| Butters Stotch | |
|---|---|
| South Park character | |
 | |
| First appearance | "Cartman Gets an Anal Probe" (1997) |
| Created by | Trey Parker Matt Stone Eric Stough |
| Based on | Eric Stough |
| Designed by | Trey Parker Matt Stone |
| Voiced by | Matt Stone Skylar James Sandak (young) |
| In-universe information | |
| Full name | Leopold Stotch |
| Aliases | Confederate Messenger Butters Marjorine Professor Chaos Archeologist Butters Big Rig Butters Inspector Butters Postman Butters Victor Chaos Mantequilla |
| Species | Human |
| Gender | Male |
| Occupation | Student, Willy's Chilly Ice Cream Parlor worker,Denny's Applebee's Max manager (future) |
| Family | Stephen Stotch (father) Linda Stotch (mother) |
| Significantother | Red McArthur (ex-girlfriend) Charlotte (ex-girlfriend) |
| Relatives | Grandma Stotch (grandmother) Bud Stotch (uncle) Nellie Stotch (aunt) Larry (uncle) Elbert (first cousin once removed) |
| Nationality | American,Hawaii resident |
| Birthday | September 11,Lihue, Hawaii |
| Residence | South Park,Colorado, United States |
Leopold "Butters"Stotch is a fictional character in theadultanimatedtelevision seriesSouth Park. He is loosely based on co-producerEric Stough and his voice is provided by co-creatorMatt Stone. He is a student at South ParkElementary School.
Butters is depicted as more naive, optimistic, and gullible than the show's other child characters and can become increasingly anxious, especially when faced with the likelihood of beinggrounded, which he is extremely terrified of. As a result, he is often sheltered and unknowledgeable of some of the suggestive content his peers understand, and is also frequently bullied byEric Cartman.
Butters debuted as an unnamed background character whenSouth Park first premiered onComedy Central on August 13, 1997. His role gradually increased, becoming one of the series's most frequently present characters beginning withSeason 3 and eventually thede facto fifth main character. CreatorsTrey Parker and Matt Stone have stated that he is one of their favorite characters.
Butters was born inHawaii and moved to South Park prior to preschool. Butters attends South Park Elementary as part ofMr. Garrison's (later Mrs. Garrison's)4th grade class. Storyboards and scripts for Seasons 1 and 2 had his original names as "Puff Puff" and "Swanson" respectively. In "AWESOM-O", he says his birthday is on September 11. He learns from his parents in "Going Native" that he was born on the island ofKaua'i. During the show's first 58 episodes (1997 throughSeason 4 episode "4th Grade" in 2000), Butters and the other main child characters were in thethird grade. He lives in South Park as theonly child and son ofStephen and Linda Stotch, from whom he perpetually faces the looming prospect of beinggrounded andabused. When the character ofKenny McCormick was temporarilywritten off the show near the end ofSeason 5,Stan Marsh,Kyle Broflovski, andEric Cartman allow Butters into their group as the "fourth friend",[1] a role he continued to fill until midway throughSeason 6, namely, the episode "Professor Chaos". During this period, the boys would often take advantage of Butters' mild temperament by making him a stooge in their own personal schemes, especially Cartman's. The three eventually ousted him in favor ofTweek Tweak.
As a result, Butters vengefully adopted the alter ego ofProfessor Chaos. Intending to be asupervillain, Professor Chaos wears a green cape, and a helmet and gauntlets constructed out of cardboard and aluminum foil, a parody ofMarvel Comics'Dr. Doom. Butters as Professor Chaos received much focus during the back-to-back episodes "Professor Chaos" and "Simpsons Already Did It", where he took on his younger friendDougie as his sidekick General Disarray and ultimately failed at their several ill-prepared attempts to create "worldwide chaos". Professor Chaos has occasionally made a few appearances since, appearing to be a known supervillain to South Park's police force.
Despite being displaced from both his role as the "fourth friend" and from the eventual return of Kenny, Butters has continued to be a major character in recent seasons and is still a good friend to the group. Formerly a social outcast in earlier episodes, he has nevertheless been seen spending considerable amount of time with the other children, and continues to be a frequent source of help to Cartman, while also being the main victim of Cartman's pranks and manipulation: for instance, in theSeason 11 episode "Cartman Sucks", Cartman goes on numerous sleepovers with Butters so he can pull pranks on him in his sleep.[2] Though the act is customarily performed by Stan or Kyle, Butters will occasionally reflect on the lessons he has attained during the course of an episode with a brief speech, and will sometimes muster up enough courage to act as the voice of reason when his parents or other adults in town engage in irrational behavior.[3][4][5][6] However, in “Awesom-O”, Butters finally gets his revenge on Cartman by showing a videotape of him doing aBritney Spears dance routine to a life-sized cutout ofJustin Timberlake to the whole town, humiliating Cartman. He is a main character in the new 'Post Covid: the Return of Covid' special, living under the alias 'Victor Chaos'. He has fully taken on the Professor Chaos role and makes a living by convincing people to invest inNFTs. He was Kenny McCormick's right-hand man, making all of Kenny's money by convincing people to invest in NFTs. He was also locked in apsychiatric hospital for his ability to convince people to invest their life savings into NFTs.
