All 4 South Park Movies Ranked From Worst To Best

South Park's Paramount+ deal means there will be two feature films released each year. Here's every South Park movie ranked worst to best.

Here is every South Park movie, ranked from worst to best. Since its debut in 1997, South Park has consistently been one of the most popular animated shows on TV, alongside The Simpsons and Family Guy. Like its competitors, South Park’s voice cast has remained relatively unchanged since its release, with creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone voicing most of the main characters. South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut was one of the first adult animated shows to be adapted to a film. Now, two decades later more South Park movies are being produced.

As of 2021, South Park is contracted to create two movies each year for six years for the streaming platform Paramount+. The first of these specials, Post Covid, was released in November 2021 and was followed up by its sequel, Post Covid: The Return of Covid, which was available a month later. The movies mean South Park TV seasons are shorter, which could end up being a great decision, as it gives the creators an opportunity to make unique and original South Park stories, without needing to produce overlong series.

South Park has evolved in its animation style and humor over the years. The show has stayed fresh by satirizing contemporary issues and by making previously minor characters, like Butters and Randy Marsh, much more prominent in storylines. Despite that, the success of South Park is still down to the friendship between Stan, Kyle, Cartman, and Kenny, which continues to be the main part of the show. With regular feature films now being produced, here are all the South Park movies ranked from worst to best.

4. South Park: The Streaming Wars (2022)

Although South Park: The Streaming Wars isn’t bad, it doesn’t reach the same level as the other South Park movies. The latest South Park special on Paramount+ sees Stan and Tolkien set up a boat service to test whether streams across South Park are suitable for supplying water to local residents. The South Park special satirizes the privatization of public goods, climate change, and over-working content creators, continuing the show’s form for taking on current issues. While it does have funny moments, The Streaming Wars suffers from a slow pace and the general absence of the core group of boys being together.

Cartman is usually South Park‘s show-stealer, but his subplot in The Streaming Wars is weak compared to his past exploits. Upset that he’s living in a fast-food stand, Cartman argues with his mom about getting breast implants to attract a rich husband. It’s a joke that wears out quickly and isn’t as clever as Cartman’s previous evil schemes. Similarly, Randy Marsh’s story is underwhelming, as the movie once again draws from South Park‘s tired Tegridy Farms plot. The Streaming Wars‘ story is far from over and South Park‘s next special will likely be a direct follow-up, but the lack of closure and unanswered questions make it feel incomplete as a standalone movie.

3. South Park: Post Covid (2021)

South Park: Post Covid is set forty years in the future and sees a middle-aged Stan Marsh return to South Park, having fallen out with his Kyle, Cartman, and his family during the pandemic. Post Covid is cynical and dark, but it is full of classic South Park humor as the reunited friends attempt to figure out how they can go back and stop COVID-19 before it started by investigating the latest death of South Park‘s Kenny, who grew up to be a scientist. The main issue with Post Covid is that it only works as part of a two-part series because of its unresolved threads and cliffhanger ending.

Written and directed by South Park co-creator Trey Parker, Post Covid is full of jokes about the future and political correctness, but its best moments come when the movie pokes fun at the boy’s age. Supporting characters also get a chance to shine, particularly Jimmy Valmer with his sarcastic jokes and Clyde Donovan who is used to poke fun at anti-vaccination activists. The reveal that Cartman grows up to become a happily married father and rabbi pays off years of teasing towards Kyle – although the latter remains convinced that it is just another elaborate chapter in Kyle and Cartman’s ongoing feud.

2. South Park: Post Covid – The Return of Covid (2021)

South Park: Post Covid – The Return of Covid is the sequel to Post Covid and picks up where the last movie left off. Kenny’s research in Post Covid revealed that he was trying to travel back in time to cure COVID-19, so in The Return of Covid Stan and Kyle try to do just that. Standing in their way though is Cartman, whose underhand tactics that defined their childhood come back to the surface because, unlike Stan and Kyle, he is happy with how life turned out so doesn’t want the past to change.

The Return of Covid has a more optimistic tone than Post Covid, as the boys change the course of their futures by manufacturing “one precedented time” to change the residents of South Park’s reaction to the pandemic. With it being South Park though, that hopeful spirit is balanced out with the incredibly bleak alternate future of Cartman, who rather than growing up to be a happy family man, becomes bitter and homeless. Some of the jokes carried over from Post Covid become stale, including Stan’s human Alexa, but The Return of Covid thankfully brings in fresh material as well, notably introducing Butters who grows up to be a prolific NFT salesman.

1. South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999)

South Park‘s first feature-length movie is also its best. South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut sees Stan, Kyle, Cartman, and Kenny constantly cursing after watching the new R-rated movie by the Canadian double act Terrance and Phillip. Disgusted by the boy’s new vocabulary, their parents start a movement to execute Terrance and Phillip, and the United States declares war on Canada. All the while, in Hell, Kenny tries to stop Satan and Saddam Hussein from conquering the world. Like some of the older episodes of South Park that haven’t aged well, elements of Bigger, Longer & Uncut don’t work today. The movie is still packed with the chaotic energy that early South Park is loved for, and the decision to make it a musical helped to differentiate it from the TV series.

The landmark South Park movie achieved critical success, with its peak achievement being a nomination for Best Song (“Blame Canada”) at the 2000 Academy Awards. Bigger, Longer & Uncut takes aim at censorship and bites back at criticism of South Park by being stacked full of profane humor that it is known for. What Bigger, Longer & Uncut benefits from the most compared to the Paramount+ specials is keeping the focus on Stan, Kyle, Cartman, and Kenny. Although not every episode needs to star the four boys, future South Park specials should center around them because they are the reason for the show’s success.