Butters Stotch

Leopold "Butters" Stotch, voiced by Matt Stone, is a character in the animated series South Park. His nickname is a word play on "butterscotch". His name might also indicate that he is of German and Scottish descent. Having a birthday that's the same day as a national tragedy (9/11, as of 2001) is just one of the many misfortunes Butters has inflicted upon him. He speaks with a distinctive, stuttering Southern accent with a wholesome manner like a child from a '50s–'60s TV show. The character is loosely based on South Park director of animation Eric Stough, whom Parker and Stone regarded as a "goody-goody" because he always worried about causing offense.

Appearance
Butters has a tuft of yellow hair, and wears a light blue jacket with green pants.

Personality
Butters has a warm personality that everyone finds comfort in. Fans consider him one of the sweetest, most innocent, and most gullible characters on the show. He is generally much nicer and much more naïve than the other four main characters. Unlike nearly all South Park characters, he rarely curses and instead uses euphemisms such as "aw, hamburgers" or "son of a biscuit". Sometimes, Butters minces words ("you guys can go to heck" and "yeah, you, uh, dumb girl" in Raisins). He has cursed a few times (in the episodes AWESOM-O, Christian Rock Hard: Fuck you Eric!, Hooked on Monkey Phonics, It Hits the Fan, Butters' Very Own Episode, Fun with Veal, Simpsons Already Did It, Hell on Earth 2006 and Cartman's Silly Hate Crime 2000). Each instance was meant to be very shocking.

Butters refines himself in self-improvement in almost everything, to perfection, studying regularily and often commenting on how he 'needs to learn to behave himself'. Other skills include dancing. Unfortunately, he also has extremely low self-esteem and therefore has no judgment as to when or how to use his skills, and perceives everyone around him as knowing much more than he does. Butters is a good student and considered to be a dork by his associates. Butters seems to be constantly seeking a role model, as evidenced when he takes to Cartman (unbeknownst to him) pretending to be a robot in AWESOM-O. He constantly struggles to find acceptance among his associates, hence why he often does menial tasks in hopes that this will earn him favor and respect.

In Cartman Sucks Butters is accused of being "bi-curious", and although he agrees, it's obvious he does not know what this means. Butters also unwittingly gave a very thoughtful speech in Cartman Sucks regarding the treatment of bi-sexual children, implying that "If I was made in the image of God, and I am bi-curious, well then God must be a bit bi-curious then too."

Friends
Butters has been in the show since the beginning, though initally only as a background character. He was later adopted by Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, and Eric Cartman as their fourth friend when Kenny McCormick died (semi-)permanently. Later, Kyle, Stan, and Cartman decided that they didn't like Butters very much and chose Tweek Tweak to "fill the void" instead. Though he seems to be friends with Pip and Dougie, as seen in Two Guys Naked in a Hot Tub. He has a bit of a stutter and a southern accent. Butters was often referred to as "a little pussy" and the boys got him to do everything for them - often getting Butters grounded in the process. For example, the boys made him go on the Maury Povich show with fake testicles attached to his chin. Butters was also the first of the boys to become fertile and give a semen sample in Lil' Crime Stoppers.

Relationships
In "Toilet Paper", Butters mentioned he had a girlfriend named "Carrie" in Michigan. Whether this was actually true or not is unknown, though if it was, the relationship didn't last.

In the episode "Raisins", Butters developed a crush on Lexus, a waitress at the Raisins restaraunt. However, his strong feelings for her were one-sided, as she had only been using him for his money and eventually told him they were NOT boyfriend and girlfriend. This caused Butters to become depressed, though he got over it in the end.

Family
Butters is an only child and his parents, Stephen (Chris in some appearances) and Linda Stotch, are very authoritarian, strict and, at some points, abusive towards their son — often berating him for things that are entirely beyond his control. This has evidently affected Butters psychologically, as he often tells himself off when his parents are not around to do it ("Why, I oughta learn ta control my behavior! I should be ashamed of myself"). It is also hinted that the justification for this abuse lacks sound foundation ("If I dress up as a dog with a star in my eye, I'm gonna get grounded!"). As additional evidence of psychological problems, he has stated (in Super Best Friends) that he falls asleep and wakes up to "the sound of his own screams."

