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Kenny McCormick

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Template:South Park character

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 usually, but not always, unintelligible, 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 un-muffled 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, 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". Since 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 30, 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 of 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 about eight 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. (Interestingly, the Butters Phenomenon did not occur 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
103 Volcano
  • Shot by Ned when he drops his gun on the ground
104 Big Gay Al's Big Gay Boat Ride
105 An Elephant Makes Love to a Pig
106 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
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
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
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." The lead singer of Papa Roach and Mike Dirnt gave Kelly a Game Boy Color for reviving Kenny.
302 Spontaneous Combustion
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). Billie Joe Armstrong and 50 Cent invent a spaceship for free and they catch up with the CIA and arrest them.
312 Korn's Groovy Pirate Ghost Mystery
313 Hooked on Monkey Phonics
  • Beaten against everything in Cartman's bedroom by Phonics Monkey
314 The Red Badge of Gayness
315 Mr. Hankey's Christmas Classics
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
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
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

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

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

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
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

Wikiquote has quotations related to South Park.
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