There are certain pairings on any sitcom that have a way of standing out. Charlie and Frank on It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, George and Elaine on Seinfeld, Dwight and Michael on The Office, they’re all gold. The same applies to Cartman and Butters on South Park. Butters is an innocent little fella, while Cartman is a manipulative monster. Since Butters is too timid to ever stand up for himself, he’s highly susceptible to Cartman’s pushiness. This has been an asset in quite a few episodes, even in more than the 10 that follow. These 10 are the best of the best.
That said, there were a few caveats to the question “What is a Butters and Cartman episode?” It doesn’t have to just focus on them. So, if the momentum of an episode’s narrative is kicked off by a Butters and Cartman interaction (e.g. in Season 12’s “Tonsil Trouble”), or even if they just have a fairly consistent interplay whenever they share the screen, it counted as a Butters/Cartman episode. Is your favorite pairing of the two characters listed below?
1) “Jared Has Aides” (Season 6, Episode 1)
“Jared Has Aides” is one of the 16 episodes that will likely be banned once the show moves from Max to Paramount+. So, buy the DVDs, because now that it’s fair game to attack a show that attacks everything and everyone, no episode is safe (not that Max refrained from banning episodes).
The episode was the first of Season 6, or the year when Trey Parker and Matt Stone had seemingly gotten rid of one of the four main boys: Kenny. Throughout the first few episodes of the season the recurring story arcs involved the boys pushing Butters into something that made him uncomfortable so they could make some cash. Cash that the viewer suspects Butters wouldn’t see a dime of.
2) “Casa Bonita” (Season 7, Episode 11)
Without a doubt the most iconic time South Park has featured a real-life Colorado landmark, “Casa Bonita” is one of the show’s very best episodes. When Kyle tells the boys that his mom is allowing him to bring three friends along to Casa Bonita, Cartman immediately assumes he’s one of the three.
But he isn’t. Kyle makes the very solid point that Cartman has never once been nice to him, so he’s very much out and Butters is in. Thus begins a manipulative ploy by Cartman to convince Butters that the world is ending, and he’s hiding him in a bunker so he can later emerge and repopulate the world. Poor Butters believes him, and builds his own little town with a statue dedicated to his “friend.”
3) “Awesome-O” (Season 8, Episode 5)
Season 8 is South Park‘s best season. Every episode is a winner, and that includes “Awesome-O.” The episode works so well because Cartman gets his come-uppance in a major way. The little fascist dresses up as a robot to make Butters feel dumb, but before he takes off the cardboard helmet, Butters reveals he has some dirt on one of his classmates: Eric Cartman.
Cartman’s game suddenly becomes a desperate scramble to keep his identity a secret until he can get the incriminating videotape. What’s on that tape? Cartman, scantily clad as Britney Spears dancing around with a cardboard cutout of Justin Timberlake. Thanks to a poorly timed fart, Butters catches on, and all of South Park gets to cackle at the video, with Cartman right there in the audience.
4) “The Death of Eric Cartman” (Season 9, Episode 6)
South Park is at its best when the naivety of the youths we follow leads to massive misunderstandings. Like how Cartman can think he’s dead just because his friends are ignoring him.
The narrative kicks into motion after Cartman eats all the skins off the bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken meant to be enjoyed by him, Stan, Kyle, and Kenny. The boys have had enough of his selfishness, so they ignore every word he says. But Butters misses the memo on this and acknowledges Cartman, at which point both of them become convinced that Butters can see ghosts. This initiates a journey to try and get Cartman to the point where he can cross over to the afterlife, including a visit to a psychic, a nice little song, and the breakup of a heist.
5) “Marjorine” (Season 9, Episode 9)
“Marjorine” is Butters’ episode almost all the way through, and it’s good stuff. When Cartman tells the boys that the girls have a future telling device (in reality a paper fortune teller), they decide to send in a spy. That would be Butters, dressed up as the newest girl at South Park Elementary: Marjorine.
