Butters Stotch

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*South Park* character
Leopold "Butters" Stotch

Gender:	Male
Hair:	Blonde
Age:	9
Job:	Student
Religion:	Roman Catholic
First appearance:	"Cartman Gets An Anal Probe" (background character) Two Guys Naked in a Hot Tub (prominence)
Voiced by:	Matt Stone

Leopold "Butters" Stotch (voiced by Matt Stone) is a fictional character in the animated television series South Park; his nickname is a play on the word butterscotch. Butters has a large tuft of blonde hair on top of his head, and wears an aquamarine jacket with green pants. His birthday is September 11.^[1]. Having a birthday that's the same day as a national tragedy (9/11, as of 2001) is just one of the many misfortunes Butters has inflicted upon him. He speaks with a distinctive, stuttering Southern accent with a wholesome manner like a child from a '50s–'60s TV show. The character is loosely based on South Park director of animation Eric Stough, whom Parker and Stone regarded as a "goody-goody" because he always worried about causing offense.^[2]

The creators have said in multiple DVD comentaries that Butters is one of their "top 3 favorite characters". Butters is directly referenced as the inspiration for the nickname of Veronica Mars character Vincent "Butters" Clemmons.

1 Personality
2 Family
3 Life and History
4 Talents and Interests
5 Professor Chaos
6 References

[edit] Personality

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Butters is considered one of the sweetest, most innocent, and most gullible characters on the show by fans. He is generally much nicer and much more naïve than the four other main characters. Unlike nearly all South Park characters, he rarely curses and instead uses euphemisms such as "aw, hamburgers" or "son of a biscuit". Sometimes, Butters minces words ("you guys can go to heck" and "yeah, you, uh, dumb girl" in "Raisins"). He has cursed a few times (in the episodes AWESOM-O, Christian Rock Hard: "Fuck you Eric!", Hooked on Monkey Phonics, It Hits the Fan, Butters' Very Own Episode, Fun with Veal, Simpsons Already Did It, Hell on Earth 2006 and Cartman's Silly Hate Crime 2000) and each instance was meant to be very shocking.

Butters refines himself in self-improvement in almost everything to perfection, such as dancing, but also has extremely low self-esteem. He therefore has no judgment as to when or how to use his skills, and perceives everyone around him as knowing much more than he does. Butters is a good student and considered to be a dork by his peers. Butters constantly seems to be seeking a role model, as evidenced when he takes to Cartman (unbeknownst to him) pretending to be a robot in "AWESOM-O". He constantly struggles to find acceptance among his peers, hence why he often does menial tasks in hopes that this will earn him favor and respect.

However, Butters does have moments of insight towards life and human behavior that clearly transcend those of the other characters. In the seventh season episode "Raisins", in which he first falls in love with a girl, only to end up heartbroken when he realizes that she is just using him for money. Later, when he runs into Stan, who likewise has had his heart broken by his first love Wendy, Butters proclaims to Stan (who has joined a local Goth clique and spends his days whining about his former love) that he "love[s] life" and would "rather be a cryin' little pussy than a faggy Goth kid."

In Cartman Sucks Butters is accused of being bi-curious, and although he agrees, it's obvious he does not know what this means. Butters also unwittingly gave a very thoughtful speech in "Cartman Sucks" regarding the treatment of bi-sexual children implying that "If I was made in the image of God, and I am bi-curious, well then God must be a bit bi-curious then too."

[edit] Family

Butters is an only child and his parents, Stephen and Linda Stotch, are very authoritarian, strict and, at some points, abusive towards their son—often berating him for things that are entirely beyond his control. This has evidently affected Butters psychologically, as he often tells himself off when his parents are not around to do it ("Why, I oughta learn ta control my behavior! I should be ashamed of myself"). It is also hinted that the justification for this abuse lacks sound foundation ("If I dress up as a dog with a star in my eye, I'm gonna get grounded!"). As additional evidence of psychological problems, he has stated (in Super Best Friends) that he falls asleep and wakes up to "the sound of [his] own screams."

He is scared of his dominating and threatening father, whom he is obliged to respectfully refer to as "Sir" (in contrast to Cartman, who gives his elders little or no respect). His father uses fear as his primary parenting tactic with Butters, once intentionally frightening him with threats of super-AIDS. Lynda however has been shown to be much more tender to her son, hugging and kissing him often. She seems to go along with Stephen's harshness believing that it is for the best of her son.

Several extreme examples of the abuse Butters has received from his parents include, trying to drown him in a car when Lynda wants to commit suicide, being physically beaten after Eric prank calls his parents and being sold to Paris Hilton for 250 million dollars.

In Cartman Sucks, Stephen walks in as Cartman is trying to "fix" the mistake he made when he took a picture of Butters' penis in his mouth by having Butters do the same. Butters is completely oblivious to the true nature of what is happening. Stephen however believes Butters is turning gay and sends him to a Evangelical camp to "cure him". There Butters confronts the councilors about being bi-curious proclaiming himself to be bi-curious. Stephen in agreement with Butters also tells him that he is bi-curious. This may hint that Stephen is going back to his gay lifestyle.

