South Park began as a crude construction-paper short and became a Comedy Central series on August 13, 1997. Trey Parker and Matt Stone still write, direct and voice most of it, and the show is famous for how quickly it's made: episodes are usually finished in the week before they air, so they can react to news almost in real time. That speed is why it has stayed sharp as satire for close to three decades.
The town is small, but its cast is huge. At the centre are four foul-mouthed fourth-graders. Around them are their classmates, their parents (who are often worse behaved than the kids), the staff of South Park Elementary, and a stream of recurring oddities from a talking poo to Satan himself. This guide works through each group.
- Creators
- Trey Parker and Matt Stone
- Network
- Comedy Central; specials on Paramount+
- Premiere
- August 13, 1997
- Setting
- South Park, a small town in Colorado
- Film
- South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999)
The boys
Stan, Kyle, Cartman and Kenny are the show's original leads. Most episodes start with one of them getting an idea and the other three getting dragged into it.
Eric Cartman
The schemer
Cartman is spoiled, bigoted, cowardly and frighteningly clever. He's the show's engine, a child whose plans start as petty grudges and sometimes end in genuinely monstrous revenge. His feud with Kyle is the show's longest-running rivalry. The writers keep him in check by making him lose just often enough, and they occasionally hint at the neglect behind him, which he would never admit to. His superhero alter ego is The Coon.
- Voice
- Trey Parker
Stan Marsh
The everyman
Stan is the closest thing the show has to a normal kid, and the one most often watching the adults lose their minds. He's loyal to Kyle, awkward around his on-and-off girlfriend Wendy, and increasingly cynical as the seasons go on. The episode where he can only perceive the world as garbage is one of the show's most personal.
- Voice
- Trey Parker
Kyle Broflovski
The conscience
Kyle is the group's moral voice, the boy most likely to end an episode with a sincere speech about what everyone has learned. He's Jewish, which Cartman never lets him forget. He's also earnest and stubborn, and he cares more than is good for him. His friendship with Stan is the show's most dependable relationship. He has a younger adopted brother, Ike, who is Canadian.
- Voice
- Matt Stone
Kenny McCormick
The kid in the orange parka
Kenny is from the town's poorest family, and his hood muffles nearly everything he says, which is usually filthy. For five seasons he died in almost every episode. Later stories turn that joke into lore: he really does die and come back each time, and nobody remembers. As the hooded vigilante Mysterion, he gets some of the show's darkest material.
- Voice
- Matt Stone
Butters Stotch
The innocent
Butters is sweet, trusting and endlessly exploited, mostly by Cartman. His parents ground him for everything. He briefly replaced Kenny as the fourth friend in season 6, and he's been a near-lead ever since. His supervillain alter ego, Professor Chaos, is one of the show's funniest ideas because Butters is so bad at being evil.
- Voice
- Matt Stone
Classmates
The rest of the fourth grade gets more screen time as the series goes on. Several started as background faces and now carry whole episodes.
Wendy Testaburger
Stan's on-and-off girlfriend
Wendy is smart, outspoken and politically engaged, often the most competent kid in the room. She's beaten Cartman in a fight, and she's frequently the one who calls out the boys' worst ideas.
Tweek Tweak
The anxious one
Tweek is a jittery, caffeine-wired boy whose parents run a coffee shop. In the 2015 episode "Tweek x Craig," the town decides he and Craig should be a couple. They go along with it, and the relationship becomes one of the show's sincerest threads.
- Voice
- Matt Stone
Craig Tucker
The deadpan one
Craig is flat, unimpressed and given to flipping people off. He leads his own friend group, a sort of rival gang to the main four, and he's Tweek's steady, low-key partner.
- Voice
- Matt Stone
Token Black
Classmate
Token is from the town's wealthiest family. For years he was the only Black kid in his class, and the show made that itself a running satirical subject. He's often the sanest voice among the kids.
- Voice
- Adrien Beard
Jimmy Valmer
Aspiring comedian
Jimmy uses crutches, stutters, and is fearlessly confident about his stand-up act. He's one of the sharpest and most capable kids, and the show treats him with real respect.
- Voice
- Trey Parker
Timmy Burch
Classmate
Timmy is a wheelchair user who can mostly say only his own name, at full volume. He fronts a rock band and is much more resourceful than the adults assume.
- Voice
- Trey Parker
Clyde Donovan
Classmate
Part of Craig's gang. He's emotional and easily led.
Bebe Stevens
Classmate
Wendy's best friend, who is at the centre of many of the girls' storylines.
