I would say by Season 6
-Pip and Mr. Hat are retired as characters
-Ms. Choksondik is gone forever
-Ms. Crabtree barely appears by now
-Chef’s prominence as a character starts slowing down
-Terrence & Philip are barely seen from here on
When they stopped using celebrity pics
I think it ended around season 10. The early seasons had a charm the newer ones lack.
Yeah I’d say season 6.
Whenever the show became all Cartman/Butters all the time
End of Season 5, when Kenny died “permanently” then Butters got promoted to main cast
Pretty much agree. Need the early cartoon madness back or it may as well be a live action sitcom.
To me it ended with season 19. After that everything felt lazy with so many reoccurring plots like PC principal, memberberries, Trump, weed, etc.
There was definitely a shift before that as well where humor seemed to far less prioritized than it was earlier. Like their earlier philosophy was “is there some current event going on that we can make a funny episode about?” to: “I want to make an episode about this current event, lets try to make it funny”. But that change felt a lot more gradual.
Agree , nothing can top the first 6 seasons
When Mr Slave disappeared. U can’t laugh at that anymore…
It depends on how you define “classic”. If you mean “the original style of the show”, then definitely I’d say Season 6. If you define “classic” as “the best era”, I’d say South Park STARTED really getting good with Season 6. Some people say the golden age ends at Season 10 or so, but I’d say everything up to 17 stays broadly high quality and still feels the same, so I include it in my “golden age”, which ends when the show delves into serialization.
Scott Tenorman Must Die is the end of the classic era.
Shortly after Matt and Trey started leaning into the social commentary era with Osama Bin Laden Has Farty Pants.
If the classic era means the height of the show’s influence on pop culture, like the “oh my god they killed Kenny” and “screw you guys I’m going home” stuff, that was over by season 4. I also think the show generally gets a lot better at that point
Hers how I see it
First short films: Origins
Seasons 1-3: Early South Park
Seasons 4-6: Classic era
Seasons 7-12: Early Golden Age
Seasons 13-18: Late Golden Age
Seasons 19-21: Serialization era
Seasons 22-23: Tegridy farms era
Season 24-Present: Exclusive event era
That’s almost exactly how I would divide it.
S7E1 Cancelled Idk to me, the show felt more aware of itself, maybe it was the better animation (which I’m not hating) who knows
The old “crappy” animation is what i loved about the show. Member? I member it was better back then before JJ abrams 😂
For me, it’s -
Season 1-5: Classic era
Season 6-15: Golden age
Season 16-22: noticeable decline
Season 23-present: back on the upswing
Newer seasons and the recent specials have been amazing, but for awhile there it was just okay
People really can’t admit the show started to decline around seasons 15-16 but it’s so true. South Park is my favourite show ever but the decline is real and its just such a different show now compared to the peak years.
Scott Tenorman Must Die is like first moment I feel the old South Park started to change. Went from silly stories of 4 boys to insane diabolical since then.
Other than that, the official end has to be Chef’s death and ofc Issac Hayes. It is not the same without Chef.