List of recurring South Park characters

The following is a list of recurring characters in the animated television series South Park. This does not include the school children, family members or the school staff.

Al Gore

"Al Gore" (voiced by Trey Parker in the "ManBearPig" episode and Matt Stone in "The Red Badge of Gayness" episode) is the former Vice President of the United States and also tries to alert the children of South Park of a mystical creature named "ManBearPig". He constantly says "I'm super cereal!" and "excelsior!" during certain situations; he also appears to be ignorant and insecure.

Gore also appears in during the Imaginationland saga where he's shown wearing a red cape and yelling "excelsior!"; he also appears in the South Park: The Stick of Truth video game.

Big Gay Al

Big Gay Al (speaking voice Matt Stone, singing voice Trey Parker) is a stereotypical homosexual man known for his flamboyant and positive demeanor. For example, he almost always responds to the greeting "How are you?" with an upbeat "I'm super! Thanks for asking!" At one point in the show, he runs an animal farm for gay animals who have been rejected by homophobic pet owners. He temporarily adopted Sparky, Stan's gay dog, who had run away from home. Later on in the episode, his large shelter vanishes, but the various animals remained, and were adopted by their former owners who had missed them greatly. Ever since, he has been a particularly good friend to Stan, and is one of the few people in South Park who are genuinely nice.

He had a minor role in South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut, where it is revealed he is in fact a celebrity (or had become so since his appearance in his first encounter with Stan). He was the co-host and an entertainer at the troops' USO show, in which he performed his own musical number called "I'm Super".

In the episode "Cripple Fight", he is the leader of the boys' Mountain Scout troop. However, the parents of the children are uneasy about a gay scout leader, and the club fires him. The boys rally to get him back, and Gloria Allred and others lobby the Scouts to reaccept him, suing the Scouts in a Supreme Court case that they win. Al rejects this, saying that he knows the Scouts are still good men, and since the Scouts are a private club, they should have the right to exclude people if they choose to, just as he has the right to express himself as a gay man.

Big Gay Al eventually enters into a relationship with Mr. Slave, the ex-boyfriend of Mr. Garrison, whom he married in "Follow That Egg!".

Big Gay Al and Mr. Slave later appeared in an attempt to help the boys change the definition of the word fag in "The F Word".

Dr. Alphonse Mephesto and Kevin

Dr. Alphonse Mephesto (right) and Kevin.

Dr. Alphonse Mephesto (also spelled and pronounced Mephisto^[1] while once referenced as "Alfonz Mephesto";^[2] voiced by Trey Parker) is a mad scientist who specializes in genetic engineering, and has a son named Terrance (not to be confused with Terrance from Terrance and Phillip). The character is a reference to Marlon Brando's portrayal of Dr. Moreau in the 1996 film version of The Island of Dr. Moreau.^[3] He always tries to help those who require his talents, but his experiments sometimes go wrong and put the whole town in danger.

Like Dr. Moreau, Dr. Mephesto creates strange creatures with his talents, such as animals with multiple buttocks. Mephesto believes it is for the good of the Earth, and that one-assed animals are useless and must be destroyed. In "Spontaneous Combustion", he even goes as far as presenting a "seven-assed Galapagos Turtle" in an attempt to win a Nobel Prize, but loses to Randy Marsh's "Unified Theory of Fart Thing". He genetically splices a squirrel with provolone cheese in "Cartman Joins NAMBLA". He also performs experiments ranging from simple DNA tests to creating a genetic clone of Stan Marsh for his son's science project. Mephesto also provides normal genetic testing services, as when Cartman has him determine who was his father in "Cartman's Mom Is a Dirty Slut" and "Cartman's Mom Is Still a Dirty Slut". Mephesto has a brother who attempts to kill him every month for unrevealed reasons, as mentioned in the aforementioned episode. However, in the episode 201, it is revealed that his brother actually shot him in an attempt to keep Cartman's father from being revealed. Playing on his real-world origins, he is a member of the National Association of Marlon Brando Look-Alikes, a group not fond of "that other NAMBLA", as seen in "Cartman Joins NAMBLA".

Kevin is Dr. Mephesto's silent companion, described as "that little monkey guy". He is a small creature who dresses like Dr. Mephesto and is based on Majai, a character created for the 1996 film adaptation of The Island of Dr. Moreau. While Kevin's exact nature is never addressed on the show, his story is told in the song "Mephesto and Kevin" by Primus from Chef Aid: The South Park Album. He was apparently a failed attempt to create a perfect pop singer, a test tube baby created from Michael Jackson's sperm and the egg of an unspecified, musically talented female donor, brought to term inside the womb of a llama.

In "200", Cartman's DNA paternity test from "Cartman's Mom is a Dirty Slut" was revisited. Cartman learns that results he was given were tampered with. In the next episode, "201", Dr. Mephesto tells Cartman that his real father is Jack Tenorman. The character has made sporadic background appearances since.^[4]

Dr. Doctor

Dr. Doctor, also known as Dr. Horatio Gouache, is a South Park doctor primarily seen during scenes set at Hell's Pass Hospital, known for making unusual medical diagnoses, including instances in which he reifies abstract or metaphorical ideas as actual diseases or injuries. In "The Biggest Douche in the Universe", after Cartman is admitted to the hospital following his possession by the soul of his deceased friend, Kenny McCormick, the Doctor's diagnosis is "his time is running out", and uses that phrase as if it were a literal medical diagnosis, explaining if he does not get a "time transplant", he will die. In the episode "You Got F'd in the A", which is a spoof of the film You Got Served, the Doctor treats Randy Marsh after Randy is "served" (slang term for being defeated in a dance competition) by a group of street dancers, as if "being served" constitutes an actual physical transgression that incurs major injuries. In "Pre-School", he treats the kids of South Park after bullying, even though they were merely the victim of mild abuse such as the "second-degree titty twister". In "Cartman's Incredible Gift", after Cartman is hospitalized following an attempt to fly by jumping off a roof with cardboard wings, the Doctor tells his mother that he is "incredibly stupid" and that the stupidity caused the fall.

