Celebs Who Were Destroyed By South Park

The following article includes references to body-shaming, homophobia, racism, and sexism.

For a sleepy little town in Colorado, South Park and its humble folks without temptation have seen an inordinate number of celebrities visit over the years. When the show premiered in 1997, the first visitors on "South Park" were of the extraterrestrial variety, but it wasn't long before creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone began using their platform to roast the rich and famous on the reg. From A-list stars with sparkling reps such as Tom Hanks to unsavory Z-listers like imprisoned former Subway pitchman Jared Fogle, no one is off-limits.

While Parker and Stone lampoon everyone and everything with their crass satirical social commentary, they're especially contemptuous of Hollywood, succinctly encapsulating their views on celebrities in a 2006 interview with Esquire. "Having to sit there and listen to George Bush do and say a bunch of stupid s*** while he was bombing Iraq was no more offensive to me than watching Alec Baldwin go on TV and say, 'Let me tell you what this war's about,'" Parker said.

Parker and Stone took their cynical schtick to the extreme by explaining to Spin why they didn't vote in the 2004 presidential election. "We didn't believe we had to choose between a turd sandwich and a giant douche," said Parker, referencing the "South Park" episode where school mascot voters were actually presented with this choice. But while Parker and Stone may promote the idea that everyone is equally terrible, some of their celebrity targets have gotten it far worse than others.

Proving that it always keeps a finger on the pulse of the pop culture zeitgeist, "South Park" gave that finger a tangerine tan and leopard-print manicure for the 2010 episode "It's a Jersey Thing." Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi also got a makeover when she and the rest of the cast of the MTV series "Jersey Shore" were savagely satirized. Per the Daily Beast, Snooki once described herself as thus: "Honestly, who hides in a bush? Only me. I will pee in a bush, I will poop in a bush, and I will hide in a bush." 

So the "South Park" writers had their work cut out for them in finding a way to parody her that was even more outlandish than her antics on the popular reality show. Their solution? Take away her ability to deliver amusing one-liners and reduce her vocabulary to the words "Snooki want smoosh-smoosh," which is a term for having intercourse that the "Jersey Shore" cast actually used on the show. Snooki was also depicted as an orange, rodent-like creature that likely would spend a lot of time hiding in a bush. She did, however, get to keep her signature hair pouf, fuzzy frog slippers, and garish gold jewelry.

While her portrayal wasn't exactly flattering, the reality show star was able to laugh about it. "Snooki want smoosh smoosh. im going to have nightmares tonight lmao!!! we've officially made it. goodnite my b***hes," she tweeted alongside a red heart emoji.

"South Park" deployed one of its favorite tropes, casual homophobic jokes, in the 2009 episode "Fishsticks." Aspiring comedian Jimmy discovered a way to work a mondegreen into his stand-up routine by asking the question, "Do you like fish d**ks?" knowing that this would be misheard as "Do you like fishsticks?" Upon receiving an affirmative answer and a reaffirmation, he would then deliver the punchline: "What are you, a gay fish?"

The joke became a nationwide sensation on the show, but there was one person who didn't get it: an animated Kanye West. The frustrated rapper became convinced that people were calling him a gay fish. By the end of the episode, he'd decided to accept this label, leaping into the sea and recording an auto-tune ode about his bizarre journey. The real-life West reacted to the episode on his blog, writing in part (in all caps), "'South Park' murdered me last night and it's pretty funny. It hurts my feelings but what can you expect from 'South Park'! I actually have been working on my ego though. Having the crazy ego is played out at this point in my life and career." 

Trey Parker and Matt Stone told HuffPost that the response made them feel a bit guilty about going after the rapper so hard because they were expecting Ye to lash out in anger. However, the musician wasn't quite as introspective in his 2010 song "Gorgeous" when he rapped, "Choke a 'South Park' writer with a fishstick."

In the 2004 episode "Stupid Spoiled Wh*re Video Playset," the "South Park" writers had Paris Hilton's beloved chihuahua, Tinkerbell, die by suicide because life as her living accessory was so unbearable. Hilton then replaced her pet with a human child: Butters Stotch, aka Mr. Biggles.

