Characters / South Park: Butters Stotch

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Leopold "Butters" Stotch

"Oh, hamburgers."

^{Click here to see him as an adult}

^{Click here to see his Panderverse self}

Who's the boy who can laugh at a storm cloud?
Turn a frown into a smile for free?
Who's the kid with the heart full of magic?
Everyone knows it's Butters!

Butters: Th-That's me!

Voiced in English by: Matt Stone, Montana Jacobowitz (Panderverse)

Voiced in French by: Christophe Lemoine

Voiced in Japanese by: Noriko Suzuki (WOWOW dub, Season 1), Mitsuru Ogata (WOWOW dub, Season 2 onwards), Hana Takeda (Fox Japan dub), Natsumi Kawaida (Netflix dub)

Voiced in Latin American Spanish by: Xavier Coronel (Season 2), Raúl González (Seasons 3-5), Sergio Sáez (Seasons 6-9), Larry Villanueva (Seasons 10-15 and 2007 redub), unknown (2011 redub), Orlando Noguera (Season 16 onwards and 2015-2016 redubs), Luis Daniel Ramírez (Mexican dub)

Debut: "Cartman Gets an Anal Probe"

One of the fourth graders at South Park Elementary, Butters is the typical Butt-Monkey and laughingstock among his peers. He is the sweet, good-natured, innocent, sensitive, effeminate and idealistic little boy of the school, if a bit socially awkward. His reputation makes him a frequent target for harassment, bullying, manipulation and exploitation by the more mature and foul-mouthed boys — especially Cartman — in addition to being the only child of his two Abusive Parents, Stephen and Linda. Despite his regular humiliations, Butters can still grow a spine at the most unexpected of moments.

Despite having been around since the show's beginning, he was mostly a Living Prop in the early seasons, but gradually developed into a character around Season 3, and became a major character after "Kenny Dies". He's a Wide-Eyed Idealist who should be commended for remaining so after the world tries its hardest to give him reasons not to be.

His "evil" alter-ego is Professor Chaos, who is the arch-rival of Coon and Friends.