In recent years, South Park has employed a number of unnamed, recurring doctor characters, but Dr. Doctor continues to appear occasionally, including in "Medicinal Fried Chicken" where his actions and mistaken research lead to the return of KFCs and re-illegalization of marijuana.

In the series, he has been voiced by Trey Parker since 1997, though he was voiced by George Clooney in the 1999 feature film South Park: Bigger Longer & Uncut, in which his character was called Dr. Gouache. Although he wears a name tag also identifying him as "Dr. Doctor", he was called "Dr. Gouache" in "Cartman's Incredible Gift". In "Medicinal Fried Chicken", his medical degree on the wall refers to him as Dr. Horatio Gouache.

Father Maxi

Father Maxi (aka Priest Maxi^[5]) (voiced by Matt Stone) is a Catholic priest. His name is a play on that of British singer Maxi Priest. He first appeared in the first season episode "Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo". In the episode "Korn's Groovy Pirate Ghost Mystery", Maxi, in his hatred of Halloween, kills many South Park citizens in order to convince people that Halloween is evil. In "Do the Handicapped Go to Hell?", he claims that Timmy will go to Hell, since Timmy's mental disabilities make it impossible for him to confess his sins.

Though Father Maxi is a priest and required to be celibate, he does not seem to regularly practice this. Like most of the adults in South Park, he has had sex with Mrs. Cartman at some point in his life, and was caught having sex with a "Mrs. Donovan". In "Cripple Fight", he admitted to having gone through a homosexual phase in his youth, but claims to be reformed. However, he apparently once had a relationship with a man named Peterson whom he was supposed to be reforming of homosexuality.

In "Red Hot Catholic Love", he pursues Catholic sex abuse cases as the only uncorrupted priest in the episode, and espouses a version of liberal Christianity in saying that the Bible is a collection of moral parables meant to act as an ethical guide, and not be taken literally. In "Follow That Egg!", he officiates Big Gay Al and Mr. Slave's wedding, despite his earlier stand against homosexuality. In "The F Word", he is seen outside his chapel displaying a "God Hates Fags" sign towards an obnoxious gang of Harley-Davidson riders, who have been deemed as "fags" under city ordinance.

God

God is portrayed on South Park as a composite of what appears to be a hippo and an orangutan. His first appearance was in "Are You There God? It's Me, Jesus" as part of the millennial celebrations, where he answers Stan's question of why hasn't he gotten his period yet when all of his friends had (Cartman and Kenny were suffering from an intenstinal virus and Kyle was lying). He can be summoned in Heaven when his name is spoken, and sometimes on Earth, where he appears as beams of light with a deep voice. God is a Buddhist, although only people of the Mormon faith are allowed in Heaven. As the population of Heaven began to dwindle, and the population of Hell rose, as told in "Best Friends Forever", God started to allow others into Heaven. This was an attempt to build up Heaven's army to protect God's Kingdom from the increasingly larger Army of Satan. It is said that the PlayStation Portable was created by God to help find the human who could lead his army, which turned out to be Kenny. He appears in the second part of Do the Handicapped Go to Hell?, where he gives advice to Satan in regards to his relationship troubles. He is included as a figure with the South Park series 3 Jesus action figure by Mezco. He is voiced by Trey Parker.

Jesus

Jesus on Jesus and Pals

Jesus (voiced by Matt Stone) is a character based on the biblical Jesus. On South Park, Jesus had his own public-access television cable TV show called Jesus and Pals. He was killed while fighting Iraqis during an attempt to rescue Santa on Christmas Eve in the episode "Red Sleigh Down". This was his last major role on the show until he was resurrected five years later in the eleventh season episode "Fantastic Easter Special".

He is portrayed as represented in Christian thought—i.e., he is the Son of God, has numerous miraculous powers (including prophecy, healing and resurrection), as well as the ability to fly and expert carpentry skills. The exact nature of his abilities varies from episode to episode—for example, "Super Best Friends" portrays some of his most famous miracles as farces, despite still having basic powers, while in "Fantastic Easter Special", he claims to only have his powers after being killed and resurrected, so he makes Kyle kill him so he can save the Easter bunny.

Jesus is usually portrayed as being calm and self-assured, being kind and peaceable to everyone; nevertheless, he often acts more typical of South Park characters. He is often seen, for example, fighting villains, and while inept at it in "Damien", he later is shown ("Red Sleigh Down", "Fantastic Easter Special" and "Imaginationland Episode III") as being very skilled with guns, swords and a glaive (in "Imaginationland III" he leads the charge of the good imaginary characters into battle.) He makes a cameo as a soldier in South Park: Bigger Longer & Uncut, implying that he is on the American side. He is also a member of the Super Best Friends, a group of religious figures who fight against the forces of evil (except for Buddha, who does not believe in evil).

In the Jesus vs. Frosty short which started South Park, the boys make a snowman which comes to life after they put a hat on him. The snowman kills Cartman and Kenny and even poses as Santa. Stan and Kyle are the only ones left and seek help from a baby Jesus who comes alive from a Nativity Scene and knocks Frosty's hat off. In Jesus vs. Santa, Jesus arrives from Heaven to seek retribution. He wants to get rid of Santa once and for all since people don't see Christmas as Jesus's birthday anymore. With help from Brian Boitano, the boys tell Jesus that Santa is keeping his birthday alive and they tell Santa if it was not for Jesus there wouldn't be a Christmas. At that point, both Santa and Jesus apologized to each other, and Jesus decided to offer Santa an orange smoothie, which Santa likes. Some footage from this short was used in the episode "A Very Crappy Christmas".

