South Park is no stranger to killing off its characters over the decades since it first began, but there’s still one death that remains confusing after all these years as it was utterly pointless in the long term. South Park even began all those years ago with a running joke about killing off one of its main characters, Kenny, only to bring him back in the next episode without any issue. But despite that, there have been character deaths that have managed to stick. Sometimes it would be characters that were fairly prominent when they were first brought into the series too.
Videos by ComicBook.com
South Park will kill off a character when either they are no longer going to be used in future episodes, or when it’s a fun joke, but sometimes the two uses don’t really match up. One such case is Pip, who was one of the kids who had been with the series since the very beginning but was killed off in a Season 14 episode that has since been banned from streaming services. So not only was he killed off in a rather pointless fashion, it’s a death that will no longer make sense to fans who are only rewatching it on streaming services.
Pip’s Death Is Still One of South Park’s Worst
Pip first made his debut as one of the many kids in the background way back in the series’ premiere, but quickly faded into the background. He was bullied by the other kids due to his being different than everyone else, and even was teased as one of the characters who could have eventually joined into the main gang. But as the seasons rolled on, Pip was pushed into the background and spoke less and less. Then he was suddenly brought back in the Season 14 episode, “201” and killed by an also returning Mecha-Streisand.
This is one of the episodes South Park released for its 200 episode special, and went all out for the event by bringing back pretty much every character that had ever been seen in the series to that point. This also resulted in bringing back its depiction of the religious figure Muhammed, and thus also meant it’s one of the episodes has since been banned from broadcast and streaming service releases. So some fans who might have watched years later don’t know even know why Pip hasn’t been seen in the series since.
RELATED: South Park Fans Have a Chance To Become a Permanent Character in the Show (Yes, Really)
Does Pip’s Death Matter?
Hilariously, Pip was just killed off as a joke and because he no longer served his purpose in the series. As the later South Park seasons continued, more kids were added to the cast and rotated in and out of the main gang. These future characters also started to rise to further prominence due to their personalities making them standout like Butters and Tweek, and they eventually took that spot that Pip once occupied as the different kid in school. The nature of the series evolved away from needing Pip.
As South Park gets ready to move over to a new streaming service later this Summer, there’s a chance that this episode will be banned from that one as well. So for fans who never caught Pip’s original death, it’s going to matter even less as now they can’t even see that happen without the DVD or official home media releases. It didn’t even matter back then, and now it’s even worse off 15 years later until you randomly remember it happened.
