After 21 Years, South Park Season 28 Officially Brings Back These Iconic Characters

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After over twenty seasons, the latest finale of South Park brought back some of the show’s most beloved one-time characters – and it was perfectly timed. From the very beginning, South Park has been full of memorable side characters, like Damian, Satan’s son, and the unusual Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo.

Season 28 of South Park focused more on new characters than on bringing back guest stars. The season’s satire targeted the Trump administration, specifically mocking Pete Hegseth and Kristi Noem. Hegseth was portrayed as incompetent, and Noem was depicted as someone cruel who harmed dogs.

Season 27 of South Park briefly featured Towelie, but season 28 heavily focused on current events and figures like Trump, JD Vance, Peter Thiel, Kristi Noem, and Brian Hegseth. Because of this focus, the show didn’t bring back any older characters—until the very last episode, titled “The Crap Out.”

South Park’s Season 28 Ending Brings Back The Woodland Critters

“The Crap Out” was the first Christmas episode of South Park since 2019, airing shortly after the show’s Thanksgiving special for season 28. The main storyline revolved around Donald Trump’s efforts to prevent Satan from having their child, and he was assisted by Vance. Trump and Vance had begun a secret romantic relationship earlier in season 28.

Initially, it appeared Thiel, Trump, and Vance shared a common goal: preventing the arrival of someone they believed to be evil. Meanwhile, Satan eagerly awaited this same event. But everything shifted when Stan, feeling hopeless in a nursing home, made an unexpected Christmas wish while looking into the toilet – and it actually came true.

Okay, so the latest season of South Park really threw me for a loop. Apparently, Stan’s family ended up in a nursing home! It all stems from Randy’s whole Tegridy Farms marijuana business. For seven seasons, they were living the farm life thanks to Randy, but things went south – literally! His business collapsed, and the Marsh family had nowhere else to go, landing them in a nursing home. It was a surprisingly sad turn for the show, but classic South Park in how it got there.

Seeing Stan wish on a toilet bowl strongly suggested the return of Mr. Hankey the Christmas Poo, a famously memorable character from the show. Mr. Hankey had previously appeared to help the boys when they needed a Christmas miracle more than once.

South Park’s Woodland Critter Comeback Mocks The Show’s Biggest Problem

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Stan was disappointed to discover it wasn’t Mr. Hankey who appeared in the retirement home bathroom. Instead, it was the cute but dangerous Woodland Critters from the South Park Christmas special, “Woodland Critter Christmas,” which first aired in 2004.

That bizarre and disturbing adventure involved a group of woodland creatures recruiting Stan to help bring about the birth of the Antichrist. Stan was initially unaware of their true intentions, but as soon as he discovered the horrifying plot, he desperately tried to reverse it.

Okay, so remember that crazy episode? Turns out the whole thing was just Cartman making up a story to mess with everyone – which explained why it ended so abruptly and didn’t really make any sense! But get this – in the season 28 finale, it actually seemed like the Woodland Critters were real. Seriously, it was a total twist after all that! As a longtime fan, it was a wild ride.

Stan points out that the story doesn’t quite add up, which lets the characters – and the show itself – playfully poke fun at its own messy plot. The Woodland Critters insist the episode’s story, and the overall story from the last two seasons, are perfectly logical. However, this insistence actually draws more attention to how confusing and unplanned the story really is.

The animals try to appease Stan, insisting their involvement makes sense. They ask if he wants to dwell on the story’s flaws – which they jokingly call a “Big crap out” – or just enjoy it. This “Crap out” refers to a bizarre event in their universe – Satan giving birth – but is also a self-deprecating way to acknowledge the story’s rushed and poorly planned conclusion.

South Park’s Christmas Comeback Fixes a 9-Year-Old Series Problem

In a previous episode, “The End of Serialization as We Know It,” South Park acknowledged that its attempts at a continuous, unfolding storyline in season 20 didn’t quite work. This episode, which aired shortly after the 2016 election, essentially admitted the show’s creators had mispredicted the election’s outcome and had to quickly rewrite the season finale.

However, the conclusion of “The Crap Out” really highlights how beneficial the two-week breaks between episodes were for South Park in its 27th and 28th seasons. The show continues to be very spontaneous, but the storyline in season 28 actually resolves itself by the end. It’s not a perfect plot, but it’s clever enough to work anyway.

The “Woodland Critters” storyline in South Park challenges the notion that the show’s continuing plots require detailed planning to be effective satire. The Critters repeatedly pressuring Stan to stop questioning the story actually serves as a reminder to viewers that ongoing storylines work well as long as the audience doesn’t expect South Park‘s plots to be logical or coherent.

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2025-12-12 00:59