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Revision as of 16:26, 28 November 2013
Kenneth "Kenny" McCormick,[5][6] voiced by Matt Stone, is one of the main characters, along with Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, and Eric Cartman. Created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, he first appeared in the short films both entitled The Spirit of Christmas in 1992 and 1995. He is voiced by Mike Judge in the feature film South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut and Eric Stough in the episodes "The Jeffersons", "Lice Capades", and "Mysterion Rises".
Kenny is most famous for dying in almost every episode in the first five seasons of South Park. He is also easily recognizable for almost always wearing an orange parka (or just having his face hidden) that covers most of his face and muffles his speech. In the episode "Mysterion Rises" Kenny, who is revealed to be the superhero Mysterion, reveals that he has the power of immortality and that he just wakes up in his bed after some time. He is then upset that his friends never express that they remember him dying.
The character was killed off the show in the Season Five episode, "Kenny Dies", but returned in the following season, at the end of "Red Sleigh Down" and has since been a regular character; however, he now only dies occasionally. In most of the episodes in the tenth and eleventh seasons, he tends to recede into the background, though this tendency seems to have ended with the Season Eleven finale. Throughout the tenth and twelfth season, Kenny did not die once. Kenny died three times in total in Season Thirteen, five times in Season Fourteen, once in Season Fifteen, and once in Season Sixteen.
Quick Answers
Who is Kenny McCormick?
What is Kenny McCormick's signature clothing?
Does Kenny McCormick have any special powers?
Who voices Kenny McCormick?
Who are Kenny McCormick's family members?
Background
Character Inspiration
Like many of South Park's characters, Kenny is based on a real person; in this case a childhood friend of Trey Parker's also named Kenny. In a 2000 interview Trey said that the real life Kenny was the poorest kid in the neighborhood and wore an orange parka that made it difficult for anyone to understand what he was saying. Trey also stated that real life Kenny would skip school from time to time causing the others to jokingly say he had died, and a few days later, he would join his classmates and attend school again.[7]
Criminal Record
In some episodes Kenny is known to do some crimes on his own, but not very often. He has been arrested four times - once for prostitution (giving Howard Stern a "hummer" for ten bucks), once for participating in Stan's Whale Wars crew, once for illegally downloading music, and once for becoming vigilantism. However, he never stays in prison for long since the town is full of idiots. He may not actually have been arrested in "The Coon" because in a deleted scene, it shows that Kyle posed as Mysterion so Kenny wouldn't get in trouble. Kenny's criminal record includes, but isn't limited to:
- Murder By Proxy: Kenny teams up with Cartman to have Sarah Jessica Parker murdered in "The Tale of Scrotie McBoogerballs", resulting in her getting shot. They eventually shift the blame to Butters.
- Attempted Murder: In the episode "Poor and Stupid", Kenny attempts to kill Cartman at the NASCAR championships for ruining the sport's reputation - however, his sniper rifle got confiscated by a security guard upon entry and Cartman had murdered many people.
- Vandalism: In "Toilet Paper", he along with Stan, Kyle, and Cartman TPed Mrs. Dreibel's house in revenge for making them stay after school after making an erect shaped penis sculpture in art class. In How to Eat with Your Butt, Kenny (with Cartman also involved) vandalised the school photo, by wearing his parka upside down and while standing on his head with his feet through his sleeves that shows his ass through his hood.
- Assault: In the episode "Major Boobage", Kenny brutally attacked Cartman after he brought Kenny back from the hallucinations he was having from cheesing, and ruining his paradise with the Large-Breasted Woman. In Cartman Joins NAMBLA, he nearly assaults his own mother with a plunger in attempt to get rid of the baby she's pregnant with.
- Cannibalism: In Pinkeye, Kenny started taking bites out of anyone and everyone, turning them into zombies. Since he was a zombie himself, however, this would be forgivable.
- Kidnapping: In "Cow Days", Kenny, along with Stan and Kyle, took Cartman from the hospital for the purpose of him entering the bull-riding contest at the rodeo. Cartman had not actually healed and thought he was a Vietnamese prostitute called Ming Lee. Since this was for the purpose of money, it would be considered illegal.
- Violation of firearm laws: The sniper rifle Kenny carried is definitely illegal and unregistered. It was never explained how Kenny obtained the sniper rifle, but it is likely he obtained during the events of "Poor and Stupid" when he attempted to kill Cartman, after he ruined the NASCAR sport's reputation.
- Breaking and Entering: In "The Tooth Fairy Tats 2000", Kenny along with the boys broke into the rich kid's houses to trick their parents into giving them money, and steal it off of them. In "Cherokee Hair Tampons" along, with Stan, Butters, and Timmy, he assisted Stan in breaking into Cartman's house to remove his kidney. Later in "Ginger Kids", along with Stan and Kyle, Kenny broke into Cartman's house to teach him a lesson. In "Major Boobage", he broke into Cartman's house again, to use the cats (in which Cartman are taking care of) and get high from their urine again.
- Underage Smoking/Drug Abuse: In "Butt Out" started smoking along with the boys to avoid being like Butt Out; later in "Major Boobage", Kenny became addicted to cheesing and when cats became illegal, he ignores the law and continues to get high. He eventually stopped, but began to get high again after smelling some strong flowers. In "Cancelled" he takes cocaine-like alien drugs and gets high off paint with Cartman often.
- Arson: In "Butt Out" Kenny along with the boys threw their cigarettes into a nearby dumpster to prevent from getting caught by Mr. Mackey but later ignites and proceeds to burn the whole school down. In "Pre-School", Kenny still kindergartener along with the boys were trying to play firemen, they decided that they should start a fire, they had their classmate Trent to start the fire and when they try to urinate out the fire it eventually got worse and burned the entire school down, but put the blame on Trent (this was considered arson).
- Prostitution: In "Fat Camp", while promoting the "Krazy Kenny Show", Kenny was in a competition with Tom Green and Johnny Knoxville to see who would give Howard Stern a "hummer" for the least amount of money. Kenny was willing to go for $10, which forced Knoxville and Green to submit, and he was eventually arrested and jailed for prostitution, forcing a lookalike to do the final stunt (and, as a result, die) on the show.
- Framing/Blackmailing: In "Pre-School" Kenny along with the boys framed Trent for starting the fire (which he did), However Kenny, Stan, Kyle and Cartman are responsible for making the fire worse, which caused the school to burn down and gave Miss Claridge severe burns. In Cancelled, while in Planet Fognl, Kenny took a picture of the two head "Joozians" sucking on each other's "jagons" and sticking their fingers in each other's "thrushers", Kenny and the others later used it against them which saved the world so it would be forgivable.
- Pedophilia: In "The Biggest Douche in the Universe", during the ending Kenny takes full possession of Rob Schneider, While possessed he attempted to kiss Milly, which caused South Park civilians (unaware that he was being possessed) to think he's a pedophile. However, this action was shown in the form of a commercial, possibly indicating that this was in fact just a scene from a Rob Schneider Movie.
- Vigilantism: In "The Coon" (before his identity was revealed) he took the role of Mysterion. Later after defeating both Professor Chaos and General Disarray, with the help from the Coon (who was trying to get rid of Mysterion), Mysterion attempted to remove his mask since he can't risk putting people's lives in danger with every villain wondering who he is. After some deliberation, he reveals himself and gets arrested, much to the Coon's pleasure, despite people pleading with him not to. Although, this may have been Kyle Broflovski because in a deleted scene it is shown that Kyle pretended to be Mysterion so that the real Mysterion wouldn't get in trouble. He reappeared as Mysterion again in "Coon 2: Hindsight", "Mysterion Rises" (where his identity is revealed to the viewers), "Coon vs. Coon & Friends", and "The Poor Kid".
- Underage (Oral) Sex: In "The Ring", Kenny had oral sex with his girlfriend Tammy Warner after they stop wearing their purity rings in "The Ring".
- Fraud: In "Wing", Kenny, along with the rest of the boys attempted to scam Token out of his money, by pretending to be talent agents.
Deaths
- See also: Kenny's deaths and List of Kenny's deaths.
Kenny Dies in "Cartman Gets an Anal Probe".