Before his second death, Jesus hosted a television talk show called Jesus and Pals on South Park public-access television cable TV. Jesus would often receive on-air calls from guests, and would be depicted as reluctant to respond to questions regarding issues such as homosexuality, euthanasia and his own crucifixion. In the episode "The Mexican Staring Frog of Southern Sri Lanka", Jesus's show entered a ratings war with Jimbo Kern and Ned Gerblansky's hunting program Huntin' and Killin'. The show's producer, in an attempt to increase ratings, fabricates controversy between guests, and Jesus and Pals turns into a Jerry Springer-style farce. During live production of the face-off between Ned and Jimbo vs. the children on Jesus and Pals, the guests and audience breakout into a brawl. It led to a huge fight until Jesus discovered what happened, and sent his producer to Hell. In Cartman's Mom Is a Dirty Slut, when Mr. Garrison asks "who here hasn't had sex with Mrs. Cartman", Jesus and Priest Maxi exchange uncomfortable glances, implying that he, like most everyone else in South Park, has at some point had a relationship with Cartman's mother.

In the Imaginationland-trilogy he is depicted as "one of the most revered fictional characters" and a member of the Council of Nine. To add to the confusion: in previous "South Park" episodes Jesus interacted in real life with other South Park citizens, just like Santa Claus who is also shown in the "Imaginationland" episodes as a fictional character. Other famous religious icons such as Moses, Ganesha, Buddha, Joseph Smith and God are also shown as citizens of Imaginationland.^[6]

He was also mentioned at the end of episode Sarcastaball.

Despite the subject material, the South Park iteration of Jesus was absent from the episode "The Passion of the Jew", an eighth season episode dealing with Mel Gibson's movie The Passion of the Christ and the various responses to the film from the four principal characters as well as the rest of the town itself.

Joseph Smith

Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism, made his first appearance in "Super Best Friends" in which he was depicted as a member of a superhero group composed of the central figures of many of Earth's religions. He later appeared in "All About Mormons", which depicts the events in his life that led to the founding of Mormonism, and in the two-part episodes "200" and "201".

Loogie

Loogie (or Luigi) made his first appearance in "The Tooth Fairy Tats 2000". When the boys try to make money by snatching tooth fairy money left underneath other boys' pillows, they encounter another set of boys trying to do the same thing. These rivals bring the boys back to Loogie, whereupon they learn that the Tooth Fairy business is actually a crime syndicate, with Loogie being portrayed as a youth Mafia kingpin. He wears a zoot suit and his headquarters is a basement Italian restaurant. Instead of merely dressing up like the Tooth Fairy and procuring the money, he has an entire assembly line of employees who procure the teeth and inspect them for quality. When the boys attempt to break off into their own independent syndicate, Loogie intervenes and targets Kenny to teach them a lesson (which is a spoof on common Mafia practices). He is voiced primarily by Richard Belzer, although the final recordings were performed by Trey Parker.^[7] He made another cameo appearance in "Professor Chaos", where he was one of twenty candidates to replace the then-deceased Kenny in the boys' group. He survived the first round to become a semi-finalist but was one of four boys cut in the second round. In this episode, when his name was called out to advance to the next round, he was referred to as "Luigi".

To date, the show has not specified whether the character's name is actually Loogie, such that the "Luigi" reference is a "nod" or "nonce usage", or whether instead his given name is Luigi and the appellation "Loogie" is a (likely pejorative) nickname.

Mayor McDaniels

Mayor McDaniels is the mayor of South Park. In one episode, she is discovered ordering Officer Barbrady to perform oral sex on her, and in another, she indicates obliquely that they have had dealings with the Japanese mafia. Her civic ideas for the city are often made without regard for future consequences, which are usually disastrous. In "Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo", she tries to resolve offended feelings towards the public school Christmas play by having a play created that makes no references to any religion or religious holiday, resulting in an esoteric production that all the townspeople loathe. In "Summer Sucks", after all fireworks are declared illegal with the exception of snakes, the town is endangered by a giant snake she arranges to have set off. She attempts suicide in "Die Hippie, Die", after a hippie music festival she signs the permit for has deleterious effects on the town. In "Cartman's Mom Is a Dirty Slut", when Garrison asks the question of who has not slept with Mrs. Cartman, she exchanges uncomfortable glances with Principal Victoria, implying that she, like most everyone else in South Park, has at some point been involved with Cartman's mother. In the new episode, Tweek x Craig, she is shown looking at a picture of a man, who is assumed to be her husband, during a love song. Later in the episode, during a breakup song, she's shown crying over a grave, implying that she's a widow.

McDaniels was conceived because Trey Parker and Matt Stone wanted the mayor to be someone more sophisticated than other South Park residents and believed she was better than the rest of the town.^[8]

Mechanic

Mechanic is a nameless character who wears a wide-brimmed fedora and overalls, and speaks with a heavy Maine accent. He resembles Fred Gwynne's portrayal of the character Jud Crandall in the 1989 film Pet Sematary, parodying Crandall's character by ominously sharing horror stories from the past and warning people not to repeat them. He first appears in "Butters' Very Own Episode", in which he directs Butters down a dark road to South Park, giving the horrific history of the road to him, ending his speech with "Yah, lotta history down that road." He appears again in "Asspen" when he tries to talk Stan out of racing down the K-13 while giving the terrible history about the run and the lives lost on it, ending his speech with "Yah, a lotta history on that ski run." A more direct parody of Pet Sematary is made in "Marjorine" when he spontaneously tries to talk Mr. Stotch out of burying what he believes to be Butter's body on an Indian burial ground (despite Mr. Stotch not having considered it), saying "Don't bury your son's body at the Indian burial ground, Stotch! The one that's right up over there, behind the Andersons' barn...", closing with Crandall's signature line "Sometimes... dead is better". He appears again in the sixteenth-season episode "Insecurity", telling the husbands of South Park how the local milkman used to have sex with everyone's wives, warning the husbands they may be suffering a similar fate at the hands of the UPS man and bluntly instructing them to kill him.