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A-E

• Accidental Aiming Skills: Whenever Butters is in possession of a firearm, he'll always accidentally aim it at a guy's dick as shown in "The China Probrem". Even Cartman finds this act morally horrendous.
• Accidental Pervert: In "Butters' Very Own Episode", Butters ventures into a gay bathhouse and walks in on many men engaging in sexual acts, although he only went there to spy on his dad to find out what he was getting Linda for their anniversary, and was completely oblivious to the X-rated nature of the place.
• Achievements in Ignorance: In "Butters' Bottom Bitch," he pays a girl $5 to give him his first kiss, which leads to him starting his own "kissing company" and basically becoming a pimp. It becomes so successful that actual, adult prostitutes hear about his reputation and start working for him because he treats them better than their pimps do.
• Acquired Situational Narcissism: In "The Tale of Scrotie McBoogerBalls", Butters takes credit for writing the Boys' raunchy titular novel, and is by the following day a celebrity among the school. When the Boys confront him, Butters is too blinded by fame to rationalize their words and instead joins his fans' claims that they're mooching off of his success. However, this was largely to spite the boys for using him as a scapegoat author when they thought the book’s profanity would get them in trouble, then attempting to reclaim authorship when the book was praised.
• Adorably Precocious Child: Comes with the territory of being just about the only kid in the show who doesn't represent negative views of children. He occasionally tries to assist the local adults and deliver his voice of reason to them, even if they believe he is too naïve to be taken seriously.
• Aerith and Bob: He's always called "Butters". Even his never-used first name "Leopold" is not as common as Stan, Kyle, Eric, or Kenny.
• Affably Evil: As Victor Chaos, he has become an unscrupulous businessman who gives people bad investments in NFTs, but he still remains as friendly as he was as a kid, especially when he greets Stan and Kyle as they visit him in his institution cell.
• Afraid of Blood: As a result of the mass manslaughter he accidentally committed during a tapdancing event, Butters holds an immense fear of blood.
• The All-American Boy: He shows signs of being one; he's an Adorably Precocious Child with a good reputation among authority figures, is implied to love Jesus, has blond hair, plays outside like an innocent child, and uses exclamations and minced oaths like "Gee whiz".
• All of the Other Reindeer: Due to his aversion of the manly, rebellious behavior exhibited by his peers, Butters is frequently ostracized due to his effeminate and meek personality. This was a particular exploit by the other three boys in the sixth season when Butters became the Replacement Goldfish after Kenny's "permanent" death — Stan, Kyle, and Cartman would object to him not doing things that Kenny would have done and would sometimes make him dress up in Kenny's parka to have Butters become a replica of Kenny, much to his frustration. This has been toned down in later seasons, where he is accepted by most of the kids at school and even develops a healthy, friendly relationship with the main cast. And it should be noted that as unpopular as Butters is, he was never hated at the level of Eric Cartman.
• All-Loving Hero: In a world known for idiotic sociopaths, Anti Heroes, and Villain Protagonists, Butters gets to serve as the most enduring Nice Guy in the series, helping and saving the people he cares for and even people who hate him and want him to suffer.
• Ambiguously Bi: Butters has shown himself on numerous occasions to be attracted to girls, having a Precocious Crush on Kim Kardashian, starting a "kissing company" paying girls to kiss him in "Butters' Bottom Bitch", and getting nocturnal emissions over Wendy and Red kissing him in "Sarcastaball". However he has still gotten himself into some pretty not-so-straight situations, such as selling his semen as an athletic enhancement beverage in the same latter episode, giving Cartman a hickey in "The Ungroundable", and kissing Cartman on the cheek in "Tonsil Trouble". Though, in his defense, most of these instances are done out of manipulation or naivety. "Cartman Sucks" has him sent to conversion camp after Cartman tricked him into sucking his penis, and while he spends much of the episode confused why he's in trouble, by the end of the episode he does accept the label of "bi-curious."
• Apologises a Lot: Sometimes he'll even apologize for things that aren't his fault.
• Ascended Extra: Despite existing since the very first episode of the show and being among the many school children to debut in construction paper design, Butters was initially a background character lucky to get even speaking roles, and didn't even appear consistently in Mr. Garrison's third-grade classroom^note He was removed from classroom scenes starting with "Big Gay Al's Big Gay Boat Ride", though he would briefly return to his desk in "Clubhouses". It wasn't until the Season 3 episode "Two Guys Naked in a Hot Tub" where Butters was formally introduced and received any substantial dialogue or role. Starting with Season 4, Butters' personality is established and he slowly gains larger and larger roles as the series progresses. While still absent from the Boys' iconic bus stop scenes, he's essentially an official member of their group these days.
• The Baby of the Bunch: Butters holds the unfortunate reputation of being the least mature among the other boys, in that they usually don't take anything he says seriously and ignore him whenever he exhibits his quirks. Additionally, his childishness is very often taken advantage of in that the boys force him into risky, sexual, or illegal situations whether or not he likes it in order to "man him up". Perhaps less unfortunately, his role as this gradually becomes downplayed as the series progresses, courtesy of Characterization Marches On, as Butters—while still a bit childish—becomes more intelligent and mature, thus he is more willing to affiliate himself with his male peers without pressure, and they in turn become more appreciative of his company. This is helped in the video games, where The New Kid takes the trope from him, with Butters (who's even heavily implied to be slightly older than the New Kid) even holding some seniority over them.
• Badass Adorable: He is, without a doubt, the sweetest and cutest of the South Park boys. He has also sunk an ocean liner with a golf ball, burned down the school gym, became a professional pimp, led a Mexican revolution, recreated Imaginationland from scratch, verbally torn his abusive grandmother a new asshole, and punched his father in the balls.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Stan's exploiting of his grandmother's bullying of him in "Butterballs" eventually causes him to punch out Dr. Oz on national television. He also got swift revenge on Cartman (both intentionally and not) in "AWESOME-O" by revealing the embarrassing videotape of him cross-dressed as Britney Spears lusting over a cardboard cutout of Justin Timberlake to everyone as revenge against Cartman disguising himself as the eponymous robot and pretending to be Butters' servant.
• Beware the Silly Ones: Butters is an eccentric fellow, but is not afraid to unleash his dark side if pushed around.
• Benevolent Boss: When he became a pimp he treated the girls very well which led to many women deserting their pimps and entering into his employment.
• Bigger Is Better in Bed: In "T.M.I.", Cartman measures Butters' penis while doing so for the rest of the male 4th graders. It's a long story. Butters' penis size is revealed to be 2.4 inches, which Cartman compliments on, and Butters even proclaims that he's hung like a horse. Out of the known 4th graders, it's the biggest size.
• Blackmail: As revenge for all the schemes he's pulled on him, Butters once eavesdropped on Cartman dressed up as Britney Spears dancing with a Justin Timberlake cutout in his backyard and threatened to show it to the whole class should he be messed with again. He eventually does at the end of the episode when it's revealed that Cartman had been tricking Butters the whole time in the disguise as his "robot friend".
• Book Smart: He does well in school (Stan even asked him for help with homework once) and is Good with Numbers. Unlike his classmates however, he has no street smarts.
• Born Unlucky: His birthday is on September 11th and he is constantly grounded for little to no reason.
• Breakout Character: Initially a background character, now the de facto fifth lead star, sometimes being considered as the unofficial fifth member of the main group.
• Break the Cutie: Butters is a naive, wide-eyed, sweet-hearted little boy who Matt and Trey exhaust their imaginations thinking of new torments to inflict upon, including beatings, attempted murder by his mother, a ninja star in the eye (which was ignored in favor of everyone being outraged over Cartman being naked in public), etc.
• Bring My Brown Pants: Butters pees himself as a result of stage fright during his performance in "Erection Day".
