Randy Marsh

Randy Marsh is a character on South Park. He is the father of Stan & Shelly Marsh and the husband of Sharon Marsh. Despite being a geologist, which requires a high level of intelligence, he is often shown to be absent-minded, gullible and sometimes downright stupid. This often provokes the storyline in many episodes. In recent seasons he has become the main character of many episodes.

Appearance
Randy wears a blue colored shirt with chest pockets on each side and dark gray trousers. Under his jacket, it is implied is a white shirt. His left-side pocket usually has a yellow, a red, and a blue pen, plus some white paper pinned in. He has thick, black hair with parted bangs, and a thick black mustache, both of which seem to evoke a 1970s hairstyle. In early episodes, though, his hairstyle was somewhat different (see left). Up until "Chickenlover", he didn't have a dimpled chin. But in and after that episode he mysteriously developed one (of course, in the early stages of South Park, many things changed).

At bedtime, Randy wears deep blue pajamas with a long-sleeved shirt, and gray slippers. Though he appears slim and in shape when clothed, he is rather flabby, and has a protruding stomach, as seen when naked. Randy also has prosthetic testicles following the removal of his own due to his self-induced testicular cancer.

In his special occasion outfit, which consists of a white dress shirt, a light blue tuxedo, blue pants, and a gold tie, he has a gold handkerchief in his blue coat pocket.

Personality
Randy is often portrayed as an intelligent but simultaneously dim-witted, quick to think, naive man, while all the same a caring, doting father. He has a habit of being led astray by new fads or events, like many of the characters. All the same, he has also been known to go completely against such things, though his reasons are usually selfish and immature. He will also try to do a heroic thing, but will then be distracted due to a selfish reason as seen in Insheeption. This and his casual beer drinking habits draw parallels to Homer Simpson, who has similar characteristic elements. Randy also seems to drink a lot of coffee, shown carrying a cup in most episodes he is in at one point or another.

Randy has a tendency to act very melodramatic. Whenever things get surreal in the show, and Randy is calling for his son, he usually puts on an act of being very ill and weak, and moaning Stan's name out: "Staaaaaan!". Randy is also shown to be a hypochondriac.

In the episode "My Future Self n' Me", "Future Stan" reveals that Randy doesn't like chicken. He also doesn't like cherry pop-tarts, as he expressed disgust when Linda Stotch pointed out that those were the only ones left in "Night of the Living Homeless".

In the episode "Guitar Queer-o", Randy can be seen strumming a guitar with his right hand; he may therefore be right-handed.

He is obsessive with a few things, as evidenced with his video camera in "Pandemic" when he videotaped his father Marvin Marsh in the bathtub, Sharon, Stan and Shelly eating dinner (which is implied to have happened multiple times), a Peruvian flute band outside the house (asking Stan to go outside next to them), Sharon and Shelly watching CNN, Sharon talking to the Broflovskis and Tuckers about their missing boys, Sharon calling someone to help with the missing boys and the gargantuan guinea pigs rampaging through town. Sharon frequently reprimanded him for doing this, calling him an idiot at one point.

Alcoholism
In "The Red Badge of Gayness", "Clubhouses" and "The Losing Edge", it was hinted that Randy has a drinking problem. This drinking problem (although in "The Red badge of Gayness", it was shown that most of the men in the town are involved in the manipulation by Cartman. Cartman also mentioned it in the episode "Grey Dawn", at one point stating, "Looks like Stan's dad's been hitting the bottle again." His problem was more closely examined in "Bloody Mary" after he was caught drunk-driving.

He has been depicted as everything from a casual drinker to a heavy alcoholic. He still isn't as bad as Kenny's father, Stuart McCormick, as, unlike the latter, he is sober most of the time. He also had a job until he got himself fired in "About Last Night" for a drunken tirade directed toward his boss. (It reveals again, though, that he was re-hired as a Geologist in You Have 0 Friends). It appears Randy Marsh is a binge drinker - one who stays most of the time sober but drinks heavily at suitable instances.

