Characters / South Park: Kyle Broflovski

Main Page | The Boys (Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman, Kenny McCormick) | Other Students (Butters Stotch, Wendy Testaburger, Heidi Turner) | Antagonists | Family Members | Elementary School Staff | Other Recurring Characters | The Stick of Truth (The New Kid) | The Fractured but Whole | Phone Destroyer

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Kyle Broflovski

"Do you think kids in every town have to deal with this crap?"
^{Click here to see The Human Kite}

^{Click here to see him as an adult}

^{Click here to see his Panderverse self}

"I'm Jewish. I've got some hang-ups about killing Jesus."

Voiced in English by: Matt Stone, Bibi Mama (Panderverse)

Voiced in French by: William Coryn

Voiced in Japanese by: Kappei Yamaguchi (WOWOW dub), Yu Hayashi (Fox Japan dub), Yuusuke Suda (Netflix dub), Kaoru Kusumi (South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut)

Voiced in Latin American Spanish by: Vivian Ruiz (Seasons 1-2), Patricia Azan (Season 3 onwards and all redubs), Luis Carreño (adult), Liliana Barba (Mexican dub and both Bigger, Longer & Uncut dubs)

Debut: "Cartman Gets an Anal Probe"

Stan's closest friend. He and his parents are Jewish, but his younger brother Ike is actually from Canada. He appears to be the smartest of the original four—at least academically—but has a tendency to get sucked into the latest fads/problems/social issues sweeping South Park. Kyle is also known as the moral compass of the otherwise chaotic town — although he has a nasty temper to go along with it.

His role in Coon and Friends is The Human Kite.