• Bumbling Sidekick: From Cartman's perspective, since they are usually portrayed as equally bumbling.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Despite his quirks, Butters is an amazing businessman. In "Butters' Bottom Bitch", he becomes a pimp and is so good at it that he's able to get his employees health care and other benefits, apply for low-income housing, seek mortgage loans, and seek out the tax status of his business. He does give it up but passes the business to his employees so they can make it self-manageable. In the covid specials, his business skills are amped up to eleven as he's seen as a threat to society for his ability to sell NFTs.
• Butt-Monkey: More like Butters Monkey. His character has effectively replaced Kenny, who was also a prime example of this in early seasons.
• Camp Straight: Butters is shown to be attracted to girls and yet has some effeminate interests like crossdressing, dancing, and art.
• Captain Oblivious: At one point his mother tried to kill him by driving the car into a river. He assumes it was a water park ride until it crashes into a rock, at which point he says that now that the car has come to a complete stop, he can undo his seat belt, which he does, then goes off on his way.
• Character Catchphrase:
  • "Neat-o!"
  • "Aw hamburgers!"
  • "Oh gee whiz."
  • He'll usually shout out "Fellas! Fellas!" when he has exciting or daunting news to tell the boys.
  • In earlier episodes, he sometimes commented on the substance of objects by saying "Oh, it's all sticky/gooey..."
• Character Development:
  • Butters seems to be getting smarter throughout the seasons. Examples include "The Ungroundable," "Tale of Scrotie McBoogerballs" and "HumancentiPad".
  • In terms of his once incorruptible morals and timidness, the other four boys (particularly Cartman) have been rubbing off on him lately beginning around season 12; he has been slowly becoming more hardened as the show goes on and becoming more opinionated and bold. In the end, he'll usually lose whatever spine he grew over the course of the episode, or put his values back in check, but later seasons show him as quite capable of resentment and anger, such as Season 20 when he leads the "Wieners Out" men's rights movement, or in Season 22's "A Boy and a Priest" when he stands up for Father Maxi against all the pedophile priest jokes thrown Maxi's way.
  • He has become more hyperactive and kooky as time passed, bordering somewhat on a Cloudcuckoolander.
• Character Tics:
  • Rubbing his knuckles together.
  • When he uses a urinal, he completely drops his pants instead of just opening them enough to get his member out and holds his shirt all the way up.
• Characterization Marches On: Butters went through an awkward phase following his introduction. At first, he was just a Living Prop with no established personality whatsoever. Then came along "Two Guys Naked in a Hot Tub", where Butters was established as a geeky, innocent goody-goody in the same boat as Pip. Suddenly, "Hooked on Monkey Phonics" and "Cartman's Silly Hate Crime 2000" abruptly portrayed him as a Jerkass bully alongside the other kids, shockingly contrary to his depiction in his Ascended Extra role. He was reverted back to a goody-goody sometime later.
• Cheerful Child: Despite being the Butt-Monkey of everyone — including his own parents — Butters still maintains a cheerful and happy-go-lucky personality under most circumstances — even when the world gives him reasons not to.
• The Chew Toy: Butters' gullibility and childlike innocence is frequently taken advantage of by the boys in cruel-yet-amusing ways, be it a ninja star lodged into his eye, unprofessional liposuction surgery in his living room, sending him out to buy tampons, or being locked in a bomb shelter after being tricked that a meteor collision was imminent.
• Children Are Innocent: The closest thing the show has, based on his reluctance to offend and lack of maturity that his peers have; however, Butters-centric episodes often subvert this, such as "Butters' Bottom Bitch" and "The Tale of Scrotie McBoogerballs".
• Chivalrous Pervert: Butters is one of the most sexually mature members of younger cast, to the point where he once became a benevolent pimp and is noted to have wet dreams almost nightly, but he is still really kindhearted and innocent. Averted with Lisa Berger, who he rudely rejected a date with by telling her to her face that she was too fat for him.
• Classical Anti-Hero: He fails at being a traditional hero because he's a bit... pathetic and ineffective.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Butters is a kooky and hyperactive little boy with eccentric rituals like pulling his pants all the way down to pee.
• Comically Missing the Point: In "Raisins", Butters is too oblivious to realize that Lexus, one of the Raisins girls, isn't actually interested in him and is just using him in the name of financial gain.
• Cool Kid-and-Loser Friendship: Butters is the innocent, wimpy, and ineffectual Loser to the New Kid's stoic hyper-competent, and badass Cool Kid.
• Corrupt the Cutie: The more Butters hangs around the boys, the more he becomes like one of them.
• Corrupting Pornography: Butters becomes a Gollum-like creature after being exposed to a particularly raunchy porn video that accidentally got left in the case for The Lord of the Rings.
• Covert Pervert: As innocent as he may seem, Butters' sexual curiosity is easily brought out when being exposed to pornography and sexually clad women.
• The Cutie: A sweet, naive Cheerful Child and by far the most innocent character on the show.
• Determinator: In "Super Fun Time", he spends the entire episode holding Cartman's hand because he was ordered to by the teacher, despite being caught in the middle of a hostage crisis and a large gunfight, culminating in Butters dragging the unconscious Cartman back onto the bus at the end, before finally letting go of his hand.
  Butters: Teacher? My partner is back on the bus!
• A Day in the Limelight: Several episodes, but "Butters' Very Own Episode" deserves an honorable mention, as it is the first time he is given his own spotlight, with the boys Demoted to Extra, thus preparing the audience for the more major roles he would come to play in the later season.
• Depending on the Writer:
  • Butters' maturity level ranges from being an innocent, naive little kid with a childlike outlook on adult culture to being a sexually mature Dirty Kid who hates being treated like a child.
  • His amount of respect for others can also vary greatly. Overall, Butters is an incredibly sweet and warm-hearted All-Loving Hero without a single mean bone in his body. Other times, not so much... in that he is prone to fits of rage, hostility, and assault even when he is not in the right, which is more prominent in the later seasons.
• Disguised in Drag: Butters is forced to dress up as a girl named "Marjorine" in the eponymous episode to infiltrate Heidi's sleepover in pursuit of her cootie catcher (which the boys think is a device that can accurately predict the future).
• Disproportionate Retribution: Butters creates his Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds alter-ego Professor Chaos with the intention of draining the entire world with a hose, all because the boys dropped him as Kenny's replacement.
• The Ditz: The most oblivious character. He tends to believe anything told to him by others.
• The Dog Bites Back:
  • There are times where Butters becomes fed up with the boys' exploitation of him and musters up the courage to stand up for himself.
  • In one episode, he gives his Abusive Dad a well-deserved Groin Attack.
    Butters: This is for all the times I got grounded!
  • On several occasions, he had stood up to Eric Cartman by giving the latter a piece of his mind.
    Butters: (after farting on Cartman while giving him the finger) Fuck you, Eric!
• The Dragon: Becomes one to Rabbi Cartman in the "Return of Covid" special.
• Dumbass Has a Point: As gullible and naive as Butters is, he occasionally serves as the show's moral compass and gets several opportunities to deliver An Aesop at the end of an episode.
• Dumb Blonde: He's not really dumb, just painfully naive and gullible.
• Dumb Is Good: Butters may be naive, but he truly is a kindhearted little boy.
• Effeminate Voice: The soft and effeminate Butters has a more soft and boyish voice than his peers.
• Establishing Character Moment: The first significant thing Butters does in the series comes from The Movie, in which he — still a background character — has his Cloudcuckoolander status established by touching Cartman out of curiosity.
  Cartman: Yes, yes, I saw the Terrence & Phillip movie. Who wants touch me? [beat] I said who wants to fucking touch me?!
  Butters: [touches Cartman's body, clearly interested] Ooh.
• Even the Guys Want Him: Somewhat implied, Clyde is shown having an attraction toward him while he's disguised as Marjorine and in "Cartman Sucks", Bradley is shown being attracted to him.
• Even the Loving Hero Has Hated Ones: Butters is an All-Loving Hero who normally doesn't hold any hard feelings towards anyone, including his parents who treat him poorly and even his grandmother who terrorizes him. That being said, he has admitted to hating Eric Cartman and seems to mostly side with him out of fear and pity. Of all the people who mistreat him, Cartman is usually the first one he will openly retaliate against, as shown in "Christian Rock Hard", "AWESOM-O", "Super Fun Time", "The Return of Covid", and "DikinBaus Hot Dogs".
• Evil Is Petty: His evil deeds as Professor Chaos are mostly limited to stealing chalkboard erasers, switching restaurant orders, and trying to flood the Earth with a garden hose.
• Extreme Doormat: Butters never lets himself stop getting exploited by the boys and is too timid to stand up for himself.