Kenny McCormick is best known in the show for his recurring death in nearly every episode of the first five seasons, often followed by some variant of "Oh my God, they killed Kenny!" and "You bastards!" from his friends Stan and Kyle, respectively. The gag has many precedents, going back at least as far as the regular cry, "You rotten swine! You've deaded me!" by Bluebottle voiced by Peter Sellers in "The Goon Show" in 1951. In the first few episodes, Kyle said the entire phrase. Later on, it varied, depending on who killed Kenny. Kenny has died and come back over 103 times in the franchise (86 in the series, to date, two in the early animated shorts, six in other authorized TV parodies, six times in the video game, and twice in the movie).
Kenny struck by lightning in "Rainforest Shmainforest".
He is also killed nine different ways in the opening sequence. Kenny’s most recent death was in Season Fifteen episode, "The Poor Kid" when he is mauled by a Giant Reptilian Bird. Kenny died in almost all the episodes until the writers killed him off permanently in the fifth season, in "Kenny Dies", but he returned at the end of the next season's finale, "Red Sleigh Down", remarking that he's "just been over there" (pointing off screen). By the sixth season, Matt and Trey got rid of the practice of killing him in every episode; they got tired of the joke. The reason why Kenny died continuously was given in an interview with Matt Stone and Trey Parker, who stated vaguely that it was because Kenny is poor. Kenny is always resurrected for the next episode, although the explanations for his reappearance varied. In "Cartman Joins NAMBLA", it is explained that his soul returns to his mother, takes to another body, is reborn, and then grows to be 8 or 9 years old in record time (and somehow retaining physical appearance and memories), while another simply had Kenny magically reappearing out of thin air in the second part of the two-part episode "Cartman's Mom is a Dirty Slut" after he was run over by a train in the first. The most recent explanation comes from the episode "Mysterion Rises", in which Kenny himself reveals he is unable to stay dead and always wakes up in bed eventually, while nobody else remembers his death. However, in the next episode, "Coon vs. Coon & Friends", it is confirmed that, while he may wake up in his bed, it is indeed his mother that gives birth to him every time. Kenny's "immortality" may be connected with the Cult of Cthulhu, as Mrs. McCormick mutters under her breath, "I knew we should have never gone to those cult meetings."
None of the other characters seem to find this at all unusual. Stan merely greeted Kenny when he materialized, and no one else even blinked. Kenny himself is aware of the fact that he is constantly killed, expressing resentment over the fact that Stan was worried about Kyle's impending death while never mourning Kenny, and opting to take home economics classes over wood shop partly because he was afraid of getting killed by the dangerous power tools in the shop class, and cheering after realizing he had survived the episode "Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo". In his will in the episode "Best Friends Forever", Kenny says "In the highly likely event of my death..." In the episode "Mysterion Rises", he says to Hindsight "Nobody even remembers me dying. I go to school the next day, and everyone is just like, "Oh, hey Kenny." Even if they had seen me get decapitated with their own eyes." This would suggest that Kenny is fully aware of his deaths, but nobody else is. In "Mysterion Rises" and "Coon vs. Coon & Friends". Kenny points out that nobody can remember his deaths. He even shoots himself in the head after a desperate plea to his friends to try and remember this time, but they don't.
Kenny's funeral in "Sexual Healing".
Other characters occasionally seem to be vaguely aware of Kenny's deaths. In "Cartmanland", Kenny dies in Cartman's theme park, and when the lawyers suing him mention "that boy who died," Cartman replies with, "Who, Kenny? He dies all the time." It would seem that the others are also aware of Kenny's deaths, but are quite nonchalant about them since they know he will re-appear. Stan and Kyle say their "Oh my God, they killed Kenny!" lines like they don't care in the episode "Gnomes", in which the gnomes accidentally crush Kenny, and mourn over this tragedy, but are confused as to why the kids don't seem to care. In "Chef Goes Nanners", Kenny eats antacid tablets, thinking they're mints, and drinks some water afterwards. When Kenny explodes, the four boys and Kyle's dad laugh and applaud, and Stan even says, "That was a good one." And in "Fourth Grade" Kenny dies on a wheeled sled and Stan says "Well, who didn't see that coming." In other episodes, however, Kenny's death is sometimes taken more seriously for plot purposes, especially in "Kenny Dies", where it is considered a major dramatic event in the boys' lives. In "City on the Edge of Forever (Flashbacks)" Stan at one point reacts incredulously to the idea Kenny could have ever died more than once, and Cartman agrees that it "wouldn't make sense."
Kenny's death in "Sexual Healing".
Kenny survives a few episodes in the first five seasons:
- "Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo", Kenny is asked to do many life-threatening stage crew tasks, like plugging in a cord with a puddle of water underneath the outlet. He successfully performs the tasks without getting hurt or killed.
- "City on the Edge of Forever (Flashbacks)", which takes place entirely within Stan's dream. Kenny only dies within the dream and a false flashback that Cartman has in the dream. He is also seen alive after his “death” as the school bus falls off the cliff, shortly before the whole thing is revealed to be a dream.
- "Rainforest Shmainforest", when he is struck by lightning and then revived with CPR by his new girlfriend Kelly.
- The "Do the Handicapped Go to Hell?"/"Probably" two-parter, when he is run over by a bus in Part 1 and presumed dead. When the bus stops in Mexico in Part 2, he is scraped from underneath the bus by a Mexican man and found to still be alive, this being an error due to the fact his body was left behind after the bus hit him in Part 1.
- "Fat Camp", in which a kid from drug rehab who had previously been posing as Cartman is forced by Stan and Kyle to dress in Kenny's orange parka and climb into Ms. Crabtree's uterus as part of a television stunt. His dead body is later squeezed out, followed by the corpse of another kid resembling Harry Potter. Kenny was serving jail-time in New York after performing a sex act on Howard Stern for ten bucks during his live radio show at the time.
- "Terrance and Phillip: Behind the Blow" - Earth Day activists hack all of Kenny's limbs off, but he is not shown to die at any point in the episode.
- "Cripple Fight" - the hawk takes him, but he is seen in scouts later.
- "Starvin' Marvin in Space" - He is shown frozen in carbonite near the end of the episode. In the Star Wars movies, Han Solo is frozen in carbonite and is then revived to normal later on, since the freezing process is (usually) not fatal. This means that if South Park follows the Star Wars canon, Kenny could potentially be restored, although no such thing is done or talked about.
- "Chickenlover"- In this episode, he was almost killed 3 times, first by a car that two vandals roll over, resulting Stan to say "Oh my God, they killed-" until Kenny appears unharmed and Stan finishes with "Oh, never mind." Second time was when he was on a swing when Officer Barbrady stops swinging, resulting him to go flying and hitting himself on a brick wall. There, Stan again says "Oh my God, they killed-" and Kenny gets up fine. Again, Stan says "Oh, never mind." The third time was when Officer Barbrady catches the so-called Chickenlover (who turned out to be the Booktastic bus driver). The Chickenlover shoots his pistol, and then suddenly Kenny falls down. Stan again says "Oh my God, they killed-" but Kenny gets up. However, this time Stan seems to be a bit upset that Kenny didn't die, and says "Damnit!" But then, at the end, he dies because a tree falls on him.
In addition to escaping death in a few episodes, Kenny does not appear in the episodes "Terrance and Phillip in Not Without My Anus", "Cat Orgy", "Two Guys Naked in a Hot Tub", and "Pip" and therefore does not die in any of these episodes. However "Cat Orgy" and "Two Guys Naked in a Hot Tub" are all part of the same night as "Jewbilee", so technically he did die during those episodes.
Kenny has died only rarely during seasons seven through fourteen. Some "deaths" are not actual instances of Kenny dying, but are still accompanied by Stan and Kyle's remarks, such as when Kenny's character was killed in "Make Love, Not Warcraft". The most he has died since Season Seven was over the superhero arc - he dies once in "Mysterion Rises" and a further three times in "Coon vs. Coon & Friends".
The episode "Cripple Fight" suggests that Kenny's deaths are caused by his parka. When Timmy gives Jimmy a nearly identical parka, a series of unfortunate and fatal events repeatedly happen behind him (meaning they all miss him); a voice can even vaguely be heard screaming, "There's Kenny! Kill him!", but Jimmy does not even notice. On the other hand, in some episodes, Kenny dies without the parka, such as "The Jeffersons" when Mr. Jefferson tosses him up through the ceiling (thinking it was his son) and killing him.
