Tweek Tweak, voiced by Matt Stone,[1] is a fictional character in the animated series South Park.Even thought he is not one of the five main characters,(Stan,Kyle,Kenny,Cartmanand Butters), he is a very important character and was the replacement for Kenny when he died.
==Character==
Tweek Tweak is a jittery nine year old boy, addicted to caffeine. He seems to have very bad anxiety caused by constantly drinking so much caffeine - especially at such a young age. He is always seen shaking, twitching and looking around frantically. He constantly feels like he's "under pressure", and freaks out whenever he is asked to do even the simplest tasks and jumps or yells whenever someone comes up to him to talk to him.
Appearance
Tweek has blond hair in a spiky design looking as if he just rolled out of bed, wears a green shirt buttoned incorrectly, and blue jeans. As revealed in "Tweek vs. Craig", he weighs 48 pounds. In "Gnomes", his physical appearance was slightly different. Instead of a green collar, he had a black one, and his jeans were also much darker than in later episodes.
Name
The character's name, "Tweek", is derived from the term "tweeker", a term used to refer to people who recreationally use crystal methamphetamines,[2] or to people who exhibit a high level of stress or anxiety. Originally, Tweek's surname was spelled as "Tweek", implying that, similarily to Eric Cartman, he was called by his last name. However, in later episodes, his surname was changed to "Tweak", though his father's name tag still reads "Richard Tweek". In the official South Park site's FAQ section, it was verified that the character's name is "Tweek Tweak".[3]
Caffeine addiction and ADD
Tweek's parents own a coffee shop, called "Tweek's Coffee", and they continually supply Tweek with coffee, believing that it will He has become addicted to the beverage, and has high caffeine levels in his system; making him extremely jittery and paranoid.
Tweek's parents are oblivious to the fact that he is overdosed on caffeine, believing his shakiness to be brought on by Attention Deficit Disorder, although ADD would not cause shakiness, but merely a short attention span (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, or ADHD, would cause jitteriness). Interestingly, despite his parent's beliefs, Tweek goes with the other kids to be tested for ADD in "Timmy 2000". Believing his parent's claims, Tweek tries to control his "ADD" with Transcendental meditation, and sees a psychiatrist, Dr. Norris, who tells him to "find his center", as a way of calming himself. However, when he expresses his stress, his parents attempt to calm him with coffee, thereby increasing the level of caffeine in his system and worsening his mental state.
The staff at the official South Park website have stated that together with his addiction to coffee, Tweek does indeed have ADD, along with various learning disabilities.[4][5]
In the episode "Gnomes", Tweek tells the other boys that he can never get to sleep, presumably brought on by his excessive consumption of coffee, although he is shown sleeping in the episode "Child Abduction is Not Funny". Most likely this is a continuity error in the series, but he may have begun taking sleeping medication sometime between the two episodes.
Tweek's hyperactivity lead one of Steven Spielberg's bodyguards to believe he was addicted to cocaine, in the season six episode "Free Hat".
Tweek has been shown to have other addictions, besides coffee. In "Quest for Ratings", it is revealed that he fell in with a crowd of kids who were excessively consuming cough syrup. He hasn't been seen consuming it since, so he may have managed to overcome this addiction.
Relationships
Family
The parents tend either to oversimplify or to overexaggerate large problems, leading their son to frustrated helplessness when he requires aid or to increased paranoia and fear when he's already obsessing about something. Simply put, whatever Tweek's current abnormal and/or neurotic disposition, his parents serve to aggravate it. Even Eric Cartman seems somewhat concerned about Tweek's condition; when Tweek's newest paranoia takes effect (which was being abducted by strangers) Cartman comments "God, what the hell do his parents do to him?" In "Tweek vs. Craig" Tweek even yells that his parents never tell him anything, that he hates it and that he wants it all to end while his parents ignore him.
Friends
Despite having a feud with Craig Tucker in "Tweek vs. Craig", the two seem to be friends. Tweek is the character who is the fourth friend in Craig's group most often. Since Clyde and Token are best friends, many fans see Tweek and Craig as being best friends as well. Tweek and Craig can be seen standing side by side in various episodes including "Ginger Kid's" where they are trapped in a cage together, and in "The Wacky Molestation Adventure", where they are on the same side of the town. Tweek and Craig can also be seen sitting together at school assemblies (one exception being "Canada on Strike"). This implies that they are close friends, similar to Stan and Kyle and it is probably one of the main reasons why Craig and Tweek didn't want to fight each other in "Tweek vs. Craig".
