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There are many recurring characters in the animated series South Park, aside from the four main characters, Eric Cartman, Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski and Kenny McCormick. Butters Stotch and Tweek replaced Kenny for a half season each during the sixth season. See those articles for details.
Family members
Mrs. Cartman
Liane Cartman is the mother of Eric, and puts up with his constant whining and abuse by doting on him to the point of compounding his personal problems. She rarely raises her voice, and the only discipline she dispenses is a very rare backhander (delivered twice to date) when Eric embarrasses her in public, an infrequent grounding (he was grounded for two weeks once for trying to exterminate the Jews) now and again, and an admonishment not to pick his nose (to which he insists he's only scratching it). Despite her sweetness, she is a hermaphroditic porn-queen and prostitute. Quite early on, it was revealed that Mrs. Cartman was also Eric's father. Trey Parker named her after his ex-girlfriend who broke his heart.
Gerald and Sheila Brovlovski, and Ike
Kyle's family is Jewish. His mother Sheila is involved in the community and his father Gerald is a lawyer who once made money for suing literally everyone in the town for sexual harassment. Because of his father's job, Kyle's family is the most well-off of the four.
The Brovlovskis also adopted a Canadian baby and named him Ike Moisha Broflovski. In the movie South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut this becomes a matter of concern when Ike is persecuted by the US, not for being Jewish, but for being Canadian. In the movie, Sheila became enraged that a Canadian film had introduced Kyle to "naughty language", and sparked a war between the United States and Canada.
In the "It's Christmas in Canada" episode of season 7, Ike is reunited with his birth-parents for a short time.
Shelia has lead protests/boycotts/changes of the following (listed by episode):
Randy and Sharon Marsh, Shelley and Grandpa
Randy and Sharon Marsh are the parents of Stan, and his exceptionally violent sister Shelley.
Randy is a geologist, the only scientist in SP, but during his younger years was a member of a briefly successful boy band. He occasionally shows a penchant for singing and dancing.
In the 'Spontaneous Combustion' episode, Randy is awarded a Nobel Prize for finding the cause of the spontaneous human combustion of some SP persons. He won the prize in favor of Dr. Alphonz Mephesto and a 'real scientist' who found the grand unification theory. It turned out the spontaneous combustion was caused by people holding in their farts and explosion of the accumulated methane (or marsh gas) in their guts. Kenny was the first to die as he fell in love with a girl and did not want to fart in her presence.
Shelly is a violent teenager with an awkward set of headgear braces. She enjoys dating older men, beating up Stan, and calling him and his friends "turds."
Grandpa is the father of Sharon Marsh. He lives with the Marsh family in his wheelchair and is over 100 years old and prays for death. He is very senile and calls Stan "Billy." Grandpa Marsh on episode 106: "Death" keeps asking "Billy" to kill him. In episode 809: "Something Wall-Mart This Way Comes", he is employed at the newly-constructed Wall-Mart store.
The McCormicks
Kenny's family, the McCormicks, are exceptionally poor, in part because Kenny's father, Stuart, is an alcoholic, a fact that Cartman never lets Kenny forget. A typical daily meal in this family would consist of frozen waffles only. The McCormicks have been through a lot of grief over the course of the series, in large part due to the many deaths of their son. Kenny's mother is only about sixteen years old, and is probably really his sister.
Mr. and Mrs. Stotch
Mr. and Mrs. Stotch are Butters' parents. They are extremely naive and seem oblivious to many aspects of their son's life.
Mr. Stotch is apparently a closet homosexual, as Butters once followed him to a gay bath house. In response, Mrs. Stotch tried to kill Butters by drowning him in a lake and, when she believed she had successfully carried out the murder, attempted to cover up the death with her husband's help. It turned out Butters didn't die after all and had only floated off in the car.
Tweek's Parents
Tweek's parents own a coffee shop. They believe that Tweek has ADD, although his problems apparently stem from the fact he drinks too much coffee.