Marijuana
He appears to be extremely drawn to marijuana, going as far as to intentionally giving himself cancer just so he could get his hands on legal marijuana. (He tried many ways to get cancer, such as smoking, getting a tan, and attaching cell phones to his face. He eventually came up with the idea of sticking his testicles in a microwave, as seen in Medicinal Fried Chicken, just to get weed. Ten other men, including Jimbo and his partner soon follow Randy's example.)

Musical talent
It appears Randy Marsh is very musically talented. He is a good singer and he can play guitar really well as seen in Guitar Queer-O.

History
It is also implied in "Die Hippie, Die", that Randy and his wife, Sharon used to be hippies, and they met at Woodstock in 1969. If this were the case, though, they would be in their mid-forties to mid-fifties. But Randy stated in one episode in Season 9 that he was thirty-five years old, so this may have been simply a cutaway joke. Also, Randy and Sharon were revealed to have met in a tree-fort playing Truth or Dare, in the episode "Clubhouses".

Randy tells the other adults in town, at the end of "Child Abduction is Not Funny", that he studied Mongolian in college. He then speaks it to the children, who have joined a tribe of Mongolians. However, it appears that he doesn't apply his knowledge of the language to his life, as this is the only time he is heard speaking it.

In "Make Love, Not Warcraft", Randy makes a World of Warcraft account (which is named Falcorn and is a level 2 human hunter, which is not possible in the actual game at the time of the episodes creation.) after seeing his son Stan play it.

In "Pinewood Derby" he made Stan cheat in his derby race, accidentally discovers warp drive, and consequently becomes first contact for aliens coming to Earth. He and the leaders of the world keep trying to cover their lies. He grounded Stan for telling the truth, however, he and the others lied to the alines. As punishment for failing that test so badly, Earth and the Moon are permanently enclosed in a gigantic, cubical force field and isolated from the rest of the Universe — to which Randy says, "Well, that sucks."

Randy is named after, and based upon, Trey Parker's father, Randy Parker. Randy Parker is also a geologist.

Careers and Occupations
He also serves the City Council. It should be noted that Randy Marsh bears the same name as an umpire in Major League Baseball.

Boy-Band Singer
In "Something You Can Do With Your Finger", Randy reveals to Stan that he was in a boy band when he was eighteen, after having been in a choir during high school. He was so eager about this new career, that he dropped out of school, left his girlfriend and his family, and immediately joined up. The name of his band was The Ghetto Avenue Boys, which is meant to be a parody of The Back Street Boys. They had a hit single, "You Got It", and they made millions, living in a big mansion with dozens of women sharing his bed with him at once. But one year later, all of the group members were fired for being too old for a boy band, despite the fact that Randy was only nineteen at the time. Randy was in debt to the studio, and in order to make up for it, he had to give up all of his possessions. He then returned home at last, and used up what money he had left resuming his education.

An interesting thing to note is that Randy is shown to be very proficient at the guitar in "Guitar Queer-o". He also mentions in that episode that he knows how to play several famous rock songs on the guitar, such as "Carry on Wayward Son" by Kerry Livgren.

Geologist
Ever since his first appearance, he has been shown to be a geologist. In later seasons, notably in the season 8 episode "Goobacks", he is known to be a worker for the United States Geological Survey. He became famous for his theory on moderation in the episode "Spontaneous Combustion", and won the Nobel Prize Award for it. He is often called upon to perform many scientific tasks, due to his education and positions. He usually is unable to perform the tasks, though, despite the fact he is a geologist and thus has a high level of understanding of many areas of science, including chemistry, biology, physics and mathematics. However his skills in geology might not be that good as well, as in Volcano he had to call someone to figure out why the "needle thing" was moving and what it meant when the mountain was smoking, and even after discoving it was a Volcanic Eruption, he casually finishes his coffee first. He lost this job in "About Last Night" for verbally and physically abusing his boss and then punching him, obviously mistaking him for a McCain supporter while he voted for Obama.

Due to the fact that Randy told Stan he saw his new Facebook page while at the office, in You have 0 Friends, its implied he found a new job or was re-hired by his old one.

Wall-Mart Employee
In the episode "Something Wall-Mart This Way Comes", Randy worked at the Wal-Mart in South Park until Stan saved him from being killed as the store was destroyed in the end.