F-M

• Fatal Flaw: His naiveté and lack of self-confidence allow people like Cartman to play him like a fiddle, which only gets worse as they spend more time together: In season 6, the boys had to guilt-trip him by comparing him negatively to Kenny. Comparatively, in Season 7's "Toilet Paper", Butters falsely confesses to a crime he didn't commit only because he was insisted that he did it, and in Season 14's The Tale of "Scrottie McBoogerballs", all Cartman has to do to convince him that he did something he didn't do is tell him that he was sleepwalking. However, the more later seasons have shown him making attempts to be more assertive and stand up to Cartman, which fails in episodes like "Grounded Vindaloop" but succeeds in episodes like "DikinBaus Hot Dogs".
• First Injury Reaction: In "Grounded Vindaloop", Cartman tricks Butters into thinking he's in a VR simulation, leading him to go on a reckless rampage through town, thinking there won't be any consequences. When Butters gets stabbed by a prostitute, he comments how the real the pain feels before realizing that the blood coming out of him is not virtual.
• Foil: Butters' personality highlights Cartman's by contrast, as both are naive, ignorant, and seek attention, but differ from each other in that:
  • Cartman is a complete Jerkass with no moral decency whatsoever.
  • Butters is a sweet and endearing All-Loving Hero without a single mean bone in his body.
• The Fool: In Cartman's eyes at least. No matter how hard the latter tries to corrupt, torment, or even kill him, Butters always finds his way out of it safely.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: Initially when acting as a replacement for Kenny. After being thrown out of the main team, he actually gained a softer relationship with the boys (at least compared to Cartman). This was more prominent in the earlier seasons and in a different way from Cartman, at that point. The other boys never actively hated him per se, but they always either refused to let him play with them, often calling him "too gay and lame", or only let him join when they wanted to use him. But, out of the four other boys, the only one who actively bullies him nowadays is Cartman. Stan often takes advantage of him, though, Kyle only rarely sticks up for him, and Kenny generally ignored him up until season 16.
• The Friends Who Never Hang: Butters interacts regularly with all of the boys except Kenny. This amusingly came into play in "Going Native" where it's revealed Kenny is actually his favorite friend and the two finally share an entire plot together. It's especially odd seeing how their alter egos, Mysterion and Professor Chaos, are supposedly mortal enemies.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: He's the resident Butt-Monkey who gets pushed around by nearly all of the other characters. In the Post-Covid timeline, he grows up to be a manipulative conman who can swindle anyone out of their money and gets put in solitary confinement so he won't wreak mass havoc.
• Genius Ditz: There are some hints that he may be fairly book-smart despite his general naivete. In "Christian Hard Rock" he is able to solve a complicated math problem instantly, and in "My Future Self and Me" Stan asked him for help with homework. In "Crack Baby Athletic Association", Cartman specifically mentions that Butters was the one who does the group's computer work.
• Girlfriend in Canada:
  • In "Toilet Paper," Butters claims to have a girlfriend in Michigan.
  • In Season 19, he gets a literal girlfriend who lives in Canada.
• Girls Have Cooties: The nearest Butters has to a vindictive trait is his childish disgust of girls, though he is still rather friendly to certain female characters at times. He does get over this in Season 19 when he gains a girlfriend in the form of Charlotte, but when they break up in Season 20, he becomes a straight-up misogynist.
• Good with Numbers: He falls into this trope, multiplying two large numbers almost instantaneously in one episode.
• Good Cannot Comprehend Evil: Which is why Cartman can usually lure him into helping him with schemes more easily than with the others.
• Goshdang It To Heck: Uses phrases like "Aw, hamburgers!", "fiddlesticks.", and "Son of a biscuit!". However, he would slip expletives every once in a while.
• Got Volunteered: Happens all the time even now, usually by either his parents or one of the main boys.
• Grew a Spine: Over time, he learns to stand up for himself to his Abusive Parents and the boys (particularly Cartman) whenever they mistreat him.
• Groin Attack:
  • Butters punches his father in the balls in "Grounded Vindaloop". It was a long-time coming.
  • In "The List", he hits a girl named Nelly between her legs in order to receive the 'Cutest Boys' list from her.
• Gullible Lemmings: He frequently (and blindly) goes along with Cartman's schemes without ever stopping to question Cartman's integrity.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: He's a very nice kid and he's way more innocent, naïve, and friendly than his classmates.
• Has a Type: While he already had a thing for her in "The Tale of Scrottie McBoogerballs", Butters explicitly stated in "The Hobbit" that he has a thing for women who resemble Kim Kardashian.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners:
  • Zig-zagged with Kenny. In earlier seasons, while they were friends, they barely interacted, as Butters only was promoted to the main cast after Kenny was killed off for a season, with the only connection between the two being that Butters was Kenny's less awesome replacement for the boys. With "Going Native", Butters revealed Kenny to be his most honest friend, while both still showing their interest in girls. Also, in "The Stick of Truth", Butters confesses to having a crush on Kenny (in his Princess Kenny alter ego) during the final battle. In the Post-Covid timeline, he's also Kenny's financial backer and was apparently the only one of the group Kenny trusted with seeing his projects.
  • Cartman could be qualified. Despite the latter's treatment of him, Butters often takes his side, helps outs with his schemes and considers him a close friend, albeit with some friction.
  • Downplayed with Jimmy. While Jimmy doesn't hang out with him as much as Timmy, Jimmy is nonetheless shown to the closest of his friends next to Kenny, as shown in episodes like "Tonsil Trouble" and "Nightmare on FaceTime" when they are both seen together. Butters even helps him with advice in "Erection Day" and supports him at his comedy show when nobody else did in "Krazy Kripples". Despite this, "Going Native" has Butters tell Jimmy to his face that his jokes aren't funny while having a breakdown, and he has no problem conning him alongside the others as an adult in "Return of Covid".
  • Played much straighter with the New Kid in "The Stick of Truth". In fact, the game all but states that the New Kid considers Butters his best friend out of the several they've made throughout their adventure. They're even still friends in The Fractured But Whole and Phone Destroyer. Though if the player makes the New Kid female, this trope gets changed to Platonic Life-Partners, Ship Tease, or Like Brother and Sister.
• Hidden Disdain Reveal:
  • While he's typically recessive and friendly towards Cartman, there are a few occasions he shows resentment for the abusive treatment he receives from him. "Awesome-O"'s plot is kicked off by Butters making a revenge plot on Cartman for the next time he screws him over, he is vocally disappointed Cartman survived the waterpark flood in "Pee", and in the rebooted future timeline, his adult self is completely antipathetic to Cartman’s pathetic fate, something even Kyle expresses some sympathy over.
  • When he temporarily has his aggression boosted in "Going Native", Butters reveals a stunning amount of hidden resentment for Stan and Kyle. He calls them both out for their selfishness, hypocrisy, and self-righteousness, along with how they constantly act like they're somehow better than everyone else when they both can be just as much of a Jerkass as Cartman is. He admits that the only one of the boys he actually respects is Kenny, who makes no bones about who he is.
