While South Park sometimes seems to have endless plots, I’m hopeful that the show’s 2024/2025 run will see them run out of ideas again. South Park has a unique production process that allows the series to comment on real-life events as they occur. Outside the topical sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live, it is highly unusual for any major TV show to be written and produced the week before it airs. While South Park season 27 may change this, that is exactly how the long-running animated comedy series has operated since it began in 1997.

South Park has switched up this system somewhat in recent years, with the series producing feature-length specials in 2020. Instead of airing full seasons with 14 to 18 episodes apiece, South Park now airs a shorter season of 6 episodes every year and pairs this with two feature-length specials. These specials take more time to produce and, as a result, tend to satirize a broader social trend or political issue rather than specific events. South Park: The End of Obesity parodied the Ozempic craze as it was clear the story would still be relevant for months.

Season 8, Episode 11 Saw South Park Finally Run Out of Ideas

“Quest For Ratings” Followed A Self-Referential Story

However, the news that South Park’s creators are currently working on a live-action comedy set for a 2025 release means that the series may repeat one of its most underrated tricks again. I hope that seasons 27 and 28 see the series return to the meta-comedy of season 8, episode 11, “Quest For Ratings.” This goofy outing from 2004 follows South Park’s main characters as they get high on cough syrup before trying and failing to come up with new ideas for their school-wide TV show. It is very clearly an instance of thinly veiled self-parody, and it’s hilarious.

South Park’s co-creator Trey Parker admitted that “Quest For Ratings” marked the first time that the show’s creators were officially “Out of ideas,” and the episode makes this clear. However, it is no bad thing. Some of South Park’s feature-length movies earned fewer laughs with complex storylines that addressed various social and cultural issues. In contrast, “Quest For Ratings” was fun precisely because of its aimless, self-consciously silly attitude. The episode’s story came about because Parker and co-creator Matt Stone were burnt out by working on 2004’s Team America: World Police, but this resulted in some inspired lunacy.

South Park Could Encounter Season 8’s Creative Struggles Again In 2024

The Show’s Creators Are Currently Working On Another Comedy

Fortunately, I might get a return to the zaniness of “Quest For Ratings” fairly soon, judging by Stone and Parker’s upcoming slate. Working on Team America: World Police ensured Parker and Stone were atypically exhausted while writing season 8 and South Park’s unforgiving production schedule meant the creators ended up producing an episode about nothing instead of skipping a week. Since the duo is currently collaborating on a movie with Kendrick Lamar that is scheduled for release in July 2025, they will likely be doing double duty by making season 27 and this comedy at the same time.

I hope that the upcoming South Park seasons 27 and 28 feature some of the goofy humor that makes “Quest For Ratings” so fondly remembered. The episode is a rare insight into the show’s chaotic creative process and, in this regard, makes a perfect pairing with the underrated documentary 5 Days To Air. That 2011 special went inside the production of a South Park episode, revealing how much of Stone and Parker’s process relies on loose improvisation and last-second alterations. “Quest For Ratings” showed what happens when the ideas simply refuse to flow, and the answer is the show remains pretty fun.

Why South Park’s “Quest For Ratings” Is So Good

South Park’s Strongest Episodes Often Mock The Show Itself

Like season 15, episode 7, “You’re Getting Old” and season 6, episode 7, “Simpsons Already Did It,” “Quest For Ratings” gave South Park a chance to mock itself for a change. Like most fans of the series, I’ve sat through South Park mocking causes and public figures that I support and seen the series take the wrong side on some major issues. As such, it is fun for episodes like “Quest For Ratings” to remind viewers that the series is still a goofy, semi-improvised comedy that the creators came up with in a matter of days.

It is easy for comedians and their audiences to take themselves seriously, particularly when satirists are often held up as a vanguard of free speech. However, sometimes a cartoon doesn’t need to be more than a silly, self-parodying story about nothing. “Quest For Ratings” achieved this admirably, largely because South Park’s creators were willing to admit that they were simply stumped. As South Park‘s creators remain busy into 2025, I hope that they end up doing the same again.