At the end of the sixth season, in the episode "My Future Self n' Me", Butters gets revenge on his parents for their abuse of him (culminating in them hiring an actor to pretend to be Butters's future self so as to scare him from doing drugs) by paying Cartman to smear feces all over his house. The act ironically leads the Stotches to realize how badly they've treated their son and they apologize, an act that is contrasted by Stan Marsh's parents refusing to apologize for them hiring an actor to be Stan's future self, to the extent that they mutilate their actor when Stan tricks them into thinking he chopped off his own hand. Since then, the Stotches have not been shown hurting their son. Despite all this, Butters parents do care deeply about their son. Their intentions are good while their methods are flawed.

[edit] Life and History

Butters has been in the show since the beginning, though initially only as a background character who rarely spoke and was referred to in scripts as "Puff Puff" and "Swanson" - Stan refers to him by this name in the opening scene of the Season 2 episode "Conjoined Fetus Lady". Butters had a very small role in the feature film South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, being the only one to touch Cartman after he saw Asses of Fire and being the flag bearer for La Resistance who tripped. Butters was renamed and properly introduced in the Season 3 episode "Two Guys Naked in a Hot Tub" alongside Pip and Dougie stuck in a basement during a Meteor Shower Party. He was seen sporadically from Season 3 through 5, going from social pariah ("Two Guys Naked in a Hot Tub") to mean-spirited bully in "Hooked on Monkey Phonics" (episode 313) (which seems out of character for Butters, but is not entirely unlikely for an emotionally abused child), to abused kid who was constantly being punished and emotionally abused by adults for imaginary insults they believed Butters was engaging in with "How to Eat With Your Butt" (episode 510). This lead him to reclusion and self-loathing.

In the episode "Jared Has Aides" Butters was adopted by Stan, Kyle and Cartman as their fourth friend when Kenny died "permanently" at the end of the fifth season. The writer 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 backstory where his father was outed as being a closet homosexual and his mother, in an act similar to murderer Susan Smith, 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 in class dressed as Marjorine

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's not cool like Kenny.Cartman in particular took perverse pleasure in making Butters suffer, to the extent that, in "Jared Has Aides", he purposely arranged for Butters' parents to physically punish their son by pretending to be Butters on the phone bad-mouthing them, just so he could watch, and commented out loud that, "Aw man, if I was older I would totally start jacking off right now" . Cartman often manipulates Butters to do whatever he wishes.

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 didn't realize it, already occurred on episodes of the animated series The Simpsons. This caused Butters to have a mental breakdown, before Chef was able to bring him back from the brink. Butters would eventually reveal his secret identity of Professor Chaos to Stan but the reaction he received was much less than he had anticipated as, much like when he committed his acts of chaos, Stan didn't care in the least.

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'll 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 the episode "Tsst", where Butters is calmly playing along with Stan, Kyle and Kenny, with Cartman being much more alienated than usual.

In "Casa Bonita" Kyle decides to take Butters with him on his birthday to Casa Bonita, but when Butters goes missing, Kyle also postpones his birthday until he is found. Cartman had led Butters to believe that a meteor is going to strike the Earth, and kept Butters down in a bomb shelter for three days before transferring him to an abandoned refrigerator to be shipped to the dump so that he can go to Casa Bonita with Kyle, who was also manipulated into allowing Cartman to go with him if Butters doesn't show up. Butters did eventually get his revenge on Cartman in the episode "AWESOM-O" in which Cartman, disguised as a robot, is starved, shocked, forced to administer a suppository and exploited for money, only to end up humiliated in front of the entire town with footage of him cross-dressing as Britney Spears and dancing with a cardboard cut-out of Justin Timberlake. Cartman's most recent attempt to mock Butters with a photograph backfires horribly, but this is due to Cartman losing the photo and his subsequent paranoia that Kyle will humiliate him with the picture since Kyle tried to stop Butters from being humiliated by Cartman.

Despite their history, Butters has recently taken on the role as Cartman's sidekick. Cartman often takes advantage of Butters' niceness and desire to be accepted in order to fulfill his schemes.

[edit] Talents and Interests

[edit] Dance

As revealed in the episode "You Got F'd in the A", Butters is, or at least was, a very talented tap dancer, but his fondness for dancing was cut short at the National Tap Dancing Championship when a freak accident caused by Butters' tap dancing set off a chain reaction leading to the death of eight people (nine including the unborn child within a pregnant victim, and eleven including the two people who committed suicide after the incident). This freak accident has left Butters quite scarred, although this isn't immediately apparent. In the same episode he was further terrified as his tap shoe again started another fatal chain of events, leading to the death of five rival dancers (and their instructor) who Butters and Stan were set to face in a dance contest. He also seems to have some break-dancing ability, as seen in the episode "Asspen". Additionally, Butters exhibits some impressive free-style dancing ability, dancing to Justin Timberlake's "Rock Your Body" in the episode "Marjorine". He showed off more dance moves at the end of "Hell on Earth 2006" during Satan's party, imitating Michael Jackson.