• Hilariously Abusive Childhood:
  • Butters' parents ground, beat and berate him constantly, his mother went crazy and attempted to drown him in a lake, his parents attempted to sell him to Paris Hilton, Cartman convinced him the world is ending and he lived in a bunker and a junkyard for several weeks, he gets committed to a mental asylum and anally probed by a machine for eight straight hours, his grandmother bullies him to the point of creating her own super-villain costume... the creators ended up having to put a moratorium on torturing Butters because it was just becoming too much.
    "Butters... why there is Hamburger Helper in my glass of milk?"
  • Butters has also been sexually abused by his Uncle Bud. When an investigator shows the things that pedophiles do to children, he licks the doll's crotch and Butters tells him that his Uncle Bud does that to him.
• Horrible Judge of Character: He keeps believing that Cartman is a friend, when really Cartman just wants to either embarrass him, use him as a pawn in his latest scheme, or get him in trouble.
• Humiliation Conga: In "Good Time with Weapons", Butters gets a shuriken lodged into his eye and starts hurting immensely. Instead of giving him medical attention, the boys — to undermine the likelihood of getting in trouble for playing with weapons — disguise him as a dog and send him to an animal shelter, where he is subsequently urinated and defecated on by dogs.
• Incorruptible Pure Pureness:
  • For the most part at least. He's becoming less pure as the show continues, but, to his credit, some of his more outrageous actions lately (becoming a pimp in "Butters' Bottom Bitch", helping Cartman hold a PF Chang's hostage at gunpoint in "The China Probrem", attacking a boy with diabetes in "Going Native", etc.) have been due to either naivete or stress.
  • "Butters' Bottom Bitch" is something of a Reconstruction since while he becomes a pimp, he does so through the innocent belief it's nothing more than a "kissing club". He ends up obliviously hiring real prostitutes who were drawn in by how nicely and respectfully he treats his employees, and he eventually retires and lets them run their own business.
  • Subverted in Season 20, where he snaps and begins to despise women after all the girls at school judge him and all his male classmates collectively guilty for the actions of one internet troll.
• In Touch with His Feminine Side: An ongoing theme in the series is Butters exhibiting stereotypical feminine interests, cross-dressing, and enjoying the company of girls more than boys (despite having the occasional childish disgust of them).
  • In "Marjorine", Butters is forced by the other boys to disguise himself as a girl and infiltrate Heidi Turner's slumber party to steal a cootie catcher (which the boys think is a device that can accurately predict the future). He does it with reluctance at first, but genuinely starts to cry when the girls—oblivious to his true identity—ostracize him for his quirky appearance. However, they soon apologize and agree to give him a makeover, which Butters adheres to, and then dance to a Justin Timberlake album, which Butters also enjoys.
  • "Make Love, Not Warcraft" reveals that Butters has an interest in Hello Kitty, as he'd rather play a video game based on the said franchise rather than World of Warcraft.
  • In "World War Zimmerman", Butters is briefly seen playing jump rope with two girls.
  • In "The Cissy", during the montage of the South Park girls listening to "Lorde" (in reality, Randy Marsh), Butters is shown dancing in his room while wearing a tutu.
• Innocently Insensitive: Whenever Butters engages in inappropriate behavior that majorly contradicts his sweet demeanor, it's almost always done out of peer pressure and rarely with malice.
• Iron Butt Monkey: Butters illogically manages to survive most of the manipulations he's involved in, most notably Cartman trapping him in a refrigerator in "Casa Bonita" and having a ninja star lodged into his eye in "Good Times with Weapons".
• Jerkass Ball: Despite being one of the nicest kids on the show, Butters still has his moments of jerkassery. Although, in his defense, most of these are done out of manipulation or plain naivete.
  • In "Hooked on Monkey Phonics", Butters is shown as one of the schoolyard bullies tormenting the homeschooled kid Mark. Although, this was when he had only just become an Ascended Extra, so his personality wasn't entirely developed.
  • In "The List", he, along with Cartman and the other kids, makes fun on Kyle for apparently being the ugliest boy in his 4th grade class.
  • In Season 20, Butters acts significantly more antagonistic than before, especially after losing Charlotte.
  • In "Cartman's Silly Hate Crime 2000", Butters exhibits shocking misogyny towards the South Park girls and profanely bad-mouths them. Again, this was when his personality wasn't quite developed, so it can be excused.
• Kafka Komedy: Most of his Amusing Injuries (usually from the boy's antics) are Played for Laughs.
• Kindhearted Simpleton: His occasionally tragic innocence and positive outlook stands out like a sore thumb in the Crapsack World of South Park.
• Lethal Klutz: A flashback in "You Got F'd in the A" shows that the last time Butters tap-danced, he accidentally killed eight people. Also in "Going Native" where he sinks a cruise ship, killing everyone on it, with a golf swing.
• Likes Older Women: "The Tale of Scrotie McBoogerBalls" and "The Hobbit" reveal that Butters has a crush on the Kardashians.
• Literal-Minded: Butters tends to have a very naive outlook on figurative speech.
  Wendy: Are you just an asshole, is that it?
  Butters: Am I just an asshole?
  Wendy: Yeah!
  Butters: Well, no. I've got arms, legs, and everything.
• Logical Weakness: In the "Return of CoVid" Special he is an extremely dangerous individual with the inhuman ability to make anyone destroy his life by investing in [NFTs]. This doesn't quite work so well against a pair Alexas who proceed to make short work of him and his pitch.
• Lovable Coward: Butters is a self-described wimp and has trouble fighting the likelihood of cynicism, but remains likable due to his innocence, general goodwill, and Pollyanna status.
• Meaningful Name: In the Bad Future, he had reinvented himself as "Victor Chaos," which is fitting because he is essentially a walking cataclysm and can single-handedly ruin people's lives in seconds with his overpriced NFTs.
• Mistaken for Gay:
  • Zig-zagged - the other boys often call Butters a "fag", but this seems to be more of a slur directed at his more innocent interests. However in "Cartman Sucks", Butters is sent to a Sexual Correction Camp and in "Raisins," after Butters tells his parents about falling for a Raisins girl, it's revealed that Butters' parents bet on their son's sexuality, after it was revealed in "Butters' Very Own Episode" that Stephen was a Depraved Homosexual.
  • Cartman interprets Kenny and Butters' close relationship as less than straight: "You guys gonna make out, Kenny?"
  • In "My Future Self n' Me", Butters tries to reveal to Stan that he is Professor Chaos, but Stan thinks that he's coming out of the closet.
  Butters: Maybe I used a little too much silver.
• Morality Pet: Butters (along with Ike) seems to be one for Kyle in later seasons. He is one of the few people Kyle rarely, if ever, gets angry at (save the boys collectively mistreating him in season 6 and "The Tale of Scrotie McBoogerballs"), and he'll usually be the first of the boys to help him when he's in trouble, often immediately dropping everything he's doing just to confirm that he's safe.
• Motor Mouth: In earlier seasons, he had a tendency to talk at a fast pace.
• Mr. Imagination: Pretty much The Chosen One in the Imaginationland trilogy. And if you think of the kids' ninja battles as being between their residual self images, his imagination's powerful enough for him to steamroll Stan and Kyle at the same time, and they acknowledge it in their game.

