It’s a little crazy that South Park has been on the air for over 20 years. The animated series debuted in 1997 on Comedy Central, a cable channel that few watched, but the series quickly became a nationwide sensation. Instead of fizzling out after a few years (thus bucking a TV trend), South Park has endured for two decades, largely thanks to creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone. Unlike most long-running TV series, Parker and Stone have always served as the show’s executive producers and showrunners. They’ve made movies and a Tony-winning Broadway musical in between, but every year they return to spearhead and craft all new episodes of South Park, maintaining the show’s biting wit, social commentary, and most of all no-holds-barred humor.

With 307 episodes in total (almost all of which are now on HBO Max), there are undoubtedly some bad episodes of South Park, but there are far more good ones. Indeed, there are so many great episodes of this show that narrowing it down to a Top 10 is a near impossible task. I’ve done my best, looking for the 10 episodes that best encapsulate South Park at peak performance, be it sharp commentary or ridiculous humor (also noting: so far). As with every subjective list, yours will no doubt be different than mine, but here is a start that showcases some of the show’s greatest moments:

10. “You’re Getting Old” – Season 15, Episode 7

This episode freaked a lot of people out. The Season 15 finale revolved around Stan getting diagnosed as a “cynical asshole,” concluding on an ambiguous note as Stan is alienated from his friends as someone who can’t enjoy anything. Fans wondered if this was Parker and Stone’s way of saying goodbye, if they had finally become tired of South Park. As it turns out, no, they were still game to keep going. But the fact that “You’re Getting Old” elicited such strong emotions is a testament to the show that Parker and Stone have built. It’s a series full of silly jokes, but we as viewers do care about these characters. We want them to be happy. And in retrospect, as is often the case, Parker and Stone were touching on a topic that was incredibly current; the ubiquity of the internet has turned many into, frankly, “cynical assholes” who feel the need to criticize every single thing.

9. “Goobacks” – Season 8, Episode 7

Leave it to South Park to tackle the illegal immigration debate in a spot-on manner and create a catchphrase at the same time. “Goobacks” finds people from the future traveling back in time in order to find work and send money back to their families in the year 3045. It’s a hilarious spin on a hot-button issue that tackles both sides of the argument with an original and refreshing sci-fi idea. And of course, it ends in an orgy.

8. “Fishsticks” – Season 13, Episode 5

“Fishsticks” is built entirely around one of the best jokes in South Park’s history, and for that reason alone it’s Top 10-worthy. That Kanye West doesn’t have a sense of humor is hilarious in and of itself, but then you throw in joke-stealer Carlos Mencia, a subplot revolving around Cartman and Jimmy fighting over credit for the joke, and a song about gay fish, and you have comedy gold. This episode is a perfect example of the commitment to structure and cohesion that makes South Park so excellent—all of these various things are funny by themselves, but Parker and Stone do the work to tie them all together and top it off with one tremendous punchline.

7. “Butters’ Very Own Episode” – Season 5, Episode 14

Butters is one of the best characters on South Park, full-stop, so of course his first Butters-centric episode makes this list. The episode plays on the notion that Butters is this lethal mixture of aloof and good-natured to a fault, as he accidentally reveals his father’s homosexual affairs and then survives his mother’s attempt to murder him. Butters always sees only the absolute best in people with little to no ability to discern deceit or wrongdoing, which makes him such a terrific foil. Really you could probably plug any number of episodes in which Cartman plays tricks on Butters into this slot, but “Butters’ Very Own Episode” has a particularly unsettling brand of dark comedy that makes it stand out all these years later.

6. “All About Mormons” – Season 7, Episode 12

South Park has since become famous for taking aim at all religions and belief systems, but “All About Mormons” was a watershed moment when it first aired in 2003, laying bare the seemingly insane nature of the Mormon religion’s history. What makes the episode so great is that, not unlike Parker and Stone’s Broadway musical Book of Mormon, the episode presents Mormons as genuinely good people—it takes aim at some of their beliefs, but not really the people themselves. The style and structure of the episode is nearly perfect, as Parker and Stone use music to accentuate their jokes—something South Park has done many times over the years to great effect.

