How many times has Kenny McCormick died on South Park?

One of the previously run gags South Park animated sitcom directed by Matt Stone and Trey Parker. It was the recurring comedic death of Kenny McCormick. Kenny (Stone) was the best friend of Stan (Parker), Kyle (also Stone), and Cartman (also Parker), and seemed to be the most…worldly of the four. Kenny’s face was usually covered by an oversized orange coat, and all of his dialogue was muffled and incomprehensible. Later, it was established that Kenny was incredibly poor, and seemed to know more about sex, drugs, and crime than an eight-year-old should.

In the first six seasons of the series, from 1997 to 2002, Kenny died in almost every episode. Kenny’s death was usually very obvious, with the young boy impaled on a flagpole or cut in half with a chainsaw. When Kenny died, one of his friends responded briefly: “Oh my God, they killed Kenny!” (With another chime of “You bastard!”). Both Kenny’s death and the reactive line of dialogue originated in Stone and Parker’s 1992 short, “Jesus vs. Frosty,” as well as in their even more wonderful 1995 short, “The Spirit of Christmas.” Kenny’s death was a cheap and shocking way to get laughs, and it was mostly effective. To add to the gloom of Kenny’s many deaths, his corpse is often seen being picked up by rats.

Kenny has also been miraculously revived at the beginning of each episode, often with no fanfare at all. Sometimes, he would just appear out of the blue. Then, like clockwork, he will die again. No one seemed to remember that he had died so many times before.

Eventually, Stone and Parker stopped killing Kenny, and the character now lives to the end of most episodes of “South Park.” This of course begs the question: How many times has Kenny died? Fortunately, we have access to these numbers.

As mentioned, Kenny died regularly The first six seasons of “South Park”. He was saved in “Mr. Hankey Poo Christmas” (December 17, 1997) as a show of Christmas mercy, but was regularly killed off after that.

In fact, sometimes Kenny dies multiple times in an episode. In “Pinky” (October 29, 1997), Kenny died when a satellite fell on him. When he was mummified, the Worcestershire sauce incident brought him back to life as a zombie. Kyle then ends up cutting zombie Kenny in half, killing him again. In the epilogue, Kenny digs himself out of his grave again, only for his tombstone to fall on top of him. Then a plane collided with him. Remember, in 1997, a certain brand of “shock” humor was just starting to take off (led largely by the success of “South Park”) and many comedians were starting to make jokes that took well-worn ’80s sitcom tropes to an extreme. Violent borders. Kenny’s death was meant to be a strangely shocking act of casual violence.

The continuity of Kenny’s death is regularly manipulated. Sometimes, Kenny’s death is a major event, and characters mourn his loss. Other times, it’s so common that Stan and Kyle almost sigh “they killed Kenny” and walk away as if nothing happened. In the episode “Summer Sucks” (June 24, 1998) there is a flashback to when Kenny was in kindergarten and died in a flashback. However, he is fine at present.

Counting all the multiple deaths over the first six seasons of “South Park,” Kenny has died or been killed 98 times. This doesn’t count the deaths witnessed by Kenny in the show’s title sequence, as that would be difficult to calculate correctly.

In the 1999 feature film South Park: Bigger, Longer, Uncut, Kenny dies early in the film when he accidentally sets himself on fire after setting his flatulence on fire. In the hospital, the doctor (George Clooney) mistakenly replaces his heart with a baked potato, and he dies on the operating table. However, the film follows Kenny to Hell, where he befriends Satan (Parker) and comforts the Dark Lord over his abusive relationship with Saddam Hussein (Stone). Kenny briefly returns to Earth during the film’s climax, bids farewell to his friends, and ascends to Heaven. This is considered the death of two people.

As previously mentioned, South Park started out as a pair of Christmas shorts, and a character resembling Kenny was killed off in Jesus vs. Frosty. (The character named Kenny in this short eventually resembles Cartman.) In the 1995 follow-up, Kenny is named correctly and also dies when Santa Claus accidentally kills him with a psychoblast.

There have also been, throughout its history, numerous vignettes, specials and original advertising spots made by Stone and Parker, many of which Kenny died in. This has been done for “The Tonight Show,” the MTV Movie Awards, the movie “The Aristocrats,” and other special occasions. In all the shorts and specials, about 22 in total, Kenny died an additional 14 times. Jay Leno’s chin even killed him once.

If one wanted to be particularly liberal, one could also include a few “South Park” video games, all of which were done with Stone and Parker’s involvement. Kenny, during the video game stories, felt angry last 14 times. 98 (TV series) + 14 (specials and shorts) + 14 (video games) + 2 (movie) = 128. Kenny died 128 times. Again, this does not include the title sequence from Seasons 7-11 where he is killed by Death. If you want, add those 71 additional cases, for a grand total of 199.

After a while, Matt Stone and Trey Parker began to tire of killing Kenny, and even took his death seriously in the episode “Kenny Dies” (December 5, 2001). Kenny was hospitalized after being diagnosed with muscular dystrophy, and his friends had to face the grief of already losing a friend. Tragically, Stan was out of the room when Kenny actually died, and Kenny’s last words were “Where’s Stan?” Stan became severely depressed after that.

In a DVD commentary track, Parker and Stone explain that Kenny became too much of a comedic “prop”, and that his death became exhausting for them to write over and over again. They had also become fans of newer characters such as Butters (Stone) and Tweek (Stone) and wanted to give them more screen time. After “Kenny’s Death,” Kenny was out of the show for the better part of the show’s sixth season. He’s basically stayed dead, except for some appearances as a ghost. In the season six finale, “Red Sleigh Down” (December 11, 2002), Kenny was officially brought back (again, without any fanfare at all), and has remained (mostly) alive ever since.

Stone and Parker decided, several years later, to legally explain why Kenny died multiple times. In “Cartman Joins NAMBLA” (June 21, 2000), Kenny died, but his parents had a little brother… whom they also named Kenny. But in contrast to this interpretation are the events of the episode “Mysterion Rises” (November 3, 2010). It was explained in that episode that Kenny’s parents belong to a cult The powerful Lovecraftian elder god Cthulhu. Through their participation, Kenny becomes cursed, even destined to die every day, only to wake up the next morning, fully clothed. The curse of immortality also requires that anyone who witnessed his death forget it. Kenny is stabbed to death in that episode as well. Nobody remembers that.