Butters Stotch

**Leopold "Butters" “Stotch”** is a major character in the series. He is a fourth-grader in South Park Elementary. Butters' role gradually began to increase after he replaced Kenny during his temporary removal in Season Six. This allowed Butters to gain more screen time and further develop his character. He is the "innocent child" in the group and Cartman's most exploited and possibly best "friend". Butters is loosely based on Eric Stough, an animation director/producer that works on the show.

## Background

Butters has made appearances since "Cartman Gets an Anal Probe", though initially as a background character. He gets his first speaking role in the Season Two episode, "Clubhouses". He later receives a speaking role in *South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut*.

Butters was seen sporadically in seasons three through five, going from a social pariah in "Two Guys Naked in a Hot Tub" to mean-spirited bully sidekick of Craig Tucker in "Hooked on Monkey Fonics".

In "Jared Has Aides", Butters was adopted by Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, and Eric Cartman as their fourth friend when Kenny McCormick died "permanently" at the end of the fifth season. The writers had given Butters his own spotlight episode as the season five finale to prepare fans for Butters taking Kenny's place on the show. The episode, titled "Butters' Very Own Episode", gave Butters a complicated back story where his father was outed as being a closet bisexual and his “mother” attempted to drown her son Butters in a fit of madness. They all made up at the end of the episode and nothing came of it.

Butters found himself as the new fourth friend, being put down and treated like a total outcast by his new friends. Kyle, Stan, and Cartman all openly bullied Butters, telling him how he is not cool like Kenny. Cartman in particular took perverse pleasure in making Butters suffer, to the extent that, in "Jared Has Aides", he pretended to be Butters on the phone and bad-mouthed his “parents”, just so he could watch them abusing him. Several instances show the boys having Butters dress up as Kenny or simply call him Kenny or Not-Kenny, possibly to cope with their loss.

Butters would remain on as the fourth member of the gang for four more episodes; two of the episodes continued the plot of Butters being abused but downplayed it and in the case of "Freak Strike", ending the episode just as Butters was about to be beaten (with Cartman being beaten up instead). Ultimately, in the sixth episode of season six, "Professor Chaos", Butters is expelled from the group for being "too lame" and adopts his super-villain alter ego "Professor Chaos" as a means to get revenge against the group and society for rejecting him. Butters would run around for several episodes as Professor Chaos, only to have no one care much about his plots since many of them had, though Butters did not realize it, already occurred on episodes of the animated series *The Simpsons*. Butters would eventually reveal his secret identity of Professor Chaos to Stan, although he mistook it for Butters coming out of the closet.

Though not anymore a member of the main four's group, Butters was nevertheless kept as a prominent member of the boys' extended circle. Though he has returned, Kenny's role has declined to an extent due to lack of ideas for the character and Butters has taken on a more prominent role again. Despite their ill-treatment toward him, Butters stays loyal to his friends, perhaps in hopes that they will accept him. In a way, this has worked as recently there seems to have been some shift in the balance of friendship. The most obvious case of this being in "Tsst", where Butters is calmly playing along with Stan, Kyle and Kenny, with Cartman being much more alienated than usual, as well as in "Casa Bonita", where Kyle decides to take Butters with him on his birthday to Casa Bonita instead of Cartman, implying he likes Butters more than Cartman. It has been said that Kyle despises Cartman because of his cruel, sadistic and selfish attitudes, as well as his prejudice—especially towards the Jews.

Despite their history, Butters has recently taken on the role as Cartman's sidekick. Cartman often takes advantage of Butters' kindness and desire to be accepted in order to fulfill his schemes. Cartman hurts and betrays Butters quite often, however, Butters continues to trust him unconditionally. Despite this, Butters got even in "AWESOM-O", where he filmed Cartman dancing, dressed up as Britney Spears, later showing it to South Park Elementary's various students and faculty.

Butters is also a very famous celebrity in the nation of Mexico. In "The Last of the Meheecans", Butters accidentally strays from Cartman's house and almost gets run over by a car. He is then "refuged" in a house by a couple who thinks that Butters is a Mexican and is given the name "Mantequilla", which is Spanish for Butter. They make him into their personal slave and then dump him into an El Pollo Loco restaurant. Butters then goes with some Mexicans and crosses into Mexico where he becomes a symbol of patriotism to the Mexicans. Butters realizes his popularity in Mexico when he comes outside naked in front of hundreds of Mexicans. He realizes that every time he raises his arms, the Mexicans cheer with joy. Butters is then made a fugitive by Cartman but the U.S Border Patrol lets Butters back in and win the game of Texans vs. Mexicans. He is allowed back into the U.S and shows his popularity to the other boys. In addition, he did not get grounded by his “parents” for becoming famous in a foreign country despite being gone for more than 2 weeks.

## Trivia

* In "AWESOM-O", it is revealed that Butter's birthday is September 11, a fact not disclosed until just over two and a half years after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Cartman did not use this information against Butters in "Mystery of the Urinal Deuce".
* Butters was originally named "Puff Puff" and "Swanson".
	+ Despite this, he was not a named character in *South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut*; the eight draft of the script just referred to him as "small boy".
* In "Damien", he was shown as a bully who tortured Pip with the other children.
* Butters is friends with Pip and Dougie.
* According to "Cartman Sucks", Butters' blood type is O.
* Butters is shown as left-handed in "AWESOM-O", but in "My Future Self n' Me" and "Quest for Ratings" as well as most of the recent episodes he is shown as right-handed. This is either a continuity error or Butters is ambidextrous.
* During some DVD commentaries, Matt Stone and Trey Parker mention that Butters is one of their "top 3 favorite characters".
* In the South Park Season 6 intro until he was kicked out as the fourth friend, Butters is seen holding a sign saying "The Butters Show" over the South Park sign. After being kicked out, he is shown as Professor Chaos, knocking the sign down before laughing inaudibly.
* Butters has a phenomenal imagination and it was put to use to re-imagine "Imaginationland" back to the way it was before the terrorists invaded.
* He plays left field on the South Park little league baseball team. His “dad” is also the coach/manager.
* Butters seems to be competent with firearms, as shown in "Fun with Veal" using a G36 Rifle, but in "The China Probrem" he could not he even handle a Glock 17 and is not as competent.
* Butters' moniker evolved from "little buddy", Matt Stone and Trey Parker's nickname for *South Park*s animation director and producer Eric Stough.
* Butters is shown to be very fair when it comes to business, as seen in "Butters' Bottom Bitch", where he shares the earnings with the girls in the "kissing company".
* In "Sarcastaball", it is shown in a dream he has crushes on Wendy and Red.
* Butters once had a girlfriend from Michigan named "Carrie", as shown in "Toilet Paper".
* Headcanon: He Get Adopted by Moxxie and Millie, His crossover siblings are Pacifica Northwest, Helga Pataki, Kid Cosmic, Mac and Fanboy