April 6, 2002

11:39 AM

RIP Kenny McCormack So, is our favorite foul-mouthed, parka-wearin' cartoon character really dead? Or do, as usual, Trey Parker and Matt Stone have something up their collective sleeves? Me, I'm thinking that Kenny will return to torment little Butters (who's a fine replacement, really), similar to the character arc this lady once had on another show that became a pop culture icon. (via Fark)
posted by WolfDaddy (19 comments total)

Kenny's dead,....that's what I said...

Your post looked lonely.:)
posted by jonmc at 12:49 PM on April 6, 2002

Oh my god! You killed that GeoCities link!
You bastard!
posted by swell at 1:13 PM on April 6, 2002

google's cache of the geocities site here
posted by scribblative at 2:23 PM on April 6, 2002

I don't think I've ever seen anything on TV funnier than the first episode of this season, especially when Cartman was on the phone to Butters's parents pretending to be Butters. But the last two episodes (I haven't seen this week's) have been very sub-par. I worry.
posted by aaron at 2:39 PM on April 6, 2002

aaron, you don't blame the show's decline on dear lil' Butters, do you? Say it ain't so!

For me, South Park has been very hit-or-miss since the movie's release a couple of years ago. While Parker and Stone's social satire/commentary/little morality tales are usually spot-on and *extremely* incisive, they've really upped the gross-out quotient, both to compete with the antics of network TV and their own brilliance in the movie.

However, I still keep the faith, because we do, every so often, get episodes like "Asspen", which was probably the best parody of 80s movies like Better Off Dead I've ever seen. The song in that episode describing all the manipulative ways a montage in a movie is used to manipulate the audience ("Always fade out at the end of a montage ... makes it seem like a long time has passed") was every bit as brilliant as the songs in Bigger, Longer, and Uncut.

That's the sort of stuff that keeps me comin' back to the show. The way they've managed to Keep Kenny's Killins Kreative is another.
posted by WolfDaddy at 2:58 PM on April 6, 2002

I love that you can "click here to view a larger image" of Kenny. Good lord, how big does it need to be to recognize?
Shoot, Marge, who is that? *click* Why, it's Kenny! Look at the little feller!
posted by yhbc at 3:18 PM on April 6, 2002

aaron, you don't blame the show's decline on dear lil' Butters, do you? Say it ain't so!

No, not at all! I am a confirmed Butters worshipper. I just felt a twinge of worry that the first episode was so amazing, and then the two after that were so horrid. (And yes, one of the two eps I'm talking about is "Asspen." I found it to be down around Worst. Episode. EVER. level.)
posted by aaron at 3:30 PM on April 6, 2002

I am a confirmed Butters worshipper

Good. We should all worship butter.
posted by WolfDaddy at 6:16 PM on April 6, 2002

South Park is one of the few things I miss from not having my free apartment manager's cable anymore. But my favorite Kenny line was from the Halloween zombie episode where Kenny was killed and came back to life as an infectious Night Of the Living Dead type zombie and later got re-dispatched by Kyle (?) with a chainsaw (?) whereupon he said "Oh my god, I killed Kenny! ...You bastard!"
posted by y2karl at 7:11 PM on April 6, 2002

The heart went out of the show when Mary Kay Bergman died.
Wendy's gone. Now Kenny's gone....
Chef might be able to save the show if they'd let him but it sure doesn't look like they care anymore.
If they don't care, why should I?
posted by realjanetkagan at 9:50 PM on April 6, 2002

The heart went out of the show when Mary Kay Bergman died.

Oooo. That smarts. You're right. The show definitely has more of a bite to it since her passing. I still don't think they're quite to the point of cashing their checks from (insert disgustingly hedonistic Hollywood get-away-from-it-all locale here) yet, though. One of the things I like is the fact that they introduce new characters and let others slowly fade into the background (Tim-may would have gotten real tired, real fast, for example, had he been the one to replace Kenny). That's a challenge to do, because your cast of characters just grows and grows, each requiring a unique voice and personality.

Personally, I can't get enough of Tweek and wish they'd use him more.
posted by WolfDaddy at 10:03 PM on April 6, 2002

Wendy is not gone from the show. She doesn't appear often, but she does appear.

The show definitely has more of a bite to it since her passing.

This is bad?

I like Tweek, but they'll have to be real careful with him, because he's way too close to just being Butters with a major anxiety disorder.
posted by aaron at 10:14 PM on April 6, 2002

I stopped my cable service. MST3K & South Park were two of the very few reasons I was paying for it, and when MST3K was cancelled, I figured I could spend my money on better things than 150 channels of almost nothing. I rarely miss cable, except for times like this when people are talking about Butters (???) and I find myself totally out of the loop. They shoulda replaced Kenny with the four-ass monkey.

If they ever put all the SouthPark episodes on DVD, maybe I'll buy a DVD player.
posted by ZachsMind at 11:41 PM on April 6, 2002

I wouldn't say Butters is a direct Kenny replacement. He was in it before Kenny 'died' (i.e. the episode with the people with buttocks where their heads should have been) Butters is more like Pip, IMHO, he always seems to be the butt of the jokes now.

Ned is the best though ;-)
posted by wackybrit at 1:01 AM on April 7, 2002

Can they do the same to the show as they have done to kenny.
posted by monkeyJuice at 4:03 AM on April 7, 2002

Well, they can, but they won't as long as it's making money.
posted by kindall at 10:16 AM on April 7, 2002

"If they ever put all the SouthPark episodes on DVD, maybe I'll buy a DVD player." What rock are you living under?
posted by sadie01221975 at 1:10 PM on April 7, 2002

Pfft - South Park is soooo nineties. 'Tripping the Rift' is tits now, beyatches - and it's just been snapped up by the Sci-Fi channel.
posted by obiwanwasabi at 12:20 AM on April 8, 2002

How can it be tits now when it won't even premiere for at least another nine months? Is it already airing in some other country? (I tried to load the page, but it was taking too damn long to render in my browser so I just read the first paragraph and bolted.)
posted by aaron at 8:52 PM on April 9, 2002