Elementary School Chef
Randy becomes obsessed with cooking after seeing the Food Network in "Crème Fraiche". He loves it so much, that he becomes the boys' new cafeteria chef. He creates his own show, called "Cafeteria Fraiche". Other celebrities of the Food Network then challenge him to a cook off. However he used this position mostly just to show off his cooking skills rather than serving meals to the students.

Sharon Marsh
She is Randy's wife. She seems to be more sensible than him at the best of times, although they both are known to be very hotheaded on occasion. In "Clubhouses", they were constantly bickering, and finally they divorced. Randy then became an incompetent father who spent the whole time partying the nights away, and never seemed to have time for his children. At the end of the episode, Sharon decided she still loved Randy, and they had sex in Stan's tree fort. They then presumably remarried. Up until this episode, they had been inseparable from each other; afterwards, they're still loving, but their relationship is a bit less normal. In more recent seasons, Sharon has become more annoyed with Randy's over-the-top and childish behavior, such as the events of Pandemic, where she freaks out and attacks him, when he spends all his time playing with a video camera while the family's lives are in danger.

Stan Marsh
Stan is Randy's son, and youngest child. Randy loves his son very much, and goes out of his way to protect him, as shown in episodes "Grey Dawn", "Pee", and "Die Hippie, Die". When events suit him. Stan, however, gets very annoyed and frustrated by Randy's dim-witted behavior, and usually only takes his advice because he feels obliged to do so.

In "About Last Night", Stan got so irritated by the street party outside which was being led in large part by his father, that he made a noise complaint. All he could say when they tipped Officer Barbrady's car over was, "Jesus Christ!" and continued to watch in annoyed horror as his father's action became steadily worse. Things in-fact became even worse when Randy refused to help with Kyle's younger brother Ike, who had fallen out of the window and Randy ended up getting fired from his job for acting like a drunk-idiot towards his boss.

He also will publicly vocally express his annoyance in certain incidences in which Stan was apart of, most of the time being incredibly harsh in situations that do not call for it.

Shelly Marsh
Shelly is Randy's daughter, and elder child. She is very violent to her younger brother, Stan, although she is very nice or at least indifferent whenever her parents are around. Because of this, Randy and Sharon have remained completely oblivious to her abusive nature. and when Stan told them what she did, they didn't believe him. Shelly however, like Stan and Sharon often gets annoyed with her father's behavior, rolling her eyes but rarely saying anything other than, "Mom, what's up Dad's ass?"

Marvin Marsh
He is Randy's ancient father, who is 102 years old. He is very suicidal, though everyone merely laughs at his requests to be killed, saying, "That's our silly Grampa!" In "Grey Dawn", he was frustrated by the way Randy spoke to him as if he were speaking to his son, rather than his father. Stan then explained that that was partly why Grampa waged the war between the young and the elderly, because he didn't want to be "treated like he was 12". In "Fantastic Easter Special" it is revealed that Marvin brought Randy to the Hare Club for Men when he was little.

Grandma Marsh
She is Randy and Jimbo Kern's mother. She apparently divorced or cheated on Jimbo's father to be with Marvin. However due to the fact that they do not live together and Marvin had a sexual encounter with a contortionist in Quintuplets 2000, this would imply that she also left Marvin eventually. She is currently suffereing from an unknown illness in the hospital. She frequents Facebook, and often calls Randy to bully Stan into keeping up with her facebook status as seen in You have 0 Friends.

Jimbo Kern
Jimbo is Randy's older half-brother, as Matt Stone revealed in an interview. He said that they were birthed by the same mother, but each have different fathers. They appear to have a decent friendly relationship, often drinking together and talking about normal guy stuff. Despite the fact their mother left Jimbo's father, Jimbo himself seems to hold no ill-will towards his younger half-brother.

Vehicles Owned
Randy has driven red sedans, Lexus RX300s, and Lincoln Navigators. In Smug Alert, he is seen driving a Honda Civic Hybrid.

South Park Let's Go Tower Defense Play
In South Park Let's Go Tower Defense Play, Randy appears in the peniultimate level 'Mountain Pass'. He told the boys to look out for ManBearPig (who was the level's boss) before humorously saying, "I'm gonna have a Beer!".

