Kenny McCormick

Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox character Kenneth McCormick<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> is a fictional character and one of the four main protagonists in the adult animated sitcom South Park, alongside Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, and Eric Cartman. His often muffled and incomprehensible speech—the result of his parka hood covering his mouth—is provided by co-creator Matt Stone. After early appearances in The Spirit of Christmas shorts in 1992 and 1995, Kenny appeared in South Park television episodes beginning August 13, 1997, as well as the 1999 feature film South 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 his poverty-stricken family. Kenny is animated by computer to look as he did in the show's original method of cutout animation.

The character gained popularity thanks to a running 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 the sixth 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.

Role in South Park

Kenny attends South Park Elementary as part of Mr. 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 mother Carol McCormick has a job washing dishes at Olive Garden.<ref>Template:Cite webTemplate:Dead linkTemplate:Cbignore</ref> Kenny has an older brother named Kevin. He also has a younger sister who is shown with his family in the season nine episode "Best Friends Forever", but does not reappear until the 15th season episode "The Poor Kid", where her name is revealed to be Karen, whom he loves unconditionally. Kenny is friends with Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman, and Leopold "Butters" Scotch. Kenny is regularly teased for living in poverty, particularly by Cartman.<ref name=sfrubin>Template:Cite news</ref>

Kenny's superhero alter ego, Mysterion, first appeared in the season 13 episode "The Coon",<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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 the season 14 episode "Mysterion Rises", the character's third appearance as part of a three-part story arc.<ref name=mysterion>Template:Cite news</ref>

Deaths

Prior to season six, Kenny died in almost every episode.<ref>The American Retiree, December 17, 2024</ref> The nature of the deaths were often gruesome and portrayed in a comically absurd fashion,<ref name=cnnleonard>Template:Cite news</ref> and usually followed by Stan Marsh or Kyle Broflovski respectively yelling "Oh, my God! They killed Kenny!" with the other yelling "You bastard(s)!"<ref name="nypost">Template:Cite news</ref> Shortly afterward, rats would commonly appear and begin picking at his corpse.<ref name=nytimes>Template:Cite news</ref> 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.<ref name=avr>Template:Cite news</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Near the end of the production run of the show's fifth 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 for Butters Stotch, a breakout character whose popularity was growing with the viewers and creators of the show.<ref name=commentary>Template:Cite video Mini-commentary for episode "Kenny Dies"</ref> In the episode "Kenny Dies", Kenny dies after developing terminal muscular dystrophy,<ref name=buzzle>Template:Cite news</ref> 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.<ref name=growsup1>Template:Cite magazine</ref> Stone stated that thinking of humorous ways to kill the character was initially fun, but became more mundane as the series progressed.<ref name=buzzle/> 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.<ref name=nypost/><ref name=page2>Template:Cite news</ref>

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.<ref name=page2/> According to Stone, only a small minority of fans were significantly angered by Kenny's absence to threaten a boycott of the cable channel Comedy Central, on which South Park is aired.<ref name=nypost/> For most of the season, Stan, Kyle, and Cartman fill the void left by Kenny by allowing the characters Butters Stotch and Tweek 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.<ref name=page2/><ref name=ids>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Semigram, Aly. "'South Park' tries to go for laughs with the Penn State scandal" Template:Webarchive. Entertainment Weekly. November 17, 2011</ref>

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" is immortality. 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 a Cthulhu-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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

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 tells Alexa 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 from COVID-19 quarantine.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In South Park: Post Covid, as a millionaire scientist in the future finding the cause of COVID-19, Kenny dies due to a time travel experiment that got him a variant named COVID Delta+ Rewards.<ref name=indiewire>Template:Cite news</ref> This death is undone in South Park: Post Covid: The Return of Covid after Stan, Kyle, and Cartman time travel to the past.<ref name="Hollywood">Template:Cite web</ref>

Season 1

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 by Death.
107 - Pinkeye	Kenny is hit by the space station Mir 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 a platypus, 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 playing tetherball 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!"

Season 2

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 show Jesus 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 by Henry Winkler riding a motorcycle.
208 - Summer Sucks	The big, burning Snake 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	During Ozzy 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 derailed mine 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.

Season 3

Episode	How?
301 - Rainforest Shmainforest	Kenny is struck by lightning and dies. However, Kelly (a girl Kenny likes) manages to revive 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 save Moses from a shell.
310 - Korn's Groovy Pirate Ghost Mystery	Kenny is destroyed by a snowspeeder while wearing an ED-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 a tampon stuck in his buttocks.
317 - World Wide Recorder Concert	Kenny is killed by a massive bowel movement after hearing "The Brown Note".

Season 4

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.

Season 5

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	An airport security worker shoots Kenny in the head after finding a nail 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 of Season 6.

Season 7

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.