He is scared of his dominating and threatening father, whom he is obliged to respectfully refer to as "Sir" (in contrast to Eric Cartman, who gives his elders little or no respect). His father uses fear as his primary parenting tactic with Butters, once intentionally frightening him with threats of "super-AIDS". Linda however has been shown to be much more tender to her son, hugging and kissing him often. She seems to go along with Stephen's harshness only because she believes that it is for the best of her son.

Several extreme examples of the abuse Butters has received from his parents include, trying to drown him in a car when Linda wants to commit suicide, being physically beaten after Eric prank calls his parents (This was undoubtedly the worst abuse he received) and being sold to Paris Hilton for 250 million dollars. (In their defense though, they had the price raised up from her initial offer of 200 million, and they were having a hard time trying to decide whether or not to accept the offer, but decided that Paris could give Butters a much better life than they could.)

In Cartman Sucks, Stephen walks in as Cartman is trying to "fix" the mistake he made when he took a picture of Butters' penis in his mouth by having Butters do the same. Butters is completely oblivious to the true nature of what is happening. Stephen however believes Butters is turning gay and sends him to a Evangelical camp to "cure him". There Butters confronts the councilors about being bi-curious proclaiming himself to be bi-curious. Stephen actually agrees with Butters, and tells him that he is also bi-curious. This may hint that Stephen is going back to his bi-sexual lifestyle.

At the end of the sixth season, in the episode My Future Self n' Me, Butters gets revenge on his parents for their abuse of him (culminating in them hiring an actor to pretend to be Butters's future self so as to scare him out of doing drugs) by paying Cartman to smear feces all over his house. The act ironically leads the Stotches to realize how badly they've treated their son and they apologize, an act that is contrasted by Stan Marsh's parents refusing to apologize for them hiring an actor to be Stan's future self, to the extent that they mutilate their actor when Stan tricks them into thinking he chopped off his own hand. Since then, the Stotches have not been shown hurting their son. Despite all their mishaps, Butters parents do care deeply about him. Their intentions are good but their methods are flawed.

Life and History
Butters has been in the show since the beginning, though initially only as a background character who rarely spoke and was referred to in scripts as "Puff Puff" and "Swanson" - Stan refers to him by this name in the opening scene of the Season 2 episode Conjoined Fetus Lady. When Butters spoke in the early episodes however, his voice was dramatically different from the stuttering southern accent we know and love today. Butters had a very small role in the feature film South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, being the only one to touch Cartman after he saw Asses of Fire and being the flag bearer for La Resistance who tripped. Butters was renamed and properly introduced in the Season 3 episode Two Guys Naked in a Hot Tub alongside Pip and Dougie stuck in a basement during a Meteor Shower Party. He was seen sporadically from Season 3 through 5, going from social pariah (Two Guys Naked in a Hot Tub) to mean-spirited bully in Hooked on Monkey Phonics (which seems out of character for Butters, but is not entirely unlikely for an emotionally abused child), to abused kid who was constantly being punished and emotionally abused by adults for imaginary insults they believed Butters was engaging in with How to Eat With Your Butt (episode 510). This lead him to reclusion and self-loathing.

In the episode Jared Has Aides Butters was adopted by Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, and Eric Cartman, as their fourth friend when Kenny McCormick died "permanently" at the end of the fifth season. The writer had given Butters his own spotlight episode as the season five finale to prepare fans for Butters taking Kenny's place on the show. The episode, titled Butters' Very Own Episode, gave Butters a complicated backstory where his father was outed as being a closet bisexual and his mother, in an act similar to murderer Susan Smith, attempted to drown her son Butters in a fit of madness. They all made up at the end of the episode and nothing came of it.

Butters found himself, as the new fourth friend, being put down and treated like a total outcast by his new friends. Kyle, Stan, and Cartman all openly bullied Butters, telling him how he's not cool like Kenny. Cartman in particular took perverse pleasure in making Butters suffer, to the extent that, in Jared Has Aides, he purposely arranged for Butters' parents to physically punish their son by pretending to be Butters on the phone, bad-mouthing them, just so he could watch them abusing him. He even commented out loud that, "Aw man, if I was older I would totally start jacking off right now". Cartman often manipulates Butters to do whatever he wishes.

