| Kenny McCormick | |
|---|---|
| South Park character | |
 | |
| First appearance | Jesus vs. Frosty (1992) (short) |
| Created by | Trey Parker Matt Stone |
| Designed by | Trey Parker Matt Stone |
| Voiced by | Matt Stone (muffled and un-muffled as Mysterion) Eric Stough (un-muffled) Mike Judge (un-muffled in1999 film) |
| In-universe information | |
| Full name | Kenneth McCormick |
| Aliases |
|
| Gender | Male |
| Occupation | Student, scientist (future) |
| Family |
|
| Significantother | Kelly (ex-girlfriend) Tammy Warner (ex-girlfriend) |
| Relatives | Grandpa McCormick[broken anchor] (paternal grandfather) |
| Nationality | American |
| Residence | South Park,Colorado, U.S. |
| Died | 127 times;see list |
Kenneth McCormick[1] is a fictional character and one of the four mainprotagonists in theadult animated sitcomSouth Park, alongsideStan Marsh,Kyle Broflovski, andEric Cartman. His often muffled and incomprehensible speech—the result of hisparka hood covering his mouth—is provided by co-creatorMatt Stone. After early appearances inThe Spirit of Christmas shorts in 1992 and 1995, Kenny appeared inSouth Park television episodes beginning August 13, 1997, as well as the 1999 feature filmSouth Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, where his uncovered face and voice were first revealed.
Kenny was a third, later fourth-grade student who commonly has extraordinary experiences not typical of conventional small-town life in his hometown of South Park,Colorado, where he lives with hispoverty-stricken family. Kenny is animated by computer to look as he did in the show's original method ofcutout animation.
The character gained popularity thanks to arunning gag during the first five seasons of the series, whereby Kenny would routinely suffer an excruciating death before returning alive and well in the next episode with little or no explanation. Stan would frequently use the catchphrase "Oh my god! They killed Kenny!", followed by Kyle exclaiming "You bastard(s)!". Since thesixth season in 2002, the practice of killing Kenny has been seldom used by the show's creators. Various episodes have set up the gag, sometimes presenting alternate explanations for Kenny's unacknowledged reappearances.
Kenny attends South Park Elementary as part ofMr. Garrison's fourth-grade class. During the first 58 episodes, Kenny and the other main child characters were in the third grade. Kenny comes from a poor, dysfunctional household, presided over by his alcoholic, unemployed father,Stuart McCormick. His motherCarol McCormick has a job washing dishes atOlive Garden.[2] Kenny has an older brother namedKevin. He also has a younger sister who is shown with his family in theseason nine episode "Best Friends Forever", but does not reappear until the15th season episode "The Poor Kid", where her name is revealed to beKaren, whom he loves unconditionally. Kenny is friends withStan Marsh,Kyle Broflovski,Eric Cartman, andLeopold "Butters" Scotch. Kenny is regularlyteased for living in poverty, particularly by Cartman.[3]
Kenny's superheroalter ego,Mysterion, first appeared in theseason 13 episode "The Coon",[4] as a rival to Eric Cartman's eponymous supervillain alter ego. He unmasks himself at the end of the episode, but his identity is left intentionally ambiguous to the viewer. He is not revealed to be Kenny until theseason 14 episode "Mysterion Rises", the character's third appearance as part of a three-part story arc.[5]
Prior toseason six, Kenny died in almost every episode.[6] The nature of the deaths were often gruesome and portrayed in a comically absurd fashion,[7] and usually followed by Stan Marsh or Kyle Broflovski respectively yelling "Oh, my God! They killed Kenny!" with the other yelling "You bastard(s)!"[8] Shortly afterward, rats would commonly appear and begin picking at his corpse.[9] In a following episode, Kenny would reappear alive and well, usually without any explanation. Most characters appear oblivious or indifferent to the phenomenon, although occasionally one will acknowledge awareness of it.[10] In "Cherokee Hair Tampons", Kenny gets irritated and offended when Stan laments Kyle's critical condition while utterly ignoring Kenny's past demises. Eric Cartman commented on Kenny's deaths in the episode "Cartmanland" when he is being sued for unsafe rides insisting to attorneys representing his family that "Kenny? He dies all the time!" In "Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo", as the episode is about to end, the kids point out that "something feels unfinished", and Kenny celebrates as "The End" sign appears; it is the first episode in the series he survives.[11]
Near the end of the production run of the show'sfifth season, creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone contemplated having an episode in which Kenny was killed off permanently. The reasoning behind the idea was to genuinely surprise fans, and to allow an opportunity to provide a major role forButters Stotch, a breakout character whose popularity was growing with the viewers and creators of the show.[12] In the episode "Kenny Dies", Kenny dies after developingterminalmuscular dystrophy,[13] while Parker and Stone claimed that Kenny would not be returning in subsequent episodes. The duo insisted they grew tired of upholding the tradition of having Kenny die in each episode.[14] Stone stated that thinking of humorous ways to kill the character was initially fun, but became more mundane as the series progressed.[13] When they determined that it would be too difficult to develop the character because he was too much of a "prop", Parker and Stone finally decided to kill off Kenny permanently.[8][15]
["Kenny Dies"] was the one episode where [all the characters] cared [he was dying] for once. After that, we said, "Why doesn't he just stay dead?" And it was like, "Okay, let's just do that." It was that easy of a decision. I think a lot of people probably haven't noticed. I couldn't care less. I am so sick of that character.