N-Z

• Naïve Newcomer: For the Gang. He has trouble adapting to their Vitriolic Best Buds schtick.
• Naked People Are Funny: Throughout Season 20, Butters and his male peers participate in a meninist movement dedicated to flashing their genitals in the school hallway to get back at the girls for dumping them.
• Nice Guy: Butters is by far the sweetest and most kindhearted of the South Park kids. He has the odd Jerkass Ball moment, but is usually too ineffectual about it even then.
• No Social Skills: Butters is hopelessly naive whenever faced with Brutal Honesty and cynicism, and initially has trouble adapting to the Vitriolic Best Buds relationship of his peers.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: His adult self bears a striking resemblance to Jeff Foxworthy (give or take being blonde rather than a brunet), which is only emphasized more by his accent.
• Not Good with Rejection: Butters doesn't handle rejection very maturely, as "Professor Chaos" shows, in which he becomes a Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds following his elimination from the boys' group.
• Not So Above It All: Butters is by default The Baby of the Bunch of the group and feels uncomfortable whenever faced with the likelihood of their stereotypical masculinity and rebellion, however he isn't above joining them in on their antics and having vulgar interests. This was done more-or-less out of peer pressure in the earlier seasons, but he genuinely does it in the later seasons.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: While Professor Chaos never really lived up to his name, the same cannot be said of Victor Chaos, Butters' Bad Future incarnation. He's an extremely shrewd Snake Oil Salesman who is considered to be so good at what he does that he deemed a dangerous threat and has to be locked away in a mental asylum, lest he talk everyone around him into investing in NFTs and destroying their finances. Even him having something as innocuous as a piece of paper in his cell is enough to make the asylum warden panic, and sure enough he fashions the paper into a makeshift bullhorn to make his pitch to the guard outside his door, allowing him to escape. We're shown firsthand the... well, chaos he causes when he's allowed to roam free, and it isn't pretty.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: No one ever calls him by his real name "Leopold". Not teachers, his own parents, or even himself.
• Only Sane Man: Despite having the mindset and personality of a little kid, Butters is one of the few people in the town with any moral decency and has shown himself numerous times to be able to incorporate logic into dramatic situations. He has even been given the opportunity to deliver an episode's Aesop several times.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: The episode "Going Native" has Butters attacking Scott Malkinson at school, complaining about Kyle and Stan's personalities, and snapping at his parents (who actually deserve it). It's so serious that he gets sent to Hawaii.
• The Pollyanna: As well as being the most innocent of the kids, he's easily the most cheerful too, despite being the Butt-Monkey by everyone, including his own parents.
• Precision F-Strike: On some episodes like "Christian Rock Hard" and "Breast Cancer Show Ever". Made all the more potent in the context of his otherwise squeaky clean tongue.
• Precocious Crush: "The Hobbit" shows that Butters has a crush on Kim Kardashian.
• Punny Name:
  • Butters Stotch ==> Butterscotch
  • Marjorine (see Wholesome Crossdresser below). Marjorine is a substitute for Butters.
  • In "Last of the Meheecans", Butters is known as Mantequilla, which is Spanish for butter.
• Reality Warper: As long as he's in Imaginationland.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Delivers one to the other four main characters in "The Tale of Scrotie McBoogerballs". He even delivers more to his male classmates, except Kenny, in the "Going Native" episode.
• Running Gag:
  • Pulling his pants all the way down to pee.
  • Getting grounded.
  • Singing to himself.
• Sanity Slippage: In South Park: Post Covid, this is what has become of him in the future as he is sent to a mental institution, with the alias Victor Chaos.
• Sarcasm-Blind: To the extent that he genuinely doesn't know what sarcasm is.
• The Scapegoat: Whenever the boys need to eliminate any responsibility for their actions, they will typically throw Butters under the bus, prompting yet another You Are Grounded! moment from his parents.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: This trope is primarily played with the naive and idealistic Butters (Sensitive) to the sadistic and aggressive Cartman (Manly).
• Silk Hiding Steel: A rare male example. Butters is polite, gentle, well-mannered, and probably the best-behaved kid in town (barring a few exceptions when he grabs the Jerkass Ball). But beneath that courteous exterior is an unbreakable willpower and inherent goodness. Even after suffering all manner of horrible things, including losing his girlfriend Lexus and being frighteningly abused by his grandmother, Butters never loses his moral compass and remains both pure of heart and a firm believer in the beauty of human existence. That he's been able to hold on to that belief in the Crapsack World of South Park speaks volumes about his inner strength.
• Significant Birth Date: Butters' birthday is on September 11th, perfectly complementing his unlucky nature.
• Sixth Ranger: Becomes the Replacement Goldfish after "Kenny Dies", but was eventually fired from the role. Rather than disappearing back into obscurity (like his own replacement, Tweek), Butters continues to hold a prominent place in the show, operating as the unofficial "fifth friend" (and, since Kenny is often Out of Focus, probably should count higher).
• Snake Oil Salesman: In the Bad Future, Butters has made a fortune convincing people to invest in NFTs, despite the show essentially treating them as a pyramid scheme rather than a commodity. He's damn good at it, too, as he serves as an effective dragon to Cartman, defeating people solely by convincing them to buy NFTs.
• Speech Impediment: He had a frequent propensity to stutter in the earlier seasons.
• Stealth Pun: Has a literal Girlfriend in Canada for about a season and a half. Now when one remembers that he's picked on for not being manly...
