Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 1,217 (click to see context) from:
[[center: [- [[Characters/SouthPark Main Page]] | [[Characters/SouthParkTheBoys The Boys]] ([[Characters/SouthParkStanMarsh Stan Marsh]], [[Characters/SouthParkKyleBroflovski Kyle Broflovski]], [[Characters/SouthParkEricCartman Eric Cartman]], [[Characters/SouthParkKennyMcCormick Kenny [=McCormick=]]]) | [[Characters/SouthParkOtherStudents Other Students]] ([[Characters/SouthParkButtersStotch Butters Stotch]], [[Characters/SouthParkWendyTestaburger Wendy Testaburger]], [[Characters/SouthParkHeidiTurner Heidi Turner]]) | [[Characters/SouthParkAntagonists Antagonists]] ([[Characters/SouthParkAntagonistsBigBads Big Bads]], [[Characters/SouthParkAntagonistsSecondaryAndMinor Secondary and Minor]], [[Characters/SouthParkAntagonistsJerksAndBullies Jerks and Bullies]]) | [[Characters/SouthParkFamilyMembers Family Members]] ('''Randy Marsh''') | [[Characters/SouthParkElementarySchoolStaff Elementary School Staff]] | [[Characters/SouthParkOtherRecurringCharacters Other Recurring Characters]] | [[Characters/SouthParkTheStickOfTruth The Stick of Truth]] ([[Characters/SouthParkTheNewKid The New Kid]]) | [[Characters/SouthParkTheFracturedButWhole The Fractured but Whole]] | [[Characters/SouthParkPhoneDestroyer Phone Destroyer]] -] ]]
----
!Randy Marsh
[[quoteright:320:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/randy-marsh_8649.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:320:''"Stanley, you call your friend an asshole this instant!"'']]
->''"You're a lousy kid! I wish Jaden Smith was my son!"''
->'''Voiced in English by:''' [[Creator/TreyParkerAndMattStone Trey Parker]]
->'''Voiced in Latin American Spanish by:''' Rolando Felizola (Seasons 1-16a and 2007-2011 redubs), Alejandro Toro (Seasons 16b-19 and 2015 redub), Ledner Belisario (Season 20 onwards and 2016 redub), Carlos del Campo (Mexican dub), unknown (Warner ''Bigger, Longer & Uncut'' dub), Hugo Navarrete (Paramount ''Bigger, Longer & Uncut'' dub)
->'''Debut:''' "[[Recap/SouthParkS1E3Volcano Volcano]]"
Stan's dad, a geologist (and thus the only non-[[MadScientist mad]] scientist in South Park; sometimes) turned cannabis farmer. Deficient in common sense, but makes up for it with great passion and enthusiasm for... well, whatever happens to be the focus of the episode. The de facto leader of the town whenever they face a threat. He tends to be the main character in storylines involving the adults of South Park, and thus is the adult figure that most interacts with the boys in the main plot.
----
[[foldercontrol]]
[[folder:A-G]]
* AbusiveDad: If there was any doubt before, he's become very much this of the emotional kind once the family moves to Tegridy Farms. He constantly belittles his family for not wanting to be involved in the business and ignores their own activities and needs in favour of getting high. It gets to the point where Stan and Shelley are positively gleeful about the prospect of Randy being given a lengthy prison sentence.
* AccidentalHero: In "The Losing Edge", his multiple drunken [[CockFight Cock FIghts]] with the dads of his son's opposing baseball teams end up saving the boys from having to spend the entire summer playing baseball (which they hated) when his fight with Bat-Dad gets them disqualified by proxy. This actually marks one of the few times where Stan has praised him for something.
* AlcoholInducedIdiocy: A lot of Randy's dumbest actions come from him being completely and utterly ''wasted''. He can be pretty stupid on his own, but whenever he's drunk or high he's prone to much more self-destructive and erratic behavior. Notable instances include punching out his own boss, getting into brawls with other parents at Little League games, and being arrested at one point for driving drunk and insulting the cop who stopped him once he realized Randy was drunk.
* TheAlcoholic: Not as worse as Stuart, but he is frequently shown drunk. The plot of "Bloody Mary" focuses on him going to A.A., though they are useless, teaching him he is powerless to the "disease of alcoholism". Encouraged by Stan, he tries to learn discipline and self-control, but he continues to have unhealthy drinking habits, though he is in complete denial over having a drinking problem when confronted.
* AlcoholicParent: The whole Marsh family has been revealed to have addictive tendencies. Marvin is a gambler, though at one point Stan also called him an alcoholic – something that Randy has inherited. He is frequently seen drinking, sometimes casually, sometimes engaging in binge drinking, often leading to irresponsible and stupid behavior. In one episode he gets a DUI, has to attend AA meetings, where instead of taking responsibility and controlling his behavior, he is told he has a "disease." At the end of the episode, Stan encourages him to learn discipline and self-control, but it doesn't stick, and Randy denies having an alcohol problem at all when Stan and Sharon confront him about it in "Freemium Isn't Free".
* AllMenArePerverts: He's very into porn, masturbating and has some very disturbing fetishes.
** A major part of "Overlogging" is the fact that he wants to masturbate, but can't without ''extreme'' Internet fetish porn.
** In "Crème Fraiche", he masturbates to cooking shows. It MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext.
** In "Pandemic Special", Randy's "cure" for COVID-19 (which he unwittingly caused by having sex with a pangolin) is by jacking off into his weed and having people smoke it. However, this results in [[GoneHorriblyRight many people suddenly growing a mustache just like his.]]
** In "Spring Break", he's even surprised that his 10-year old son is NotDistractedByTheSexy when he starts bringing in strippers to the house. He later mistakes a female cop for a stripper (since he had previously brought in two escorts dressed as cops) and [[TooDumbToLive harasses her]], getting himself arrested.
* AmazinglyEmbarrassingParents: The show's crowning example of this trope, when accounting for the other degrees of uselessness of the adults. Highlights include: going out of his way to pick fights at Stan's Little League games, blurting out the N-word on ''Series/WheelOfFortune'', and ejaculating a gallon of semen all over a mobile computer room after watching porn.
* AngryWhiteMan: In season 26 Randy gets in the habit of using the word "woke" to describe things that don't appeal to him.
* AntiHero: Starts off as a [[KnightInSourArmor Type 2]] like his son, as he was genuinely helpful as a geologist when the town needed him but was somewhat unfazed by the chaos going on around him. Then he gradually became a [[PragmaticHero Type 3]] as he got more invested in his family's safety at the expense of the town, and his is solutions to problems became more outlandish and occasionally involved several causalities, which is highlighted in episodes parodying horror movies, such as "Night of the Living Homeless". After buying "Tegridy Farms", he started switching between [[UnscrupulousHero Type 4]] and [[NominalHero Type 5]], only trying to make things better for himself at the expense of everyone else but occasionally [[BigDamnHeroes saving everyone in the process]], as well as being the LesserOfTwoEvils compared to the episode's BigBad such as in "Bike Parade", "Post Covid: Return of Covid", and "Tegridy Farms St. Patrick Day Special". By "The Streaming Wars", he's [[HeelFaceTurn trying to go back to his origins and become a better person]].
* AscendedExtra: Originally he was just Stan's dad, but nowadays it's not unheard of to have entire episodes focused on Randy with the boys relegated to background characters.
* TheAtoner:
** Near the end of Season 19, when he finally came to realize that South Park's gentrification was doing more harm than good (with some help from a beatdown courtesy of Caitlyn Jenner), he pledged to help undo the damage he helped cause.
** In Season 23, when Towelie (and legal trouble) demonstrated how unethical his business had become, he makes some genuine efforts to return to the roots of Tegridy.
* AuthorAvatar: Trey Parker has said that Randy has become more prominent, due to the fact that he has started to get older and identifies with the character more. This is most clear during the Tegridy Farms arc, where his marijuana business is [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall often used as an allegory for the show itself]] and seems to reflect the creators' creative process (such as in "Christmas Snow" when he struggles to come up with a good product in time for Christmas).
* AxCrazy:
** In "T.M.I.", he goes insane and is the spearhead of the movement to take over the Federal Express.
** In Season 23, he becomes increasingly fixated on his Tegridy Farms profits, to the point that he starts committing murder in an effort to help boost sales.
* BecameTheirOwnAntithesis: In Season 22 Randy fancied himself and Towelie to be the sole legal drug company with integrity, and crusaders against big business. In Season 23, he becomes just as unethical as the other drug companies, if not more so.
* BecomingTheMask:
** In "Sarcastaball," he loses control over his ability to be sarcastic and can't stop doing it.
** Music/{{Lorde}} was originally just an excuse to use the girls' bathroom.
* BeenThereShapedHistory: Double Subverted. In "The Pandemic Special", it initially seems like he and Mickey Mouse had caused the COVID-19 Pandemic when [[BestialityIsDepraved the two of them had sex with a bat,]] resulting in Randy becoming patient zero. Then it turns out that the actual cause of the disease was a pangolin... that they ''also'' had sex with.
* BestialityIsDepraved: During a bender in China, he had sex with a bat and a pangolin, which somehow, created the COVID-19 virus.
* BerserkButton: The multiple people he fought at every baseball game he went to are this to him.
* BigBad: Of Season 23, until he has a HeelRealization in "Season Finale". He becomes part of the BigBadEnsemble in "[[Recap/SouthParkThePandemicSpecial The Pandemic Special]]", due to having created COVID-19 and his attempts to cure it making things worse.
* BigBadSlippage: He started off as a simple Marijuana peddler, but his greed starts consuming him making him commit unethical crimes to increase his business and effectively becomes the BigBad for Season 23.
* BigDamnHeroes: As dumb as he is, Randy has saved the town more times than any other character, starting in his debut in "Volcano". Even after resigning as a geologist and buying "Tegridy Farms" and becoming more villainous than heroic, his weed still ends up being the key to saving everyone on occasion, such as in "Bike Parade" and "Post Covid: Return of Covid".
* BigNo: Does [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJAeD1f2YnI Picard's]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGI1IHuNy2Y Vader's]], with the sound taken directly from ''Film/StarTrekFirstContact'' and ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith''.
* BigOMG: He gets two separate big "oh my god"s when he realizes every senior citizen in town is driving at the same time.
* BodyHorror: In "Medicinal Fried Chicken", he deliberately gives himself testicular cancer so he can legally buy weed, which causes his balls to swell up to such a ridiculous size he has to carry them around in a wheelbarrow. Eventually they get so big he can't even fit them through the door of the weed dispensary.
* BoisterousBruiser: Particularly when he's drunk, Randy will very loudly challenge people to fights and boast about his combat prowess. He's not joking either; he's a ''very'' competent brawler who is dangerously good at slugging it out.
* BreakoutCharacter: Randy has become increasingly more important lately due to a mix of popularity and Trey Parker identifying with Randy more as he gets older.
* BrilliantButLazy: Played with. Randy is genuinely intelligent and talented in various fields, but [[DidntThinkThisThrough he rarely thinks his actions through]] and his decisions tend to be erratic at best.
* BumblingDad: His stupidity embarrasses Stan at every turn, whether it's well-intentioned or selfishly motivated.
* BunnyEarsLawyer: Despite his obvious quirks, he is good at his job as a geologist. He also proves to be an excellent musician and agriculturist during his stints as Music/{{Lorde}} and the owner of Tegridy Farms respectively.
* ButtMonkey: Seems to have gained this status to a certain extent in Season 21, where more and more people view him with contempt and regard his antics strictly as being immature and absurd, and treat him accordingly. Sharon even seems to call him out on his selfish behavior much more often.
* CaughtWithYourPantsDown: In the episode "Overlogging" Randy has gone for weeks without masturbating to Internet porn, eventually near the end he sneaks into the camp's computer room, looks at a bunch of perverted things, and eventually ejaculates all over the room, everyone comes in thinking he was grunting in pain and with his pants down, he tells them that he was doing that because "a ghost was attacking him and left his ectoplasm everywhere".
* CerebusRetcon: "You're Getting Old" sheds some very harsh light on Randy's zany moments. It turns out the reason he's been acting increasingly bizarre is because he's suffering depression and wants to distract himself from his humdrum existence.
* CharacterCatchphrase:
** "Stan? ''Staaan''?", "Hey, Sharon," "(Oh my) Gawl!", "Well, ''that'' sucks", "Score!", [[LamarckWasRight and a few of his son's]].
** In Season 23, he gains two new ones, "Hey, ''fuck you,''" and "It just so happens" when he finds a new chance to sell his weed.
* CharacterDevelopment:
** As Sharon, Stan, and Shelley grow and become more mature with every season, Randy only grows more impulsive, childish, and egotistical, to the point of becoming the WildCard of the Marshes and a BrokenPedestal for his son in particular. In "You're Getting Old", he acknowledges these changes and reveals that this is his way of coping with not being happy with Sharon anymore, since they both grew in different directions following their wild childhood days. However, Randy's inability to meaningfully change make him stay with Sharon because it's all he knows at this point (and likewise).
** Over the course of the Tegridy Farms arc, Randy becomes increasingly abrasive and immoral, having finally found something that fulfils him but which both his family and friends hate since it makes him act like a Karen. Throughout the season, Randy acknowledges this countless times but continuously chooses his weed business over his loved ones, burning the bridges he created with [[HatedByAll South Park as a whole]], his family, and his partners Towelie (albeit he's EasilyForgiven two episodes later), and Steve Black, and becomes increasingly frustrated that they can't enjoy their success as much as he does (which becomes a problem with [[HatesTheirParent Shelley]] in particular).
** After essentially having one RedemptionRejection per season starting in "Season Finale", (though in "Pandemic Special" [[HeelFaceDoorSlam it was out of his hands]]) and doubling down on his {{Jerkass}} attitude each time, he finally chooses [[MoralityChain his family and friends]] over the business for good in "The Streaming Wars" and goes back to being a geologist, deciding that the weed hasn't made him any happier.
** In Season 26, though he's still generally depicted as more of a {{Jerkass}} than before, he still has a JerkassRealization each time he falters and tries to make things right again by the end, which Sharon and Stan do seem to appreciate.
* CharacterizationMarchesOn:
** He used to be the more laid back of the Marshes earlier on, and one of the saner adults overall. Now... not so much...
** While his political views were subject to DependingOnTheWriter (and he sometimes changed his take on a subject in the same episode [[{{Hypocrite}} after days of preaching it]]), Randy was primarily depicted as a condescending limousine liberal during the show's early seasons. Around Season 12 his views [[NeverMyFault became more of an excuse to blame politicians for every issue in his life]], and he switched from liberal to conservative consistently [[ItsAllAboutMe depending on what suited him the most]] at the time (though in Season 20 the switch occurred because he was brainwashed into supporting [[{{Trumplica}} President Garrison]] by the Memberberries). By Season 26, he's depicted as an AngryWhiteMan and an Andrew Tate fanboy who complains about wokeness.
* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Especially during the obsession phases, but even outside of that Randy's out there even by South Park standards. He's prone to nonsensical and poorly thought-out {{Zany Scheme}}s, has utterly bizarre fetishes (including for ''cooking shows'', of all things), and is generally completely divorced from reality on a good day.
* CorruptCorporateExecutive: In Season 23, after Tegridy Farms becomes a successful weed company and a major corporation, he becomes greedy and unethical, committing countless murders for Tegridy to thrive and engaging in numerous unethical business ventures, like selling vegetarian burgers made out of the unusable parts of weed to the citizens of South Park and selling weed to the Chinese government so they can plant them on student protesters to arrest them.
* CripplingOverspecialization: Randy is certainly an excellent marijuana farmer, as everyone who tries his Tegridy Farms weed loves it for being a quality product. However, it's shown that when it comes to the actual business end of the farm, he's completely incompetent as he drives up the costs with unnecessary and expensive expenditures that cut into his profits. Things get worse after Steve Black starts a competing farm, as Randy is continually outmatched by Steve's business acumen.
* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: Despite his dim-witted nature, he's demonstrated multiple times to be a highly competent brawler.
* DeadpanSnarker: Speeds faster than a jet in "Sarcastaball".
* DependingOnTheWriter: Randy frequently alternates between being a liberal and a conservative. He'll act smug and self-righteous about his position irregardless, but which side he's schilling depends on the plot of the episode.
* DirtyCoward: In "Fantastic Easter Special", he [[ItMakesSenseInContext gets captured and interrogated by the American Catholic League's ninjas over the location of a rabbit, which he gave to his son to hide in a good place]]. When they ask him where it is, he responds:
-->'''Randy:''' I don't know, and even if I did know then... I'd probably just tell you because I don't want to be here anymore.
* DiscOneFinalBoss: Though it appears that Randy will become the BigBad for Season 23, he gets a HeelRealization in "Season Finale" where he reforms and becomes OutOfFocus for the rest of the season, while a [[TheBigBadShuffle Big Bad Shuffle]] will occur between Heather Swanson and Clark Malkinson and eventually Santa Clause becomes the FinalBoss.
* DotingParent: Even at some of his least sane moments, he absolutely adores both his kids and often goes to outrageous lengths whenever he thinks they need help, [[UnwantedAssistance even if they'd disagree,]] [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} usually for good reason.]]
* EarlyInstallmentCharacterDesignDifference: Randy had a different look back in Season 1, most notably in his hairstyle. He was remodeled into his permanent design come his first Season 2 episode, "Chickenlover". He also has [[NoBrows no eyebrows]] in "Volcano".
* EveryoneHasStandards:
** Randy can be impulsive, but he was creeped out by Mr. Jefferson's inappropriately childish behavior.
** In "Broadway Bro-Down" (wherein musicals use heavy subtext for women to want to give men blowjobs) he ''freaks out'' when Shelley goes to see one with her new boyfriend. He is also disgusted when an elderly man says he's trying to enjoy the musical with his young granddaughter.
** Even ''he'' thinks [[AngryWhiteMan Bob White]] is a delusional blowhard that treats his kids like shit.
** He actively ignores the annoying [[{{Joisey}} Jerseyites]] like the plague, only starting to get violent with them when they mindlessly take over the country.
** Along with everyone else, he's shocked and appalled by the Japanese slaughtering dolphins and whales.
** Despite his FaceHeelTurn in Season 23, he's still shocked by some of Mickey Mouse's atrocities, such as sending him a disembodied heart to scare him or making a [[Film/Mulan2020 Mulan remake]]. He also considers the making of [[Film/SpaceJamANewLegacy Space Jam II]] to be a particular low point of humanity.
** In "The Pandemic Special", he's shocked and speechless when President Garrison burns down the pangolin carrying the cure for the pandemic, despite the action ensuring that [[MeaninglessVillainVictory Randy would get off scott-free for accidentally starting the pandemic]].
* {{Expy}}: Season 23 turns him into one of [[Series/BreakingBad Walter White]], both being scientists who began selling drugs with the help of a partner and justifies it and the horrible crimes he commits to sell the drugs as providing for his family. The only difference is that the drugs Randy sells are legal, and he lacks most of the intelligence Walter has.
* FaceHeelTurn: While Randy was always something of a {{Jerkass}}, his selfishness and immaturity reach their apex in Season 23, where he becomes a monstrously self-centered asshole whose redeeming qualities are gradually outweighed by his own ambitions.
* {{Fetish}}: Randy has some really odd fetishes like Japanese girls puking on each other, bestiality, and so forth. Oh, and murder porn, but every adult in South Park seems to be into that.
* FallenHero: He went from the hero that drove [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Jeff Bezos]] out of South Park in Season 22, into becoming just as amoral, corrupt, and greedy as Bezos, if not more.
* FetishesAreWeird: Randy's numerous bizarre and disturbing fetishes are used to paint him as a perverted moron and deviant, and highlight how he's very much stuck in his [[ManChild teenage years]] despite being well into his middle-age.
* {{Flanderization}}:
** Randy started out as one of the smartest characters on the show. His 'wild side' stemmed from a desire to connect with his son, and he simply failed to grasp the idea of fads changing rapidly, a frequent plot point in ''South Park''. As the series progresses, he evolves into a hyperactive, extremely paranoid and idiotic ManChild.
** Even within his earlier stupid bouts, he was still usually a KnightTemplarParent, genuinely having the best intentions for Stan and only spearheading the same hysteria the other parents succumbed to. From about Season 9 onward however, Randy's motives became more selfish and childish, having his family in collateral damage for whatever fad he takes to and leaving even the other brain-dead residents of South Park dumbfounded by his behavior.
** Season 23 flanderizes him again by upping his selfishness, neglectfulness, and stupidity to insane degrees, essentially turning him into the adult version of Cartman.
* {{Foil}}:
** Stan, the sanest kid, has the craziest parent.
** To his CloserToEarth wife Sharon, see MarsAndVenusGenderContrast.
* TheFriendNobodyLikes: By the time of ''The Streaming Wars'' special, the entire town has become so fed up with his obnoxious behavior that they've all started calling him "[[ObnoxiousEntitledHousewife Karen]]" to his face.
* GeniusDitz: He is a brilliant scientist and is capable of a lot of amazing musical feats (culminating in being Lorde), but otherwise he's an alcoholic with barely any common sense.
* GivingTheSwordToANoob: The nominal noob in "Make Love, not Warcraft", when the Blizzard board members are forced to give him the USB drive of "The Sword of a Thousand Truths" so he can deliver it to his son and defeat the griefer.
-->'''Randy:''' I have a Warcraft character. I'm a noob, but I can log on and get the sword to Stan online.\\
'''Blizzard Board Member:''' We can't trust the Sword of a Thousand Truths to a noob!\\
'''Randy:''' Sounds to me like we don't have a choice! Give me the sword.
* GoodParents: Before his level in jerkass, he was quite a DotingParent who wholeheartedly loved his kids. Later seasons depict him as emotionally abusive and cruel even to his own children, and obsessed with forcing Stan to adopt Randy's toxic masculinity.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:H-W]]
* TheHeavy: Randy serves as this for Season 23. Most of the conflict in the season can be traced back to Randy's antics where commits more and more crimes to preserve his drug business. Even when Santa serves as the FinalBoss for the season, Randy would still be this as his decision to sell cocaine to the adults is what drives the plot for the episode.
* HeelRealization:
** While in prison for the bombings he committed, withdrawal from his weed results in him realizing he's become a monster and been a {{Jerkass}} to his family. He resolves to let himself go to prison and accept the consequences for his behavior, and even after being set free, he resolves to stick to small-scale farming.
** In ''The Pandemic Special'' it seems to have become a downplayed IgnoredEpiphany; Tegridy Farms is still a big business and he humblebrags about how the pandemic has caused his business to expand, but he made the Pandemic Special because he genuinely wanted to help people take their minds off the pandemic and give them a sense of normalcy. When he learns that he had caused the pandemic, while still covering it up, he does genuinely try to cure it.
** It's fully subverted in ''Post Covid'', which shows he doubled down on his old ways after Stan burnt down Tegridy Farms to the ground, and became fully obsessed with giving his weed back to the world. However, the boys changing the past and Stan giving him the last strain of Tegridy left in the BadFuture cause his realization to stick, and he apologizes to Sharon for being a dick.
--->'''Randy:''' Sharon, I'm sorry for the way I acted during the pandemic.\\
'''Sharon:''' You're not sorry, you're just high.\\
'''Randy:''' I'm both.
** It's finally played straight again in ''The Streaming Wars'', where after realizing he's become a Karen he gives up on Tegridy Farms and goes back to his old job.
* HiddenDepths:
** His talent as a musician is impressive as he was in a successful boy band, writes and edits his own song as Lorde, and is a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kY0P6o_FLEk very competent guitar player]], as seen in "Guitar Queer-O".
** As his management of Tegridy Farms shows, he's also fairly knowledgeable of agriculture as he produces a good deal of marijuana that actually becomes fairly popular. If he wasn't always blowing money on some dumb marketing gimmick, he'd likely be very rich from the farm's profits.
* HisOwnWorstEnemy: Season 23 shows that Tegridy Farms would be printing money were it not for Randy's insistence on throwing away money on unnecessary, expensive marketing gimmicks.
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: His idea to make the town more PC and get wholesale foods ended up making everything so expensive that it's no longer possible for the Marshes to live in South Park. As usual Randy blames [[NeverMyFault someone else]] until Caitlyn Jenner beats him up.
* {{Hypocrite}}: Randy is frequently the most hypocritical character in the show. Anytime he makes a political point you can bet he's going to end up resembling what he criticizes.
** He yells at Stan for having an addiction to freemium games while denying any addiction to alcohol.
** In "Goobacks", he supports the future people coming to the present and punishes Stan for calling them "Goobacks," but the second he loses his job to a time immigrant, he becomes the rednecks' de facto spokesman, blurting out the "time slur" himself several times in the process.
** In "About Last Night", Randy spends the entire episode preaching about Obama changing things for the better and assaulting everybody else across town while drunk, especially those who voted for [=McCain=]. When he sobers up the next morning and sees that his house is a wreck and his drunken antics have cost him his job, Randy immediately blames Obama and complains that he should've voted for [=McCain=] instead.
