Randy and Sharon Marsh

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South Park character
Image:SPchrsRandy and Sharon.jpg
Randy and Sharon Marsh
Age: 35 (Randy)/36 (Sharon)
Gender: Male and Female
Hair color: Black and Brown
Job: Randy is a Geologist and Sharon is a Secretary at Tom's Rhinoplasty.
Religion: Roman Catholic, briefly Atheist (in "Red Hot Catholic Love"), Mormon (in "All About Mormons")
First appearance: Volcano (Randy)

An Elephant Makes Love to a Pig (Sharon)
Voiced by: Trey Parker (Randy)

Mary Kay Bergman (1997-1999) Eliza Schneider (1999-2003) April Stewart (2004-present) (Sharon)

Randall "Randy" Marsh and Sharon (previously Carol) Marsh (née Kimble[1]) are fictional characters in the animated series South Park. Randy is voiced by Trey Parker. Sharon has been voiced by Mary Kay Bergman, Mona Marshall, Eliza Schneider and currently April Stewart. Their first names are derived from the first names of Trey Parker's parents, Randy and Sharon Parker.

Contents

[edit] Personalities and characterization

Randy Marsh has, in recent seasons, become one of the most common adult characters on the show. Like most adults in South Park, he has a tendency to get caught up in any trend or mentality that an episode demands and, just as quickly, assume the writer's antagonistic position on an issue. When the entire parent/adult population is united in favor of a specific idea or cause, Randy is often the leader. Although, like many characters, he is sometimes subject simply to personify silly ideas, he is often overdramatic with angry or emotional outbursts, all of which are intended to be funny. His wife Sharon in recent seasons has been shown as much more level-headed.

Both Sharon and Randy are seen among the town's somewhat-more-affluent population.

[edit] Jobs

Early on Randy is shown to be South Park's only geologist (this is perhaps a nod to the fact that the real South Park has a unique geological structure) and scientist, despite having dropped out of high school to join a boy band in the season four episode "Something You Can Do with Your Finger". It is also revealed in the season eight episode "Goobacks" that he works for the United States Geological Survey. Because of his occupation and education, he is very often called upon to play the role of whatever scientist the town may be needing for its current endeavors; although he lacks the ability to perform any of the aforementioned tasks (one example being in "Die Hippie, Die"). He becomes famous for his unified theory of moderation in the episode "Spontaneous Combustion" for which he wins the Nobel Prize. Later everything went back to normal after his theory was proven to cause global warming and was even sued. There is some evidence in later episodes that there are other geologists in town - he is seen having co-workers in "Make Love, Not Warcraft", and Clyde Donovan has also stated that his father is a geologist, but they may commute from outside South Park. Randy may or may not hold a doctorate in geology (in the episode "Two Days Before the Day After Tomorrow" he is referred to as "Doctor... Marsh" by the character known only as "cliché dissenting Republican"), though it is entirely likely that this reference was made in jest as a nod to major characters in disaster films such as "The Day After Tomorrow" who are initially met with skepticism. He temporarily worked at the South Park Wall-Mart in "Something Wall-Mart This Way Comes".

Sharon works (and, as far as we know, has always worked) as a receptionist at Tom's Rhinoplasty.[2]

Randy was a member of a choir in high school, and was he chosen to be in a boy band called "The Ghetto Avenue Boys", a parody of New Kids on the Block. He dropped out of high school, and abandoned everyone, including his girlfriend and his parents. They made millions and topped the music charts with "You Got It", their hit single. After a year or two, he and the other members were replaced with another group, because they were "getting to old to be in a boy band" (even though Randy himself was only 19). In debt to the studio, Randy was forced to return all his possessions and return home, using the remainder of his fortune to complete his education.

Randy Parker, Trey Parker's father, is a geologist like Randy Marsh. However, while Sharon Marsh is a clinic receptionist, Trey's mother, Sharon Parker, is an insurance broker.

