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South Park's Homages To Gaming

No high-profile series on television spoofs (and pays tribute to) the gaming industry quite as much as South Park. Take a look at some of the most memorable gaming references seen on the show.

Note: Click the episode titles to watch the full episode at southparkstudios.com. Obviously, these all include adult content.



Episode: “Chinpoko Mon
Air Date: November 3, 1999

This early episode was one of the first to feature numerous video game references. When a new fad sweeps through South Park, every kid in school becomes obsessed with the obvious parody of Pokemon. It seems innocent enough, until all the dolls and video games are revealed to be a Japanese plot to get American kids to turn against their country and bomb Pearl Harbor.



Episode: “Towelie
Air date: August 8, 2001

While this episode is is most notorious for introducing everyone’s favorite pot-smoking towel, its story revolves around the kids’ pursuit of their stolen Okama Gamesphere console. The “Gamesphere” name is likely a play off of the Gamecube, which launched a few months after this episode aired.



Episode: “Red Hot Catholic Love
Air Date: July 3rd, 2002

A  gaming reference even found its way into an episode that revolves around the Catholic priest sex scandal and the town’s new fascination with ingesting food through their anus and defecating out of their mouths. When Father Maxi is tasked with navigating the catacombs of the Vatican to retrieve a holy document, the visuals abruptly shift to that of Pitfall on Atari 2600.



Episode: “Best Friends Forever
Air Date: March 30, 2005

In a episode that parodies the controversial Terri Schiavo case, Kenny is hit by an ice cream truck and killed while playing the PSP (which was released six days before the airing of this episode). Upon arriving in heaven, he learns that God created the PSP to train their “Keanu Reeves” (a recurring Constantine gag) against the forces of Hell.

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Comments
  • You guys are actually using this garbage as a cover story? Have you really become so clueless? Thousands of kids pick up Game Informer and you choose to use this crap?
  • Love this!
  • Haha love this article. South Park has spoofed gaming extremely well over the years. I hope to see some references to the new RPG game in some upcoming episodes. Spoofing their own game would be pretty interesting to see.
  • You missed the Tiger woods one. It's not really a game but it's funny to see them transform a Tiger Woods golf game into a fighting game with his wife/ex wife. IDK what she is to him now.
  • What about the episode where Cartman wanted a "SEGA DREAMCAST!!!" That was an old episode how could they forget that one!!!
  • This list is great! People really need to calm themselves down about the South Park coverage, lots of people find it entertaining, and Matt and Trey clearly have a love for video games... I think they deserve this.

  • All classic.

  • The WoW episode is so hilarious!

  • What about the tiger woods video game jokes? I'm pretty sure there have been alot more episodes with video games in them.

  • As cool as this all these references are, I'm not keeping my expectations high. There is just something about it that screams "disaster incoming." And this has nothing to do with the fact that it is South Park or anything.
  • I LOVE SOUTHPARK.  Its still a great show

  • SCIENCE *** YOUUUUU!!!!!!
  • Haha - All of the episodes referenced here are excellent examples of why South Park is awesome.

  • The WoW episode was one of my favorites. It actually got me into playing WoW
  • My favorite episode is “Make Love, Not Warcraft”
  • Fun fact - "chinpo" is Japanese for "***". :o)
  • ign did this like two years ago

  • Oh, how I love South Park and all their shenanigans.

  • The only I haven't seen is the last one.

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