- — Matt Stone, from a 2002 article in theKnoxville News-Sentinel[13]
For much of season six, Kenny remained dead, though he still appears to possess Cartman's body, and both Stone and Parker entertained the idea of eventually bringing the character back.[15] According to Stone, only a small minority of fans were significantly angered by Kenny's absence to threaten a boycott of the cable channelComedy Central, on whichSouth Park is aired.[8] For most of the season, Stan, Kyle, and Cartman fill the void left by Kenny by allowing the characters Butters Stotch andTweek Tweak into their group, paving the way for those characters to receive more focus on the show; nevertheless, Kenny returned from the year-long absence in the season six finale "Red Sleigh Down", has remained a main character since, and has been given larger roles in episodes.[15][16][17]
The first explanation given for Kenny's deaths and reappearances was given in the 53rd episode "Cartman Joins NAMBLA", wherein the McCormicks have a baby exactly like Kenny, including the characteristic orange parka, shortly after the former Kenny dies. Mr. McCormick exclaims, "God, this must be the fiftieth time this has happened", to which Mrs. McCormick quickly replies, "Fifty-second". This explanation is expanded upon in the season 14 episodes "Coon 2: Hindsight", "Mysterion Rises" and "Coon vs. Coon and Friends", in which Kenny, while playing superheroes with his friends, claims his "superpower" isimmortality. He actually dies several times during these episodes—even committing suicide more than once—reawakening alive and unharmed in his bed each time. He is frustrated and angry that no one can remember him dying every time he regenerates and longs to know the source of his power, which he views as a curse. Unbeknownst to him, his parents were previously connected to aCthulhu-worshipping death cult. After Kenny shoots himself the second time, Mrs. McCormick awakes with a scream, shrieks "It's happening again!", and minutes later, is shown gently placing a newborn Kenny in his bed. "We should never have gone to that stupid cult meeting," she grouses as she and her husband return to bed.[18][19]
In "Put It Down", he is killed off-screen by a driver on his phone, as his picture is shown among those of kids killed by a driver on phone texting tribute. In "Bike Parade",Jeff Bezos tellsAlexa to kill Kenny, and Cartman hauls his coffin while riding his bike in the parade. "The Pandemic Special" sees Kenny being gunned down by the police when they are equipped with military weaponry to deal with the children breaking free fromCOVID-19 quarantine.[20]
InSouth Park: Post Covid, as a millionaire scientist in the future finding the cause ofCOVID-19, Kenny dies due to a time travel experiment that got him a variant named COVID Delta+ Rewards.[21] This death is undone inSouth Park: Post Covid: The Return of Covid after Stan, Kyle, and Cartman time travel to the past.[22]
| Episode | How? |
|---|---|
| 101 -Cartman Gets an Anal Probe | Kenny survives a UFO bombardment and a panicked herd of cows, only to be run over by Officer Barbrady's police car as it chases the cows. |
| 102 -Weight Gain 4000 | Mr. Garrison attempts to kill Kathie Lee Gifford with a gun, but the bullet hits Kenny, sending him flying and impaled on a flagpole. |
| 103 -Volcano | A volcanic eruption causes Kenny to be hit by a lava ball. He survives this, but a bullet from Ned's gun is fatal to him. |
| 104 -Big Gay Al's Big Gay Boat Ride | His arms and head are pulled off his torso by three Middle Park Cowboy rugby players. |
| 105 -An Elephant Makes Love to a Pig | Kenny is smashed into the microwave by Stan's clone. He burns in this microwave and comes out roasted. |
| 106 -Death | Kenny is touched byDeath. |
| 107 -Pinkeye | Kenny is hit by the space stationMir in the beginning. He later comes back as a zombie and is sawed in half by Kyle. At the end he also comes out of his grave, but is immediately crushed by a statue and a crashed plane. |
| 108 -Damien | Damien turns Kenny into aplatypus, who is later shot dead by Jimbo, after the fight between Jesus and Satan. |
| 109 -Starvin' Marvin | Kenny loses one eye after an attack by mutant turkeys. |
