An analysis into the friendship of Cartman & Kenny

When I turned 18, I decided to start watching South Park out of boredom. I started from season one and my favourite character was Kenny because he does nothing to deserve all his horrifically awesome deaths, but when I got to season 4, Cartman became my favourite and I hadn't thought much of Kenny again.

I honestly don't remember how anyone could start South Park and walk away loving Kenny before he had much a personality, but neither do Matt and Trey. While Kenny has always had proper lines, he was a 'mute character', boring and his creators didn't know what to do with him anymore, so they tried to throw him away, but couldn't...

I think this is because Kenny is the perfect foil to Eric Cartman.

First, let me explain or re-explain what a foil is for all the kids who snored during English:

A foil character is used to highlight the main character. They are like the piece of the recipe you don't taste, like the salt in your butter or the oil you used to cook your eggs. They have a purpose, and that purpose is just to aid your main course in any little way.

Kenny McComrick as a character alone is constantly suffering. Whether it be his curse of immortality, his curse of loneliness or the fact his home is impoverished and possibly neglectful.

Eric Cartman is also poor, but he is spoiled so mostly gets what he wants, he is coddled at home to the point it could be seen as neglect if he does not learn to stand on his own, and suffers loneliness because he doesn't have any father figure besides the deceased Chef.

Though Eric seems to be getting more character development these days, this is how it currently looks.

Due to Cartman's abusive nature, Kenny does not seem to like Cartman as much as Cartman does. Cartman's interest in Kenny can be explained through popular headcanons, but for the moment, keeping it as close to canon as possible, Cartman's interest in Kenny is that he and Kenny share a sense of humour.

Cartman is aware he is a boy without any friends, he abuses the only people who will somewhat tolerate him into continuing to tolerate him. Cartman does many horrible things to others for his own pleasure, while Kenny does way less horrible pranks possibly for validation from his peers. Cartman could see this as his influence over Kenny due to his massive ego and therefore think Kenny is actually his friend.

Kenny, on the other hand, does not like Cartman very much, and has said so himself. Cartman is constantly making fun of Kenny's financial situation, beating on him when Kenny doesn't agree with him, but Kenny often shows remorse for Cartman. Kenny calls Cartman by his first name, Kenny does not partake in much cruelty toward Cartman with other kids, and Kenny seems to of spent the most time with Cartman between he, Stan and Kyle.

Kenny has many things Cartman wants, but Cartman doesn't have much that Kenny wants, and it's interesting how much he respects Cartman, perhaps aware they are only on different sides of the same filthy coin. 

The 'headcanon' part is both a headcanon and aligns with the canon, and it's that Kenny's existence may be somewhat traumatic to Cartman. Or more so, Kenny's deaths.

Cartman is shown to remember Kenny dying while Stan, Kyle and the others seemingly do not. Kenny dies like any one else would die, uncontrollably, but the horrific ways in which he dies cannot be prevented. Cartman remembers all of this, but never mentions it. Because he doesn't mention it, Kenny thinks he is alone in his suffering.

In an early season, Cartman was revealed to require glasses, but glasses make him look dorky and all the other boys were laughing at him, so when Kenny died in that episode, Cartman just took Kenny's eyes. 

Then in the season where Kenny was actually dead throughout, Cartman consumed Kenny's ashes, thinking they were chocolate milk mix, and ended up gaining Kenny's memories.

No one remembers any of this besides Kenny and what's heavily implied to be Cartman. This is another factor that could be keeping them close.

In the first ever South Park stop motion, the fat, Cartman-looking-thing, died. And his name was Kenny..

This is so cool just like when Adam in the bible gave his rib to create Eve. Awesome.

Anyway that's all I really have to say........ I love that these characters have all this history brewing in the background of a loveably stupid adult TV show, and I can't wait to see how they explore the Cartman-Kenny 'friendship' in the future.