Moses

Moses, the Jewish prophet, appears in "Jewbilee" as the focus of a ritual in which Jews make macaroni pictures, popcorn necklaces and soap carvings at a Jewish scout camp. His appearance is patterned after the Master Control Program from the film Tron and a large glowing spinning dreidel.^[9] The episode's antisemitic antagonist, Garth, captures him in a conch shell before calling upon the Biblical character Haman. Kenny McCormick, who had been banished from the camp by Moses for not being Jewish, saves the camp by breaking the conch shell open with his head. Moses also appears in the episode "Super Best Friends", in which he acts as the computer at the Super Best Friends headquarters, and demonstrates the ability to play a tape by having it inserted through a port in his front. Additionally, Moses appears at the Hall of the Super Best Friends in the episode "200", where he offers the opinion that it will be okay for the Islamic prophet, Muhammad to appear in Southpark in a U-Haul, if the U-Haul has no windows.

Mr. Hankey

Mr. Hankey the "Christmas Poo", voiced by Trey Parker, is a talking piece of feces. He first appeared in the first season episode "Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo". He emerges from the toilet bowl on Christmas Eve and brings presents to good boys and girls whose diets have been high in fiber. He is especially close to Kyle, consoling him during his Christmas-Hanukkah depression and generally appears to help the boys out with something or gives them advice. Mr. Hankey has appeared in various Christmas episodes, and inspired an actual retail CD Mr. Hankey's Christmas Classics in which he has his own theme song. In his first appearance, he appeared anthropomorphic only to Kyle and Chef, although he often leaves a trail behind that is attributed by the adults to antisocial behavior by Kyle. Due to his physical state, he can only emerge from the sewers during the Christmas season or he will dry up and die.

The Mr. Hankey character was based on an idea Trey Parker's father created when he was potty-training Trey as a child.^[10] Parker said he refused to flush the toilet at age three or four, so his father told him if he did not flush the stool, whom he called "Mr. Hankey", it would come to life and kill him.^[11] Parker said he planned to incorporate Mr. Hankey into South Park, but did not decide right away to make him a Christmas figure; previously, Parker envisioned the character simply as a talking stool and drew him with a sailor's hat, not a Christmas hat.^[12] John Kricfalusi, the creator of The Ren and Stimpy Show, claimed that the Mr. Hankey concept was stolen from Kricfalusi's cartoon short, "Nutty the Friendly Dump",^[10] and even discussed taking legal action against the show.^[13] Parker and Stone denied the allegation and said they were not fans of Ren & Stimpy.^[14]

Mr. Kitty

Mr. Kitty is a grey housecat owned by Cartman, prone to showing interest in Cartman's food, to which Cartman usually responds, "No, Mr. Kitty, that's mine! That's a bad kitty!" His first appearance was in "Cartman Gets an Anal Probe". In the episode "Cartman's Mom Is a Dirty Slut", he was voiced by Jay Leno. In the episode "Spookyfish", a kindhearted and generous Cartman from a parallel universe arrives and is friendly to Kitty, much to our universe's Cartman's irritation. Kitty's most prominent role was in the season 3 episode "Cat Orgy". Mr. Kitty was mentioned in "The Death of Eric Cartman" as being part of the list of beings to whom Cartman needed to apologize in order to reach Heaven. Although Mr. Kitty is indicated to be female in "Cat Orgy", in the season 12 episode "Major Boobage", the children experiment with Mr. Kitty's urine after learning that the urine of male cats can cause intoxication.

Ned Gerblansky

Ned Gerblansky (voiced by Trey Parker) and his best friend Jimbo Kern represent South Park's large population of stereotypical "rednecks". They are obsessed with large trucks, beer, guns, explosions, and killing animals. They detest "liberals" and circumvent hunting regulations, which they refer to as anti-hunting laws, by yelling, "it's coming right for us!" before shooting any animal, thereby justifying the kill as self-defense. After a court ruling, they are seen shooting animals so as to "thin out their numbers", despite the fact that they are shown shooting at endangered species while shouting, "it's coming right for us!"

Jimbo and Ned met while in the Vietnam War, where Jimbo was a helicopter pilot. During the war, Ned lost his right arm when a hand grenade exploded in his hand. Ned also lost his formerly mellifluous voice due to cancer, apparently caused by cigarette smoking, and is forced to speak with a mechanical larynx. Despite the fact that Ned lost one of his arms, he can still wield two-handed weapons, such as a flamethrower, and even an M249 SAW in South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut. It was revealed in the episode "Summer Sucks" that Ned has an ex-wife, though her name is never mentioned.

Ned and Jimbo were inspired by characters Trey Parker used to draw during high school.^[8]

Nellie and Thomas McElroy

Nellie and Thomas McElroy were the parents of Chef and are both voiced by Trey Parker. They first appear in the episode "The Succubus", when they come to South Park for Chef's wedding. They appear later in the episode "The Biggest Douche in the Universe" when Chef takes Cartman and his mother to his parents' manor house in Scotland. They perform a shaman-esque ritual to exorcize Kenny's soul from Cartman's body. In "Red Sleigh Down", they are seen in a crowd during the town's Christmas celebration. They are not seen at Chef's funeral in "The Return of Chef".

The McElroys' main subject of conversation is their supposed encounters with the Loch Ness Monster. They repeatedly claim that they have seen him on multiple occasions, and are constantly harassed by him, as he tries to swindle them out of $3.50 ("tree fiddy"). According to Thomas, the monster has pretended to be a Girl Scout, an alien, and Chef's imaginary friend from childhood.

Officer Barbrady

Officer Barbrady (voiced by Trey Parker) is a South Park city police officer who is extremely incompetent at what he does and is generally a bumbling oaf, incapable of solving any of the crimes he is charged to investigate. He even unintentionally helped Mr. Garrison try to kill Kathie Lee Gifford. Mayor McDaniels still often summons him, as he actually does keep the peace in South Park, as shown in "Chickenlover" when shortly after he quits, the city falls into chaos. Officer Barbrady does not drink coffee, as seen in episode "Gnomes"; he instead prefers to get hit in the face by a cat swung by the tail. He is slightly overweight and talks louder than he should, most likely because of his hearing aid.