"The Simple Life" star was portrayed as simple-minded, selfish, entitled, and promiscuous. The cartoon Hilton was also so determined to be the worst possible role model for all the young girls in South Park that she engaged in a "wh*re-off" with the character Mr. Slave — which she lost in a very NSFW way. Matt Stone didn't hold back when sharing his feelings about Hilton in an interview with Spin, claiming, "It's just so obvious that she's just a f***ing piece of s***." When Blackfilm.com asked Hilton how she felt about the episode in 2005, she hadn't watched it yet. However, she said, "When people copy you, that's like the most flattering thing, so whatever people can say, I just laugh about it. It doesn't matter to me."

The following month, IGN conveyed Hilton's reaction to the "South Park" creators. Stone actually seemed taken aback by the heiress' lack of indignation, so apparently it is possible to shock the guys who live to shock. "That shows just how f***ed up she is. That's terrible that she's flattered by it," he said. According to her Twitter account, Hilton was still a "South Park" fan as of 2013.

Sally Struthers was one of the earliest celebrities spoofed by "South Park," and the show's send-up of the "All in the Family" star's Save the Children ads was arguably vicious. In the 1997 episode "Starvin' Marvin," she was body-shamed and portrayed as a food hoarder who was stealing rations from the hungry kids featured in her commercials. According to CBR.com, Trey Parker and Matt Stone wanted to kill Struthers off and have Ethiopian villagers feast on her carcass, but this ending was too macabre for Comedy Central.

Stone was unapologetic when speaking about Struthers in a 1998 interview with The Seattle Times. "She's not really evil. She just tries to raise money for all these starving kids, while she's standing there all bloated up. I feel like saying, 'Hey, dude. Give them some of YOUR pie,'" he said.

In the show's DVD commentary, Stone and Parker claimed that Struthers was a "South Park" fan until she became one of its targets, which made her cry. But when she appeared on the "WTF with Marc Maron" podcast in 2021 and called people out for joking about her weight, Struthers didn't mention the show. "I could never understand that from the first time I found out some comic or another made fun of me, and then when a greeting card was on sale somewhere making fun of me," she said. "It dumbfounded me that if you're trying to help hungry children, you're fodder for horrible, cruel jokes. What's wrong with the world?"

"South Park" killed off Steve Irwin off in the 1999 episode "Prehistoric Ice Man," a parody of the movie "Encino Man." The animated version of "The Crocodile Hunter" star perished in a train crash while trying to subdue a "prehistoric" man from 1996. Seven years after the episode aired, Steve tragically died while filming the documentary "Ocean's Deadliest." He was exploring the Batt Reef when a stingray stabbed him in the chest with its barbed tail.

Mere weeks after Steve's death, "South Park" placed him in hell with a dead stingray sticking out of his chest. Satan, who was throwing a "Super Sweet 16" costume party, believed that Steve was a guest wearing an offensive costume and tried to kick him out, saying, "The whole Crocodile Hunter thing, it's just a little soon, you know? ... It's just not super-cool." A source alleged to The Australian Women's Weekly that the episode understandably upset Steve's widow, Terri Irwin, who was reportedly concerned about how the couple's kids, Bindi Irwin and Bob Irwin, would react if they ever saw it. "Terri is devastated Steve is being mocked in such a cruel way," claimed the insider. "Steve had as big a sense of humor as anyone, but this goes too far too soon."

In 2018, Bindi spoke to People about losing her beloved father. "It's like losing a part of your heart, and when you've lost that, you never get it back," she said.

"South Park" has a long history of creating its own bizarre imaginary creatures, from the nostalgic memberberries to Towelie, the pot-smoking piece of terry cloth, and Mr. Hankey the Christmas Poo, a holly jolly character who spreads holiday cheer (and fecal matter). But when viewers were introduced to ManBearPig in 2006, the monster was never meant to be real; the show mocked Al Gore's concern over the devastating effects of climate change with an allegory about the ex-vice president desperately trying to convince South Park residents that the part-man, part-bear, part-pig wasn't just something he made up for attention.