• Stepford Smiler: "Super Best Friends" reveals that he wakes up to the sound of his own screams.
• Split Personality: Dr. Janus misdiagnoses him with this since he likes to play pretend when doing mundane things (such as Postman Butters when handing out fliers, Inspector Butters when trying to solve a minor mystery and Big Rig Butters when he's pretending to be a truck driver in his backyard).
• Spotlight-Stealing Squad: Is part of one with Randy for Season 25, being the only kid to have two episodes focused on him while the other kids (Wendy; Stan; Cartman; Kyle) only had one episode revolving around them.
• Stupid Good: Due to his naivete, Butters can teeter anywhere from mildly oblivious and gullible to Too Dumb to Live. This happens especially in "Butters' Very Own Episode".
• Sudden Name Change: Was originally called "Swanson" in the Season 2 episode "Conjoined Fetus Lady", as well as "Puff Puff" in storyboards from Season 1, but has been called "Butters" ever since "Two Guys Naked in a Hot Tub".
• Super Gullible: Butters is incredibly naive and easy to manipulate, and since he has the intelligence of a brick, he'll usually go along with whatever he's brought into.
• Superpowered Evil Side: Inverted. His evil side is even less effectual than he is.
• Sycophantic Servant: Though he does let out feelings of contempt toward Cartman every now and then.
• Throw the Dog a Bone:
  • "Sarcastaball" allowed him to shine when football is replaced with a sport in which the premise is being very kind. Butters excels at this due to his Nice Guy personality, but... he gets grounded at the end of the episode because of unknowingly giving many people his semen to drink to boost performance in Sarcastaball.
  • He does still get some genuine redeeming moments. For example, he gets sweet revenge on Cartman in "AWESOME-O" and pretty much becomes an icon to the entire Mexican state by the end of "The Last of the Meheecans".
  • There's also his relationship with Charlotte: in contrast to Lexus, Charlotte and Butters have formed a mutually loving relationship and even after she has to return to Canada, she left while still being on good terms with Butters and even promises to Skype him, implying that he gets to have a long-distance relationship with her. Too bad a protest split them apart.
• Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: He's the Tiny Guy to Charlotte's Huge Girl, who's visibly taller than him.
• Token Good Teammate: He was initially the only kid in the main cast not to fall into the Kids Are Cruel territory.
• Token Mini-Moe: Among the circle of recurring male fourth graders, Butters is arguably the cutest and most endearing of them all.
• Token Religious Teammate: Not as significant as other examples, but comes up a few times, like in "The Death of Eric Cartman" and "Jewpacabra".
• Token Wholesome: In a cast full of characters whose sense of fashion is tacky, Butters' is just a pure turquoise shirt that showcases his innocence. However, he's Not So Above It All.
• Took a Level in Badass: On numerous occasions without even trying, though he still retains his timid personality most of the time.
• Took a Level in Cynic: Eventually, he becomes less blind to the world's imperfections.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: In Season 20, he takes one after losing Charlotte. Downplayed prior, however, and exaggerated after Cartman tries to help him cover for him. It seems to be have been reverted after the season ended however, with him being back to his normal cheerful, Nice Guy self in South Park: The Fractured but Whole and South Park: Phone Destroyer. He even mentions in the latter that he misses his video chats with Charlotte.
• Too Dumb to Live: Butters is so oblivious and incredibly gullible that he falls for Cartman's schemes and his parents' attempts to endanger him. Luckily for him, he manages to survive all of these schemes.
• Tuckerization: His naive personality and nickname were derived from the crew member Eric "Butters" Stough (who would later contribute some minor voice roles).
• Unexplained Accent: Neither of his parents share the Southern accent he speaks with.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: After being left grounded in his room for years (and after being manipulated endlessly by others), the young, idealistic Butters finally snapped and gave in to his Chaos persona, becoming a shady and manipulative NFT dealer who leaves destruction in his wake. However, after the future was reset, he was ungrounded by his dad and became an affable (if more assertive) waiter instead.
• Vile Villain, Laughable Lackey: Cartman is one of the most despicable characters in the series, and Butters often goes along with his plans out of naivety or because Cartman is a cunning manipulator. Butters sometimes doesn’t even understand the immoral nature of Cartman's plans and is the resident Butt-Monkey to boot.
• Vocal Evolution: He lacked his Southern accent in his early appearances. While he still retains the accent in his newer appearances, his voice has become notably lower-pitched over the years. It was also more monotone in his earlier appearances, which became less prominent by Season 6.
• Wet Dream: Has one in "Sarcastaball" involving Wendy and Red kissing him, which causes him to sell a "drink" entitled "Butters' Creamy Goo" (which is, in reality, his semen from the nocturnal emission).
• Wholesome Crossdresser: So far, he disguised himself as a girl named Marjorine to steal a device that supposedly predicts the future from the girls (he even got a makeover during this), and dressed up as Courtney Love as part of Cartman's plot to force Captain Hindsight into joining his superhero team. In "Douche and Turd", Cartman gets Butters to dress up as a Luau dancer.
• Wide-Eyed Idealist: Butters is very idealistic. He constantly thinks the world is naturally unaffected without a sign of corruption, oblivious to the Crapsack World he's residing in.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: His alter-ego Professor Chaos was created after he was rejected as Stan, Kyle, and Cartman's new friend.
• Would Hit a Girl: He kicks a girl named Nelly in the groin in order to receive the 'Cutest Boys' list from her in "The List".
• You Are Grounded!: Butters fears this more than any other punishment in the world, with good reason.
• You No Take Candle: He occasionally speaks improperly.