Major Roles
Randy has been a relatively prominent character since the beginning of the show, eventually becoming the most prominent adult character and then one of the most significant characters on the show.

Season 1

 * "Volcano" - Randy's first appearance. He is not yet identified as Stan's father, but he discovers that the old mountain above South Park is a volcano, on the verge of erupting with some help.

Season 2

 * "Clubhouses" - Randy and Sharon divorce due to constant bickering.1403_randyWheelBarrowA.jpg.]]

Season 3

 * "Spontaneous Combustion" - Randy figures out why the people of South Park are spontaneously combusting.
 * "Two Guys Naked in a Hot Tub" - Randy freaks out about his sexual reputation after he and Gerald masturbate in front of each other at Mr. Mackey's meteor shower party.

Season 4

 * "Something You Can Do with Your Finger" - Randy doesn't want Stan to be in a boy band, on account of an old experience of his own.

Season 5

 * No episode in season 5 has a story which focuses on him. His most prominent appearances are in "It Hits the Fan" and "Cripple Fight."

Season 6

 * "The Return of the Fellowship of the Ring to the Two Towers" - Gives a "quest" to the boys after the boys gave Butters the porno accidentally.
 * "My Future Self n' Me" - Wants his son to believe that his future self is real.

Season 7

 * "I'm a Little Bit Country" - Randy is an anti-war fighter.
 * "All About Mormons" - Becomes a Mormon after meeting Gary's dad.

Season 8

 * "Goobacks" - Tells Stan not to hang around the redneck protesters.
 * "Something Wall-Mart This Way Comes" - Wants to get rid of Wall-Mart, he is unable to and starts working there.

Season 9

 * "The Losing Edge" - Manages to get into a fight with other parents of other kids' baseball teams.
 * "Two Days Before the Day After Tomorrow"- Falsely accuses global warming for destroying of the Beaverton Dam.
 * "Bloody Mary" - Suffers from alcoholism.

Season 10

 * "Make Love, Not Warcraft" - Randy helps Stan and friends defeat "The Rogue" character on the World of Warcraft game.

Season 11

 * "With Apologies to Jesse Jackson" - Randy says the "N" word on Wheel of Fortune, and has to apologise to Jesse Jackson for it.
 * "Fantastic Easter Special" - Randy is shown to be a member of The Hare Club for Men, and let's Stan in on the game.
 * "Night of the Living Homeless" - Randy leads the South Park residents through the night while the homeless attack.
 * "More Crap" - Randy becomes the town hero after the men at the bar see the size of his latest crap.

Season 12

 * "Over Logging" - Randy makes the family move to California in order to find Internet access, which the town does not have.
 * "Pandemic" - Randy cannot put down his new video camera and records minute happenings inside the Marsh household, causing Sharon to constantly argue with him.
 * "Pandemic 2: The Startling" - Randy bravely documents the attacks of the Furry Death, much to the annoyance of his wife and daughter.
 * "About Last Night" - Is one of the Obama supporters going nuts with the party. Gets so drunk that he physically and verbally abuses his boss, losing his job as a result.

Season 13

 * "Margaritaville" - Leads the town during the recession.
 * "Eat, Pray, Queef" - Was an anti-queefing protester, then he was part of the queef-free album.
 * "Pinewood Derby" - Makes Stan cheat in his derby race, accidentally discovers warp drive, and consequently becomes first contact for aliens coming to Earth. He and the leaders of the world keep trying to cover their lies. It lead the planet Earth conceal from the universe.
 * "Pee" - Agrees to be urinated on in order to test out a banana to cure the supposed mutation which result from a certain amount of exposure to pee.

Season 14

 * "Medicinal Fried Chicken" - Obtains testicular cancer by putting his balls in a microwave to have the prescription to obtain legal marijuana to smoke.805_image-16.jpg
 * "200" - Makes Stan apologize to Tom Cruise for calling him a fudge packer (although he was literally packing fudge), as to avoid a class-act lawsuit. Tries to find a way to get Muhammad to South Park.
 * "It's a Jersey Thing" - Randy leads the fight against the Jerseyites trying to take over South Park.
 * "Crème Fraiche" - Becomes obsessed with the Food Network and gets hired as the school chef.

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