"Oh my god, they killed Kenny!" It's become one of television's most iconic catchphrases, everyone knows this is a line from South Park even if they don't watch the show. Every time their friend Kenny dies, which happens a lot, someone nearby says this line. Most often it's Kyle, but there have been exceptions.
Up until Season 6, Kenny died in every single episode. He often dies in the movies, video games, and specials as a running gag. In fact, the plot of the first South Park movie revolves around his adventure in the afterlife. Given how many times Kenny has died, it's tough to decide his most memorable endings, but it was fun to pick out a few anyway.
8 Season Two, "Chef Aid" - Decapitated By Ozzy Osborne
Chef tries to get back some song royalties, but things backfire, and he ends up losing the case and all of his money. It turns out that Chef was a mentor to some big names in the music industry, and they decide to organize a benefit to raise the cash to re-try his case with an expensive lawyer.
One of those famous names is Ozzy Osborne, and when he appears at Chef Aid he reprises a performance for which he has a reputation. Instead of a bat, however, it's Kenny's head that gets bitten off, and the crowd goes wild. It's not exactly a surprise, but it's a funny pop culture reference, and at this early point in the show's run Trey and Matt were still testing their boundaries.
7 Season 14, "Sexual Healing" - Autoerotic Asphyxiation
As it is with South Park, the plot and characters are often lifted from issues in politics, media, and entertainment, and it was about this time that sexual addiction was trending in the news. Part of that was driven by the sordid story of David Carridine, a former action star who was found dead in a hotel room in Thailand in 2009, which gets a direct reference in this episode.
In case it's not obvious, Kenny is found dead, hanging from a noose in his closet, apparently a victim of autoerotic asphyxiation. Yet another statistic of the rampant scourge that is sex addiction, terrifying the other residents of South Park even more.
6 Season Four, "Chef Goes Nanners" - Explodes After Eating A Bowl of Antacids
You can't leave a bowl of mints in front of a kid because they'll sit and eat the whole thing. Especially if there's a running joke on the show about this particular kid being poor.
After Kenny eats a whole bowl of what he thinks are harmless candies, Chef reveals that he actually ate a bowl of antacid tablets. However, Kenny is already chugging back a tall glass of water just as Chef is speaking. The next shot is Kenny filling with foam and blowing up. It's one of the most memorable deaths because it's so over the top, hideously gross, and comes out of nowhere.
5 Season One, "Pinkeye" - Crushed By A Falling Space Station
It was still a new thing, and South Park was making another shocking impression every week. In an episode that also doubles as a Halloween special, Kenny gets to die twice. The story begins on a Russian space station, and the scene lasts long enough for the viewer to understand the station is about to fall out of orbit.
Cut to the bus stop, and four kids are standing side by side until a chunk of space station falls on Kenny and crushes him. The boys continue to school while Kenny is taken to a morgue, but his embalming tube gets switched with a bottle of Worcester sauce, and he rises from the dead. His reign of terror ends when Kyle slices him in half with a chainsaw in a dramatic scene that saves all the other zombies.
4 South Park: Bigger, Longer, And Uncut - Baked Potato Heart
Fans can look forward to a lot more South Park movies thanks to last year's deal with ViacomCBS. In the meantime, the first one is still great, and Kenny's death is the major reversal that gets the plot going.
Kenny dies while trying to imitate a stunt he saw in a Terrence and Philip movie. When he's taken to the hospital, instead of being treated for burns, the doctor replaces his heart with a baked potato. He dies, of course, and goes to Hell where he can play a pivotal role in the upcoming demonic invasion of earth.
3 Season Five, "Kenny Dies" - Unnamed Terminal Illness
The running joke behind this episode was that this time Kenny really died, and although the character did go away for a while, he turns up a few seasons later as if he never left. This time, however, the writers are playing on the emotionally charged "dying child in the hospital" trope.
It's more about Kenny's friends coming to terms with his death as opposed to how he actually dies, and the story doesn't end here. What happens to his ashes in a later episode called "Ladder to Heaven" returns the story to Saddam Hussein and his nefarious plans in the afterlife.
2 Season One, "Weight Gain 4000" - Impaled On A Flagpole
Beefcake! Here's another iconic line from South Park, this time as Cartman's catchphrase as he proudly shills for his new favorite thing, a protein supplement called Weight Gain 4000. He wants to get all buff to impress Kathie Lee Gifford when she comes to town, but not everyone is as impressed.
Mr. Garrison wants revenge for a childhood slight and is waiting by a window in the book depository with a rifle. When he fires, he misses, and the bullet ricochets to knock Kenny off the stage and into a flagpole. This flagpole impales his head, and in a laboriously long several seconds, his remains ooze down it.
1 Season 14, "Coon Vs. Coon & Friends" - Throws Himself On A Spike
After more than 10 seasons of South Park, it was finally revealed that Kenny's frequent deaths weren't just a bunch of tasteless but hilarious jokes that was never supposed to make sense. It turns out that the McCormicks attended a ritual to honor the Lovecraftian god Cthulhu while his mother was pregnant, which is the real reason Kenny is cursed with the inability to die.
What makes this death so great, among all the other times Kenny dies in the several episodes that encompass this storyline, is that it's a heroic action as well as a graphic and visceral one. He knows that every time he dies, he wakes up again in his bed, and this is one way he can escape Cthulhu's realm and help his friends.