School (adults)
Mr. Garrison
See: Mr. Garrison
Chef
Jerome 'Chef' McElroy is one of very few black characters in South Park, and the chef at the South Park Elementary School. A stereotyped character, Chef is obsessed with sex, especially sex with white women, and somewhat promiscuous. He is however a talented singer, and has a tendency to sing wildly inappropriate songs. The children often seek him out when in need of guidance or information. He is voiced by Isaac Hayes. He once almost married a succubus, but the boys saved him.
See also: Chocolate Salty Balls, Chewbacca Defense.
Quote: Let's all go home and find a nice white woman to make love to.
Ms. Choksondik
After Mr. Garrison was temporarily suspended from teaching duties, he was replaced by Ms. Choksondik, who was most notable for her implausibly large, saggy breasts and one lazy eye. Ms. Choksondik inexplicably died in the middle of the sixth season, and Mr. Garrison eventually replaced her as the fourth grade teacher. Before her death, Ms. Choksondik had a sexual relationship (her first, contrary to what the name "chokes on dick" would seem to imply) with Mr. Mackey, after preparing sex education classes for the 4th grade children (as well as kindergarten).
Mr. Mackey
Mr. Mackey is the school guidance counselor. He is best known for his simplistic attitude towards drugs (and his catchphrase, "drugs are bad, mmm'kay?"), a parody of Just Say No campaigns; he never gives any reason why drugs are bad.
Mr. Mackey, and both of his parents, have unusually large heads and thin necks, and end almost all of their sentences with "mmm'kay?".
In the 'Rainforest Schmainforest' episode 301 Mr. Mackey joins the Getting Gay With Kids (GGWK) choir on a 'save the rainforest' trip to San José, Costa Rica because he speaks Spanish (with a thick English accent). Here he ends his sentences with "¿mmm bien?".
(In this episode the children get lost on a field trip into the rain forest. Kenny falls in love with a certain 'Kelly', is struck by lightning and dies. Cartman gets fed up with the rain forest, decides to go home and leaves the group. The other children and the group supervisor, Ms. Stevens, are caught by the native 'Yanagopa' Indians. Cartman runs into a US contractor's team constructing a road through the rain forest using heavy equipment. They return to the group and release them from the Indians, just when Ms. Stevens is about to be sacrificed to a huge King Kong like Yanagopa. In the closing titles of this episode it is stated that every year 3000 persons die in the rain forest, so we'd better get rid of it to prevent those deaths.)
Principal Victoria
Principal Victoria is the principal of South Park Elementary School. She is indecisive and eager to avoid any controversy.
It is unknown whether Victoria is her first or last name (or both). Her name is a reference to actress Victoria Principal.
Mrs. Crabtree
Veronica Crabtree was the school bus driver. She appeared to be suffering from paranoia, or at least was mentally unstable; she had a bird living in her hair and constantly asked the children on her bus "What did you say?" after they insulted her. They would say something else that sounds similar in order to avoid trouble. An example:
- "you fat withered up dried hog."
- "What did you say!?"
- "I said: 'I always wanted to travel to Prague'"
- "Oh, me too."
In the 2004 episode "Cartman's Incredible Gift", Mrs. Crabtree was murdered by a serial killer.
School (children)
See also: Eric Cartman, Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Kenny McCormick, Butters Stotch, Tweek.
Timmy
Timmy is a handicapped child who can usually only say his own name, or in some episodes, some basic other words: in a Thanksgiving school play where Timmy plays the part of Helen Keller, he could say "Gobbles", the name of a handicapped turkey the children bought to act in the play (episode 414: Helen Keller! The Musical).
Timmy is confined to a wheelchair but nevertheless, in one episode he was part of a successful band, Timmy and the Lords of the Underworld.
Due to the popularity of the South Park show, Timmy's exclamation "TIMMEYH!" soon entered American popular culture as an outburst used to describe, chide, or respond to moments of extreme uncoordination, lack of concentration or other losses of logic, sense or reason. It also sounds like the Japanese word for wanker. Trey Parker knows Japanese, so its use here may not be a coincidence.