Kenny seems to know about the catchphrase said after he dies ("Oh my God, they killed Kenny!"), as evidenced in Season One when he says the catchphrase himself (except with Dr. Alphonse Mephesto having been shot, rather than himself), with Kyle replying "You bastards!". In "Prehistoric Ice Man", Kenny calls Cartman a bastard after Stan says "Great job, Cartman, you killed Kyle." On a third occasion, Kenny used the catchphrase when Cartman is badly injured, but Stan points out that Cartman isn't dead.
In "Mysterion Rises", Kenny reveals that he has a superpower - he cannot die. He reveals this to Captain Hindsight, saying that he sometimes sees "a bright light", "Heaven", or "Hell". He also states that the worst part is that nobody remembers, even if they see him die. He considers this a curse, and tries to convince the others that it is true in "Coon vs. Coon & Friends". Nobody believes him though, and when it turns out that Bradley Biggle also had a power, he silently admits defeat and shoots himself in front of everyone. He is reborn instantaneously inside his mother's womb, who immediately deposits the new born baby in his bed, and he ages instantly into a 9 year old before morning.
Family Background
Kenny's family is one of the poorest families in South Park. Because Kenny's family is so poor, they eat frozen waffles with no side dishes for dinner and bread sandwiches for breakfast. In "Starvin' Marvin", Kenny won a can of green beans for his family, though they could not afford a can opener. In "Sexual Healing", Kenny's family ate microwave pizza. Cartman frequently exploits Kenny’s poverty by offering him money for performing strange or dangerous tasks. In "The List", Cartman frequently mentions that his family eats Pop-Tarts for dinner. This is actually proven at the end of the episode; Kenny and his family are all seen eating Pop-Tarts before a stray bullet kills Kenny at the dinner table. In "Best Friends Forever" it is shown that all of Kenny's possessions are kept in a small cardboard box. Though his family is extremely poor, his parents are known drug addicts and heavy drinkers. They drink so much that only a fairly large income would pay for it, which might explain the degree of poverty. In "Lil Crime Stoppers", it is suggested that the McCormicks make meth for a drug cartel and in "The Poor Kid", they are arrested for having a meth lab.
Despite his family’s poverty, Kenny always manages to stay current with trends in toys and video games, such as maintaining a World of Warcraft subscription (and a computer to play it on), being the first kid in South Park to get a PSP, or being able to buy Chinpokomon dolls as well being the only child in the town to have a Go Go Action Bronco, a battery-powered miniature car. Kenny might have gotten these items from the odd jobs and dares from his friends and neighbors since his parents spend all their money on drugs and alcohol and use what ever is left over on food.
First Appearance
Early versions of the character first appeared in Parker and Stone's two pre-South Park shorts, "The Spirit of Christmas" (1992 and 1995). In the first Spirit of Christmas short, the character resembling Kenny is unnamed, while the character resembling Cartman is named Kenny. The unnamed Kenny-like character also speaks unmuffled in the first short. Both of these characters get killed in the short. In the second Spirit of Christmas, a character with both Kenny's appearance and name appears and dies. Kenny's first South Park appearance within the series was alongside Kyle, Cartman and Stan in "Cartman Gets an Anal Probe".
Heroism
Despite these problems, Kenny is often portrayed as the hero of the group; indeed, many of his deaths have been acts of heroic self-sacrifice. Among others, he fixed the Hell's Pass Hospital backup generator by using himself to connect two wires (resulting in electrocution), and he once smashed a shell with his head to release Moses from captivity inside the shell (smashing his head in too). Arguably the most touching of these deaths was in South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, when he wishes for everything to be back to normal despite that he would knowingly go to hell in the process (he instead almost immediately ascended to Heaven, where he was gifted with a Halo, wings, and thirty or so busty, naked women. Apparently one saving the earth from eternal damnation causes God to overlook one not being a Mormon.) His ascension also marked the first, and to date only time his entire face has been seen (in other instances he has some form of cover, such as a baseball cap or a snorkel mask) and the first time his voice could be heard clearly. In "Best Friends Forever", Kenny used the Golden PSP to defeat the hellbourne army of Satan.
The most shining example of his heroism, however, is his role as Mysterion, a hero who defends the town from evil forces including Professor Chaos and the Coon. First appearing in "The Coon" with an unclear identity and returning in "Coon 2: Hindsight" Mysterion is shown to be a resourceful and intelligent hero with a strong sense of morals and justice - however his identity remained unknown until "Mysterion Rises" during which Mysterion opens the episode with a monologue mentioning having a power - Mysterion is later revealed to have been Kenny the entire time, and his super power being his inability to die. It is at this point that Kenny begins taking upon the role of reluctant hero; though his loyal characteristics and sense of morality are strong, his increasing frustration becomes apparent when he confronts his friends for not remembering his many deaths.
He spends most of "Coon vs. Coon & Friends" trying to come to terms with his powers, and at the end he begs Cthulhu to bring back the other Coon Friends making the ultimate sacrifice by offering himself up, noting "only an immortal can kill another immortal", meaning if Cthulhu killed Mysterion, he would not be reborn.
In "The Poor Kid", Kenny returns as Mysterion to protect his sister, Karen. He defended her against a school bully and got his foster parents arrested before they were able to hose his sister down with Doctor Pepper.
When the boys decide to attack the robbers in "A Nightmare on Face Time", Kenny is the one who gives instructions to Kyle, Stan, and Cartman on how to ambush the intruders.
Language
It is implied in "Quintuplets 2000" that Kenny speaks fluent Romanian and a bit of Spanish in "W.T.F.".
References in Other Media
- In the book South Park and Philosophy: Bigger, Longer, and More Penetrating, there is an article about Kenny, by Southern Illinois University philosophy professor Dr. Randall Auxier, entitled: "Killing Kenny: Our Daily Dose of Death."[8]
- In Episode 3 of the anime FLCL, there is a scene best seen via freeze frame in which a car ornament in the likeness of Kenny can be seen impaled through the head with an arrow.
- On the Disney Chanel show "Jessie", One of the main characters, Luke's, stuffed animal, "Kenny the Koala", is decapitated, causing Luke to reply "They killed Kenny" in tears
- In his 2007 television special Jeff Dunham: Spark of Insanity, ventriloquist comedian Jeff Dunham and his puppet Walter remarked while looking into the camera, "This is Comedy Central! I can see Cartman. I can see Kenny. Oh, he just got killed."
- The rapper Master P released a single in 1998 entitled "Kenny's Dead" as part of the Chef Aid album.
- Kenny's deaths and the "Oh my God! They killed Kenny!" catchphrase is well known in popular culture, and has appeared on various pieces of merchandise, from T-shirts to guitar straps (like the one used by The Police guitarist Andy Summers).
- In an episode of Celebrity Deathmatch, Flea (Red Hot Chili Peppers) vs Kenny G, when Kenny G dies Nick Diamond cries out "Oh my god! Flea Killed Kenny G! Flea killed Kenny G!" Then a child that is modeled like a kid from South Park calls out "You Bastards!"
- The golden Spacesuits in Danny Boyle's Sunshine (2007) are influenced by Kenny's trademarked Parka
- In volume 3 of the Shrine of the Morning Mist manga, one of the posters shown in Yuzu Hieda's room is that of Kenny McCormick. In episode 5 of FLCL, Lieutenant Kitsurubami's has a Kenny McCormick key chain and when Naota is having an awkward conversation with Mamimi, his appearance changes to resemble Kenny and talks with his voice muffled.
- In the game Fallout, there is a man named Deputy Kenny, and when killed it says on his computer screen "Oh my god, you killed Kenny."
- In the Fallout 3 DLC Point Lookout, there is a boy by the name of Kenny, who was raised by swamp-folk and skilled with setting traps, referencing the fact that he was poor and skilled with weapons. Also he whistles part of the South Park intro song.
- In the Fallout 3 DLC Operation Anchorage, a soldier named McKormick (intentionally misspelled) is shot in the head, with the nearby soldier saying "Oh my God, they killed McKormick! You gotta kill those bastards."
