Guadagnino said, "My face was on South Park, I'm good now."