** After joining the PC frat, Randy spends most of Season 19 but especially "Stunning and Brave" harassing everyone who has mildly politically incorrect takes on subjects and accusing them of being bigoted. This is rich coming from the guy who once said the N-word on national television, and who would later go on to become an Andrew Tate-esque frat bro who complained non-stop about woke culture.
** In "Holiday Special", Randy (who used to be a huge Christopher Columbus fan) launches a one man campaign to have Columbus Day cancelled to hide his past. Later in the episode, he exploits a Native American in an attempt to forge a DNA test which he thought would help him PlayTheVictimCard, culminating in him kicking the man out of his house while screaming [[NotHelpingYourCase "get off my land, you piece of shit!"]].
** Even after his HeelFaceTurn in "The Streaming Wars", he keeps this side of him, as he distrusts Steve Black for being "a murderer" (he was framed) even though Randy himself has a body count larger than any other major character, including Winnie-The-Pooh.
* IdiotHoudini: Thus far, Randy doesn't seem to have learned any real lessons from being an idiot. He also tends to get off scot-free whenever his actions are motivated by well-meaning stupidity; it's when he's deliberately being a {{Jerkass}} that he gets struck with LaserGuidedKarma for the most part.
* IgnoredEpiphany: In Season 23, after breaking off his partnership with [=MedMen=] and the Chinese government and vowing to stop being greedy and return Tegridy Farms to its roots, the very next episode has him sell vegetarian burgers made of the unusable parts of weed (which still get people high) and run every other restaurant in South Park out of business by taking away their customers.
* InnocentBigot: If taken out of context, Randy can be seen as even more racist than Cartman.
** In "With Apologies to Jessie Jackson", Randy accidentally blurts out the N-word on ''Wheel of Fortune'', because he genuinely thought it was the correct answer to the puzzle. Stan later tells Tolkien that he wasn't being racist, just stupid.
** In "Holiday Special", while promoting the cancellation of Colombus Day he uses the word "indigenous" to refer to assholes, not knowing what the word really means. Granted, nobody actually corrects him when they hear him saying, allowing him to make an even bigger fool of himself than he already was.
* InsufferableImbecile: Despite being an educated scientist (a geologist, to be exact), he often acts like an incredibly airheaded and selfish {{Manchild}}. His tendency to impulsively engage in crazy antics to satisfy his hedonistic desires caused endless grief for his wife and children, often stubbornly and willfully ignorant to their protests.
* ItsAllAboutMe: In newer episodes, Randy is far more likely to be self-obsessed and selfish, stubbornly refusing to listen to anyone else. In Season 23, he thinks anyone who has the same business idea as him should give it up and let him reap all the profits. Also, whenever the rest of the family makes it clear they don't enjoy living/working on Tegridy Farms and want to go back to their old life, he accuses them of not caring about the family.
* JadedWashout: He was once in a boy band, got fired because he aged out at 19, and was mocked by the town once he returned. He has also had dreams of being a proper rock star that never went anywhere, at least until he became Lorde.
* {{Jerkass}}: At his worst, he can be a spoilt, irrational {{Manchild}} who often disregards his son to erupt into chaos over everything. He's at his worst throughout Season 23 up to ''The Streaming Wars'', where his increased egomania and rampant weed addiction cause his worst traits to take over.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Aside from the insane things he has been a part of, he is a normal, well-meaning father. He can be selfish but he has shown that he genuinely loves his wife and children. This fades away during Season 23, as he grows increasingly selfish and cruel, before he starts [[ZigZaggedTrope zigzagging]] between being a JerkWithAHeartOfGold and a JerkWithAHeartOfJerk as he has numerous {{Heel Realization}}s, then forgets about them after a while, then has another one, rinse and repeat.
* JerkWithAHeartOfJerk: While generally a JerkWithAHeartOfGold, Randy descends into this territory in Season 23. His propensity for get-rich-quick schemes and his general selfishness overwhelm his love for his family with him being downright emotionally abusive toward them at times, and most of his genuine moments of humanity are subverted by him doing something cruel and unethical. He mostly reverts back to his old self after having a HeelRealization in "Midseason Finale", but he doesn't fully get out until "The Streaming Wars".
* JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope: While Randy was always prone to acting like a {{Jerkass}} and causing chaos through his various zany (and often illegal) antics, Season 23 sees him descent into increasingly unethical, almost Cartman-like behavior on the regular. He mostly reverts back to normal after "Midseason Finale", although he remains much more acerbic afterward for a while.
* KarmaHoudini:
** He becomes one of these in Season 23, where he gets away with selling out to the Chinese government by killing Winnie The Pooh, letting them use his weed to frame student protesters, and killing numerous homegrown weed owners to get a monopoly on the weed business, at least until [[KarmaHoudiniWarranty Post Covid...]].
** Played straight and DoubleSubverted in the revised future, where everyone forgives him for starting Covid and, even at the very end of the bad future, taking credit for having sex with the pangolin in every timeline despite it absolving Clyde for being selfish and time traveling specifically to aid Randy's whims as an excuse, and making Kenny's [[EruditeStoner lucidity-induced research]] harder to fill without any bystanders other than Tolkien and Stan, effectively dooming the town even more. Had Stan not thought to do multiple {{Diving Save}}s on Kyle in each timeline while filtering (and later fully repairing) the current one through blackmailing Heather Williams and helping to "cut each other some slack", they would have been stuck there.
* KarmaHoudiniWarranty:
** In "Let Them Eat Goo", him unethically murdering cattle causes him to lose his customers when the Goo Man shows a video tape of it to the whole town, turning everyone against him.
** In ''Post Covid'', his dreams are destroyed when Stan burns down his barn, and he's trapped in a miserable nursing home for decades.
* KarmicButtMonkey: Randy [[TookALevelInJerkass Taking a Level in Jerkass]] following Season 23 is accompanied by people becoming increasingly sick of his antics and him being subject to increased misfortune.
* LargeHam: Randy pretty much embodies this trope. He's prone to melodramatic fits and loud screaming at the drop of a hat.
* LethallyStupid: He even accidentally killed his daughter's boyfriend!
* {{Manchild}}: Randy has the intelligence of an adult, yet the behavior of a child.
** These traits show in his taste for children's programs: he's the only adult thinking "Terrance and Philip" is ActuallyPrettyFunny [[Recap/SouthParkS1E6Death in the first season]], his son surprises him laughing at an episode [[Recap/SouthParkS2E12Clubhouses in the second]], and after having watched a single episode of [[Recap/SouthParkS3E11Chinpokomon "Chinpokomon"]], he feels the sudden urge to [[GottaCatchEmAll catch them all]].
** That being said, his taste in music is standard for someone of his generation, as he hears literal shit when listening to tween wave and doesn't badmouth music from the '70s until the kids start calling it lame.
** "You're Getting Old" gives a darker tone to it, revealing this is a response to him being unhappy with his current life.
* MarsAndVenusGenderContrast: With his wife, Sharon. Sharon is generally far more levelheaded and less impulsive than her husband, with a much more restrained wild side. Increasingly, she becomes the only real adult in the house, with Randy devolving more and more into a man-child.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: He has this reaction after realizing what an ass he's been throughout Season 23.
* NeverMyFault: While he shares this with the other adults, he's by far the worst offender. He almost ''never'' acknowledges his fault in anything, and childishly clings to his own delusions. Subverted in the midseason finale of Season 23, where he realizes that his going to prison is a consequence of his own actions, and after how much of a {{Jerkass}} he's been, he decides to face the consequences with grace. During his trial he apologizes to his family for what he's done (except Shelley, who he forgot exists), and after getting set free he resolves to stick to small-scale farming.
** In the BadFuture he blames Stan for the deaths of Sharon and Shelly, even though it was Randy's obsession with selling weed that drove the whole family towards such extreme circumstances.
* NightmareFetishist: Randy's fetishes are bizarre and disturbing at best. He's expressed a predilection for Japanese girls puking on each other, [[BestialityIsDepraved bestiality]], hentai, and a laundry load of others.
* NotHimself: Downplayed. Much of Randy's [[TookALevelInJerkass increasingly cruel and amoral behavior]] throughout Season 23 is caused by his rampant weed addiction severely impairing his thought process. By his own admission, a lot of it is down to his own natural egotism, but his addiction kept him from seeing how bad he'd gotten until it was nearly too late.
* NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist: In Season 23 he justifies his murders and unethical and underhanded business ventures as him doing desperate things to provide for his family. However, its clear that Tegridy Farms has more than enough money to thrive and his family would be more than happy to leave, but Randy just wants to live his dream of being a weed farmer and is just greedy and wants a monopoly on the business. Also, most of Tegridy Farms' genuine money problems are caused by him spending massive amounts of money to make expensive and unnecessary advertising gimmicks, and he refuses to stop doing so after Sharon points this out to him because of his NeverMyFault tendencies.
* ObnoxiousEntitledHousewife: Randy [[TookALevelInJerkass Taking a Level in Jerkass]] from Season 23 onwards reaches its apex in ''The Streaming Wars'', where he begins acting like and being referred to as a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_(slang) Karen]].
* OhCrap: In "Pandemic Special", when it was reported the creature responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic was a bat, he has this reaction as he remembered he and Mickey Mouse had unprotected sex with one. He has another one of these when it came out that the real creature responsible for the spread of the virus was a pangolin, which he and Mickey ''also'' had sex with.
* OldShame: InUniverse. He joined a boy band before finishing high school.
* OmnidisciplinaryScientist: {{Parodied|Trope}} or {{subverted|Trope}}. A few episodes ("Spontaneous Combustion," "T.M.I.") have him take on non-geology jobs on the ground that he is a "scientist." In the first case it's {{lampshade|Hanging}}d, though he actually turns out to be competent; in the latter it's not, but he does poorly. "Die Hippie, Die" has him volunteering in Cartman's plan to dig through the hippies because he is the only scientist the city has.
* OnceDoneNeverForgotten: In "With Apologies to Jesse Jackson", he is forever known for saying the n-word on ''national television''.
* PapaWolf: In "Die Hippie, Die", "Pee", and "Broadway Bro Down".
* ParentalFavoritism: While Randy often over-involves himself in Stan's life, he has little interest in Shelley, at one point even forgetting her as he lists his family.
* ParentsAsPeople: Despite his stupidity and recklessness, he means well for both his kids.
* ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything: Randy is supposed to be a geologist, but rare is the time we actually see him doing any geological work. Instead, we see him trying to set the world's record for taking the biggest crap, aiming to become a TV chef, giving himself testicular cancer so he can smoke medical marijuana, etc.
* PornStache: He has a mustache. Apparently anyone who consumes his semen will develop the same mustache. [[FridgeBrilliance This would explain why Randy can instantly recognize the taste of cum]].
* ProtagonistJourneyToVillain: Randy is a central character in season 23, possibly the main character of the show at that season. The show shows him going from a jerkass that is trying to make a living with farm life to an outright amoral sell-out who is willing to do acts of terrorism and murder to protect his bottom line.
* PsychopathicManchild: He develops into this in Season 23. He's just as childish as ever, but also far more willing to commit acts of violence. He mellows out after "Season Finale", though he's still more of a {{Jerkass}} than he was prior.
* RabbleRouser: In a more literal case than most, he has managed to start a rabble at least once by shouting "Rabble!" a few times.
* RunningGag: His pants falling when he gets drunk. There's also him getting arrested by the cops for picking a fight with the people who root for the other sports teams.
* SadClown: As revealed in "You're Getting Old", Randy is actually a very depressed person and much of his childish behavior is his way of coping with it.
* SarcasmMode: In "Sarcastaball", he is diagnosed with a mental condition that causes everything he says to be a sarcastic comment.
* SanitySlippage:
** "A Nightmare on [=FaceTime=]" makes it very clear he's lost it.
** Season 23 shows that he's utterly lost it, with the first episode alone having him bomb homegrown weed owners in an act of domestic terrorism and seriously wondering if he is actually a towel. "Season Finale" reveals that this was partially a result of him repeatedly using his own weed, and he gets better after his HeelRealization.
* SelectiveObliviousness: Randy constantly ignores that his family is very much annoyed with his latest ZanyScheme, to the point of actively deluding himself into believing that they're totally on board with it.
* SeriousBusiness: Whatever the focus of the episode is, he's taking it waaaay too seriously.
* SignificantBirthdate: His birthday is March 1, which is also that of Trey Parker's father Randy, who he's named after and based on.
* ShamelessSelfPromoter: He takes every opportunity possible to sell his weed in Season 23 no matter how unethical or counterproductive (read: expensive) it is.
* SnapBack: Quits/gets fired at least 4 times. Even his seasons-long stint as a weed farmer ends with him going back to his old job.
* SpotlightStealingSquad: So much so that he became TheProtagonist of Season 23. Even the opening theme was changed to reflect Randy and Tegridy Farms for the season's first six episodes. Randy ''finally'' took a backseat for the next three episodes, only for the season finale to focus on him again.
** He is also part of one with Butters for Season 25, being the only adult to have two episodes focused on him while the other adults (PC Principal; Liane; Mr. Mackey; Gerald) only had one episode revolving around them.
* StageNames: He performed his interpretation of Tween Wave music as "Steamy Ray Vaughn".
* StatusQuoIsGod: The Streaming Wars 2-parter made it seem like Randy would quit Tegridy Farms and go back to his geology job after realizing how far he'd sunk. Season 26 shows he's restarted the farm once more.
* TheStoner: On top of his alcoholism, later seasons have Randy develop an addiction to marijuana. Throughout his ownership of Tegridy Farms, Randy frequently samples his own supply and spends a good chunk of the time buzzed out of his mind. At least part of his increasingly {{Jerkass}} behavior throughout Season 23 is because he's utterly blitzed out on weed and not thinking straight.
* StrangerInAFamiliarLand: A recurring arc throughout the series is Randy feeling out-of-touch with South Park's rapidly changing culture, especially during the 2020s where he finds himself flustered with the changing definitions of masculinity.
* StrawCharacter: Randy is frequently used as a strawman to satirize political views or talking points the writers disagree with. Randy's role has shifted over the years, having evolved from a smug and preening limousine liberal into an Andrew Tate fanboy who despises "wokeness". The duality of his morals are showcased in "About Last Night" when he spends the 2008 election night singing the praises of Obama, only to instantly turn against him overnight when he doesn't magically solve all his problems and his excessive partying in his honor only get him robbed and fired.
* SupremeChef: In "Crème Fraiche", he's shown to be a very talented chef, being capable of replicating dishes he sees on cooking shows. Much to the chagrin of his family, who have to clean up the resulting massive pile of dishes. However, it's implied that his food still doesn't ''taste'' very good, and he's just imitating the flashy "gourmet" style popular on cooking shows without really understanding it.
* TooDumbToLive: Has become this post {{Flanderization}}, but his biggest moment comes in "Medicinal Fried Chicken" where he gives himself testicular cancer just to be legally qualified to have medical marijuana.
* TookALevelInDumbass: Takes a level every episode he appears in, and probably the ones where he doesn't appear, too. Given his first ever appearance showed that he didn't know how to read a seismograph, that's quite an acheivement.
* TookALevelInJerkass:
** At the beginning of the series, Randy is one of the most level-headed adults and was much more laid-back than Sharon. However, he became increasingly self-absorbed and immature as he acts out over his dissatisfaction with his life, constantly rabble-rousing and dragging his family along in his own moronic efforts to go along with the newest fad.
** He takes another level in Season 23, where he becomes obsessed with [[{{Greed}} profiting off of Tegridy Farms]], and commits an act of domestic terrorism by blowing up houses with homegrown marijuana and killing numerous people to take out the competition, and brutally garroting Winnie the Pooh to curry favor with the Chinese government. He also starts to neglect his family, and even emotionally manipulates Stan into wearing a Tegridy Farms shirt at a concert in "Band in China", and accuses them of not caring about the family whenever they make it clear they hate Tegridy Farms. [[HeelRealization He realizes how much of an ass he's been]] in "Season Finale", and by "The Pandemic Special", he's mainly reverted to his old self.
** During the "Streaming Wars" two-parter Randy hits his lowest, having grown so insufferable and entitled that everyone in town starts calling him "[[ObnoxiousEntitledHousewife Karen]]" straight to his face. When Randy sees a video of himself acting melodramatic, he realizes that his character has taken a turn for the worse and gives up on being a weed farmer.
* TookALevelInKindness: In "The Streaming Wars 2", after realizing how much of an ass he's been for the past few seasons and giving up on Tegridy Farms.
* ToxicFriendInfluence: He's an alcoholic, and none of his friends try to keep him from getting drunk (even encouraging him on occasion).
* TrademarkFavoriteFood: His preferred beer brand is Pabst Blue Ribbon, and ever since [[Recap/SouthParkS18E2GlutenFreeEbola the gluten scare]], he has been exclusively drinking gluten-free beer.
* {{Tuckerization}}: Parker named Randy after his own father.
* UnfazedEveryman: His initial characterization was of a laid-back guy who reacted to the bizarre events around him with a blasé, unfazed attitude. [[CharacterizationMarchesOn This quickly changed.]]
* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: Multiple times, starting in his debut in "Volcano", where even though he saved South Park from the titular volcano, he ended up accidentally getting Denver engulfed in the process. He reaches his peak in "Pandemic Special", he and Mickey Mouse unknowingly caused the spread of COVID-19 by having sex with a pangolin, which starts ''the whole'' pandemic, leading to the deaths of millions of people, the destruction of many livelihoods, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and the dissolution of the boys' friendship]].
* VillainProtagonist: He would serve as this for Season 23 which mostly focuses on Randy's committing crimes to keep his business afloat.
* WackyParentSeriousChild: To Stan. Randy is an over-the-top, sex-crazed, alcoholic and drug addict, while Stan is the StraightMan who is [[WiseBeyondTheirYears wise beyond his years]].
* WhatHaveIBecome: Randy eventually realizes how low he's sunk when he sees a viral video of himself looking and behaving like a stereotypical Karen. This is the wakeup call he needs to finally liquidate Tegridy Farms and go back to his geology job.
* WholesomeCrossdresser: As revealed in "[[Recap/SouthParkS18E2GlutenFreeEbola Gluten-Free Ebola]]" and "[[Recap/SouthParkS18E3TheCissy The Cissy]]", he has a double life as Music/{{Lorde}}, using AutoTune to make himself sound like a teenage girl.
-->'''Clyde:''' Lorde sucks.\\
'''Jimmy:''' Yeah, she isn't as hot in person.
[[/folder]]
----
----
!Randy Marsh
[[quoteright:320:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/randy-marsh_8649.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:320:''"Stanley, you call your friend an asshole this instant!"'']]
->''"You're a lousy kid! I wish Jaden Smith was my son!"''
->'''Voiced in English by:''' [[Creator/TreyParkerAndMattStone Trey Parker]]
->'''Voiced in Latin American Spanish by:''' Rolando Felizola (Seasons 1-16a and 2007-2011 redubs), Alejandro Toro (Seasons 16b-19 and 2015 redub), Ledner Belisario (Season 20 onwards and 2016 redub), Carlos del Campo (Mexican dub), unknown (Warner ''Bigger, Longer & Uncut'' dub), Hugo Navarrete (Paramount ''Bigger, Longer & Uncut'' dub)
->'''Debut:''' "[[Recap/SouthParkS1E3Volcano Volcano]]"
Stan's dad, a geologist (and thus the only non-[[MadScientist mad]] scientist in South Park; sometimes) turned cannabis farmer. Deficient in common sense, but makes up for it with great passion and enthusiasm for... well, whatever happens to be the focus of the episode. The de facto leader of the town whenever they face a threat. He tends to be the main character in storylines involving the adults of South Park, and thus is the adult figure that most interacts with the boys in the main plot.
----
[[foldercontrol]]
[[folder:A-G]]
* AbusiveDad: If there was any doubt before, he's become very much this of the emotional kind once the family moves to Tegridy Farms. He constantly belittles his family for not wanting to be involved in the business and ignores their own activities and needs in favour of getting high. It gets to the point where Stan and Shelley are positively gleeful about the prospect of Randy being given a lengthy prison sentence.
* AccidentalHero: In "The Losing Edge", his multiple drunken [[CockFight Cock FIghts]] with the dads of his son's opposing baseball teams end up saving the boys from having to spend the entire summer playing baseball (which they hated) when his fight with Bat-Dad gets them disqualified by proxy. This actually marks one of the few times where Stan has praised him for something.
* AlcoholInducedIdiocy: A lot of Randy's dumbest actions come from him being completely and utterly ''wasted''. He can be pretty stupid on his own, but whenever he's drunk or high he's prone to much more self-destructive and erratic behavior. Notable instances include punching out his own boss, getting into brawls with other parents at Little League games, and being arrested at one point for driving drunk and insulting the cop who stopped him once he realized Randy was drunk.
* TheAlcoholic: Not as worse as Stuart, but he is frequently shown drunk. The plot of "Bloody Mary" focuses on him going to A.A., though they are useless, teaching him he is powerless to the "disease of alcoholism". Encouraged by Stan, he tries to learn discipline and self-control, but he continues to have unhealthy drinking habits, though he is in complete denial over having a drinking problem when confronted.
* AlcoholicParent: The whole Marsh family has been revealed to have addictive tendencies. Marvin is a gambler, though at one point Stan also called him an alcoholic – something that Randy has inherited. He is frequently seen drinking, sometimes casually, sometimes engaging in binge drinking, often leading to irresponsible and stupid behavior. In one episode he gets a DUI, has to attend AA meetings, where instead of taking responsibility and controlling his behavior, he is told he has a "disease." At the end of the episode, Stan encourages him to learn discipline and self-control, but it doesn't stick, and Randy denies having an alcohol problem at all when Stan and Sharon confront him about it in "Freemium Isn't Free".
* AllMenArePerverts: He's very into porn, masturbating and has some very disturbing fetishes.
** A major part of "Overlogging" is the fact that he wants to masturbate, but can't without ''extreme'' Internet fetish porn.
** In "Crème Fraiche", he masturbates to cooking shows. It MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext.
** In "Pandemic Special", Randy's "cure" for COVID-19 (which he unwittingly caused by having sex with a pangolin) is by jacking off into his weed and having people smoke it. However, this results in [[GoneHorriblyRight many people suddenly growing a mustache just like his.]]
** In "Spring Break", he's even surprised that his 10-year old son is NotDistractedByTheSexy when he starts bringing in strippers to the house. He later mistakes a female cop for a stripper (since he had previously brought in two escorts dressed as cops) and [[TooDumbToLive harasses her]], getting himself arrested.
* AmazinglyEmbarrassingParents: The show's crowning example of this trope, when accounting for the other degrees of uselessness of the adults. Highlights include: going out of his way to pick fights at Stan's Little League games, blurting out the N-word on ''Series/WheelOfFortune'', and ejaculating a gallon of semen all over a mobile computer room after watching porn.
* AngryWhiteMan: In season 26 Randy gets in the habit of using the word "woke" to describe things that don't appeal to him.
* AntiHero: Starts off as a [[KnightInSourArmor Type 2]] like his son, as he was genuinely helpful as a geologist when the town needed him but was somewhat unfazed by the chaos going on around him. Then he gradually became a [[PragmaticHero Type 3]] as he got more invested in his family's safety at the expense of the town, and his is solutions to problems became more outlandish and occasionally involved several causalities, which is highlighted in episodes parodying horror movies, such as "Night of the Living Homeless". After buying "Tegridy Farms", he started switching between [[UnscrupulousHero Type 4]] and [[NominalHero Type 5]], only trying to make things better for himself at the expense of everyone else but occasionally [[BigDamnHeroes saving everyone in the process]], as well as being the LesserOfTwoEvils compared to the episode's BigBad such as in "Bike Parade", "Post Covid: Return of Covid", and "Tegridy Farms St. Patrick Day Special". By "The Streaming Wars", he's [[HeelFaceTurn trying to go back to his origins and become a better person]].
* AscendedExtra: Originally he was just Stan's dad, but nowadays it's not unheard of to have entire episodes focused on Randy with the boys relegated to background characters.
* TheAtoner:
** Near the end of Season 19, when he finally came to realize that South Park's gentrification was doing more harm than good (with some help from a beatdown courtesy of Caitlyn Jenner), he pledged to help undo the damage he helped cause.
** In Season 23, when Towelie (and legal trouble) demonstrated how unethical his business had become, he makes some genuine efforts to return to the roots of Tegridy.
* AuthorAvatar: Trey Parker has said that Randy has become more prominent, due to the fact that he has started to get older and identifies with the character more. This is most clear during the Tegridy Farms arc, where his marijuana business is [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall often used as an allegory for the show itself]] and seems to reflect the creators' creative process (such as in "Christmas Snow" when he struggles to come up with a good product in time for Christmas).
* AxCrazy:
** In "T.M.I.", he goes insane and is the spearhead of the movement to take over the Federal Express.
** In Season 23, he becomes increasingly fixated on his Tegridy Farms profits, to the point that he starts committing murder in an effort to help boost sales.
