Kenny McCormick

Kenneth "Kenny" McCormick, voiced by Matt Stone (and, on one occasion, Mike Judge), is a fictional character in the animated series South Park. He is one of the four central characters, all of whom are nine-year old boys.

He is well-known for almost always wearing his orange parka, and for being killed in nearly every episode. Due to his hood, which covers his mouth in all but a few scenes in the show's history, his lines are muffled, though occasionally they are intelligible, and closed captioning sometimes clarifies his lines. He has only spoken without being muffled on 2 occasions: in the South Park movie and in the season 8 episode, "The Jeffersons."

Character

Kenny's unmuffled voice sounds like a slightly higher-pitched version of Stan Marsh. In the movie Kenny's voice was performed by Mike Judge, creator of Beavis and Butt-head and King of the Hill. In the Season 8 episode The Jeffersons, Kenny's voice was performed by Matt Stone.

Kenny's family is extremely poor. His father, Stuart McCormick, is an alcoholic, and his friends (especially Eric Cartman) often tease him about it. Kenny has two siblings: Kevin McCormick, and a little girl who seemingly has no name and apparently didn't exist until the episode "Best Friends Forever." Because Kenny's family is so poor (they are on welfare, although the officer in "Lil' Crime Stoppers" says the McCormicks run a meth lab.), they eat frozen waffles with no side dishes for dinner and bread sandwiches for breakfast. Despite these problems, Kenny is often portrayed as the hero of the group; indeed, several of his deaths have been acts of heroic self-sacrifice.

Visual appearance

File:Kennyrevealed02.jpg

Kenny "revealed" from South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut.

Kenny almost always wears an orange hooded parka with brown gloves (although he does remove it during the movie South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut and in episodes #504 "Super Best Friends",#402 "The Tooth Fairy Tats 2000", #305 "Jakovasaurs", #706 "Lil' Crime Stoppers", #807 "The Jeffersons" and #905 "The Losing Edge".). In these episodes he would usually have some type of accessory accompanying him such as a colourful bird mask in #807 "The Jeffersons" and a red baseball hat in #905 "The Losing Edge". Underneath his hood he has messy blonde hair, which looks very similar to that of another South Park character, Tweek.

Geometrically, the shape of the portion of Kenny's face visible through his hood is almost a lens, although the arcs are either elliptical or parabolic rather than circular. This gives the face a squashed look, as does the use of an ellipse rather than a circle for the lip of the hood. The dark areas to either sides of the face are lunes.

It has not been widely noted, but it is possible that he is dressed in this way to make him appear like a vulva or venus symbol (♀). It has also been noted that his body is very similar in shape to an ankh, which goes along with the theme of reincarnation that is present in the character - see also Anorankh.

In episodes "Fat Camp" and "Cripple Fight," it is suggested that Kenny's wardrobe plays a role in his many deaths. In "Fat Camp" Kenny is never actually killed, although a boy dressed up as Kenny dies in the end; to which Stan replies, "They killed Kenny!...sort of." In "Cripple Fight" Timmy tried to have Jimmy killed by giving him a parka that resembles one Kenny would wear. Jimmy is seen walking down a street, narrowly escaping death with every step.

Talents

Music

Kenny has a very good singing voice (after taking lessons), as seen in Quintuplets 2000.

Supernatural Abilities

Kenny has the power of self-resurrection, although this may be considered more of a 'gift' than an actual 'talent'.

Death

Kenny is most famous for dying in nearly every episode of the first five seasons, often followed by a cry of "Oh my God, They killed Kenny!" and "You bastards!" from his friends Stan and Kyle. In the earlier seasons, usually right after his death, rats show up, start nibbling on the body and carry off body parts. In The Succubus, Kenny even dies twice: first when the boys are waiting for Chef to come play baseball, then the next day when he is squashed by the Succubus during Chef's wedding. Also in the episode Pink Eye Kenny dies three times. First he is crushed by a satellite. Then he is cut in half as a zombie. Then when trying to come out of his grave an angel statue falls.