| 111 -Tom's Rhinoplasty | Impaled by an Iraqi sword. The sword was thrown by Miss Ellen, the temporary replacement for Mr. Garrison (who had cosmetic surgery). |
| 112 -Mecha-Streisand | When Kenny starts playingtetherball with himself, he gets himself tied to the tetherball pole and asphyxiates. |
| 113 -Cartman's Mom is a Dirty Slut | Kenny is thrown onto the railroad tracks by a go-kart. There, he is run over by a train. Stan's grandfather recorded this and wins the main prize of the competition. When Stan, Kyle and Cartman see this video, Stan and Kyle say: "Oh my god! They videotaped killing Kenny! You bastards!" |
| Episode | How? |
|---|---|
| 202 -Cartman's Mom is Still a Dirty Slut | Kenny is electrocuted when he turns on the hospital's backup generator. |
| 203 -Chickenlover | Kenny almost dies in this episode, but he survives everything. However, during the credits, he is crushed by a tree. |
| 204 -Ike's Wee Wee | Kenny trips and falls into an open grave. As he lies there, a gravestone falls on top of him. |
| 205 -Conjoined Fetus Lady | During the South Park vs. China dodgeball game, a Chinese player throws a dodgeball at Kenny. The ball hits him so hard that he flies into the wall behind him and dies. |
| 206 -The Mexican Staring Frog of Southern Sri Lanka | During a fight at the showJesus and Pals, Kenny is grabbed by two audience members who proceed to tear him in two. |
| 207 -City on the Edge of Forever | A large, black monster pulls Kenny out of a bus and kills him in the street. Also, in a flashback, Kenny is crushed against a wall byHenry Winkler riding a motorcycle. |
| 208 -Summer Sucks | The big, burningSnake goes berserk and Kenny is nearly killed by it. Then the safety fence crushes him. In the flashback,Baby Kenny's head is blown off by a firecracker. |
| 209 -Chef's Chocolate Salty Balls | Kenny is crushed by a group of people leaving the theater. In this episode, Stan and Kyle don't say the famous lines, but two tourists do and the line is slightly modified. (Tourist 1: "Oh my god, I found a penny!" Tourist 2: "You bastard!") |
| 210 -Chickenpox | At the end of the episode he laughs along with everyone, but dies from chicken pox. |
| 211 -Roger Ebert Should Lay off the Fatty Foods | Kenny's head explodes when Kyle and Stan turn up the intensity of the observatory demonstration to the max. |
| 212 -Clubhouses | During a party at Cartman's house, Kenny is crushed by partygoers. |
| 213 -Cow Days | The bull that Cartman is riding goes berserk. Kenny refuses to help, because he thinks he'll die. Later, the bull kills him anyway. |
| 214 -Chef Aid | DuringOzzy Osbourne's performance, Ozzy bites Kenny's head off. |
| 215 -Spookyfish | Kenny is killed by Stan's goldfish. This happens when Stan and Kyle aren't looking. |
| 216 -Merry Christmas, Charlie Manson! | While surrendering to the police, Kenny is shot up. |
| 217 -Gnomes | Kenny is crushed by a derailedmine cart inside of the Underpants Gnomes' secret lair. |
| 218 -Prehistoric Ice Man | Before the exhibition of the prehistoric ice man, Kenny is crushed by a treadmill. |
| Episode | How? |
|---|---|
| 301 -Rainforest Shmainforest | Kenny is struck by lightning and dies. However, Kelly (a girl Kenny likes) manages torevive him. |
| 302 -Spontaneous Combustion | A spontaneous combustion at the beginning of the episode. |
| 303 -The Succubus | Kenny dies at the beginning of the episode for unknown reasons while they are waiting for Chef. At sunrise, he suddenly comes back to life. However, he is later rammed to death by Succubus. |
| 305 -Jackovasaurus | Kenny imitates a deer to distract Cartman. However, a bear mistakes him for a real deer and kills him. |
| 306 -Sexual Harassment Panda | Kenny is attracted to a magnet in a large fan and dies. |
| 309 -Jewbilee | Kenny sacrifices himself to saveMoses from a shell. |
| 310 -Korn's Groovy Pirate Ghost Mystery | Kenny is destroyed by a snowspeeder while wearing anED-209 costume. |
| 311 -Chinpokomon | Kenny has an epileptic seizure while playing a Chinpokomon video game. At the end of the episode, he explodes, with a swarm of rats fleeing from with body. |
| 313 -Hooked on Monkey Phonics | In Cartman's room, Kenny is beaten up by the Phonics Monkey. |
| 314 -The Red Badge of Gayness | Kenny is set on fire by a US Army warning flare. He burns alive. |