- In the popular MMOFPS 'Battleground Europe' when you type in the .wtf command one of the responses can be 'Maybe they were aiming for KenneY.' The misspelling is deliberate.
- In the 2007 The Police reunion tour, the guitar strap used by Andy Summers features Kenny being electrocuted (the words "Oh My God! They killed Kenny!" can be read on the strap).
- The Mezco Toyz series 1 toyline for South Park came with a "dead head", an arm that when split in half would reveal one of his bones, and 4 rats as a reference to how rats use to pick a part his dead corpse.
- In the audience participation for The Bawdy Castes live show of "Rocky Horror Picture Show", the audience is expected to exclaim "Oh my god, you killed Kenya!" when a character places his finger on the country of Kenya on a globe dramatically.
- In the video game Skate 3, you can unlock a board with a character who looks strangely like Kenny.
- The rapper Eminem referenced Kenny, along with the city of South Park, in the song "W.T.P" and the song "Untitled" from of his album Recovery.
- In the song "Colorado Girls" Kenny is mentioned in one of the verses, where he is also killed in the music video.
- On the popular TV show Reno:911 the phrase "Oh my God! They killed Kenny! You bastards!" can be heard being said by Stan and Kyle during the episode Junior brothers (Season Four, Episode Two) while one of the officers off duty is flipping through channels. The officer humorously says "hell ya" after they say this.
- Russian nü metal band Slot has a song titled "Они убили Кенни" (meaning "they killed Kenny").
- Team Fortress 2's Pyro may be a reference to some of Kenny's mannerisms, notably his muffled, semi-comprehensible speech, skill with weapons, and although a trait shared with other classes in the game, the Pyro, like Kenny, constantly dies and is resurrected.
- Memphis rapper Project Pat, in his song "Gold Shine", references Kenny in the lyrics: "From Good Times to South Park, You can die like Kenny".
Sexual Habits
Kenny is the most recognizable in South Park as being very knowledgeable with the subject of sex. Indeed, he is depicted as being obsessive with the female body. In "A Ladder to Heaven" Kenny's memories include his father asking him if he's been looking at his porn magazines and his father holding up a picture of a scantily clad woman with the crotch cut out. In the episode "Major Boobage", the majority of the episode Kenny is trying to see the boob lady by getting high. In other episodes, you can see in Kenny's room a poster of a lady in a bikini. In "Osama bin Laden Has Farty Pants" he is seen with porno magazines in his schoolbag.
Talents
Kenny is shown to be one of the more intelligent characters later on in the series; along with Kyle, Stan, Jimmy, and Token. Kenny also seems to be good at Origami when you usually see him in his desk messing around with paper.
Weaponry
Kenny is shown to be the best with weaponry in the group. Although Cartman uses them more he is unskilled with them. In "Volcano", he blows up the fish with a grenade in the lake and shoots a ram down with a shotgun. He also shows skill with a shuriken and hits right on target in "Good Times with Weapons". Kenny is shown in "Towelie" to be able to do a backflip when they sneak into the "military base", while climbing the fence. He was able to obtain a sniper rifle in "Poor and Stupid", but it got confiscated by a security guard. In that episode he managed to jump onto a speeding NASCAR (National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing) race car. As Mysterion, Kenny takes the gun from Captain Hindsight and uses it effectively against himself twice, loading it in the process, showing knowledge of that weapon. In "Major Boobage" Kenny is able to perfectly throw a spear through a monster's throat (but it could be something else since he's cheesing). He seems to know a lot about explosives as he's about to disable Timmy's wheelchair bomb but he dies and he and Cartman set a bomb to blow up the "future telling device," which causes a massive explosion.
Voice
Out of all the boys, Kenny has the highest voice pitch (aside from when acting as Mysterion). His speech is muffled, so that it is often difficult to hear what he says, although closed captions sometimes verify his lines. In later episodes, his lines have become somewhat more intelligible. An example of this is in the episode "Chinpokomon", where he appears to say "Fuck you" to Cartman after he attempted to trade another Chinpokomon for Kenny's Penguin. He says the same thing to Kyle in "Chef Goes Nanners" upon being told he can't just have mints (which are really antacid tablets) for dinner, although interpretation of what he said was helped by the fact he was flipping Kyle off at the time.
His unique muffled voice is accomplished by his voice actor Matt Stone, speaking into his cupped hand. He speaks clearly and without his hood in South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, "The Jeffersons", "Lice Capades", and "Mysterion Rises" with proper, unmuffled lines. In "The Losing Edge", when he is seen in his baseball uniform, he is heard cheering when the team wins in the beginning of the episode. In "The Tooth Fairy Tats 2000", when he is literally pulled out of his parka in an attempt to have one of his baby teeth pulled out, he lands completely nude in front of Cartman and is heard groaning. Kenny is shown without his hood in "Lil' Crime Stoppers", "The Losing Edge", "Good Times with Weapons", "Lice Capades", "The Jeffersons", "Super Best Friends", "Margaritaville", South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, "W.T.F.", "Pee", "Sexual Healing", "Coon vs. Coon & Friends" (as a newborn), "You're Getting Old", "Broadway Bro Down" and "Sarcastaball" (briefly during the lockeroom scene). In the film, Kenny's voice unhooded is performed by Mike Judge, creator of "Beavis and Butt-head" and "King of the Hill". In "The Jeffersons" and "Lice Capades", Kenny's unmuffled voice was performed by Eric Stough, a former Director of Animation at South Park Studios and a now-producer of the show, making it sound more high-pitched than it did in the movie in the former, and in the latter deeper. When dressed as Iron Man in "A Nightmare on Face Time", Kenny is voiced by Matt Stone who can be clearly heard but is slightly masked by a voice changer. He sounds like Kyle but in a higher voice. In the original Christmas short, his mouth is visible and he has an unmuffled line ("Yeah!") which sounds slightly nasally (a bit like Craig or Clyde).
Despite that his mouth is rarely shown and covered by his orange parka, he vomits in "Major Boobage" and his mouth is clearly seen, though it disappears when he finishes vomiting. In the episode "Pinkeye", when Kenny (as a zombie) attacks a lady giving the boys candy, you can see his mouth as he starts to eat her. Also in the episode "Fat Camp", when Kenny is paid to eat all kinds of disgusting things for money, you can clearly see his mouth as he eats a dissected Manatee spleen in class.
He was revealed to be Mysterion, so in "The Coon", "Coon 2: Hindsight", "Mysterion Rises" and "Coon vs. Coon & Friends", you can hear his voice clearly, though he disguises it with a deep tone. In one scene in "Mysterion Rises", Kenny's voice is heard unmuffled, provided by Eric Stough as listed in the end credits, and it sounds closer to South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut than the previous episodes. In "Coon vs. Coon & Friends" when Mysterion confronts Cartman, his voice wavers, although it is debatable whether he's dropped the disguise or has simply let his guard down partially due to emotional impact is unknown. Kenny has the unusual ability to modify his normally high-pitched voice to a very deep one as Mysterion.
Appearance
Kenny wears an orange parka, orange pants and brown gloves. Almost all of the time, Kenny has his hood on so that only his eyes are seen. Underneath his hood, he has messy blond hair, which looks somewhat similar to that of Tweek's, another character on the show. On occasion, usually when he is scared or crying, he will pull the strings on his hood to make it tighten, although he did this once after Cartman had farted in an unventilated space on an airplane ("Osama bin Laden Has Farty Pants"). In "South Park is Gay!", Kenny has a parka that is light purple with a part of his hair coming out of the hood, black pants, and brown boots with a black stripe down them. Later in the episode, he buys another parka that is pink and fluffy.