Matt Stone and Trey Parker tried to kill him off for a year (he died in the "Hell's Pass Hospital" of an ambiguous muscle disease) and replaced him first with Butters and then Tweek. During the 2002 Christmas episode Kenny returned after being trapped inside Cartman. Cartman had mistakenly made chocolate milk from Kenny's ashes while the boys were searching Kenny's house for tickets, entrusted to Kenny, to a candy shopping spree. Kenny's soul was trapped inside Cartman's body until it was exorcised into a pot roast, which was subsequently eaten by Rob Schneider, who subsequently died. During the following season, he seemed to have lost his bad luck and didn't die anymore. Kenny's lucky streak ended during the 2003 Christmas episode ("It's Christmas in Canada").

Throughout the series, many of Kenny's deaths have been described as "senseless," only serving as cheap amusement until he really died in season five. Contrast that to one of the unwritten rules of Hollywood that children cannot die violently on the screen. The satire is very apparent, considering that Assault on Precinct 13 (1976 movie) would have been given the politically incorrect X rating if the infamous scene of the little girl being shot was not cut out (although John Carpenter got around this problem by cutting the scene from the MPAA's copy and distributing the film with the death scene intact, a ruse that probably wouldn't be successful today). However, in the March 30th, 2005 episode, Best Friends Forever, Kenny was the first in South Park to get a Sony PSP and the first in the world to reach level sixty; he died early in the episode to command Heaven's armies in the final battle against Satan (in the episode he is frequently likened or referred to as Keanu Reeves). His death is not permanent, however, and he is revived, but in a persistent vegetative state with a feeding tube in an almost-serious spoof of the controversy surrounding the Terri Schiavo case in Florida.

Kenny's frequent deaths may be inspired by the Irish county Kilkenny (kill Kenny), as Kenny's family is presumably of Irish descent (this is furthered by his last name 'McCormick', which is of Irish origin).

Kenny's deaths and series canon

While the series usually maintains an expanding continuity, it is a running joke that Kenny's deaths from episode to episode are treated in a highly inconsistent fashion.

Early-season deaths are usually treated as "non-canon", in that they are not acknowledged as having happened at all. In the clip episode "City on the Edge of Forever", while relating stories of previous episodes, Cartman mentions how Kenny died in one such incident, to which Stan and Kyle protest, "That doesn't make any sense; Kenny died a few hours ago, how could he have died then?"

In later seasons, the other characters do occasionally seem aware of Kenny's many fatalities. In "Cartmanland", the McCormick family sues Eric Cartman for Kenny's wrongful death, to which Cartman protests " Kenny?!?! Kenny dies all the time!" In "Cherokee Hair Tampons", Kyle is suffering potentially fatal kidney troubles and Stan tells Kenny several times that he's worried his friend might die. Kenny's irritated response to this (including a parody of Cartman's catchphrase: "screw you guys! I'm going home!") implies strongly that he's aware of the other kids' apathy towards his own deaths.

In "Cartman's Mom is Still a Dirty Slut", the second part of a two-part episode, Kenny materializes next to Stan, who merely acknowledges him with "Oh hey, Kenny." In "The Succubus", Kenny also dies and is brought back without explanation. These events suggest that Kenny has the supernatural ability of self-resurrection, and that mostly everyone is aware of it.

Kenny himself seems to be somewhat aware of his own recurring death. In the first season's Christmas special, he cheers when he realizes he hasn't died at the end. In "Tweek vs. Craig", Kenny avoided shop class fearing the dangers of the many hazardous tools.

