Kenny McCormick

Kenneth "Kenny" McCormick, voiced by Matt Stone, is one of the five main characters of South Park (along with Stan, Kyle, Cartman and Butters).Created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, he first appeared in the short films both entitled "The Spirit of Christmas" in 1992 and 1995. He is voiced by Mike Judge in the feature film South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut and Eric Stough in the episodes "The Jeffersons", "Lice Capades" and "Mysterion Rises".

Kenny is most famous for dying in almost every episode in the first five seasons of South Park. He is also easily recognizable for almost always wearing an orange parka (or just having his face hidden) that covers most of his face and muffles his speech. In the episode "Mysterion Rises", Kenny, who is revealed to be the superhero Mysterion, reveals that he has the power to never die and that he just wakes up in his bed after some time. He then claims that he is upset that his friends never express that they rethat he is upset that his friends never express that they remember him dying.

Character inspiration
Like many of South Park's characters, Kenny is based on a real person; in this case a childhood friend of Trey Parker's also named Kenny. In a 2000 interview Trey said that the real life Kenny was the poorest kid in the neighborhood and wore an orange parka that made it difficult for anyone to understand what he was saying. Trey also stated that real life Kenny would skip school from time to time causing the others to jokingly say he had died, and a few days later, he would join his classmates and attend school again.

Appearences
Kenny wears an orange snorkel parka, orange pants and brown gloves. Almost all of the time, Kenny has his hood on so that only his eyes and (invisible) nose are seen. Underneath his hood, he has messy blond hair, which looks somewhat similar to that of Tweek, another character on the show. On occasion, usually when he is scared or crying, he will pull the strings on his hood to make it tighten, although he did this once after Cartman had farted in a confined space. In "South Park is Gay", Kenny has a parka that is light purple with a part of his hair coming out of the hood, black pants, and brown boots with a black stripe down them. Later in the episode, he buys another parka that is pink and fluffy.

Personality and Impact
Kenny is the most sexually knowledgeable and experienced of the group. In earlier episodes, when an unknown term is introduced to Stan, Kyle and Cartman, Kenny will be called upon by his friends to clarify, although Kenny sometimes does not know the meaning of the term himself. His muffled responses are often met with laughter or further confusion.

In "The Ring", upon finding out that his girlfriend Tammy Warner gave another boy a "B.J." (oral sex) in a T.G.I. Friday's parking lot, he pursued that wish throughout the episode and eventually got his wish, though he subsequently died of syphilis. In, he gave Howard Stern a "hummer" (also oral sex) for ten bucks while promoting his Krazy Kenny Show.

His sexual knowledge may be gleaned from his parents, or from the pornography which Kenny possesses in "Osama Bin Laden Has Farty Pants". He often performs disgusting acts for money, such as dissecting a Manatee and eating its spleen, then regurgitating it and eating it again ("Fat Camp"). He also drinks from Jimbo's gas tank in "Volcano". In "Roger Ebert Should Lay Off the Fatty Foods" he creates a haiku:

Although he is something of a silent protagonist, Kenny still seems to be very empathetic when it comes to his friends. In "Do the Handicapped Go to Hell?", he is quick to show worry about the prospect of Timmy going to hell. In "Best Friends Forever", Kenny's will states that Cartman will receive his PSP because he feels sorry for him. Kenny also alludes to his many deaths and his friends' attitude towards them in "Cherokee Hair Tampons", when he gets angry at Stan for crying over Kyle's impending death and not recognizing Kenny's at all - this idea revisited in "Coon vs. Coon and Friends" when nobody realizes he dies a lot. Kenny is ultimately revealed to be a heroic character in "South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut", when he saves the world by sacrificing himself. In the later episodes it is revealed that Kenny is quite intelligent, like Poor and Stupid and the Coon series, and doesn't easily get manipulated by Cartman.

Kenny is also shown to be very loyal to his friends, even when he is insulted or ridiculed. In the episode "Jewbilee", Kyle betrays Kenny by ratting him out to the elders. Afterwards, Kenny ends up saving everyone by sacrificing himself. In the early seasons, Cartman consistently insults Kenny for being poor and constantly reminds him how much he hates him. In "The Biggest Douche in the Universe" - in which Cartman is possessed by the late Kenny - Kenny is shown to be a fan of Rob Schneider. When Cartman refuses to watch Schneider, Kenny's soul keeps trying to get him to change the channel back.