He is shown at times to have almost nothing on underneath his parka, as seen in the episodes "The Tooth Fairy Tats 2000", the film, "Lil' Crime Stoppers", and "Lice Capades", though mostly he does have a white T-shirt on. Kenny is shown to have blue eyes in the episode "Starvin' Marvin", in which a mutant turkey pulls out his eye and in a close-up, a blue iris is momentarily visible. In Good Times With Weapons, in anime style Kenny's eyes shows his iris which are blue. However, in an early draft for South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, Kenny is described as having hazel eyes. In the film and "A Very Crappy Christmas", it is shown that Kenny sleeps in his underwear, making him the only one of the boys who does so (Kyle, Cartman, Stan, and Butters all wear pajamas, and Tweek Tweak rarely sleeps and thus has no pajamas, except in "Child Abduction is Not Funny"). However, in other episodes, he is shown sleeping in his parka. It would seem that his parka was made from pieces of his bedroom curtains, because in the episode "Quintuplets 2000", when we see Kenny practicing opera singing, we see his curtains in the background. They are of orange material, and a huge part of one is missing.
After South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, he can be seen unhooded in several episodes, although, in the episode "Super Best Friends", when Stan finds Kenny drowned in a pool, he has a bald fade due to every kid having shaved their heads earlier in the episode, making him indistinguishable from the others (minus Cartman). In "Margaritaville", when the boys are playing with squirrels, Kenny is shown wearing part of his "toga" (a bedcloth) over his face, mimicking how his parka covers his face. More parts of his face—and his hair—are still visible, such as in "W.T.F.", when he is in his wrestling outfit, he wears headgear that covers most of his face; in the same episode, when playing his wrestling alter-ego El Pollo Loco (a parody of Mexican wrestler Rey Mysterio), he wears a mask that also covers most of his face. In "The Losing Edge", he wears a baseball cap that covers up a little of his right eye and forehead (as well as a jersey with the number 13). In "You're Getting Old" Kenny is also seen without his hood,and unlike other times his face is clearly shown in a side view. In "Broadway Bro Down", Kenny is in his bathing suit with his face clearly shown.
In the original Christmas short, he looks generally the same, but he wears green mittens and has a red scarf. His mouth is visible and his voice is intelligible (it sounds a little like Craig's or Clyde's). He only has one line, though.
A photo-realistic version of Kenny's appearance was produced as a police artist sketch for the episode "Free Willzyx", showing his nose.
- To see images of Kenny McCormick, visit Kenny McCormick/Gallery.
- To see a gallery of Kenny's deaths, visit Kenny McCormick/Gallery of Deaths.
Personality
Kenny On Facebook
Kenny is the most sexually knowledgeable and experienced of the group. In earlier episodes, when an unknown term is introduced to Stan, Kyle and Cartman, Kenny will be called upon by his friends to clarify, although Kenny sometimes does not know the meaning of the term himself. His muffled responses are often met with laughter or further confusion.
In "The Ring", upon finding out that his girlfriend Tammy Warner gave another boy a "B.J." (oral sex) in a T.G.I. Friday's parking lot, he pursued that wish throughout the episode and eventually got his wish, though he subsequently died of syphilis. In "Fat Camp", he gave Howard Stern a "hummer" (also oral sex) for ten bucks while promoting his Krazy Kenny Show.
His sexual knowledge may be gleaned from his parents, or from the pornography which Kenny possesses in "Osama bin Laden Has Farty Pants". He often performs disgusting acts for money, such as dissecting a Manatee and eating its spleen, then regurgitating it and eating it again ("Fat Camp"). He also drinks from Jimbo's gas tank in "Volcano". In "Roger Ebert Should Lay Off the Fatty Foods" he creates a haiku:
When you rub your dick
You might find a discharge that
Winds up on the floor
Although he is something of a silent protagonist, Kenny still seems to be very empathetic when it comes to his friends. In "Do the Handicapped Go to Hell?", he is quick to show worry about the prospect of Timmy going to hell. In "Best Friends Forever", Kenny's will states that Cartman will receive his PSP because he feels sorry for him. Kenny also alludes to his many deaths and his friends' attitude towards them in "Cherokee Hair Tampons", when he gets angry at Stan for crying over Kyle's impending death and not recognizing Kenny's at all - this idea revisited in "Coon vs. Coon & Friends" when nobody realizes he dies a lot. Kenny is ultimately revealed to be a heroic character in "South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut", when he saves the world by sacrificing himself. Despite his perverted sense of humor, cynicism, and profanity, he is often depicted as heroic, kind, and smart.
Kenny is also shown to be very loyal to his friends, even when he is insulted or ridiculed. In the episode "Jewbilee", Kyle betrays Kenny by ratting him out to the elders. Afterwards, Kenny ends up saving everyone by sacrificing himself. In the early seasons, Cartman consistently insults Kenny for being poor and constantly reminds him how much he hates him. In "The Biggest Douche in the Universe" - in which Cartman is possessed by the late Kenny - Kenny is shown to be a fan of Rob Schneider. When Cartman refuses to watch Schneider, Kenny's soul keeps trying to get him to change the channel back.
Kenny normally appears blank-faced as a result of his parka hood, but he does get visibly emotional from time to time. In "Poor and Stupid" Kenny got mad enough at Cartman, who had been ruining NASCAR's reputation, to try and kill him with a sniper rifle. In "Coon vs. Coon & Friends" he comes very close to hitting Kyle when he says that not being able to die would be pretty cool (Kenny actually thinks it "fucking hurts"), then again later when Cartman fails to grasp the concept of being a hero. In "The Death of Eric Cartman", Kenny breaks down crying (similarly to how Clyde sometimes does) after Cartman eats all the skin out of a KFC bucket meal - afterwards, he joined Stan and Kyle, and eventually the whole of the 4th grade class, in ignoring Cartman - even though Cartman tried to redeem himself, their friendship never fully recovered.
In the episode "Major Boobage", Kenny has had more lines and has played a bigger role; since then, "The Ring" and "Poor and Stupid" are episodes that have focused on Kenny. In "Mysterion Rises", he was also revealed to be the "secret identity" Mysterion, a child superhero that first appeared in "The Coon" (this means that technically, "Mysterion Rises" and "Coon vs. Coon & Friends" have also focused on Kenny).
Kenny is also known to have the most vile mouth in the group, as he mostly swears heavily in his dialogue. He also does not take any guff from Cartman - while he used to be Cartman's "underling", that role has been taken over by Butters. Kenny has many interests: in the episode "Pandemic", Kenny has an interest in Peruvian music; in "Poor and Stupid", he is shown to be a rather large fan of NASCAR racing, but is offended by Cartman's behavior throughout the episode regarding NASCAR, even going as far as to try and kill him. He is also a fan of monster trucks, as evidenced by a 4x4 poster of a monster truck hanging in his room on some occasions. He is also a righty, as he usually holds writing utensils in his right hand.
Since the episode "Mysterion Rises", Kenny has become apathetic towards his inability to die. After so many deaths - both quick and painful - he views his demise as no more than an inconvenience - an excruciating and agonizing one, but still extremely annoying. His apathy even grew to the point where, rather than walk home from Cartman's house at the end of "Coon vs. Coon & Friends", he shoots himself in the head so that he will appear there instantly.
Powers and Abilities
Acting
Kenny dressed up as a pregnant underage girl to get morning-after abortion pills (though the only thing he wore was a long, blond wig) in "Cartman Joins NAMBLA". He dressed up and posed as Michael Jackson's son in "The Jeffersons" as Blanket Jackson. He also acted in the episode "W.T.F." as a wrestler. He was also part of the South Park Elementary school Christmas play in "Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo".
Balance
In "How to Eat with Your Butt", Kenny demonstrates his ability to stay perfectly balanced by doing a hand - stand for several minutes, with the constriction of his clothing on Him, never falling or swaying.
Computer Skills
In "Christian Rock Hard" he teaches Stan and Kyle how to download music free of charge off the Internet. He also helped along in "Make Love, Not Warcraft". In the "The Ungroundable", Kenny was seen playing Call of Duty: World at War with all of the other children. He also had a laptop from One Laptop per Child in "You Have 0 Friends".