| 315 -Mr. Hankey's Christmas Classics | During a Christmas carol, Kenny is crushed by a falling chandelier. |
| 316 -Are You There God? It's Me, Jesus | Kenny's insides explode from the increased pressure of atampon stuck in his buttocks. |
| 317 -World Wide Recorder Concert | Kenny is killed by a massive bowel movement after hearing "TheBrown Note". |
| Episode | How? |
|---|---|
| 401 -Cartman's Silly Hate Crime 2000 | He is crushed by bricks that are supposed to represent Cartman after he flies off a sled. |
| 402 -The Tooth Fairy Tats 2000 | Kenny is thrown into a river wearing cement shoes. However, the river is not deep enough to drown in. But while trying to get out, he falls into a hidden ditch and drowns anyway. |
| 403 -Quintuplets 2000 | Kenny is accidentally shot dead by the Romanian police. |
| 404 -Timmy 2000 | Cartman hits Kenny to death with a frying pan while he is having hallucinations of Christina Aguilera. |
| 406 -Cartman Joins NAMBLA | Kenny is run over by an ambulance while the ambulance is taking his father away. |
| 407 -Cherokee Hair Tampons | After Stan vents to him about Kyle dying. Because Kenny dies all the time, he curses out Stan and walks home angrily and is instantly crushed by a piano. |
| 408 -Chef Goes Nanners | Kenny explodes after taking an overdose of antacid tablets and starts drinking water. He thought they were peppermints. |
| 409 -Something You Can Do With Your Finger | He is crushed by an elevator just before the performance at the mall. |
| 412 -Fourth Grade | Kenny dies because of Timmy's wheelchair, which he tries to fix. |
| 413 -Trapper Keeper | Kenny is crushed between the wall and Cartman's door as Trapper Keeper rams the door open. |
| 414 -Helen Keller! The Musical | Crushed by a falling set light, which was actually meant for Timmy's dysfunctional pet, Gobbles. |
| 416 -The Wacky Molestation Adventure | He is sacrificed in "Carrousel". This is not shown. |
| 417 -A Very Crappy Christmas | Kenny is run over by a car. |
| Episode | How? |
|---|---|
| 501 -Scott Tenorman Must Die | Kenny laughs himself to death after watching Cartman's "I'm a little piggy" video. |
| 502 -It Hits the Fan | Kenny pukes his guts out and dies. This is after surviving the plague. |
| 503 -Cripple Fight | He is grabbed by a bird of prey just as the boys are being thanked for their efforts. |
| 504 -Super Best Friends | He drowns in the Reflecting Pool during a cult mass suicide. |
| 506 -Cartmanland | Kenny is hit by a loose pole while riding a roller coaster. |
| 507 -Proper Condom Use | Kenny's face is sliced in half by a boomerang thrown by Bebe. |
| 508 -Towelie | While trying to save the boys' Gamesphere, Kenny falls into a vat of lava. |
| 509 -Osama Bin Laden Has Farty Pants | An explosion caused by American bombs kills Kenny and his new Afghan friend. |
| 510 -How to Eat With Your Butt | Kenny is run over by a motorcycle. |
| 511 -The Entity | Anairport security worker shoots Kenny in the head after finding anail clipper on his person. |
| 512 -Here Comes The Neighborhood | Kenny dies off-screen, but his body is seen on a sled pulled by Craig Tucker. |
| 513 -Kenny Dies | Kenny dies for good in this episode from a muscular disease. He is not seen for almost all ofSeason 6. |
| Episode | How? |
|---|---|
| 715 -It's Christmas in Canada | He gets zapped by Saddam Hussein, who is introduced as The Prime Minister of Canada with laser eyes. |
| Episode | How? |
|---|---|
| 807 -The Jeffersons | Mr. Jefferson throws Kenny (whom he believes is his son Blanket) to the ceiling of Blanket's room. |
| Episode | How? |
|---|---|
| 903 -Wing | Kenny is shot dead by the Chinese mafia. |
| 904 -Best Friends Forever | When Kenny is playing with hisPSP, he is run over by a truck, whose driver is also playing with his PSP. |
| Episode | How? |
|---|---|
| 1008 -Make Love, Not Warcraft | While Kenny himself does not physically die, hisWorld of Warcraft character is killed twice. After his first death, Stan and Kyle say the usual lines. |
| Episode | How? |
|---|---|
| 1114 -The List | WhenBebe Stevens fights withWendy Testaburger over a gun, Wendy fires a bullet. The bullet doesn't hit either of them, but instead flies through the window of Kenny's house and through his head, while at dinner. |