* BecameTheirOwnAntithesis: In Season 22 Randy fancied himself and Towelie to be the sole legal drug company with integrity, and crusaders against big business. In Season 23, he becomes just as unethical as the other drug companies, if not more so.
* BecomingTheMask:
** In "Sarcastaball," he loses control over his ability to be sarcastic and can't stop doing it.
** Music/{{Lorde}} was originally just an excuse to use the girls' bathroom.
* BeenThereShapedHistory: Double Subverted. In "The Pandemic Special", it initially seems like he and Mickey Mouse had caused the COVID-19 Pandemic when [[BestialityIsDepraved the two of them had sex with a bat,]] resulting in Randy becoming patient zero. Then it turns out that the actual cause of the disease was a pangolin... that they ''also'' had sex with.
* BestialityIsDepraved: During a bender in China, he had sex with a bat and a pangolin, which somehow, created the COVID-19 virus.
* BerserkButton: The multiple people he fought at every baseball game he went to are this to him.
* BigBad: Of Season 23, until he has a HeelRealization in "Season Finale". He becomes part of the BigBadEnsemble in "[[Recap/SouthParkThePandemicSpecial The Pandemic Special]]", due to having created COVID-19 and his attempts to cure it making things worse.
* BigBadSlippage: He started off as a simple Marijuana peddler, but his greed starts consuming him making him commit unethical crimes to increase his business and effectively becomes the BigBad for Season 23.
* BigDamnHeroes: As dumb as he is, Randy has saved the town more times than any other character, starting in his debut in "Volcano". Even after resigning as a geologist and buying "Tegridy Farms" and becoming more villainous than heroic, his weed still ends up being the key to saving everyone on occasion, such as in "Bike Parade" and "Post Covid: Return of Covid".
* BigNo: Does [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJAeD1f2YnI Picard's]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGI1IHuNy2Y Vader's]], with the sound taken directly from ''Film/StarTrekFirstContact'' and ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith''.
* BigOMG: He gets two separate big "oh my god"s when he realizes every senior citizen in town is driving at the same time.
* BodyHorror: In "Medicinal Fried Chicken", he deliberately gives himself testicular cancer so he can legally buy weed, which causes his balls to swell up to such a ridiculous size he has to carry them around in a wheelbarrow. Eventually they get so big he can't even fit them through the door of the weed dispensary.
* BoisterousBruiser: Particularly when he's drunk, Randy will very loudly challenge people to fights and boast about his combat prowess. He's not joking either; he's a ''very'' competent brawler who is dangerously good at slugging it out.
* BreakoutCharacter: Randy has become increasingly more important lately due to a mix of popularity and Trey Parker identifying with Randy more as he gets older.
* BrilliantButLazy: Played with. Randy is genuinely intelligent and talented in various fields, but [[DidntThinkThisThrough he rarely thinks his actions through]] and his decisions tend to be erratic at best.
* BumblingDad: His stupidity embarrasses Stan at every turn, whether it's well-intentioned or selfishly motivated.
* BunnyEarsLawyer: Despite his obvious quirks, he is good at his job as a geologist. He also proves to be an excellent musician and agriculturist during his stints as Music/{{Lorde}} and the owner of Tegridy Farms respectively.
* ButtMonkey: Seems to have gained this status to a certain extent in Season 21, where more and more people view him with contempt and regard his antics strictly as being immature and absurd, and treat him accordingly. Sharon even seems to call him out on his selfish behavior much more often.
* CaughtWithYourPantsDown: In the episode "Overlogging" Randy has gone for weeks without masturbating to Internet porn, eventually near the end he sneaks into the camp's computer room, looks at a bunch of perverted things, and eventually ejaculates all over the room, everyone comes in thinking he was grunting in pain and with his pants down, he tells them that he was doing that because "a ghost was attacking him and left his ectoplasm everywhere".
* CerebusRetcon: "You're Getting Old" sheds some very harsh light on Randy's zany moments. It turns out the reason he's been acting increasingly bizarre is because he's suffering depression and wants to distract himself from his humdrum existence.
* CharacterCatchphrase:
** "Stan? ''Staaan''?", "Hey, Sharon," "(Oh my) Gawl!", "Well, ''that'' sucks", "Score!", [[LamarckWasRight and a few of his son's]].
** In Season 23, he gains two new ones, "Hey, ''fuck you,''" and "It just so happens" when he finds a new chance to sell his weed.
* CharacterDevelopment:
** As Sharon, Stan, and Shelley grow and become more mature with every season, Randy only grows more impulsive, childish, and egotistical, to the point of becoming the WildCard of the Marshes and a BrokenPedestal for his son in particular. In "You're Getting Old", he acknowledges these changes and reveals that this is his way of coping with not being happy with Sharon anymore, since they both grew in different directions following their wild childhood days. However, Randy's inability to meaningfully change make him stay with Sharon because it's all he knows at this point (and likewise).
** Over the course of the Tegridy Farms arc, Randy becomes increasingly abrasive and immoral, having finally found something that fulfils him but which both his family and friends hate since it makes him act like a Karen. Throughout the season, Randy acknowledges this countless times but continuously chooses his weed business over his loved ones, burning the bridges he created with [[HatedByAll South Park as a whole]], his family, and his partners Towelie (albeit he's EasilyForgiven two episodes later), and Steve Black, and becomes increasingly frustrated that they can't enjoy their success as much as he does (which becomes a problem with [[HatesTheirParent Shelley]] in particular).
** After essentially having one RedemptionRejection per season starting in "Season Finale", (though in "Pandemic Special" [[HeelFaceDoorSlam it was out of his hands]]) and doubling down on his {{Jerkass}} attitude each time, he finally chooses [[MoralityChain his family and friends]] over the business for good in "The Streaming Wars" and goes back to being a geologist, deciding that the weed hasn't made him any happier.
** In Season 26, though he's still generally depicted as more of a {{Jerkass}} than before, he still has a JerkassRealization each time he falters and tries to make things right again by the end, which Sharon and Stan do seem to appreciate.
* CharacterizationMarchesOn:
** He used to be the more laid back of the Marshes earlier on, and one of the saner adults overall. Now... not so much...
** While his political views were subject to DependingOnTheWriter (and he sometimes changed his take on a subject in the same episode [[{{Hypocrite}} after days of preaching it]]), Randy was primarily depicted as a condescending limousine liberal during the show's early seasons. Around Season 12 his views [[NeverMyFault became more of an excuse to blame politicians for every issue in his life]], and he switched from liberal to conservative consistently [[ItsAllAboutMe depending on what suited him the most]] at the time (though in Season 20 the switch occurred because he was brainwashed into supporting [[{{Trumplica}} President Garrison]] by the Memberberries). By Season 26, he's depicted as an AngryWhiteMan and an Andrew Tate fanboy who complains about wokeness.
* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Especially during the obsession phases, but even outside of that Randy's out there even by South Park standards. He's prone to nonsensical and poorly thought-out {{Zany Scheme}}s, has utterly bizarre fetishes (including for ''cooking shows'', of all things), and is generally completely divorced from reality on a good day.
* CorruptCorporateExecutive: In Season 23, after Tegridy Farms becomes a successful weed company and a major corporation, he becomes greedy and unethical, committing countless murders for Tegridy to thrive and engaging in numerous unethical business ventures, like selling vegetarian burgers made out of the unusable parts of weed to the citizens of South Park and selling weed to the Chinese government so they can plant them on student protesters to arrest them.
* CripplingOverspecialization: Randy is certainly an excellent marijuana farmer, as everyone who tries his Tegridy Farms weed loves it for being a quality product. However, it's shown that when it comes to the actual business end of the farm, he's completely incompetent as he drives up the costs with unnecessary and expensive expenditures that cut into his profits. Things get worse after Steve Black starts a competing farm, as Randy is continually outmatched by Steve's business acumen.
* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: Despite his dim-witted nature, he's demonstrated multiple times to be a highly competent brawler.
* DeadpanSnarker: Speeds faster than a jet in "Sarcastaball".
* DependingOnTheWriter: Randy frequently alternates between being a liberal and a conservative. He'll act smug and self-righteous about his position irregardless, but which side he's schilling depends on the plot of the episode.
* DirtyCoward: In "Fantastic Easter Special", he [[ItMakesSenseInContext gets captured and interrogated by the American Catholic League's ninjas over the location of a rabbit, which he gave to his son to hide in a good place]]. When they ask him where it is, he responds:
-->'''Randy:''' I don't know, and even if I did know then... I'd probably just tell you because I don't want to be here anymore.
* DiscOneFinalBoss: Though it appears that Randy will become the BigBad for Season 23, he gets a HeelRealization in "Season Finale" where he reforms and becomes OutOfFocus for the rest of the season, while a [[TheBigBadShuffle Big Bad Shuffle]] will occur between Heather Swanson and Clark Malkinson and eventually Santa Clause becomes the FinalBoss.
* DotingParent: Even at some of his least sane moments, he absolutely adores both his kids and often goes to outrageous lengths whenever he thinks they need help, [[UnwantedAssistance even if they'd disagree,]] [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} usually for good reason.]]
* EarlyInstallmentCharacterDesignDifference: Randy had a different look back in Season 1, most notably in his hairstyle. He was remodeled into his permanent design come his first Season 2 episode, "Chickenlover". He also has [[NoBrows no eyebrows]] in "Volcano".
* EveryoneHasStandards:
** Randy can be impulsive, but he was creeped out by Mr. Jefferson's inappropriately childish behavior.
** In "Broadway Bro-Down" (wherein musicals use heavy subtext for women to want to give men blowjobs) he ''freaks out'' when Shelley goes to see one with her new boyfriend. He is also disgusted when an elderly man says he's trying to enjoy the musical with his young granddaughter.
** Even ''he'' thinks [[AngryWhiteMan Bob White]] is a delusional blowhard that treats his kids like shit.
** He actively ignores the annoying [[{{Joisey}} Jerseyites]] like the plague, only starting to get violent with them when they mindlessly take over the country.
** Along with everyone else, he's shocked and appalled by the Japanese slaughtering dolphins and whales.
** Despite his FaceHeelTurn in Season 23, he's still shocked by some of Mickey Mouse's atrocities, such as sending him a disembodied heart to scare him or making a [[Film/Mulan2020 Mulan remake]]. He also considers the making of [[Film/SpaceJamANewLegacy Space Jam II]] to be a particular low point of humanity.
** In "The Pandemic Special", he's shocked and speechless when President Garrison burns down the pangolin carrying the cure for the pandemic, despite the action ensuring that [[MeaninglessVillainVictory Randy would get off scott-free for accidentally starting the pandemic]].
* {{Expy}}: Season 23 turns him into one of [[Series/BreakingBad Walter White]], both being scientists who began selling drugs with the help of a partner and justifies it and the horrible crimes he commits to sell the drugs as providing for his family. The only difference is that the drugs Randy sells are legal, and he lacks most of the intelligence Walter has.
* FaceHeelTurn: While Randy was always something of a {{Jerkass}}, his selfishness and immaturity reach their apex in Season 23, where he becomes a monstrously self-centered asshole whose redeeming qualities are gradually outweighed by his own ambitions.
* {{Fetish}}: Randy has some really odd fetishes like Japanese girls puking on each other, bestiality, and so forth. Oh, and murder porn, but every adult in South Park seems to be into that.
* FallenHero: He went from the hero that drove [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Jeff Bezos]] out of South Park in Season 22, into becoming just as amoral, corrupt, and greedy as Bezos, if not more.
* FetishesAreWeird: Randy's numerous bizarre and disturbing fetishes are used to paint him as a perverted moron and deviant, and highlight how he's very much stuck in his [[ManChild teenage years]] despite being well into his middle-age.
* {{Flanderization}}:
** Randy started out as one of the smartest characters on the show. His 'wild side' stemmed from a desire to connect with his son, and he simply failed to grasp the idea of fads changing rapidly, a frequent plot point in ''South Park''. As the series progresses, he evolves into a hyperactive, extremely paranoid and idiotic ManChild.
** Even within his earlier stupid bouts, he was still usually a KnightTemplarParent, genuinely having the best intentions for Stan and only spearheading the same hysteria the other parents succumbed to. From about Season 9 onward however, Randy's motives became more selfish and childish, having his family in collateral damage for whatever fad he takes to and leaving even the other brain-dead residents of South Park dumbfounded by his behavior.
** Season 23 flanderizes him again by upping his selfishness, neglectfulness, and stupidity to insane degrees, essentially turning him into the adult version of Cartman.
* {{Foil}}:
** Stan, the sanest kid, has the craziest parent.
** To his CloserToEarth wife Sharon, see MarsAndVenusGenderContrast.
* TheFriendNobodyLikes: By the time of ''The Streaming Wars'' special, the entire town has become so fed up with his obnoxious behavior that they've all started calling him "[[ObnoxiousEntitledHousewife Karen]]" to his face.
* GeniusDitz: He is a brilliant scientist and is capable of a lot of amazing musical feats (culminating in being Lorde), but otherwise he's an alcoholic with barely any common sense.
* GivingTheSwordToANoob: The nominal noob in "Make Love, not Warcraft", when the Blizzard board members are forced to give him the USB drive of "The Sword of a Thousand Truths" so he can deliver it to his son and defeat the griefer.
-->'''Randy:''' I have a Warcraft character. I'm a noob, but I can log on and get the sword to Stan online.\\
'''Blizzard Board Member:''' We can't trust the Sword of a Thousand Truths to a noob!\\
'''Randy:''' Sounds to me like we don't have a choice! Give me the sword.
* GoodParents: Before his level in jerkass, he was quite a DotingParent who wholeheartedly loved his kids. Later seasons depict him as emotionally abusive and cruel even to his own children, and obsessed with forcing Stan to adopt Randy's toxic masculinity.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:H-W]]
* TheHeavy: Randy serves as this for Season 23. Most of the conflict in the season can be traced back to Randy's antics where commits more and more crimes to preserve his drug business. Even when Santa serves as the FinalBoss for the season, Randy would still be this as his decision to sell cocaine to the adults is what drives the plot for the episode.
* HeelRealization:
** While in prison for the bombings he committed, withdrawal from his weed results in him realizing he's become a monster and been a {{Jerkass}} to his family. He resolves to let himself go to prison and accept the consequences for his behavior, and even after being set free, he resolves to stick to small-scale farming.
** In ''The Pandemic Special'' it seems to have become a downplayed IgnoredEpiphany; Tegridy Farms is still a big business and he humblebrags about how the pandemic has caused his business to expand, but he made the Pandemic Special because he genuinely wanted to help people take their minds off the pandemic and give them a sense of normalcy. When he learns that he had caused the pandemic, while still covering it up, he does genuinely try to cure it.
** It's fully subverted in ''Post Covid'', which shows he doubled down on his old ways after Stan burnt down Tegridy Farms to the ground, and became fully obsessed with giving his weed back to the world. However, the boys changing the past and Stan giving him the last strain of Tegridy left in the BadFuture cause his realization to stick, and he apologizes to Sharon for being a dick.
--->'''Randy:''' Sharon, I'm sorry for the way I acted during the pandemic.\\
'''Sharon:''' You're not sorry, you're just high.\\
'''Randy:''' I'm both.
** It's finally played straight again in ''The Streaming Wars'', where after realizing he's become a Karen he gives up on Tegridy Farms and goes back to his old job.
* HiddenDepths:
** His talent as a musician is impressive as he was in a successful boy band, writes and edits his own song as Lorde, and is a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kY0P6o_FLEk very competent guitar player]], as seen in "Guitar Queer-O".
** As his management of Tegridy Farms shows, he's also fairly knowledgeable of agriculture as he produces a good deal of marijuana that actually becomes fairly popular. If he wasn't always blowing money on some dumb marketing gimmick, he'd likely be very rich from the farm's profits.
* HisOwnWorstEnemy: Season 23 shows that Tegridy Farms would be printing money were it not for Randy's insistence on throwing away money on unnecessary, expensive marketing gimmicks.
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: His idea to make the town more PC and get wholesale foods ended up making everything so expensive that it's no longer possible for the Marshes to live in South Park. As usual Randy blames [[NeverMyFault someone else]] until Caitlyn Jenner beats him up.
* {{Hypocrite}}: Randy is frequently the most hypocritical character in the show. Anytime he makes a political point you can bet he's going to end up resembling what he criticizes.
** He yells at Stan for having an addiction to freemium games while denying any addiction to alcohol.
** In "Goobacks", he supports the future people coming to the present and punishes Stan for calling them "Goobacks," but the second he loses his job to a time immigrant, he becomes the rednecks' de facto spokesman, blurting out the "time slur" himself several times in the process.
** In "About Last Night", Randy spends the entire episode preaching about Obama changing things for the better and assaulting everybody else across town while drunk, especially those who voted for [=McCain=]. When he sobers up the next morning and sees that his house is a wreck and his drunken antics have cost him his job, Randy immediately blames Obama and complains that he should've voted for [=McCain=] instead.
** After joining the PC frat, Randy spends most of Season 19 but especially "Stunning and Brave" harassing everyone who has mildly politically incorrect takes on subjects and accusing them of being bigoted. This is rich coming from the guy who once said the N-word on national television, and who would later go on to become an Andrew Tate-esque frat bro who complained non-stop about woke culture.
** In "Holiday Special", Randy (who used to be a huge Christopher Columbus fan) launches a one man campaign to have Columbus Day cancelled to hide his past. Later in the episode, he exploits a Native American in an attempt to forge a DNA test which he thought would help him PlayTheVictimCard, culminating in him kicking the man out of his house while screaming [[NotHelpingYourCase "get off my land, you piece of shit!"]].
** Even after his HeelFaceTurn in "The Streaming Wars", he keeps this side of him, as he distrusts Steve Black for being "a murderer" (he was framed) even though Randy himself has a body count larger than any other major character, including Winnie-The-Pooh.
* IdiotHoudini: Thus far, Randy doesn't seem to have learned any real lessons from being an idiot. He also tends to get off scot-free whenever his actions are motivated by well-meaning stupidity; it's when he's deliberately being a {{Jerkass}} that he gets struck with LaserGuidedKarma for the most part.
* IgnoredEpiphany: In Season 23, after breaking off his partnership with [=MedMen=] and the Chinese government and vowing to stop being greedy and return Tegridy Farms to its roots, the very next episode has him sell vegetarian burgers made of the unusable parts of weed (which still get people high) and run every other restaurant in South Park out of business by taking away their customers.
* InnocentBigot: If taken out of context, Randy can be seen as even more racist than Cartman.
** In "With Apologies to Jessie Jackson", Randy accidentally blurts out the N-word on ''Wheel of Fortune'', because he genuinely thought it was the correct answer to the puzzle. Stan later tells Tolkien that he wasn't being racist, just stupid.
** In "Holiday Special", while promoting the cancellation of Colombus Day he uses the word "indigenous" to refer to assholes, not knowing what the word really means. Granted, nobody actually corrects him when they hear him saying, allowing him to make an even bigger fool of himself than he already was.
* InsufferableImbecile: Despite being an educated scientist (a geologist, to be exact), he often acts like an incredibly airheaded and selfish {{Manchild}}. His tendency to impulsively engage in crazy antics to satisfy his hedonistic desires caused endless grief for his wife and children, often stubbornly and willfully ignorant to their protests.
* ItsAllAboutMe: In newer episodes, Randy is far more likely to be self-obsessed and selfish, stubbornly refusing to listen to anyone else. In Season 23, he thinks anyone who has the same business idea as him should give it up and let him reap all the profits. Also, whenever the rest of the family makes it clear they don't enjoy living/working on Tegridy Farms and want to go back to their old life, he accuses them of not caring about the family.
* JadedWashout: He was once in a boy band, got fired because he aged out at 19, and was mocked by the town once he returned. He has also had dreams of being a proper rock star that never went anywhere, at least until he became Lorde.
* {{Jerkass}}: At his worst, he can be a spoilt, irrational {{Manchild}} who often disregards his son to erupt into chaos over everything. He's at his worst throughout Season 23 up to ''The Streaming Wars'', where his increased egomania and rampant weed addiction cause his worst traits to take over.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Aside from the insane things he has been a part of, he is a normal, well-meaning father. He can be selfish but he has shown that he genuinely loves his wife and children. This fades away during Season 23, as he grows increasingly selfish and cruel, before he starts [[ZigZaggedTrope zigzagging]] between being a JerkWithAHeartOfGold and a JerkWithAHeartOfJerk as he has numerous {{Heel Realization}}s, then forgets about them after a while, then has another one, rinse and repeat.
* JerkWithAHeartOfJerk: While generally a JerkWithAHeartOfGold, Randy descends into this territory in Season 23. His propensity for get-rich-quick schemes and his general selfishness overwhelm his love for his family with him being downright emotionally abusive toward them at times, and most of his genuine moments of humanity are subverted by him doing something cruel and unethical. He mostly reverts back to his old self after having a HeelRealization in "Midseason Finale", but he doesn't fully get out until "The Streaming Wars".
* JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope: While Randy was always prone to acting like a {{Jerkass}} and causing chaos through his various zany (and often illegal) antics, Season 23 sees him descent into increasingly unethical, almost Cartman-like behavior on the regular. He mostly reverts back to normal after "Midseason Finale", although he remains much more acerbic afterward for a while.
* KarmaHoudini:
** He becomes one of these in Season 23, where he gets away with selling out to the Chinese government by killing Winnie The Pooh, letting them use his weed to frame student protesters, and killing numerous homegrown weed owners to get a monopoly on the weed business, at least until [[KarmaHoudiniWarranty Post Covid...]].
** Played straight and DoubleSubverted in the revised future, where everyone forgives him for starting Covid and, even at the very end of the bad future, taking credit for having sex with the pangolin in every timeline despite it absolving Clyde for being selfish and time traveling specifically to aid Randy's whims as an excuse, and making Kenny's [[EruditeStoner lucidity-induced research]] harder to fill without any bystanders other than Tolkien and Stan, effectively dooming the town even more. Had Stan not thought to do multiple {{Diving Save}}s on Kyle in each timeline while filtering (and later fully repairing) the current one through blackmailing Heather Williams and helping to "cut each other some slack", they would have been stuck there.
* KarmaHoudiniWarranty:
** In "Let Them Eat Goo", him unethically murdering cattle causes him to lose his customers when the Goo Man shows a video tape of it to the whole town, turning everyone against him.
** In ''Post Covid'', his dreams are destroyed when Stan burns down his barn, and he's trapped in a miserable nursing home for decades.
* KarmicButtMonkey: Randy [[TookALevelInJerkass Taking a Level in Jerkass]] following Season 23 is accompanied by people becoming increasingly sick of his antics and him being subject to increased misfortune.
* LargeHam: Randy pretty much embodies this trope. He's prone to melodramatic fits and loud screaming at the drop of a hat.
* LethallyStupid: He even accidentally killed his daughter's boyfriend!
* {{Manchild}}: Randy has the intelligence of an adult, yet the behavior of a child.
** These traits show in his taste for children's programs: he's the only adult thinking "Terrance and Philip" is ActuallyPrettyFunny [[Recap/SouthParkS1E6Death in the first season]], his son surprises him laughing at an episode [[Recap/SouthParkS2E12Clubhouses in the second]], and after having watched a single episode of [[Recap/SouthParkS3E11Chinpokomon "Chinpokomon"]], he feels the sudden urge to [[GottaCatchEmAll catch them all]].
** That being said, his taste in music is standard for someone of his generation, as he hears literal shit when listening to tween wave and doesn't badmouth music from the '70s until the kids start calling it lame.
** "You're Getting Old" gives a darker tone to it, revealing this is a response to him being unhappy with his current life.
* MarsAndVenusGenderContrast: With his wife, Sharon. Sharon is generally far more levelheaded and less impulsive than her husband, with a much more restrained wild side. Increasingly, she becomes the only real adult in the house, with Randy devolving more and more into a man-child.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: He has this reaction after realizing what an ass he's been throughout Season 23.
* NeverMyFault: While he shares this with the other adults, he's by far the worst offender. He almost ''never'' acknowledges his fault in anything, and childishly clings to his own delusions. Subverted in the midseason finale of Season 23, where he realizes that his going to prison is a consequence of his own actions, and after how much of a {{Jerkass}} he's been, he decides to face the consequences with grace. During his trial he apologizes to his family for what he's done (except Shelley, who he forgot exists), and after getting set free he resolves to stick to small-scale farming.
** In the BadFuture he blames Stan for the deaths of Sharon and Shelly, even though it was Randy's obsession with selling weed that drove the whole family towards such extreme circumstances.
* NightmareFetishist: Randy's fetishes are bizarre and disturbing at best. He's expressed a predilection for Japanese girls puking on each other, [[BestialityIsDepraved bestiality]], hentai, and a laundry load of others.
* NotHimself: Downplayed. Much of Randy's [[TookALevelInJerkass increasingly cruel and amoral behavior]] throughout Season 23 is caused by his rampant weed addiction severely impairing his thought process. By his own admission, a lot of it is down to his own natural egotism, but his addiction kept him from seeing how bad he'd gotten until it was nearly too late.
* NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist: In Season 23 he justifies his murders and unethical and underhanded business ventures as him doing desperate things to provide for his family. However, its clear that Tegridy Farms has more than enough money to thrive and his family would be more than happy to leave, but Randy just wants to live his dream of being a weed farmer and is just greedy and wants a monopoly on the business. Also, most of Tegridy Farms' genuine money problems are caused by him spending massive amounts of money to make expensive and unnecessary advertising gimmicks, and he refuses to stop doing so after Sharon points this out to him because of his NeverMyFault tendencies.
* ObnoxiousEntitledHousewife: Randy [[TookALevelInJerkass Taking a Level in Jerkass]] from Season 23 onwards reaches its apex in ''The Streaming Wars'', where he begins acting like and being referred to as a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_(slang) Karen]].
* OhCrap: In "Pandemic Special", when it was reported the creature responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic was a bat, he has this reaction as he remembered he and Mickey Mouse had unprotected sex with one. He has another one of these when it came out that the real creature responsible for the spread of the virus was a pangolin, which he and Mickey ''also'' had sex with.
* OldShame: InUniverse. He joined a boy band before finishing high school.
* OmnidisciplinaryScientist: {{Parodied|Trope}} or {{subverted|Trope}}. A few episodes ("Spontaneous Combustion," "T.M.I.") have him take on non-geology jobs on the ground that he is a "scientist." In the first case it's {{lampshade|Hanging}}d, though he actually turns out to be competent; in the latter it's not, but he does poorly. "Die Hippie, Die" has him volunteering in Cartman's plan to dig through the hippies because he is the only scientist the city has.
* OnceDoneNeverForgotten: In "With Apologies to Jesse Jackson", he is forever known for saying the n-word on ''national television''.
* PapaWolf: In "Die Hippie, Die", "Pee", and "Broadway Bro Down".
* ParentalFavoritism: While Randy often over-involves himself in Stan's life, he has little interest in Shelley, at one point even forgetting her as he lists his family.
* ParentsAsPeople: Despite his stupidity and recklessness, he means well for both his kids.
* ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything: Randy is supposed to be a geologist, but rare is the time we actually see him doing any geological work. Instead, we see him trying to set the world's record for taking the biggest crap, aiming to become a TV chef, giving himself testicular cancer so he can smoke medical marijuana, etc.
* PornStache: He has a mustache. Apparently anyone who consumes his semen will develop the same mustache. [[FridgeBrilliance This would explain why Randy can instantly recognize the taste of cum]].
* ProtagonistJourneyToVillain: Randy is a central character in season 23, possibly the main character of the show at that season. The show shows him going from a jerkass that is trying to make a living with farm life to an outright amoral sell-out who is willing to do acts of terrorism and murder to protect his bottom line.
* PsychopathicManchild: He develops into this in Season 23. He's just as childish as ever, but also far more willing to commit acts of violence. He mellows out after "Season Finale", though he's still more of a {{Jerkass}} than he was prior.
* RabbleRouser: In a more literal case than most, he has managed to start a rabble at least once by shouting "Rabble!" a few times.
* RunningGag: His pants falling when he gets drunk. There's also him getting arrested by the cops for picking a fight with the people who root for the other sports teams.
* SadClown: As revealed in "You're Getting Old", Randy is actually a very depressed person and much of his childish behavior is his way of coping with it.
* SarcasmMode: In "Sarcastaball", he is diagnosed with a mental condition that causes everything he says to be a sarcastic comment.
* SanitySlippage:
** "A Nightmare on [=FaceTime=]" makes it very clear he's lost it.
** Season 23 shows that he's utterly lost it, with the first episode alone having him bomb homegrown weed owners in an act of domestic terrorism and seriously wondering if he is actually a towel. "Season Finale" reveals that this was partially a result of him repeatedly using his own weed, and he gets better after his HeelRealization.
* SelectiveObliviousness: Randy constantly ignores that his family is very much annoyed with his latest ZanyScheme, to the point of actively deluding himself into believing that they're totally on board with it.
* SeriousBusiness: Whatever the focus of the episode is, he's taking it waaaay too seriously.
* SignificantBirthdate: His birthday is March 1, which is also that of Trey Parker's father Randy, who he's named after and based on.
* ShamelessSelfPromoter: He takes every opportunity possible to sell his weed in Season 23 no matter how unethical or counterproductive (read: expensive) it is.
* SnapBack: Quits/gets fired at least 4 times. Even his seasons-long stint as a weed farmer ends with him going back to his old job.
* SpotlightStealingSquad: So much so that he became TheProtagonist of Season 23. Even the opening theme was changed to reflect Randy and Tegridy Farms for the season's first six episodes. Randy ''finally'' took a backseat for the next three episodes, only for the season finale to focus on him again.
** He is also part of one with Butters for Season 25, being the only adult to have two episodes focused on him while the other adults (PC Principal; Liane; Mr. Mackey; Gerald) only had one episode revolving around them.
* StageNames: He performed his interpretation of Tween Wave music as "Steamy Ray Vaughn".
* StatusQuoIsGod: The Streaming Wars 2-parter made it seem like Randy would quit Tegridy Farms and go back to his geology job after realizing how far he'd sunk. Season 26 shows he's restarted the farm once more.
* TheStoner: On top of his alcoholism, later seasons have Randy develop an addiction to marijuana. Throughout his ownership of Tegridy Farms, Randy frequently samples his own supply and spends a good chunk of the time buzzed out of his mind. At least part of his increasingly {{Jerkass}} behavior throughout Season 23 is because he's utterly blitzed out on weed and not thinking straight.
* StrangerInAFamiliarLand: A recurring arc throughout the series is Randy feeling out-of-touch with South Park's rapidly changing culture, especially during the 2020s where he finds himself flustered with the changing definitions of masculinity.
* StrawCharacter: Randy is frequently used as a strawman to satirize political views or talking points the writers disagree with. Randy's role has shifted over the years, having evolved from a smug and preening limousine liberal into an Andrew Tate fanboy who despises "wokeness". The duality of his morals are showcased in "About Last Night" when he spends the 2008 election night singing the praises of Obama, only to instantly turn against him overnight when he doesn't magically solve all his problems and his excessive partying in his honor only get him robbed and fired.
* SupremeChef: In "Crème Fraiche", he's shown to be a very talented chef, being capable of replicating dishes he sees on cooking shows. Much to the chagrin of his family, who have to clean up the resulting massive pile of dishes. However, it's implied that his food still doesn't ''taste'' very good, and he's just imitating the flashy "gourmet" style popular on cooking shows without really understanding it.
* TooDumbToLive: Has become this post {{Flanderization}}, but his biggest moment comes in "Medicinal Fried Chicken" where he gives himself testicular cancer just to be legally qualified to have medical marijuana.
* TookALevelInDumbass: Takes a level every episode he appears in, and probably the ones where he doesn't appear, too. Given his first ever appearance showed that he didn't know how to read a seismograph, that's quite an acheivement.
* TookALevelInJerkass:
** At the beginning of the series, Randy is one of the most level-headed adults and was much more laid-back than Sharon. However, he became increasingly self-absorbed and immature as he acts out over his dissatisfaction with his life, constantly rabble-rousing and dragging his family along in his own moronic efforts to go along with the newest fad.
** He takes another level in Season 23, where he becomes obsessed with [[{{Greed}} profiting off of Tegridy Farms]], and commits an act of domestic terrorism by blowing up houses with homegrown marijuana and killing numerous people to take out the competition, and brutally garroting Winnie the Pooh to curry favor with the Chinese government. He also starts to neglect his family, and even emotionally manipulates Stan into wearing a Tegridy Farms shirt at a concert in "Band in China", and accuses them of not caring about the family whenever they make it clear they hate Tegridy Farms. [[HeelRealization He realizes how much of an ass he's been]] in "Season Finale", and by "The Pandemic Special", he's mainly reverted to his old self.
** During the "Streaming Wars" two-parter Randy hits his lowest, having grown so insufferable and entitled that everyone in town starts calling him "[[ObnoxiousEntitledHousewife Karen]]" straight to his face. When Randy sees a video of himself acting melodramatic, he realizes that his character has taken a turn for the worse and gives up on being a weed farmer.
* TookALevelInKindness: In "The Streaming Wars 2", after realizing how much of an ass he's been for the past few seasons and giving up on Tegridy Farms.
* ToxicFriendInfluence: He's an alcoholic, and none of his friends try to keep him from getting drunk (even encouraging him on occasion).
* TrademarkFavoriteFood: His preferred beer brand is Pabst Blue Ribbon, and ever since [[Recap/SouthParkS18E2GlutenFreeEbola the gluten scare]], he has been exclusively drinking gluten-free beer.
* {{Tuckerization}}: Parker named Randy after his own father.
* UnfazedEveryman: His initial characterization was of a laid-back guy who reacted to the bizarre events around him with a blasé, unfazed attitude. [[CharacterizationMarchesOn This quickly changed.]]
* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: Multiple times, starting in his debut in "Volcano", where even though he saved South Park from the titular volcano, he ended up accidentally getting Denver engulfed in the process. He reaches his peak in "Pandemic Special", he and Mickey Mouse unknowingly caused the spread of COVID-19 by having sex with a pangolin, which starts ''the whole'' pandemic, leading to the deaths of millions of people, the destruction of many livelihoods, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and the dissolution of the boys' friendship]].
* VillainProtagonist: He would serve as this for Season 23 which mostly focuses on Randy's committing crimes to keep his business afloat.
* WackyParentSeriousChild: To Stan. Randy is an over-the-top, sex-crazed, alcoholic and drug addict, while Stan is the StraightMan who is [[WiseBeyondTheirYears wise beyond his years]].
* WhatHaveIBecome: Randy eventually realizes how low he's sunk when he sees a viral video of himself looking and behaving like a stereotypical Karen. This is the wakeup call he needs to finally liquidate Tegridy Farms and go back to his geology job.
* WholesomeCrossdresser: As revealed in "[[Recap/SouthParkS18E2GlutenFreeEbola Gluten-Free Ebola]]" and "[[Recap/SouthParkS18E3TheCissy The Cissy]]", he has a double life as Music/{{Lorde}}, using AutoTune to make himself sound like a teenage girl.
-->'''Clyde:''' Lorde sucks.\\
'''Jimmy:''' Yeah, she isn't as hot in person.
[[/folder]]
----
to:
----
!Randy Marsh
[[quoteright:320:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/randy-marsh_8649.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:320:''"Stanley, you call your friend an asshole this instant!"'']]
->''"You're a lousy kid! I wish Jaden Smith was my son!"''
->'''Voiced in English by:''' [[Creator/TreyParkerAndMattStone Trey Parker]]
->'''Voiced in Latin American Spanish by:''' Rolando Felizola (Seasons 1-16a and 2007-2011 redubs), Alejandro Toro (Seasons 16b-19 and 2015 redub), Ledner Belisario (Season 20 onwards and 2016 redub), Carlos del Campo (Mexican dub), unknown (Warner ''Bigger, Longer & Uncut'' dub), Hugo Navarrete (Paramount ''Bigger, Longer & Uncut'' dub)
->'''Debut:''' "[[Recap/SouthParkS1E3Volcano Volcano]]"
Stan's dad, a geologist (and thus the only non-[[MadScientist mad]] scientist in South Park; sometimes) turned cannabis farmer. Deficient in common sense, but makes up for it with great passion and enthusiasm for... well, whatever happens to be the focus of the episode. The de facto leader of the town whenever they face a threat. He tends to be the main character in storylines involving the adults of South Park, and thus is the adult figure that most interacts with the boys in the main plot.
----
[[foldercontrol]]
[[folder:A-G]]
* AbusiveDad: If there was any doubt before, he's become very much this of the emotional kind once the family moves to Tegridy Farms. He constantly belittles his family for not wanting to be involved in the business and ignores their own activities and needs in favour of getting high. It gets to the point where Stan and Shelley are positively gleeful about the prospect of Randy being given a lengthy prison sentence.
* AccidentalHero: In "The Losing Edge", his multiple drunken [[CockFight Cock FIghts]] with the dads of his son's opposing baseball teams end up saving the boys from having to spend the entire summer playing baseball (which they hated) when his fight with Bat-Dad gets them disqualified by proxy. This actually marks one of the few times where Stan has praised him for something.
* AlcoholInducedIdiocy: A lot of Randy's dumbest actions come from him being completely and utterly ''wasted''. He can be pretty stupid on his own, but whenever he's drunk or high he's prone to much more self-destructive and erratic behavior. Notable instances include punching out his own boss, getting into brawls with other parents at Little League games, and being arrested at one point for driving drunk and insulting the cop who stopped him once he realized Randy was drunk.
* TheAlcoholic: Not as worse as Stuart, but he is frequently shown drunk. The plot of "Bloody Mary" focuses on him going to A.A., though they are useless, teaching him he is powerless to the "disease of alcoholism". Encouraged by Stan, he tries to learn discipline and self-control, but he continues to have unhealthy drinking habits, though he is in complete denial over having a drinking problem when confronted.
* AlcoholicParent: The whole Marsh family has been revealed to have addictive tendencies. Marvin is a gambler, though at one point Stan also called him an alcoholic – something that Randy has inherited. He is frequently seen drinking, sometimes casually, sometimes engaging in binge drinking, often leading to irresponsible and stupid behavior. In one episode he gets a DUI, has to attend AA meetings, where instead of taking responsibility and controlling his behavior, he is told he has a "disease." At the end of the episode, Stan encourages him to learn discipline and self-control, but it doesn't stick, and Randy denies having an alcohol problem at all when Stan and Sharon confront him about it in "Freemium Isn't Free".
* AllMenArePerverts: He's very into porn, masturbating and has some very disturbing fetishes.
** A major part of "Overlogging" is the fact that he wants to masturbate, but can't without ''extreme'' Internet fetish porn.
** In "Crème Fraiche", he masturbates to cooking shows. It MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext.
** In "Pandemic Special", Randy's "cure" for COVID-19 (which he unwittingly caused by having sex with a pangolin) is by jacking off into his weed and having people smoke it. However, this results in [[GoneHorriblyRight many people suddenly growing a mustache just like his.]]
** In "Spring Break", he's even surprised that his 10-year old son is NotDistractedByTheSexy when he starts bringing in strippers to the house. He later mistakes a female cop for a stripper (since he had previously brought in two escorts dressed as cops) and [[TooDumbToLive harasses her]], getting himself arrested.
* AmazinglyEmbarrassingParents: The show's crowning example of this trope, when accounting for the other degrees of uselessness of the adults. Highlights include: going out of his way to pick fights at Stan's Little League games, blurting out the N-word on ''Series/WheelOfFortune'', and ejaculating a gallon of semen all over a mobile computer room after watching porn.
* AngryWhiteMan: In season 26 Randy gets in the habit of using the word "woke" to describe things that don't appeal to him.
* AntiHero: Starts off as a [[KnightInSourArmor Type 2]] like his son, as he was genuinely helpful as a geologist when the town needed him but was somewhat unfazed by the chaos going on around him. Then he gradually became a [[PragmaticHero Type 3]] as he got more invested in his family's safety at the expense of the town, and his is solutions to problems became more outlandish and occasionally involved several causalities, which is highlighted in episodes parodying horror movies, such as "Night of the Living Homeless". After buying "Tegridy Farms", he started switching between [[UnscrupulousHero Type 4]] and [[NominalHero Type 5]], only trying to make things better for himself at the expense of everyone else but occasionally [[BigDamnHeroes saving everyone in the process]], as well as being the LesserOfTwoEvils compared to the episode's BigBad such as in "Bike Parade", "Post Covid: Return of Covid", and "Tegridy Farms St. Patrick Day Special". By "The Streaming Wars", he's [[HeelFaceTurn trying to go back to his origins and become a better person]].
* AscendedExtra: Originally he was just Stan's dad, but nowadays it's not unheard of to have entire episodes focused on Randy with the boys relegated to background characters.
* TheAtoner:
** Near the end of Season 19, when he finally came to realize that South Park's gentrification was doing more harm than good (with some help from a beatdown courtesy of Caitlyn Jenner), he pledged to help undo the damage he helped cause.
** In Season 23, when Towelie (and legal trouble) demonstrated how unethical his business had become, he makes some genuine efforts to return to the roots of Tegridy.
* AuthorAvatar: Trey Parker has said that Randy has become more prominent, due to the fact that he has started to get older and identifies with the character more. This is most clear during the Tegridy Farms arc, where his marijuana business is [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall often used as an allegory for the show itself]] and seems to reflect the creators' creative process (such as in "Christmas Snow" when he struggles to come up with a good product in time for Christmas).
* AxCrazy:
** In "T.M.I.", he goes insane and is the spearhead of the movement to take over the Federal Express.
** In Season 23, he becomes increasingly fixated on his Tegridy Farms profits, to the point that he starts committing murder in an effort to help boost sales.
* BecameTheirOwnAntithesis: In Season 22 Randy fancied himself and Towelie to be the sole legal drug company with integrity, and crusaders against big business. In Season 23, he becomes just as unethical as the other drug companies, if not more so.
* BecomingTheMask:
** In "Sarcastaball," he loses control over his ability to be sarcastic and can't stop doing it.
** Music/{{Lorde}} was originally just an excuse to use the girls' bathroom.
* BeenThereShapedHistory: Double Subverted. In "The Pandemic Special", it initially seems like he and Mickey Mouse had caused the COVID-19 Pandemic when [[BestialityIsDepraved the two of them had sex with a bat,]] resulting in Randy becoming patient zero. Then it turns out that the actual cause of the disease was a pangolin... that they ''also'' had sex with.
* BestialityIsDepraved: During a bender in China, he had sex with a bat and a pangolin, which somehow, created the COVID-19 virus.
* BerserkButton: The multiple people he fought at every baseball game he went to are this to him.
* BigBad: Of Season 23, until he has a HeelRealization in "Season Finale". He becomes part of the BigBadEnsemble in "[[Recap/SouthParkThePandemicSpecial The Pandemic Special]]", due to having created COVID-19 and his attempts to cure it making things worse.
* BigBadSlippage: He started off as a simple Marijuana peddler, but his greed starts consuming him making him commit unethical crimes to increase his business and effectively becomes the BigBad for Season 23.
* BigDamnHeroes: As dumb as he is, Randy has saved the town more times than any other character, starting in his debut in "Volcano". Even after resigning as a geologist and buying "Tegridy Farms" and becoming more villainous than heroic, his weed still ends up being the key to saving everyone on occasion, such as in "Bike Parade" and "Post Covid: Return of Covid".
* BigNo: Does [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJAeD1f2YnI Picard's]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGI1IHuNy2Y Vader's]], with the sound taken directly from ''Film/StarTrekFirstContact'' and ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith''.
* BigOMG: He gets two separate big "oh my god"s when he realizes every senior citizen in town is driving at the same time.
* BodyHorror: In "Medicinal Fried Chicken", he deliberately gives himself testicular cancer so he can legally buy weed, which causes his balls to swell up to such a ridiculous size he has to carry them around in a wheelbarrow. Eventually they get so big he can't even fit them through the door of the weed dispensary.
* BoisterousBruiser: Particularly when he's drunk, Randy will very loudly challenge people to fights and boast about his combat prowess. He's not joking either; he's a ''very'' competent brawler who is dangerously good at slugging it out.
* BreakoutCharacter: Randy has become increasingly more important lately due to a mix of popularity and Trey Parker identifying with Randy more as he gets older.
* BrilliantButLazy: Played with. Randy is genuinely intelligent and talented in various fields, but [[DidntThinkThisThrough he rarely thinks his actions through]] and his decisions tend to be erratic at best.
* BumblingDad: His stupidity embarrasses Stan at every turn, whether it's well-intentioned or selfishly motivated.
* BunnyEarsLawyer: Despite his obvious quirks, he is good at his job as a geologist. He also proves to be an excellent musician and agriculturist during his stints as Music/{{Lorde}} and the owner of Tegridy Farms respectively.
* ButtMonkey: Seems to have gained this status to a certain extent in Season 21, where more and more people view him with contempt and regard his antics strictly as being immature and absurd, and treat him accordingly. Sharon even seems to call him out on his selfish behavior much more often.
* CaughtWithYourPantsDown: In the episode "Overlogging" Randy has gone for weeks without masturbating to Internet porn, eventually near the end he sneaks into the camp's computer room, looks at a bunch of perverted things, and eventually ejaculates all over the room, everyone comes in thinking he was grunting in pain and with his pants down, he tells them that he was doing that because "a ghost was attacking him and left his ectoplasm everywhere".
* CerebusRetcon: "You're Getting Old" sheds some very harsh light on Randy's zany moments. It turns out the reason he's been acting increasingly bizarre is because he's suffering depression and wants to distract himself from his humdrum existence.
* CharacterCatchphrase:
** "Stan? ''Staaan''?", "Hey, Sharon," "(Oh my) Gawl!", "Well, ''that'' sucks", "Score!", [[LamarckWasRight and a few of his son's]].
** In Season 23, he gains two new ones, "Hey, ''fuck you,''" and "It just so happens" when he finds a new chance to sell his weed.
* CharacterDevelopment:
** As Sharon, Stan, and Shelley grow and become more mature with every season, Randy only grows more impulsive, childish, and egotistical, to the point of becoming the WildCard of the Marshes and a BrokenPedestal for his son in particular. In "You're Getting Old", he acknowledges these changes and reveals that this is his way of coping with not being happy with Sharon anymore, since they both grew in different directions following their wild childhood days. However, Randy's inability to meaningfully change make him stay with Sharon because it's all he knows at this point (and likewise).
** Over the course of the Tegridy Farms arc, Randy becomes increasingly abrasive and immoral, having finally found something that fulfils him but which both his family and friends hate since it makes him act like a Karen. Throughout the season, Randy acknowledges this countless times but continuously chooses his weed business over his loved ones, burning the bridges he created with [[HatedByAll South Park as a whole]], his family, and his partners Towelie (albeit he's EasilyForgiven two episodes later), and Steve Black, and becomes increasingly frustrated that they can't enjoy their success as much as he does (which becomes a problem with [[HatesTheirParent Shelley]] in particular).
** After essentially having one RedemptionRejection per season starting in "Season Finale", (though in "Pandemic Special" [[HeelFaceDoorSlam it was out of his hands]]) and doubling down on his {{Jerkass}} attitude each time, he finally chooses [[MoralityChain his family and friends]] over the business for good in "The Streaming Wars" and goes back to being a geologist, deciding that the weed hasn't made him any happier.
** In Season 26, though he's still generally depicted as more of a {{Jerkass}} than before, he still has a JerkassRealization each time he falters and tries to make things right again by the end, which Sharon and Stan do seem to appreciate.
* CharacterizationMarchesOn:
** He used to be the more laid back of the Marshes earlier on, and one of the saner adults overall. Now... not so much...
** While his political views were subject to DependingOnTheWriter (and he sometimes changed his take on a subject in the same episode [[{{Hypocrite}} after days of preaching it]]), Randy was primarily depicted as a condescending limousine liberal during the show's early seasons. Around Season 12 his views [[NeverMyFault became more of an excuse to blame politicians for every issue in his life]], and he switched from liberal to conservative consistently [[ItsAllAboutMe depending on what suited him the most]] at the time (though in Season 20 the switch occurred because he was brainwashed into supporting [[{{Trumplica}} President Garrison]] by the Memberberries). By Season 26, he's depicted as an AngryWhiteMan and an Andrew Tate fanboy who complains about wokeness.
* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Especially during the obsession phases, but even outside of that Randy's out there even by South Park standards. He's prone to nonsensical and poorly thought-out {{Zany Scheme}}s, has utterly bizarre fetishes (including for ''cooking shows'', of all things), and is generally completely divorced from reality on a good day.
* CorruptCorporateExecutive: In Season 23, after Tegridy Farms becomes a successful weed company and a major corporation, he becomes greedy and unethical, committing countless murders for Tegridy to thrive and engaging in numerous unethical business ventures, like selling vegetarian burgers made out of the unusable parts of weed to the citizens of South Park and selling weed to the Chinese government so they can plant them on student protesters to arrest them.
* CripplingOverspecialization: Randy is certainly an excellent marijuana farmer, as everyone who tries his Tegridy Farms weed loves it for being a quality product. However, it's shown that when it comes to the actual business end of the farm, he's completely incompetent as he drives up the costs with unnecessary and expensive expenditures that cut into his profits. Things get worse after Steve Black starts a competing farm, as Randy is continually outmatched by Steve's business acumen.
* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: Despite his dim-witted nature, he's demonstrated multiple times to be a highly competent brawler.
* DeadpanSnarker: Speeds faster than a jet in "Sarcastaball".
* DependingOnTheWriter: Randy frequently alternates between being a liberal and a conservative. He'll act smug and self-righteous about his position irregardless, but which side he's schilling depends on the plot of the episode.