Butters would remain on as the fourth member of the gang for four more episodes; two of the episodes continued the plot of Butters being abused but downplayed it and in the case of Freak Strike, ending the episode just as Butters was about to be beaten (with Cartman being beaten up instead). Ultimately, in the sixth episode of season six, Professor Chaos, Butters is expelled from the group for being "too lame" and adopts his super-villain alter ego "Professor Chaos" as a means to get revenge against the group and society for rejecting him. Butters would run around for several episodes as Professor Chaos, only to have no one care much about his plots since many of them had, though Butters didn't realize it, already occurred on episodes of the animated series The Simpsons. This caused Butters to have a mental breakdown, before Chef was able to bring him back from the brink. Butters would eventually reveal his secret identity of Professor Chaos to Stan but the reaction he received was much less than he had anticipated as, much like when he committed his acts of chaos, Stan didn't care in the least.

Though not anymore a member of the main four's group, Butters was nevertheless kept as a prominent member of the boys' extended circle. Though he has returned, Kenny's role has declined to an extent due to lack of ideas for the character and Butters has taken on a more prominent role again. Despite their ill-treatment toward him, Butters stays loyal to his friends, perhaps in hopes that they'll accept him. In a way, this has worked as recently there seems to have been some shift in the balance of friendship. The most obvious case of this being in the episode Tsst, where Butters is calmly playing along with Stan, Kyle and Kenny, with Cartman being much more alienated than usual.

In Casa Bonita Kyle decides to take Butters with him on his birthday to Casa Bonita, but when Butters goes missing, Kyle postpones his birthday party until he can be found. Cartman had led Butters to believe that a meteor is going to strike the Earth, and kept Butters down in a bomb shelter for three days before transferring him to an abandoned refrigerator to be shipped to the dump so that he can go to Casa Bonita with Kyle, who was also manipulated into allowing Cartman to go with him if Butters doesn't show up. Butters did eventually get his revenge on Cartman in the episode AWESOM-O in which Cartman, disguised as a robot, is starved, shocked, forced to administer a suppository and exploited for money, only to end up humiliated in front of the entire town with footage of him cross-dressing as Britney Spears and dancing with a cardboard cut-out of Justin Timberlake. Cartman's most recent attempt to mock Butters with a photograph backfires horribly, but this is due to Cartman losing the photo and his subsequent paranoia that Kyle will humiliate him with the picture since Kyle tried to stop Butters from being humiliated by Cartman.

Despite their history, Butters has recently taken on the role as Cartman's sidekick. Cartman often takes advantage of Butters' niceness and desire to be accepted in order to fulfill his schemes.

Professor Chaos
Butters' alter ego is Professor Chaos, a supervillain/mad scientist he became when the boys dumped him. He spreads chaos with his sidekick, General Disarray, and his hamsters (or "minions").

Chaos
Early in his career as Professor Chaos, Butters was successful at bringing chaos to his fourth grade classroom when he stole the erasers from the chalkboard. During the process of changing into his Professor Chaos costume Butters was discovered by Dougie, who chose to join him as his sidekick, General Disarray after being eliminated in the boys' quest to find a new fourth member. Together, Professor Chaos and General Disarray hatched out evil plots that included trying to flood the world with his garden hose and destroying the ozone layer with aerosol spray.

Old Plans
In episode #607, Simpson's Already Did It, Butters devises a series of supposedly original evil plots, only to abandon each of them after General Disarray informs him that they have already been used on The Simpsons. He nearly goes insane after a while of this, but gets consoled later, by the reassurance this is only because the show has run so long, not his own lack of creativity.

Injuries
In the episode entitled Good Time With Weapons, Stan, Kyle, Cartman, and Kenny find weapons from the fair. They are then turned into anime-style ninjas. Butters wants to play with them, but they don't allow him. Butters then becomes Professor Chaos and has a "ninja fight" with the gang. This ends when Kenny throws a ninja star into Butters's eye.

In the episode Pre-School he finds out that a bully from pre school got out of jail, and then tries to hide. His dad later kicks him out of the house in an effort to make him have fun, but he simply gets nervous and starts singing to himself. The bully arrives and give him several bully related attacks, including a severe Indian burn.

Dance
As revealed in the episode You Got F'd in the A, Butters is, or at least was, a very talented tap dancer, but his fondness for dancing was cut short at the National Tap Dancing Championship when a freak accident caused by Butters' tap dancing set off a chain reaction leading to the death of eight people (nine including the unborn child within a pregnant victim, and eleven including the two people who committed suicide after the incident). This freak accident has left Butters quite scarred, although this isn't immediately apparent. In the same episode he was further terrified as his tap shoe again started another fatal chain of events, leading to the death of five rival dancers (and their instructor) who Butters and Stan were set to face in a dance contest. He also seems to have some break-dancing ability, as seen in the episode Asspen. Additionally, Butters exhibits some impressive free-style dancing ability, dancing to Justin Timberlake's "Rock Your Body" in the episode Marjorine. He showed off more dance moves at the end of Hell on Earth 2006 during Satan's party, imitating Michael Jackson.

