Kenny McCormick

Who is Kenny McCormick?

Kenneth "Kenny" McCormick is a fictional character on the animated series South Park. He is one of the 4 main characters, along with Stan Marsh, Eric Cartman, Kyle Broflovski, and. All of them are the same age, and all of them are boys. He is known for dying in almost every episode, which is usually followed by Stan's exclamation: "Oh my God! They Killed Kenny!" followed by Kyle saying: "You bastards!" He is also easily recognizable for almost always wearing an orange parka, or just having his face hidden.

Appearance

Kenny wears an orange parka, orange pants and brown gloves. Almost all of the time, Kenny has his hood on so that only his eyes are seen. Underneath his hood, he has messy blond hair, which looks somewhat similar to that of Tweek's, another character on the show. On occasion, usually when he is scared or crying, he will pull the strings on his hood to make it tighten.

Personality

Kenny is the most sexually knowledgeable and experienced of the group. In earlier episodes, when an unknown term is introduced to Stan, Kyle, and Cartman, Kenny will be called upon by his friends to clarify, although Kenny sometimes does not know the meaning of the term himself. Although he is something of a silent protagonist, Kenny still seems to be very empathetic when it comes to his friends. Despite his perverted sense of humor, cynicism, and profanity, he is often depicted as heroic, kind, and smart. Kenny is also shown to be very loyal to his friends, even when he is insulted or ridiculed. Kenny normally appears blank-faced as a result of his parka hood, but he does get visibly emotional from time to time. In "Coon vs. Coon & Friends" he comes very close to hitting Kyle when he says that not being able to die would be pretty cool (Kenny actually thinks it "fucking hurts"). His sexual knowledge may be gleaned from his parents, or from the pornography which Kenny possesses.

Family Background

Kenny's family is one of the poorest families in South Park. His parents are both unstable alcoholics and occasional drug users, the former which was a trait that his father Stuart inherited from his own father.

Cognizance

Kenny himself is aware of the fact that he is constantly killed, expressing resentment over the fact that Stan was worried about Kyle's impending death while never mourning Kenny in "Cherokee Hair Tampons", and opting to take home economics classes over wood shop partly because he was afraid of getting killed by the dangerous power tools in the shop class in "Tweek vs. Craig", and cheering after realizing he had survived. In "Best Friends Forever", Kenny's will states, "In the highly likely event of my death..."

Financial State

Because Kenny's family is so poor, they eat frozen waffles with no side dishes for dinner and bread sandwiches for breakfast. In "Starvin' Marvin", Kenny won a can of green beans for his family, though they could not afford a can opener. Kenny's family ate microwave pizza. Cartman frequently exploits Kenny's poverty by offering him money for performing strange or dangerous tasks.

Talents

Kenny is shown to be one of the more intelligent characters later on in the series; along with Kyle, Stan, Jimmy, and Tolkien. Kenny also seems to be good at Origami when you usually see him in his desk messing around with paper.

Sexual Habits

Kenny is the most recognizable in South Park as being very knowledgeable with the subject of sex. Indeed, he is depicted as being obsessive with the female body. Kenny's memories include his father asking him if he had been looking at his porn magazines and his father holding up a picture of a scantily clad woman with the crotch cut out.

Language

Kenny speaks fluent Romanian and a bit of Spanish.

Weaponry

Kenny is shown to be the best with weaponry in the group. Although Cartman uses them more he is unskilled with them. he blows up the fish with a grenade in the lake and shoots a ram down with a shotgun. He also shows skill with a shuriken and hits right on target. As Mysterion, Kenny takes the gun from Captain Hindsight and uses it effectively against himself twice, loading it in the process, showing knowledge of that weapon.

Computer Skills

He teaches Stan and Kyle how to download music free of charge from the Internet. Kenny was seen playing Call of Duty: World at War with all of the other children. He also had a laptop from the One Laptop per Child program.

Music

Kenny appears to be very musically talented. Kenny is shown to be very good at singing. He is also a good drummer and plays violin. It is shown that he can play the flute as well. He, along with the rest of the eight grade (seven grade at the time), is shown to have (questionable) talent with the recorder as seen in "World Wide Recorder Concert". In a pan flute band he can play the Zampona and he is seen with a trumpet.