Over a decade later, Gore received his very own apologetic episode, a rare move for a show that prides itself on being unapologetic. In "Time to Get Cereal," the citizens of South Park learned that ManBearPig really did exist, and the script was flipped — climate change deniers became the butt of the joke. The animated version of the "An Inconvenient Truth" writer and star did have to demand a super-cereal apology, but even if his portrayal still made Stan and his pals roll their eyes, Gore was satisfied with the episode. 

"Honestly, I was so impressed. I don't know these guys, Matt and Trey. And I kind of thought they were nihilists of sorts. But funny nihilists," he said on "The Daily Show" in 2018. "... I thought it was a hell of a statement by 'South Park' and I appreciated it a lot."

In the early aughts, "Gladiator" star Russell Crowe began building a reputation as a hotheaded brawler. In 1999, he reportedly used his own head as a battering ram, threw punches, and sunk his teeth into someone during a saloon skirmish in the Australian city of Coffs Harbour. Some of the fighting was filmed, and two men ended up going to court for allegedly trying to use the footage to blackmail Crowe, per News 24, though they were later acquitted. Three years later, the actor was accused of picking a fight with the owner of a rugby team whose players had performed far better than those on the team Crowe supported. Per the Mirror, that alleged incident took place in a London restaurant.

Crowe's apparent behavior earned him his own show-within-a-show in the 2002 "South Park" episode "The New Terrance and Phillip Movie Trailer." The fake cartoon, "Fightin' Around the World," imagined him as a more villainous version of Popeye, a sailor whose favorite hobby is engaging random folks in fisticuffs. He traversed the globe looking to stir up trouble with the help of his trusty anthropomorphized boat, Tugger.

During a "60 Minutes" interview, Crowe revealed that being parodied as a cartoon character made him look inward and search for the source of his short fuse. "If there was something for me to learn from it, is the analogous thing," he said. "Because I did think the whole thing was a fight. I did think my whole career was a struggle."

In 2014, a two-episode arc of "South Park" randomly revealed that Lorde was really Stan Marsh's middle-aged dad, Randy Marsh, dressed in drag. After Randy started wearing a long wig and dresses to use the women's restroom at work, he discovered that it was an excellent place to sing and crafted a secret pop star identity. Upon discovering this, his wife was supportive and encouraged him to be true to himself.

Lorde later tweeted her approval. "I have officially been the subject of 2 'south park' episodes and that is weird and cool," she wrote in since-deleted posts. "I don't actually watch 'south park' but from what i can tell sia was involved." In an interview with NME, Sia confirmed that it was her singing the "South Park" original "Push (Feel Good on a Wednesday)," which was written by Trey Parker. "When I realized it might be mean to Lorde I felt bad but I went ahead and did it anyway," Sia said. "I figured she'd find it funny. I love her!"

While Lorde appreciated the homage, she felt that Randy's facial hair was a bit much. "I was thinking, 'Yeah he has a moustache. ... I mean I have a moustache, but is it that prominent?'" she quipped in an interview with 3 News. The "Royals" singer also showed Randy's songwriting capabilities some low-effort love by rapidly reciting his favorite lyric: "I am Lorde, ya ya ya ya ya."

The Season 1 "South Park" episode "Mecha-Streisand" was a pop culture fever dream — The Cure frontman Robert Smith had to become a massive moth creature to do battle with Barbra Streisand, who had used an ancient artifact to transform herself into a giant reptilian robot. In the series' DVD commentary, Matt Stone and Trey Parker explained that they satirized Streisand in part because she once took a stand against an amendment that prevented LGBTQ+ citizens from being protected by anti-discrimination laws in their home state of Colorado. Per Variety, Streisand said that she was boycotting the state over the amendment's passage. The "South Park" co-creators revealed that they absolutely loathed the actor-singer and made cruel comments about her appearance in the DVD commentary, which included jokes about the size of her nose. "She is evil in many ways," Stone claimed to The Seattle Times.