In the episode Asspen, Butters is seen dancing in a fashion identical to that of several Peanuts characters.

Television
It is implied in the episode 4th Grade that Butters knows a surprising amount of Star Trek information, and he may be a "Trekkie". He also watches Black Entertainment Television, according to the episode Hell on Earth 2006. As stated in My Future Self 'n' Me, Butters is not a fan of Becker. Butters' future self is constantly watching the show, which present Butters calls "stupid."

Music
Butters is often seen singing, usually a disturbing song: "Loo loo loo, I've got some apples, loo loo loo, You've got some too" before he is cut off. When he does finish, the ending is "Loo loo loo, Let's make some applesauce, Take off our clothes and loo loo loo" (as heard on Stupid Spoiled Whore Video Playset), or "Loo loo loo, Let's get together, I know what we can do loo loo", which, either way, could be a strange euphemism for sexual intercourse.

In Something You Can Do With Your Finger, Butters auditions for Fingerbang by singing "Little Bunny Foo-Foo". In AWESOM-O he sings about his robot friend in a song that resembles the theme song of The Courtship of Eddie's Father, and he seems fond of the Chicago ballad If You Leave Me Now. Apparently, Butters can also play the drums quite proficiently, as he is seen doing so for Cartman's Christian rock group "Faith+1", featured in the episode Christian Rock Hard. In the season five episode, Butters Very Own Episode, his theme song Everybody knows it's Butters is a play off a song from 1967 called Windy by The Association.

In You Got F'd in the A, in the flashback of the horrible accident Butters caused during the championship competition, the song Butters dances to is an upbeat, yet obviously risqué song entitled I've Got Something In My Front Pocket For You, which features lyrics like Won't you reach into my pocket and see what it is / Then grab onto it, just for you / Give it a little squeeze and say "How do you do".

More recently, in the episode Miss Teacher Bangs a Boy (a.k.a Nice), Butters is heard singing a song while using the urinal in the boy's bathroom: "Hey there Mr. Weiner, whaddaya know. Do you need to tinkle tinkle? Yes, I do think so"

In the episode Cartman Sucks, Butters sings Joni Mitchell's song Help Me while playing with his army figurines.

General intelligence and memory
Butters openly joins and helps with some of Cartman's schemes, and is usually shown doing well at it.

Butters is also shown in Christian Rock Hard to be highly talented in mental calculation, instantly supplying the correct answer to 180,000,000 × 12.95, "2,331,000,000". The context suggests this is a talent of Butters' that is well known to the others. (He also tutors Stan, at his request, in My Future Self n' Me — although it isn't clear in which subject, possibly more than one.)

In Cartman's Incredible Gift, he reveals that he knows the Icarus myth.

However, in Go God Go, he did not realise that Cartman may die if frozen in snow for several weeks - he had to get Dougie to inform him of these facts. However, this may reflect his innocence, his deference to Cartman's judgement, or he is a Autistic savant and, while extremely talented in mathematical computation does not necessarily possess scientific or even commonplace knowledge.

Art
In episode 417 A Very Crappy Christmas where the boys wanted to make a new The Spirit of Christmas, Butters was the one who drew the characters. Butters also shows his artistic talents in AWESOM-O drawing a picture of himself and his robot friend (Cartman). In Kenny Dies, he sends a letter to Kenny in the hospital and it contains a drawing of them both in an airplane with the words ME AND MY FRIEND KENNY written above. As well, in the episode Toilet Paper where the four boys get into trouble by their teacher, Stan claims that "art is for gaywads" when Butters is seen in the background stating that he loves art class. Briefly in the episode It Hits the Fan Kyle interrupts Butters tagging a building with chalk with his name in the style of a well practiced graffiti artist.

Sports
He played with the rest of the boys, as the center fielder, on their baseball team in The Losing Edge. He was also number 99 on the dodge ball team in Conjoined Fetus Lady. He is also seen playing football with the others in Raisins. In Butters' Very Own Episode, one of the lines in the theme tune states that Butters loves John Elway