In the episode "Asspen", Butters is seen dancing in a fashion identical to that of several Peanuts characters.

[edit] Television

It is implied in the episode 4th Grade that Butters knows a surprising amount of Star Trek information, and he may be a "Trekkie". He also watches BET, according to the episode Hell on Earth 2006. As stated in "My Future Self 'n' Me", Butters is not a fan of Becker. Butters' future self is constantly watching the show, which present Butters calls "stupid."

[edit] Music

Butters is often seen singing, usually a disturbing song: "Loo loo loo, I've got some apples, loo loo loo, You've got some too" before he is cut off. When he does finish, the ending is "Loo loo loo, Let's make some applesauce, Take off our clothes and loo loo loo" (as heard on "Stupid Spoiled Whore Video Playset"), or "Loo loo loo, Let's get together, I know what we can do loo loo", which, either way, could be a strange euphemism for sexual intercourse.

In "Something You Can Do With Your Finger", Butters auditions for Fingerbang by singing "Little Bunny Foo-Foo". In "AWESOM-O" he sings about his robot friend in a song that resembles the theme song of "The Courtship of Eddie's Father", and he seems fond of the Chicago ballad "If You Leave Me Now". Apparently, Butters can also play the drums quite proficiently, as he is seen doing so for Cartman's Christian rock group "Faith+1", featured in the episode "Christian Rock Hard". In the season five episode, "Butters Very Own Episode," his theme song "Everybody knows it's Butters" is a play off a song from 1967 called "Windy" by The Association.

In "You Got F'd in the A", in the flashback of the horrible accident Butters caused during the championship competition, the song Butters dances to is an upbeat, yet obviously risqué song entitled "I've Got Something In My Front Pocket For You," which features lyrics like "Won't you reach into my pocket and see what it is / Then grab onto it, just for you / Give it a little squeeze and say 'How do you do'".

More recently, in the episode "Miss Teacher Bangs a Boy" (a.k.a "Nice"), Butters is heard singing a song while using the urinal in the boy's bathroom: "Hey there Mr. Weiner, whaddaya know. Do you need to tinkle tinkle? Yes, I do think so"

In the episode "Cartman Sucks," Butters sings Joni Mitchell's song "Help Me" while playing with his army figurines.

[edit] General intelligence and memory

Butters openly joins and helps with some of Cartman's schemes, and is usually shown doing well at it.

Butters is also shown in "Christian Rock Hard" to be highly talented in mental calculation, instantly supplying the correct answer to 180,000,000 × 12.95, "2,331,000,000". The context suggests this is a talent of Butters' that is well known to the others. (He also tutors Stan, at his request, in "My Future Self n' Me" — although it isn't clear in which subject, possibly more than one.)

In "Cartman's Incredible Gift," he reveals that he knows the Icarus myth.

However, in Go God Go, he did not realise that Cartman may die if frozen in snow for several weeks - he had to get Dougie to inform him of these facts. However, this may reflect his innocence, his deference to Cartman's judgement, or he is a mathematical prodigy and, while extremely talented in mathematical computation does not necessarily possess scientific or even commonplace knowledge.

[edit] Art

In episode 417 "A Very Crappy Christmas" where the boys wanted to make a new "original Christmas cartoon", Butters was the one who drew the characters. Butters also shows his artistic talents in "AWESOM-O" drawing a picture of himself and his robot friend (Cartman). In "Kenny Dies", he sends a letter to Kenny in the hospital and it contains a drawing of them both in an airplane with the words "ME AND MY FRIEND KENNY" written above. As well, in the episode "Toilet Paper" where the four boys get into trouble by their teacher, Stan claims that "art is for gaywads" when Butters is seen in the background stating that he loves art class. Briefly in the episode "It Hits the Fan" Kyle interrupts Butters tagging a building with chalk with his name in the style of a well practiced graffiti artist.

[edit] Sports

He played with the rest of the boys, as the center fielder, on their baseball team in The Losing Edge. He was also number 99 on the dodgeball team in "Conjoined Fetus Lady". He is also seen playing football with the others in Raisins.

[edit] Professor Chaos

Main article: Professor Chaos

Professor Chaos and General Disarray.

Butters' alter ego is Professor Chaos, a supervillain/mad scientist that appears to be inspired by Marvel supervillans Doctor Doom and Magneto. He adopted this personality when the boys kicked him out of their group. Butters seems to use Professor Chaos to express his repressed rage in much the same way as Mr. Garrison used Mr. Hat to express his homosexuality. He spreads chaos with his sidekick General Disarray (a younger, perhaps even geekier character named Dougie) and his minions (his pet hamsters). However, at first, his so-called "mayhem" is very minor: sabotaging soup orders at Bennigan's, and hiding chalkboard erasers from a classroom. Butters' Professor Chaos costume consists of a dark green cape, bracers and a helmet. His bracers and helmet are constructed of lightly crumpled aluminum foil.