5.”Trapped in the Closet” – Season 9, Episode 12

AKA “The only episode Comedy Central ever got nervous about airing.” While South Park had taken aim at the Mormonism, the highly litigious religion of Scientology was something else entirely, since it also revealed secrets of the religion to the masses. It was a scary prospect for the network. Indeed, after its initial airing, Comedy Central pulled a repeat of the episode amidst rumors of Tom Cruise’s unhappiness. And whereas “All About Mormons” maintained an endearing approach to the followers of the Mormon faith, “Trapped in the Closet” is pretty incisive about those who belong to the Church of Scientology. As with all the best South Park episodes, a straightforward narrative gets plenty of curveballs here as R. Kelly shows up with a gun and Cruise and John Travolta find themselves literally “in the closet,” all the while Stan is heralded as the second coming of L. Ron Hubbard. Silly, sure, but with purpose.

4. “The Return of the Fellowship of the Ring to the Two Towers” – Season 6, Episode 13

This show has done parodies of various films and TV shows throughout its run, but “The Return of the Fellowship of the Ring to the Two Towers” remains the most cohesive and successful of the bunch. In the span of a single episode, the show runs through the basic storyline of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, but with its own refreshing twists and turns. This is part of what makes South Park stand out—it’s not enough to simply reference something famous, Parker and Stone then insist on adding something new and original over that foundational structure to make it their own. In this case, it’s a VHS porn tape instead of a ring, and as the kids make the return of this tape to Blockbuster part of some big quest, the parents are busy freaking out over the extremely graphic video they may have just handed to their children.

3. “Make Love, Not Warcraft” – Season 10, Episode 8

South Park doesn’t get enough credit for the craftsmanship of its animation, especially when created in such a short time frame, but “Make Love, Not Warcraft” is a brilliant piece of mixed media. Enlisting the help of Blizzard, South Park presents its ode to Warcraft and online gaming in striking detail. But of course it’s the story that really resonates, as the boys spend every waking hour trying to level up in Warcraft, growing obese, greasy, and bedpan-dependent in the process. Randy’s subplot has a particularly hilarious payoff, and the character evolves as the boys grow more sedentary are glorious. In terms of cohesion, jokes, and punchline, “Make Love, Not Warcraft” is pretty perfect.

2. “Scott Tenorman Must Die” – Season 5, Episode 4

We knew through the first few seasons that Cartman was a dick, but “Scott Tenorman Must Die” reveals the dark depravity and commitment to evildoing that makes up the mind of Eric Cartman. Indeed, though it first aired back in 2001 and we’ve seen hundreds of episodes since, Cartman turning a boy’s parents into chili and making him eat it remains one of the most disturbing things South Park has ever done. It’s the kind of jaw-dropping dark comedy that makes this show so brilliant, and this look into the psyche of Eric Cartman remains one of the most fascinating and best episodes in the show’s run.

1. “Imaginationland” – Season 11, Episodes 10-12

After Team America: World Police, fans kept asking when Parker and Stone would make another movie, or if they’d ever make a sequel to South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut. While they haven’t made another theatrically released film, the three-episode opus “Imaginationland” certainly qualifies as Parker and Stone taking on long-form storytelling in a big way. It also happens to be the best run of South Park episodes in the show’s history. So I’m cheating a bit here by grouping three episodes into one, but the three-episode arc of “Imaginationland” is so satisfying that it had to be done.

What begins as seemingly another episode in which Cartman is being a dick soon morphs into a genuine fantasy epic, complete with a battle between good and evil made-up creatures. In terms of animation and character design, “Imaginationland” is still South Park’s peak, and even the character arcs are surprisingly compelling—you actually kind of care about what’s going to happen to these silly, innocent imaginary creatures. The subplots are aces as well, from the M. Night Shyamalan gag to Butters’ quest, but the episode ends in the most South Park way possible: with Kyle sucking Cartman’s imaginary balls. Never change.

Honorable Mentions:“Casa Bonita”, “Christian Rock Hard”, “Best Friends Forever”, “Go God Go”, “Something Wall-Mart This Way Comes”, “Cartman Sucks”, “The Tale of Scrotie McBoogerballs”, “Cancelled”, “Something You Can Do with Your Finger"