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A-D

• Academic Athlete: A young version. Kyle's noted in-series as loving football and basketball while also demonstrating high intelligence (his wimpy cousin Kyle even calls him a "redneck jock stereotype" in one episode).
• Accidental Hero: In “Follow That Egg!”, Mrs. Garrison makes a deal with the governor of Colorado that she can get him a scientific study proving gay couples can’t raise children, said study being her students who are paired up and assigned to take care of eggs, with Stan and Kyle representing a gay couple. Despite her efforts to sabotage them (to the point of hiring a hitman to try and take out their egg), Stan and Kyle are able to get their egg safely to the press conference, and the governor declares that gay couples can get married. When Randy tells the boys he's proud of them, a confused Kyle asks, "What did we do?"
• Adorably Precocious Child: Along with Stan, Kyle's among the more mature of the children in town, but that doesn't stop him from behaving like an ordinary kid sometimes.
• Affectionate Nickname: He'll sometimes call Sheila "Ma" instead of "Mom", which began around the second season. Likewise, she'll often call Kyle "bubbe" as shorthand for bubbeleh.
• All of the Other Reindeer:
  • In earlier seasons, Kyle would often feel left out by his friends around the holidays, him being a Jew and all. He even gets an Anti-Christmas Song, "The Lonely Jew at Christmas".
  • In general, while he's usually well-liked and has a number of friends, he has been ostracized and singled out by his peers on numerous occasions (ex. "South Park is Gay", "Mystery of the Urinal Deuce", "The Problem with a Poo").
• Amicable Exes: Implied with Heidi after Season 21. While they haven't been seen interacting with each other since then nor is there any evidence that shows them having gotten back together, they don't seem to harbor any negative feelings towards each other. This is shown in "The Problem With A Poo" where the two are shown willing to sit near each other in the music room without showing any hostility, while in "Cupid Ye" Heidi doesn't listen to Cartman's anti-semitic remarks about Kyle nor does she gets brainwashed by Cupid Me into attacking Kyle like most of the other kids.
• And I Must Scream: In the episode "Humancentipad", Kyle's mouth is sewn onto a Japanese man's anus by Steve Jobs. This arrangement leaves him unable to speak and forces him to consume the Japanese man's explosive diarrhea on several occasions.
• Anti-Hero: Usually of Type 3, but can be Type 4 depending on how much he's fueled by his hatred of Cartman. However...
• Anti-Villain:
  • By "Super Hard PCness", Kyle becomes this of Type 2 and Type 3. He believes that all the bullying and meanness appearing in South Park were a result of the vulgarness of Terrence and Phillip and Canadian media in general and tries to put an end to their shows so they can no longer corrupt the morals of people in other countries. It leads to Canada getting nuked by the President much to Kyle's horror.
  • In "Return of Covid", he becomes this again from the perspective of the Cartman family. He strives to complete Kenny's goal of going back in time to erase the events of the pandemic since he blames it for ruining his childhood alongside Stan and Kenny's. However, he ignores the implications that doing this would erase Cartman's happy future as well. Though the conflict soon devolves into Grey-and-Grey Morality since Cartman falls back into villainy in order to stop him, both his wife and kids consider Kyle to be the villain since he is partly acting out of jealousy for Cartman's happy life.
    Kyle: Hold on a second, I'm not the bad guy here.
• Arch-Enemy: For Cartman. The two clash with each other the most due to Kyle's strong moral compass and Cartman's complete lack of such. Plus Kyle's usually on the receiving end of Cartman's anti-Semitism.
• Armor-Piercing Response: Gives one to Heidi Turner that it makes her realize how far she has sunk ever since she dated Cartman. Doubles as a brief "The Reason You Suck" Speech.
  Heidi: Oh, what's the matter Kyle? You don't want me around 'cause you had the hots for me and I shot you down?
  Kyle: I would never have the hots for the person you are now. [Heidi is stunned by Kyle's answer]
• Ascended to a Higher Plane of Existence: Briefly, in "The Tooth Fairy Tats 2000", due to a Logic Bomb (and several subsequent tangential bombs).
• Atrocious Alias: You probably shouldn't name yourself "The Human Kite" when you're Jewish and Eric Cartman is around.^ExplanationThe word "kite" is one letter away from "kike," an anti-Semitic slur.
• Author Avatar: He's a stand-in for Matt Stone, being one of the few characters in the series who isn't stupid or corrupt. Also, Kyle is Jewish like Stone and Kyle's red afro is based on Stone's hairstyle in the show's early years.
• Back from the Dead: In "Imaginationland", he is choked to death by ManBearPig, only for Cartman to resuscitate him. After getting nuked, Butters imagines everyone surviving, which brings Kyle back a second time.
• Badass Bookworm: On the outside, a potty-mouthed, short-tempered nine-year old boy who's also the smart one of the group, but the movie demonstrated that he can hack into top secret military databases. He has also been shown to be fairly athletic at points of the show and fully capable of kicking Cartman's ass when necessary. Out of all of the boys, Kyle is the one who is seen reading the most. In “You Have 0 Friends”, it's outright stated on his Facebook profile that reading is one of his hobbies.
• Became Their Own Antithesis: Kyle co-founded La Resistance to stop his mother from executing Terrence and Phillip over some crude humour. Years later Kyle would stop finding Terrence and Phillip funny and gradually warmed up to the idea of punishing them in a similar manner, though unlike his mother Kyle stopped short of demanding death, that was actually Mr Garrison's idea.
• Being Good Sucks: Kyle always tries to do the right thing, even if it doesn't get him rewarded or gain happiness. It becomes more apparent when Cartman, a sociopath at the age of 10, is involved because despite Kyle hating him with all his heart, he could never let Cartman suffer from his own stupid actions and wants to at least see him do the right thing once in his life.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: In "Post-Covid", adult Kyle is frustrated that his adulthood is unfulfilling while Cartman's is happy, especially because he refuses to believe that he has really changed for the better. When the future is revised and it's Cartman who now lives alone while Kyle is a happy family man, Kyle gets no enjoyment from Cartman's predicament and, according to Butters, it always sours his holidays.
• Berserk Button:
  • Don't say he's from New Jersey. Or be Eric Cartman and do pretty much anything. At a certain point in the series, the latter starts bothering him much more, though recent episodes show him acting more annoyed and deadpan than angry around Cartman.
  • He apparently has a dislike of ninjas, as his Facebook profile mentions that he wants the world to stop talking about them
  • Questioning his ideals, accusing him of interference, or someone changing their mind midway through a plan often made him lose his temper, starting around season 7. He'd often do (and still does) things for moral reasons rather than pragmatic ones, which angered him when Cartman or the townspeople would start trying to invoke either of the two. For example, Cartman trying to claim the New Kid had a tragic backstory because his dad fucked his mom made him enraged enough to lose focus on their mission.
• Betty and Veronica: Served as the Betty to Cartman's Veronica to Heidi's Archie in Season 21.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Kyle is usually very kind, and even fraternal to kids other than Ike at heart, but you might not want to anger him if you know what's good for you.
• Big Brother Bully: To Ike in the first season. "Kick the baby!"
• Big Brother Instinct: Probably to the biggest extent out of all the boys, even more than Kenny:
  • Ike has become one of Kyle's highest priorities sometime after "Ike's Wee Wee", from following him to Somalia and getting him home safe to worrying about Ike getting circumcised or keeping him from running off with his teacher to Milan. Could be Kyle's biggest drive after his antagonism towards Cartman.
  • He briefly played this role to Blanket in "Jeffersons" due to his father neglecting him. He goes from giving him a band-aid to trying to take away Jefferson's custody of him.
  • He feels like this to a lesser extent towards Kenny. Kyle can be protective towards Kenny, but in most cases when the other main boys, or at least Stan, are as well. However, he has a few moments by himself. In "Wing" he was determined to avenge Kenny's death, at the end of "Kenny Dies", Kyle beat up Cartman after he realized the latter used the collected stem cells to duplicate a pizzeria instead of saving Kenny with them.
  • Inverted between him and Stan. Stan is older (albeit not by much) and he is usually more protective towards Kyle as well as the rest of the group. However, if Stan is in trouble, expect Kyle to be the first to come to his aid. Some examples include: "Fun with Veal", when Kyle took care of Stan while the latter was sick; "Imaginationland Part I", when the boys found themselves in the middle of a war and Stan had a moment when he couldn't move due to shock, Kyle took his hand and brought him to safety; and in "Freemium isn't Free" Kyle did his best to comfort Stan and help him overcome his mobile-app addiction.
  • He'll occasionally act like this towards Butters. Kyle recognizes that Butters doesn't exactly have a lot of role models in his life, so he's prone to acting as an improvisational streetwise mentor of sorts. In "Sexual Healing", he becomes determined to fight the "sexual disease" rather than take time to understand it, trying to convince Butters that they have no other choice if they want to survive and fighting him just to get him to stop looking at "bush", before crying with him. Similarly, in "The Worldwide Privacy Tour", when Butters' OOC phase eventually culminates in the latter getting beaten to a pulp by Bebe for spewing misogynistic disses at her as part of his "brand", he returns with him to the company they both took that kind of advice from (CumHammer), even taking him by the hand the whole time.
• Book Smart: Kyle is shown to get the best grades out of all his friends. In “An Elephant Makes Love to a Pig”, it’s mentioned by Mr. Garrison that Kyle is a straight A student. It’s also mentioned in the song “You Gotta Do What You Wanna Do!” that Kyle likes to study.
• Bookworm: Kyle is shown to like reading more than his friends and he clearly reads for fun and knowledge as well. In "The Tooth Fairy Tats 2000", he becomes so distraught after finding out that the Tooth Fairy isn’t real. Kyle reads several books about philosophy, reality, and science. Cartman even says, "Will somebody take those books away from him?". His bedroom also contains more books and academically inclined things than the other kids’ rooms do.
• Break the Cutie:
  • Most notably in "Cartmanland". It's one thing being pushed into denouncing the existence of a God (or in this case a righteous God). It's another to be pushed to the point of giving up on life due to Cartman's constant Karma Houdini instances. It takes one major case of divine intervention to rectify. That case of divine intervention was Cartman needing to staff a fully operating amusement park, selling it back to the original owners, and seeing Cartman lose his cash because he was liable for Kenny's death since it took place while he was still the owner.
  • Also in "Pee" where he is forced to dive into a pool of pee and drink a jar full of pee, despite being extremely disgusted by it, ostensibly to save the day. This not only turns out to be unnecessary, but he is then forced on gunpoint to eat a banana, the only thing he finds more disgusting than pee.
  • In "Ginger Cow" Kyle lets Cartman humiliate him and is forced to endure Cartman sitting on his face and farting on him in order to keep the peace between the religions. This was all for nothing as the religions go back to fighting each other again at the end of the episode.
• Brutal Honesty: If he's not utterly exasperated with him (though on some occassions, even that doesn't stop him), Kyle has no issue pointing out Cartman's innumerable logical fallacies. In general, he's one of South Park's go-to characters for telling harsh truths, particularly in the later seasons.
• Butt-Monkey: Mostly having to do with being the center of Cartman's torment around him being a Jew. Key moments being when Cartman tries to play the legal system into forcing Kyle to suck his balls and farting in Kyle's face with no resistance after winning a bet.
• Calling the Old Woman Out: Kyle does this to his mom in "Fun with Veal" and in The Movie.
  Sheila: Kyle, if you don't do as you're told, I'm going to be very angry!
  Kyle: Well, you made me eat veal and didn't tell me what it was, so go ahead and be angry, you baby calf-killing bitch!
  Sharon: Very persuasive.
• Character Catchphrase:
  • "You bastards!", after Stan's "Oh my God, they killed Kenny!".
  • "You know, I've learned something today," although this is sometimes said by Stan, and other characters as well.
  • "Fatass" is something he says to Cartman in just about every episode they interact in, though Stan also calls him that or some variation from time to time.
• Character Development: He gradually developed from being just as indifferent and apathetic as the other boys to the most conscious about society's flaws and a moral crusader.
• Characterization Marches On: Early in the show's run, Kyle's personality was akin to Stan's; he was more childish, bratty, indifferent and a Big Brother Bully to Ike on a larger scale. As the series went on, his character got more fleshed out and unique to Stan's, and he also became much more kind-hearted (if you aren't Cartman, that is), and his love for Ike is a lot more manifested. On the other hand, he can be more overly-dramatic about social values (almost bordering on Soapbox Sadie in Seasons 19-20) and will move mountains to prove Cartman wrong about the silliest of things, something his earlier self wouldn't have done due to apathy.
• The Chew Toy: In later seasons, he could rival Butters in terms of misfortunes, such as being subjected to a gruesome experiment by Steve Jobs.
• Chick Magnet: Kyle has attracted the most girls out of all his friends, including Bebe, Rebecca, Nichole, and Heidi. That said, it didn't stop Bebe from labeling him the ugliest boy for selfish reasons.
• Child Prodigy: He's regularly portrayed as the top student in his class, has the highest capabilities with the computer, including photoshopping a photo to fool the Japanese government to stop whaling and get his best friend out of trouble and single-handedly thwarting a terrorist attack with some inspired Google-fu. He's also shown more than a slight capability with philosophy and managed to remove himself from reality.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: He's locked into this since he never knows when Cartman is going to formulate a new, evil plan.
• Clashing Cousins: One sided with his cousin Kyle Schwartz, who embodies every Jewish stereotype Kyle constantly tries to defy. He even calls the him his Evil Counterpart when they both start cosplaying as the Human Kite.
• Cluster Bleep-Bomb: Kyle unloads one of these on the visitors when they ignore his heartfelt plea to return Ike.
• Competition Freak: Against Terrance Mephesto in "An Elephant Makes Love to A Pig", and against Cartman in many other episodes. He just can't stand to lose against Jerkasses.
  Stan: Kyle, aren't you taking this a little too far? I mean, do we really want a giant douche to be our school mascot?
  Kyle: Dude, I'm not going to lose to Cartman's stupid turd sandwich. [sees Cartman and Butters making a parade to promote their "Turd Sandwich" mascot] There. Do you really want that asshole to win?
• Compressed Hair: Kyle easily gets a Jewfro that's larger than his head into a small hat. Justified since it's just the art style exaggerating the size of it.
• The Conscience: Over the course of the show, he's evolved into this, as he's often stuck playing the voice of reason as well as the conscience in a show featuring Eric Cartman.
  • There's a definite pattern of Kyle acting as Butters' conscience, even when Cartman is out of the picture. "Sexual Healing" even shows him doing it under someone else's false pretenses^note Neither of them are actually psychologically disturbed; they were just told they had a "dangerous" sexual addiction by a quack doctor:
    Butters: There! It was like that! It looked just like that! (points to a bush, then walks over to it) Just like this, buh, but smaller, and right in the place where her underwear should've been. If I trim it down, it'll look right...
    Kyle: Butters! Butters, stop it!
    Butters: But this is what I keep seeing in my head! (lightly fights him and tries scrambling away)
    Kyle: (tugging him away) Butters, we are sick! Don't you get it?! We're gonna end up just like Kenny!
    Butters: (tries doing the same thing as before) No, if..if I can just see it again, uh, I'll be fine.
    Kyle: No! Butters, stop! (slaps him)
    Butters: (whimpering) Leave me alone!
    Kyle: Stop it! Stop! (pulls him back down, before they fight for a few seconds, soon breaking down into tears) Oh God! Oh God, help us!
• Cool Big Bro: After some character development, Kyle tries to be a protective and admirable brother to Ike.
• Create Your Own Villain:
  • It's all but stated that the main reason Cartman is so hostile towards him was Kyle and the other kids' constant bullying of him for being fat leading up to the first four seasons. Notably, Cartman's antisemitism started as a way to get under his skin (much like his constant insults towards Sheila), before it eventually became genuine. "Cartman's Silly Hate Crime 2000" shows Clyde coming close to falling victim to this as well after Kyle and Stan start mocking him, with "Post Covid" ironically showing that he did become the new Cartman in the Bad Future, and even tried to go back in time and kill Kyle, albeit for a different reason.
  • This comes to a head in "Post Covid", where Kyle tries to go back in time and stop the pandemic from ever happening, not realizing/caring that part of the reason why Cartman had a Heel–Faith Turn (which Kyle didn't believe was genuine anyway) was because of the events of the pandemic. This only leads to a paranoid Cartman becoming his nemesis again and not only trying to stop him, but also having Clyde go back in time and kill him in the past to stop him from even having a chance of affecting his Happy Ending.
  • In "Return of Covid", this even extends to Cartman's children, who end up hating him with a passion after seeing how badly he treats their father (being oblivious to the full context of their rivalry). During the climax of the episode, when Kyle expresses his disdain of Cartman in front of them, it leads to the latter's youngest son Hackelm activating the time machine out of spite, sending the now-villainous Clyde back to the past and very nearly sealing everyone's fate.
• Curly Hair Is Ugly: Kyle keeps his hat on at all times to conceal his unflattering Jewfro. In "Elementary School Musical" Kyle has a more flattering moptop.
• Cute Bruiser: Cute appearance aside, Kyle is one of the most proficient fighters among his peers, capable of delivering swift beat-downs upon Cartman whenever they engage in physical confrontations, even knocking him out with a single punch in "Doubling Down". He's also capable of holding his own whenever he fights Stan (who beat up his 22-foot-tall Facebook avatar and can literally channel the Prince of Darkness) and, along with the other three Boys, dishes out a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown on a group of kids in "Faith Hilling" that was so bad they ended up in the hospital.
• Department of Redundancy Department: He never stops reminding everyone that Cartman's fat.
• Depending on the Writer: Kyle can either be the voice of reason to Cartman's schemes or an outright Jerkass to him.
• Deuteragonist: Strictly speaking, though he and Stan can switch roles from time to time.
• Demoted to Extra: Kyle suffers from this fate in Season 26 after "The Worldwide Privacy Tour". He takes a backseat for the remaining four episodes, where he gets about one minute of screen-time in each, at most (whereas he's entirely absent from the season finale).
• Did Not Get the Girl:
  • Unlike the rest of the boys, Kyle has never been in a serious relationship. In total he has been romantically tied to Bebe Stevens, Rebecca Cotswolds, Nichole Daniels, Leslie Meyers and Heidi Turner, and every time he gets romantically involved with someone, the world gives him the middle finger and the girl ends up dumping him for whatever reason — though in the case of Bebe he was not interested, running away after she kissed him, and Leslie only feigned her interest in order to manipulate him.
  • Possibly subverted in the Good Future where Kyle has two kids, indicating that Kyle finally found someone he loves enough to marry and have children with.
• Dirty Coward: Happens often. When Kyle, along with the rest of his friends, does something wrong (or even thinks that they did), he usually tries to frame it on Butters.
• Disney Death: In "Imaginationland Part II", he's choked almost to death by Manbearpig, but is then revived by Cartman using CPR during a scene parodying The Abyss.
• Dogged Nice Guy:
  • In "Hooked on Monkey Phonics" Kyle fell for Rebecca, but as soon as they kissed she turned into a slut and didn't give Kyle the time of day ever again.
  • During "Cartman Finds Love" and "Doubling Down" both due to Cartman, the latter of which seemed to have mentally broken him.
• Driven by Envy: "Cartmanland" confirms that Cartman's successes bring Kyle despair, while his suffering brings him hope. As an adult, Kyle is unable to not compare his lonely and joyless lifestyle with Cartman's Happily Married one, which is part of what drives him to try and change the future to ensure he gets a happy life too. However, when this results in Cartman ending up a homeless loner, Kyle gets no joy from his misery.
• Dumbass No More: Downplayed since he was always Book Smart, but still suffered from a huge lack of self awareness and poor judge of character, especially in regards to the adults. Starting around Season 6 and especially 7, he became a lot more prone to second-guessing his authority figures, occasionally surpassing Stan in that regard.