* DirtyCoward: In "Fantastic Easter Special", he [[ItMakesSenseInContext gets captured and interrogated by the American Catholic League's ninjas over the location of a rabbit, which he gave to his son to hide in a good place]]. When they ask him where it is, he responds:
-->'''Randy:''' I don't know, and even if I did know then... I'd probably just tell you because I don't want to be here anymore.
* DiscOneFinalBoss: Though it appears that Randy will become the BigBad for Season 23, he gets a HeelRealization in "Season Finale" where he reforms and becomes OutOfFocus for the rest of the season, while a [[TheBigBadShuffle Big Bad Shuffle]] will occur between Heather Swanson and Clark Malkinson and eventually Santa Clause becomes the FinalBoss.
* DotingParent: Even at some of his least sane moments, he absolutely adores both his kids and often goes to outrageous lengths whenever he thinks they need help, [[UnwantedAssistance even if they'd disagree,]] [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} usually for good reason.]]
* EarlyInstallmentCharacterDesignDifference: Randy had a different look back in Season 1, most notably in his hairstyle. He was remodeled into his permanent design come his first Season 2 episode, "Chickenlover". He also has [[NoBrows no eyebrows]] in "Volcano".
* EveryoneHasStandards:
** Randy can be impulsive, but he was creeped out by Mr. Jefferson's inappropriately childish behavior.
** In "Broadway Bro-Down" (wherein musicals use heavy subtext for women to want to give men blowjobs) he ''freaks out'' when Shelley goes to see one with her new boyfriend. He is also disgusted when an elderly man says he's trying to enjoy the musical with his young granddaughter.
** Even ''he'' thinks [[AngryWhiteMan Bob White]] is a delusional blowhard that treats his kids like shit.
** He actively ignores the annoying [[{{Joisey}} Jerseyites]] like the plague, only starting to get violent with them when they mindlessly take over the country.
** Along with everyone else, he's shocked and appalled by the Japanese slaughtering dolphins and whales.
** Despite his FaceHeelTurn in Season 23, he's still shocked by some of Mickey Mouse's atrocities, such as sending him a disembodied heart to scare him or making a [[Film/Mulan2020 Mulan remake]]. He also considers the making of [[Film/SpaceJamANewLegacy Space Jam II]] to be a particular low point of humanity.
** In "The Pandemic Special", he's shocked and speechless when President Garrison burns down the pangolin carrying the cure for the pandemic, despite the action ensuring that [[MeaninglessVillainVictory Randy would get off scott-free for accidentally starting the pandemic]].
* {{Expy}}: Season 23 turns him into one of [[Series/BreakingBad Walter White]], both being scientists who began selling drugs with the help of a partner and justifies it and the horrible crimes he commits to sell the drugs as providing for his family. The only difference is that the drugs Randy sells are legal, and he lacks most of the intelligence Walter has.
* FaceHeelTurn: While Randy was always something of a {{Jerkass}}, his selfishness and immaturity reach their apex in Season 23, where he becomes a monstrously self-centered asshole whose redeeming qualities are gradually outweighed by his own ambitions.
* {{Fetish}}: Randy has some really odd fetishes like Japanese girls puking on each other, bestiality, and so forth. Oh, and murder porn, but every adult in South Park seems to be into that.
* FallenHero: He went from the hero that drove [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Jeff Bezos]] out of South Park in Season 22, into becoming just as amoral, corrupt, and greedy as Bezos, if not more.
* FetishesAreWeird: Randy's numerous bizarre and disturbing fetishes are used to paint him as a perverted moron and deviant, and highlight how he's very much stuck in his [[ManChild teenage years]] despite being well into his middle-age.
* {{Flanderization}}:
** Randy started out as one of the smartest characters on the show. His 'wild side' stemmed from a desire to connect with his son, and he simply failed to grasp the idea of fads changing rapidly, a frequent plot point in ''South Park''. As the series progresses, he evolves into a hyperactive, extremely paranoid and idiotic ManChild.
** Even within his earlier stupid bouts, he was still usually a KnightTemplarParent, genuinely having the best intentions for Stan and only spearheading the same hysteria the other parents succumbed to. From about Season 9 onward however, Randy's motives became more selfish and childish, having his family in collateral damage for whatever fad he takes to and leaving even the other brain-dead residents of South Park dumbfounded by his behavior.
** Season 23 flanderizes him again by upping his selfishness, neglectfulness, and stupidity to insane degrees, essentially turning him into the adult version of Cartman.
* {{Foil}}:
** Stan, the sanest kid, has the craziest parent.
** To his CloserToEarth wife Sharon, see MarsAndVenusGenderContrast.
* TheFriendNobodyLikes: By the time of ''The Streaming Wars'' special, the entire town has become so fed up with his obnoxious behavior that they've all started calling him "[[ObnoxiousEntitledHousewife Karen]]" to his face.
* GeniusDitz: He is a brilliant scientist and is capable of a lot of amazing musical feats (culminating in being Lorde), but otherwise he's an alcoholic with barely any common sense.
* GivingTheSwordToANoob: The nominal noob in "Make Love, not Warcraft", when the Blizzard board members are forced to give him the USB drive of "The Sword of a Thousand Truths" so he can deliver it to his son and defeat the griefer.
-->'''Randy:''' I have a Warcraft character. I'm a noob, but I can log on and get the sword to Stan online.\\
'''Blizzard Board Member:''' We can't trust the Sword of a Thousand Truths to a noob!\\
'''Randy:''' Sounds to me like we don't have a choice! Give me the sword.
* GoodParents: Before his level in jerkass, he was quite a DotingParent who wholeheartedly loved his kids. Later seasons depict him as emotionally abusive and cruel even to his own children, and obsessed with forcing Stan to adopt Randy's toxic masculinity.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:H-W]]
* TheHeavy: Randy serves as this for Season 23. Most of the conflict in the season can be traced back to Randy's antics where commits more and more crimes to preserve his drug business. Even when Santa serves as the FinalBoss for the season, Randy would still be this as his decision to sell cocaine to the adults is what drives the plot for the episode.
* HeelRealization:
** While in prison for the bombings he committed, withdrawal from his weed results in him realizing he's become a monster and been a {{Jerkass}} to his family. He resolves to let himself go to prison and accept the consequences for his behavior, and even after being set free, he resolves to stick to small-scale farming.
** In ''The Pandemic Special'' it seems to have become a downplayed IgnoredEpiphany; Tegridy Farms is still a big business and he humblebrags about how the pandemic has caused his business to expand, but he made the Pandemic Special because he genuinely wanted to help people take their minds off the pandemic and give them a sense of normalcy. When he learns that he had caused the pandemic, while still covering it up, he does genuinely try to cure it.
** It's fully subverted in ''Post Covid'', which shows he doubled down on his old ways after Stan burnt down Tegridy Farms to the ground, and became fully obsessed with giving his weed back to the world. However, the boys changing the past and Stan giving him the last strain of Tegridy left in the BadFuture cause his realization to stick, and he apologizes to Sharon for being a dick.
--->'''Randy:''' Sharon, I'm sorry for the way I acted during the pandemic.\\
'''Sharon:''' You're not sorry, you're just high.\\
'''Randy:''' I'm both.
** It's finally played straight again in ''The Streaming Wars'', where after realizing he's become a Karen he gives up on Tegridy Farms and goes back to his old job.
* HiddenDepths:
** His talent as a musician is impressive as he was in a successful boy band, writes and edits his own song as Lorde, and is a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kY0P6o_FLEk very competent guitar player]], as seen in "Guitar Queer-O".
** As his management of Tegridy Farms shows, he's also fairly knowledgeable of agriculture as he produces a good deal of marijuana that actually becomes fairly popular. If he wasn't always blowing money on some dumb marketing gimmick, he'd likely be very rich from the farm's profits.
* HisOwnWorstEnemy: Season 23 shows that Tegridy Farms would be printing money were it not for Randy's insistence on throwing away money on unnecessary, expensive marketing gimmicks.
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: His idea to make the town more PC and get wholesale foods ended up making everything so expensive that it's no longer possible for the Marshes to live in South Park. As usual Randy blames [[NeverMyFault someone else]] until Caitlyn Jenner beats him up.
* {{Hypocrite}}: Randy is frequently the most hypocritical character in the show. Anytime he makes a political point you can bet he's going to end up resembling what he criticizes.
** He yells at Stan for having an addiction to freemium games while denying any addiction to alcohol.
** In "Goobacks", he supports the future people coming to the present and punishes Stan for calling them "Goobacks," but the second he loses his job to a time immigrant, he becomes the rednecks' de facto spokesman, blurting out the "time slur" himself several times in the process.
** In "About Last Night", Randy spends the entire episode preaching about Obama changing things for the better and assaulting everybody else across town while drunk, especially those who voted for [=McCain=]. When he sobers up the next morning and sees that his house is a wreck and his drunken antics have cost him his job, Randy immediately blames Obama and complains that he should've voted for [=McCain=] instead.
** After joining the PC frat, Randy spends most of Season 19 but especially "Stunning and Brave" harassing everyone who has mildly politically incorrect takes on subjects and accusing them of being bigoted. This is rich coming from the guy who once said the N-word on national television, and who would later go on to become an Andrew Tate-esque frat bro who complained non-stop about woke culture.
** In "Holiday Special", Randy (who used to be a huge Christopher Columbus fan) launches a one man campaign to have Columbus Day cancelled to hide his past. Later in the episode, he exploits a Native American in an attempt to forge a DNA test which he thought would help him PlayTheVictimCard, culminating in him kicking the man out of his house while screaming [[NotHelpingYourCase "get off my land, you piece of shit!"]].
** Even after his HeelFaceTurn in "The Streaming Wars", he keeps this side of him, as he distrusts Steve Black for being "a murderer" (he was framed) even though Randy himself has a body count larger than any other major character, including Winnie-The-Pooh.
* IdiotHoudini: Thus far, Randy doesn't seem to have learned any real lessons from being an idiot. He also tends to get off scot-free whenever his actions are motivated by well-meaning stupidity; it's when he's deliberately being a {{Jerkass}} that he gets struck with LaserGuidedKarma for the most part.
* IgnoredEpiphany: In Season 23, after breaking off his partnership with [=MedMen=] and the Chinese government and vowing to stop being greedy and return Tegridy Farms to its roots, the very next episode has him sell vegetarian burgers made of the unusable parts of weed (which still get people high) and run every other restaurant in South Park out of business by taking away their customers.
* InnocentBigot: If taken out of context, Randy can be seen as even more racist than Cartman.
** In "With Apologies to Jessie Jackson", Randy accidentally blurts out the N-word on ''Wheel of Fortune'', because he genuinely thought it was the correct answer to the puzzle. Stan later tells Tolkien that he wasn't being racist, just stupid.
** In "Holiday Special", while promoting the cancellation of Colombus Day he uses the word "indigenous" to refer to assholes, not knowing what the word really means. Granted, nobody actually corrects him when they hear him saying, allowing him to make an even bigger fool of himself than he already was.
* InsufferableImbecile: Despite being an educated scientist (a geologist, to be exact), he often acts like an incredibly airheaded and selfish {{Manchild}}. His tendency to impulsively engage in crazy antics to satisfy his hedonistic desires caused endless grief for his wife and children, often stubbornly and willfully ignorant to their protests.
* ItsAllAboutMe: In newer episodes, Randy is far more likely to be self-obsessed and selfish, stubbornly refusing to listen to anyone else. In Season 23, he thinks anyone who has the same business idea as him should give it up and let him reap all the profits. Also, whenever the rest of the family makes it clear they don't enjoy living/working on Tegridy Farms and want to go back to their old life, he accuses them of not caring about the family.
* JadedWashout: He was once in a boy band, got fired because he aged out at 19, and was mocked by the town once he returned. He has also had dreams of being a proper rock star that never went anywhere, at least until he became Lorde.
* {{Jerkass}}: At his worst, he can be a spoilt, irrational {{Manchild}} who often disregards his son to erupt into chaos over everything. He's at his worst throughout Season 23 up to ''The Streaming Wars'', where his increased egomania and rampant weed addiction cause his worst traits to take over.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Aside from the insane things he has been a part of, he is a normal, well-meaning father. He can be selfish but he has shown that he genuinely loves his wife and children. This fades away during Season 23, as he grows increasingly selfish and cruel, before he starts [[ZigZaggedTrope zigzagging]] between being a JerkWithAHeartOfGold and a JerkWithAHeartOfJerk as he has numerous {{Heel Realization}}s, then forgets about them after a while, then has another one, rinse and repeat.
* JerkWithAHeartOfJerk: While generally a JerkWithAHeartOfGold, Randy descends into this territory in Season 23. His propensity for get-rich-quick schemes and his general selfishness overwhelm his love for his family with him being downright emotionally abusive toward them at times, and most of his genuine moments of humanity are subverted by him doing something cruel and unethical. He mostly reverts back to his old self after having a HeelRealization in "Midseason Finale", but he doesn't fully get out until "The Streaming Wars".
* JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope: While Randy was always prone to acting like a {{Jerkass}} and causing chaos through his various zany (and often illegal) antics, Season 23 sees him descent into increasingly unethical, almost Cartman-like behavior on the regular. He mostly reverts back to normal after "Midseason Finale", although he remains much more acerbic afterward for a while.
* KarmaHoudini:
** He becomes one of these in Season 23, where he gets away with selling out to the Chinese government by killing Winnie The Pooh, letting them use his weed to frame student protesters, and killing numerous homegrown weed owners to get a monopoly on the weed business, at least until [[KarmaHoudiniWarranty Post Covid...]].
** Played straight and DoubleSubverted in the revised future, where everyone forgives him for starting Covid and, even at the very end of the bad future, taking credit for having sex with the pangolin in every timeline despite it absolving Clyde for being selfish and time traveling specifically to aid Randy's whims as an excuse, and making Kenny's [[EruditeStoner lucidity-induced research]] harder to fill without any bystanders other than Tolkien and Stan, effectively dooming the town even more. Had Stan not thought to do multiple {{Diving Save}}s on Kyle in each timeline while filtering (and later fully repairing) the current one through blackmailing Heather Williams and helping to "cut each other some slack", they would have been stuck there.
* KarmaHoudiniWarranty:
** In "Let Them Eat Goo", him unethically murdering cattle causes him to lose his customers when the Goo Man shows a video tape of it to the whole town, turning everyone against him.
** In ''Post Covid'', his dreams are destroyed when Stan burns down his barn, and he's trapped in a miserable nursing home for decades.
* KarmicButtMonkey: Randy [[TookALevelInJerkass Taking a Level in Jerkass]] following Season 23 is accompanied by people becoming increasingly sick of his antics and him being subject to increased misfortune.
* LargeHam: Randy pretty much embodies this trope. He's prone to melodramatic fits and loud screaming at the drop of a hat.
* LethallyStupid: He even accidentally killed his daughter's boyfriend!
* {{Manchild}}: Randy has the intelligence of an adult, yet the behavior of a child.
** These traits show in his taste for children's programs: he's the only adult thinking "Terrance and Philip" is ActuallyPrettyFunny [[Recap/SouthParkS1E6Death in the first season]], his son surprises him laughing at an episode [[Recap/SouthParkS2E12Clubhouses in the second]], and after having watched a single episode of [[Recap/SouthParkS3E11Chinpokomon "Chinpokomon"]], he feels the sudden urge to [[GottaCatchEmAll catch them all]].
** That being said, his taste in music is standard for someone of his generation, as he hears literal shit when listening to tween wave and doesn't badmouth music from the '70s until the kids start calling it lame.
** "You're Getting Old" gives a darker tone to it, revealing this is a response to him being unhappy with his current life.
* MarsAndVenusGenderContrast: With his wife, Sharon. Sharon is generally far more levelheaded and less impulsive than her husband, with a much more restrained wild side. Increasingly, she becomes the only real adult in the house, with Randy devolving more and more into a man-child.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: He has this reaction after realizing what an ass he's been throughout Season 23.
* NeverMyFault: While he shares this with the other adults, he's by far the worst offender. He almost ''never'' acknowledges his fault in anything, and childishly clings to his own delusions. Subverted in the midseason finale of Season 23, where he realizes that his going to prison is a consequence of his own actions, and after how much of a {{Jerkass}} he's been, he decides to face the consequences with grace. During his trial he apologizes to his family for what he's done (except Shelley, who he forgot exists), and after getting set free he resolves to stick to small-scale farming.
** In the BadFuture he blames Stan for the deaths of Sharon and Shelly, even though it was Randy's obsession with selling weed that drove the whole family towards such extreme circumstances.
* NightmareFetishist: Randy's fetishes are bizarre and disturbing at best. He's expressed a predilection for Japanese girls puking on each other, [[BestialityIsDepraved bestiality]], hentai, and a laundry load of others.
* NotHimself: Downplayed. Much of Randy's [[TookALevelInJerkass increasingly cruel and amoral behavior]] throughout Season 23 is caused by his rampant weed addiction severely impairing his thought process. By his own admission, a lot of it is down to his own natural egotism, but his addiction kept him from seeing how bad he'd gotten until it was nearly too late.
* NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist: In Season 23 he justifies his murders and unethical and underhanded business ventures as him doing desperate things to provide for his family. However, its clear that Tegridy Farms has more than enough money to thrive and his family would be more than happy to leave, but Randy just wants to live his dream of being a weed farmer and is just greedy and wants a monopoly on the business. Also, most of Tegridy Farms' genuine money problems are caused by him spending massive amounts of money to make expensive and unnecessary advertising gimmicks, and he refuses to stop doing so after Sharon points this out to him because of his NeverMyFault tendencies.
* ObnoxiousEntitledHousewife: Randy [[TookALevelInJerkass Taking a Level in Jerkass]] from Season 23 onwards reaches its apex in ''The Streaming Wars'', where he begins acting like and being referred to as a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_(slang) Karen]].
* OhCrap: In "Pandemic Special", when it was reported the creature responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic was a bat, he has this reaction as he remembered he and Mickey Mouse had unprotected sex with one. He has another one of these when it came out that the real creature responsible for the spread of the virus was a pangolin, which he and Mickey ''also'' had sex with.
* OldShame: InUniverse. He joined a boy band before finishing high school.
* OmnidisciplinaryScientist: {{Parodied|Trope}} or {{subverted|Trope}}. A few episodes ("Spontaneous Combustion," "T.M.I.") have him take on non-geology jobs on the ground that he is a "scientist." In the first case it's {{lampshade|Hanging}}d, though he actually turns out to be competent; in the latter it's not, but he does poorly. "Die Hippie, Die" has him volunteering in Cartman's plan to dig through the hippies because he is the only scientist the city has.
* OnceDoneNeverForgotten: In "With Apologies to Jesse Jackson", he is forever known for saying the n-word on ''national television''.
* PapaWolf: In "Die Hippie, Die", "Pee", and "Broadway Bro Down".
* ParentalFavoritism: While Randy often over-involves himself in Stan's life, he has little interest in Shelley, at one point even forgetting her as he lists his family.
* ParentsAsPeople: Despite his stupidity and recklessness, he means well for both his kids.
* ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything: Randy is supposed to be a geologist, but rare is the time we actually see him doing any geological work. Instead, we see him trying to set the world's record for taking the biggest crap, aiming to become a TV chef, giving himself testicular cancer so he can smoke medical marijuana, etc.
* PornStache: He has a mustache. Apparently anyone who consumes his semen will develop the same mustache. [[FridgeBrilliance This would explain why Randy can instantly recognize the taste of cum]].
* ProtagonistJourneyToVillain: Randy is a central character in season 23, possibly the main character of the show at that season. The show shows him going from a jerkass that is trying to make a living with farm life to an outright amoral sell-out who is willing to do acts of terrorism and murder to protect his bottom line.
* PsychopathicManchild: He develops into this in Season 23. He's just as childish as ever, but also far more willing to commit acts of violence. He mellows out after "Season Finale", though he's still more of a {{Jerkass}} than he was prior.
* RabbleRouser: In a more literal case than most, he has managed to start a rabble at least once by shouting "Rabble!" a few times.
* RunningGag: His pants falling when he gets drunk. There's also him getting arrested by the cops for picking a fight with the people who root for the other sports teams.
* SadClown: As revealed in "You're Getting Old", Randy is actually a very depressed person and much of his childish behavior is his way of coping with it.
* SarcasmMode: In "Sarcastaball", he is diagnosed with a mental condition that causes everything he says to be a sarcastic comment.
* SanitySlippage:
** "A Nightmare on [=FaceTime=]" makes it very clear he's lost it.
** Season 23 shows that he's utterly lost it, with the first episode alone having him bomb homegrown weed owners in an act of domestic terrorism and seriously wondering if he is actually a towel. "Season Finale" reveals that this was partially a result of him repeatedly using his own weed, and he gets better after his HeelRealization.
* SelectiveObliviousness: Randy constantly ignores that his family is very much annoyed with his latest ZanyScheme, to the point of actively deluding himself into believing that they're totally on board with it.
* SeriousBusiness: Whatever the focus of the episode is, he's taking it waaaay too seriously.
* SignificantBirthdate: His birthday is March 1, which is also that of Trey Parker's father Randy, who he's named after and based on.
* ShamelessSelfPromoter: He takes every opportunity possible to sell his weed in Season 23 no matter how unethical or counterproductive (read: expensive) it is.
* SnapBack: Quits/gets fired at least 4 times. Even his seasons-long stint as a weed farmer ends with him going back to his old job.
* SpotlightStealingSquad: So much so that he became TheProtagonist of Season 23. Even the opening theme was changed to reflect Randy and Tegridy Farms for the season's first six episodes. Randy ''finally'' took a backseat for the next three episodes, only for the season finale to focus on him again.
** He is also part of one with Butters for Season 25, being the only adult to have two episodes focused on him while the other adults (PC Principal; Liane; Mr. Mackey; Gerald) only had one episode revolving around them.
* StageNames: He performed his interpretation of Tween Wave music as "Steamy Ray Vaughn".
* StatusQuoIsGod: The Streaming Wars 2-parter made it seem like Randy would quit Tegridy Farms and go back to his geology job after realizing how far he'd sunk. Season 26 shows he's restarted the farm once more.
* TheStoner: On top of his alcoholism, later seasons have Randy develop an addiction to marijuana. Throughout his ownership of Tegridy Farms, Randy frequently samples his own supply and spends a good chunk of the time buzzed out of his mind. At least part of his increasingly {{Jerkass}} behavior throughout Season 23 is because he's utterly blitzed out on weed and not thinking straight.
* StrangerInAFamiliarLand: A recurring arc throughout the series is Randy feeling out-of-touch with South Park's rapidly changing culture, especially during the 2020s where he finds himself flustered with the changing definitions of masculinity.
* StrawCharacter: Randy is frequently used as a strawman to satirize political views or talking points the writers disagree with. Randy's role has shifted over the years, having evolved from a smug and preening limousine liberal into an Andrew Tate fanboy who despises "wokeness". The duality of his morals are showcased in "About Last Night" when he spends the 2008 election night singing the praises of Obama, only to instantly turn against him overnight when he doesn't magically solve all his problems and his excessive partying in his honor only get him robbed and fired.
* SupremeChef: In "Crème Fraiche", he's shown to be a very talented chef, being capable of replicating dishes he sees on cooking shows. Much to the chagrin of his family, who have to clean up the resulting massive pile of dishes. However, it's implied that his food still doesn't ''taste'' very good, and he's just imitating the flashy "gourmet" style popular on cooking shows without really understanding it.
* TooDumbToLive: Has become this post {{Flanderization}}, but his biggest moment comes in "Medicinal Fried Chicken" where he gives himself testicular cancer just to be legally qualified to have medical marijuana.
* TookALevelInDumbass: Takes a level every episode he appears in, and probably the ones where he doesn't appear, too. Given his first ever appearance showed that he didn't know how to read a seismograph, that's quite an acheivement.
* TookALevelInJerkass:
** At the beginning of the series, Randy is one of the most level-headed adults and was much more laid-back than Sharon. However, he became increasingly self-absorbed and immature as he acts out over his dissatisfaction with his life, constantly rabble-rousing and dragging his family along in his own moronic efforts to go along with the newest fad.
** He takes another level in Season 23, where he becomes obsessed with [[{{Greed}} profiting off of Tegridy Farms]], and commits an act of domestic terrorism by blowing up houses with homegrown marijuana and killing numerous people to take out the competition, and brutally garroting Winnie the Pooh to curry favor with the Chinese government. He also starts to neglect his family, and even emotionally manipulates Stan into wearing a Tegridy Farms shirt at a concert in "Band in China", and accuses them of not caring about the family whenever they make it clear they hate Tegridy Farms. [[HeelRealization He realizes how much of an ass he's been]] in "Season Finale", and by "The Pandemic Special", he's mainly reverted to his old self.
** During the "Streaming Wars" two-parter Randy hits his lowest, having grown so insufferable and entitled that everyone in town starts calling him "[[ObnoxiousEntitledHousewife Karen]]" straight to his face. When Randy sees a video of himself acting melodramatic, he realizes that his character has taken a turn for the worse and gives up on being a weed farmer.