Barbrady was illiterate until season two's "Chickenlover". After his illiteracy was exposed, Barbrady was ordered to learn how to read by the Mayor. Chickenlover made him learn to read by leaving the notes at the crime scenes describing where he would strike next. Barbrady was thankful at first to Chickenlover, but arrested him nonetheless for his crimes. Chickenlover then gave him the book Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, which Barbrady thought was such an awful book that he vowed never to read anything ever again.

In "Chickenlover" and "Spookyfish" Barbrady claims to have a wife. However, she has never appeared on the show. In other episodes, it has been implied that he and Mayor McDaniels are in a relationship, despite her general disdain for him.

In the season seven episode "Toilet Paper", Barbrady claims, while being interrogated by Hannibal Lecter-like character Josh, that he was beaten with a belt by his uncle and that his father forced him to wear a dress and sit on all of his uncles' laps on poker night. Josh interjects that this is the reason he became a police officer in the first place; to protect himself.

Parker's voice for Officer Barbrady was inspired by Dennis Prager, a syndicated radio talk show host, who Parker said he and Stone liked to make fun of for his "big, bombastic, stupid voice".^[8]

In "Chickenlover", it was established that Barbrady was the only police officer in town. In later seasons, he was phased out in favor of an actual police force, led by the equally incompetent Sgt. Harrison Yates. Barbrady's role in the series has decreased as a result, but he still appears regularly, such as in "200" while protecting the town, and was considered a possible father for Eric Cartman, having been in the room on the day of the DNA test; however, this was ruled out when the true identity of Eric Cartman's father was revealed in "201". He also played a very prominent role in the 2015 episode "Naughty Ninjas" . In which we see him without his trademark Sunglasses and his home interior, along with an ageing dog that requires medication.

Saddam Hussein

Saddam Hussein is depicted with appearance and mannerisms that differ dramatically from the real Saddam Hussein. Matt Stone performs his voice even though he is credited as himself. He first appeared in the season 2 episode Terrance and Phillip in Not Without My Anus, and later in South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, in which he is revealed as Satan's lover in Hell. Though Satan eventually kills him in the movie, he returns to Hell in the series, and remains a recurring character until "It's Christmas in Canada".

Saddam Hussein's body is made in the usual South Park style (resembling construction paper), but his head is a photograph cutout, a technique also used with appearance by Mel Gibson and Ben Affleck (in his appearance in How to Eat with Your Butt)^[15]). His head is cut into two pieces, which come apart when he talks like, instead of having a conventionally articulated mouth like a Canadian.

While Saddam on South Park is based on the real-life Saddam, he has a very high-pitched voice, is homosexual, speaks English and often calmly uses Canadian slang, as when he says, "relax guy". He was so emotionally abusive to Satan during their relationship that Satan ultimately exiles him to Heaven. Saddam attempts to conquer Canada in "Terrance and Phillip in Not Without My Anus" and "It's Christmas in Canada".

Santa Claus

Santa Claus (voiced by Trey Parker) lives at the North Pole in his Fortress of Solitude, aided two months out of the year by the Underpants Gnomes. Santa is often shown with South Park's other Christmas-related characters, Mr. Hankey and Jesus. His relationship with the latter has been rocky. In the animated short, "The Spirit of Christmas", Jesus and Santa had a fight to determine what the true meaning of Christmas was—giving or Jesus' birth. With some advice from Brian Boitano, the boys told Jesus that Santa keeps the spirit of Christmas alive, and then told Santa that if it wasn't for Jesus there would be no Christmas at all. The two reconciled, though they would later fight again in "Mr. Hankey's Christmas Classics", when Santa felt unhappy that there are more Jesus-related Christmas songs than ones about him. Nevertheless, they made up again, and Jesus later lost his life to save Santa from Iraqis in "Red Sleigh Down". To commemorate his good friend, Santa declares that in every Christmas, everyone should remember Jesus.

Santa is known for not being afraid to get violent to protect the true meaning of Christmas. In "Red Sleigh Down" he was captured by Iraqis and had to shoot his way free, in "Woodland Critter Christmas" his skill with a shotgun and sledgehammer saved Christmas from the Anti-Christ, and in "Imaginationland Episode III" he was seen sporting a golden axe to fight off the army of evil imaginary creatures after being revived by Butters (who used his imagination, due to the fact the Santa had died in flames during the terrorist attack).

Satan

From left to right: Saddam, Satan and Chris.

Satan is a recurring character, based on the Abrahamic figure of the same name, voiced by Trey Parker. He presides over Hell and is constantly at war with God, but is often depicted as a sensitive and emotionally vulnerable person who has suffered from dependence on relationships.

Many of Satan's appearances on South Park (as well as his role in the film South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut) focus on his romantic attachments, all of which so far have been homosexual. In the film, he is the main antagonist alongside Saddam Hussein, though at the end of the film, he undergoes a change of heart, and calls off his attack upon Earth. In the beginning of the story, Satan is romantically involved with Saddam Hussein. As the plot of South Park progresses, Satan exiles Saddam after Saddam becomes too domineering. Satan has since had two other partners, Chris and Kevin (see below). Satan also has a rarely seen son named Damien, who, while never specifically labeled as the Antichrist, is based on the character from The Omen. Satan makes a cameo on the end of the current opening.

According to the audio commentary for the episode "Damien", South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone came up with the idea of Satan and Saddam Hussein being lovers on the set of BASEketball, where they would attempt to impress girls by improvising scenes between the two characters, one assuming the role of Satan and one of Saddam. Parker also mentions on the same commentary track that he and Stone were inspired to make Satan a wimp by the character of Pinhead in Hellraiser 3.

Satan has tried three times so far in the course of South Park's run to take over Earth: in the episodes "Damien" and "Best Friends Forever", and also in the feature film South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut. All three attempts failed, with the last also leading to Satan's breakup and out-of-anger murder of his then-boyfriend Saddam Hussein, although his attempt in "Damien" was fake—the real reason he did it was to get rich on the money that the townsfolk had bet on him.

