Kenny Dies

"Kenny Dies" is the thirteenth episode of the fifth season of the animated television series South Park, and the 78th episode of the series overall. "Kenny Dies" originally aired in the United States on December 5, 2001 on Comedy Central and in the United Kingdom on April 20, 2002 on Sky One. In the episode, Cartman comes across a truckload of fetuses he cannot sell thanks to a recent government ruling on stem cell research. When Kenny is diagnosed with a terminal illness, Cartman uses it to lobby Congress to restore stem cell research.

The episode was written and directed by series co-creator Trey Parker and is rated TV-MA in the United States, except on syndicated broadcasts and post-2017 reruns on Comedy Central, where the episode is instead rated TV-14. The gag of Kenny dying in almost every episode was dropped after this episode, and he did not reappear bodily until "Red Sleigh Down", due to fans being upset over his absence all throughout season 6 in 2002. This was the final appearance of the "4th Grade" title sequence, which was first seen in "4th Grade." On the DVD commentary for the episode, Parker and Matt Stone state that they had originally planned to kill Kyle off for a year, but decided to kill Kenny instead as they were running out of original ways to kill him.