Streisand had her own thoughts about Parker and Stone's cartoon. "I wonder if shows like 'South Park' and 'Beavis and Butt-head' don't add to the cynicism and negativity in our culture, especially in children," she told Mirabella (via Far Out). "... Maybe they come away feeling that any woman who dares to accomplish something is the incarnation of self-centeredness and greed. And that would be very unfortunate, especially for young girls." 

When Parker and Stone fired back, they weren't nearly as eloquent; for a Halloween episode, they added images of Streisand to the corners of the screen and called it "Spooky Vision."

The target of the 2003 "South Park" episode "Fat Butt and Pancake Head" was the pop culture story of the moment: the Bennifer prototype. In the show's DVD commentary, Matt Stone and Trey Parker explained why they compared Ben Affleck to a breakfast food in the title, claiming, "He has a really, really flat face." 

Jennifer Lopez was portrayed as a difficult diva whose record label replaced her with a racist caricature created by Eric Cartman — he drew a face on his hand, slapped a wig on it, and recorded a song titled "Taco-Flavored Kisses." Affleck then fell in love with the hand puppet. According to Parker, some people who worked with Lopez on a movie alleged that she was absolutely livid about the episode, especially taking offense to the JLo puppet's repetitive declarations that she liked to eat tacos and burritos. Apparently, some of the crew members thought that it was funny to utter the lines within Lopez's earshot, but she didn't share her amusement. "She got so mad and had to fire people," Parker claimed.

Parker supposedly had an uncomfortable encounter with Lopez himself, but he believed it was because he wore a replica of her famous green Versace gown to the Oscars. "I was at an Academy Awards party once, the year after I wore the dress, and Jennifer Lopez came up and shoved me and walked away," he alleged to Exclaim!. "F***ing b***h.

Staying true to their early rep as rated-G Disney stars, the Jonas Brothers once shared the message that abstinence was awesome. Celebrating celibacy even had its own trendy accessory: the purity ring. "They are a constant reminder to live a life with strong moral values," Kevin Jonas told the Daily Mail in 2008. "Chastity is a personal thing and wearing these rings is a private decision." His brothers and bandmates, Joe Jonas and Nick Jonas, also wore the rings, which were a big story at the time, in part because vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin was promoting abstinence-only education while her then-17-year-old daughter, Bristol Palin, was pregnant.

In the 2009 "South Park" episode "The Ring," the Jonas Brothers encouraged their fans to take their own purity pledges, but it was revealed that they did so at the behest of their boss: a maniacal, murderous Mickey Mouse who viewed purity rings as nothing more than a promotional tool. In a 2015 interview with Elle, Nick explained why he wasn't able to laugh at the episode until he got older. "There was so much attention on my sex life at 15. It was uncomfortable," he said. "If you were talking about a 15-year-old's sex life or a 17-year-old's in any other context it would be totally obscene." Joe, meanwhile, always found it hilarious. "Mickey kicked my a** so I won the episode by being beat up by Mickey Mouse," he wrote in a 2016 Reddit AMA.

The reality TV realm has always provided plenty of fodder for the "South Park" writers' room, and in 2012, they "redneck-ognized" that "Here Comes Honey Boo Boo" was comedy gold. The main star of the TLC reality series was young beauty pageant competitor Alana "Honey Boo Boo" Thompson, whose diet partly consisted of a lot of "sketti," which is spaghetti noodles coated with ketchup and margarine, as well as cheesy puffs, pork rinds, ribs, packaged snack cakes, and the occasional roadkill feast.

When Thompson's mother, "Mama June" Shannon, got her a pet pig to make her feel better about losing a beauty pageant, Thompson worried that her new porcine companion would eventually end up on the dinner table. "South Park" took this storyline and ran with it for the episode "Raising the Bar." The cartoon imagined Thompson requiring a heart transplant, so instead of picking out a pet, she chose the pig whose heart she would receive. Thompson also "sketti wrestled" Eric Cartman in a large pool of the slimy slop.