Satan has been depicted in three romantic relationships. His most significant relationship was with Saddam Hussein in South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut. However, Saddam was emotionally abusive to the meek and emotionally dependent Satan, and was interested in Satan solely for sex and world domination than out of love. With some prompting from Kenny, Satan stands up to Saddam, casts him back down into hell, impaling him on a stalagmite, and calls off his invasion of Earth.

Saddam is seen again in "Do the Handicapped Go to Hell?". By this time Satan has a new boyfriend named Chris, a passive milquetoast who avoids conflict and confrontation. Saddam asserts to Satan that Chris is not fit for Satan, who truly prefers rebellious troublemakers like Saddam himself, and after inviting Saddam to his hotel room, the conflicted Satan spends the night with him. Subsequently, Chris and Saddam began to kill each other over and over again—appearing alive in Hell the next day—until Satan seeks God's advice. God points out to Satan that Satan is too dependent on relationships, and needs to learn to develop his own sense of independence and self-worth, rather than choose partners who are bad for him. Satan decides to break up with both Saddam and Chris, and when Saddam refuses to acknowledge Satan's wishes, Satan banishes Saddam to Heaven, which is populated entirely by Mormons.

In the 2005 episode "Best Friends Forever", Satan has another boyfriend named Kevin, who acts as his advisor, and urges Satan along in his attempts to conquer the universe; however, when it is clear the battle is lost for them and the figure continues to press him, Satan breaks up with Kevin and dispatches him.

In the Season 18 episode "Freemium Isn't Free", Satan is summoned to explain the evils of the Freemium pricing model to Stan, who has been spending exorbitant amounts of money in the Terrance and Phillip game app. He then realizes the culprit, and temporarily takes over Stan's soul to fight the Canadian devil.

Scott the Dick

Scott lives in Canada where he is a television critic for magazines and is known by most Canadians as being obnoxious and "a dick", as evidenced by his nickname. He is uptight and short-tempered, especially with Terrance and Phillip's toilet humour (as a result he wishes that Terrence and Phillip had cancer) and almost all the rest of his Canadian ilk though he has patriotism for his country and expresses special contempt for Americans and ethnic hatred towards the Inuit people. Scott was also Saddam Hussein's advisor twice, first in "Terrance and Phillip in Not Without My Anus" and then to the new Prime Minister of Canada in "It's Christmas in Canada", who turned out to be Saddam in disguise.

Scott's first appearance was in "Terrance and Phillip in Not Without My Anus", where he was shown to be the nemesis of Terrance and Phillip. He then appeared in "real life" during "It's Christmas in Canada", attempting to stop the boys from getting Kyle Broflovski's brother Ike back. Scott returned in the season 15 episode "Royal Pudding", labeled as the "The Giant" due to radiation poisoning in Ottawa causing him to grow to slightly larger in size. After being wrongly accused of abducting the Princess of Canada, Scott helps in her rescue from Tooth Decay and is awarded the Canadian Medal of Courage.

Harrison Yates

Sgt. Harrison "Harris" Yates (sometimes shortened to Detective Harris^[16] and called Lou in "Cartman's Incredible Gift"), voiced by Trey Parker, is a police sergeant and the top detective with the Park County Police Department. He is often depicted as either incompetent or corrupt, but nonetheless dedicated to his job, though prone to excessive violence and often racism. Yates has a supportive but rarely-seen wife named Maggie,^[17] and an unseen son mentioned in "Cartman's Incredible Gift". The Park County Police Department was first seen with a similar character named Lieutenant Dawson in "Lil' Crime Stoppers", also voiced by Parker with a similar design, voice, and role, while Yates was first shown working for the FBI in "Christian Rock Hard" in a similar building. Yates was briefly shown working for the older South Park Police Department in "Casa Bonita". Though the character has since been firmly established as a detective in South Park, occasionally he is still seen elsewhere - in "Free Willzyx" he and his men were investigating the theft of an orca whale in Denver.

In "The Jeffersons", he is first introduced as South Park's police sergeant when he learns that a wealthy black man named Mr. Jefferson has moved into South Park, he leads a police conspiracy to frame the man for a crime he did not commit, but aborts the plan when he actually sees the light-skinned Mr. Jefferson, and becomes disillusioned with the long-time police tradition of framing wealthy black men for crimes they didn't commit. (In actuality, Mr. Jefferson was an incognito Michael Jackson). In "Cartman's Incredible Gift", when a serial killer strikes South Park, Yates becomes enamored with the idea that Cartman has psychic powers that can capture the killer, and dismisses proven criminal science such as fingerprinting and blood analysis as "hocus pocus". As a result, he arrests and even kills a number of innocent people based on Cartman's alleged "psychic visions", failing to identify the killer as such when he first investigates him, despite an overabundance of evidence, and nearly letting him go free.

In "Miss Teacher Bangs a Boy", he initially takes no action when it is reported that Ike Broflovski's kindergarten teacher is having sex with him, because he finds the idea of a female teacher having sex with a male student alluring. In the season 13 episode "Butters' Bottom Bitch", Yates goes undercover as a (female) prostitute to try and crack down on prostitution in South Park—and insists on going through various sexual acts (including oral sex and a gang bang) before arresting the clients. The character also appears in the season 18 episode "Cock Magic", leading his men in a personal vendetta against illegal sports, but is referred to as Detective Harris,^[18] a name that has been used in scripts for a number of years,^[19][20] and was re-used in "#HappyHolograms". It was briefly considered his official name by Comedy Central and South Park Studios^[16] though many fans continued to render his name as Sergeant Yates, or consider 'Harris' a nickname based on 'Harrison'. He was once again referred to as Harrison Yates by his wife in the season 19 episode "You're Not Yelping", seeming to confirm Harris as a nickname.

Yates was often seen with his gray-haired partner Detective Mitch Murphey, voiced by Matt Stone. Murphey, along with the rest of the Park County Police Department, is generally shown to be more sensible and less corrupt than Yates, often following his example reluctantly, although they are still prone to the typical incompetence seen in the show's adults. Murphey has also been referred to by the name Harris ("The Jeffersons" and "Free Willzyx") but the name Murphey is used in scripts and he has been known as Mitch ("Eek, a Penis!" and "The China Probrem"). Yates has referred to other officers as 'Mitch' on occasion as well, most of which have been voiced by Matt Stone.