E-I

• Earn Your Happy Ending: Kyle tends to among those that suffer the most misfortune, but also the one who winds up having the most prosperous endings. The "Post-Covid" two-parter is arguably the best example where he starts off as a lonely adult with no friends or family in the Bad Future, but ends with having a happy family of his own while still maintaining his friendships with most of his peers in the revised future.
• Easily Embarrassed Youngster: Justified in earlier seasons as he was slow to catch up on trends with the rest of his peers and had to deal with his mother constantly hounding anyone she could find, but he does still show shades of this. He's generally much more bashful about how he acts around people of different cultures and some of his ordinary secrets than the other boys (maybe even as much as Butters), and doesn't always feel like he can be as sociable as possible, worrying about being lost when it comes to conversation.
• Everyone Has Standards:
  • While he really was becoming like his mom, in his defense, he was far less of an extremist than she is. While Sheila was perfectly willing to start a genocidal war with Canada, with it taking the coming of the apocalypse to have her regret her actions, Kyle never had any murderous intent and was immediately stricken with guilt when he saw his actions had led to Canada being nuked (which, while horrible, is a bit less horrible than The End of the World as We Know It).
  • Kyle may have been Arch-Enemies with Cartman during their childhood and the original future, but even he is sad seeing Cartman grow up to be a friendless, miserable, and homeless alcoholic in the revised future.
  • During "The Worldwide Privacy Tour", Kyle begins buying into CumHammer's fad of improving their brands... right until he learns that CumHammer influenced Butters to insult Bebe, resulting in Bebe giving Butters a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown. Kyle becomes disgusted with CumHammer afterwards, to the point that he quits CumHammer and convinces the rest of the kids, including Butters, to do the same.
• Expository Hairstyle Change: Parodied. After realizing that Terrence and Philip didn't make him laugh anymore and becoming disillusioned with them, he shaves his hair to a smaller style (along with a new non-Terrence and Phillip shirt). Then he immediately puts his hat and jacket back on before admiring his "new" look in the mirror. The hat has remained on since (except in some promo material).
• Excellent Judge of Character: Post Season 11, after many instances of falling for his schemes, he's become a lot quicker to catch on Cartman's attempts to manipulate him and others, and always keeps his guard up around him or encourages other characters not to listen to him. This also extends to Stan, Kenny, and Butters, as Kyle is usually the first to point out when either of them are acting out of character or hiding an ulterior motive, such as in "Butterballs", "A Scause for Applause", "The Pandemic Special", and "Post Covid" for Stan, "Major Boobage" and "The Ring" for Kenny, and "Wieners Out", "Tegridy Farms" and "The Worldwide Privacy Tour" for Butters. Furthermore, while he's not as good as second-guessing the adults as Stan is, Kyle is still one of the more critical thinkers in his class, and is usually quick to doubt the motivations of the celebrities he encounters.
  Kyle: Butters, this seems really out of character for you.
• Extreme Doormat: There have been times where he's briefly given up hope to this degree, usually during particularly intense situations:
  • In "Ginger Cow", he lets Cartman fart on and otherwise publicly embarrass him in front of millions of people for what he thinks may be for the rest of the former's life, not even caring how much Cartman raises the stakes, all for keeping peace among Christians, Jews and Muslims lest Cartman reveal the true ginger cow prophecy. Outside of that, he doesn't even argue when Stan forces him to apologize to him and Kenny for supposedly acting sanctimonious, and when Cartman refuses to reveal that the prophecy was specifically based on "a fat child with a small penis" painting a cow red as a prank because he doesn't like people knowing about the size of his, well, penis, Kyle merely sports a dejected look and allows Cartman to smother whipped cream on his face after having farted on it.
  • The last few episodes of Season 21 see him reach the Despair Event Horizon due to Heidi dumping him, Cartman molding her into a bigot and her becoming his Distaff Counterpart, simply walking away or getting miffed every time they, and later the entire school, make fun of him. Even while he goes on a crusade against Canada, it's clear that he can't bring himself to admit how much Heidi hurt him emotionally. Their uneasiness does end after Kyle gives her a very brief Armor-Piercing Response, though, showing that deep down he still very much loathes what she's become.
  • "The Problem with a Poo" has him defend Mr. Hankey's increasingly psychotic actions even as he lashes out at Kyle and makes his life complete hell. While Kyle does eventually lose his patience, he soon can't take any association with Hankey anymore enough to tearfully ask him if he wants Kyle to be erased as well.
  • While he does later put his foot down by giving him a heartfelt speech, Kyle in "Taming Strange" generally obeys all of Ike's whims after he's accidentally prescribed and fed hormone supplements and more or less becomes a libidinous fratbro, mostly being concerned about making sure Ike doesn't take things too far and get himself in trouble. Even after Ike engages in some perverse activity on stage with Foofa at Yo Gabba Gabba! live, Kyle profusely apologizes on their behalf and takes full responsibility, explaining that Ike's going through a puberty craze.
  • This characterization of him is perhaps the most common around his mother, though it's somewhat understandable. He begs Liane to not call his mother in Fractured But Whole after he and his friends stay up way past their bedtime, and earlier seasons show him to be scared shitless when she gets angry around him, even if it's not directed at him specifically.
• Eye Beams: While The Human Kite's main superpower is, as his name would suggest, Flight, he also has a secondary superpower of shooting lasers out of his eyes.
• Fatal Flaw: As he himself admits in "The Worldwide Privacy Tour", he has his flaws, which affect him more than he wants to.
  • His short temper and irritable personality lands him in trouble a lot and makes it easy for Cartman to play on his emotions.
  • His fear of being grounded by his mother is also the catalyst of all his Dirty Coward moments. He is not above pinning his mistakes on Kenny in "Jewbillee", Butters in "Jared Has Aides", "Good Times with Weapons", and "The Tale of Scrottie McBoogerballs", Cartman in "Good Times with Weapons", and Trent Boyett in "Pre-School". However, he does become more willing to face punishment in The Movie and episodes like "Toilet Paper" and "Butt Out", after seeing the consequences of his unwillingness to do so.
  • Kyle can also be very clueless in social and survival situations, to his and others' detriment:
    • In "Tonsil Trouble", he doesn't pick up on Stan and Kenny being more quiet than usual, or at least doesn't consider that there's probably a very good reason they aren't laughing along with him when Cartman gets AIDS, which leads to Cartman having enough and deciding to give Kyle AIDS.
    • Played with in regards to Ike: while he's great at keeping Ike out of trouble and gives advice that the latter takes to heart, he tends to have issues understanding Ike's patriotism to Canada and his resulting oppositions, even if they're otherwise minor. Both "Royal Pudding" and "Splatty Tomato" have him needing assistance in locating Ike. (Ugly Bob in the former, Stan and Craig in the latter; though "minor" is a given definition for Ike trying to capture President Garrison in a local, not-too-hard-to-find area.)
    • In "The Worldwide Privacy Tour", Kyle cautiously approaches CumHammer to work on his image, but he doesn't question whether it's really best for either him or Butters in the long run and doesn't realize that Butters' naviete might lead to his "out-of-character" phase repelling and angering other people if he takes it too far. Played with in this case, as both of these things do become readily apparent to him after Bebe beats the shit out of Butters over him repeatedly insulting her, upon which he's both very remorseful and able to successfully sort things out by talking the issues through with the other CumHammer clients.
    • Downplayed in "Ginger Cow". He doesn't ask Stan for advice in how to handle the titular prophecy without Cartman constantly hovering over him (figuratively), though it's clear he's unsure what to do period now that Cartman has beaten him for an extended period of time. Stan does eventually get the hint from Kyle once he's done enough research on his own to try and intervene.
    • His outburst in "Buddha Box" over Cartman using anxiety as a "get out of jail free" card only convinces Cartman to raise awareness for that tactic, since he inadvertently hints at his own anxiety in the process.
    • He falls for scams and false promises more often than the other boys, as shown in "Super Best Friends", "The Biggest Douche in the Universe" and "Crack Baby Athletic Association".
  • His competitive side is also when he's at his worst. Though he tries to deny it, Kyle is unable to not compare himself to Cartman, and often compromises his own morals in order to best him, since he believes that his kindness and maturity makes him entitled to a better life than his Jerkass nemesis:
    • In "Clubhouses", the only reason he wanted to make a Clubhouse alongside Stan was to ensure it was better than Cartman's, even though he wasn't interested in actually putting it to use. Actually playing in it earns him an unwanted kiss from Bebe during a game of Truth or Dare, leaving him grossed out.
    • In "Cartmanland", he's so bitter over Cartman inheriting a fortune while he only got a haemorrhoid that he becomes sick and almost dies out of dispair, only getting better when Cartman goes bankrupt at the end of the episode.
    • In "Douche and Turd", this obsession with besting Cartman at the election of the new school mascot leads him to using his best friend Stan to vote for him, even calling in Puff Daddy to threaten him into voting, which gets Stan temporarily banished from the town for refusing.
    • Reaches its peak as an adult, when seeing Cartman as a happy Jewish family man (while he's lonely and jaded) gets to him far more than he intended to, and sees no problem in sabotaging him by going back to the past to stop the pandemic from happening, which causes Cartman to revert back to his evil ways.
      Kyle: [to convince his past self to listen to him] Kyle, it's true. Cartman gets a happy life but you don't. You lose everything when you lose this friendship.
    • Kyle has been showing this side of him since as early as "An Elephant Makes Love to a Pig", but against his fellow Competition Freak Terrance Mephesto, using Cartman's pig Fluffy (against Cartman's own will) and his own elephant to make a pot-bellied elephant offspring, dragging his friends into Dr. Mephesto's lab (which gets Stan cloned). Later in the episode, he ditches Stan to check on Fluffy, leaving him to deal with the consequences of his clone's rampage.
