YMMV / South Park S10 E14 "Stanley's Cup"

• Alternate Character Interpretation: The Detroit Red Wings agreeing to play against Stan's team. Were they a well-meaning bunch who merely got carried away and forgot they were playing against small children, or just a group of sadistic, child-beating bullies taking advantage of a weaker teams misfortune for an easy win?
• Bile Fascination: After hearing about the universal hatred for this episode, many people found themselves watching the episode, wondering how awful it could be.
• Critical Backlash: There are plenty of people who watch this episode and don't understand what the big deal is, seeing it as no worse than anything else South Park has done. Most of it depends on whether the ending worked on you or not.
• Crosses the Line Twice:
  • Adult hockey players beating the crap out of a Pee-Wee hockey team and winning? Not funny. The episode acting like the adults were the underdogs? Hilarious. To some, however, it goes back to not being funny when Nelson dies due to losing hope after the adults win.
  • The ending, with Stan's team being broken and hating his guts and then Nelson dying from despair, can be this. It's just so bleak that it comes around to being funny again.
• Ending Aversion: The episode wouldn't be half as hated today if it weren't for the last scene where Nelson dies in his hospital bed.
• Overused Running Gag: A lawyer acts like the announcer of a reality show for Stan 5 times.
• Fanon Discontinuity: Do NOT talk to Stan fans about this episode. Hell, don't talk to anyone at all about this episode.
• Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: The big reason why the episode is so disliked. While South Park as a whole runs on Black Comedy, many think the episode goes way too far into borderline depraved cruelty, and lacks the themes or social commentary which are one of the series' trademarks.
• Unintentional Period Piece: This episode was made back when the Detroit Red Wings were one of the strongest teams in the NHL, and the team would win the Stanley Cup over a year after the episode's original airing (ultimately their final Stanley Cup win as a member of the Western Conference). Nowadays, the Red Wings (now in the Eastern Conference) are undergoing a slump not seen since the "Dead Wings" era from 1967-82, having not made the playoffs since 2016.