Kenny McCormick

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*South Park* character
Kenneth 'Kenny' McCormick

Gender:	Male
Hair:	Blonde
Age:	9 (8 until the episode "4th Grade")
Job:	Student
Religion:	Roman Catholic
First Appearance:	The Spirit of Christmas (Jesus vs. Frosty)
Voiced By:	Matt Stone

Kenneth 'Kenny' McCormick, voiced by Matt Stone (and in the South Park motion picture by Beavis and Butthead and King of the Hill creator 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 (the characters were eight years old in the earlier episodes).

He is well known for almost always wearing an orange anorak, and for being killed in almost every episode during the show's first five seasons (although he seems unconcerned and only hates the fact that nobody cares that he dies), with only a few exceptions. Due to his hood, which covers his mouth in all but a few scenes in the show's history, his lines are muffled (which allows the writers to let Kenny say things that would normally be censored), though occasionally they are intelligible, and closed captioning sometimes clarifies his lines. He has only spoken without being muffled on two occasions: the movie South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut and the episode "The Jeffersons". When he is frightened, Kenny will tighten his hood, which hides his face and muffles his speech to an even greater extent.

1 Character
- 1.1 Appearances without his parka
2 Relationships
3 Talents
4 Death
5 External links

[edit] Character

Kenny with his jacket hood removed on South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut.

Kenny died in most of the episodes until the writers killed him off, but he returned a few series later - although they no longer killed him in each episode, as they got bored with the joke. The reason why Kenny died continuously was given in an interview with Matt Stone and Trey Parker, who said that it was because Kenny is poor. Kenny would always be back for the next episode, although the explanations for his reappearance varies. One episode explained that his parents simply have another Kenny, which grows to be 8 or 9 years old in record time, while another simply had Kenny magically reappearing out of thin air in the second part of a two-part episode after he was run over by a train in the first. None of the other characters seem to find this at all unusual-Stan merely greeted Kenny when he materialized, and no one else even blinked. Kenny himself seems to be aware of the fact that he is constantly killed, expressing resentment over the fact that Stan was worried about Kyle's impending death while never mourning Kenny and also opting to take home economics classes over wood shop because he was afraid of getting killed by the dangerous industrial equipment in the shop class.

Kenny's unmuffled voice sounds like a slightly higher-pitched version of Stan Marsh's. In the movie, Kenny's voice is 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. Generally speaking, people who haven't spent enough time around him have trouble understanding what he's saying.

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 did not exist until the episode "Kenny Dies". 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. This appears to be somewhat of a paradox at times, as he always manages to stay current with trends in toys and video games, such as maintaining a World of Warcraft subscription (and a computer to play it on), being the first kid to get a PSP in South Park, or buying the Chinpokomon dolls, and being the only child in the town to have a Go Go Action Bronco, a battery-powered miniature car. Cartman frequently exploits his poverty by offering him money for performing strange or dangerous tasks.

Since Kenny's parka covers his mouth, muffling his voice, Kenny swears a lot and says words that would normally be censored out. In the first season intro for instance, he says "I love girls with deep vaginas, I love girls with big fat titties".[1]

Kenny is the most knowledgeable of the group when it comes to sex, and usually portrayed as the most perverted. Often a sexual term will be introduced which is unknown to Stan, Kyle and Cartman, and Kenny will be called upon by his friends to define such terms. His muffled responses are often met with laughter or further confusion. His knowledge may be gleaned from his parents or from the pornography which Kenny is shown to possess (e.g. Osama Bin Laden Has Farty Pants). He is usually the first to perform disgusting acts (drinking from Jimbo's gas tank, giving Howard Stern a hummer for some money). Stan and Kyle noticed this behavior in "Fat Camp" and created the "The Krazy Kenny Show" which starred him doing undesirable acts for money (such as eating mice, pretending to kill newborn babies in front of their mothers, and washing his hair in battery acid).

Despite being perverted, Kenny actually appears as the kindest and most laid-back of the group, always prepared to help out his friends without question (When Butters was still an official friend in early Season 6 episodes, the boys would always softly remark how Kenny would help them out); indeed, several of his deaths have been acts of self-sacrifice on behalf of others. Even so, the times he does speak are rare and he'll usually only say (unless the episode revolves around him) a few lines. In many recent episodes, he has few lines (if any) or is completely absent. His favorite sports team is the Denver Broncos.

Kenny almost always wears an orange hooded anorak 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", #706 "Lil' Crime Stoppers", #807 "The Jeffersons" and #905 "The Losing Edge"). As well, in season 7's "South Park Is Gay!", Kenny's hair is sticking out of his (blue) parka, but it is never actually removed (this also happened towards the end of the 'Manbearpig' episode, although again the parka is never fully removed). In these episodes he would usually have some type of accessory accompanying him such as a red baseball cap in #905 "The Losing Edge". Underneath his hood he has messy blonde hair. In the season 8 episode, "Good Times With Weapons", his anime self is shown to have blue eyes.