[edit] Family

Randy and Sharon are most notable as the father and mother of one of the four main characters of the show, Stan Marsh. Along with Stan, they also have a daughter, Shelley. They love them both very much, although Sharon's hot-headedness can get somewhat strange. She can get very angry with Stan at irrational times (like when he told her he was getting himself a cookie in "Clubhouses", she complained about how men were all alike) and yet she sometimes doesn't get angry with him when it is appropriate to. She is also prone to losing her sanity, like in Spookyfish when she loses her sanity completely having "discovered" that Stan murdered some people. Randy is generally a doting, well-meaning father, though his dimwitted naïveté mostly gets in the way of his relationship with Stan. Also, Randy can be a typical "pushy parent". Whenever Stan pursues a career or a hobby that Randy does not like or reminds him of an unfortunate moment in his past, he will display behaviour bordering on psychosis, for example, in "Something You Can Do With Your Finger", he takes Stan away from Cartman's boyband and smashes his head in a cupboard window because Randy himself was in a band which was forgotten. Randy's father is the grouchy, suicidal Marvin Marsh. As seen in "Fantastic Easter Special", Marvin and Randy are both members of the Hare Club for Men, and Randy states that men in the Marsh family have been members of the secret society for generations. Randy has a half-brother, Jimbo Kern, who is a hunter and uncle to Stan and Shelley.

In the episode "Spookyfish", Stan's Aunt Flo came for her "monthly visit" which lasts "only five days or something", and his mother turned into a "total bitch", causing his father to sleep in the living room for a while. She was killed by Stan's evil goldfish in the same episode. Sharon was upset, because Aunt Flo wouldn't come and visit her again.

[edit] Drinking problem

Randy has a drinking problem as examined in "Bloody Mary" when he was caught drunk-driving (and previous episodes such as "The Red Badge of Gayness", "Clubhouses" and "The Losing Edge"). Cartman also mentions it in the episode "Grey Dawn", at one point stating, "Looks like Stan's dad's been hitting the bottle again."

Randy is depicted as everything from a casual drinker to a heavy alcoholic.

[edit] Episodes in which they are prominent

Despite appearing in a number of episodes throughout the early seasons of the show, Randy was seldom given a prominent role, though he would occasionally become the focus of an episode's subplot. However, Randy's role has increased significantly in recent seasons, and there have been several episodes centered around him.