Gaming

Kenny is shown to have a large mastery of strategic video gaming.

Voice

Out of all the boys, Kenny has the highest voice pitch (aside from when acting as Mysterion).

Powers and Abilities

- Fighting: Kenny has fought on a few occasions and is most likely the most physically active out of all the boys. He is also able to throw shurikens correctly - Immortality: Kenny is unable to die. He remarks on how many times he has died, but instead of dying permanently, he ends up waking up in his bed, alive. He views his "power" as a curse. He is troubled by the fact that no one remembers his deaths. Cartman is the only one to remember Kenny's deaths, but, presumably due to his selfish nature, he refuses to acknowledge them unless it would somehow benefit him.

Family #1

- Stuart McCormick is Kenny's alcoholic father. He is usually seen hanging out with the other men in South Park and sometimes arguing, or physically fighting, with his wife. Stuart's alcoholism is probably why the McCormick family is so far into poverty. Kenny is shown to not care when Stuart and Kevin are fighting, merely watching television with a bored look.

Family #2

- Kevin McCormick is Kenny's older brother. He is very untidy in appearance. He does not have many speaking lines, but when he does speak, he seems to repeat much of what he says. He must get his accent from his mom. He is seen with a few band aids on his face. Kenny is shown to not care when Kevin and Stuart are fighting, merely watching television with a bored look. Kevin is quite different from Kenny, since Kevin always gets into arguments with his family, while Kenny seems to ignore everything that is happening around him. Kenny and Kevin do not seem to talk to each other much.

Family #3

- Carol McCormick is Kenny's mother. Kenny's immortality is due to his parents worshiping Cthulhu. She says in "Coon vs. Coon & Friends", "We never should have gone to those stupid cult meetings."

Family #4

- Karen McCormick is Kenny's reclusive younger sister. Kenny is shown to care a lot for his little sister, even going so far as to dress up as his alter ego Mysterion to comfort her and show her that she is never alone, as well as beating up Jessica Pinkerton for attempting to bully Karen. In "The City Part of Town" he immediately follows Karen out of the room to comfort her when their dad yells at her, and uses the money he earned at City Wok to buy her a new doll.

Friends #1

- Eric Cartman is chubby and only has a mom and a cat. Eric is a total asshole Most of the time, He often manipulates people like Butters to do stuff for him. Eric has brown hair and acne. Cartman wears a red jacket, yellow mittens, a blue hat with a yellow puff ball on top, brown pants, black shoes, and white socks. He has medium-brown hair and a double-chin. Even though Cartman is overweight, he always denies it (especially in the earlier seasons) by saying, "I'm not fat, I'm just big-boned", or some variation thereof.

Friends #2

- Stan has a older sister, a nice mom and an asshole dad. Stan has bleached hair and grown out black roots. Stan is mostly shown wearing a brown jacket with a red collar, a blue hat with a red puffball and rim, and blue jeans. Under his jacket, he either wears a red and blue baseball shirt or a white T-shirt/v-neck. Stan is generally the most tender and sensitive of the four boys. For example, in "Kenny Dies", he finds it difficult to see Kenny in his ill state, and in "Raisins" he becomes depressed after losing his girlfriend to Tolkien.

Friends #3

- Kyle has anger issues, a little brother, a nice mom and a nice dad. Kyle has red puffy curly hair. Underneath his hat, he has red hair, much like his mother's. Kyle wears a greenish lime ushanka, a bright orange jacket, dark green pants, and lime-green mittens. Kyle weighs 83 lbs. He had firm morals and generally was the "good boy" of the group, often being the one to deliver the "I learned something today" speech at the end of the episodes. Most notably, his temper shortened considerably. Like his mother, Kyle does speeches to say what he thinks is right.

Who is Mysterion?