• Fiery Redhead: Mixed with his Hot-Blooded tendencies whenever his Chronic Hero Syndrome personality kicks in. As of "The Worldwide Privacy Tour", this is becoming slowly subverted as he seems to have significantly toned these traits down, becoming less rigid and angry in general, even where Cartman is involved. He does (understandably) retain dry annoyance around the latter, though.
• The Finicky One: He has shades of this at times, though his foil (typically Cartman), and more or less the entire world he lives in, is so immoral, he doesn't really need high standards to get wound up over it.
• Flanderization: His obsession with beating Cartman, to the point of occasionally leaning into Knight Templar territory. It reaches the point in Season 21 where his anger that a girl he liked rejected him for Cartman and basically turned into a female Cartman enraged him so much that he indirectly got Toronto nuked.
• Flight: The Human Kite's main superpower is the ability to fly.
• Friendly Enemy: Whenever they're not at each other's throats, Kyle and Cartman's relationship is a mix of this and Vitriolic Best Buds. Because Kyle's idealism pushes him to try to find the good in everyone, and Cartman's morality is occasionally more unconventional than flat out evil, they get along well enough now and again. This quote by Kyle himself pretty much sums it up:
  Kyle: This is Cartman. He's my sort of friend...ish.
• Girls Have Cooties: In early seasons, Kyle was outright repulsed by girls, mocking Stan's relationship with Wendy and planning to mess with her and Bebe during Truth or Dare. He also screamed hysterically when the latter gave him his first kiss in that episode. However, he outgrew this soon enough, falling for several girls over the years but never giving Bebe a second glance (until she grew boobs). In Season 20, he's one of the boys doing the most to stop the gender war (second only to Cartman of all people), and was sympathetic to the girls' plight of being harassed by Skankhunt42 (who was ironically his own dad).
• Good Is Not Nice: ESPECIALLY where Cartman is concerned, though Kyle has shown plenty of shades of this in general. While he's very moral and isn't Enraged by Idiocy like Stan or hyperactive like Kenny, being challenged tends to make him lash out at people, even if they aren't directly involved (e.g. "Post-COVID", "It's a Jersey Thing").
• Green and Mean: Mostly in the earlier seasons, where he was more antagonistic towards others (alongside Stan). Downplayed in later seasons; his antagonistic traits are mostly toned down, but he still isn't above being the least morally sound (child) character in an episode, such as in "Good Times with Weapons", "Douche and Turd", and "Fatbeard".
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Kyle's frequently pissed off over whatever Cartman says or does, though it's pretty clear that he has a short fuse regarding a lot of things, even (or perhaps especially) when they aren't a big deal. "South Park Is Gay!" (where he tries to murder the Queer Eye for the Straight Guy cast), "Mexican Joker" (where he becomes incensed at the guards' using unwritten, alleviating morals for the detainees instead of them just coming up with improper conclusions) and "It's a Jersey Thing" (where people seeing him with raw emotion that they dislike is enough for him to try and force them to dislike it or stop even the slightest chance of them imagining it) are probably the most notable examples of Kyle's ferocious temper flaring up.
• Have I Mentioned I Am Heterosexual Today?: After Cartman starts a rumor in "Cartman Finds Love" that he and Kyle are together, Kyle tries his damnedest to express that he is not gay, least of all for Cartman.
• The Hero: Either swaps this role with Stan semi-frequently or works with Stan (and sometimes the other boys) as a duo/team of sorts in undermining the numerous insane and evil plots they often (unwillingly) discover. In the latter seasons where Stan has become more cynical and apathetic, Kyle becomes the closest thing to a hero in the school, though even then he's usually unable to meaningfully change anything, which still doesn't stop him from trying. In Season 21, he finally manages to indirectly "save" someone since he helped Heidi realize how bad of an influence Cartman had been on her, break up with him, and better herself.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Without death involved. "Margaritaville" has Kyle use his new credit card without a spending limit to pay for the town's debts, even if it means he will be in debt himself for the rest of his life. When the economy began to pick up again, Barack Obama got all the credit.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Stan. Out of the other three boys, Kyle shares the closest bond with him and there have been many episodes focusing on the jeopardy of their friendship.
• He Who Fights Monsters: Has shades of this due to his antagonism toward Cartman. In some episodes he thinks nothing of having him dead. Although this also depends on how far Cartman has spent in monster territory in previous episodes.
• Horrible Judge of Character:
  • In earlier seasons, he was prone to trusting the words of the adults around him unconditionally, and therefore was much more prone to falling to scams, cults, and "snuff films" than Stan was (such as David Blaine, John Edward, or Mel Gibson), or feeling betrayed for taking his parents at their word (such as in "The Tooth Fairy Tats 2000", "Do the Handicapped Go to Hell" and "Probably"). Up until around Season 11, he was also very susceptible to Cartman's manipulation, often believing his Bitch in Sheep's Clothing act despite having been let down again and again. In later seasons, though he's become a much more critical thinker, he still has made a habit out of reaching out or trusting the wrong people each time (Leslie Meyers in Season 19, his father Gerald in Season 20, and even President Garrison in Season 21), which usually ends in disaster.
  • After reuniting with adult Cartman in "Post Covid", he attempts to defy this but ironically ends up playing it straight again, (understandably) believing his Heel–Faith Turn was just a long-lasting prank intended to spite him, and acting accordingly. As it turns out, it wasn't a prank, and Kyle's hostile demeanor and actions towards Cartman only cause him to fall back into villainy.
• Hot-Blooded: As established in "Cartman Gets an Anal Probe" Kyle yells and curses a lot when he's frustrated, and has had to be told to calm down by Stan on several occasions, especially when Cartman's involved. Fittingly, he dressed as Thor from The Avengers during Halloween in "A Nightmare on Facetime".
• Hypocrite:
  • In "Tonsil Trouble", he complains about Cartman making fun of HIV, despite laughing at his condition earlier. Even if he was laughing at the irony of the situation based on previous episodes where Cartman wished AIDS upon him, this episode alone frames him as this trope.
  • In "The Tale of Scrotie McBoogerballs", when Butters gets famous for allegedly writing the titular book, Kyle asks him "Do you think it's fair to lie like this?" — except he and the others lied to him earlier that he wrote said book to avoid getting in trouble.
  • In The Stick of Truth, he requests a group of elves to kidnap your character and threatens to blackmail your character, even though you're already a member of Kupa Keep. Ironically, Cartman recruited your character in a much more polite manner. This example is more benign than the former, though, as the characters were playing a game and he puts his grudge towards Cartman aside to stop Clyde.
  • In "Doubling Down", he criticizes the concept of self-victimization. Come "Super Hard PC-Ness", he acts like the victim himself. Ike calls him out on this.
• Idiot Ball: twenty-five Seasons worth of seeing his Jerk with a Heart of Jerk side first-hand, sometimes Kyle is deceived by Cartman's false claims of changing, oblivious to his ulterior motive.
  • In "Casa Bonita", Kyle thinks that Cartman has made a Heel–Face Turn by accepting the fact that he isn't invited to his birthday party and moving on, so he allows him to take Butters' place if the latter is unable to attend. Little does Kyle know that he influenced Cartman to imprison Butters in a bomb shelter to sabotage his chances of showing up.
  • After Season 11 onwards had consistently shown Kyle as always wary of Cartman's (often deceitful) attempts to reach out, he falls for one of the latter's schemes once again in "The Streaming Wars", where he believes his story that his mother needed surgery without bothering to confirm, and agrees with the others to give all the money they earn from selling their crafted boats to the streaming services once they're paid, not knowing that said "surgery" was a boob-job that Liane didn't even want to have (Cartman was trying to set her up with a rich Dirty Old Man). As a result, when the streaming wars get to them, Kyle and the others are unable to pay back the money they made. Possibly understandable since Cartman had been more heroic the previous season than he ever had been, and the episodes following up to this one had shown him getting the short end of the stick each time, so Kyle might've decided to Throw the Dog a Bone at the worst possible time. It's heavily implied that this episode only reinforced the Karmic Shunning that adult Cartman would suffer at the hands of Kyle and the others in the revised future.
• Informed Judaism: For all the mentioning of his family's faith, Kyle rarely goes to temple or prays, or even wears a kippah. Plus, his family eats pork products (they had pork for dinner in "Conjoined Fetus Lady" and Kyle threw up bean with bacon soup in "Cherokee Hair Tampons"), which isn't kosher. Partial justification: early on, Kyle's family was the only Jewish family in town, and they're probably not very religious to begin with (as we've mentioned, he's a stand-in for Matt Stone, who is ethnically Jewish but was raised agnostic and is an atheist). At best, the Broflovskis' religiousness or lack thereof largely depends on Rule of Funny, though it can go either way with Kyle himself (in "Christmas Snow", there's a Christmas tree inside his house, but he mentions bringing a kosher lunch to school in "Ginger Kids"). However, Kyle does carry a bag of Jew gold around his neck with him at all times, as well as a decoy one in case anyone (read: Cartman) tries to rob it.
• Insufferable Genius: Sort of. Kyle, as The Smart Guy, is very intelligent, and when this is combined with Hot-Blooded and The Snark Knight, it becomes something of a subtle version of this trope. He occasionally believes himself to be on a moral high ground above others, especially Cartman.
• Irony:
  • Though in later seasons he's become increasingly frustrated with his inability to make an impact on the world around him, the time where he actually did change major events (bringing peace to Cuba) was done in the early seasons when he couldn't actually care less, only doing it to win a bet against his parents.
  • Despite having the least success of obtaining a romantic relationship out of the four boys as a child, Kyle's the only one of them who ends up getting married and having children during his adulthood in the revised future.