After the episode "Gnomes", it can be assumed that Tweek became good friends with the boys, since they choose him above all the other kids to be their fourth friend in the episode Professor Chaos. In "Bebe's Boobs Destroy Society", when the boys decide they have to make room for Bebe in thier group, Kyle and Stan defend Tweek and kick Cartman out instead. Tweek is never kicked out of the group, but he slowly shifts into Craig's group and leaves the boys behind.
Cartman has nothing against Tweek (even electing to replace Kyle instead of Tweek initally when they wanted to let Bebe in the group in "Bebe's Boobs Destroy Society"), but Tweek seems to dislike Cartman. Presumably because in "Free Hat", Cartman pressured Tweek to make hats and warned him to start trying to shape up or else he would be kicked out of hanging with the boys. Later on in the episode, Kyle, Stan, and Cartman are held hostage by Steven Spielberg and George Lucas - Tweek comes to save them, saying, "I just want my friends back!", Cartman seems touched until Tweek adds, "Except for Cartman, you can keep him."
In the Season 3 episode "Hooked on Monkey Phonics", Tweek is seen dancing near Wendy Testaburger before Dio begins singing 'Holy Diver', during the song Wendy and Tweek dance together. This could mean that Wendy had/has a crush on Tweek or vice versa or they are just friends.
Trivia
- In episode #217, "Gnomes", his parents' coffee shop almost went out of business because 'Harbucks', a parody of the Starbucks coffee shop chain, opened a shop in South Park.
- Whenever Tweek is told to do something, he responds by saying, "Aaagh! Way too much pressure!" Tweek seemed to practice fatalism in episode 609 "Free Hat".
- Tweek was worshiped as a deity in the episode "Simpsons Already Did It", though he wasn't pleased about it.
- Tweek is an unlockable character in South Park Let's Go Tower Defense Play. His special ability is him running faster and killing anything he runs into.
- At IGN.com, Tweek is ranked #8 in Dan Iverson & Brian Zoromski's "Top 10 South Park Peripheral Characters".[6]
Quotes
- "Oh man, this/that is way too much pressure!"
- "Gah!"
- "Urgh!"
- "Oh Jesus!"
- "They're going to get me!"
- "I'm not a chicken!"
- "Argh!"
- "I'm not a team player!"
Prominence
Although Tweek doesn't have as much speaking roles in an average episode as other secondary characters such as Craig and Clyde, in most of the episodes in which he is prominent, he is a major character. In the episodes Simpsons Already Did It, Red Hot Catholic Love, Free Hat, Bebe's Boobs Destroy Society, and Child Abduction is Not Funny, he replaces Kenny as the fourth friend. Following the episode Child Abduction is Not Funny, Tweek stopped appearing as the fourth friend, due primarily to Kenny's re-introduction, first as a spirit sharing Cartmen's body, and later when he inexplicably just showed up again.
- Gnomes
- Tweek vs. Craig
- Professor Chaos
- Simpsons Already Did It
- Red Hot Catholic Love
- Free Hat
- Bebe's Boobs Destroy Society
- Child Abduction is Not Funny
- Make Love, Not Warcraft
- Hell on Earth 2006
References
- ↑ FAQ Archives: Who does the voice of Tweek? Because just hearing his voice kind of makes me wonder how it effects the throat. Staff, South Park Studios (2001-04-18).
- ↑ www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov Retrieved on April 10th, 2009.
- ↑ FAQ Archives: Is "Tweek" his first name or his last name? Staff, South Park Studios. (2002-08-22).
- ↑ FAQ Archives: What's Wrong with Tweek? Staff, South Park Studios (2002-01-29).
- ↑ FAQ South Park Studios.
- ↑ Top 10 South Park Peripheral Characters Iverson, Dan, and Zoromski, Brian. IGN Entertainment. (2007-03-06).
Further reading
- Critical representations of work and organization in popular culture, pages 129-132. By Carl Rhodes, Robert Ian Westwood, Publisher: Routledge, 2008. ISBN 0415359899/ISBN 9780415359894
External links
- That is WAY too much pressure, Man! The Tweek fanlisting.
- Tweek Tweak at the Internet Movie Database.
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