Season 8

Episode	How?
807 - The Jeffersons	Mr. Jefferson throws Kenny (whom he believes is his son Blanket) to the ceiling of Blanket's room.

Season 9

Episode	How?
903 - Wing	Kenny is shot dead by the Chinese mafia.
904 - Best Friends Forever	When Kenny is playing with his PSP, he is run over by a truck, whose driver is also playing with his PSP.

Season 10

Episode	How?
1008 - Make Love, Not Warcraft	While Kenny himself does not physically die, his World of Warcraft character is killed twice. After his first death, Stan and Kyle say the usual lines.

Season 11

Episode	How?
1114 - The List	When Bebe Stevens fights with Wendy 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.

Season 13

Episode	How?
1301 - The Ring	Kenny dies of syphilis after receiving oral 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 a tsunami of urine.

Season 14

Episode	How?
1401 - Sexual Healing	Kenny hangs himself in a Batman costume from his doorknob from autoerotic asphyxiation.
1412 and 1413 - Mysterion Rises and Coon vs. Coon & Friends	Kenny dies multiple times as his (talking) alter ego Mysterion. Resurrecting from death is revealed to be his superpower. 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.

Season 15

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?"

Season 16

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 include ziplining and horseback riding with tour groups. This death is seen in a live-action sequence and is the only death to do so.

Season 17

Episode	How?
1709 - Titties and Dragons	Dressed as Princess Kenny, he jumps out of the window at the Sony headquarters building in Japan 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.

Season 21

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).

Season 22

Episode	How?
2210 - Bike Parade	Kenny gets killed by Amazon Alexa at the orders of Jeff Bezos. Cartman is seen at the end of the episode hauling his casket during the bike parade.

Season 24

Episode	How?
2401 - The Pandemic Special	Kenny is shot by a tank while on the run from the South Park Police.

Other

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 the Terrance 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 an April Fool's joke from Comedy Central. Kenny is run over by a tram while on a field trip to Amsterdam.
South Park: The End of Obesity	Tony the Tiger throws Kenny against a car's windshield, killing him immediately.

Character

Creation and design

File:KennyUnhooded.jpg

Kenny's entire face was revealed for the first time in the 1999 film South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut.

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.<ref name=goindown>Template:Cite video</ref>

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.<ref>Template:CitationTemplate:Cbignore</ref>

An unnamed precursor to Kenny first appeared in the first The Spirit of Christmas short, dubbed Jesus vs. Frosty, created by Parker and Stone in 1992 while they were students at the University of Colorado. The character was composed of construction paper cutouts and animated through the use of stop motion.<ref name=method>Template:Cite news</ref> When tasked three years later by friend Brian Graden to create another short as a video Christmas card that he could send to friends, Parker and Stone created another similarly-animated The Spirit of Christmas short, dubbed Jesus vs. Santa.<ref name=VH1>Template:Cite web</ref> 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, when South Park debuted on Comedy Central with the episode "Cartman Gets an Anal Probe".<ref>Frederic M. Biddle, "'South Park' wickedly makes the grade", The Boston Globe (August 13, 1997). LexisNexis Template:Subscription required. Retrieved April 30, 2009.</ref>

In tradition with the show's animation style, Kenny is composed of simple geometrical shapes and primary colors.<ref name=avr/><ref name=method/> 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.<ref name=avr/><ref name=method/><ref name=growsup2>Template:Cite news</ref> 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.<ref name=method/>

File:MysterionUnmasked1.png

Mysterion unmasked at the end of "The Coon". Originally intended to have been a generic, unnamed classmate of the main characters, he was revealed to be Kenny in "Mysterion Rises".<ref name=mysterion/>

The effect of Kenny's speech is achieved by Stone mumbling into his own hand as he provides Kenny's lines.<ref name=method/> 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 with Pro Tools, and the pitch is altered to make the voice sound more like that of a 10-year-old.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=sps40>Template:Cite web</ref> 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.<ref name=method/>

He first appeared unobscured by his hood in South 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."<ref name="voiceactors">Template:Cite web</ref> On a few occasions during episodes that have originally aired since the film's release, he has been seen without the parka;<ref group=note>Including "The Tooth Fairy Tats 2000", "Super Best Friends", "Lil' Crime Stoppers", "The Jeffersons", "Good Times with Weapons", "The Losing Edge", "South Park Is Gay!", "Lice Capades", "Margaritaville", "W.T.F.", "Pee", "You're Getting Old", and "DikinBaus Hot Dogs".</ref> however, unlike in Bigger, 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-producer Eric Stough provides Kenny's voice.<ref name="voiceactors" /> During "The Coon" episodes of seasons 13 and 14, Kenny has his first major speaking role as the character Mysterion.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Personality and traits

