Weekly Poll Winner: Butters

Despite early polling favoring Cartman by a large margin, the tallies rolled in with Leopold "Butters" Stotch in the lead in the weekly poll of your favorite South Park character.

Butters appeared in the first few seasons of South Park, but did not become a recurring character until the fourth season when his popularity among fans was discovered.

During the fifth season, he took on the role of being the kid Cartman uses to do stuff that he can't get the other kids to do with him. Because Butters is so naive, trusting and longing for acceptance, he usually takes part in Cartman's plots.

At the end of the fifth season Butters was given his own episode, "Butters' Very Own Episode," which led up to his inclusion in the main cast by the sixth season. He is chosen to take the place of Kenny, who is killed off in the fifth season to make room for Butters to be "the fourth."

As easily manipulated as Butters is, he often finds himself the butt of Cartman, Kyle and Stan's jokes. When he doesn't want to play along, they hit him with that deep, biting criticism: "Kenny woulda done it."

The sixth season is a big time for the development of Butters' character, who is ultimately revealed to be as confused and screwed up as a child might actually be in his situation.

His exclusion from the foursome after the first five episodes--after gaining weight and then being subsequently lyposucked; after the boys hang fake testicles from his chin and force him to go on the Maury Povich show--leads him to develop an alter-ego by the name of Professor Chaos. Professor Chaos' mission is to cause chaos to the world that has been so cruel to him.

Eventually, however, Butters continues to be reluctantly brought into Cartman, Kyle and Stan's games and misadventures. He is abducted by Paris Hilton, sent to "bi-curious" camp, locked in an underground bomb shelter and hit in the eye with a Ninja throwing star:




Despite all of his shortcomings, Butters is still about the nicest boy in the South Park Elementary 4th grade classroom. He has several tender moments, where you realize that he's just a confused and sweet little kid. Still, his friends abuse him and make him do things he doesn't want to do, and his parents are slightly abusive.

This persona from the boy named Leopold Stotch makes him one of the most complex characters on the show. As the seasons with Butters developed, so did the window into why he is how he is.

Professor Chaos is his one escape from reality, where he can actually attempt to get back at society for all the ways they've wrong him. His plots are usually senseless, but having a side-kick, "General Disarray"--or Dougie, a second grade boy--allows Butters to exercise some kind of control, of which he seldom has otherwise.




Butters' lovable personality, boyish voice and awkward manner have made him a staple of South Park in many of its 13 seasons--a tradition I hope will continue in the remaining years of the show.