* TookALevelInKindness: In "The Streaming Wars 2", after realizing how much of an ass he's been for the past few seasons and giving up on Tegridy Farms.
* ToxicFriendInfluence: He's an alcoholic, and none of his friends try to keep him from getting drunk (even encouraging him on occasion).
* TrademarkFavoriteFood: His preferred beer brand is Pabst Blue Ribbon, and ever since [[Recap/SouthParkS18E2GlutenFreeEbola the gluten scare]], he has been exclusively drinking gluten-free beer.
* {{Tuckerization}}: Parker named Randy after his own father.
* UnfazedEveryman: His initial characterization was of a laid-back guy who reacted to the bizarre events around him with a blasé, unfazed attitude. [[CharacterizationMarchesOn This quickly changed.]]
* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: Multiple times, starting in his debut in "Volcano", where even though he saved South Park from the titular volcano, he ended up accidentally getting Denver engulfed in the process. He reaches his peak in "Pandemic Special", he and Mickey Mouse unknowingly caused the spread of COVID-19 by having sex with a pangolin, which starts ''the whole'' pandemic, leading to the deaths of millions of people, the destruction of many livelihoods, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and the dissolution of the boys' friendship]].
* VillainProtagonist: He would serve as this for Season 23 which mostly focuses on Randy's committing crimes to keep his business afloat.
* WackyParentSeriousChild: To Stan. Randy is an over-the-top, sex-crazed, alcoholic and drug addict, while Stan is the StraightMan who is [[WiseBeyondTheirYears wise beyond his years]].
* WhatHaveIBecome: Randy eventually realizes how low he's sunk when he sees a viral video of himself looking and behaving like a stereotypical Karen. This is the wakeup call he needs to finally liquidate Tegridy Farms and go back to his geology job.
* WholesomeCrossdresser: As revealed in "[[Recap/SouthParkS18E2GlutenFreeEbola Gluten-Free Ebola]]" and "[[Recap/SouthParkS18E3TheCissy The Cissy]]", he has a double life as Music/{{Lorde}}, using AutoTune to make himself sound like a teenage girl.
-->'''Clyde:''' Lorde sucks.\\
'''Jimmy:''' Yeah, she isn't as hot in person.
[[/folder]]
----
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* SignificantBirthdate: His birthday is March 1, which is also that of Trey Parker's father Randy, who he's named after and based on.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
Per here
.
.Changed line(s) 1,2 (click to see context) from:
[[center: [- [[Characters/SouthPark Main Page]] | [[Characters/SouthParkTheBoys The Boys]] ([[Characters/SouthParkStanMarsh Stan Marsh]], [[Characters/SouthParkKyleBroflovski Kyle Broflovski]], [[Characters/SouthParkEricCartman Eric Cartman]], [[Characters/SouthParkKennyMcCormick Kenny [=McCormick=]]]) | [[Characters/SouthParkOtherStudents Other Students]] ([[Characters/SouthParkButtersStotch Butters Stotch]], [[Characters/SouthParkWendyTestaburger Wendy Testaburger]], [[Characters/SouthParkHeidiTurner Heidi Turner]]) | [[Characters/SouthParkAntagonists Antagonists]] ([[Characters/SouthParkAntagonistsBigBads Big Bads]], [[Characters/SouthParkAntagonistsSecondaryAndMinor Secondary and Minor]], [[Characters/SouthParkAntagonistsJerksAndBullies Jerks and Bullies]]) | [[Characters/SouthParkFamilyMembers Family Members]] ('''Randy Marsh''') | [[Characters/SouthParkElementarySchoolStaff Elementary School Staff]] ([[Characters/SouthParkHerbertGarrison Herbert Garrison]]) | [[Characters/SouthParkOtherRecurringCharacters Other Recurring Characters]] | [[Characters/SouthParkTheStickOfTruth The Stick of Truth]] ([[Characters/SouthParkTheNewKid The New Kid]]) | [[Characters/SouthParkTheFracturedButWhole The Fractured but Whole]] | [[Characters/SouthParkPhoneDestroyer Phone Destroyer]] -] ]]
to:
[[center: [- [[Characters/SouthPark Main Page]] | [[Characters/SouthParkTheBoys The Boys]] ([[Characters/SouthParkStanMarsh Stan Marsh]], [[Characters/SouthParkKyleBroflovski Kyle Broflovski]], [[Characters/SouthParkEricCartman Eric Cartman]], [[Characters/SouthParkKennyMcCormick Kenny [=McCormick=]]]) | [[Characters/SouthParkOtherStudents Other Students]] ([[Characters/SouthParkButtersStotch Butters Stotch]], [[Characters/SouthParkWendyTestaburger Wendy Testaburger]], [[Characters/SouthParkHeidiTurner Heidi Turner]]) | [[Characters/SouthParkAntagonists Antagonists]] ([[Characters/SouthParkAntagonistsBigBads Big Bads]], [[Characters/SouthParkAntagonistsSecondaryAndMinor Secondary and Minor]], [[Characters/SouthParkAntagonistsJerksAndBullies Jerks and Bullies]]) | [[Characters/SouthParkFamilyMembers Family Members]] ('''Randy Marsh''') | [[Characters/SouthParkElementarySchoolStaff Elementary School Staff]] ([[Characters/SouthParkHerbertGarrison Herbert Garrison]]) | [[Characters/SouthParkOtherRecurringCharacters Other Recurring Characters]] | [[Characters/SouthParkTheStickOfTruth The Stick of Truth]] ([[Characters/SouthParkTheNewKid The New Kid]]) | [[Characters/SouthParkTheFracturedButWhole The Fractured but Whole]] | [[Characters/SouthParkPhoneDestroyer Phone Destroyer]] -] ]]
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 1,2 (click to see context) from:
[[center: [- [[Characters/SouthPark Main Page]] | [[Characters/SouthParkTheBoys The Boys]] ([[Characters/SouthParkStanMarsh Stan Marsh]], [[Characters/SouthParkKyleBroflovski Kyle Broflovski]], [[Characters/SouthParkEricCartman Eric Cartman]], [[Characters/SouthParkKennyMcCormick Kenny [=McCormick=]]]) | [[Characters/SouthParkOtherStudents Other Students]] ([[Characters/SouthParkButtersStotch Butters Stotch]], [[Characters/SouthParkWendyTestaburger Wendy Testaburger]], [[Characters/SouthParkHeidiTurner Heidi Turner]]) | [[Characters/SouthParkAntagonists Antagonists]] ([[Characters/SouthParkAntagonistsBigBads Big Bads]], [[Characters/SouthParkAntagonistsSecondaryAndMinor Secondary and Minor]], [[Characters/SouthParkAntagonistsJerksAndBullies Jerks and Bullies]]) | [[Characters/SouthParkFamilyMembers Family Members]] ('''Randy Marsh''') | [[Characters/SouthParkElementarySchoolStaff Elementary School Staff]] | [[Characters/SouthParkOtherRecurringCharacters Other Recurring Characters]] | [[Characters/SouthParkTheStickOfTruth The Stick of Truth]] ([[Characters/SouthParkTheNewKid The New Kid]]) | [[Characters/SouthParkTheFracturedButWhole The Fractured but Whole]] | [[Characters/SouthParkPhoneDestroyer Phone Destroyer]] -] ]]
to:
[[center: [- [[Characters/SouthPark Main Page]] | [[Characters/SouthParkTheBoys The Boys]] ([[Characters/SouthParkStanMarsh Stan Marsh]], [[Characters/SouthParkKyleBroflovski Kyle Broflovski]], [[Characters/SouthParkEricCartman Eric Cartman]], [[Characters/SouthParkKennyMcCormick Kenny [=McCormick=]]]) | [[Characters/SouthParkOtherStudents Other Students]] ([[Characters/SouthParkButtersStotch Butters Stotch]], [[Characters/SouthParkWendyTestaburger Wendy Testaburger]], [[Characters/SouthParkHeidiTurner Heidi Turner]]) | [[Characters/SouthParkAntagonists Antagonists]] ([[Characters/SouthParkAntagonistsBigBads Big Bads]], [[Characters/SouthParkAntagonistsSecondaryAndMinor Secondary and Minor]], [[Characters/SouthParkAntagonistsJerksAndBullies Jerks and Bullies]]) | [[Characters/SouthParkFamilyMembers Family Members]] ('''Randy Marsh''') | [[Characters/SouthParkElementarySchoolStaff Elementary School Staff]] ([[Characters/SouthParkHerbertGarrison Herbert Garrison]]) | [[Characters/SouthParkOtherRecurringCharacters Other Recurring Characters]] | [[Characters/SouthParkTheStickOfTruth The Stick of Truth]] ([[Characters/SouthParkTheNewKid The New Kid]]) | [[Characters/SouthParkTheFracturedButWhole The Fractured but Whole]] | [[Characters/SouthParkPhoneDestroyer Phone Destroyer]] -] ]]
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 215 (click to see context) from:
[[/folder]]
to:
----
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
Randy's folder reached 40.000 characters
Changed line(s) 1 (click to see context) from:
[[redirect:Characters/SouthParkFamilyMembers]]
to:
----
!Randy Marsh
[[quoteright:320:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/randy-marsh_8649.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:320:''"Stanley, you call your friend an asshole this instant!"'']]
->''"You're a lousy kid! I wish Jaden Smith was my son!"''
->'''Voiced in English by:''' [[Creator/TreyParkerAndMattStone Trey Parker]]
->'''Voiced in Latin American Spanish by:''' Rolando Felizola (Seasons 1-16a and 2007-2011 redubs), Alejandro Toro (Seasons 16b-19 and 2015 redub), Ledner Belisario (Season 20 onwards and 2016 redub), Carlos del Campo (Mexican dub), unknown (Warner ''Bigger, Longer & Uncut'' dub), Hugo Navarrete (Paramount ''Bigger, Longer & Uncut'' dub)
->'''Debut:''' "[[Recap/SouthParkS1E3Volcano Volcano]]"
Stan's dad, a geologist (and thus the only non-[[MadScientist mad]] scientist in South Park; sometimes) turned cannabis farmer. Deficient in common sense, but makes up for it with great passion and enthusiasm for... well, whatever happens to be the focus of the episode. The de facto leader of the town whenever they face a threat. He tends to be the main character in storylines involving the adults of South Park, and thus is the adult figure that most interacts with the boys in the main plot.
----
[[foldercontrol]]
[[folder:A-G]]
* AbusiveDad: If there was any doubt before, he's become very much this of the emotional kind once the family moves to Tegridy Farms. He constantly belittles his family for not wanting to be involved in the business and ignores their own activities and needs in favour of getting high. It gets to the point where Stan and Shelley are positively gleeful about the prospect of Randy being given a lengthy prison sentence.
* AccidentalHero: In "The Losing Edge", his multiple drunken [[CockFight Cock FIghts]] with the dads of his son's opposing baseball teams end up saving the boys from having to spend the entire summer playing baseball (which they hated) when his fight with Bat-Dad gets them disqualified by proxy. This actually marks one of the few times where Stan has praised him for something.
* AlcoholInducedIdiocy: A lot of Randy's dumbest actions come from him being completely and utterly ''wasted''. He can be pretty stupid on his own, but whenever he's drunk or high he's prone to much more self-destructive and erratic behavior. Notable instances include punching out his own boss, getting into brawls with other parents at Little League games, and being arrested at one point for driving drunk and insulting the cop who stopped him once he realized Randy was drunk.
* TheAlcoholic: Not as worse as Stuart, but he is frequently shown drunk. The plot of "Bloody Mary" focuses on him going to A.A., though they are useless, teaching him he is powerless to the "disease of alcoholism". Encouraged by Stan, he tries to learn discipline and self-control, but he continues to have unhealthy drinking habits, though he is in complete denial over having a drinking problem when confronted.
* AlcoholicParent: The whole Marsh family has been revealed to have addictive tendencies. Marvin is a gambler, though at one point Stan also called him an alcoholic – something that Randy has inherited. He is frequently seen drinking, sometimes casually, sometimes engaging in binge drinking, often leading to irresponsible and stupid behavior. In one episode he gets a DUI, has to attend AA meetings, where instead of taking responsibility and controlling his behavior, he is told he has a "disease." At the end of the episode, Stan encourages him to learn discipline and self-control, but it doesn't stick, and Randy denies having an alcohol problem at all when Stan and Sharon confront him about it in "Freemium Isn't Free".
* AllMenArePerverts: He's very into porn, masturbating and has some very disturbing fetishes.
** A major part of "Overlogging" is the fact that he wants to masturbate, but can't without ''extreme'' Internet fetish porn.
** In "Crème Fraiche", he masturbates to cooking shows. It MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext.
** In "Pandemic Special", Randy's "cure" for COVID-19 (which he unwittingly caused by having sex with a pangolin) is by jacking off into his weed and having people smoke it. However, this results in [[GoneHorriblyRight many people suddenly growing a mustache just like his.]]
** In "Spring Break", he's even surprised that his 10-year old son is NotDistractedByTheSexy when he starts bringing in strippers to the house. He later mistakes a female cop for a stripper (since he had previously brought in two escorts dressed as cops) and [[TooDumbToLive harasses her]], getting himself arrested.
* AmazinglyEmbarrassingParents: The show's crowning example of this trope, when accounting for the other degrees of uselessness of the adults. Highlights include: going out of his way to pick fights at Stan's Little League games, blurting out the N-word on ''Series/WheelOfFortune'', and ejaculating a gallon of semen all over a mobile computer room after watching porn.
* AngryWhiteMan: In season 26 Randy gets in the habit of using the word "woke" to describe things that don't appeal to him.
* AntiHero: Starts off as a [[KnightInSourArmor Type 2]] like his son, as he was genuinely helpful as a geologist when the town needed him but was somewhat unfazed by the chaos going on around him. Then he gradually became a [[PragmaticHero Type 3]] as he got more invested in his family's safety at the expense of the town, and his is solutions to problems became more outlandish and occasionally involved several causalities, which is highlighted in episodes parodying horror movies, such as "Night of the Living Homeless". After buying "Tegridy Farms", he started switching between [[UnscrupulousHero Type 4]] and [[NominalHero Type 5]], only trying to make things better for himself at the expense of everyone else but occasionally [[BigDamnHeroes saving everyone in the process]], as well as being the LesserOfTwoEvils compared to the episode's BigBad such as in "Bike Parade", "Post Covid: Return of Covid", and "Tegridy Farms St. Patrick Day Special". By "The Streaming Wars", he's [[HeelFaceTurn trying to go back to his origins and become a better person]].
* AscendedExtra: Originally he was just Stan's dad, but nowadays it's not unheard of to have entire episodes focused on Randy with the boys relegated to background characters.
* TheAtoner:
** Near the end of Season 19, when he finally came to realize that South Park's gentrification was doing more harm than good (with some help from a beatdown courtesy of Caitlyn Jenner), he pledged to help undo the damage he helped cause.
** In Season 23, when Towelie (and legal trouble) demonstrated how unethical his business had become, he makes some genuine efforts to return to the roots of Tegridy.
* AuthorAvatar: Trey Parker has said that Randy has become more prominent, due to the fact that he has started to get older and identifies with the character more. This is most clear during the Tegridy Farms arc, where his marijuana business is [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall often used as an allegory for the show itself]] and seems to reflect the creators' creative process (such as in "Christmas Snow" when he struggles to come up with a good product in time for Christmas).
* AxCrazy:
** In "T.M.I.", he goes insane and is the spearhead of the movement to take over the Federal Express.
** In Season 23, he becomes increasingly fixated on his Tegridy Farms profits, to the point that he starts committing murder in an effort to help boost sales.
* BecameTheirOwnAntithesis: In Season 22 Randy fancied himself and Towelie to be the sole legal drug company with integrity, and crusaders against big business. In Season 23, he becomes just as unethical as the other drug companies, if not more so.
* BecomingTheMask:
** In "Sarcastaball," he loses control over his ability to be sarcastic and can't stop doing it.
** Music/{{Lorde}} was originally just an excuse to use the girls' bathroom.
* BeenThereShapedHistory: Double Subverted. In "The Pandemic Special", it initially seems like he and Mickey Mouse had caused the COVID-19 Pandemic when [[BestialityIsDepraved the two of them had sex with a bat,]] resulting in Randy becoming patient zero. Then it turns out that the actual cause of the disease was a pangolin... that they ''also'' had sex with.
* BestialityIsDepraved: During a bender in China, he had sex with a bat and a pangolin, which somehow, created the COVID-19 virus.
* BerserkButton: The multiple people he fought at every baseball game he went to are this to him.
* BigBad: Of Season 23, until he has a HeelRealization in "Season Finale". He becomes part of the BigBadEnsemble in "[[Recap/SouthParkThePandemicSpecial The Pandemic Special]]", due to having created COVID-19 and his attempts to cure it making things worse.
* BigBadSlippage: He started off as a simple Marijuana peddler, but his greed starts consuming him making him commit unethical crimes to increase his business and effectively becomes the BigBad for Season 23.
* BigDamnHeroes: As dumb as he is, Randy has saved the town more times than any other character, starting in his debut in "Volcano". Even after resigning as a geologist and buying "Tegridy Farms" and becoming more villainous than heroic, his weed still ends up being the key to saving everyone on occasion, such as in "Bike Parade" and "Post Covid: Return of Covid".
* BigNo: Does [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJAeD1f2YnI Picard's]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGI1IHuNy2Y Vader's]], with the sound taken directly from ''Film/StarTrekFirstContact'' and ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith''.
* BigOMG: He gets two separate big "oh my god"s when he realizes every senior citizen in town is driving at the same time.
* BodyHorror: In "Medicinal Fried Chicken", he deliberately gives himself testicular cancer so he can legally buy weed, which causes his balls to swell up to such a ridiculous size he has to carry them around in a wheelbarrow. Eventually they get so big he can't even fit them through the door of the weed dispensary.
* BoisterousBruiser: Particularly when he's drunk, Randy will very loudly challenge people to fights and boast about his combat prowess. He's not joking either; he's a ''very'' competent brawler who is dangerously good at slugging it out.
* BreakoutCharacter: Randy has become increasingly more important lately due to a mix of popularity and Trey Parker identifying with Randy more as he gets older.
* BrilliantButLazy: Played with. Randy is genuinely intelligent and talented in various fields, but [[DidntThinkThisThrough he rarely thinks his actions through]] and his decisions tend to be erratic at best.
* BumblingDad: His stupidity embarrasses Stan at every turn, whether it's well-intentioned or selfishly motivated.
* BunnyEarsLawyer: Despite his obvious quirks, he is good at his job as a geologist. He also proves to be an excellent musician and agriculturist during his stints as Music/{{Lorde}} and the owner of Tegridy Farms respectively.
* ButtMonkey: Seems to have gained this status to a certain extent in Season 21, where more and more people view him with contempt and regard his antics strictly as being immature and absurd, and treat him accordingly. Sharon even seems to call him out on his selfish behavior much more often.
* CaughtWithYourPantsDown: In the episode "Overlogging" Randy has gone for weeks without masturbating to Internet porn, eventually near the end he sneaks into the camp's computer room, looks at a bunch of perverted things, and eventually ejaculates all over the room, everyone comes in thinking he was grunting in pain and with his pants down, he tells them that he was doing that because "a ghost was attacking him and left his ectoplasm everywhere".
* CerebusRetcon: "You're Getting Old" sheds some very harsh light on Randy's zany moments. It turns out the reason he's been acting increasingly bizarre is because he's suffering depression and wants to distract himself from his humdrum existence.
* CharacterCatchphrase:
** "Stan? ''Staaan''?", "Hey, Sharon," "(Oh my) Gawl!", "Well, ''that'' sucks", "Score!", [[LamarckWasRight and a few of his son's]].
** In Season 23, he gains two new ones, "Hey, ''fuck you,''" and "It just so happens" when he finds a new chance to sell his weed.
* CharacterDevelopment:
** As Sharon, Stan, and Shelley grow and become more mature with every season, Randy only grows more impulsive, childish, and egotistical, to the point of becoming the WildCard of the Marshes and a BrokenPedestal for his son in particular. In "You're Getting Old", he acknowledges these changes and reveals that this is his way of coping with not being happy with Sharon anymore, since they both grew in different directions following their wild childhood days. However, Randy's inability to meaningfully change make him stay with Sharon because it's all he knows at this point (and likewise).
** Over the course of the Tegridy Farms arc, Randy becomes increasingly abrasive and immoral, having finally found something that fulfils him but which both his family and friends hate since it makes him act like a Karen. Throughout the season, Randy acknowledges this countless times but continuously chooses his weed business over his loved ones, burning the bridges he created with [[HatedByAll South Park as a whole]], his family, and his partners Towelie (albeit he's EasilyForgiven two episodes later), and Steve Black, and becomes increasingly frustrated that they can't enjoy their success as much as he does (which becomes a problem with [[HatesTheirParent Shelley]] in particular).
** After essentially having one RedemptionRejection per season starting in "Season Finale", (though in "Pandemic Special" [[HeelFaceDoorSlam it was out of his hands]]) and doubling down on his {{Jerkass}} attitude each time, he finally chooses [[MoralityChain his family and friends]] over the business for good in "The Streaming Wars" and goes back to being a geologist, deciding that the weed hasn't made him any happier.
** In Season 26, though he's still generally depicted as more of a {{Jerkass}} than before, he still has a JerkassRealization each time he falters and tries to make things right again by the end, which Sharon and Stan do seem to appreciate.
* CharacterizationMarchesOn:
** He used to be the more laid back of the Marshes earlier on, and one of the saner adults overall. Now... not so much...
** While his political views were subject to DependingOnTheWriter (and he sometimes changed his take on a subject in the same episode [[{{Hypocrite}} after days of preaching it]]), Randy was primarily depicted as a condescending limousine liberal during the show's early seasons. Around Season 12 his views [[NeverMyFault became more of an excuse to blame politicians for every issue in his life]], and he switched from liberal to conservative consistently [[ItsAllAboutMe depending on what suited him the most]] at the time (though in Season 20 the switch occurred because he was brainwashed into supporting [[{{Trumplica}} President Garrison]] by the Memberberries). By Season 26, he's depicted as an AngryWhiteMan and an Andrew Tate fanboy who complains about wokeness.
* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Especially during the obsession phases, but even outside of that Randy's out there even by South Park standards. He's prone to nonsensical and poorly thought-out {{Zany Scheme}}s, has utterly bizarre fetishes (including for ''cooking shows'', of all things), and is generally completely divorced from reality on a good day.
* CorruptCorporateExecutive: In Season 23, after Tegridy Farms becomes a successful weed company and a major corporation, he becomes greedy and unethical, committing countless murders for Tegridy to thrive and engaging in numerous unethical business ventures, like selling vegetarian burgers made out of the unusable parts of weed to the citizens of South Park and selling weed to the Chinese government so they can plant them on student protesters to arrest them.
* CripplingOverspecialization: Randy is certainly an excellent marijuana farmer, as everyone who tries his Tegridy Farms weed loves it for being a quality product. However, it's shown that when it comes to the actual business end of the farm, he's completely incompetent as he drives up the costs with unnecessary and expensive expenditures that cut into his profits. Things get worse after Steve Black starts a competing farm, as Randy is continually outmatched by Steve's business acumen.
* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: Despite his dim-witted nature, he's demonstrated multiple times to be a highly competent brawler.
* DeadpanSnarker: Speeds faster than a jet in "Sarcastaball".
* DependingOnTheWriter: Randy frequently alternates between being a liberal and a conservative. He'll act smug and self-righteous about his position irregardless, but which side he's schilling depends on the plot of the episode.
* DirtyCoward: In "Fantastic Easter Special", he [[ItMakesSenseInContext gets captured and interrogated by the American Catholic League's ninjas over the location of a rabbit, which he gave to his son to hide in a good place]]. When they ask him where it is, he responds:
-->'''Randy:''' I don't know, and even if I did know then... I'd probably just tell you because I don't want to be here anymore.
* DiscOneFinalBoss: Though it appears that Randy will become the BigBad for Season 23, he gets a HeelRealization in "Season Finale" where he reforms and becomes OutOfFocus for the rest of the season, while a [[TheBigBadShuffle Big Bad Shuffle]] will occur between Heather Swanson and Clark Malkinson and eventually Santa Clause becomes the FinalBoss.
* DotingParent: Even at some of his least sane moments, he absolutely adores both his kids and often goes to outrageous lengths whenever he thinks they need help, [[UnwantedAssistance even if they'd disagree,]] [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} usually for good reason.]]
* EarlyInstallmentCharacterDesignDifference: Randy had a different look back in Season 1, most notably in his hairstyle. He was remodeled into his permanent design come his first Season 2 episode, "Chickenlover". He also has [[NoBrows no eyebrows]] in "Volcano".
* EveryoneHasStandards:
** Randy can be impulsive, but he was creeped out by Mr. Jefferson's inappropriately childish behavior.
** In "Broadway Bro-Down" (wherein musicals use heavy subtext for women to want to give men blowjobs) he ''freaks out'' when Shelley goes to see one with her new boyfriend. He is also disgusted when an elderly man says he's trying to enjoy the musical with his young granddaughter.
