Recurring South Park characters: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

The 4 main characters in the animated series South Park are Eric Cartman, Stan Marsh, Kyle Broslofski and Kenny McCormick. See those articles for details.

There are several other recurring South Park characters.

Family members

Mrs. Cartman

Luanne Cartman is (supposedly) 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 slap to the face 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 actually Eric's father. Trey Parker named her after his ex-girlfriend who broke his heart.

Gerald and Sheila Broslofski, 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 Broslofskis also adopted a Canadian baby and named him Ike Moisha Broslofski. In the movie 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 final episode of the first half of season 8 Ike is reunited with his birth-parents after the new prime-minister of Canada declared that all adopted Canadians must return to their parents, and he is reluctant to go with his biological parents at first, until they offer him a piece of chocolate. The boys fly to Canada to save him, but crsh land. They are greeted by Canadians and are told that to go see the Prime Minister they need to follow the road. The episode takes a turn into a parody of the Wizard of Oz. In the end while talking to the prime minister (a bizarre green floating head), Stan pulls back a curtain to a small room to discover Saddam Hussein operating the image of the prime minister, shortly after the real-life capture of Saddam Hussien.

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, but during his younger years was a member of a briefly successful boy band. He occasionally shows a penchant for singing and dancing. Grandpa Marsh on episode "106: Death" keeps asking Stan to kill him.

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.

See also: Mr. Garrison.

Chef

Jerome 'Chef' McElroy is one of very few black characters in South Park, and the chef at the local school. A stereotyped character, Chef is obsessed with sex 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

See also: Salty Chocolate 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.

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?".

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

Mrs. Crabtree is the school bus driver. She appears to be suffering from paranoia, or at least is mentally unstable; she has a bird living in her hair and is constantly asking the children on her bus "What did you say?", after they insult her. They will say something else that sounds similar in order to avoid trouble. An example would be when Chef says "you fat withered up dried hog." "What did you say!?" "I said: 'I always wanted to travel to Prague'" She calms down, and says "oh, me too."

See also: Eric Cartman, Stan Marsh, Kyle Broslofski, Kenny McCormick, Butters Stotch.

Timmy

Timmy is a handicapped child who can only say his own name, and is confined to a wheelchair. Nevertheless, in one episode he was part of a successful band, the Timmy and the Lords of the Underworld. Due to the popularity of the show, Timmy's exclamation 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.

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.

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.

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.

Tweek

Tweek is a particularly nervous child, apparently as a result of drinking too much coffee. He twitches a lot, wears a shirt that is buttoned incorrectly, and is inclined to scream at the slightest provocation, or complain of "too much pressure!" when anyone asks him to perform the slightest task. He has very few pairs of underwear, because the Underpants Gnomes steal them from him late at night.
His father is the manager of a local coffee shop and often provides his son with lots of caffeine, oblivious to its effect. He writes a report for the boys as part of their current events report about the new Starbucks opening across the street, which causes the boys to have to lie about it. The boys go to the underpants gnomes for help.

Clyde

Clyde 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 episode Cartman's Silly Hate Crime 2000, 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 principals office.

Jimmy

Like Timmy, he is handicapped, but he uses crutches to walk. Despite having a s-s-stuttering problem, he likes to perform stand-up comedy. His favorite song is "The Twelve Days of Christmas", which he (excrutiatingly) 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.

Mr. Hankey

Mr. Hankey, the "Christmas Poo", is the scatological counterpart to Santa Claus but with the lighthearted flair of 60's-era Rankin & Bass holiday specials. He emerges from the toiletbowl on Christmas Eve and brings presents to good boys and girls. 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 indy 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 , entertaining U.S. troops.

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.

Ned lost his voice due to cancer, and is forced to speak with an electronic voicebox. He also lost an arm in the Vietnam War.

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.

Dr. Mephesto

Dr. Alphonse Mephesto 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 person named Kevin, wearing the same clothes as Dr. Mephesto. He quietly follows Mephesto as if he is an assistant, though he rarely assists with anything, and never speaks. It was revealed in Primus song "Mephesto 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.

Halfie

A disshevelled, 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 the clergyman 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. 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. His name is very similar to singer Maxi Priest's.

Terrance and Philip

See Terrance and Philip

City Wok

City Wok is a Chinese restaurant, whose employees have stereotypically heavy accents. 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 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. Like its Chinese counterpart, the wall faced constant invasion from Mongolians.

Towelie

A recent addition to South Park is the constantly stoned-out Towel named "Towelie." This is the type of character (e.g. Mr. Hankey) who lends the show its often surreal and absurdist tone. The character is literally a towel who walks into a scene without fanfare and induces the South Park kids to get stoned. He often has a bag of marijuana or a freshly rolled spliff, and comes up with deadpan phrases such as "You wanna get high...?" The rest of the characters usually attempt to avoid him.

Some accounts report that Towelie was created by Parker and Stone to spoof the frequent commercialization of South Park characters: An ambulatory, talking towel being a most-unlikely toy or bumper sticker.