Heidi Turner
Classmate
She dated Cartman in a later-season arc that turned into a satire of toxic relationships.
Scott Malkinson
Classmate
A boy with a lisp and diabetes, which he will tell you about.
The parents
In South Park, the adults are usually the problem. The boys are often the only people in town who can see that something is going badly wrong.
Randy Marsh
Stan's father · Geologist turned farmer
Randy started as a background dad and grew into one of the show's leads. He's impulsive, insecure, and quick to throw himself into every new fad with absolute conviction. He secretly performs as the pop star Lorde in one memorable arc, and he later moves the family to the country to run Tegridy Farms, a cannabis business that took over several seasons. Many fans now see him as the show's true main character.
- Voice
- Trey Parker
Sharon Marsh
Stan's mother
Sharon is the exhausted voice of reason in the Marsh house. Her reactions to Randy's latest obsession are some of the show's most reliable laughs.
- Voice
- April Stewart
Sheila Broflovski
Kyle's mother
Sheila is a formidable activist mother who leads crusades against whatever offends her this week. In the 1999 movie, that turns into a literal war on Canada.
- Voice
- Mona Marshall
Gerald Broflovski
Kyle's father · Lawyer
Gerald is a respectable lawyer with a secret life as a notorious internet troll, which became a major storyline.
- Voice
- Matt Stone
Liane Cartman
Cartman's mother
Liane is sweet-natured and completely unable to say no to her son. In other words, she's a big part of why he turned out the way he did.
- Voice
- April Stewart
Stephen and Linda Stotch
Butters's parents
Strict, paranoid and quick to ground him, they're also hiding plenty of their own secrets.
Stuart and Carol McCormick
Kenny's parents
Poor, frequently drunk and usually fighting, but sometimes surprisingly protective.
School staff and townspeople
Mr. Garrison
Teacher
Herbert Garrison is the boys' unstable, bitter teacher. For years he taught with the help of a hand puppet, Mr. Hat. His storylines have taken him through a gender transition and back, a relationship with Mr. Slave, and a run for the US presidency in which he stood in for Donald Trump. He returned to teaching once the show moved on.
- Voice
- Trey Parker
Chef
School cook · The boys' mentor
Jerome "Chef" McElroy was the kids' warm, soulful adult friend in the early seasons. He answered their questions with advice and, very often, an inappropriate song. Isaac Hayes voiced him until 2006, when Hayes left the show and the character was written out.
- Voice
- Isaac Hayes
Mr. Mackey
School counsellor
Mr. Mackey has a large head, a tight tie and the verbal tic "m'kay." He gives well-meaning, useless lectures about drugs. Despite himself, he's one of the more decent adults in town.
- Voice
- Trey Parker
PC Principal
School principal
PC Principal is a muscle-bound frat bro who enforces political correctness by force. He arrived in season 19 as a parody of campus culture and stayed as a regular.
- Voice
- Trey Parker
Officer Barbrady
Police
An inept, kind-hearted cop. A running joke from the early seasons was that he couldn't read.
Mayor McDaniels
Mayor
A self-serving mayor who mostly just wants to stay out of trouble.
Towelie
Talking towel
A genetically engineered towel with a drug problem, created to promote merchandise and kept around because fans liked him.
Mr. Hankey
The Christmas Poo
A cheerful, singing piece of poo who appears around Christmas.
Terrance and Phillip
Canadian TV stars
The boys' favourite fart-joke comedy duo, and the cause of the war in the 1999 film.
Satan
Ruler of Hell
A surprisingly sensitive Satan whose love life gets a lot of attention.
South Park voice cast
Trey Parker and Matt Stone voice nearly every male character between them, which is part of why the show can move so quickly. A few regulars cover the women's roles and some recurring parts.
| Actor | Main roles |
|---|---|
| Trey Parker | Stan, Cartman, Randy Marsh, Mr. Garrison, Mr. Mackey, Timmy, Jimmy, PC Principal, Stephen Stotch, Mr. Hankey |
| Matt Stone | Kyle, Kenny, Butters, Gerald Broflovski, Tweek, Craig, Stuart McCormick |
| April Stewart | Sharon Marsh, Liane Cartman, Wendy, Principal Victoria |
| Mona Marshall | Sheila Broflovski |
| Adrien Beard | Token Black |
| Isaac Hayes | Chef (1997–2006) |
| Mary Kay Bergman | Most female roles (1997–1999) |
Mary Kay Bergman voiced most of the women in the early seasons until her death in 1999. Eliza Schneider took over many of her roles before April Stewart and Mona Marshall became the long-term voices. Our voice actors guide covers more of the people behind animated casts.