A photorealistic version of Kenny's appearance was produced as a police artist sketch for the episode Free Willzyx (see).

[edit] Appearances without his parka

#	Episode	Circumstances
	South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut	Right at the beginning Kenny can be seen from behind before he slips in his parka. At the end Kenny reveals his face to say "Good bye, you guys".
402	The Tooth Fairy Tats 2000	He is pulled out of his parka, but is only shown from behind.
415	Fat Camp	Kenny eats a manatee's spleen, and his mouth is seen for a few seconds, but the noise he makes, while eating, sounds nothing like his voice.
504	Super Best Friends	He has shaved hair and wears the same uniform as everybody around him, so it remains unclear which one he actually is. Stan turns over a dead body floating in the water to see if it's Kyle, and after a pause he says "Oh my god, they killed Kenny!" It doesn't say how Stan was able to recognize him however it is likely he recognized facial features that weren't apparent to the viewers.
706	Lil' Crime Stoppers	He takes his parka off in the shower, but is only seen from behind.
801	Good Times with Weapons	When the boys "transform" into their anime-style versions, Kenny wears only a scarf over his face. However, this is a greatly exaggerated version and doesn't necessarily match the normal South Park world.
807	The Jeffersons	Kenny, disguised as Blanket (Mr. Jefferson's son), and is the only other time he is shown and speaks unmuffled (the exception being the movie).
905	The Losing Edge	He wears a baseball uniform and looks like the other children. He can, however, be recognized because of his hair, his spot next to the other boys and his number, the unlucky 13.

[edit] Relationships

Cartman generally seems to tolerate Kenny, although he regards him as being lesser than him because he is poor, and can even at times be seen to treat Kenny as sort of a general laborer/servant. However, Cartman does appear to consider Kenny as his best friend out of the other three boys, although he is not above exaggerating the depth of their friendship in order to achieve or obtain something he wants, usually after Kenny dies or is incapacitated, such as in the episode "Best Friends Forever". In the same episode, Kenny described his general attitude toward his friendship with Cartman as his feeling sorry for him, because everyone else hates him. However, in the episode "Kenny Dies", Kenny seems to agree with Cartman's assessment that the two are best friends, as Kyle and Stan are.

Kenny will go along with Cartman if he talks about something he agrees on, or Kyle and Stan if he gets really annoyed by Cartman's attitude. On occasion, he is known to punch Cartman, an act which subdues him.

In the episode "Chickenpox" we learn that Kyle's and Kenny's dad used to be best friends before they had a falling out.

Kenny briefly had a girlfriend named Kelly (in "Rainforest Schmainforest"), who actually came to his aid during one of his famous "death" scenes. In the episode "Spontaneous Combustion", he spends a lot of time at a new girlfriend's house but the viewer never sees her. Kelly hasn't been seen or heard of since.

[edit] Talents

[edit] Music

Kenny has a very good opera voice (after taking lessons), as seen in "Quintuplets 2000". He is also a proficient drummer as seen in "Christian Rock Hard".

[edit] Videogaming

Kenny is shown to have a large mastery of strategic videogaming in "Best Friends Forever", reaching Level 60 in the PSP Game "Heaven vs Hell", and was known by the angels as the heaven's equivalent of Keanu Reeves.

[edit] Fighting

Kenny seems to be the toughest of the boys, and has fought on a few occasions. He also holds the ability to perform his "Spin Blossom Nut Squash" on command, as seen in "The Return Of Chef".

[edit] Acting

The Jeffersons he dresses and acts like Michael Jeffersons son (Blanket).

[edit] Sport

He plays baseball with the other boys in The Losing Edge.

[edit] Death

Main article: List of Kenny's deaths

Kenny is best known in the show for his recurring death in nearly every episode of the first five seasons, often followed by a cry of "Oh my God, you/they/we've killed Kenny!" and "You/We're bastard(s)!" from his friends Stan and Kyle, respectively. In the first few episodes, Kyle said the entire phrase. Later on, it varied, depending on who killed Kenny.

Kenny has died and come back 88 times in the South Park franchise (78 in the series, to date, two in the early animated shorts, six in other authorized TV parodies, and twice in the movie).

Kenny was no longer being killed in every episode, following the start of the fifth season; the reason given by Trey Parker and Matt Stone was that it was becoming too hard to find a 'unique' way of killing Kenny.

[edit] External links

Repository of translated Kenny-isms

	South Park characters	view • talk • edit

Main characters

Stan Marsh | Kyle Broflovski | Eric Cartman | Kenny McCormick | Butters Stotch

Family members

List of other South Park residents

South Park Elementary staff and students

Occasional characters

Minor characters

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