Professor Chaos

Professor Chaos

"Prepare, O little town! Uh prepare for the greatest supervillain you've ever seen! Professor Chaos!"

Debut: "Professor Chaos"

"I'm a lost soul. A dark lonely shadow of a person. A castaway, forced to live his life out in solitude. And it's because of times like these I was forced to a life of evil. Society cast me out, and so I vowed to make them all pay! And pay they did! Nobody knows that beneath this sweet eight-year-old little boy lies the most evil, the most destructive super-villain of all time! Professor Chaos! Let's see how you like dealing with me, ninjas!" 

After being kicked out of the boy's group, Butters decides to become a villain and exact his revenge on South Park. Donning a suit of tin foil, Butters became Professor Chaos and a (highly ineffective) wave of terror will follow.

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• Anti-Villain: His misdeeds are mildly inconveneint at worst. Also, when he assists Cartman in his schemes — he's not trying to be actively malevolent, he's just too naive to realize/understand the consequences of his actions.
• Card-Carrying Villain: He revels in the fact that he's evil, and wants to be seen as South Park's most fearsome villain. Unfortunately for him, he's a Harmless Villain in spite of this.
• Enfant Terrible: Subverted. His evil schemes, despite being Cartoonish Supervillainy, are utterly pathetic in execution.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Although he rages against the world as Professor Chaos, he just doesn't want to blow up a hospital because "it just seems mean." Of course, he's not exactly that evil to begin with.
• Evil Is Petty: His evil deeds are mostly limited to stealing chalkboard erasers, switching restaurant orders, and trying to flood the Earth with a garden hose.
• Eye Scream: In "Good Time with Weapons", Professor Chaos has a ninja star thrown and lodged into his eye by Kenny^note of all people, which causes him to bleed and scream in immense pain throughout the rest of the episode until he is cured off-screen.
• Harmless Villain: His plots range from really idiotic to merely not very well thought out (as seen in the episodes "Professor Chaos" and "The Simpsons Already Did It"). The closest he's even come to doing something truly heinous was in "Franchise Prequel" where he forms a corporation to defame people by posting lies about them on Facebook, including his arch enemies, Coon and Friends. Doesn't seem to understand the concept of bacteria (the mayonnaise plot) infecting disease, though as he thought it would just be annoying.
• Minion with an F in Evil: Being one of the more innocent kids in South Park, his attempt at being a supervillain as Professor Chaos tend to come across as cute and precocious then actually menacing. Whether his supervillain antics are taken seriously or not usually differs episode to episode, though that is less based on Butters himself and more on the public at large. Subverted in "South Park: Post Covid: The Return of Covid", where he grows up into Vic Chaos and becomes a genuine threat.

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