** Even ''he'' thinks [[AngryWhiteMan Bob White]] is a delusional blowhard that treats his kids like shit.
** He actively ignores the annoying [[{{Joisey}} Jerseyites]] like the plague, only starting to get violent with them when they mindlessly take over the country.
** Along with everyone else, he's shocked and appalled by the Japanese slaughtering dolphins and whales.
** Despite his FaceHeelTurn in Season 23, he's still shocked by some of Mickey Mouse's atrocities, such as sending him a disembodied heart to scare him or making a [[Film/Mulan2020 Mulan remake]]. He also considers the making of [[Film/SpaceJamANewLegacy Space Jam II]] to be a particular low point of humanity.
** In "The Pandemic Special", he's shocked and speechless when President Garrison burns down the pangolin carrying the cure for the pandemic, despite the action ensuring that [[MeaninglessVillainVictory Randy would get off scott-free for accidentally starting the pandemic]].
* {{Expy}}: Season 23 turns him into one of [[Series/BreakingBad Walter White]], both being scientists who began selling drugs with the help of a partner and justifies it and the horrible crimes he commits to sell the drugs as providing for his family. The only difference is that the drugs Randy sells are legal, and he lacks most of the intelligence Walter has.
* FaceHeelTurn: While Randy was always something of a {{Jerkass}}, his selfishness and immaturity reach their apex in Season 23, where he becomes a monstrously self-centered asshole whose redeeming qualities are gradually outweighed by his own ambitions.
* {{Fetish}}: Randy has some really odd fetishes like Japanese girls puking on each other, bestiality, and so forth. Oh, and murder porn, but every adult in South Park seems to be into that.
* FallenHero: He went from the hero that drove [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Jeff Bezos]] out of South Park in Season 22, into becoming just as amoral, corrupt, and greedy as Bezos, if not more.
* FetishesAreWeird: Randy's numerous bizarre and disturbing fetishes are used to paint him as a perverted moron and deviant, and highlight how he's very much stuck in his [[ManChild teenage years]] despite being well into his middle-age.
* {{Flanderization}}:
** Randy started out as one of the smartest characters on the show. His 'wild side' stemmed from a desire to connect with his son, and he simply failed to grasp the idea of fads changing rapidly, a frequent plot point in ''South Park''. As the series progresses, he evolves into a hyperactive, extremely paranoid and idiotic ManChild.
** Even within his earlier stupid bouts, he was still usually a KnightTemplarParent, genuinely having the best intentions for Stan and only spearheading the same hysteria the other parents succumbed to. From about Season 9 onward however, Randy's motives became more selfish and childish, having his family in collateral damage for whatever fad he takes to and leaving even the other brain-dead residents of South Park dumbfounded by his behavior.
** Season 23 flanderizes him again by upping his selfishness, neglectfulness, and stupidity to insane degrees, essentially turning him into the adult version of Cartman.
* {{Foil}}:
** Stan, the sanest kid, has the craziest parent.
** To his CloserToEarth wife Sharon, see MarsAndVenusGenderContrast.
* TheFriendNobodyLikes: By the time of ''The Streaming Wars'' special, the entire town has become so fed up with his obnoxious behavior that they've all started calling him "[[ObnoxiousEntitledHousewife Karen]]" to his face.
* GeniusDitz: He is a brilliant scientist and is capable of a lot of amazing musical feats (culminating in being Lorde), but otherwise he's an alcoholic with barely any common sense.
* GivingTheSwordToANoob: The nominal noob in "Make Love, not Warcraft", when the Blizzard board members are forced to give him the USB drive of "The Sword of a Thousand Truths" so he can deliver it to his son and defeat the griefer.
-->'''Randy:''' I have a Warcraft character. I'm a noob, but I can log on and get the sword to Stan online.\\
'''Blizzard Board Member:''' We can't trust the Sword of a Thousand Truths to a noob!\\
'''Randy:''' Sounds to me like we don't have a choice! Give me the sword.
* GoodParents: Before his level in jerkass, he was quite a DotingParent who wholeheartedly loved his kids. Later seasons depict him as emotionally abusive and cruel even to his own children, and obsessed with forcing Stan to adopt Randy's toxic masculinity.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:H-W]]
* TheHeavy: Randy serves as this for Season 23. Most of the conflict in the season can be traced back to Randy's antics where commits more and more crimes to preserve his drug business. Even when Santa serves as the FinalBoss for the season, Randy would still be this as his decision to sell cocaine to the adults is what drives the plot for the episode.
* HeelRealization:
** While in prison for the bombings he committed, withdrawal from his weed results in him realizing he's become a monster and been a {{Jerkass}} to his family. He resolves to let himself go to prison and accept the consequences for his behavior, and even after being set free, he resolves to stick to small-scale farming.
** In ''The Pandemic Special'' it seems to have become a downplayed IgnoredEpiphany; Tegridy Farms is still a big business and he humblebrags about how the pandemic has caused his business to expand, but he made the Pandemic Special because he genuinely wanted to help people take their minds off the pandemic and give them a sense of normalcy. When he learns that he had caused the pandemic, while still covering it up, he does genuinely try to cure it.
** It's fully subverted in ''Post Covid'', which shows he doubled down on his old ways after Stan burnt down Tegridy Farms to the ground, and became fully obsessed with giving his weed back to the world. However, the boys changing the past and Stan giving him the last strain of Tegridy left in the BadFuture cause his realization to stick, and he apologizes to Sharon for being a dick.
--->'''Randy:''' Sharon, I'm sorry for the way I acted during the pandemic.\\
'''Sharon:''' You're not sorry, you're just high.\\
'''Randy:''' I'm both.
** It's finally played straight again in ''The Streaming Wars'', where after realizing he's become a Karen he gives up on Tegridy Farms and goes back to his old job.
* HiddenDepths:
** His talent as a musician is impressive as he was in a successful boy band, writes and edits his own song as Lorde, and is a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kY0P6o_FLEk very competent guitar player]], as seen in "Guitar Queer-O".
** As his management of Tegridy Farms shows, he's also fairly knowledgeable of agriculture as he produces a good deal of marijuana that actually becomes fairly popular. If he wasn't always blowing money on some dumb marketing gimmick, he'd likely be very rich from the farm's profits.
* HisOwnWorstEnemy: Season 23 shows that Tegridy Farms would be printing money were it not for Randy's insistence on throwing away money on unnecessary, expensive marketing gimmicks.
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: His idea to make the town more PC and get wholesale foods ended up making everything so expensive that it's no longer possible for the Marshes to live in South Park. As usual Randy blames [[NeverMyFault someone else]] until Caitlyn Jenner beats him up.
* {{Hypocrite}}: Randy is frequently the most hypocritical character in the show. Anytime he makes a political point you can bet he's going to end up resembling what he criticizes.
** He yells at Stan for having an addiction to freemium games while denying any addiction to alcohol.
** In "Goobacks", he supports the future people coming to the present and punishes Stan for calling them "Goobacks," but the second he loses his job to a time immigrant, he becomes the rednecks' de facto spokesman, blurting out the "time slur" himself several times in the process.
** In "About Last Night", Randy spends the entire episode preaching about Obama changing things for the better and assaulting everybody else across town while drunk, especially those who voted for [=McCain=]. When he sobers up the next morning and sees that his house is a wreck and his drunken antics have cost him his job, Randy immediately blames Obama and complains that he should've voted for [=McCain=] instead.
** After joining the PC frat, Randy spends most of Season 19 but especially "Stunning and Brave" harassing everyone who has mildly politically incorrect takes on subjects and accusing them of being bigoted. This is rich coming from the guy who once said the N-word on national television, and who would later go on to become an Andrew Tate-esque frat bro who complained non-stop about woke culture.
** In "Holiday Special", Randy (who used to be a huge Christopher Columbus fan) launches a one man campaign to have Columbus Day cancelled to hide his past. Later in the episode, he exploits a Native American in an attempt to forge a DNA test which he thought would help him PlayTheVictimCard, culminating in him kicking the man out of his house while screaming [[NotHelpingYourCase "get off my land, you piece of shit!"]].
** Even after his HeelFaceTurn in "The Streaming Wars", he keeps this side of him, as he distrusts Steve Black for being "a murderer" (he was framed) even though Randy himself has a body count larger than any other major character, including Winnie-The-Pooh.
* IdiotHoudini: Thus far, Randy doesn't seem to have learned any real lessons from being an idiot. He also tends to get off scot-free whenever his actions are motivated by well-meaning stupidity; it's when he's deliberately being a {{Jerkass}} that he gets struck with LaserGuidedKarma for the most part.
* IgnoredEpiphany: In Season 23, after breaking off his partnership with [=MedMen=] and the Chinese government and vowing to stop being greedy and return Tegridy Farms to its roots, the very next episode has him sell vegetarian burgers made of the unusable parts of weed (which still get people high) and run every other restaurant in South Park out of business by taking away their customers.
* InnocentBigot: If taken out of context, Randy can be seen as even more racist than Cartman.
** In "With Apologies to Jessie Jackson", Randy accidentally blurts out the N-word on ''Wheel of Fortune'', because he genuinely thought it was the correct answer to the puzzle. Stan later tells Tolkien that he wasn't being racist, just stupid.
** In "Holiday Special", while promoting the cancellation of Colombus Day he uses the word "indigenous" to refer to assholes, not knowing what the word really means. Granted, nobody actually corrects him when they hear him saying, allowing him to make an even bigger fool of himself than he already was.
* InsufferableImbecile: Despite being an educated scientist (a geologist, to be exact), he often acts like an incredibly airheaded and selfish {{Manchild}}. His tendency to impulsively engage in crazy antics to satisfy his hedonistic desires caused endless grief for his wife and children, often stubbornly and willfully ignorant to their protests.
* ItsAllAboutMe: In newer episodes, Randy is far more likely to be self-obsessed and selfish, stubbornly refusing to listen to anyone else. In Season 23, he thinks anyone who has the same business idea as him should give it up and let him reap all the profits. Also, whenever the rest of the family makes it clear they don't enjoy living/working on Tegridy Farms and want to go back to their old life, he accuses them of not caring about the family.
* JadedWashout: He was once in a boy band, got fired because he aged out at 19, and was mocked by the town once he returned. He has also had dreams of being a proper rock star that never went anywhere, at least until he became Lorde.
* {{Jerkass}}: At his worst, he can be a spoilt, irrational {{Manchild}} who often disregards his son to erupt into chaos over everything. He's at his worst throughout Season 23 up to ''The Streaming Wars'', where his increased egomania and rampant weed addiction cause his worst traits to take over.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Aside from the insane things he has been a part of, he is a normal, well-meaning father. He can be selfish but he has shown that he genuinely loves his wife and children. This fades away during Season 23, as he grows increasingly selfish and cruel, before he starts [[ZigZaggedTrope zigzagging]] between being a JerkWithAHeartOfGold and a JerkWithAHeartOfJerk as he has numerous {{Heel Realization}}s, then forgets about them after a while, then has another one, rinse and repeat.
* JerkWithAHeartOfJerk: While generally a JerkWithAHeartOfGold, Randy descends into this territory in Season 23. His propensity for get-rich-quick schemes and his general selfishness overwhelm his love for his family with him being downright emotionally abusive toward them at times, and most of his genuine moments of humanity are subverted by him doing something cruel and unethical. He mostly reverts back to his old self after having a HeelRealization in "Midseason Finale", but he doesn't fully get out until "The Streaming Wars".
* JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope: While Randy was always prone to acting like a {{Jerkass}} and causing chaos through his various zany (and often illegal) antics, Season 23 sees him descent into increasingly unethical, almost Cartman-like behavior on the regular. He mostly reverts back to normal after "Midseason Finale", although he remains much more acerbic afterward for a while.
* KarmaHoudini:
** He becomes one of these in Season 23, where he gets away with selling out to the Chinese government by killing Winnie The Pooh, letting them use his weed to frame student protesters, and killing numerous homegrown weed owners to get a monopoly on the weed business, at least until [[KarmaHoudiniWarranty Post Covid...]].
** Played straight and DoubleSubverted in the revised future, where everyone forgives him for starting Covid and, even at the very end of the bad future, taking credit for having sex with the pangolin in every timeline despite it absolving Clyde for being selfish and time traveling specifically to aid Randy's whims as an excuse, and making Kenny's [[EruditeStoner lucidity-induced research]] harder to fill without any bystanders other than Tolkien and Stan, effectively dooming the town even more. Had Stan not thought to do multiple {{Diving Save}}s on Kyle in each timeline while filtering (and later fully repairing) the current one through blackmailing Heather Williams and helping to "cut each other some slack", they would have been stuck there.
* KarmaHoudiniWarranty:
** In "Let Them Eat Goo", him unethically murdering cattle causes him to lose his customers when the Goo Man shows a video tape of it to the whole town, turning everyone against him.
** In ''Post Covid'', his dreams are destroyed when Stan burns down his barn, and he's trapped in a miserable nursing home for decades.
* KarmicButtMonkey: Randy [[TookALevelInJerkass Taking a Level in Jerkass]] following Season 23 is accompanied by people becoming increasingly sick of his antics and him being subject to increased misfortune.
* LargeHam: Randy pretty much embodies this trope. He's prone to melodramatic fits and loud screaming at the drop of a hat.
* LethallyStupid: He even accidentally killed his daughter's boyfriend!
* {{Manchild}}: Randy has the intelligence of an adult, yet the behavior of a child.
** These traits show in his taste for children's programs: he's the only adult thinking "Terrance and Philip" is ActuallyPrettyFunny [[Recap/SouthParkS1E6Death in the first season]], his son surprises him laughing at an episode [[Recap/SouthParkS2E12Clubhouses in the second]], and after having watched a single episode of [[Recap/SouthParkS3E11Chinpokomon "Chinpokomon"]], he feels the sudden urge to [[GottaCatchEmAll catch them all]].
** That being said, his taste in music is standard for someone of his generation, as he hears literal shit when listening to tween wave and doesn't badmouth music from the '70s until the kids start calling it lame.
** "You're Getting Old" gives a darker tone to it, revealing this is a response to him being unhappy with his current life.
* MarsAndVenusGenderContrast: With his wife, Sharon. Sharon is generally far more levelheaded and less impulsive than her husband, with a much more restrained wild side. Increasingly, she becomes the only real adult in the house, with Randy devolving more and more into a man-child.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: He has this reaction after realizing what an ass he's been throughout Season 23.
* NeverMyFault: While he shares this with the other adults, he's by far the worst offender. He almost ''never'' acknowledges his fault in anything, and childishly clings to his own delusions. Subverted in the midseason finale of Season 23, where he realizes that his going to prison is a consequence of his own actions, and after how much of a {{Jerkass}} he's been, he decides to face the consequences with grace. During his trial he apologizes to his family for what he's done (except Shelley, who he forgot exists), and after getting set free he resolves to stick to small-scale farming.
** In the BadFuture he blames Stan for the deaths of Sharon and Shelly, even though it was Randy's obsession with selling weed that drove the whole family towards such extreme circumstances.
* NightmareFetishist: Randy's fetishes are bizarre and disturbing at best. He's expressed a predilection for Japanese girls puking on each other, [[BestialityIsDepraved bestiality]], hentai, and a laundry load of others.
* NotHimself: Downplayed. Much of Randy's [[TookALevelInJerkass increasingly cruel and amoral behavior]] throughout Season 23 is caused by his rampant weed addiction severely impairing his thought process. By his own admission, a lot of it is down to his own natural egotism, but his addiction kept him from seeing how bad he'd gotten until it was nearly too late.
* NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist: In Season 23 he justifies his murders and unethical and underhanded business ventures as him doing desperate things to provide for his family. However, its clear that Tegridy Farms has more than enough money to thrive and his family would be more than happy to leave, but Randy just wants to live his dream of being a weed farmer and is just greedy and wants a monopoly on the business. Also, most of Tegridy Farms' genuine money problems are caused by him spending massive amounts of money to make expensive and unnecessary advertising gimmicks, and he refuses to stop doing so after Sharon points this out to him because of his NeverMyFault tendencies.
* ObnoxiousEntitledHousewife: Randy [[TookALevelInJerkass Taking a Level in Jerkass]] from Season 23 onwards reaches its apex in ''The Streaming Wars'', where he begins acting like and being referred to as a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_(slang) Karen]].
* OhCrap: In "Pandemic Special", when it was reported the creature responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic was a bat, he has this reaction as he remembered he and Mickey Mouse had unprotected sex with one. He has another one of these when it came out that the real creature responsible for the spread of the virus was a pangolin, which he and Mickey ''also'' had sex with.
* OldShame: InUniverse. He joined a boy band before finishing high school.
* OmnidisciplinaryScientist: {{Parodied|Trope}} or {{subverted|Trope}}. A few episodes ("Spontaneous Combustion," "T.M.I.") have him take on non-geology jobs on the ground that he is a "scientist." In the first case it's {{lampshade|Hanging}}d, though he actually turns out to be competent; in the latter it's not, but he does poorly. "Die Hippie, Die" has him volunteering in Cartman's plan to dig through the hippies because he is the only scientist the city has.
* OnceDoneNeverForgotten: In "With Apologies to Jesse Jackson", he is forever known for saying the n-word on ''national television''.
* PapaWolf: In "Die Hippie, Die", "Pee", and "Broadway Bro Down".
* ParentalFavoritism: While Randy often over-involves himself in Stan's life, he has little interest in Shelley, at one point even forgetting her as he lists his family.
* ParentsAsPeople: Despite his stupidity and recklessness, he means well for both his kids.
* ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything: Randy is supposed to be a geologist, but rare is the time we actually see him doing any geological work. Instead, we see him trying to set the world's record for taking the biggest crap, aiming to become a TV chef, giving himself testicular cancer so he can smoke medical marijuana, etc.
* PornStache: He has a mustache. Apparently anyone who consumes his semen will develop the same mustache. [[FridgeBrilliance This would explain why Randy can instantly recognize the taste of cum]].
* ProtagonistJourneyToVillain: Randy is a central character in season 23, possibly the main character of the show at that season. The show shows him going from a jerkass that is trying to make a living with farm life to an outright amoral sell-out who is willing to do acts of terrorism and murder to protect his bottom line.
* PsychopathicManchild: He develops into this in Season 23. He's just as childish as ever, but also far more willing to commit acts of violence. He mellows out after "Season Finale", though he's still more of a {{Jerkass}} than he was prior.
* RabbleRouser: In a more literal case than most, he has managed to start a rabble at least once by shouting "Rabble!" a few times.
* RunningGag: His pants falling when he gets drunk. There's also him getting arrested by the cops for picking a fight with the people who root for the other sports teams.
* SadClown: As revealed in "You're Getting Old", Randy is actually a very depressed person and much of his childish behavior is his way of coping with it.
* SarcasmMode: In "Sarcastaball", he is diagnosed with a mental condition that causes everything he says to be a sarcastic comment.
* SanitySlippage:
** "A Nightmare on [=FaceTime=]" makes it very clear he's lost it.
** Season 23 shows that he's utterly lost it, with the first episode alone having him bomb homegrown weed owners in an act of domestic terrorism and seriously wondering if he is actually a towel. "Season Finale" reveals that this was partially a result of him repeatedly using his own weed, and he gets better after his HeelRealization.
* SelectiveObliviousness: Randy constantly ignores that his family is very much annoyed with his latest ZanyScheme, to the point of actively deluding himself into believing that they're totally on board with it.
* SeriousBusiness: Whatever the focus of the episode is, he's taking it waaaay too seriously.
* ShamelessSelfPromoter: He takes every opportunity possible to sell his weed in Season 23 no matter how unethical or counterproductive (read: expensive) it is.
* SnapBack: Quits/gets fired at least 4 times. Even his seasons-long stint as a weed farmer ends with him going back to his old job.
* SpotlightStealingSquad: So much so that he became TheProtagonist of Season 23. Even the opening theme was changed to reflect Randy and Tegridy Farms for the season's first six episodes. Randy ''finally'' took a backseat for the next three episodes, only for the season finale to focus on him again.
** He is also part of one with Butters for Season 25, being the only adult to have two episodes focused on him while the other adults (PC Principal; Liane; Mr. Mackey; Gerald) only had one episode revolving around them.
* StageNames: He performed his interpretation of Tween Wave music as "Steamy Ray Vaughn".
* StatusQuoIsGod: The Streaming Wars 2-parter made it seem like Randy would quit Tegridy Farms and go back to his geology job after realizing how far he'd sunk. Season 26 shows he's restarted the farm once more.
* TheStoner: On top of his alcoholism, later seasons have Randy develop an addiction to marijuana. Throughout his ownership of Tegridy Farms, Randy frequently samples his own supply and spends a good chunk of the time buzzed out of his mind. At least part of his increasingly {{Jerkass}} behavior throughout Season 23 is because he's utterly blitzed out on weed and not thinking straight.
* StrangerInAFamiliarLand: A recurring arc throughout the series is Randy feeling out-of-touch with South Park's rapidly changing culture, especially during the 2020s where he finds himself flustered with the changing definitions of masculinity.
* StrawCharacter: Randy is frequently used as a strawman to satirize political views or talking points the writers disagree with. Randy's role has shifted over the years, having evolved from a smug and preening limousine liberal into an Andrew Tate fanboy who despises "wokeness". The duality of his morals are showcased in "About Last Night" when he spends the 2008 election night singing the praises of Obama, only to instantly turn against him overnight when he doesn't magically solve all his problems and his excessive partying in his honor only get him robbed and fired.
* SupremeChef: In "Crème Fraiche", he's shown to be a very talented chef, being capable of replicating dishes he sees on cooking shows. Much to the chagrin of his family, who have to clean up the resulting massive pile of dishes. However, it's implied that his food still doesn't ''taste'' very good, and he's just imitating the flashy "gourmet" style popular on cooking shows without really understanding it.
* TooDumbToLive: Has become this post {{Flanderization}}, but his biggest moment comes in "Medicinal Fried Chicken" where he gives himself testicular cancer just to be legally qualified to have medical marijuana.
* TookALevelInDumbass: Takes a level every episode he appears in, and probably the ones where he doesn't appear, too. Given his first ever appearance showed that he didn't know how to read a seismograph, that's quite an acheivement.
* TookALevelInJerkass:
** At the beginning of the series, Randy is one of the most level-headed adults and was much more laid-back than Sharon. However, he became increasingly self-absorbed and immature as he acts out over his dissatisfaction with his life, constantly rabble-rousing and dragging his family along in his own moronic efforts to go along with the newest fad.
** He takes another level in Season 23, where he becomes obsessed with [[{{Greed}} profiting off of Tegridy Farms]], and commits an act of domestic terrorism by blowing up houses with homegrown marijuana and killing numerous people to take out the competition, and brutally garroting Winnie the Pooh to curry favor with the Chinese government. He also starts to neglect his family, and even emotionally manipulates Stan into wearing a Tegridy Farms shirt at a concert in "Band in China", and accuses them of not caring about the family whenever they make it clear they hate Tegridy Farms. [[HeelRealization He realizes how much of an ass he's been]] in "Season Finale", and by "The Pandemic Special", he's mainly reverted to his old self.
** During the "Streaming Wars" two-parter Randy hits his lowest, having grown so insufferable and entitled that everyone in town starts calling him "[[ObnoxiousEntitledHousewife Karen]]" straight to his face. When Randy sees a video of himself acting melodramatic, he realizes that his character has taken a turn for the worse and gives up on being a weed farmer.
* TookALevelInKindness: In "The Streaming Wars 2", after realizing how much of an ass he's been for the past few seasons and giving up on Tegridy Farms.
* ToxicFriendInfluence: He's an alcoholic, and none of his friends try to keep him from getting drunk (even encouraging him on occasion).
* TrademarkFavoriteFood: His preferred beer brand is Pabst Blue Ribbon, and ever since [[Recap/SouthParkS18E2GlutenFreeEbola the gluten scare]], he has been exclusively drinking gluten-free beer.
* {{Tuckerization}}: Parker named Randy after his own father.
* UnfazedEveryman: His initial characterization was of a laid-back guy who reacted to the bizarre events around him with a blasé, unfazed attitude. [[CharacterizationMarchesOn This quickly changed.]]
* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: Multiple times, starting in his debut in "Volcano", where even though he saved South Park from the titular volcano, he ended up accidentally getting Denver engulfed in the process. He reaches his peak in "Pandemic Special", he and Mickey Mouse unknowingly caused the spread of COVID-19 by having sex with a pangolin, which starts ''the whole'' pandemic, leading to the deaths of millions of people, the destruction of many livelihoods, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and the dissolution of the boys' friendship]].
* VillainProtagonist: He would serve as this for Season 23 which mostly focuses on Randy's committing crimes to keep his business afloat.
* WackyParentSeriousChild: To Stan. Randy is an over-the-top, sex-crazed, alcoholic and drug addict, while Stan is the StraightMan who is [[WiseBeyondTheirYears wise beyond his years]].