While other members of the police force have been named and identified, only Yates and Barbrady have remained recurring characters with consistent personalities, though the relationship between the two is largely unexplored. The two can be seen dining together in "The City Part of Town".^[21]

Skeeter

Skeeter is a red-haired townsperson often seen at the local bar. He has a southern accent, and is typically is portrayed as a redneck. He first appeared in the episode "Sexual Harassment Panda", where he greets newcomers by saying, "Hey! We don't take kindly to your types in here!" This is generally followed by the bartender interjecting, "Now, calm down, Skeeter, he ain't hurtin' nobody". The bar has since come under his ownership, having been renamed Skeeter's Bar during the eleventh season, and he is portrayed as the owner in the video game "South Park: The Stick of Truth", where he urges the player to help deal with a rodent problem and mentions taking therapy for his anger problems.

He is also shown leading various mobs in different episodes, or otherwise appears as a background character or regular townee. His most notable appearances include leading the campaign to "Free Hat McCullough" in "Free Hat", and as a war supporter who excoriates anti-war protesters in the episode "I'm a Little Bit Country". He also briefly appears in the "With Apologies to Jesse Jackson" episode. He has a daughter, as indicated near the end of "Good Times with Weapons".

Sparky the Dog

Sparky (voiced by George Clooney)^[22] is Stan's dog. He first appeared in "Big Gay Al's Big Gay Boat Ride" in which it was revealed that he is gay. Stan was very upset that Sparky was gay, provoking Sparky to run away to "Big Gay Al's Big Gay Animal Sanctuary", where he would live with other gay animals. He, along with all of the other animals, returned to their owners after the people of South Park learned to become more accepting of homosexuality in animals.

He has been seen in "Proper Condom Use", and "Good Times with Weapons", in which his fur was used to disguise Butters as a dog. Sparky also makes a cameo in "Woodland Critter Christmas", and was briefly seen in the episode "Spookyfish". He is included as a figure with the South Park series 2 Stan action figure by Mezco.

Terrance and Phillip

Terrance and Phillip are a comedy duo from Canada who appear on The Terrance and Phillip Show, which is frequently watched by Stan, Kyle, Eric Cartman and Kenny. Terrance Henry Stoot of Toronto (voiced by Matt Stone) has black hair and wears a red shirt with a letter "T", while Phillip Niles Argyle of Montreal (voiced by Trey Parker) has blond hair, diabetes, and a blue shirt with a "P".

The characters were inspired by the number of complaints about fart jokes in South Park. In commentary by Matt Stone and Trey Parker during the first episode in which Terrance and Phillip appeared, they complained of many people claiming that South Park was poorly animated and just all fart jokes. In response, the creators invented Terrance and Phillip to demonstrate just what a show that was indeed all fart jokes would be, and made it even more poorly animated.

It is revealed in the episode "Terrance and Phillip: Behind the Blow" that Terrance and Phillip met at the "Canadian School for Gifted Babies" (a school with students who bear uncanny resemblances to Kyle's brother Ike). The duo briefly separated in "Terrance and Phillip: Behind the Blow", with Phillip having a "serious job" as an actor in "Canadian Shakespeare" plays. Terrance also becomes obese in this episode.

Terrance and Phillip have small beady eyes and Pac-Man-like heads which flap up and down whenever they speak, as do the majority of Canadians featured on the show.

In the 1999 movie South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, American mothers' outrage at the duo's low-life act leads to their arrest, and a war between Canada and the United States ensues. Their deaths at the hands of Kyle's mother, Sheila, causes the upwelling of Satan and his partner-in-evil, Saddam Hussein, from the underworld. However, they are resurrected at the end of the movie by Kenny McCormick's wish that everything should return to normal.

They married their girlfriends in a double wedding at the end of the episode "Eat, Pray, Queef".

Towelie

Towelie.

Towelie, voiced by Vernon Chatman, is a talking "RG-400 Smart Towel" introduced in the fifth season episode "Towelie". The exact details of his creation are comically confused, but he was apparently genetically engineered to be an alien spying weapon, and was stolen by a paramilitary group before he simply "got high and just sort of wandered off" to South Park. He speaks in a high-pitched voice, and is usually seen either giving towel-related advice to the citizens of South Park or, more often, getting high on cannabis and voicing his permanent confusion.

After Kenny's death, the boys went searching for a replacement friend in the sixth season episode "Professor Chaos". Towelie, a possible candidate, was said to be "high all the time" and therefore unreliable. This episode also stated that Towelie is 17 years old in towel years. He also makes brief appearances in "Osama Bin Laden Has Farty Pants" and "Red Man's Greed". He starred as the main character in "A Million Little Fibers", a parody of the controversy that surrounded James Frey's memoir A Million Little Pieces on The Oprah Winfrey Show, after it was discovered to have been partially fabricated.

By the episode "Crippled Summer", Towelie's addictions, which have come to include heroin and crystal meth, are addressed by his friends in an intervention, as a parody of the A&E documentary TV series Intervention.^[23][24][25]

Trey Parker and Matt Stone explained on the DVD commentary for "Towelie" that the character was conceived as a joking reference to the over-marketing of characters in the wake of the series' success. Eric Cartman, partially breaking the fourth wall, delivers the penultimate line of Towelie's eponymous episode: "You're the worst character ever, Towelie", to which Towelie responds, "I know."

Tuong Lu Kim

Tuong Lu Kim, also known as the City Wok Guy (voiced by Trey Parker), is a stereotypical Chinese character.^[26] He is prone to mispronouncing the word "city" as "shitty", and thus he often refers to his dishes in a way that sounds like "Shitty Chicken", "Shitty Beef", etc. Lu Kim first appeared in the episode "Jared Has Aides", though his name was not given until "Child Abduction Is Not Funny". According to the DVD commentary on "Jared Has Aides", Tuong is based on an actual person. While doing sound mixing on their film Orgazmo, Parker and Matt Stone would phone a real life City Wok just to hear the man's voice.