J-W

• Jerkass Ball: He and Stan are usually the Only Sane Men to the craziness of the world around them, and act as more moralistic foils to Cartman. At times however, often when Cartman is not in a starring role, they can act rather selfish or immoral, having nothing against using similar bullying or conniving tactics to Cartman to get what they want. This is toned down in later seasons, though it does pop up every now and then.
• Jerkass to One:
  • He's this towards Cartman. While Cartman is, of course, a Jerkass himself, there's times Kyle is one to him for no good reason, particularly in episodes like "Tonsil Trouble," where he openly laughs at Cartman for catching AIDS.
  • Though he's usually quite tolerant and loving with his family members, regardless of how annoying or antagonistic they might get, Kyle is this towards his stereotypical cousin. He tries to ship him back home several times in "The Entity" with no concern for his well being, and in The Fractured but Whole, he hires the new kid to bully him into leaving.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He can be stubborn and Hot-Blooded on occasion, mostly due to Cartman's behavior, and in earlier seasons he was cruel, hypocritical, self-righteous, and overall not much better than Cartman himself. Even now, he's still susceptible to Kids Are Cruel, but he's about as friendly as you'd expect a 9-year-old boy to be, and he's one of the more sensible and moral kids in his school. Despite his intense hatred and resentment towards Cartman occasionally causing him to steer away from his intended righteous path, he's still a Nice Jewish Boy, especially in later episodes, and always has a genuine interest in doing what he believes is right.
• Jewish and Nerdy: Downplayed. He's Jewish and the smartest kid in the group, but he's cool enough to bust balls with the best of them. He also hates his cousin's stereotypical nerdiness. In "Something You Can Do With Your Finger" Kyle strongarms Cartman into letting him be the boyband's token tough guy, citing that Jews have been tough since the days of Abraham.
• Kids Are Cruel: In earlier episodes, Kyle was essentially a lower-scale bully. It was actually him that tormented Pip to the point of earning a broken nose and joined in exploiting and disregarding Butters and Kenny on numerous occasions. There are also subtle hints that his bullying turned Cartman into the anti-Semitic monster he is today. This is toned down in later episodes, though he can still act self-righteous or show Jerkass traits on occasion. He often calls Cartman "fatass" even when Cartman hasn't done anything wrong in that episode towards anyone.
• Kite Riding: The Human Kite lives up to his name by having a red-and-yellow kite tied to his back at all times.
• Knight Templar: Kyle gradually leans towards this trope in his rivalry with Cartman; some of their conflicts have shown his willingness to outright kill him. In "Fatbeard" for example, he attempts to convince Cartman to travel to Somalia in his ill-defined plan to become a pirate, and he is later seen gloating about assisting in Cartman's supposed death, unfazed by the fact that Butters, Clyde, and Kevin went along with him. Ike joining, however, is enough to change his mind. He must have picked up the trait from his mother.
• The Lancer: Often, to Stan's The Hero. There are however plenty of episodes where Kyle is the more proactive of the two boys.
• Like Mother, Like Son: Kyle arguably takes a lot more after his mother than his father. They both have large red hair, both have Berserk Buttons against anti-Semitism and can go to extreme lengths for causes they believe in.
• Maybe Ever After: The fact that Kyle has children in the revised future confirms that he is married. That said there's no conformation on who Kyle married in the revised future, but there are several elements that point to the possibility of Kyle having gotten together with one of the following women:
  • The first possibility is Heidi Turner. Heidi is currently the latest girl that Kyle had romantic feelings for and while the two haven't interacted onscreen after "Splatty Tomato", her return to her old healthy Nice Girl self after breaking up with Cartman, sitting near Kyle in "The Problem With a Poo", and Heidi refusing to listen to Cartman's anti-semitic remarks about Kyle nor attack Kyle in "Cupid Ye" suggests the possibility of Kyle marrying Heidi.
  • The second possibility is Yentl. While Kyle has only interacted with Yentl twice in the Bad Future, given that Yentl is Jewish like Kyle, and Kyle's kids look similar to Yentl's in the previous timeline, does bring a different possibility that Kyle could have married Yentl instead of Heidi.
• Messianic Archetype: Blatantly so in "Margaritaville", where his preaching in favor of the economy is an allegory for the story of Christ. He eats pizza with his friends and discusses how one of them will betray him (it turns out to be Cartman, of course), and Kyle paying everybody's debts off with a platinum credit card, putting him in eternal debt, is set up like the crucifixion.
• Mike Nelson, Destroyer of Worlds: While Kyle wanted Canada to pay for their influence its media has on children, he never expected his actions to start a nuclear war between Canada and the USA.
• Misplaced Retribution: The reason why Heidi chose Cartman over him was because the girls ignored Kyle's warnings and continued to mock Heidi for her choices. However Kyle blames Canadian TV shows for the reason why Heidi dumped him.
• Mistaken for Gay:
  • With Cartman in "Tonsil Trouble", whenever he exclaims that he's the one who gave him AIDS.
  • In "Cartman Finds Love", only perpetuated by Cartman.
• Mommy Issues: In earlier seasons, especially in The Movie. Kyle wholeheartedly disagrees with his mother on most things, but he still takes it personally when anyone — least of all Cartman — calls her a bitch.
• Morality Chain: Sometimes tries to be this to Cartman, though lately he's clearly given up on him.
• Murder Is the Best Solution: Occasionally when he gets pushed too far.
  • In "South Park is Gay", he gets so upset about his classmates making fun of him for not being metrosexual that he takes a train to New York City with intent to kill the cast of Queer Eye For The Straight Guy. This is before it's revealed that the show is actually a plot by the Crab People to destroy humanity, so that does not excuse him.
  • In "Good Times with Weapons", after accidentally injuring Butters with a shuriken, Kyle actually agrees with Cartman's suggestion that Butters needs to be killed to avoid getting grounded.
  • In "Fatbeard", Kyle tries to get Cartman killed by encouraging him to go to Somalia to be a pirate, knowing full well he'll be killed there. Cartman actually ends up becoming the leader of the pirates and Kyle is kidnapped by them.
• My Beloved Smother: Kyle on frequent occasions is shown to be outright terrified of his overbearing mother. He has been shown to betray every moral ethic he has in fear of provoking her wrath.
• My God, What Have I Done?: His face screams this at the end of "Super Hard PCness" after he gets Garrison to nuke Toronto in a fit of anger.
• Nice Guy: Post-season 18, he has become a lot more self-reflective and genuinely altruistic than he used to be, even surpassing the other boys on occasion. While still imperfect, he is as approachable and kind-hearted as he can possibly be and is always happy to solve disagreements with a dialogue instead of his previous Knight Templar tendencies.
• Nice Jewish Boy: Probably the best modern version of the stereotype (outside of some Ambiguously Jewish examples). Although he borders on Jerk with a Heart of Gold at times due to his short temper, he is well known for being a moral and compassionate boy who tries to do the right thing.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Near the end of "Stunning and Brave", Cartman utilizes a plan for getting rid of PC Principal and his friends (and shockingly doing so for Kyle's benefit, no less), only for Kyle to intervene by saying he changed his mind about Caitlyn Jenner, foiling the plan and allowing the PC Frats to be able to stay. Subverted in that it actually manages to start PC Principal's Redemption Quest.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished:
  • Kyle tries to help Heidi get out of an emotionally abusive relationship with Cartman, only for Cartman to use Kyle's interference to make Heidi reject Kyle and become anti-Semitic. Though this gets Subverted when Kyle gives Heidi an Armor-Piercing Response for rejecting his help, which causes her to end the abusive relationship for good.
  • In "The Problem With a Poo", Kyle tries to help Mr. Hankey because he was his friend. This causes the town to shun him just for being associated with Mr. Hankey.
  • His continued willingness to put up with Cartman farting on him as blackmail in "Ginger Cow" so as to prevent the latter from disrupting peace across the Abrahamic religions ends up getting him ostracized, due to the other kids sensing that him constantly acting like he's doing what's best for everyone is because he enjoys being a martyr and seeing him as sanctimonious.
  • His faux-uprising gambit in "Mexican Joker" so as to set the other ICE detainee kids free and his angry explanation of how traumatic flashbacks can be prevented by making good decisions in the present to the guard, Jeff, who's about to unlock the gates while still being delusional about the titular Mexican Joker's "flashbacks", just ends in Jeff trying to go to the right flashback after he already killed all the guards that could have freed them.
  • When he tries to protect his family towards the end of Season 20 (and does a rather good job in the end), including Gerald who caused Denmark to all but wage war on the US, Gerald calls him a pussy for wanting to know why he's causing so much destruction, Sheila goes into a berserk rage due to a misunderstanding involving both him and Ike, and his dad gets off scot-free, which leaves Kyle and Ike unsatisfied and angry.
• Not Good with Rejection: Kyle didn't take Heidi's rejection well, especially when she went back with Cartman and became like the latter.
• "Not So Different" Remark: Kyle on occasion can show similar moments of greed (although not nearly on the same scale) as Cartman. This is highlighted in "Crack Baby Athletic Association", where Kyle agrees to exploiting crack-addicted babies for profit, and spends the entire episode obsessively trying to justify himself, beginning to sound more and more like Cartman as Stan nonchalantly points out.
• No-Respect Guy: He usually gets this treatment from Cartman. Season 19 makes a Running Gag about people getting fed up with his speeches.