Token Williams
Token Williams is the only black child in the main characters' class. Cartman was once imprisoned for a hate crime after he assaulted Token. In addition to being the only black child, he is also considerably richer than his classmates. In episode 714 — entitled "Raisins" — he steals Wendy Testaburger from Stan, who flips him off because of it. His name comes from the phrase "token minority," typically used to describe non-white persons thrown into small roles in TV shows and movies. In the episode Quest for Ratings, Token's stage name is "Token Black" in the news program the boys are doing for their school's tv channel.
Token is being bullied by his classmates because his parents are rich; his dad makes at least US$200,000 per year, they live in a house four times as big as the other houses in South Park and he has lobster in his lunch box. Token tries to blend in by wearing cheap clothes bought at J Mart instead of Armani, but does not really succeed. Token then writes to a real estate developer so there will be more rich kids in South Park. Eventually Will Smith (in a parody of Fresh Prince of Bel Air), Snoop Dogg, Oprah Winfrey and P. Diddy all come to live in South Park, with their children (who play polo and speak with a British English accent). Mr. Garrison successfully incites the regular 'poor' people in SP, to start to discriminate and protest against the inflow of rich people, by burning a large wooden 'lower case t' (for 'time to go') in the rich people's gardens and scaring them dressed up as ghosts (in white sheets), since supposedly rich people are afraid of ghosts. Finally all the rich people move away from SP and Mr. Garrison suggests to sell all the rich people's houses so they themselves can become rich. Jimbo reminds him that that was exactly not the point and after some thought Mr. Garrison exclaims: "but we got rid of all those nigg...!"(sic).
See also: KKK, blockbusting or Bond Hill, Ohio
Wendy Testaburger
Wendy was, for a long time, the object of Stan's affections; however, he would throw up out of nervousness whenever she came near him. She later dumped him for Token.
She is quite liberal in her political views, and often argues with Cartman. She is easily the smartest of all the children in the class, for example, in the episode "Toms Rhinoplasty", she disposes of the substitute teacher, communicating in fluent Arabic with Iraqi agents.
She's named for Trey Parker's fiancee, who broke off their engagement and married someone else -- just weeks before South Park became a hit.
Quotes:
- "Hi, Stan!"
- [Stan vomits]
- "Eeeewwww!"
- "Oh, look, a French fry"
Bebe Stevens
Bebe is Wendy's blonde-haired best friend. She once had a "relationship" with Kyle, but after she couldn't take the "codependency", she started another "relationship" with Clyde. The first of the South Park kids to hit puberty, as seen in Episode 610 "Bebe's Boobs Destroy Society"
Philip "Pip" Pirrip
Pip is a British child who is extremely unpopular with his classmates due to his foreign ancestry and his general wimpiness. The other boys generally assume him to be French, even though he hates the French. His character is based off of Pip from Charles Dickens' Great Expectations, a book which series creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone hated; the explanation that Dickens' Pip gives for his nickname is the same one South Park's Pip gives for his. In episode 205, "Conjoined Fetus Lady", Pip is a main character.
Episode 405 took time away from South Park to present Matt Stone and Trey Parker's version of Great Expectations. Naturally, this episode features Pip heavily and bears his name as the title. Malcolm McDowell of A Clockwork Orange fame introduces and narrates the story. This episode has allegedly never been repeated by Comedy Central.
Clyde
Clyde Goodman is the brown-haired boy who is part of the group, but doesn't maintain any major presence. He replaces Cartman as the fat kid in the Cartman's Silly Hate Crime 2000 episode 401, where Cartman gets sent to prison for an alleged hate crime against Token.
Craig
Even though he hangs out with the boys, Craig is the one who is (in)famous for flipping off people, and is always seen sitting outside the principal's office. Additionally, he had short succsess on South Park Elementary's Television Station with a show that featured close-up shots of animals with a wide angle lens, and he later added hats to the animals on his show. The show was cancelled after some of the other South Park cast members cracked down on ongoing cough syrup addiction in the school in their competing News Show. The show was cancelled for its unbelieveably low ratings after cough syrup was banned.