How the characters have changed
Early South Park was a shock-comedy show about kids swearing. Over time it became more of a weekly satire, and its cast changed with it. Here are the biggest shifts:
- Kenny stopped dying every week after season 5. Mysterion later turned his deaths into a mystery the show actually explored.
- Butters rose from background kid to near-lead, which gave the show a sincere character to put next to Cartman.
- Randy took over. As the satire turned more toward adults, the show needed an adult fool, and Randy filled that role.
- Serialised seasons. From season 19 onward the show experimented with story arcs that run across a whole season, which gave characters like PC Principal and Mr. Garrison longer storylines.
Cartman is one of animation's great monsters, a character the audience enjoys watching while hoping he loses. He's worth comparing with the TV anti-heroes he often parodies. His war with Kyle sits comfortably among the great fictional rivalries.
Where to start
Most South Park episodes stand alone, though later seasons build story arcs. A good approach is to sample a few classic early episodes, then jump to the mid-run seasons many fans rate highest, before tackling the serialised later years. The 1999 film, a full-blown musical, is a self-contained introduction to the main cast. Since 2021 the show has also released longer specials on Paramount+, alongside its regular seasons on Comedy Central. If you like this kind of satire, Family Guy and Rick and Morty are natural next stops, and our cartoon hub lists every animated series we cover. It's strictly for adults: the language and content are extreme even by adult-animation standards.
All South Park character names A–Z
B–C
- Bebe Stevens — Classmate
- Butters Stotch — Classmate
- Carol McCormick — Kenny's mother
- Chef — School cook
- Clyde Donovan — Classmate
- Craig Tucker — Classmate
E–H
- Eric Cartman — Main four
- Gerald Broflovski — Kyle's father
- Heidi Turner — Classmate
I–K
- Ike Broflovski — Kyle's brother
- Jimmy Valmer — Classmate
- Kenny McCormick — Main four
- Kyle Broflovski — Main four
L–M
- Liane Cartman — Cartman's mother
- Linda Stotch — Butters's mother
- Mayor McDaniels — Mayor
- Mr. Garrison — Teacher
- Mr. Hankey — Christmas Poo
- Mr. Mackey — Counsellor
- Mr. Slave — Garrison's ex
O–R
- Officer Barbrady — Police
- PC Principal — Principal
- Phillip — Canadian comedian
- Principal Victoria — Former principal
- Randy Marsh — Stan's father
S
- Satan — Hell
- Scott Malkinson — Classmate
- Sharon Marsh — Stan's mother
- Sheila Broflovski — Kyle's mother
- Shelley Marsh — Stan's sister
- Stan Marsh — Main four
- Stephen Stotch — Butters's father
- Stuart McCormick — Kenny's father
T–W
- Terrance — Canadian comedian
- Timmy Burch — Classmate
- Token Black — Classmate
- Towelie — Talking towel
- Tweek Tweak — Classmate
- Wendy Testaburger — Classmate
Frequently asked questions
Who are the four main South Park characters?
Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman and Kenny McCormick, four fourth-graders at South Park Elementary. Butters Stotch is often treated as an unofficial fifth, and Stan's father Randy has become a lead in his own right in later seasons.
Who voices the South Park characters?
Creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone voice most of the male characters. Parker voices Stan, Cartman, Randy, Mr. Garrison and Mr. Mackey; Stone voices Kyle, Kenny, Butters and Gerald Broflovski. April Stewart and Mona Marshall voice most of the women, including Sharon Marsh, Liane Cartman, Wendy and Sheila Broflovski.
Why does Kenny die in every episode?
In the early seasons Kenny died in almost every episode, usually followed by Stan and Kyle's "Oh my God, they killed Kenny!" The gag was dropped after season 5. Later episodes reveal that Kenny really does die and wakes up in his bed the next morning, and that nobody else remembers.
What does Kenny say through his hood?
Kenny's lines are muffled by his orange parka, but they're real dialogue, voiced by Matt Stone. They're usually the crudest lines in the scene. The other boys understand him perfectly.
Why did Chef leave South Park?
Isaac Hayes, who voiced Chef, left the show in 2006 after the episode "Trapped in the Closet," which satirised Scientology, his religion. The following season opened with "The Return of Chef," which used existing recordings of his voice and killed the character off.
How old are the South Park kids?
The boys were eight-year-old third-graders when the show began in 1997. They moved up to fourth grade in season 4 and have stayed there, aged about ten, ever since, apart from flash-forward specials.