Fighting
Kenny has fought on a few occasions and is most likely the most physically active out of all the boys. He holds the ability to perform his "Spin Blossom Nut Squash" on command, as seen in "The Return of Chef" . He is also able to throw shurikens correctly, as demonstrated by hitting Butters directly in the eye with one in "Good Times with Weapons". He occasionally gets into physical confrontations with Cartman due to Cartman's abusive nature (especially in early seasons). While Cartman overpowered him by sitting on him and farting in "Clubhouses", Kenny was able to easily beat him when he tried to stop Stan and Kyle from entering the Wall-Mart with a dagger. It is also shown in many other episodes he has rather good accuracy with long range objects. Disregarding the deleted ending to The Coon, he is easily able to hold off Butters and Dougie singlehandedly, although in both his encounter with Cartman and his encounter with Professor Chaos, his main strategy seemed to consist of simply hitting his opponent until they gave up. When the deleted ending is taken into account, this is Kyle's fighting strategy. It also worthy to note that both Cartman and Butters have repeatedly been shown to be physically weak. He is shown to have great climbing skill in that episode, which is again displayed in "1%". In "The Poor Kid", Kenny, as Mysterion, effortlessly beat up a bully who was picking on his sister, Karen; first he kicks her with enough force to send her into the air, does spinning kick into her head, then punches her in the head, causing her to fall on the ground.
Gaming
Kenny is shown to have a large mastery of strategic video gaming in "Best Friends Forever", reaching Level 60 in the Game "Heaven vs. Hell", and was known by the angels as the Heaven's equivalent of Keanu Reeves (Neo or Constantine). In "Make Love, Not Warcraft" he is a human hunter in the game World of Warcraft (a race/class combination not actually possible in the game until the release of the Cataclysm expansion four years after the episode). In "Towelie", he plays the 2001 Okama Gamesphere with the other boys until his death, at which time Towelie takes his place. In the "Chinpokomon" episode, he suffers a non-fatal seizure while playing a game about bombing Pearl Harbor. Also in "Whale Whores" he plays the drums in Rock Band, playing the song "Poker Face" by Lady Gaga, with Kyle on the guitar and Cartman on the vocals. Also, in the episode "Sexual Healing" he is playing EA Sports Tiger Wood PGA Tour '11 on the Xbox 360 with Cartman and appears to be winning.
Immortality
Kenny is unable to die. In "Mysterion Rises", he remarks on how many times he has died, but instead of dying permanently, he ends up waking up in his bed, alive. He is troubled by the fact that no one remembers his deaths. He views his "power" as a curse. However, Cartman once stated that he dies all the time in "Cartmanland", which indicates that Cartman is the only one to remember Kenny's deaths, but, presumably due to his selfish nature, refuses to acknowledge them unless it would somehow benefit him. Also, in "Fourth Grade", Stan remarks "Who didn't see that coming?", indicating that he also knows.
Music
Kenny appears to be very musically talented. After taking opera voice lessons in "Quintuplets 2000", Kenny is shown to be very good at singing. He uses this talent to travel to Romania where he performs for money. He is also a good drummer as seen in "Christian Rock Hard" and "The Red Badge of Gayness" (also playing drums on Rock Band in "Whale Whores") and plays violin as seen in "Summer Sucks." He can also sing and dance at the same time, extremely evident in "Rainforest Shmainforest", "Something You Can Do with Your Finger" and "Elementary School Musical". Also in "The Red Badge of Gayness," it is shown that he can play the flute as well. He, along with the rest of the fourth grade (third grade at the time), is shown to have (questionable) talent with the recorder as seen in "World Wide Recorder Concert". In a pan flute band he can play the Zampona and he is seen with a trumpet at the end when they think of starting a salsa band.
Sports
He played football in the Season One episode, "Big Gay Al's Big Gay Boat Ride", was part of the dodgeball team in the Season Two episode, "Conjoined Fetus Lady", and played Center Field on the baseball team in the Season Nine episode, "The Losing Edge". In "The Losing Edge" and "Big Gay Al's Big Gay Boat Ride", the number on the back of his shirt is the number 13, a joke on how Kenny is unlucky due to being in poverty and dying all the time. In "Conjoined Fetus Lady", his number is 69, a reference to his perverted sense of humor. Kenny can also play tetherball, but ended up getting strangled by it in "Mecha-Streisand". In "Poor and Stupid" Kenny is shown to love NASCAR. He has also played basketball with Cartman, Stan, and Kyle.
Family
Stuart McCormick
Stuart McCormick is Kenny's alcoholic father. He is usually seen hanging out with the other men in South Park and sometimes arguing, or physically fighting, with his wife. Stuart's alcoholism is probably why the McCormick family is so far into poverty. Kenny is shown to not care when Stuart and Kevin are fighting, merely watching television with a bored look.
Mrs. McCormick
Mrs. McCormick is Kenny's young mother. She is said to have had Kenny when she was only 16 years old which would imply that she had Kevin when she was 13 or 14 years old. In "Cartman Joins NAMBLA", it is shown that after Kenny dies, his soul returns to her, takes to another body and is reborn. Similarly, in the last episode of the Mysterion Trilogy, Kenny is literally reborn, however this time it is left open that Kenny's immortality is due to his parents worshiping Cthulhu. She says in "Coon vs. Coon & Friends", "We never should have gone to those stupid cult meetings.", meaning she is probably tired of having to give birth to Kenny over and over again.
Kevin McCormick
Kevin McCormick is Kenny's older brother. He is very untidy in appearance. He hasn't had very many speaking lines, but when he does speak, he seems to repeat much of what he says. His voice sounds similar to those of Terrance Mephesto, Bill, and Fosse, but he must get the accent from his mom. He's seen with a few band aids on his face. Kenny is shown to not care when Kevin and Stuart are fighting, merely watching television with a bored look.
Karen McCormick
Karen McCormick is Kenny's reclusive younger sister. She first appeared in "Best Friends Forever", when she and the rest of the McCormicks visited Kenny in the hospital. Kenny is shown to care a lot for his little sister, even going so far as to dress up as his alter ego Mysterion to comfort her and show her that she is never alone, as well as beating up Jessica Pinkerton for attempting to bully Karen.
Grandfather
See "Fat Camp" for details
Kenny's grandfather didn't have any speaking lines but he appeared in "Fat Camp" when Kenny, as a stunt on the 'Krazy Kenny Show', gave him a full-body massage on live television. He has never been mentioned or appeared on any other episode. It is unknown if this was his paternal or maternal grandfather.
Relationships
Kenny is a friendly person in general, often seen interacting with other boys in background scenes. He is one of the leaders of the male student population, along with the rest of the boys. Despite his obsession with sex, he seems to have a decent relationship with girls. He was shown to be successful in maintaining a serious relationship with two girls in "Rainforest Shmainforest" as well as "The Ring".
Craig Tucker
Even though Kenny usually rivals against Craig and his friends along with Stan, Kyle and Cartman, they all seem to still get along with him for the most part when the two groups aren't in disagreement. They can all been seen playing and working together in episodes like "Free Willzyx" and "Guitar Queer-O". Craig and Kenny chose to be partners in "Super Fun Time". Craig even allowed Kenny to join him in making his "Animals Close-Up With a Wide-Angle Lens" video when Cartman wouldn't let Kenny join their report team in "Quest for Ratings". This is explained by the fact that Kenny is hooded all the time - being a news reporter, he would have had to show his face and have a really nice hairstyle. The given reason, though, is that Cartman thinks Kenny doesn't watch the news because he's poor. However, in episodes like "Pandemic 2: The Startling", Kenny has shown dislike for Craig by saying that he doesn't like him, though it could have merely been out of frustration that Craig refused help them again.
Milly
In the episode "The Biggest Douche in the Universe", Rob Schneider was possessed by Kenny, after eating a meat loaf that Kenny's soul was trapped inside. Then, during a commercial for a Rob Schneider movie coming out, he was seen trying to kiss Milly which may conclude that Kenny had a crush on her. Also in the episode Something You Can Do with Your Finger, Kenny chose Milly to rub and hug him for their music video.