  • "Volcano" - Randy, not yet identified as Stan's father, discovers the volcano which is about to erupt. His hair style is slightly different from how it would appear later in the series.
  • "Clubhouses" - Randy and Sharon get divorced. Randy assumes the role of a partying father with little care or time to spend with his kids. Sharon remarries almost immediately to a man named Roy. Through the clever workings of Stan, they meet in the clubhouse, where they play truth or dare. Sharon dares Randy to "do her" in the clubhouse, and they ultimately reconcile and get back together.
  • "Spookyfish" - Randy is miserable that Sharon's Aunt Flo has come for her monthly visit. Sharon, after discovering dead bodies in Stan's room and thinking he was the one who murdered those people, buries the bodies in their backyard and locks Officer Barbrady in their basement in an attempt to keep him from prison.
  • "Spontaneous Combustion" - Randy is put in charge of figuring out why people are spontaneously combusting, although he is a geologist and has no certification or scientific background in the field of biology. Randy finds the reason, but lets his newfound popularity go to his head when his prediction backfires.
  • "Two Guys Naked in a Hot Tub" - Randy and Gerald Broflovski watch each other masturbate in a hot tub at Mr. Mackey's meteor party, causing Randy to worry that he himself might be gay.
  • "Something You Can Do with Your Finger" - When Stan wants to join a boy band started by Cartman, Randy is enraged and forbids him to, due to his own experience in such a band, the "Ghetto Avenue Street Boys". During his youth, he dropped out of high school to go on to fame, only to see the band break up when they were considered "too old to be in a boy band" (Randy was only 19). Due to his debt, Randy had to give up most of his acquired wealth and possessions and was forced to return home, where he used his remaining royalties to graduate and study geology. In the end, after knowing that Kenny had died by being crushed by an elevator, Randy replaces him in the boys' band, "Fingerbang".
  • "The Return of the Fellowship of the Ring to the Two Towers" - Randy asks Stan, Kyle and Cartman to deliver a copy of The Lord of the Rings to Butters' house but accidentally gives the boys a pornographic movie called Backdoor Sluts 9. Randy and Sharon spend all night looking for the kids (who think they have The Lord of the Rings) but the kids are chased by sixth graders into the next town over (the sixth graders know the film is pornographic). Eventually they return the movie, and Sharon, Randy, and the other parents catch up to the boys and give them a lesson on sexual intercourse that the boys are stunned to hear.
  • "My Future Self n' Me" - Randy and Sharon deceitfully hire an actor to play Stan's future self in order to scare him away from drugs.
  • "I'm a Little Bit Country" - Randy tries to prevent the War in Iraq through his anti-war rock.
  • "Red Man's Greed" - Randy is one of the adults responsible for losing the town of South Park to the Native Americans and later becomes infected with SARS.
  • "All About Mormons" - Randy tries to convert to Mormonism.
  • "Goobacks" - Randy is demoted from his job when a worker from the future, who will work for significantly less pay, takes his place.
  • "Douche and Turd" - There is a nasty fight over the choice of school mascot. Randy, who supports "Giant Douche", is enraged when Sharon supports "Turd Sandwich" because she thinks "Giant Douche" is sexist.
  • "Something Wall-Mart This Way Comes" - Randy becomes brainwashed by the new Wall-Mart and quits his geologist job in order to work there.
  • "The Losing Edge" - Randy habitually fights other parents at Little League baseball games, and engages in a grande melee with a man nicknamed "Bat Dad". He ends up getting charged with fighting, but he does help the boys end their continuously-long (and tiresome) winning streak.
  • "Two Days Before the Day After Tomorrow" - Randy figures out when global warming is coming, but in the end it is revealed to be a false alarm.
  • "Bloody Mary" - Randy is caught driving under the influence of alcohol (DUI). He is an example of a hypochondriac.
  • "Make Love, Not Warcraft" - Randy plays World of Warcraft as a self-proclaimed noob and helps to save "the World...of Warcraft".
  • "Stanley's Cup" - Randy tries to convince Stan not to coach the pee-wee hockey team, as he (Stan) last played years ago and lost a game by missing a shot.
  • "With Apologies to Jesse Jackson" - After using the word "nigger" on Wheel of Fortune (This seems a slip as the word wanted was 'Naggers', an inadvertert racisted remark justified by a monetary reward), Randy is ostracized by all of South Park. His experience sets abroad debates over the word, and he establishes the Randy Marsh African-American Scholarship Foundation.
  • "Fantastic Easter Special" - Randy is revealed to be a member of the secret society, "The Hare Club for Men", which guards the secret of Easter. He introduces Stan to the club.
  • "Night of the Living Homeless" - Randy and the other community workers hide from homeless people on top of the community center. He acts as their leader and even shoots a man who has just become homeless.
  • "More Crap" - Randy becomes a hometown hero when the guys at the local bar see the enormous size of his most recent crap. He then attempts to outdo Bono in the World Record of the biggest crap.
  • "Guitar Queer-o" - Randy tries and fails to play "Guitar Hero" after failing to convince Stan to start playing an actual guitar, and then becomes addicted to "Heroin Hero".
  • "Over Logging" - Randy makes the family move to California in order to find Internet access which the town does not have. During this time, he starts viewing Internet pornography.

[edit] Notes

 Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines.
The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.
  • Randy and Sharon used to be hippies as shown in "Die Hippie, Die". They were at Woodstock 1969 when they first met. If so, they would be 54-55, but this was just a cutaway joke, backed up by Randy stating, at one point in season nine, that he is 35 years old. This would seem to make sense, because the boys (as well as the townspeople) have not been aging and have been fourth graders for the past eight seasons. Randy also represented the peace-wanting, sort of "Hippie" side of South-Park in "I'm A Little Bit Country".
  • Randy inexplicably develops a dimpled chin in season two, which he retains throughout the series. This is first seen in the episode "Conjoined Fetus Lady".
  • According to "Future Stan", in "My Future Self 'n Me", Randy doesn't like chicken.
  • Future Stan also states Sharon has a scar on her left knee from when she slipped in a swimming pool.
  • In "Child Abduction Is Not Funny", it is revealed Randy studied Mongolian in college, though he doesn't apply it.
  • In the episode "Death", Sheila Broflovski refers to Mrs. Marsh, as Carol, even though it is Sharon (although this may be her original name).
  • Starting in season eleven, Randy Marsh is more prominently focused on as a character (in "With Apologies to Jesse Jackson", "Fantastic Easter Special" and "More Crap").
  • It is revealed in the episode "Guitar Queer-o" that Randy is skilled at playing the guitar, and can play many songs from the video game series Guitar Hero II (although he is terrible at the actual game).
  • In the episode Over Logging Randy can be seen using a computer mouse as well as jacking off with his left hand, he may therefore be left-handed.

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ My Future Self n' Me
  2. ^ South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut
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