Lu Kim's main job is the owner of City Wok, a Chinese take out service. He also operates the airline service City Airlines.^[27] Keeping with Chinese stereotypes, Tuong is depicted in the episode "Child Abduction Is Not Funny " as an expert at building walls, and displays anti-Mongolian^[28] and anti-Japanese sentiments.^[29] In the episode "Wing", he appears as the husband of the titular character, a Chinese-New Zealand singer guest starring as herself.

Lu Kim's actual identity, Dr. William Janus, appears in the episode "City Sushi". In the episode's two plotlines, Dr. Janus falsely diagnoses Butters with multiple personality disorder before being revealed to suffer from the disorder himself, while Lu Kim plots to murder his new Japanese rival Junichi Takayama. In a twist, Dr. Janus and Kim are revealed to be one and the same. Although Kim's actual identity is revealed to the people of South Park (leading Takayama to commit suicide in disgrace), the police decide not to help him with his condition, so that the town will still have an Asian restaurant. Lu Kim thus remains unaware of his true self.^[26] Dr. Janus is likely to be named after Janus, the Roman god of beginnings and transitions, who is usually depicted with two heads facing opposite directions.^[26][30]

Ugly Bob

Bob's first appearance was in "Terrance and Phillip in Not Without My Anus". He is called "Ugly Bob" by Terrance and Phillip due to his hideous appearance, despite the fact that he looks very much like them and other Canadians. Because of his looks, Terrance and Phillip encourage him to wear a paper bag over his head. Later, he reappears as the boyfriend of Terrance's ex-wife Celine Dion, who is pregnant with Bob's child. Bob told Celine his name was "Handsome Bob"; Dion leaves him when she sees his face.

He returned in the season 15 episode "Royal Pudding", meeting Ike on a bus back to Canada to save the Princess. Bob joins Ike, Scott and an Inuit duo to rescue the Princess from her kidnapper, Tooth Decay. Tooth Decay is killed when Ike removes Bob's paper bag mask, the sight of Bob turning Tooth Decay to stone. For his actions, Bob was awarded the Canadian Medal of Courage.

Lemmiwinks

Lemmiwinks is the school's gerbil. He first appears in "The Death Camp of Tolerance". He reappears in "Bass to Mouth".

References

1. Mephesto, South Park Character Guide, South Park Studios, accessed April 22, 2011.
2. Season 3 episode "Spontaneous Combustion"
3. Southparkstudios FAQ
4. Season 19 episode "The City Part of Town"
5. He is referred to as such at the end of "Korn's Groovy Pirate Ghost Mystery".
6. "South Park: Imaginationland". Hometheaterinfo.com. Retrieved 2010-06-02.
7. On the DVD Commentary, Parker and Stone mention that this was because Belzer could not be at the recording studio at 4am.
8. Trey Parker, Matt Stone (2003). South Park: The Complete First Season: "Weight Gain 4000" (Audio commentary) (CD). Comedy Central.
9. "FAQ: February 2008". southparkstudios.com. 2008-02-05. Archived from the original on 2008-08-22. Retrieved 2009-07-07.
10. Houston, David (1997-12-22). "South Park". City News Service (Los Angeles).
11. Collins, James; Ressner, Jeffrey (1998-03-23). "Gross and Grosser". Time (Los Angeles). p. 74.
12. Trey Parker, Matt Stone (2003). South Park: The Complete First Season: "Damien" (Audio commentary) (CD). Comedy Central.
13. Richmond, Ray (1997-12-22). ""Park" ploy poohed-poohed". Daily Variety. p. 31.
14. "Parker & Stone: A candid conversation with the outrageous duo behind South Park about corrupt studios, evil celebrities and why we should all see Tom Cruise's weenie". Playboy. 2000-06-01. p. 65.
15. http://southpark.cc.com/clips/104392/ben-assfleck
16. SouthPark (3 December 2014). "Detective Harris is called "Sergeant Yates" in previous seasons. Probably another undercover alias…like "Yolanda"." (Tweet).
17. SouthPark (28 May 2014). "Sergeant Yates wife, Maggie, debuted back in Season 8's "The Jeffersons". #SouthParkHistory" (Tweet).
18. Caffrey, Dan (November 19, 2014). "Review: South Park: "Cock Magic"". The A. V. Club. Retrieved November 20, 2014.
19. SouthPark (28 May 2014). "#BehindTheScenes This was the first scene that was written for #ButtersBottomBitch:" (Tweet).
20. SouthPark (23 October 2014). "#BehindTheScenes Although his name is officially Sergeant Yates, in every script he's referred to as Detective Harris" (Tweet).
21. Caffrey, Dan (October 1, 2015). "Review: South Park: "The City Part of Town"". The A. V. Club. Retrieved October 17, 2015.
22. "Southparkstudios.com FAQ Saturday, October 27, 2001". Archived from the original on 2008-03-30. Retrieved 2009-01-25.
23. "Crippled Summer". South Park. Season 14. Episode 7. April 28, 2010. Comedy Central.
24. Isler, Ramsey (April 29, 2010). "South Park: "Crippled Summer"". IGN. Retrieved May 3, 2010.
25. Miller, Julie (April 29, 2010). "South Park Casualty Count: Shark Rape and Crack-Addicted Towels". Movieline.
26. Ramsey Isler (June 2, 2011). "South Park: 'City Wok' Review". IGN. Retrieved June 3, 2011.
27. Parker, Trey (writer) (2003-12-17). "It's Christmas in Canada". South Park. Season 7. Episode 111. Comedy Central.
28. Parker, Trey (July 24, 2002). "Child Abduction Is Not Funny". South Park. Season 6. Episode 90. Comedy Central.
29. Parker, Trey (June 1, 2011). "City Sushi". South Park. Season 15. Episode 215. Comedy Central.
30. O'Neal, Sean (June 2, 2011). "City Sushi". The A.V. Club. Retrieved June 4, 2011.