Butters Stotch

Leopold "Butters" Stotch (voiced by Matt Stone), is a fictional character in the animated television series South Park; his nickname is a play on the word butterscotch. He is considered to be, after having his very own episode, the breakout character of South Park.

Butters has a large tuft of blonde hair on top of his head, and wears an aquamarine jacket with dark green trousers. His birthday is on September 11, as revealed in the episode "AWESOM-O." The character is loosely based on South Park director of animation Eric Stough, whom Stone and Trey Parker regarded as a "goody-goody" because of his reluctance to offend.^[1]

The creators have said in multiple DVD commentaries that Butters is one of their "top 3 favorite characters".

Personality

Butters is described by fans as having a submissive and friendly personality. He is rather naïve, especially when compared to the other boys, believing whatever is told to him, and because of this he is often a target for abuse. Butters gives in to peer pressure very easily. Butters has also been known to always follow rules given by his elders, even when he doesn't understand the consequences he could receive from the other kids. He is consistently portrayed as a sort of Justine or Candide-like character, whose virtue and willingness to trust lead to numerous misfortunes and abuse. He is somewhat eccentric, and so many of his peers call him a "dweeb" or "gaywad". Butters is known to usually be polite, as he doesn't swear as much as some of the other main characters instead preferring to say "Oh, fiddlesticks" or "Oh, hamburgers!" one of the most used phrases of Butters' when he is usually excited about something, or when he is afraid. Despite his lack of awareness Butters is the only character in the show who has a clear morality and always tries to follow it, though he is often tricked into doing things that are hurtful or wrong it is only through Butter's desire to please and help the people around him that he goes along with the boy's plans.

Despite his usual naiveté, Butters has shown wisdom beyond his years. In the episode "Raisins", Butters first falls in love with a girl, only to end up heartbroken when he realizes that she is just using him for money. Though Butters is sad, his reaction displays maturity and he tells Stan that such immense sadness only comes after losing immense happiness, and it makes him feel alive to know he loved someone that much. He later states, "I'd rather be a crying little pussy than a faggy goth kid." Butters has also shown insight in the episode "Cartman Sucks", when he is sent to a Christian conversion camp for appearing to be bi-curious. Although everyone around him tells him that his bi-curiosity is making him "confused" (despite the fact that Butters is not actually bi-curious at all, he doesn't even know what the word means), Butters stands up for himself by stating, "I am sick and tired of everyone telling me I'm confused! I wasn't confused until people started telling me I was. I'm not confused: My name's Butters. I'm eight years old, blood type O, and I'm bi-curious. And even that's okay. Because if I'm bi-curious, and I'm somehow made from God, then I guess God must be a little bi-curious himself!"

In the episode "AWESOM-O", he tells his new robot AWESOM-O (who, in reality, is Cartman playing a prank dressed as a robot) that he has to wear Pull-Ups (visible in Quest for Ratings) to school because he has a herniated colon, and he can't control his sphincter, which is why he sticks a medicinal suppository in his rectum, which "AWESOM-O" helps him with afterward. His parents, however, show indifference to this, as seen in the episode "The Death of Eric Cartman", in which they take Butters to a mental institute after claiming to be haunted by Eric's ghost. At the institute, he is anally probed by a machine as a test for his mental stability.

Butters loves to dance, as seen in "Asspen," and "Hell on Earth 2006." In the episode "You Got F'd in the A," we find out that Butters is unfortunately responsible for the deaths of at least seventeen people through two different tap-dancing accidents, due to the unfortunate habit of having his shoe fly off during the routine. It is also revealed in this episode that Butters used to be a champion tap dancer.

Character history

Butters has evolved as a character since the beginning of the show. First seen in "Cartman Gets an Anal Probe", he was initially a background character who almost never spoke or was referred to by name, although in "Conjoined Fetus Lady" Stan addresses him as "Swanson". He was also seen in the South Park movie "South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut" as a background character, even seen carrying the flag of La Resistance, before falling over. Butters was properly introduced in the 8th episode of season 3; "Two Guys Naked in a Hot Tub". Since then, he played minor roles in episodes prior to season six. He was mainly portrayed as the social outcast of his class, chosen often for tasks that his friends did not want to do themselves. Sometimes Butters even allows himself to be blamed for other peoples crimes, as seen in the episode "Bebe's Boobs Destroy Society". In the episode, the boys ask Bebe if she would like to join them throwing rocks at cars; Butters tells her "It's great, you get to throw rocks at cars and if the driver gets angry, you blame me". As seen in Make Love, Not Warcraft, his favorite computer game is Hello Kitty! Island Adventure.

At the end of season five, Butters made his debut as a main character when he was given his own episode, "Butters' Very Own Episode"; this was done to prepare the audience for Butters to become a major part of the show, and possibly take Kenny's spot as one of the main four. Butters went on to be in the main group for the first five episodes of season six. During this time, he continued to be treated like an outcast by his new friends. Kyle, Stan, and Cartman all openly bullied Butters, telling him he wasn't as cool as Kenny. Several episodes focused on the boys exploiting Butters' kindness for money or fame. Ultimately, in the episode, "Professor Chaos", Butters is expelled from the group for being "too lame" and adopts an alter ego, "Professor Chaos", as a means to get revenge against the group and society for rejecting him.

Since then, Butters has continued to be a major character in the series. He has returned to his role of being the social outcast of the show, always being chosen to be the guinea pig and scapegoat for his friends. His relationship with the main four has improved considerably, as he is often seen playing with them, perhaps indicating that the other boys have finally accepted Butters. Butters also continues to be Cartman's target for both help and abuse and could be considered to be Cartman's sidekick.

