South Park has been around for more than 20 years; and, while Stan, Kyle, Kenny, and Cartman are the beloved central characters, the series has introduced plenty of incredible new faces since season 1. This isn't just referring to South Park's one-off supporting characters, either—though there are plenty of those.
Over the years, South Park has introduced, moved around, and killed off a variety of characters in Matt Stone and Trey Parker's effort to constantly evolve the show and keep things interesting. Whether they're still around today or were tragically killed off to make room for new faces, there are many iconic characters introduced since Season 1 that have helped make the series what it is today.
10 Tweek Tweak
Tweek is the twitchy child at South Park Elementary who has entertained fans as both an erratic background character and, for a time, a core member of the main cast. He was introduced in the season 2 episode, "Gnomes," where the boys learned about the limitations of business via underwear gnomes as well as the dangerous side effects of caffeine in children, à la Tweek.
After Kenny died and Butters was seen as a poor substitute, Tweek joined South Park's main friend group during season 6. Since then, he's become an ongoing gag where he's been forced into a relationship with Craig Tucker due to an obsession with fanfiction.
9 PC Principal
PC Principal is, admittedly, a bit of a one-note character. Brought in as the series' really on-the-nose parody of political correctness, PC Principal has struggled to find his footing with fans during an age where a lot of comedians have been covering cancel culture.
However, he's grown into the dialogue of the latest seasons and has become a little more flexible when it comes to his stories and gags. He's currently a strong foil against some of the boys' more immature and irreverent adventures, particularly when it comes to South Park's ever-petty Cartman, and he's had some funny moments with his relationship with Strong Woman and the two's PC babies.
8 Dougie O'Connell/General Disarray
Dougie O'Connell was introduced as just another kid in the episode "Two Guys Naked in a Hot Tub" in which Stan had to put up with the perils and boredom of being stuck in the kids' room of an adult party. However, Dougie's character really flew when he partnered with Butters to become the General Disarray to his Professor Chaos.
He's been a cute second to Butters who really needed other interactions outside of the main characters. Dougie has also been a great straight man with the ways that he points out some of the obvious ploys and flaws of people's plans, such as how he suggested betraying Cartman in the episode "The Coon" or the time he pointed out how Butters kept ripping off The Simpsons.
7 Sergeant Harrison Yates
It's truly sad to see Officer Barbrady fall into obscurity in recent years, especially after his disheartening send-off. However, as funny as it was to see another bumbling cop character on television, it's been flat-out hilarious to witness Sergeant Harrison Yates' overly stoic and violent take on police work.
Harrison Yates, aka Detective Harris, is the super-serious cop character who's helped stylize some of the show's cop drama jokes as well as act as the series' central personification of hard-nosed cops. This includes the overly serious way he handled music piracy as well as his cavalier attitude towards systemic racism and police brutality.
6 Jimmy Valmer
South Park's initial attempt to introduce a handicapped character, Timmy, almost immediately ran out of mileage. Their second attempt, Jimmy Valmer, has not only been more positively received, but he's become a fan favorite for his sincere attitude and love of comedy.
While his impairments and stutter may be a nuisance to the boys, his friendly attitude has more than kept him as a constant confidant and put him as a central character in several iconic episodes such as "Up the Down Steroid," "Funnybot," and, of course, "Fishsticks."
5 Chef's Parents
Chef's—one of many characters who left the South Park series one way or another—already left behind an incredible and memorable legacy that the series has never been able to fill. It's just even sadder knowing that fans will also not get another taste of his quirky parents, Thomas and Nellie McElroy.
These two were introduced in the episode "The Succubus" where they came to support Chef's wedding as well as share a few stories about their multiple run-ins with the loch ness monster. These two came back in as spiritual experts when the boys tried to expel Kenny from Cartman's body. Though they likely won't return to the story, they have immortalized themselves as part of one of the series' best memes.
4 Tuong Lu Kim
Tuong Lu Kim is the owner of City Wok and is the series' main entryway into Asian heritage or, at least, a bunch of Asian stereotypes. While a surface-level joke, Lu Kim has brought some iconic moments to the series such as helping the boys make Butters their own Jared from Subway—one of South Park's many poorly-aged jokes—or his miraculous ability to build a giant wall by himself in the episode "Child Abduction is Not Funny."
His greatest episode yet has to be "City Sushi" in which he gets into a feud with a sushi restauranteur and reveals that he's actually been the alternative personality to a white man the entire time.
3 Al Gore
Al Gore is obviously not a South Park original, though the series has developed his most distinct interpretation within media. Before South Park shared their apology episode on global warming, they really doubled down on passing it off as just a desperate attempt at media attention from the ex-vice president of the United States.
However, as all good parodies do, they don't draw a direct comparison. Instead, they have Al Gore come teach the boys about the greatest danger in the world: ManBearPig. Al Gore and ManBearPig have gone on to make memorable appearances in the Imaginationland special and two-parter for "Time to Get Cereal."
2 The Goth Kids
The Goth Kids have collectively left an impression on the South Park community with each of their appearances, so it's hard to just choose one of them. Their debut came in "Raisins" where they taught Stan how to wallow in his post-break-up depression. Michael, the tall one, would temporarily leave the group to join Stan's dance team in "You Got F'd in the A."
Their most legendary episodes, however, had to be "The Ungroundables" and "Goth Kids 3: Dawn of the Posers," where their nihilistic attitudes and dark style came into question against other cultural trends.
1 Towelie
Outside of the main four boys and Butters, Towelie is one of the most distinct and memorable characters in the series. He was designed to be a weird parody of convoluted action-adventure films, but he grew to be a recurring gag character, famous for both his ability to keep people dry and his small tendency to "get a little high."
He was prominent in "A Million Little Fibers," one of the few and earliest episodes to veer away from the main characters, had a downright heart-wrenching intervention in "Crippled Summer," and has recently become Randy Marsh's sidekick with the Tegridy Farm storylines which saw Randy Marsh establish one of the strangest jobs he's worked in the South Park series.
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July 08, 2021 at 12:00AM