In "Cartman Joins NAMBLA", Kenny spends most of the episode upset that his mother is having another child, and continually tries to find ways to abort the fetus. Near the end of the episode, Kenny is unexpectedly killed by being backed over by an ambulance. In the final scene, Kenny's mother and father fawn over the infant she has just given birth to. Kenny's father, struck by how much the new child resembles their deceased son Kenny (including orange parka), decides to name the new baby boy Kenny in his brother's memory, to which Kenny's mother declares "Yes! A brand-new Kenny!" The final punch line of this gag comes when Kenny's father says "God, this must be like the 50th time this has happened," to which his mother corrects, "52nd." (Arguably, this is indeed the 52nd incarnation of Kenny). These events suggest that all the Kennys are different children, but that the other boys are unaware of it and treat them all as the same person. This does not explain how and why the Kennys gestate and age so quickly, or why they all have the same personality; it is possible that Kenny's soul is reincarnated into each new body. However Kenny's mother's explanation is likely not canon and just there for the humor.

The gag of Kenny dying in almost every episode is dropped as of "Kenny Dies", in which Kenny's death is treated with more weight; in particular, the other boys are somehow able to sense that it would be more permanent (though it should be noted that in a few episodes---for example "Pink Eye"---they treat his death as if permanent [ironically, since Kenny comes back to life twice in that episode]). Since then, Kenny has usually only died when the plot of an episode requires it.

Season 7-Present

Some fans have noted that since being brought back to life in "Red Sleigh Down," Kenny's role on the show has been greatly diminished. This is most notable in the 9th and 10th seasons, where in some episodes---for example, "Smug Alert!"---he is completely absent with no explanation. Another episode, "Two Days Before the Day After Tomorrow," showed him in the TV preview of the episode, but in the same scene from the episode---and the whole episode, as a matter of fact---he was not to be found.

This downsizing is somewhat understandable, one could say, as what can probably called the biggest facet of his character---that is, his constant dying---is no longer regular and occurs in only a few episodes. It can also be noted that, with his inability to be easily understood, he was the main protagonist of only a few episodes, usually just accompanying his friends in episodes where they did most of the action. Another reason for his decline as a character may be because Butters, the first of his two replacements, grew as a character after his death---though he was only an "official fourth friend" for five episodes, his personality---and fan base---grew enough that Butters still appears and stars in many episodes, even while not being one of the main four. It could even be argued that Butters---who has starred in such recent episodes as "Marjorine" and "The Death of Eric Cartman"---is now a bigger character that Kenny is. (The Butters Phenomenon did not occur, however, with Kenny's second replacement, Tweek.)

Ways Kenny Dies

Kenny has died 78 times since Season 1 through Season 9. The following is a list of Kenny's deaths in each episode:

File:SouthPark406.gif

Kenny born for the 52nd time in Cartman Joins NAMBLA

Season 1

#	Episode	Description
101	Cartman Gets an Anal Probe	Hit by Officer Barbrady in police cruiser chasing cows
102	Weight Gain 4000	Shot by Mr. Garrison when trying to shoot Kathie Lee Gifford, which launches him into the air and is impaled on a flag pole.
103	Volcano	Shot by Ned when he drops his gun on the ground
104	Big Gay Al's Big Gay Boat Ride	Decapitated and dismembered by three Middle Park Cowboy football players
105	An Elephant Makes Love to a Pig	Knocked into microwave oven with a chair and cooked by Big Stan
106	Death	Touched by Death
107	Pink Eye	Crushed by Mir at the beginning of the episode. Revived as a zombie via Worcestershire sauce embalming Cut in half with a chainsaw by Kyle to end zombie curse Rises from his grave again at the end of the episode, but is immediately crushed by a falling angel statue and then by a crashing aeroplane. If killing a zombie counts as "death," this would make "Pink Eye" the most fatal of all of Kenny's episodes.
109	Starvin' Marvin	Attacked by mutant turkeys; loses an eye in the attack
110	Mr. Hankey, The Christmas Poo	Doesn't die. Cheers when he sees "The End" appear onscreen with him still alive
108	Damien	Turned into a duckbilled platypus by the antichrist and then shot by Uncle Jimbo
111	Tom's Rhinoplasty	Pierced by an Iraqi sword carelessly swung by Miss Ellen
112	Mecha-Streisand	Asphyxiates himself by accident with tetherball string while fleeing Mecha Streisand
113	Cartman's Mom is a Dirty Slut	Dragged onto train tracks by a go kart and crushed by a train