• No Sympathy: Though he subverts this on occasion when his conscience gets the better of him, Kyle will usually feel anything but sympathy when Cartman suffers a Humiliation Conga, even if he hasn't done anything to warrant it, though this hasn't stopped him from helping him out on several occasions when the stakes are high, especially in the later seasons.
• Number Two: While never directly stated, Kyle is usually the one to take charge of the group when Stan is absent or incapacitated (unless Cartman comes up with a plan), though he often fails to convince Cartman to cooperate. That being said, Kyle does occasionally do a decent job at leading without fighting much with Cartman, if at all. In "Freemium Isn't Free", while Stan wasn't available due to his addiction to the Terrance and Phillip app game, Kyle was the one who led the boys into finding information about the app from Jimmy in order to help Stan. In "Nobody Got Cereal?", he managed to convince Cartman and Kenny to hide at the school while ManBearPig was terrorizing the town and the police were searching for them. Stan and later the police found them there, and Cartman and Kenny complained about going to school on the weekend, but the fact that Kyle managed to get the team there safely in the first place despite their unwillingness to do so is no small feat.
• One-Steve Limit: Averted. He shares names with his cousin Kyle. Unfortunately for our main Kyle, his mother calls him "Kyle 2".
• Only Sane Man: Though he has quite a temper and his emotions can cloud his judgement from time to time, there are many instances where he plays this straight, often trading this role with Stan or sharing it with him at the same time, and he almost always is this to Cartman. Episodes like "You're Getting Old", "Butterballs", and "Post Covid" have him playing this to Stan of all people.
• Out-of-Character Moment: In "Woodland Critter Christmas", he willingly becomes the human host of the Antichrist, just so that the Jews could "take control of Christmas once and for all". He comes to his senses soon after when he feels his soul burning. Justified, as it turns out that episode was only a story Cartman wrote.
• The Paragon: Kyle tries to invoke it. He would succeed... if the town wasn't so stupid. He actually manages to become a Messianic Archetype in "Margaritaville" by saving the economy, but Obama is credited for his actions instead.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: His general view of how he deals with Cartman. Even in early seasons, where he was a Jerkass himself and was more Vitriolic Best Buds than an actual rival for him, he still justified messing with him because he was an Insufferable Imbecile and "sucked as a friend". After Cartman became less bumbling and more overtly malicious, Kyle became a lot more active in trying to put an end to whatever he's doing, sometimes even reveling in his torment, as shown in "Cartmanland", "Ginger Kids", and "Tonsil Trouble".
• Perpetual Frowner: Kyle, while a bit more optimistic and jovial than Stan, hardly ever smiles, mainly due to his exasperation with how dysfunctional his environment is. Cartman's amoral and antagonistic tendencies don't help either.
• Please Keep Your Hat On: Kyle considers wearing his hat to be how he "looks natural" rather than showing off his very large Jewfro, and protests when he's forced to take it off for class picture day.
• Phrase Catcher: "Fuck you, Kyle!" has been thrown his way several times, especially from Cartman.
• Positive Friend Influence: Wants to be this for Heidi in Season 21 trying to convince her to leave Cartman and be a sweet boyfriend to her. It doesn't plan out as Kyle intended as Cartman manipulates Heidi into rejecting Kyle, going back to Cartman and becoming his Distaff Counterpart but in the end he gets to be this for her as his Armor-Piercing Response causes Heidi to have Heel Realization, break-up with Cartman, and by Season 22 returns to her old self.
• Pragmatic Hero: This is how Kyle deals with Cartman's schemes most of the time. In some cases however, he is fueled more out of personal hatred for Cartman, making him more a case of He Who Fights Monsters.
• Promotion to Parent: His situation isn't quite as bad as Kenny's, but he has to act as the adult towards his younger brother Ike when their parents are acting crazy or oblivious. In "Child Abduction Is Not Funny", after the parents hear from the news that most children kidnappings are done by their own parents, the parents don't trust their spouses anymore and send their children away to live by themselves. Gerald and Sheila tell Kyle that he has to become Ike's parent from then on. However, the children eventually return home.
• Properly Paranoid: Kyle is immensely distrustful of Cartman in the Post-COVID specials, suspecting that his conversion to Judaism and kinder nature are all a front so that Cartman could pull some elaborate prank on Kyle. Given Cartman has pulled off similarly elaborate pranks on Kyle in the past - sometimes with the intent to kill Kyle — it's understandable why he's so suspicious. As it turns out, however, it's subverted; Cartman actually had changed his ways.
• Redhead In Green: He has red hair and his hat, collar, pants and mittens are green. Unlike most examples, his hair is rarely shown.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Both, weirdly enough. He's the Red Oni to Stan's Blue and the Blue Oni to Cartman's Red.
• The Rival:
  • Alternates between this and Arch-Enemy with Cartman. Though he's often happy to just put an end to whatever scheme he's planning, Kyle has often attacked Cartman without any direct provocation, sometimes out of a Gut Feeling that he's going to do something horrible. This comes to bite him in the ass in "Post Covid", where adult Kyle keeps his guard up around Cartman due to thinking his Faith–Heel Turn is a façade, eventually leading to Cartman reverting back to his usual self.
  • He was this to Terrance Mephesto in "An Elephant Makes Love to a Pig" for the "cloning wars", and Kyle took beating him very seriously, to the point of making his pet elephant have sex with Cartman's pig to get a pot-bellied elephant, though they seemed to stop minding each other's presence after Kyle won.
• Save the Villain: Though he has tried to kill him more than once, Kyle has still unhesitatingly rescued Cartman on several occasions, such as "ManBearPig", "It's a Jersey Thing", and "Jewpacabra". In the latter two episodes, Cartman is even thankful, though in "Jewpacabra" he didn't know it was Kyle who saved him.
• Secondary Color Nemesis: Kyle wears green and orange and is the arch-enemy to Cartman, who wears primary colors. In a twist on the trope, Kyle is the more upstanding of the two.
• The Smart Guy: The smartest of the group, at least academically. In the Season 1 character commercials, Kyle was described as “the smart one”.
• The Snark Knight: One of the most sarcastic characters this series has. Mostly directed at Cartman for being fat and stupid.
• Soapbox Sadie: As he became more aware of the world's problems, he became more unwilling to let them slide, and he became particularly angry with apathetic people (like Stan on occasion), hopelessly naïve people (like Butters or sometimes Clyde), or people who took advantage of a problem for their own benefit (like Cartman most of the time). He's been called out for being this on multiple occasions. It becomes defied several times in Seasons 19, 20, and 21, though. Even though Kyle is one of the most sensible and aware kids at his school, he switches between calling people out for catering to peer pressure and then begrudgingly betraying his own ideals by catering to himself, usually after suffering a Humiliation Conga for his opinions^note Calling Caitlyn Jenner a hero in Season 19 after vehemently refusing to, joining the Wieners Out movement in Season 20 after trying to quell it, and then victimizing himself in Season 21 after criticizing Cartman for doing the same. Though he always has good intentions, his inability to meaningfully impact the world around him frustrates him to no end; the few times he does, he unwillingly ends up making things worse for everyone.
• Socially Awkward Hero: It's subtle, but taking great risks for the people he loves and South Park in general tend to be in his comfort zone more often than talking to people about emotional issues or readily being able to come across as casual and reliable. "Doubling Down", "Lil' Crime Stoppers", "A History Channel Thanksgiving", "Let Go, Let Gov", and even the early episode "Hooked on Monkey Fonics" are some good examples.
• Sociopathic Hero: Despite the fact that Kyle is not nearly as malicious as Cartman, he has proven to be less sensitive than Stan and has had several moments where he has proved to be cold, callous, and willing to do reprehensible things, especially when his Character Development comes into play. One example being in "Cow Days", when he forced Cartman to train for a rodeo and sustain repeated head trauma all so Kyle could use the prize money to buy some dolls.
• Signature Headgear: He even made a big deal out of it when getting his school picture taken:
  Photographer: Take off your hat, please?
  Kyle: But I never take off my hat.
  Photographer: Come on now, I bet your parents want a picture of you lookin' natural.
  Kyle: This is how I look natural.
  Ms. Choksondik: Kyle, we're taking pictures without hats today!
  Kyle: (taking off hat) Crap!
• Significant Birthdate: His birthday is May 26, the same as Matt Stone.
• Stop Being Stereotypical: Kyle feels this way towards his neurotic cousin. As Cartman's stereotyping of Jews tends to be proven right, Kyle fears that he might not be any better.
• Straight Man: When Stan is the designated holder of the Idiot Ball. Starting with Season 15, this is a regular occurrence, though Stan has largely made a return to the role.
• Sucks at Dancing: In "Rainforest Schmainforest," he can't keep up with the other kids' choreography during the choir performance, which upsets him since not having rhythm is a Jewish stereotype.
  • However, later episodes, such as "Elementary School Musical," depict him as a decent dancer. He must have been practicing.
• Superpowered Evil Side: Kyle's Jersey self is treated as this. While it's not explicitly super powered, it is the only way to take on people from Jersey on their own terms.
• Stupidest Thing I've Ever Heard: Kyle's given many variations of this over the years, usually in response to something Cartman says.
• Third Wheel: Since he rarely is successful at maintaining relationships himself, this is his default role when it comes to episodes involving romance.
  • Kyle serves as one for Stan and Wendy, especially during the earlier seasons. In the latter ones, however, he seems rather apathetic of the status of their relationship, even being baffled that Stan would have a Heroic BSoD over her dumping him in "Raisins". "Follow That Egg" also shows that Kyle would never think of going out with Wendy regardless of how close they get, out of loyalty for Stan.
