South Park Officially Revives Serialized Stories With a Risky Kenny Twist

A return to season-long stories

South Park once moved away from its usual episodic format, starting in 2014 with a season-long arc that did not reset the status quo after each installment. Seasons 18 and 19 drew praise for the experiment, but season 20 ended with a finale called “The End of Serialization as We Know It.” The writers had to rewrite an episode after incorrectly forecasting the 2016 US election outcome. The show later developed the Tegridy Farms plot, which began in 2018 and continued until the season 28 finale in 2025.

Kenny’s death carries forward

Season 29 opened with Kenny’s death in “South American Biker Gangs.” In the fourth episode, “Guinea Pig on a Stick,” the other boys said Kenny would have known how to restore the school’s beef supply. The episode continued the changes instead of returning to the usual status quo. It also kept Randy as a child, following the season’s third episode, a horror movie spoof.

A risky comic setup

“Billionaire Weenietown,” the second episode of season 29, drew critical acclaim for its shocking comparison of the ultrarich to sentient penises. The later episode referenced a scene from Monty Python’s 1983 film The Meaning of Life, in which wealthy diners eat beef and explode into diarrhea.

The season also runs a gag that sets the US elections against the release of GTA VI. The midterms will have passed before the next episode airs, while the game’s release date will still be days away, creating a challenge for the joke’s continuation.