Season 2

#	Episode	Description
201	Terrance and Phillip in Not Without My Anus	(doesn't appear)
202	Cartman's Mom is Still a Dirty Slut	Self-sacrificial electrocution while turning on a hospital generator
203	Chickenlover	Car tipped upside-down and crushes him, but the sunroof was open and he steps out; Flies off swing into brick wall, but survives; Gun misfires and shoots Kenny's arm, but narrowly misses him and gets his sleeve; During the parade in the credits, a tree falls and crushes Kenny, killing him
204	Ike's Wee Wee	Falls into an open grave and is crushed by a gravestone
205	Conjoined Fetus Lady	Killed by an overpowered dodgeball throw from a Chinese opponent
206	The Mexican Staring Frog of Southern Sri Lanka	Torn apart by two audience members of Jesus and Pals
207	City on the Edge of Forever	Does not die in this episode, but died twice in the dream. Once he was taken away and eaten by a big black scary monster. Then he was killed by Fonzie's motorcycle.
208	Summer Sucks	In a flashback to when he was in preschool, blown up by a firecracker he held for too long Crushed by giant carbon pyrotechnic snake
209	Chef's Chocolate Salty Balls	Trampled by a crowd leaving a theater
210	Chickenpox	Contracted a fatal case of chickenpox
211	Roger Ebert Should Lay off the Fatty Foods	Exploded due to the intensity of a planetarium demonstration
212	Clubhouses	Trampled in a mosh pit in Cartman's tree house. In a special twist, Cartman was the one who said the first part of the trademark post-Kenny-death catchphrase, then Kyle passed by the same treehouse, stopping only to say the second part before moving along.
213	Cow Days	Pierced by the horns of the bull Cartman was riding
214	Chef Aid	Ozzy Ozborne bit his head off
215	Spookyfish	Drowned by Stan's evil goldfish
216	Merry Christmas Charlie Manson!	Shot dead by police while attempting to surrender
217	Underpants Gnomes	Killed (squashed "like a bug") by a derailed mining cart containing underpants. Amusingly, the boys don't seem very saddened by his death, saying "It happens all the time".
218	Prehistoric Ice Man	Caught in the conveyor belt in front of the prehistoric man exhibit

Season 3

File:301 dead kenny21.gif

Kenny struck by Lightning in "Rainforest Schmainforest".

#	Episode	Description
301	Rainforest Schmainforest	Struck by lightning & nearly dies but is revived by his "girlfriend" Kelly. This is one of the only instances in the entire series where a character on the show actually attempts to help Kenny after he has died instead of simply standing and watching. In another amusing twist, before Kenny is revived, Stan and Kyle say their trademark post-Kenny-death line ("Oh my God! They killed Kenny!" "You Bastards!"). Kelly, confused, asks, "Who?" (since he was struck by lightning). They sheepishly reply, "You know... they...they're bastards."
302	Spontaneous Combustion	Spontaneously combusts at the beginning of the show due to withheld flatulance
303	The Succubus	Dies in an unknown manner while waiting for Chef at the bus stop, but miraculously revives at dawn Smashed to death by succubus
304	Tweek vs. Craig	Caught on a Circular saw and lands in a pile of rusty nails in crafts class, though he said "I'm okay."
305	Jakovasaurs	Killed by a bear while impersonating a deer, distracting Cartman
306	Sexual Harassment Panda	Pulled by a magnet into a giant fan.
307	Cat Orgy	(he doesn't die/appear in this episode)
308	Two Guys Naked in a Hot Tub	(he doesn't die/appear in this episode)
309	Jewbilee	Sacrifices himself to open the conch shell Moses is trapped in, saving the Jews.
310	Chinpokomon	Gets a seizure from the Chinpokomon video game and spends most of the episode catatonic; explodes at the end, revealing that he was filled with rats
311	Starvin' Marvin in Space	Frozen in carbonite, but isn't actually shown to die (Han Solo didn't die when frozen; it can be assumed Kenny didn't either)
312	Korn's Groovy Pirate Ghost Mystery	(In the credits) Destroyed by a snowspeeder while wearing an ED-209 costume
313	Hooked on Monkey Phonics	Beaten against everything in Cartman's bedroom by Phonics Monkey
314	The Red Badge of Gayness	Burned to death by a US National Guard warning flare
315	Mr. Hankey's Christmas Classics	Crushed by a chandelier
316	Are You There God? It's Me, Jesus	Exploded due to the pressure buildup from a tampon stuck in his anus
317	World Wide Recorder Concert	Died from massive defecation after playing "the brown note"

