Jimmy Valmer

Jimmy Valmer (formerly Jimmy Swanson) is a character in South Park. He is voiced by Trey Parker. This character is inspired by Tiny Tim Cratchit from Dickens's "A Christmas Carol", and possibly Blair's handicapped cousin on "The Facts of Life". Some fans of the show ponder as to whether or not his name is a reference to Jeffery Dahmer[1]

Appearance
Jimmy wears a yellow long-sleeved shirt, blue jeans and black boots; he wears braces, has a rather lopsided face, brown hair, and sideburns. Like Timmy, he is handicapped, but with muscular dystrophy, and he can still walk with the help of crutches. They seem to hinder his arm use, as in "Something Wall-Mart This Way Comes", when he is struggling unsuccessfully to get Sharon Marsh a shopping cart.

He is also able to communicate with people, though with a severe stutter and a Brooklyn-esque accent, although he sometimes ends his sentences with "very much" when there is no need for it.

Character
Like Timmy, the humor of Jimmy's character comes from his endless optimism despite his handicap; his disability is not mocked per se, but rather his exaggerated eagerness to be a successful "handi-capable" person is. Jimmy has recently started to expand his role on South Park; it is unknown if he is being eased in as a main character. He seems to be eager to be a member of the main character's gang - In "Professor Chaos" he is one of the final ten fourth members, but becomes a suck-up, which may be why he was declined as a fourth member. In later seasons, he is shown as a frequent add-on member in Craig's gang.

He is generally a popular and gifted student at school, and he is moral and knows how to be a friend. However, he is foul-mouthed and very competitive; taking steroids just so he can win the Special Olympics. He and Timmy also competed against Christopher Reeve in "Krazy Kripples". He is also seen singing "The Twelve Days of Christmas" in "Red Sleigh Down", but his stutter makes it very slow going, as each time the scene cuts back to him he is just ending the verse he started in the last one.

Entertainment
He likes to perform stand-up comedy, in the style of Jay Leno, but he is often criticized for his jokes, even though everyone considered them hilarious in Cripple Fight. When telling a joke, he often starts it of with 'Have you seen this? Have you heard about this?" in the style of The Tonight Show's host Jay Leno. When finishing a joke, even if there's only one person listening to him, and no matter what their reaction to the joke, he will usually say "Wow, what a great audience!". In "Fishsticks" one of his jokes became famous and was considered to be the greatest joke in the world by everyone, except Kanye West.

Jimmy also likes singing. His favorite song is "The Twelve Days of Christmas", but he sings it painfully slowly in front of the City Hall in "Red Sleigh Down". He has also acted on a few occasions, such as "The Return of the Fellowship of the Ring to the Two Towers".

Fighting
Jimmy seems to be rather good at fighting, as in the episode Cripple Fight he and Timmy engage in a fistfight that is, shot-for-shot, nearly identical to the fistfight scene in They Live, and both of them do pretty well. Later, though, they get along more easily, and become friends. Jimmy seems to be the only one who can understand Timmy's utterances.

Jimmy even beat up his girlfriend in "Up the Down Steroid" (see below). He often uses his crutches as a highly dangerous weapon when fighting as demonstrated in Good Times With Weapons.

Relations


He had a girlfriend in "Up the Down Steroid" named Nancy. They had met during free period at school the week before. He beat her up after a rush of testosterone hit him after consuming steroids and also accused her of cheating on him. He also beat his mother up when she came to defend Nancy. It seemed as if Nancy forgave him for that, though, as she still rooted for him at the Special Olympics.

He is currently the only 4th grader to have lost his virginity; however, in "My Future Self n' Me", he told another boy how he and his girlfriend had sex after trying ecstasy. Because he acted like a comedian while saying this, it is most likely a joke.

In "Erection Day", Jimmy started getting erections, and in an effort to stop them in time for the talent show, he had sex with a prostitute who went by the street name Nut Gobbler. Also, in this episode, he asks Rebecca, a kid in his class, to have sex with him to stop his erections; she slapped him and called him a jerk after that, meaning that she now hates him.



Family
His parents are named Ryan Valmer and Sarah. Apparently, they used to tease handicapped people when they were in high school, and they're convinced that God made their son handicapped as a punishment for that.

When Jimmy started getting erections in Erection Day, his parents hired a counselor known as "Dr. Pal", to convince Jimmy that these spontaneous erections were a normal phase, and that there was nothing to worry about.

Ryan is apparently the Chief of the Fire Department, as revealed in Night of the Living Homeless.

Appearance
Sarah wears a white shirt, underneath an orange sleeveless dress, with a white belt around her waist. Her hair is long and black, and she wears red lipstick. Her breasts seem to be quite large and full-shaped.

Ryan wears a blue shirt with a greenish-blue tie, underneath a red sweater with a blue and orange diamond pattern at the bottom. He also wears green trousers. His hair is brown, and he seems to have a slight double chin.

Personality
Sarah apparently can get very emotional, as in Krazy Kripples, when she and Ryan try to get Jimmy out of the gang he's joined, and he refuses, she bursts into tears. Ryan seems to be rather nosy, as in Up the Down Steroid, he kept poking into Jimmy's room, asking if he was masturbating.

Name Dispute
His last name is uncertain; he was known as "Jim Swanson" in "Krazy Kripples", but his name was changed to "Valmer" in the episode "Up the Down Steroid", "Mr. Garrison's Fancy New Vagina", "Quest For Ratings", "Erection Day", and "Fishsticks". This was referenced in "Tsst", in which Jimmy asked Cartman, after he said they were best friends, what his last name was, which Cartman didn't know. It is possible that the creators changed Jimmy's last name because of the similarity to the handicapped character Joe Swanson on Family Guy, (which is a show that Matt and Trey have expressed disdain for; see "Cartoon Wars Part I") or he just got his last name changed to Valmer. Or he had the same last name as his mother before his parents got married.

Trivia

 * In the episode "Tsst" his house address is given as 1331.
 * Jimmy is the second youngest kid in South Park to have consensual sex. The youngest is Ike Broflovski, who lost his virginity to his teacher Ms. Stephenson in Miss Teacher Bangs a Boy.
 * In Crippled Summer Jimmy can be seen standing, playing the ukuleele and even surfing without help.
 * Jimmy is a Christian, and possibly a Protestant, he wasn't seen at the church in Red Hot Catholic Love, meaning he isn't Catholic, but in Krazy Kripples he mentions about doing; "A lock-in at the Rec Center for church". Jimmy is most likely a Protestant.
 * Jimmy may have OCD, as he tends to commonly repeat himself.

Jimmy Vulmer