  • Cartman tries to invoke this regarding his relationship with Heidi in Season 20 by bringing him along to their dates and asking for relationship advice. Kyle has none of it, since he has other more important matters at hand. By Season 21, when their relationship has taken a turn for the worst, Kyle tries to intervene in the relationship and briefly "steals" Heidi away from Cartman.
  • He also briefly acts as this between Butters and his bitches in "Butters' Bottom Bitch" and Kenny and Tammy in "The Ring", trying to steer both boys in the right path when he feels they're falling out. However, it's downplayed as Kyle does try to put an end to both "relationships" at first (Butters' because he was essentially conducting a sex business, Kenny, because Tammy had been revealed to have given another boy oral sex).
  • In "InSecurity", Kyle acts as this towards his own parents when he believed his mom was cheating on his dad with an UPS man, essentially behaving like a marriage counselor at the end.
• Those Two Guys: Is usually this with Stan in episodes where they're not the main focus.
• Throw the Dog a Bone:
  • Given how later seasons have made Kyle a Butt-Monkey, Season 25 decided to give Kyle some slack and not have him suffer any Trauma Conga Line, slapstick, or discrimination. In fact, the worst thing to have happen to Kyle in that season was that he had to deal with an obnoxious teenager, which is something the rest of the boys also have to endure.
  • Despite Kyle's attempts to pursue a romantic relationship have always failed when he was a kid while Kyle remained single and alone in the Bad Future, the universe decided to give him a win where Kyle does find a woman that he loves enough to marry and have children with, while still retaining his friendship with almost everyone, with Kyle's kids considering Stan to be their Honorary Uncle.
• Took a Level in Cheerfulness: After several seasons worth of being a bitter Ignored Expert and Butt-Monkey, and growing up to be a bitter and resentful single man in the Bad Future, the future boys managed to change the past to make his and the others' lives better, and by Season 25 he is now able to enjoy the little things again, with "Help, My Teenager Hates Me!" in particular being a highlight of this newfound cheerfulness. This trait carries over to his adult self in the revised future, where he's a happy family man whose mood can only be slightly lowered by the sight of Cartman's sorry adul lifestyle.
• Took a Level in Jerkass:
  • After four serialized seasons of being the show's resident Ignored Expert, and having to witness people he cared about Take A Level In Jerkass themselves, Kyle becomes a Moral Guardian in the penultimate episode of Season 21 reminiscent of his mother and goes on a moral cruisade against Terrance & Phillip which ends with Canada getting nuked as a result of his actions. Though he's left completely remorseful after this, Kyle still continues to justify himself up until Ike tells him to "stop being a victim" the following episode, whereupon Kyle spends the rest of the season finale trying to make amends by tracking down Ike and helping him hunt down the president.
  • In Post-Covid, though not as poignant a change as Stan, Kyle also grows to become more self-righteous and resentful in the Bad Future. Though understandable considering everything Cartman put him through as a kid, Kyle shrugs off or bites back at any of the latter's attempts at reconciliation, gets quite temperamental around him, and at one point attempts to expose him in front of the latter's wife. He becomes worse in this regard after convincing the others to go back in time and stop the pandemic from ever happening, not caring that it might ruin Cartman's happy ending. In the following special, even after witnessing how much Cartman is willing to sacrifice for his family's sake, Kyle still denies any wrongdoing and later attempts to convince his past self to reconcile with Stan, saying "Cartman gets a happy life, but you don't."
• Took a Level in Kindness: More or less the same evolution as Stan. He still has occasional self-righteous moments, though they are much more rare.
  • After the future is revised in "Return of Covid" so that Kyle reconciles with Stan and the others, he starts cutting them all some slack and dials down on his self-righteousness a lot. As an adult in the new timeline, he's mostly a Nice Guy towards everyone, even showing sympathy towards Cartman's predicament.
  • The seasons following this change also show him being a lot more self-reflective and patient, even agreeing to pay for the surgery of Cartman's mom (even if this comes back to bite him later). "The Worldwide Privacy Tour" is a crowning example of Kyle dealing with being the episode's Butt-Monkey in a mature and nuanced way, later even agreeing to play with the Prince of Canada despite the latter being an asshole to him for most of the episode.
• Tragic Hero: Kyle wants to do the right thing and convince others to do the same, but he often gets No Sympathy from others who believe him to be a Soapbox Sadie. On his side, his antagonism towards Cartman and obsession in beating him tends to override this and put his own morals into question, an issue which he's aware of and tries to address on occasion but is constantly overshadowed by Cartman's massive Jerkassery, which is directed at him most of the time, making him double down on his morals.
  • It reaches its climax in Season 21 when he tries to "save" a girl he liked who was in an abusive relationship with Cartman, only for her to dump him and not only return Cartman but also become his Distaff Counterpart and start treating Kyle like dirt too, so Kyle promptly goes on a moral crusade against Canada (or specifically Terrance & Phillip, whose humor now reminds him of Cartman's bullying) so no one else will become like Cartman, only to get the country nuked when he reached out to the president with his complaints.
  • Happens again in "Buddha Box" when Kyle's furious rant at Cartman for using anxiety to avoid facing problems causes Cartman to convince everyone to use Buddha Box to ignore the world around them, though this is far less severe compared to Kyle getting Canada nuked.
  • In the Post-COVID two-parter grown-up Kyle is still living in South Park and he's all alone. No family of his own, his parents are in a nursing home, Ike moved back to Canada and he's lost touch with all of his friends. When Cartman shows up with a wife and kids, Kyle can't or won't believe his arch-rival, whom he never personally saw change from his bigoted Jerkass self, got a better life than he did.
• Tragic Mistake: Accidentally causing President Garrison to nuke Canada. It plagues him until the end of the season and damages his relationship with Ike.
• Trans Nature:
  • According to "Mr. Garrison's Fancy New Vagina", Kyle felt he was black all his life. However, this was never mentioned again. Kyle apparently accepted the way he was born.
  Kyle: I've listened to Hip-Hop, I watch UPN, and I love playing basketball.
  • As the Human Kite, he identifies as an "Asexual Gender-Neutral Kite Alien".
• Trauma Conga Line: Kyle has this happen to him in later seasons.
• Undying Loyalty: To his baby brother Ike. Regardless of how annoying or patriotic he can get, Kyle always goes out of his way to help out his little brother, and he's often at his most sympathetic and mature when around him. Even in the first two seasons, where he was a Big Brother Bully towards him and had to be prompted to help him by others, he still ended up sticking by him at the end, standing up to aliens, Cartman, and his own mother when he thought his life was on the line. In later seasons, he's almost a Parental Substitute for him when his own parents are oblivious to his needs.
• The Unfavorite: Kyle is implied to be this, especially towards his father who mockingly tells Ike that he doesn't want him to be like Kyle.
• The Un-Reveal: Kyle has two biological children in the revised future, all but confirming that he's married. However the audience is never shown who Kyle married in the new future.
• Unwitting Pawn: Cartman's final revenge gambit in "Scott Tenorman Must Die" hinged on Kyle and Stan backstabbing him.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: It's implied Kyle is one to his father, Gerald. He's regularly ignored in favour of Ike just barely running circles around him in the intelligence department, despite Kyle (usually) being more independent and determined. After Season 21 Kyle loses whatever respect he had for Gerald, knowing that his online attitude almost doomed everyone.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Often the one to deliver these towards other characters, but he has been on the receiving end on occasion, most notably in "Ginger Cow".
• Wise Beyond Their Years: Even compared to his more observant peers who are more often thrust into the leadership role (Stan, Cartman, Craig, Wendy, sometimes Clyde, etc.) Kyle is very intelligent. Wendy seems to be an exception, however, and this doesn't stop both her and Stan from being insanely successful in the revised future.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Kyle tends to not deal well with Trauma Conga Lines. Some episodes in which Cartman puts him through too much abuse sometimes culminate in Kyle attempting to kill him or make him suffer as retribution.
  • In "The Wacky Child Molestation Adventure", after being forbidden from going to a concert by his parents even after he brought peace to Cuba, Kyle decides to follow Cartman's idea and frame them for child molestation.
  • In "South Park is Gay", he is ditched by the boys and bullied by Craig's gang for not following the metrosexual fad. When he learns that the fad wasstarted by the group of the TV show "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy"
  • In "The List", Kyle is falsely voted the ugliest kid in class and is left feeling ostracized as a result (with Cartman and Butters not helping matters at all), after some prompting from one of his fellow ugly kids, Kyle tries to burn down the school a few days later.
  • After Cartman gives him HIV for laughing at him in "Tonsil Trouble", Kyle tries to break all his toys, and still vows to finish the job even after Cartman gets him cured.
  • After all the shit he had to endure in South Park for the last seasons, it seems that Kyle finally reached his breaking point in Season 21 after Heidi breaks up with him for anti-Semitic reasons, goes back to Cartman and becomes a more extreme version of the latter, as well as the subsequent bullying that Kyle faced afterwards. He blames Canada for all his suffering and the meanness of South Park, which leads to him to getting the country nuked.

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