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| Leopold "Butters" Stotch | |
|---|---|
| Age: | 9 |
| Gender: | Male |
| Hair color: | Blonde |
| Job: | Student |
| Religion: | Roman Catholic |
| First appearance: | "Cartman Gets an Anal Probe" (As a background character), "Two Guys Naked in a Hot Tub" (As a major character) |
| Voiced by: | Matt Stone |
Leopold "Butters" Stotch (voiced by Matt Stone), is a fictional character in the animated television series South Park.
Butters has a large tuft of blonde hair on top of his head, and wears an aquamarine jacket with dark green trousers. From the episode "AWESOM-O", his birthday is on September 11. The character is loosely based on South Park director of animation Eric Stough, whom Stone and Trey Parker regarded as a "goody-goody" because of his reluctance to offend.1
The creators have said in multiple DVD commentaries that Butters is one of their "top 3 favorite characters".citation needed
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Personality
Butters is described by fans as having a submissive and friendly personality. He is rather naïve, especially when compared to the other boys, believing whatever is told to him, and because of this he is often a target for abuse. Butters gives in to peer pressure very easily. Butters has also been known to always follow rules given by his elders, even when he doesn't understand the consequences he could receive from the other kids. He is consistently portrayed as a sort of Justine or Candide-like character, whose virtue and willingness to trust lead to numerous misfortunes and abuse. He is somewhat eccentric, and so many of his peers call him a "dweeb" or "gaywad". Butters is known to usually be polite, as he doesn't swear as much as some of the other main characters instead preferring to say "Oh, fiddlesticks" or "Oh, hamburgers!" - one of the most used phrases of Butters' when he is usually excited about something, or when he is afraid. Despite his lack of awareness Butters is the only character in the show who has a clear morality and always tries to follow it, though he is often tricked into doing things that are hurtful or wrong, especially by Cartman. It is only through Butter's desire to please and help the people around him that he goes along with the boy's plans.
In the episode "AWESOM-O", he tells his new robot AWESOM-O (who, in reality, is Cartman playing a prank dressed as a robot) that he has to wear Pull-Ups (visible in Quest for Ratings) to school because he has a herniated colon, and he can't control his sphincter, which is why he sticks a medicinal suppository in his rectum, which "AWESOM-O" helps him with afterward. His parents, however, show indifference to this, as seen in the episode "The Death of Eric Cartman", in which they take Butters to a mental institute after claiming to be haunted by Eric's ghost. At the institute, he is anally probed by a machine as a test for his mental stability.
Butters loves to dance, as seen in "Asspen," and "Hell on Earth 2006." In the episode "You Got F'd in the A," we find out that Butters is unfortunately responsible for the deaths of at least seventeen people through two different tap-dancing accidents, due to the unfortunate habit of having his shoe fly off during the routine. It is also revealed in this episode that Butters used to be a champion tap dancer.
Character history
Butters has evolved as a character since the beginning of the show. First seen in "Cartman Gets an Anal Probe", he was initially a background character who almost never spoke or was referred to by name, although in "Conjoined Fetus Lady" Stan addresses him as "Swanson". He was also seen in the South Park movie "South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut" as a background character, even seen carrying the flag of La Resistance, before falling over. Butters was properly introduced in the 8th episode of season 3; "Two Guys Naked in a Hot Tub". Since then, he played minor roles in episodes prior to season six. He was mainly portrayed as the social outcast of his class, chosen often for tasks that his friends did not want to do themselves. Sometimes Butters even allows himself to be blamed for other peoples crimes, as seen in the episode "Bebe's Boobs Destroy Society". In the episode, the boys ask Bebe if she would like to join them throwing rocks at cars; Butters tells her "It's great, you get to throw rocks at cars and if the driver gets angry, you blame me". As seen in Make Love, Not Warcraft, his favorite computer game is Hello Kitty! Island Adventure.
At the end of season five, Butters made his debut as a main character when he was given his own episode, "Butters' Very Own Episode"; this was done to prepare the audience for Butters to become a major part of the show, and possibly take Kenny's spot as one of the main four. Butters went on to be in the main group for the first five episodes of season six. During this time, he continued to be treated like an outcast by his new friends. Kyle, Stan, and Cartman all openly bullied Butters, telling him he wasn't as cool as Kenny. Several episodes focused on the boys exploiting Butters' kindness for money or fame. Ultimately, in the episode, "Professor Chaos", Butters is expelled from the group for being "too lame" and adopts an alter ego, "Professor Chaos", as a means to get revenge against the group and society for rejecting him.
Since then, Butters has continued to be a major character in the series. He has returned to his role of being the social outcast of the show, always being chosen to be the guinea pig and scapegoat for his friends. His relationship with the main four has improved considerably, as he is often seen playing with them, perhaps indicating that the other boys have finally accepted Butters. Butters also continues to be Cartman's target for both help and abuse and could be considered to be Cartman's sidekick.
Professor Chaos
Butters's alter ego is "Professor Chaos", a supervillain/mad scientist that appears to be inspired by Marvel supervillains Doctor Doom and Magneto. He adopted this personality after the boys kicked him out of their group in the episode "Professor Chaos". His costume consists of a dark green cape, gauntlets, and a helmet: all self-made. His gauntlets and helmet are constructed of lightly crumpled aluminum foil with a red jewel in the helmet.
Butters seems to use Professor Chaos to express his repressed rage about being socially isolated as well as his desire for attention and respect. He spreads chaos with his sidekick General Disarray (a younger, geekier character named Dougie) and his "minions" (his pet hamsters). However, their "mayhem" is initially very minor: sabotaging soup orders at Bennigan's and hiding chalkboard erasers from a classroom, for example. Although they develop more sinister plans, such as flooding the Earth with a garden hose, the group has yet to succeed in exacting revenge upon society. In "Simpsons Already Did It" a running gag is that, whenever Professor Chaos comes up with a brilliant evil scheme, General Disarray would tell him the idea had already been done on The Simpsons.
Professor Chaos doesn't appear next until a brief sighting in "My Future Self n' Me", where Stan mistakes Butters' revealing of his identity for him coming out of the closet. In "Krazy Kripples", Professor Chaos shortly appears as a member of the new Legion of Doom. In the episode "Good Times with Weapons" in season 8, he turns into an anime version of Professor Chaos, demonstrating he sees his alterego as much more intimidating and powerful than he actually is. While participating in the "ninja" game the boys are playing, anime Professor Chaos gets a shuriken (thrown by an anime Kenny) to the eye - at which point the game instantly ends to show the real Butters in horrible pain, shocking the others (including Kenny). Professor Chaos then disappears until "Go God Go" in season 10.
References
- ^ VH1 special about the show VH1 Goes Inside: South Park
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- This page was last modified on 7 January 2009, at 10:07.
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