While most child characters on the show are foul-mouthed, Kenny is often even more risqué with his dialogue.<ref name=bbc>Template:Cite news</ref> 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.<ref name=avr/><ref name=abc4>Template:Cite web</ref> While Kenny is often cynical and profane, Parker notes that there nonetheless is an "underlying sweetness" aspect to the character,<ref name=loudlewd>Template:Cite news</ref> and Time magazine described Kenny and his friends as "sometimes cruel but with a core of innocence".<ref name=time/> He is amused by toilet humor and bodily functions,<ref name=time/> and his favorite television personalities are Terrance 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,<ref name=sfrubin/> and often portrayed as being eager to do and say disgusting things in an attempt to impress others or earn money.<ref name=goindown/> 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 uncommonly selfless, dying for the sake of others and spending all of his time working so he could buy his little sister a doll.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite episode</ref>

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 series Game of Thrones, Kenny cross-dresses as a fantasy-style princess with a wig and dress similar to the video game character Princess Zelda, and becomes a Japanese-speaking moe anime character at one point. When Cartman complains, "You're never going to be a real princess", Princess Kenny responds (via her translator, Stan) angrily to Cartman, calling him a "ball-licking lesbian".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite video</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

This portrayal continues in the video game South 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".<ref name=DailyTelegraph>Template:Cite news</ref>

In other media

Kenny had a major role in South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> the full-length film based on the series, and appeared on the film's soundtrack singing (albeit muffled) several lines of the song "Mountain Town" from the film.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> As a tribute to the Dead Parrot sketch, a short that features Kenny as a "dead friend" being returned by Cartman to a shop run by Kyle aired during a 1999 BBC television special commemorating the 30th anniversary of Monty Python's Flying Circus.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Kenny was also featured in the documentary film The Aristocrats, listening to Cartman tell his version of the film's titular joke,<ref name=aristocrats>Template:Cite web</ref> and in "The Gauntlet", a short spoofing both Gladiator and Battlefield Earth that aired during the 2000 MTV Movie Awards.<ref name=ortega>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name=mtvshort>Template:Cite video Short that aired during the 2000 MTV Movie Awards</ref>

Kenny also appears in six South Park-related video games: In South Park, Kenny is controlled by the player through the first-person shooter mode who attempts to ward off enemies from terrorizing the town of South Park.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In South 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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In the racing game South 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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In South Park Let's Go Tower Defense Play!, Kenny can be selected as a playable character used to establish a tower defense against the game's antagonists.<ref name=igntower>Template:Cite web</ref> In South Park: The Stick of Truth, Kenny (as Princess Kenny) can be selected as a companion over the course of much of the game.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In South Park: The Fractured but Whole, Kenny is seen as his alter-ego Mysterion.<ref name=DailyTelegraph/>

Cultural impact

Kenny's deaths are well-known in popular culture,<ref name=nypost/> and was one of the things viewers most commonly associated with South Park during its earlier seasons.<ref name=wired>Template:Cite web</ref> IGN ranked Kenny at #6 on their "The Top 25 South Park Characters" list.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The exclamation of "Oh my God! They killed Kenny!" quickly became a popular catchphrase,<ref name=buzzle/><ref name=time>Template:Cite magazine</ref> while both Kenny and the phrase have appeared on some of the more popular pieces of South Park merchandise,<ref name=nypost/> including shirts, bumper stickers, calendars and baseball caps,<ref name=sfrubin/> and inspired the rap song "Kenny's Dead" by Master P, which was featured on Chef Aid: The South Park Album.<ref name=nypost/>

The running gag of Kenny's deaths in earlier seasons was incorporated into the season 9 (2005) episode "Best Friends Forever" when Kenny, in a vegetative state, is kept alive by a feeding 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 the Terri Schiavo case,<ref name="nytimessatire">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name=mcfarland2>Template:Cite news</ref> originally airing just one day before Schiavo died.<ref name=nytimesarts>Template:Cite news</ref> The episode earned South Park its first Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program.<ref name=nashua>Template:Cite newsTemplate:Dead link</ref>

Kenny's deaths have been subject to much critical analysis in the media and literary world. In the book South Park and Philosophy: Bigger, Longer, and More Penetrating, an essay by Southern Illinois University philosophy professor Randall 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.<ref name=green>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In the book South 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 of existentialism.<ref name=philo4>Template:Cite book</ref>

When Sophie Rutschmann of the University of Strasbourg discovered a mutated gene that causes an adult fruit fly to die within two days after it is infected with certain bacteria, she named the gene "Kenny" in honor of the character.<ref name=fruitfly>Template:Cite news</ref>

See also

• South Park (Park County, Colorado)
• South Park City

External links

• Kenny McCormickTemplate:Dead linkTemplate:Cbignore on SouthParkStudios.com