| Episode | How? |
|---|---|
| 1301 -The Ring | Kenny dies ofsyphilis after receivingoral sex from his girlfriend. |
| 1310 -W.T.F. | Kenny picks up a firework, then is shot into the air and the firework explodes. |
| 1314 -Pee | Kenny drowns in atsunami of urine. |
| Episode | How? |
|---|---|
| 1401 -Sexual Healing | Kenny hangs himself in a Batman costume from his doorknob fromautoerotic asphyxiation. |
| 1412 and 1413 -Mysterion Rises andCoon vs. Coon & Friends | Kenny dies multiple times as his (talking)alter ego Mysterion. Resurrecting from death is revealed to be hissuperpower. At the end of the episode he says he wants to go to sleep and shoots himself in the head. He is reborn afterwards and his parents put the newborn Kenny in his bed, as they have seemingly done many times before. |
| Episode | How? |
|---|---|
| 1514 -The Poor Kid | After being the poorest kid in school again, Kenny is picked up by a large reptilian bird and thrown around and eventually eaten. This time, Stan simply says: "What the fuck?" |
| Episode | How? |
|---|---|
| 1606 -I Should Have Never Gone Ziplining | Kenny dies of boredom while riding on a boat going 5 miles per hour. Other factors that led up to his boredom includeziplining and horseback riding with tour groups. This death is seen in a live-action sequence and is the only death to do so. |
| Episode | How? |
|---|---|
| 1709 -Titties and Dragons | Dressed as Princess Kenny, he jumps out of the window at theSony headquarters building inJapan in an attempt to fly. However, he crashes violently onto the pavement with blood splattering, horrifying pedestrians and the Sony employees. Princess Kenny is quickly revived by the power of cuteness and flies away. |
| Episode | How? |
|---|---|
| 2102 -Put It Down | Kenny is killed off-screen, as during the song at the end of the episode, a picture of him is among pictures of other students who have been "killed by a President on their phone" (run over). |
| Episode | How? |
|---|---|
| 2210 -Bike Parade | Kenny gets killed byAmazon Alexa at the orders ofJeff Bezos. Cartman is seen at the end of the episode hauling his casket during the bike parade. |
| Episode | How? |
|---|---|
| 2401 -The Pandemic Special | Kenny is shot by atank while on the run from the South Park Police. |
| Episode | How? |
|---|---|
| A Mother's Courage | While carving a Jack-o-Lantern, Kenny accidentally chops his arms off and stabs himself with a knife. |
| South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut | After watching theTerrance and Phillip movie, Kenny sets his fart on fire for a bet. This burns him and he is taken to the hospital. There the doctors replace his heart with a potato. When he wakes up the doctors say he has three seconds left to live. Kenny just shouts "What?" when the potato explodes from his body. |
| The Real South Park | "The Real South Park" was anApril Fool's joke fromComedy Central. Kenny is run over by atram while on a field trip toAmsterdam. |
| South Park: The End of Obesity | Tony the Tiger throws Kenny against a car's windshield, killing him immediately. |
When developing the character, the show's creators had observed that most groups of childhood friends in small middle-class towns always included "the one poor kid" and decided to portray Kenny in this light.[23]
In a 2000 interview, Parker said that Kenny was based on a childhood friend of his who was also named Kenny and wore an orange parka that muffled his voice. He was the poorest child in the neighborhood and often skipped school, causing Parker and his friends to jokingly say he died, only for him to return to school later.[24]
An unnamed precursor to Kenny first appeared in the firstThe Spirit of Christmas short, dubbedJesus vs. Frosty, created by Parker and Stone in 1992 while they were students at theUniversity of Colorado. The character was composed ofconstruction paper cutouts and animated through the use ofstop motion.[25] When tasked three years later by friend Brian Graden to create another short as a videoChristmas card that he could send to friends, Parker and Stone created another similarly-animatedThe Spirit of Christmas short, dubbedJesus vs. Santa.[26] In this short, Kenny is given his first name, and first appears as he does in the series.Kenny next appeared on August 13, 1997, whenSouth Park debuted onComedy Central with the episode "Cartman Gets an Anal Probe".[27]
