Written by Fidel Martinez

Tonight, South Park will air its 200th episode. In honor of the best animated series on air right now (Family Guy sucks, The Simpsons stopped being funny ages ago, and Archer is too new to merit the title), we’ve compiled our five favorite episodes from the show’s entire run.

5. Trapped In The Closet (Season Nine)

We’ll kick off our list with Trapped In The Closet, an episode that managed to piss off Isaac Hayes (the voice of Chef and a long-time Scientologist) so much, he demanded to be released from his contract because it made fun of his (pseudo-) religion. In Trapped In The Closet, Scientologists come to believe that Stan Marsh is the reincarnation of their religion’s founder and prophet, L. Ron Hubbard. The highlight of the episode is Tom Cruise locking himself in the closet after Stan–who he thinks is the Messiah– tells him his movies suck, forcing others (like John Travolta, Nicole Kidman, and R. Kelly) to convince Tom to come out of the closet. This is hilarious because Tom Cruise is probably gay.

4. Le Petit Tourette (Season Eleven)

Eric Cartman is a tour de force in the South Park universe, so it’s no surprise that more than a single Cartman-centric episodes made it on this list (ed. note: the other one is below). In Le Petit Tourette, the fat kid discovers Tourette’s Syndrome, a disorder that causes those who have it to spew out obscenities and swear like sailors. Cartman, of courses, tricks people into thinking he has Tourette’s, much to Kyle’s chagrin. Add to that a Chris Hansen/How To Catch A Predator subplot, and the end result is comedic gold. Interesting fact: Le Petit Tourette was the first South Park episode to have the ‘TV-MA LV” rating.

3. Make Love Not Warcraft (Season Ten)

Much like making fun of idiot celebrities, part of South Park’s long-term success can be attributed to Matt Stone & Trey Parker’s ability to satirize popular trends and fads. World Of Warcraft was no exception, and in Season ten, the series spoofed the MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role playing game). In Make Love Not Warcraft, a griefer who keeps killing every WoW character fo the lulz, prompting the kids to bring down once and for all. This plan, however, causes them to become fat, overweight losers who spend upwards of 21 hours in front of their computers, not unlike the real people who play the game.

2. Scott Tenorman Must Die (Season Five)

Matt Stone & Trey Parker really outdid themselves this time. The episode is brilliant because of its simplicity. Instead of having multiple plots, the focus of Scott Tenorman Must Die lies on Eric Cartman’s mission to get revenge from Scott Tenorman, a ninth grade boy who sold him pubes for $10. Oh yeah, and having Radiohead play themselves doesn’t hurt, either.The final scenes are so outrageous, we remember sitting in front of the television agape and trying to wrap our head around what we just saw. Scott Tenorman Must Die transformed Cartman from annoying fat kid to diabolical mastermind. (Spoiler Warning: the clip below is the episodes ending.)

1. Good Times With Weapons (Season Eight)

We wanted to put the previous episode here, but at the end of the day, our hearts wouldn’t let us. Why? Because, hands down, Good Times With Weapons is so sublime, so hilarious, it’d be a grave injustice not having it in the top spot. In Good Times, the South Park gang buys ninja weapons (illegally, we should add) at a swap meet and pretend to be roaming fighters with super powers. Not to be outdone, Butters– our favorite South Park character ever– creates the Professor Chaos alter ego and confronts the boy. Needless to say, Butters ends up getting a ninja death star lodged in his eye. What makes this episode stand head and shoulders above the others is its brilliant use of Anime animation, the English/Japanese song ‘Let’s Fighting Love”, and Butters.

Bonus: Remember Google Wave?