Eric Cartman
Cartman generally seems to tolerate Kenny, although he regards him as being lesser than him because he is poor, and can even at times be seen to treat Kenny as sort of a general laborer/servant, he is also very abusive, both physically and verbally. Cartman does appear to consider Kenny as his best friend out of the other three boys, although he is not above exaggerating the depth of their friendship in order to achieve or obtain something he wants, usually after Kenny dies or is incapacitated, such as in the episode "Best Friends Forever". In the same episode, Kenny described his general attitude toward his friendship with Cartman as his feeling sorry for him, because everyone else hates him. However, it is also shown that the two share a "best friends forever" necklace (hence the title of the episode). However it is implied that Cartman managed to sneak the necklace onto Kenny's neck in order to prove to everyone that he and Kenny were indeed best friends. It is seen that some times when something beneficial happens to the town, Cartman and Kenny are seen hugging, such as in the episodes "Red Man's Greed" and "The F Word". In the episode "Kenny Dies", Kenny agrees with Cartman's assessment that the two are best friends, as Kyle and Stan are. However, this is refuted in the episode "Best Friends Forever," in which Kenny had written in his will that Stan and Kyle were his best friends and he never really liked Eric Cartman. All things considered, their "best" friendship seems to end as of "The Death of Eric Cartman".
Kenny will go along with Cartman if he talks about something he agrees on (such as the time he giggled uncontrollably when Cartman farted in Kyle's face in "Cancelled"), or Kyle and Stan if he gets really annoyed by Cartman's attitude. Although muffled, Kenny has often called Cartman by his first name "Eric", such as in "Probably", when he calls Cartman on the phone from Mexico and later when Jesus sends Cartman to Mexico as punishment. On occasion, he is known to punch Cartman when Cartman rips on him for being poor, and Cartman has been shown beating up Kenny when Kenny refuses to go along with his ideas. (particular in the early seasons). In fact, in "Cartmanland", Kenny was invited to go to Cartman's theme park, when Kyle and Stan couldn't come (although Kyle and Stan had tried to break in while Cartman had it closed off). Cartman has shown to get angry and defensive after Kenny has died, while Stan and Kyle take it like it's nothing and have sometimes used it to get what they want (such as asking for ice cream with butterscotch in "Cartman's Mom Is a Dirty Slut"). He also seemed to be aware of Kenny dying in "Cartmanland", but in "Mysterion Rises" Kenny said nobody noticed.
Kenny has also been known to detest or mock Cartman on occasion, such as when Cartman degraded NASCAR fans by crashing a stolen car into a lake in Poor and Stupid - Kenny stormed down to Cartman's house to yell at him (nearly destroying the door in the process) - he was even prepared to kill Cartman in defense of NASCAR's reputation. He also laughed when Kyle and Stan abandoned Cartman for cheating at a war game when he yelled "I can play with myself all day!" in "Clubhouses". In "Jakovasaurs", Kenny got mad at Cartman again when he started claiming he hated Kenny. He then tried to distract Cartman by pretending to be a new species of antelope (so that the Jakovasaurs could be smuggled to France), but instead got mauled by a bear.
It should be noted that although his voice is muffled, Kenny can be heard using Cartman's first name, "Eric", on occasion (such as in "Probably"), making him the only one out of Cartman's primary three friends to do so. However, in "Chickenlover" and more recent episodes, Kenny called Cartman by his surname when Cartman was at his house.
It should also be noted that Kenny's alternate identity, Mysterion, and Eric's, the Coon, appear to have a rivalry (mostly because Mysterion doesn't let the Coon push him around). This can be seen in the episodes "The Coon", "Coon 2: Hindsight", "Mysterion Rises" and "Coon vs. Coon & Friends". In particular, Mysterion kept the group name "Coon and Friends" after Cartman was kicked out because it pissed Cartman off beyond belief, and he found it "extremely funny".
While not shown in as much detail as Kyle and Cartman's newfound friendship, with the boys ending their friendship with a pessimistic Stan in You're Getting Old, he also seems to be developing a better one with Cartman.
Cartman is the only character to be aware of Kenny's constant dying, saying "He dies all the time!" in "Cartmanland". In "City on the Edge of Forever (Flashbacks)" he told a story while they were stranded on the bus about Kenny dying before he was killed by a giant black monster. Kyle points out that Kenny dying before would have been impossible because "he can't die twice". This would mean he is immune to the psychic effect that Kenny's deaths have on others. By extension, this may mean Cartman has immunity to mind control or other psychological effects.
Stan Marsh
Although Kenny and Stan don't seem to share the same bond that Stan and Kyle do, Stan does seem to think of Kenny as a close friend. In "Kenny Dies", out of the 3 boys, Stan has the hardest time dealing with Kenny dying, and can't even bear to see him in the hospital. When Stan finally realizes that Kenny passed on "for good", he feels like he's Kenny's worst friend (until they hear about Cartman's selfishness). The two boys often hang out with one another when Cartman and Kyle get into their arguments and Stan and Kenny don't want to listen to it, such as in "The Passion of the Jew". In "Best Friends Forever", Stan and Kyle fight against Cartman to not have Kenny's feeding tube removed to save Kenny's life.
However, in "Cherokee Hair Tampons", when all hope seems lost to save Kyle and Stan breaks down crying in front of Kenny because of Kyle's impending death, he doesn't seem to care or even acknowledge the fact that Kenny dies all the time. This angers Kenny and makes him leave Stan to go home after using Cartman's catchphrase "Screw you guys I'm going home!" - which in turn causes his death by walking under a falling piano, and even then Stan still fails to notice or care.
During the first five seasons, Stan would merely say, "Oh my God, they killed Kenny!", after one of Kenny's classic deaths, and then he wouldn't acknowledge him again after that.
Like Cartman and Kyle, Kenny is at first only annoyed with Stan in You're Getting Old, with his constant complaining and buzzkilling. Unfortunately, when Stan gets worse and becomes unbearable to be with, he first ditches him and then, along with Cartman and Kyle, breaks off their friendship until the conflict is resolved in Ass Burgers.
Kyle Broflovski
Kenny and Kyle's relationship doesn't seem to be as strong as it is with the other boys. Kyle doesn't seem to really even notice Kenny a lot of the time. There is even a time in the episode "Chickenpox" when Kyle says that Kenny isn't his friend (this could be to get out of going to his house).
Though along with Stan, Kyle's shown his definite concern for Kenny and does view him as a very close friend, they rarely interact one-on-one. In "Best Friends Forever", Kenny gives all of his belongings (excluding his PSP) to Stan and Kyle, and Stan and Kyle fight very hard to save their friend from Cartman and his supporters. He also invites Kenny to his birthday party in "Casa Bonita". Kenny often sides with Kyle on many issues, even over Cartman, like in "Douche and Turd", where Kenny supports Kyle's mascot instead of Cartman's. Also in "Jewbilee" Kyle asked Kenny to come to Jew Scouts so that it would be fun.
Despite the neglect, Kenny has been shown to bear feelings of friendship towards Kyle, even to the point of trying to convince him of his own power as Mysterion to the point of shooting himself in front of him and Stan, much to their surprise and his later dismay when neither of them remember. Kenny also thinks Kyle is the smartest kid in his class, asking him for help in "The Coon" for that reason.
In the first five seasons and sporadically afterward, whenever Kenny dies, Kyle follows with "You bastards!" after Stan yells, "Oh my God, they killed Kenny!"
Butters Stotch
After the episode, "Kenny Dies", and after Kenny's comeback in Season Six ending, he seems to have less of a major role (until Season Eleven), sharing with Butters. The episode "Kenny Dies", where Butters drew a picture of him and Kenny (as best friends) together in an airplane in which Kyle delivered to Kenny at the hospital, indicates that Butters sees Kenny as a really close friend. Kenny played the "good cop" and comforted Butters in "Lil' Crime Stoppers", and Butters tried to help Kenny during "Major Boobage". The two were also playing together in a sandbox in the episode "Eek, A Penis!". Butters took Kenny's place when Kenny died, possibly hinting that Butters deeply missed Kenny (instead of simply wanting to hang out with the other boys). In "Guitar Queer-O", Kenny and Butters can be seen hugging when Stan and Kyle break 1,000,000 points on Guitar Hero, and they hi-five each other after Willzyx is returned to the ocean in "Free Willzyx". Also, in "The Ring", Butters seemed quite alarmed when he discovered Kenny had a new "whore" girlfriend. Kenny can also be seen shaking Butters' hand after kissing Sally in "Butters' Bottom Bitch". In "Going Native" Butters considers Kenny his only true friend and allows him to go to Hawaii with him, against his initial protest.