Jimmy
Like Timmy, he is handicapped, but he uses crutches to walk. Despite having a stuttering problem, he likes to perform stand-up comedy. His favorite song is "The Twelve Days of Christmas," which he (excruciatingly) performs in front of City Hall. In the episode Cripple Fight he and Timmy engage is a fistfight that is shot for shot, almost identical to the one in They Live. Later, though, they get along very well, playing together in a Lord of the Rings parody, teaming up against Christopher Reeve in "Krazy Kripples", and in "Up the Down Steroid" Jimmy seems to be the only one who can understand Timmy's monosyllabic utterances. His last name is uncertain; he was known as "Jim Swanson" in Krazy Kripples, but "Vulmer" in the episode Up the Down Steroid.
Sixth Graders
The sixth graders are a group of boys who are just becoming aware of their sexuality. They have an almost unhealthy interest in porn. They are also still just kids and like to ride their bikes and pretend they are doing something exciting or dangerous.
Preschoolers
The preschoolers were first introduced when Mr. Garrison was made their teacher after losing his job as the third grade teacher. Later they were featured prominently when Ike joined them and they were choosing a class president.
Goth Kids
A small clique of goths hang around the back of the school. They are ridiculously nonconformist, especially for their age. Stan joined them for a while after Wendy left him. Stan also recruited one of them for his dance troupe.
Bill and Fosse
Bill and Fosse are two boys, who are mostly seen in antagonistic roles. In episode An Elephant Makes Love to a pig they were seen as sidekicks to Dr. Mephestos son. In Lil' Crime Stoppers, they stole a doll and then played out a kidnapping scene with Stan, Kyle, Eric and Kenny.
Misc
Mr. Hankey
Mr. Hankey, the "Christmas Poo," is the scatological counterpart to Santa Claus but with the light-hearted flair of 60's-era Rankin & Bass holiday specials. He emerges from the toiletbowl on Christmas Eve and brings presents to boys and girls with high fiber diets. Mr. Hankey has appeared in at least three Christmas episodes, and inspired an actual retail CD (Mr. Hankey's Christmas Classics) in which he has his own theme song. In one episode he departed from the Christmas theme to drive a snooty annual ('anal' according to Mr. Garrison) film festival out of town with a tornado made of sewage. His trademark line is "Howwwwww-dy ho!"
Big Gay Al
Big Gay Al is a stereotyped gay man. He runs an animal farm for gay animals who have been rejected by homophobic pet owners. He also appeared in South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, entertaining U.S. troops. He was banned as a boy scouts leader for being homosexual, to be replaced by a 'macho man' who took nude photographs of the children.
Jimbo and Ned
Jimbo Kerns, who is Stan's uncle, and Ned Gerblansky are both obsessed with killing animals, circumventing anti-hunting laws by claiming self-defense - and thus, always exclaiming "It's coming right for us!" - before shooting some animal that was not, in most cases, coming right for them.
Jimbo and Ned met while in the Vietnam War, where Jimbo was a helicopter pilot. Here Ned lost his right arm when a hand grenade exploded in his hand. Ned also lost his voice due to cancer, and is forced to speak with an electronic voicebox.
Officer Barbrady
Officer Barbrady is the town's only policeman, and is particularly inept. The police force motto on his squad car is, "To Patronize and Annoy." He was illiterate until forced to learn to read to solve a crime. He then read Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, an experience that made him regret ever learning to read. He has a hearing aid and speaks louder than he should.
Mayor and aides
Mayor McDaniels is the mayor of South Park. She is a largely incompetent politician (pleonasm?) and is mostly interested in getting good publicity for herself. Her two sycophantic aides usually tell her what to do.
The mayor often openly pines that she hates South Park and considers the people who live in it to be a collection of "brain-dead hicks." She hates Barbrady as well, but is largely stuck with him. It's often implied that she is a closet lesbian.
Dr. Mephisto
Dr. Alphonse Mephisto is a stereotyped mad scientist, who specialises in genetic engineering, and like Frankenstein, proceeds to create strange creatures without stopping to consider whether he should.
He often seems interested in genetically engineering creatures with more than one anus - an apparent parody of the (real world) creation of a mouse with a human ear growing from its back.
He is a member of NAMBLA, the 'North American Marlon Brando Look Alikes'.