On August 13, 1997, Butters first appeared as a background character whenSouth Park debuted onComedy Central with the episode "Cartman Gets an Anal Probe".[7] For the episode, the character was composed ofconstruction paper cutouts and animated through the use ofstop motion.[8] Since then, like all other characters on the show, Butters has been animated with computer software, though he is portrayed to give the impression that the show still utilizes its original technique.[8] In the tradition of the show'sanimation style, Butters is composed of simple geometrical shapes and colors.[8][9] He is not offered the same free range of motion associated with hand-drawn characters; his character is mostly shown from only one angle, and his movements are animated in an intentionally jerky fashion.[2][8][9] Butters has a large tuft of blond hair on top of his head, and is usually depicted wearing an aquamarine jacket with dark green pants and black shoes. While originally voicing Butters without any computer manipulation, Stone now speaks within his normal vocal range while adding a childlike inflection, a slight stutter, and aSouthern accent. The recorded audio is then edited withPro Tools, and the pitch is altered to make the voice sound more like that of a 10-year-old.[10][11]
The character is loosely based onSouth Park co-producerEric Stough,[12] whom Stone and Parker regard as a "goody-goody" because of his reluctance to offend. The inspiration behind the major development of Butters was, in the words of Parker and Stone, Stough's geeky behavior during their production of the 1999South Park TV-to-film adaptationSouth Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut: singling out an instance in which Stough and fellow staff members left work early to view a screening ofStar Wars: The Phantom Menace, which irritated the aforementioned creators.
Parker and Stone then decided to parody Stough's antics in the series by transferring it to the character of Butters and proceeding to write the episode "Two Guys Naked in a Hot Tub", which aired three weeks afterBigger, Longer & Uncut was released.[13] The nickname "Butters" evolved from Parker and Stone calling Stough "little buddy" for about three years.[14][15]Prior to making his first major appearance in theSeason 3 episode "Two Guys Naked in a Hot Tub", crew members referred to the character as "Puff Puff" and "Swanson", the latter name which he was identified as in theSeason 2 episode "Conjoined Fetus Lady", and would continue to be addressed by the two names in storyboards and scripts until it was finalized as "Butters" in the aforementioned "Two Guys Naked in a Hot Tub".[16]
Butters gradually became one of Parker and Stone's favorite characters, and for the show'sSeason 5 finale they created the episode"Butters' Very Own Episode", which revolves entirely around Butters and his parents. The intention was to give the character a proper introduction to theSouth Park audience and prepare them for the larger role he would come to play in further seasons.[14] Butters eventually took part in more and more scenes in which he is paired with Cartman, and Parker declares that the scenes involving the two together are his favorite of the series.[17] Butters had very little dialogue in the 1999 filmSouth Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut, receiving only one line total, though he does utter some grunts and other sounds during some scenes. In a 2009 audio commentary for theBlu-ray edition of the film, Parker and Stone expressed shock at how little the character was used, and agreed that anySouth Park movie made today would demand he play a role in the plot.[citation needed]
Though using profanity on occasion, Butters does not indulge in this language as often as the other children on the show, instead preferring to useminced oaths; "ohhamburgers" is one he uses frequently, as well as "gee whiz" mostly in earlier seasons. Butters speaks with a mild stutter and tends to fidget with his hands.[18] The other characters perceive him as "nerdy",[19] and he obliviously maintains a wholesome attitude and mild disposition despite the tragedy and abuse that he frequently encounters.[18][20] He frequently sings songs containing the phrase "loo loo loo".[21] His happy-go-lucky persona has been described as resembling that of a typical 1950s sitcom child character,[2] and is usually presented in stark contrast to the harsh treatment he receives at the hands of his friends and strict parents, including his mother's deranged attempt to murder him after discovering his father's bisexuality,[18] as well as when his grandmother happens to be in town and constantly bullies him during her stay. Stone describes him as embodying "permanent innocence".[2] Butters, however, sees himself as a problem child because his parents tell him so and often expresses remorse at being "out-of-control". Exceptions to this include the episode "The Ungroundable", in which Butters makes his parents worry about their ability to ground him when he refuses to be punished. This rebellious behavior begins after he joins the vampire kids at his school, but ends when he helps the Goth kids burn down aHot Topic store.[22] On theSeason 14 episode "Sexual Healing", Butters didn't want to have to buy aBatman costume when hearing aboutDavid Carradine's autoerotic asphyxiation death after testing positive for sex addiction.[23]
Butters is also known for being gullible, quickly believing anything told to him by others and tending to do whatever he is told to do with little protest, no matter how ridiculous these things seem to be. As such, he is always made an unknowing accomplice in Cartman's various devious schemes. There are cases, however, where Butters has shown a darker side, such as in episodes like "The Tale of Scrotie McBoogerballs" and "Butterballs"; in the latter of which he viciously assaultedDr. Oz and verbally castigated his abusive grandmother.
Butters appears as a nameless background character with only one line in the 1999 filmSouth Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut.[citation needed]
Butters plays a major role in the three-episode "Imaginationland"story arc, which was reissuedstraight-to-DVD as a full-length feature in 2008.[24][25] Butters is the main playable character inSouth Park Imaginationland, a mobile game for theiPhone loosely based on the show'sImaginationland trilogy of episodes.[26] In the video gameSouth Park Let's Go Tower Defense Play!, Butters can be selected as a playable character used to establish atower defense against the game's antagonists.[27]
He also appears in a major role as a companion fighter in the video gameSouth Park: The Stick of Truth, where he plays as apaladin, where his abilities include healing, holy damage, and summoning Professor Chaos who can inflict a variety of status-affecting attacks on enemies or shielding the players. In the superhero-themed sequelSouth Park: The Fractured but Whole, he appears as Professor Chaos and is an antagonist and a playable character.
A DVD box set of 13 Butters-centric episodes,A Little Box of Butters, was released in September 2010.[28]
Apinball game with a Butters theme, entitled "Butters Very Own Pinball" (named after the season five finale "Butters' Very Own Episode"), is playable on themobile app video gameSouth Park Pinball.[29] This was also released byZen Studios forPinball FX2 in October 2014,[30] and later remastered forPinball FX on October 12, 2023.[31]
Butters Stotch on the South Park wiki
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