Season Analysis

South Park

Season 9 Analysis

Season Woke Score

out of 10

Season Overview

Join Stan, Kyle, Cartman and Kenny as they deal with the perceived dangers of global warming, a certain actor's sexuality is questioned, and the Pope arrives to witness a religious miracle. For them, it’s all part of growing up in South Park!

Season Review

Season 9 of South Park maintains the series' long-standing tradition of equal-opportunity offense, where the dominant narrative is the swift and ruthless satire of hypocrisy and absurdity across all cultural and political spectrums. The season takes direct aim at identity politics through the lens of a character seeking to change race or gender for superficial benefits, and by ridiculing the creation of a manufactured grievance class. It is strongly anti-authoritarian and anti-narrative, notably challenging both climate change alarmism and the hysteria of the War on Terror. The season contains an intense focus on anti-theism, most famously in the episodes targeting Scientology and the Catholic Church's veneration of the Virgin Mary, where the show depicts religious belief as absurd or fraudulent. The scores reflect that the show consistently attacks, rather than embraces, the ideologies associated with the 'woke mind virus,' with the exception of organized religion, which is the primary target of its genuine hostility.

Categorical Breakdown

Identity Politics3/10

The narrative satirizes racial essentialism by showing Kyle undergoing surgery to become a Black person to play basketball better. It directly ridicules the culture of grievance and demanding 'more than equal' rights by having Cartman lead the 'ginger kids' movement. The themes presented are a clear lampoon of the intersectional lens.

Oikophobia2/10

The season is not hostile toward Western civilization but rather toward the fear-mongering and hysteria within it. It critiques environmental alarmism in the 'Two Days Before the Day After Tomorrow' episode. It also portrays 'hippie' subculture as a destructive, invading force, validating the small American town's right to defend its peace and order.

Feminism3/10

The core gender arc involves Mr. Garrison's sex change to 'Mrs. Garrison,' a process and identity which is immediately presented as ridiculous and self-serving, with the character later seeking to reverse the procedure after realizing the perceived benefits were hollow. This functions as a deconstruction and ridicule of the idea that gender transition is a simple fix or a path to fulfillment, directly opposing the 'Girl Boss' trope by making the female lead a bumbling and vindictive character.

LGBTQ+4/10

Alternative sexualities and gender issues are a consistent subject of satire, but the show does not promote queer theory. It satirizes the political debate around gay marriage with Mrs. Garrison's hypocritical opposition to Mr. Slave and Big Gay Al's wedding. The episode 'Trapped in the Closet' utilizes the trope of a celebrity hiding his homosexuality as a recurring joke, but the focus remains on mocking the celebrity and the religion of Scientology.

Anti-Theism8/10

The season contains a strong and overt hostility toward organized religion. The episode 'Trapped in the Closet' explicitly labels Scientology's foundational texts as absurd science fiction. The episode 'Bloody Mary' depicts the Virgin Mary statue bleeding from its vagina, ridiculing a Catholic miracle and generating substantial outrage. The 'Best Friends Forever' episode satirizes the moral arguments over life support by framing a debate about a soul's destiny in Heaven as a ridiculous, game-driven conflict.