Kelly
Kenny briefly had a girlfriend named Kelly in "Rainforest Shmainforest" (she was first to admit her feelings for him), who came to his aid during one of his famous "death" scenes. In the next episode, "Spontaneous Combustion", he spends a lot of time at a new girlfriend's house but the viewer never sees her. Because Kenny had started dating Kelly in the previous episode, it is safe to assume that they are one and the same. Kelly hasn't been heard of since (although she was seen at the dance in "Hooked on Monkey Phonics", possibly having arranged to meet up with Kenny, but not being able to as he is dead at that point). If you look closely, you can actually see parts of Kenny's parka with Kelly at the dance. It's also possible that they are still dating.
Tammy Warner
Kenny and Tammy
In the episode "The Ring", Kenny gets a new girlfriend, a fifth grader named Tammy Warner. She happens to be the only person in the school poorer than Kenny. Classmates at school call her a slut because she gave a boy named Dave Darskey a B.J. (blow job) in the parking lot of a T.G.I. Friday's. Kenny later finds out that she did this because she got worked up watching the Jonas Brothers on television. This prompts Kenny to go and buy her tickets to a Jonas Brothers concert, hoping that it's his way into her heart, as well as her body. After the concert, Tammy and several other girls are called backstage where they are given a purity ring by the Jonas Brothers themselves, which stops them from doing anything "naughty". As Kenny is given a purity ring by Tammy, he is very upset at this, as well as completely bored. Eventually, due to boredom, they take off the purity rings and Tammy gives Kenny a B.J. Unfortunately, the next day, Kenny ends up contracting syphilis and thus dies; in the final minutes of the episode, his funeral is held, and the Vicar attending the funeral gives a speech about the dangers of syphilis: "And so, as we commit this young child to the earth, let us all be reminded that syphilis is still a deadly disease, and it can be caught even if using protection."
Trivia
- Kenny is related to Stan's family through being named "honorary nephew" by Jimbo in "Volcano".
- Kenny is an immortal - while he can technically die, he just keeps being reborn (unless another immortal kills him), aging at an increased rate (10 years worth of growth in a few hours), and retaining memories and physical and mental characteristics. ("Mysterion Rises", "Coon vs. Coon & Friends")
- In the South Park movie, when Kenny is tortured in hell, he is in an area that appears to resembles Dante's sixth circle of heresy.
- Kenny has had a history of ingesting things he probably shouldn't - including gasoline ("Volcano"), cat pee ("Major Boobage"), alien drugs ("Cancelled"), and various other things ("Fat Camp").
- As seen in "Pandemic", Kenny seems to buy shaving cream and razors on a regular basis, noting that it was for his balls. This indicates he's either producing pubic hair extremely early on, or just doesn't quite get the idea of a razor.
- Since "The Jeffersons", Kenny has been the only South Park character to have their hair change in appearance (although it is always blond and messy) regularly.
- He has had at least four hair styles: the original in the movie, the "new" style in "The Jeffersons", a slightly shorter one used in "The Losing Edge" (mostly hidden under a baseball cap) and an updated version of the original style since "Lice Capades".
- Kenny seems to prefer lying down to sitting up - whenever he is doing something on the floor with the other boys (board games, toys and so forth) he will be lying on his front while the others generally sit down.
- Kenny owns a laptop, courtesy of One Laptop Per Child. ("You Have 0 Friends")
- Kenny has a pet cat who we have never seen - it was only mentioned briefly in "Douche and Turd" by Cartman who thought the fact that he'd broken the cat's leg the week before was the reason that Kenny voted for the Giant Douche. Despite this, a black cat can be seen walking near Kenny's house in "Cartman's Silly Hate Crime 2000". Whether this is Kenny's cat or not is unknown.
- Kenny has gotten the least amount of people killed - only himself and Sarah Jessica Parker. Stan and Cartman chainsawed dozens of people while they were zombies, Kyle inadvertently caused dozens of pedophiles to kill themselves to stop Cartman from faking Tourette's Syndrome, and Butters has accidentally killed many people while tap-dancing.
- Kenny's perverted sense of humor isn't limited to obvious innuendo - he once did a glitter-and-glue drawing of a clown holding someone's head in one hand and a bloody knife in the other. This could also mean he is coulrophobic. ("Fourth Grade")
- Kenny is the only one of the four main boys who hasn't been circumcised. ("Ike's Wee Wee")
- Kenny is the only one of the four main boys who isn't imaginary, in that the others had to be re-imagined by Butters. ("Imaginationland, Episode III"). However, since Cartman was able to imagine something into Imaginationland, something only real people can do, the others can be considered "real".
- Kenny has been turned into a platypus ("Damien"), a ghost who then possessed Rob Schneider, a pot roast which Rob Schneider ate to be possessed, and Cartman ("The Biggest Douche in the Universe"), and has been resurrected as a zombie ("Pinkeye").
- Kenny has a habit of hurting himself when he gets bored - during a tedious ADD test, he ended up bashing his head against a wall repeatedly ("Timmy 2000"), and during a presentation by the Butt Out group, he began chewing his own hand ("Butt Out").
- While in his parka, Kenny never says 'yes' or 'no'; if he agrees with something he always says "Yeah" or "Uh-huh". Furthermore, in the episode "World Wide Recorder Concert", he answered "nope" when Cartman asked him something. Other times, he says "Nuh-uh" instead.
- Kenny is the only boy known to sleep in his underwear. However, sometimes - in particular shortly after a resurrection - he wears his parka to bed.
- Kenny is able to make moose calls, as shown in "The Tale of Scrotie McBoogerballs".
- Kenny has killed himself a total of ten times, some of them being heroic self-sacrifices, but others not so:
- In "Cartman's Mom is Still a Dirty Slut", he uses his body to complete an electrical circuit which brings the hospital's generator online, thus saving the lives of every patient on life support.
- In "Jewbilee", Kenny uses his head to break open a shell that contains Moses. The trauma kills him, but Moses successfully defeats Haman afterward.
- In "Coon vs. Coon & Friends", he shoots himself in the head to try to prove a point to the other boys. He later jumps onto a spike to improvise a way out of R'lyeh, then later shoots himself again in order to return home.
- In "Scott Tenorman Must Die", Kenny dies while laughing uncontrollably at a humiliating video of Cartman.
- In "Super Best Friends", Kenny drowns himself in the Reflecting Pool after being brainwashed by David Blaine.
- In "Mecha-Streisand", while Barbara Streisand attacks the town, Kenny initiates a game of swingball, which results in the ball tying him to the pole by the neck and asphyxiates him.
- In "Sexual Healing", Kenny chokes himself to death while trying to achieve a "super-awesome" orgasm.
- In "Summer Sucks", a baby Kenny holds on to a lit firework for too long, and he is blown up.
Prominence
- Due to Kenny being a main character in South Park, we will not cover his prominence in the series, however we will cover his prominence in games as well as his absences in the series.
Video Games
Kenny appears in many games, for instance, South Park (video game), South Park Rally, South Park Mega Millionaire South Park Let's Go Tower Defense Play!, and other games.
Let's Go Tower Defense Play!
Kenny appears in South Park Let's Go Tower Defense Play! as one of the main characters; along with Stan, Kyle and Cartman. Kenny is one of the playable characters.
Absences
- Season Two
- Season Three
- Season Four
- "Pip"
- Season Five
- "Butters' Very Own Episode" - Seen in the "It's Butters!" intro.
- Season Six
- Season Nine
- Season Ten
- Season Eleven
- Season Twelve
- Season Fifteen
References
- ↑ "South Park" Cartman Gets an Anal Probe (TV episode 1997). IMDb.com.
- ↑ "South Park" Mysterion Rises (TV episode 2010). IMDb.com.
- ↑ "South Park" The Jeffersons (TV episode 2004). IMDb.com.
- ↑ South Park: Bigger Longer & Uncut (1999). IMDb.com.
- ↑ FAQ - South Park Studios. southparkstudios.com.
- ↑ Kenny is referred to as "Kenneth" by his foster father in "The Poor Kid" and he signs his letters with the name "Kenneth" in Going Native
- ↑ Trey Parker and Matt Stone Interview (2000).
- ↑ "Philosophy Speaker Presents "Killing Kenny: Our Daily Dose of Death"", GMC Journal, Green Mountain College (February 5, 2007).
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