He is often followed by a short odd looking man/boy-person named Kevin, wearing the same clothes as Dr. Mephisto. He quietly follows Mephisto as if he is an assistant, though he rarely assists with anything, and never speaks. It was revealed in Primus's song "Mephisto and Kevin" that Kevin was an experiment to create the perfect pop star, a clone of Michael Jackson that was birthed by a llama. He has a sweet, golden voice that was never heard in the show. In the Spontaneous Combustion episode, Dr. Mephisto complains (mentioning the name Kevin) that the Nobel Prize awards were rigged when he came out 2nd, after Randy Marsh, with his genetically engineered seven arsed Galápagos turtle.
Dr. Mephisto is based on Marlon Brando's character in the 1996 remake of "The Island of Dr. Moreau".
Towelie
Main article: Towelie
Towelie is a highly engineered towel. His action is mostly limited to giving towel advice and getting high. He is proclaimed to be the "worst character ever."
Halfie
A disheveled, legless Army veteran, possibly mentally disturbed or shell-shocked. He claimed to be the man responsible for serial sex assaults on chickens in the "Chicken Lover" episode. Mr. Garrison replied, "Oh, you can't screw anybody, Halfie; you don't have any legs!" Halfie shuffled away, looking embarassed.
Priest Maxi
Priest Maxi is a Catholic priest who serves as the mouthpiece for South Park's Christian community. He is a narrow-minded and intolerant man who is convinced most people are going to be damned to Hell, often for trivial offenses. In one episode he bluntly claimed that Timmy would go to Hell, since Timmy cannot confess his sins, as he cannot speak.
Despite his character flaws, it was he who, in one episode, unearthed the massive corruption behind the many church-related sexual assaults and forced the Catholic Church to stop letting priests molest young boys, even though he performed adultery in a confession booth himself.
His name is very similar to singer Maxi Priest's. Like many men in SP, he's a great fan of the Denver Broncos.
Terrance and Phillip
See Terrance and Phillip
City Wok
City Wok is a Chinese restaurant, whose employees have stereotypically heavy accents.
The restaurant first appeared in episode #601: Jared Has Aides.
The word "city" appears often in the restaurant and in the employees' dialogue, the joke being that the employees' accents make the word "city" sound like "shitty."
City Wok also doubles as the airline company City Airlines, which took Kyle and his friends to Canada (episode #715: It's Christmas in Canada) so they could retrieve Kyle's adoptive brother Ike.
City Wok is managed and operated by Tuong Lu Kim. He has also constructed a city wall (obviously fashioned after the Great Wall of China) for South Park, per the request of parents who wanted to protect their children from being kidnapped (episode #611: Child Abduction is not Funny). Like its Chinese counterpart, the wall faced constant invasion from Mongols.
Jesus
Jesus has his own cable television show in South Park, Jesus and Pals. He has offered much sage advice to the boys. However, in the sixth season Christmas episode, Red Sleigh Down, he was killed by an Iraqi soldier, and has not appeared since; it is unclear whether or not He was killed permanently, or, being Jesus in all, simply resurrected Himself and will appear in a later episode.
Hells Pass Hospital Doctor
The Hells Pass Doctor often treats the kids of South Park after bulling. In his diagnoses, he often uses the kids' slang terms to describe their injuries.
Farmer Carl Denkins
Denkins is a farmer, who lives just outside South Park. He sometimes shoots trespassers on sight, leaving them prime and ready to be cooked in chili. In episode 605 Fun with Veal, he was known as Ranger Bob. In the early episodes, his chicken fell prey to the chicken lover, his cows were mutilated by aliens and performed a mass suicide.
Sergeant Yates
Sgt. Harrison Yates is an inept cop that first appeared in the 7th season episode "Christian Rock Hard", showing the boys what happens to musicians when people download music for free from the Internet. Barbrady rarely appears now. His first main role is when Michael Jackson (disguised as Mr. Jefferson) moves into South Park. He basically hates any black man that is richer than him and frames him (i.e. O.J. Simpson), but becomes freaked out when he realizes Mr. Jefferson is white. He reappears in "Cartman's Incredible Gift" investigating the "serial killer" & is the stupid cop that believes Cartman is psychic. His wife speaks with an Irish accent.
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