A Fan Retrospective on the Rise and Fall of Tegridy Farms

Don’t cry because Tegridy Farms is over; instead, dance a jig!

I’ve been watching South Park for about half of my life now, and I’ve seen the show have many ups and downs. Their dabbling with serialization, their plans getting derailed by Trump winning in 2016, admitting they were wrong about climate change. However, I don’t think anything they’ve done has been as divisive as that of Tegridy Farms. What started out as the latest obsession of Randy Marsh turned into the thing that would not leave. And while I grew to tolerate it, I could never fully get behind it. But now that Tegridy Farms seems to be over, I think it’s time to look back on this era of South Park and reflect.

I’m RJ Writing Ink for TGON, and this is my retrospective on the rise and fall of Tegridy Farms on South Park.

How Tegridy Was Born

When Randy Marsh first appeared in the show’s third episode, he was nothing like how he is today. He was a geologist, a respectable man, and father to one of the boys, Stan Marsh. But as time went on and the show developed its identity, so did Randy. Matt and Trey realized that he could use him as an outlet for stories they wanted to tell centered around the grown-ups, and they milled it for all it was worth. He went from being another adult to this moronic man-child who would develop short-lived obsessions. Later seasons would reveal that this was due to him being unhappy with his life, and thus, he wanted to find a means to give it meaning. While that is understandable, much of the humor about Randy stemmed from his prioritizing his interests over his loved ones, often to their detriment. And Tegridy Farms was pretty much the culmination of that.

In the middle of the show’s 22nd season, Randy had grown tired of living in South Park due to all the problems it was facing. He thought the town was losing integrity, with the last straw being kids vaping in school. So he decided to move his family to a farm some distance away in hopes of leading a more honest life. Unfortunately for his family, his dream farm was about growing and selling marijuana, giving birth to Tegridy Farms. The plot of the episode would then see him take on vaping companies alongside Towelie, which they won. Yet when the episode ended, the Marsh family remained on the farm. The show chose to have them stay, changing up its status quo. For the first time in a long time, the four boys would find it harder to hang out, and it would stay that way for the rest of the season.

Longtime fans inevitably got upset at this change-up, and Matt and Trey would inevitably hear about it. True to who they are, they would find the complaints to be funny. So, rather than listen to the detractors of Tegridy Farms, they opted to troll everyone by quadrupling down on its importance. And thus began Randy’s de-evolution into a shadow of his former self.

Tegridy Takeover of South Park

When season 23 rolled around a year later, seven of its ten episodes would either focus on or involve Tegridy Farms in some shape or form. The show even changed its intro to one focused entirely on Tegridy Farms to emphasize that. And Randy would turn into what might be the worst version of himself to date. Over the course of the first half of the season, Randy would go on a rampage, doing everything in his power to keep Tegridy Farms on top.

  • Blowing up rival homegrown marijuana farms (domestic terrorism)
  • Try to get in bed with China by killing Winnie the Pooh (murder)
  • Annoying everyone by throwing a parade for himself
  • Slaughtering hundreds of cows after putting beef farmers out of business (animal cruelty)
  • Poisoning customers with tainted marijuana for Halloween, which caused hallucinations (food poisoning and mass paranoia).

And the more this went on, the more people in-universe and IRL grew fed up with Tegridy Farms. Things would come to a head in the sixth episode, the deceptively titled “Season Finale” when the town decided enough was enough and finally arrested Randy. For a moment, it looked like Tegridy Farms was done for, much to his family’s joy. Alas, circumstances would lead to all of Randy’s crimes getting pinned on someone else, meaning he was off the hook. Yet after this, the focus on Tegridy Farms finally seemed to lighten up. Perhaps Matt and Trey realized that they overplayed their hands with the joke, so they opted to dial it back. What matters is that the next time the farm was important was in the actual season finale. It wasn’t the end of Tegridy Farms, but it was an acceptable compromise. But whatever plans the duo had for Tegridy Farms would get derailed by what came in 2020.

Randy Caused COVID-19

In 2020, the world ground to a halt thanks to COVID-19. The pandemic kept people trapped inside their homes for months, and our newsfeeds were flooded with all the awful things going on in the world. It was so bad that not even South Park was able to find a positive thing. It wasn’t even able to have a full season thanks to the pandemic; the best it could do was an hour-long special about why 2020 sucked. And once again, Tegridy Farms played a big role.