Mysterion is the super hero identity of Kenny McCormick. He is one of Mr. Garrison's fourth grade students at South Park Elementary masquerading as a vigilante under the pseudonym 'Mysterion'. He unveiled himself after the Coon persuaded them to for the good of the town. Due to the way the characters' facial characteristics are—their eyes, lack of noses, and mouth

Mysterion's Appearance

Mysterion looks very much like a child superhero, as he wears a pair of white underwear briefs over his base suit, which is an off-lavender and has a bright green 'M' on the front of it. Around his waist, there is a plain, thin black belt with a dark grey, standard buckle. Brown boots adorn his feet and olive-green gloves adorn his hands. There is a dark purple cloak that drags on the ground wrapped around his neck and provides a shield for his hair or any defining features. This cloak has a bright green question mark made of some type of sturdy material attached to a spring that juts out from the top of Mysterion's head. Finally, he wears a black half-mask that covers his face from the bridge of the nose up. He is extremely agile, and can run away quickly enough to disappear while a string of fireworks are blowing up.

Mysterion's Personality

Mysterion is the embodiment of the anti-hero character archetype. Much of his attitude and view of the world stems from his experiences as Kenny, from his poverty, his willingness to help others in a time of need, as well as his inability to convince his friends of his inability to stay dead, which he views as a curse. Most of the time he is calm and calculating, making him an excellent strategist. However, there are times when, usually when people fail to take him seriously or in discussions with the Coon, that his temper gets the better of him - he came very close to lashing out violently at Kyle when he said that not being able to die would be "pretty cool". On another occasion he said that he finds pissing Cartman off "extremely funny" - possibly the only time Mysterion has laughed. He also displays a different persona than his real-life self, coming off as more gruff, intense, authoritative and grounded, whereas Kenny (usually) tends to be more lighthearted, easily amused and annoyed, also tending to play more of a supporting role with his friends. Despite being the near-exact opposite of the Coon, Kenny has used his alter ego to improve his own life to an extent - he convinced his parents to stop beating each other up and abusing their kids, stop doing drugs (although he has only been semi-successful with both of these demands) and give their children allowances.

Mysterion's Identity

Before Mysterion was revealed to be Kenny, Cartman had named Craig, Kyle, Kenny, Stan, Clyde, and arguably Wendy as suspects, and during the unmasking Cartman claims he'd "knew it all along; [he] even said so before!" However, Mysterion is shown confronting Kyle in private, which ruled him out. Mr. Garrison pointed out Mysterion is a member of his class. No female had been listed as a suspect on Professor Chaos and General Disarray's wall of Mysterion suspects, which implies Mysterion as a male, and in addition, the amateur drawing of Mysterion shows a clearly male character with a masculine form and jaw, as well as a very deep voice. Also, the underwear worn are 'male' underwear, even further ruling out Wendy or any other female student as a suspect.

Mysterion's Powers and Abilities

Mysterion seems to be more of a hand-to-hand combat fighter, as we see when he fights with Professor Chaos and General Disarray. Mysterion has great agility, as he made it to the top of buildings without the use of ladders, stairs, or elevators. We are to discover Mysterion possesses a superpower - he is unable to die, always waking up in his bed every day as if nothing ever happened, with nobody remembering his death. He has died "countless" times, and is unaware of why himself. It is implied however, it has to do with the Necronomicon and the cult of Cthulhu. It was also revealed that he may use his immortality as a sort of improvised teleport: Since he will go back to his bed after he dies, he kills himself to be sent back there. Mysterion has an unconscious ability to manipulate the memories of others; whenever he dies, witnesses forget the memory quickly. He seems unable to control this power, as he constantly tries to have his friends remember his deaths, but with little success. Mysterion is shown to be able to jump high enough to kick a taller girl in the head. He also shows great strength. Mysterion can jump from great height and not be hurt, or at least not be phased, by the pain that a normal person would feel. He can jump off a building. It is possible that since Mysterion is always able to come back alive, he has been training himself to perform various dangerous tasks, and killing himself in the event he gets a crippling injury.

Kenny's future

In the future timeline set in South Park: Post Covid, Kenny has become a scientist, humanitarian, philanthropist, and a Nobel laureate, having being granted the "Dr." title.