Season 4

File:Kenny dies-again.jpg

Kenny crushed by piano in Cherokee Hair Tampons.

#	Episode	Description
402	The Tooth Fairy Tats 2000	Drowned with Cement shoes in river during credits
401	Cartman's Silly Hate Crime 2000	Crushed by bricks, meant to be a Cartman test dummy, after flying off a sled
403	Quintuplets 2000	Shot accidentally by police in Elián González-style raid in Romania.
404	Timmy 2000	Bashed in the face with a frying pan by Cartman due to Cartman's Christina Aguilera hallucinations
405	Pip	(he doesn't appear in this episode)
406	Cartman Joins NAMBLA	Crushed by an ambulance after Mr. McCormick is loaded therein He is also killed in a dream by his newborn alien-like brother. His parents have another child just before the credits and name him Kenny (in honour of his 'dead' brother); His father comments that this must be the 50th time this has happened and his mother specifies that it's the 52nd
407	Cherokee Hair Tampons	Crushed by a piano just after angrily leaving for home while Stan is very upset and sobbing because Kyle may die of kidney failure unless he gets one of Cartman's kidneys.
408	Chef Goes Nanners	Explodes from gas buildup when a massive dose of antacid tablets (thought to be mints) is exposed to water. Everybody laughs, and Stan says,"That was a good one".
409	Something You Can Do With Your Finger	Flattened by an elevator just prior to performance in the shopping mall
410	Do the Handicapped Go to Hell?	Appearing to have been run over by a bus before he was able to attend confession, he is revealed to have survived in next episode
411	Probably	Revealed to be alive and well in Mexico; he and Cartman are left there
412	4th Grade	Dragged to death by Timmy's wheelchair while attempting to fix it à la Speed. Stan: "Well, who didn't see that coming?"
413	Trapper Keeper	Smashed against a wall by Cartman's bedroom door when Cartman bursts out of his bedroom. Kyle is unable to say, "You bastard" before he flees the Cartman house
414	Helen Keller! The Musical	Crushed by a fallen stage light meant to kill Timmy's dysfunctional turkey, Gobbles
415	Fat Camp	Kenny does not die because he is in prison for prostitution (whored himself to Howard Stern for $10); Cartman's replacement at fat camp takes Kenny's place and suffocates in Mrs. Crabtree's uterus. Stan: "Oh my God, they killed Kenny, sort of..."
416	The Wacky Molestation Adventure	Sacrificed at "Carousel"; not shown on screen
417	A Very Crappy Christmas	Run over by car. Kenny's death occurs while the boys are in the middle of producing The Spirit of Christmas, so Stan decides to have Kenny's character die in the film so they won't have to reshoot anything