In “The Pandemic Special,” Randy initially tried to profit from things by selling a new strain of weed. However, his priorities changed when scientists revealed the pandemic started from a pangolin that, back during his trip to China, he had *** with while high. This prompted him to go into panic mode, doing everything he could to cover up his involvement. It was only after seeing his son have a nervous breakdown that Randy relents. Except it all ends up pointless since Garrison shows up to torch the pangolin and the scientist. Worse, Randy creates a new strain of COVID by mixing his DNA with his weed and giving it to everyone. After this, he (and the show) choose to lay low, not playing a role in the follow up “Vaccination Special.” The events of that special, though, would end with the broship of Stan, Kyle, Kenny, and Cartman being broken by everything, and that would have tragic consequences.

I Forgive you

Stan Marsh had hated Tegridy Farms from day one  for moving him away from his friends, but the stress of COVID made the isolation unbearable. Losing the broship meant he no longer had a support system to help him bear his dad’s selfishness, and he had to watch as it drove his parents apart. Eventually, he hit his breaking point, prompting him to burn the Farm that had destroyed his life. Horrifically, Randy had locked Shelly in the barn for speaking out about hating the place, leading to her tragic death. The loss of Shelly prompted Sharon to take her own life out of grief. This mistake led to the Marsh men blaming each other for what happened, leading Stan to grow up to be as lonely and miserable as his father, taking us into the Post-COVID specials forty years in the future. Everyone was miserable except for a reformed Cartman, Kenny had died for good, and South Park was broken.

The events of these two specials are covered here, but where Tegridy Farms matters so that Randy tries to restart with his last sprout of marijuana. The others try to travel back in time to stop COVID from happening, but despite making it back in time, they find it’s impossible to alter what happened. The damage was already done, and nothing can change that. Instead, Stan, Kyle, and Cartman change how everyone reacted, working to bring their past selves back together and giving Randy the future weed. When he recreates it and gives it to everyone, it serves as the catalyst for everyone to forgive each other for their actions during the pandemic, ensuring this dark future never comes to pass…except for Cartman, who’s a homeless drunk.

These two specials were a turning point for me regarding Tegridy Farms. I had hated it the entire time, but seeing how it cost Stan everything made me realize something: that’s stupid. So, I went from hating it to begrudgingly tolerating it. It was just as well, too, since the Farm stopped being the center of attention on South Park, getting only two episodes focusing on it. It wasn’t until the “Streaming Wars” specials that Tegridy Farms would really take center stage again, also serving as the climax to Randy’s arc.

We Missed You, Randy!

For those who haven’t seen the specials or read my review (on the second one), here’s the short version. Climate Change/Manbearpig was causing a drought in Colorado. Farmers were encouraged to sell off their excess water for cash. When Randy couldn’t do a good enough job against his competitors, he went full nuclear Karen on everyone. He went on a rampage across the world, asking for everyone’s manager and making a total fool of himself online. It was basically him hitting rock bottom.

In hindsight, I think turning Randy into a full-blown Karen was Matt and Trey’s way of admitting they screwed up. They had let the Tegridy Farms joke go on for too long, and it had completely consumed Randy’s character. But now was the time for the show to make amends. The events of the special didn’t mark the end of Tegridy Farms. Far from it, as Randy would have to re-embrace his Karen side to expose the conspiracy behind the drought. However, Streaming Wars was really the moment when South Park stopped having Randy’s character be defined by Tegridy Farms. It wouldn’t be until “Sickofancy” that the story of Tegridy Farm was truly ended.

Honestly, good riddance.

I never liked Tegridy Farms; I’ve made that pretty clear. I tolerated it after the COVID arc, but I never liked it. And I think that if COVID hadn’t disrupted everything, the farm would’ve come to an end a long time ago. While there will be people who will still like it, I think we can all acknowledge that it had overstayed its welcome. It made the Marsh family miserable, the fans grew to hate it, and I hope that the show can move on. And that I don’t have to come back a few months from now having to say that Tegridy Farms is back.