In tradition with the show'sanimation style, Kenny is composed of simple geometrical shapes andprimary colors.[10][25] 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.[10][25][28] Ever since the show's second episode, "Weight Gain 4000" (season one, 1997), Kenny, like all other characters on the show, has been animated with computer software, though he is portrayed to give the impression that the show still utilizes its original technique.[25]
The effect of Kenny's speech is achieved by Stone mumbling into his own hand as he provides Kenny's lines.[25] While he originally voiced Kenny without any computer manipulation, Stone now does so by speaking in his normal vocal range and then adding a childlike inflection. 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.[29][30] As the technique of Kenny's muzzled enunciation frequently implies, many of his lines are indeed profane and sexually explicit, the lengthier of which are mostly improvised by Stone.[25]
He first appeared unobscured by his hood inSouth Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, where it was revealed that he had messy blonde hair.Mike Judge provided the voice for Kenny's one line of uninsulated dialogue: "Goodbye, you guys."[31] On a few occasions during episodes that have originally aired since the film's release, he has been seen without the parka;[note 1] however, unlike inBigger, Longer & Uncut his entire face has been only seen four times in the television series without being partially obscured or otherwise altered, this being in "The Losing Edge", "The Jeffersons", "You're Getting Old", and "DikinBaus Hot Dogs" (except in DikiniBaus Hot Dogs, his face is slightly concealed by a pair of sunglasses shades). He also speaks unmuffled during some of these instances, in which case co-producerEric Stough provides Kenny's voice.[31] During "The Coon" episodes of seasons 13 and 14, Kenny has his first major speaking role as the character Mysterion.[32]
While most child characters on the show are foul-mouthed, Kenny is often even more risqué with his dialogue.[33] Parker and Stone state that they depict Kenny and his friends in this manner in order to display how young boys really talk when they are alone.[10][34] While Kenny is often cynical and profane, Parker notes that there nonetheless is an "underlying sweetness" aspect to the character,[35] andTime magazine described Kenny and his friends as "sometimes cruel but with a core of innocence".[36] He is amused bytoilet humor and bodily functions,[36] and his favorite television personalities areTerrance and Phillip, a Canadian duo whose comedy routines on their show-within-the-show revolve substantially around fart jokes. Kenny is shown to desire intercourse in the episode "The Ring", when Kenny gets a girlfriend and is overjoyed to find out that she has a reputation as a slut. Kenny is also lecherous,[3] and often portrayed as being eager to do and say disgusting things in an attempt to impress others or earn money.[23] Conversely, his alter-ego Mysterion is seemingly mature, principled, and serious-minded, the only exception being one instance in "Mysterion Rises" in which he takes delight in irritating Cartman. As Mysterion, he convinces his parents to take better care of themselves and their children, as seen by their reaction when he questions them about the cult of Cthulhu. He also uses his disguise to protect his sister Karen (who refers to Mysterion as her "guardian angel"), as revealed in "The Poor Kid"; however, in all of his guises, Kenny is depicted as being uncommonlyselfless, dying for the sake of others and spending all of his time working so he could buy his little sister a doll.[37][38]
In the trilogy of episodes "Black Friday", "A Song of Ass and Fire" and "Titties and Dragons", in which the boys play-act characters from the TV seriesGame of Thrones, Kennycross-dresses as a fantasy-style princess with a wig and dress similar to the video game characterPrincess Zelda, and becomes a Japanese-speakingmoeanime character at one point. When Cartman complains, "You're never going to be a realprincess", Princess Kenny responds (via her translator, Stan) angrily to Cartman, calling him a "ball-lickinglesbian".[39][40][41]