Relationships

Stephen (referred to as 'Chris' in several episodes) and Linda Stotch are very strict, authoritarian parents. They are often psychologically abusive to Butters, constantly berating and grounding him for things that are entirely beyond his control, such as in "How to Eat with Your Butt" for having an "unappealing" face and for the events of the "Imaginationland Trilogy" of episodes which prevented him from going home and helping his mother clean the basement. Butters was also threatened with being grounded if he was voted the ugliest boy in his class in "The List", but he was not voted the ugliest boy in the class; he was number 11. They have also beaten him physically in "Jared Has Aides". This has evidently affected Butters psychologically, as he often tells himself off using cliched parental admonitions when his parents are not around to do it. Other examples of the abuse Butters has received from his parents include his mother trying to drown him in a car when she wants to commit suicide, being sold to Paris Hilton for $250 million, being rejected when they think he's bi-curious, and being forced to wear a bag over his head for making "silly faces" (even though it's his regular face). Butters is scared of his domineering father, Stephen, to whom he refers as "Sir". Stephen uses fear as his primary parenting tactic with Butters. In "Imaginationland Episode III", Butters conjures up his father using the power of his imagination (his father being uppermost in his mind at that moment), and when Stephen begins to intimidate Butters, Butters reimagines him as a scary monster. Butters' mother Linda, however, has been shown to be much more tender to her son, hugging and kissing him often, though she did attempt to kill him in "Butters' Very Own Episode" (although she rationalized this was for his own good). She seems to go along with Stephen's harshness believing that it is for the best of her son. However, in "Marjorine", both of his parents were seen mourning his (staged) death, and his father even tried to resurrect him using an ancient Native American burial ground, in a parody of Pet Sematary.

Stan Marsh and Kenny McCormick are fairly apathetic in their treatment of Butters. They are usually open to letting Butters hang out with them, though Kenny doesn't seem to like him that much. Kyle Broflovski is known to be somewhat friendlier to Butters. In "Casa Bonita", Kyle invited him to celebrate his birthday at Casa Bonita instead of Cartman, implying that he feels Butters is a closer friend than Cartman, despite his naïveté and submission. Kyle even has recently opposed Cartman's abuse towards Butters, as seen in the episode "Cartman Sucks".

Although Butters' relationships with girls are not explored in much detail, it shown best in Raisins, when he falls in love with a girl called Lexus (although she was merely flirting so he would come back and give her more money).

A lot of airtime has been given to the relationship between Butters and Cartman. Butters sees Cartman as a companion with whom he can play and have sleepovers. Cartman, however, sees Butters as a loyal servant who will go along with anything he says, and uses that as an excuse to abuse him. Cartman often teaches him the finer points of negotiating in business, the "9/11 conspiracy", and the danger of “ginger kids”. Butters however, may not realize that Cartman is actually bullying him. Stone and Parker have both said in their DVD commentaries that they enjoy the antics between the two characters because they “are such opposites of each other”. In the episode Imaginationland, Cartman gives Butter's the codename Faggot. Butters is also one of the few characters (besides Cartman's mother, teachers, and Chef) to regularly refer to Cartman by his first name, Eric. However, it has been implied that Butters may hate Cartman as much as the other school children in "Breast Cancer Show Ever", though he was shown supporting him earlier in the episode. After Cartman's repeated pranks on Butters, who now is filled up with a little hatred for Cartman, he enacted a measure of revenge in the episode "AWESOM-O", which ends up with Cartman being humiliated after the whole town sees his video of himself playing Britney Spears and "making out with a Justin Timberlake cut-out"; this is an example of Butters' creativity: he may be naive at times, but he can be clever.

Professor Chaos

Butters's alter ego is "Professor Chaos", a supervillain/mad scientist that appears to be inspired by Marvel supervillains Doctor Doom and Magneto. He adopted this personality after the boys kicked him out of their group in the episode "Professor Chaos". His costume consists of a dark green cape, gauntlets, and a helmet: all self-made. His gauntlets and helmet are constructed of lightly crumpled aluminum foil with a red jewel in the helmet.

Butters seems to use Professor Chaos to express his repressed rage about being socially isolated as well as his desire for attention and respect. He spreads chaos with his sidekick General Disarray (a younger, geekier character named Dougie) and his "minions" (his pet hamsters). However, their "mayhem" is initially very minor: sabotaging soup orders at Bennigan's and hiding chalkboard erasers from a classroom, for example. Although they develop more sinister plans, such as flooding the Earth with a garden hose, the group has yet to succeed in exacting revenge upon society. In "Simpsons Already Did It" a running gag is that, whenever Professor Chaos comes up with a brilliant evil scheme, General Disarray would tell him the idea had already been done on The Simpsons.

Professor Chaos doesn't appear next until a brief sighting in "My Future Self n' Me", where Stan mistakes Butters' revealing of his identity for him coming out of the closet. In "Krazy Kripples", Professor Chaos shortly appears as a member of the new Legion of Doom. In the episode "Good Times with Weapons" in season 8, he turns into an anime version of Professor Chaos, demonstrating he sees his alterego as much more intimidating and powerful than he actually is. While participating in the "ninja" game the boys are playing, anime Professor Chaos gets a shuriken (thrown by an anime Kenny) to the eye - at which point the game instantly ends to show the real Butters in horrible pain, shocking the others (including Kenny). Professor Chaos then disappears until "Go God Go" in season 10.

References