Among many other merits, the episode features one of South Park‘s funniest scenes. Before introducing Marjorine, the boys have to kill off Butters, so they toss a dead pig off a tall building. It explodes right in front of his parents, who recoil in horror. A doctor approaches the pig’s body (which is just mush and a ribcage), presses his finger to it, and says “He didn’t make it.” The plot to steal away the future telling device is at its core Cartman’s, and he spearheads the operation. Or, more accurately, screams at Butters to get it done every chance he gets.
6) “Go God Go” & “Go God Go XII” (Season 10, Episodes 12 & 13)
The “Go God Go” two-parter is really two different individuals’ episodes: Cartman and Mr. Garrison. Garrisons (going by Mrs. Garrison at this point), is having a fling with British evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins. Cartman, meanwhile, is trapped in the future.
In other words, Cartman and Butters’ dynamic isn’t allotted much screentime. However, it’s because of Cartman’s bullying that the episodes’ narrative is initiated, and “Oh my science” is it a very silly but solid narrative.
7) “Cartman Sucks” (Season 11, Episode 2)
An episode that didn’t generate as much controversy as one might have expected, given its focus on conversion camps, “Cartman Sucks” is a true winner. It also features what has got to be one of the show’s funniest scenes, and like with the scene in “Marjorine,” it involves Butters’ dad.
Cartman’s newest way of picking on Butters is to invite him over for sleepovers and, once he’s asleep, take embarrassing photos of him. However, he miscalculates with this newest photo, a compromising image of Butters that he reveals to Stan, Kyle, and Kenny to their horror. The boys feel bad for Butters, but they also hate Cartman, which is why Kyle tells him that the way to “cancel out the gay polarity” he must take another photo. Cartman figures out this is nonsense, but not before trying to get the shot, at which point Butters’ dad walks into the room.
8) “Super Fun Time” (Season 12, Episode 7)
One of South Park‘s most underrated episodes, “Super Fun Time” has equally effective A and B-plots. In fact, it’s really one of those episodes where there is no true A-plot and B-plot, more just like two focus of equal importance.
Part of the story has a group of “bank” robbers straight out of a Die Hard movie who are fresh off their latest heist (a Burger King) and have held Mr. Garrison and his students hostage at Pioneer Village, where the employees never break character. Butters and Cartman miss this, because they sneak out to a Chuck E. Cheese-like place called Super Phun Thyme. Naturally, it’s all Cartman’s idea, and it’s funny to watch Butters constantly pull back on his whim. But this episode also features a rare moment for Cartman. Butters breaks down crying after they see a bunch of cops have arrived at Pioneer Village, at which point they assume it’s because they snuck off. Cartman actually displays some empathy towards Butters, which is a touching insight. There’s a (very small) part of him that actually does care for his peer.
9) “The Coon” (Season 13, Episode 2)
On the whole, Cartman’s persona The Coon is only fine. Mysterion works better for Kenny, especially once he uses the persona to serve as a guardian angel for his sister in the later episode “The Poor Kid.”
But the match of The Coon and Professor Chaos is pretty great because it takes away all of the fake power Butters thinks he has as Chaos. He’s once more just Cartman’s pawn. The only difference is now they’re dressed up like Dollar Tree superheroes.
10) “Poor and Stupid” (Season 14, Episode 8)
NASCAR is an easy target for a show that makes fun of everything and everyone, but “Poor and Stupid” works because, for one, it focuses almost exclusively on Cartman and Butters and, two, it actually takes NASCAR fairly seriously. It’s not as easy as “driving fast and turning to the left sometimes” to paraphrase how Cartman summarizes it.
Plenty about Cartman and Butters’ interplay works in this episode. From Cartman devouring Vagisil (the CEO of which is a one-off character who should come back) in a department store to Butters donating all of Cartman’s money to poor people who aren’t actually poor at Cartman’s behest only for Cartman to then scream at Butters for him having done so. Poor little Butters just can’t win.
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