Kenny normally appears blank-faced as a result of his parka hood, but he does get visibly emotional from time to time. In "Poor and Stupid" Kenny got mad enough at Cartman, who had been ruining NASCAR's reputation, to try and kill him with a sniper rifle. In "Coon vs. Coon and Friends" he comes very close to hitting Kyle when he says that not being able to die would be pretty cool (Kenny actually thinks it "fucking hurts"), then again later when Cartman fails to grasp the concept of being a hero. In "The Death of Eric Cartman", Kenny breaks down crying (similarly to how Clyde sometimes does) after Cartman eats all the skin out of a KFC bucket meal - afterwards, he joined Stan and Kyle, and eventually the whole of the 4th grade class, in ignoring Cartman - even though Cartman tried to redeem himself, their friendship never fully recovered.

Kenny is also known to have the most vile mouth in the group, as he mostly swears heavily in his dialogue. He also does not take any guff from Cartman - while he used to be Cartman's "underling", that role has been taken over by Butters. Kenny has many interests: in the episode "Pandemic", Kenny has an interest in Peruvian music; in "Poor and Stupid", he is shown to be a rather large fan of NASCAR racing, but is offended by Cartman's behavior throughout the episode regarding NASCAR, even going as far as to try and kill him. He is also a fan of monster trucks, as evidenced by a 4x4 poster of a monster truck hanging in his room on some occasions. He is also a righty, as he usually holds writing utensils in his right hand.

Since the episode "Mysterion Rises", Kenny has become apathetic towards his inability to die. After so many deaths - both quick and painful - he views his demise as no more than an inconvenience - an excruciating and agonizing one, but still extremely annoying. His apathy even grew to the point where, rather than walk home from Cartman's house at the end of "Coon vs. Coon and Friends", he just shoots himself in the head so that he will appear there instantly. In some episodes Kenny is known to do some crimes on his own, but not very often. He has been arrested twice - once while trying to preform prostitution in his own show, Krazy Kenny, and once for becoming a vigilante as Mysterion, although he doesn't stay in prison for long since the town is full of idiots.

Trivia

 * Kenny is related to Stan's family through being named "honorary nephew" by Jimbo. (Volcano)
 * Kenny is an immortal - while he can technically die, he just keeps being reborn, aging at an increased rate (10 years worth of growth in a few hours), and retaining memories and physical and mental characteristics. (Mysterion Rises, Coon vs. Coon and Friends)
 * Kenny has had a history of ingesting things he probably shouldn't - gasoline (Volcano), cat pee (Major Boobage) and alien drugs (Cancelled) are not unknown.
 * Kenny seems to be producing pubic hair extremely early, considering he is buying shaving cream and razors on a regular basis. (Pandemic)
 * Since The Jeffersons, Kenny has been the only South Park character to have their hair change in appearence (although it is always blond and messy) every episode.
 * Kenny seems to prefer lying down to sitting up - whenever he is doing something on the floor with the other boys (board games, toys and so forth) he will be lying on his front while the others generally sit down.
 * Kenny owns a laptop, courtesy of One Laptop Per Child. (You Have 0 Friends)
 * Kenny has a pet cat who we have never seen - it was only mentioned briefly in "Douche and Turd" by Cartman who thought the fact that he'd broken the cat's leg the week before was the reason that Kenny voted for the Giant Douche. Despite this, a black cat can be seen walking near Kenny's house in "Cartman's Silly Hate Crime 2000". Whenever this is Kenny's cat or not is unknown.
 * Kenny's perverted sense of humor isn't limited to obvious innuendo - he once did a glitter-and-glue drawing of a clown holding someone's head in one hand and a bloody knife in the other. This could also mean he is coulrophobic. ("Fourth Grade")
 * Kenny is the only one of the four main boys who hasn't been circumcised. ("Ike's Wee Wee")
 * Kenny is the only one of the four main boys who isn't imaginary, in that the others had to be re-imagined by Butters. ("Imaginationland Episode III"). However, since Cartman was able to imagine something into Imaginationland, something only real people can do, the others might not actually be imaginary after all.
 * Another more subtle reference to Kenny knowing about his dying could be seen at the end of "Pinkeye". When he rises from the grave, he laughs, wheras throughout the episode he had been silent. Considering that the laugh sounded evil, though, he was probably still a zombie (considering he had been cut in half by Kyle and stitched back together)
 * Kenny has never said 'yes' or 'no'; if he agrees with something he always says 'yeah'. Furthermore, it's been known in the episode World Wide Recorder Concert that he answered 'nope' when Cartman asked him something.
 * It has been noted that Kenny sleeps in his underwear, making him the only main character who does so. however: he's seen sleeping in his parka a view times, but that could possible only happen when he wakes up in his bed after he dies.