Shannon's family always made sure TLC viewers knew that they were proud of their lifestyle, but she was not a fan of how "South Park" portrayed them. "That show is not a show that I would want to be on to begin with," she told TMZ, "and the previews [looked] like it would be okay, but just the way they portrayed the show ... it was kinda trashy."

It was inevitable that "South Park" would eventually take on the Kardashians. The cartoon attempted to kill off the entire family in the 2010 episode "The Tale of Scrotie McBoogerballs," and Kim Kardashian found this hilarious at the time. "We were all dying when we saw this clip from 'South Park' ... literally, LOL," she wrote on her old blog (via Access). She also boasted, "I managed to survive the longest ... of course!"

The Kardashians' reality show kept getting renewed year after year, so "South Park" was eventually forced to resurrect the clan. This happened when there was a major pop culture development that proved irresistible to the writers: Kim's relationship with rapper Kanye West. In the 2013 episode "The Hobbit," Ye tried to convince people that Kim wasn't actually a hobbit who used photoshop to dramatically alter her appearance, thus setting unrealistic beauty standards. The episode was a cautionary tale about the harm that social media's culture of airbrushed, inauthentic perfection can cause, but one source claimed that Kim was not happy about being used to promote this message by being transformed into a Tolkien character. 

"Kim is livid with what the guys from 'South Park' did," the insider alleged to Hollywood Life. "She has found nothing to laugh about with what the show did, and considers it an unnecessary attack." However, Kim's rep later insisted that she hadn't even watched the episode.

Tom Cruise's religion was mercilessly mocked in the 2005 "South Park" episode "Trapped in the Closet." Stan Marsh got a visit from the cartoon Cruise when Scientologists became convinced that the child was the second coming of their religion's founder, L. Ron Hubbard. Stan offended the "Top Gun" star by saying that he wasn't the biggest fan of his acting, so Cruise got inside a closet and refused to come out. In addition to the arguably juvenile anti-gay gag, there were animations showing viewers "what Scientologists actually believe."

When Cruise's movie "Mission: Impossible III" was about to hit theaters in 2006, a rerun of "Trapped in the Closet" was scheduled to air on Comedy Central. But because the cable network and the movie's studio, Paramount, were both Viacom subsidiaries, this sparked speculation that Cruise had used this connection to get the episode pulled from the schedule. Trey Parker and Matt Stone told CNN's "Showbiz Tonight" that they believed this to be true. "It's really like a publicist couldn't have orchestrated this any better for us," claimed a gleeful Parker.

Late singer Isaac Hayes, who voiced the character Chef on the show, was also a Scientologist. He quit the series before the Cruise episode re-aired, and Comedy Central claimed that it was replaced with two of Chef's most popular episodes as a tribute to Hayes, per The Washington Post. A rep for Cruise also denied that the actor had any involvement with the schedule change.

While a rep for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle told The New York Times that the couple's decision to step down as working members of the royal family had nothing to do with a desire for privacy, "South Park" dedicated an entire episode, "The Worldwide Privacy Tour," to painting the Duke and Duchess of Sussex as apparent hypocrites who engaged in endless attention-seeking behavior while complaining about their lack of privacy. Harry's 2023 memoir, "Spare," was retitled "Waaagh," and Markle was described as his "Instagram-loving b***h wife."

In response to the episode airing that February, there were breathless reports about how it was supposedly going to be the couple's downfall. Speaking to the Mirror, a PR expert warned that Markle could hurt her brand if she responded to the episode in the wrong way. However, she didn't react to it publicly at all until the media's erroneous reporting pushed her to do so; when rumors ran rampant that the Sussexes were allegedly so angry about the episode that they were considering suing the "South Park" creators, a spokesperson told People, "It's all frankly nonsense. Totally baseless, boring reports."

In its piece about the nonexistent legal action, Fox News suggested that the Sussexes' cartoon lampooning was a sign that the couple's celebrity stature was seemingly on the line, and on "The Megyn Kelly Show," the titular host claimed, "When 'South Park' turns on you, there's no recovering." Apparently, Tom Cruise, the Kardashians, Bennifer, etc. didn't get this memo.