This portrayal continues in the video gameSouth Park: The Stick of Truth where Cartman notes that playing a "chick" is "just how [Kenny] seems to be rolling right now". Kenny's sister also refers to Kenny as a girl, if you talk to her in the McCormick house. Throughout the game, Kenny posts 'status updates' referring to herself as "the cutest of them all".[42]
Kenny had a major role inSouth Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut,[43] the full-length film based on the series, and appeared on thefilm's soundtrack singing (albeit muffled) several lines of the song "Mountain Town" from the film.[44] As a tribute to theDead Parrot sketch, a short that features Kenny as a "dead friend" being returned by Cartman to a shop run by Kyle aired during a 1999BBC television special commemorating the 30th anniversary ofMonty Python's Flying Circus.[45] Kenny was also featured in thedocumentary filmThe Aristocrats, listening to Cartman tell his version of the film's titular joke,[46] and in "The Gauntlet", a short spoofing bothGladiator andBattlefield Earth that aired during the2000 MTV Movie Awards.[47][48]
Kenny also appears in sixSouth Park-related video games: InSouth Park, Kenny is controlled by the player through thefirst-person shooter mode who attempts to ward off enemies from terrorizing the town of South Park.[49] InSouth Park: Chef's Luv Shack, a user has the option of playing as Kenny when participating in the game's several "minigames" based on other popular arcade games.[50] In the racing gameSouth Park Rally, a user can race as Kenny against other users playing as other characters, while choosing to place him in any of a variety of vehicles.[51] InSouth Park Let's Go Tower Defense Play!, Kenny can be selected as a playable character used to establish atower defense against the game's antagonists.[52] InSouth Park: The Stick of Truth, Kenny (as Princess Kenny) can be selected as a companion over the course of much of the game.[53] InSouth Park: The Fractured but Whole, Kenny is seen as his alter-ego Mysterion.[42]
Kenny's deaths are well-known in popular culture,[8] and was one of the things viewers most commonly associated withSouth Park during its earlier seasons.[54]IGN ranked Kenny at #6 on their "The Top 25 South Park Characters" list.[55] The exclamation of "Oh my God! They killed Kenny!" quickly became a popularcatchphrase,[13][36] while both Kenny and the phrase have appeared on some of the more popular pieces ofSouth Park merchandise,[8] including shirts, bumper stickers, calendars and baseball caps,[3] and inspired the rap song "Kenny's Dead" byMaster P, which was featured onChef Aid: The South Park Album.[8]
The running gag of Kenny's deaths in earlier seasons was incorporated into theseason 9 (2005) episode "Best Friends Forever" when Kenny, in avegetative state, is kept alive by afeeding tube while a media circus erupted over whether the tube should be removed and allow Kenny to die. The episode received much attention as it served to provide commentary on theTerri Schiavo case,[56][57] originally airing just one day before Schiavo died.[58] The episode earnedSouth Park its firstEmmy Award forOutstanding Animated Program.[59]
Kenny's deaths have been subject to much critical analysis in the media and literary world. In the bookSouth Park and Philosophy: Bigger, Longer, and More Penetrating, an essay bySouthern Illinois University philosophy professorRandall Auxier, entitled "Killing Kenny: Our Daily Dose of Death", suggests that the fashion of the recurring gag serves to help the viewer become more comfortable with the inevitability of their own death.[60][61] In the bookSouth Park and Philosophy: You Know, I Learned Something Today,University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point professor Karin Fry wrote an essay concerning the parallels between Kenny's role in the show and the different concepts ofexistentialism.[62]
When Sophie Rutschmann of theUniversity of Strasbourg discovered a mutated gene that causes an adultfruit fly to die within two days after it is infected with certain bacteria, she named the gene "Kenny" in honor of the character.[63]
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