‘South Park’ Gave Cartman a Boob Job, Continuing a Long History of Messy Trans Plots

South Park has done a lot of insane stuff throughout the years, most of it involving Cartman. There was that time Cartman fed his rival his own parents, that other time that he spearheaded a cult of redheaded children, and that other other time he purposefully gave Kyle HIV. But this one may take the cake. South Park: The Streaming Wars, Paramount+‘s latest exclusive special, ended with Cartman getting a boob job, and it was as ridiculous as it sounds.

“How did we get here?” you may be asking yourself. Great question. The six episodes of Season 25 that we’ve seen concluded with Cartman in a real estate agent face-off with his mom. As he pushed Liane to sell more and more houses, neither of them realized that their house-selling shenanigans made the market so volatile that they couldn’t afford their own home. The pair had to move into a hotdog restaurant. That’s when Liane, unbeknownst to Cartman, vowed to never again give into her son.

That resolve was tested in The Streaming Wars. Cartman, desperate to get out of the hotdog restaurant, concocted a plan so that they could move into the rich man’s house across the street. That sexist and juvenile plan? If Liane got huge breast implants then rich men would want to date her. For once in her miserable life, Liane refused, and that’s when Cartman tried to bully her.

“If you won’t get fake breasts, then I will,” Cartman threatened. “I’ve already paid the clinic. And I’ll just tell them that the implants are for me. You know, it’s 2022, right? You know they do surgeries like this on kids now? Guess I’ll just go and get fake tits, mom.”

For the record, the FDA does not recommend breast augmentation for anyone under the age of 18. But this is South Park we’re talking about. The rules of man do not apply. Throughout the rest of the episode, Cartman threatened to get the surgery while Liane called his bluff, calmly reassuring him that she supported his life choices. It was a game of chicken that led to this:

For the record, Cartman still seems to identify as a boy. He just also has massive boobs to spite his mom.

This is far from the first time South Park has had a character or plot that touches upon trans issues. Hell, this isn’t even the first time Cartman has been at the center of a trans-adjacent plot. Season 18’s “The Cissy” was the first time Cartman ever identified as transgender, which was all part of a ploy to gain access to the much nicer girls bathroom. In Season 9, Mr. Garrison underwent a sex change operation, the joke being that regardless of their gender, they are always an awful person. A similar point was made in Season 19’s “Stunning and Brave”, an episode that revolved around a deeply unflattering portrayal of Caitlin Jenner. And then there was Season 23’s “Board Girls”, a confusing episode that tried to tackle both transgender athletes and political correctness.

This is all to say that South Park has a long and deeply messy history of trans storylines. Almost all of them have been questionable to outright bad, possibly save for Stan’s quiet questioning of his own gender identity in “The Cissy.” Based on The Streaming Wars‘ ending, it seems we’re in for a second installment of this current saga. But as history tells us, Cartman’s boobs are almost destined to make us cringe.