Season 5

#	Episode	Description
501	Scott Tenorman Must Die	Laughs himself to death after seeing Cartman's "I'm a little piggy" video
502	It Hits The Fan	Vomits his intestines out just before credits. Stan: "Holy sh... poo"
503	Cripple Fight	Carried off by an eagle
504	Super Best Friends	Drowns himself in the Reflecting Pool in front of the Lincoln Memorial as part of a cult's mass suicide. Stan says his catch phrase 3 times, using it to try and find Kyle in a massive crowd a la the game Marco Polo. Kyle replies twice.
505	Terrance and Phillip: Behind The Blow	His arms and legs were sliced off by insane Earth Day promoters, but he doesn't die (although interpretation means he could have bled to death)
506	Cartmanland	Impaled through the face with a loose beam while riding a faulty roller coaster
507	Proper Condom Use	His face was sliced in half with a boomerang by Bebe. Cartman: "Ooh, bitch!"
508	Towelie	Falls into a vat of lava while trying to save the boys' Gamesphere (a parody of the Nintendo Gamecube). Kyle: "Oh my God, our Gamesphere"
509	Osama Bin Laden Has Farty Pants	Explosion kills Kenny and his Afghan counterpart. Stan and Kyle's Afghan counterparts say "Oh, Allah, They Killed Keyvan! You bastards!" in Dari
510	How to Eat with Your Butt	Gets run over by a motorcycle. Cartman laughs at his death
511	The Entity	Shot to death by airport security for trying to board a plane with toenail clippers
512	Here Comes the Neighborhood	He is seen dead in this episode, but it's never shown how he died.
513	Kenny Dies	Permanently dies of a "terminal disease" (until Red Sleigh Down (617)).

Season 6

Since Kenny's death in Kenny Dies (513), he does not reappear until Red Sleigh Down (617) (in which he is not killed), but "dies" at least once this season in:

• The Biggest Douche in the Universe, where Rob Schneider eats a roast beef joint containing Kenny's recently-excorcised soul (Kenny possessed Cartman's body for a few episodes this season) and dies when Rob Schneider gets impaled by a flagpole in a movie trailer (in reference to one of Kenny's death in Weight Gain 4000)

Season 7

Since his reappearance in Red Sleigh Down (617), he hasn't been subjected to dying in each episode and only dies once in season 7. Stan is the first to notice him: "Oh hey Kenny. Where've you been?" To which Kenny replied: (muffled) "Here and there."

#	Episode	Description
715	It's Christmas in Canada	Shot by Saddam Hussein, posing as Prime Minister of Canada, with a ray gun

Season 8

Since his reappearance in 617, he hasn't been subjected to dying in each episode and only dies once in season 8.

#	Episode	Description
807	The Jeffersons	"Mr. Jefferson" tosses him into the ceiling.

Season 9

Since his reappearance in 617, he hasn't been subjected to dying in each episode and only dies twice in season 9. But he also dies in the opening theme:

• Opening Theme: When the man builds Kenny with the bits of paper, he cuts his head off with some scissors (no blood shows)

#	Episode	Description
903	Wing	Shot by the Chinese mafia
904	Best Friends Forever	He is hit by a truck and brought to heaven but is resuscitated and kept alive on a feeding tube (i.e., Terri Schiavo), which is removed and he finally dies. It's worthy to note that this is one of the very few times (including the movie) that Kenny continues to appear on-screen and play a significant part even after he was killed.

Season 10

Kenny has been in the background for the first four episodes so far.

South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut (Movie)

Suffers third degree burns when he attempts to light his fart on fire, but is ultimately killed by the ER doctors who replace his heart with a baked potato, which explodes and splatters some of his remains across the hospital room.

It has been noted that he perhaps "dies again" when he makes his unselfish wish that sends him temporarily back to hell, before he is sent to heaven. However, this is questionable, because it is unclear in what form he appears when he climbs out of Hell after Satan invades earth. It isn't treated as a true "resurrection," and he may have only appeared in "spirit form." The fact that he fades away may in fact back up that he was an apparition, and was not truly "alive" again.

Trivia

• According to http://www.spscriptorium.com/SPinfo/TheSouthParkCalendar.htm, Kenny McCormick's birthday is March 22.

External links

• Repository of translated Kenny-isms