* WhatHaveIBecome: Randy eventually realizes how low he's sunk when he sees a viral video of himself looking and behaving like a stereotypical Karen. This is the wakeup call he needs to finally liquidate Tegridy Farms and go back to his geology job.
* WholesomeCrossdresser: As revealed in "[[Recap/SouthParkS18E2GlutenFreeEbola Gluten-Free Ebola]]" and "[[Recap/SouthParkS18E3TheCissy The Cissy]]", he has a double life as Music/{{Lorde}}, using AutoTune to make himself sound like a teenage girl.
-->'''Clyde:''' Lorde sucks.\\
'''Jimmy:''' Yeah, she isn't as hot in person.
[[/folder]]
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 1,117 (click to see context) from:
[[center: [- [[Characters/SouthPark Main Page]] | [[Characters/SouthParkTheBoys The Boys]] ([[Characters/SouthParkStanMarsh Stan Marsh]], [[Characters/SouthParkKyleBroflovski Kyle Broflovski]], [[Characters/SouthParkEricCartman Eric Cartman]], [[Characters/SouthParkKennyMcCormick Kenny McCormick]]) | [[Characters/SouthParkOtherStudents Other Students]] ([[Characters/SouthParkButtersStotch Butters Stotch]], [[Characters/SouthParkWendyTestaburger Wendy Testaburger]], [[Characters/SouthParkHeidiTurner Heidi Turner]]) | [[Characters/SouthParkAntagonists Antagonists]] ([[Characters/SouthParkAntagonistsBigBads Big Bads]], [[Characters/SouthParkAntagonistsSecondaryAndMinor Secondary and Minor]], [[Characters/SouthParkAntagonistsJerksAndBullies Jerks and Bullies]]) | [[Characters/SouthParkFamilyMembers Family Members]] ('''Randy Marsh''') | [[Characters/SouthParkElementarySchoolStaff Elementary School Staff]] ([[Characters/SouthParkHerbertGarrison Herbert Garrison]], [[Characters/SouthParkPCPrincipal PC Principal]]) | [[Characters/SouthParkOtherRecurringCharacters Other Recurring Characters]] | [[Characters/SouthParkTheStickOfTruth The Stick of Truth]] | [[Characters/SouthParkTheFracturedButWhole The Fractured but Whole]] -] ]]
!Randy Marsh
[[quoteright:320:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/randy-marsh_8649.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:320:''"Stanley, you call your friend an asshole this instant!"'']]
->''"Stan? '''Staaan?'''"''
->'''Voiced by:''' [[Creator/TreyParkerAndMattStone Trey Parker]]
->'''Debut:''' "[[Recap/SouthParkS1E3Volcano Volcano]]"
Stan's dad, a geologist (and thus the only non-[[MadScientist mad]] scientist in South Park; sometimes) turned cannabis farmer. Deficient in common sense, but makes up for it with great passion and enthusiasm for... well, whatever happens to be the focus of the episode. The de facto leader of the town whenever they face a threat. He tends to be the main character in storylines involving the adults of South Park, and thus is the adult figure that most interacts with the boys in the main plot.
----
[[foldercontrol]]
[[folder:A-L]]
* AbusiveParents: If there was any doubt before, he's become very much this of the emotional kind once the family moves to Tegridy Farms. He constantly belittles his family for not wanting to be involved in the business and ignores their own activities and needs in favour of getting high. It gets to the point where Stan and Shelley are positively gleeful about the prospect of Randy being given a lengthy prison sentence.
* TheAlcoholic: The plot of "Bloody Mary" focuses on him going to A.A., though he's less an "alcoholic who needs to drink constantly" as "an idiot who also drinks too much." Since then, he's slightly better and doesn't drive while drunk, but he does often make excuses for his drinking and is shown drunk on several occasions.
* AlcoholicParent: Subverted. Randy likes to drink with friends, but is only seen drunk in a couple episodes. In one episode he gets a DUI, has to attend AA meetings, where instead of taking responsibility and controlling his behavior, he is told he has a "disease." At the end of the episode, he possibly learns discipline and self-control, but it doesn't seem to stick.
* AllMenArePerverts: He's very into porn, masturbating and has some very disturbing fetishes.
* AscendedExtra: Originally he was just Stan's dad, but nowadays it's not unheard of to have entire episodes focused on Randy with the boys relegated to background characters.
* AmazinglyEmbarrassingParents: The show's crowning example of this trope, when accounting for the other degrees of uselessness of the adults.
* TheAtoner: Near the end of Season 19, when he finally came to realize that South Park's gentrification was doing more harm than good (with some help from a beatdown courtesy of Caitlyn Jenner), he pledged to help undo the damage he helped cause.
* AuthorAvatar: Trey Parker has said that Randy has become more prominent, due to the fact that he has started to get older and identifies with the character more.
* AxCrazy:
** In "T.M.I." he goes insane and is the spearhead of the movement to take over the Federal Express.
** Taken UpToEleven in Season 23, where he becomes increasingly fixated on his Tegridy Farms profits, to the point that he starts committing murder in an effort to help boost sales.
* BecameTheirOwnAntithesis: In Season 22 Randy fancied himself and Towelie to be the sole legal drug company with integrity, and crusaders against big business. In Season 23, he becomes just as unethical as the other drug companies, if not more so.
* BecomingTheMask: In "Sarcastaball," he loses control over his ability to be sarcastic and can't stop doing it. Music/{{Lorde}} was originally just an excuse to use the girls bathroom.
* BigBad: Of Season 23, [[spoiler: until he has a HeelRealization in "Season Finale".]]
* BigBadSlippage: He started off a simple Marijuana peddler, but his greed starts consuming him making him commit unethical crimes to increase his business and effectively becomes the BigBad for Season 23.
* BigNo: Does [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJAeD1f2YnI Picard's]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGI1IHuNy2Y Vader's]], with the sound taken directly from ''Film/StarTrekFirstContact'' and ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith''.
* BigOMG: He gets two separate Big [=OMGs=] when he realizes every senior citizen in town is driving at the same time.
* BreakoutCharacter: Randy has become increasingly more important lately due to a mix of popularity and Trey Parker's identifying with Randy more as he gets older.
* BumblingDad: The king of this trope.
* ButtMonkey: Seems to have gained this status to a certain extent in Season 21, where more and more people view him with contempt and regard his antics strictly as being immature and absurd, and treat him accordingly. Sharon even seems to call him out on his selfish behavior much more often.
* CatchPhrase: "Stan? ''Staaan''?", "Hey, Sharon," "(Oh my) Gawl!", "Well, ''that'' sucks", "Score!", [[LamarckWasRight and a few of his son's]].
** In Season 23, he gains a new one, "Hey, ''fuck you.''"
*** Also "It just so happens" when he finds a new chance to sell his weed.
* CaughtWithYourPantsDown: In the episode "Overlogging" Randy has gone for weeks without masturbating to internet porn, eventually near the end he sneaks into the camp's computer room, looks at a bunch of perverted things, and eventually ejaculates all over the room, everyone comes in thinking he was grunting in pain and with his pants down, he tells them that he was doing that because "a ghost was attacking him and left his ectoplasm everywhere".
* CerebusRetcon: "You're Getting Old" sheds some very harsh light on Randy's zany moments. It turns out the reason he's been acting increasingly bizarre is because he's suffering depression and wants to distract himself from his humdrum extistence.
* CharacterizationMarchesOn: He used to be the more laid back of the Marshes earlier on, and one of the saner adults overall. Now...not so much...
* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Especially during the obsession phases.
* CorruptCorporateExecutive: In Season 23, after Tegridy Farms becomes a successful weed company and a major corporation, he becomes greedy and unethical, committing countless murders for Tegridy to thrive and engaging in numerous unethical business ventures, like selling vegetarian burgers made out of the unusable parts of weed to the citizens of South Park and selling weed to the Chinese government so they can plant them on student protesters to arrest them.
* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: Despite his dim-witted nature, he's demonstrated multiple times to be a highly competent brawler.
* ADateWithRosiePalms: A major part of "Overlogging" is the fact that he wants to masturbate, but can't without Internet porn. In Cream Fraiche, he masturbates to cooking shows. ItMakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext.
* DeadpanSnarker: Speeds UpTo11 in Sarcastaball faster than a jet.
* DirtyCoward: In "Fantastic Easter Special", he [[ItMakesSenseInContext gets captured and interrogated by the American Catholic League's ninjas over the location of a rabbit, which he gave to his son to hide in a good place]]. When they ask him where it is, he responds:
-->I don't know, and even if I did know then... I'd probably just tell you because I don't want to be here anymore.
* DiscOneFinalBoss: Though it appears that Randy will become the BigBad for Season 23, he gets a HeelRealization in "Season Finale" where he reforms and becomes OutOfFocus for the rest of the season, while a [[TheBigBadShuffle Big Bad Shuffle]] will occur between Heather Swanson and Clark Malkinson and eventually Santa Clause becomes the FinalBoss.
* DotingParent: Even at some of his least sane moments, he absolutely adores both his kids and often goes to outrageous lengths whenever he thinks they need help, [[UnwantedAssistance even if they'd disagree,]] [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} usually for good reason.]]
* {{Expy}}: Season 23 turns him into one of [[Series/BreakingBad Walter White]], both being scientists who began selling drugs with the help of a partner and justifies it and the horrible crimes he commits to sell the drugs as providing for his family. The only difference is that the drugs Randy sells are legal, and he lacks most of the intelligence Walter has.
* {{Fetish}}: Randy has some really odd fetishes like Japanese girls puking on each other, bestiality and so forth. Oh, and murder porn, but every adult in South Park seems to be into that.
* FallenHero: He went from the hero that drove [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Jeff Bezos]] out of South Park in Season 22, into becoming just as amoral, corrupt, and greedy as Bezos, if not more.
* {{Flanderization}}:
** Randy started out as one of the smartest characters on the show. His 'wild side' stemmed from a desire to connect with his son, and he simply failed to grasp the idea of fads changing rapidly, a frequent plot point in ''South Park''. As the series progresses, he evolves into a hyperactive, extremely paranoid and idiotic ManChild.
** Even within his earlier stupid bouts, he was still usually a KnightTemplarParent, genuinely having the best intentions for Stan and only spearheading the same hysteria the other parents succumbed to. From about Season 9 onward however, Randy's motives became more selfish and childish, having his family in collateral damage for whatever fad he takes to and leaving even the other brain dead residents of South Park dumbfounded by his behavior.
* {{Foil}}:
** Stan, the sanest kid, has the craziest parent.
** To his CloserToEarth wife Sharon, see MarsAndVenusGenderContrast.
* GeniusDitz: He is a brilliant scientist and is capable of a lot of amazing musical feats (culminating in being Lorde), but otherwise he's an alcoholic with barely any common sense.
* GivingTheSwordToANoob: The [[TropeNamer nominal]] noob.
* GoodParents: Despite his [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} eccentricity]] and BumblingDad status, he deeply cares about Stan and Shelly and will go out of his way to save them when they're being endangered.
* TheHeavy: Randy serves as this for Season 23. Most of the conflict in the season can be traced back to Randy's antics where commits more and more crimes to preserve his drug business. Even when Santa serves as the FinalBoss for the season, Randy would still be this as his decision to sell cocaine to the adults is what drives the plot for the episode.
* HeelRealization: While in prison for the bombings he committed, withdrawal from his weed results in him realizing he's become a monster and been a {{Jerkass}} to his family. He resolves to let himself go to prison and accept the consequences for his behavior, and even after being set free he resolves to stick to small-scale farming.
* HiddenDepths: His talent as a musician is impressive as he was in a successful boy band, writes and edits his own song as Lorde, and is a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kY0P6o_FLEk very competent guitar player]], as seen in "Guitar Queer-O".
* HisOwnWorstEnemy: Season 23 shows that Tegridy Farms would be printing money were it not for Randy's insistence on throwing away money on unnecessary, expensive marketing gimmicks.
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: His idea to make the town more PC and get wholesale foods ended up making everything so expensive that it's no longer possible for the Marshes to live in South Park. As usual Randy blames [[NeverMyFault someone else]] until Caitlyn Jenner beats him up.
* {{Hypocrite}}: Randy is frequently the most hypocritical character in the show.
* IdiotHoudini: Thus far, Randy doesn't seem to have learned any real lessons from being an idiot.
* IgnoredEpiphany: In Season 23, after breaking off his partnership with [=MedMen=] and the Chinese government and vowing to stop being greedy and return Tegridy Farms to its roots, the very next episode has him sell vegetarian burgers made of the unusable parts of weed (which still get people high) and run every other restaurant in South Park out of business by taking away their customers.
* ItsAllAboutMe: In newer episodes, Randy is far more likely to be self-obsessed and selfish, stubbornly refusing to listen to anyone else. In Season 23, he thinks anyone who has the same business idea as him should give it up and let him reap all the profits. Also, whenever the rest of the family makes it clear they don't enjoy living/working on Tegridy Farms and want to go back to their old life, he accuses them of not caring about the family.
* JadedWashout: He was once in a boy band, got fired because he aged out at 19, and was mocked by the town once he returned. He has also had dreams of being a proper rock star that never went anywhere.
* {{Jerkass}}: At his worst, he can be a spoiled, irrational ManChild who often disregards his son to erupt into chaos over everything.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Aside from his the insane things he has been a part of, he is a normal, well-meaning father. He can be selfish but he has shown that he genuinely loves his wife and children.
* KarmaHoudini: He becomes one of these in Season 23, where he gets away with selling out to the Chinese government by killing Winnie The Pooh, letting them use his weed to frame student protesters, and killing numerous homegrown weed owners to get a monopoly on the weed business.
* KarmaHoudiniWarranty: In “Let Them Eat Goo”, him unethically murdering cattle causes him to lose his customers when the Goo Man shows a video tape of it to the whole town, turning everyone against him.
* LargeHam: Randy pretty much embodies this trope.
* LethallyStupid: He even accidentally killed his daughter’s boyfriend!
[[/folder]]
[[folder:M-Z]]
* ManChild: Randy has the intelligence of an adult, yet the behavior of a child. "You're Getting Old" reveals that this is a response to him being unhappy with his current life.
* MarsAndVenusGenderContrast: With his wife, Sharon. Sharon is generally far more levelheaded and less impulsive than her husband, with a much more restrained wild side. Increasingly, she becomes the only real adult in the house, with Randy devolving more and more into a man-child.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: He has this reaction after realizing what an ass he's been throughout Season 23.
* NeverLiveItDown: An InUniverse example happens to him in the episode "With Apologies to Jesse Jackson", when he is forever known as "The 'Nigger' Guy" when he says the n-word on the game show "The Wheel of Fortune" on ''National TV''.
* NeverMyFault: While he shares this with the other adults, he's by far the worst offender. He almost NEVER acknowledges his fault in anything, and childishly clings to his own delusions. Subverted in the midseason finale of Season 23, where he realizes that him going to prison is a consequence of his own actions, and after how much of a {{Jerkass}} he's been, he decides to face the consequences with grace. During his trial he apologizes to his family for what he's done (except Shelley, who he forgot exists), and after getting set free he resolves to stick to small-scale farming.
* NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist: In Season 23 he justifies his murders and unethical and underhanded business ventures as him doing desperate things to provide for his family. However, its clear that Tegridy Farms has more than enough money to thrive and his family would be more than happy to leave, but Randy just wants to live his dream of being a weed farmer and is just greedy and wants a monopoly on the business. Also, most of Tegridy Farms’ genuine money problems are caused by him spending massive amounts of money to make expensive and unnecessary advertising gimmicks, and he refuses to stop doing so after Sharon points this out to him because of his NeverMyFault tendencies.
* OldShame: InUniverse. He joined a boy band before finishing high school.
* OmnidisciplinaryScientist: {{Parodied}} or {{Subverted}}. A few episodes ("Spontaneous Combustion," "T.M.I.") have him take on non-geology jobs on the ground that he is a "scientist." In the first case it's {{Lampshaded}}, though he actually turns out to be competent; in the latter it's not, but he does poorly. "Die Hippie, Die" has him volunteering in Cartman's plan to dig through the hippies because he is the only scientist the city has.
* PapaWolf: In "Die Hippie, Die", "Pee", and "Broadway Bro Down".
* ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything: Randy is supposed to be a geologist, but rare is the time we actually see him doing any geological work. Instead, we see him trying to set the world's record for taking the biggest crap, aiming to become a TV chef, giving himself testicular cancer so he can smoke medical marijuana, etc.
* PornStache: He has a mustache.
* ProtagonistJourneyToVillain: Randy is a central character in season 23, possibly the main character of the show at that season. The show shows him going from a jerkass that is trying to make a living with farm life to an outright amoral sell out who is willing to do acts of terrorism and murder to protect his bottom line.
* RabbleRouser: In a more literal case than most, he has managed to start a rabble at least once by shouting "Rabble!" a few times.
* RunningGag: His pants falling when he gets drunk.
* SarcasmMode: In "Sarcastaball", he is diagnosed with a mental condition that causes everything he says to be a sarcastic comment.
* SanitySlippage:
** "A Nightmare on FaceTime" makes it very clear he's lost it.
** Season 23 shows that he's utterly lost it, with the first episode alone having him bomb homegrown weed owners in an act of domestic terrorism and seriously wondering if he is actually a towel.
* SeriousBusiness: Whatever the focus of the episode is, he's taking it waaaay too seriously.
* ShamelessSelfPromoter: He takes every opportunity possible to sell his weed in Season 23 no matter how unethical or counterproductive (read: expensive) it is.
* SnapBack: Quits/gets fired at least 4 times.
* StageNames: He performed his interpretation of Tween Wave music as "Steamy Ray Vaughn".
* SupremeChef: In "Creme Fraiche", he's shown to be a very talented chef, being capable of replicating dishes he sees on cooking shows. Much to the chagrin of his family, who have to clean up the resulting massive pile of dishes. However, its implied that his food still doesn't ''taste'' very good, and he's just imitating the flashy "gourmet" style popular on cooking shows without really understanding it.
* TooDumbToLive: Has become this post {{Flanderization}}, but his biggest moment comes in "Medicinal Fried Chicken" where he gives himself testicular cancer just to be legally qualified to have medical marijuana.
* TookALevelInDumbass: Takes a level every episode he appears in, and probably the ones where he doesn't appear, too.
* TookALevelInJerkass: In Season 23, where he becomes obsessed with [[{{Greed}} profiting off of Tegridy Farms]], and commits an act of domestic terrorism by blowing up houses with homegrown marijuana and killing numerous people to take out the competition, and brutally garroting Winnie the Pooh to curry favor with the Chinese government. He also starts to neglect his family, and even emotionally manipulates Stan into wearing a Tegridy Farms shirt at a concert in "Band in China", and accuses them of not caring about the family whenever they make it clear they hate Tegridy Farms.
* ToxicFriendInfluence: He's an alcoholic, and none of his friends try to keep him from getting drunk (even encouraging him on occasion).
* TrademarkFavoriteFood: His preferred beer brand is Pabst Blue Ribbon, and ever since [[Recap/SouthParkS18E2GlutenFreeEbola the gluten scare]], he has been exclusively drinking gluten-free beer.
* {{Tuckerization}}: Parker named Randy after his own father.
* VillainProtagonist: He would serve as this for Season 23 where it mostly focuses on Randy's committing crimes to keep his business afloat.
* WackyParentSeriousChild: To Stan. Randy is an over-the-top, sex-crazed, alcoholic and drug addict, while Stan is the StraightMan who is [[WiseBeyondTheirYears wise beyond his years]].
* WholesomeCrossdresser: As revealed in "[[Recap/SouthParkS18E2GlutenFreeEbola Gluten-Free Ebola]]" and "[[Recap/SouthParkS18E3TheCissy The Cissy]]", he has a double life as Music/{{Lorde}}, using AutoTune to make himself sound like a teenage girl.
-->'''Clyde:''' Lorde sucks.\\
'''Jimmy:''' Yeah, she isn't as hot in person.
[[/folder]]
!Randy Marsh
[[quoteright:320:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/randy-marsh_8649.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:320:''"Stanley, you call your friend an asshole this instant!"'']]
->''"Stan? '''Staaan?'''"''
->'''Voiced by:''' [[Creator/TreyParkerAndMattStone Trey Parker]]
->'''Debut:''' "[[Recap/SouthParkS1E3Volcano Volcano]]"
Stan's dad, a geologist (and thus the only non-[[MadScientist mad]] scientist in South Park; sometimes) turned cannabis farmer. Deficient in common sense, but makes up for it with great passion and enthusiasm for... well, whatever happens to be the focus of the episode. The de facto leader of the town whenever they face a threat. He tends to be the main character in storylines involving the adults of South Park, and thus is the adult figure that most interacts with the boys in the main plot.
----
[[foldercontrol]]
[[folder:A-L]]
* AbusiveParents: If there was any doubt before, he's become very much this of the emotional kind once the family moves to Tegridy Farms. He constantly belittles his family for not wanting to be involved in the business and ignores their own activities and needs in favour of getting high. It gets to the point where Stan and Shelley are positively gleeful about the prospect of Randy being given a lengthy prison sentence.
* TheAlcoholic: The plot of "Bloody Mary" focuses on him going to A.A., though he's less an "alcoholic who needs to drink constantly" as "an idiot who also drinks too much." Since then, he's slightly better and doesn't drive while drunk, but he does often make excuses for his drinking and is shown drunk on several occasions.
* AlcoholicParent: Subverted. Randy likes to drink with friends, but is only seen drunk in a couple episodes. In one episode he gets a DUI, has to attend AA meetings, where instead of taking responsibility and controlling his behavior, he is told he has a "disease." At the end of the episode, he possibly learns discipline and self-control, but it doesn't seem to stick.
* AllMenArePerverts: He's very into porn, masturbating and has some very disturbing fetishes.
* AscendedExtra: Originally he was just Stan's dad, but nowadays it's not unheard of to have entire episodes focused on Randy with the boys relegated to background characters.
* AmazinglyEmbarrassingParents: The show's crowning example of this trope, when accounting for the other degrees of uselessness of the adults.
* TheAtoner: Near the end of Season 19, when he finally came to realize that South Park's gentrification was doing more harm than good (with some help from a beatdown courtesy of Caitlyn Jenner), he pledged to help undo the damage he helped cause.
* AuthorAvatar: Trey Parker has said that Randy has become more prominent, due to the fact that he has started to get older and identifies with the character more.
* AxCrazy:
** In "T.M.I." he goes insane and is the spearhead of the movement to take over the Federal Express.
** Taken UpToEleven in Season 23, where he becomes increasingly fixated on his Tegridy Farms profits, to the point that he starts committing murder in an effort to help boost sales.
* BecameTheirOwnAntithesis: In Season 22 Randy fancied himself and Towelie to be the sole legal drug company with integrity, and crusaders against big business. In Season 23, he becomes just as unethical as the other drug companies, if not more so.
* BecomingTheMask: In "Sarcastaball," he loses control over his ability to be sarcastic and can't stop doing it. Music/{{Lorde}} was originally just an excuse to use the girls bathroom.
* BigBad: Of Season 23, [[spoiler: until he has a HeelRealization in "Season Finale".]]
* BigBadSlippage: He started off a simple Marijuana peddler, but his greed starts consuming him making him commit unethical crimes to increase his business and effectively becomes the BigBad for Season 23.
* BigNo: Does [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJAeD1f2YnI Picard's]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGI1IHuNy2Y Vader's]], with the sound taken directly from ''Film/StarTrekFirstContact'' and ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith''.
* BigOMG: He gets two separate Big [=OMGs=] when he realizes every senior citizen in town is driving at the same time.
* BreakoutCharacter: Randy has become increasingly more important lately due to a mix of popularity and Trey Parker's identifying with Randy more as he gets older.
* BumblingDad: The king of this trope.
* ButtMonkey: Seems to have gained this status to a certain extent in Season 21, where more and more people view him with contempt and regard his antics strictly as being immature and absurd, and treat him accordingly. Sharon even seems to call him out on his selfish behavior much more often.
* CatchPhrase: "Stan? ''Staaan''?", "Hey, Sharon," "(Oh my) Gawl!", "Well, ''that'' sucks", "Score!", [[LamarckWasRight and a few of his son's]].
** In Season 23, he gains a new one, "Hey, ''fuck you.''"
*** Also "It just so happens" when he finds a new chance to sell his weed.
* CaughtWithYourPantsDown: In the episode "Overlogging" Randy has gone for weeks without masturbating to internet porn, eventually near the end he sneaks into the camp's computer room, looks at a bunch of perverted things, and eventually ejaculates all over the room, everyone comes in thinking he was grunting in pain and with his pants down, he tells them that he was doing that because "a ghost was attacking him and left his ectoplasm everywhere".
* CerebusRetcon: "You're Getting Old" sheds some very harsh light on Randy's zany moments. It turns out the reason he's been acting increasingly bizarre is because he's suffering depression and wants to distract himself from his humdrum extistence.
* CharacterizationMarchesOn: He used to be the more laid back of the Marshes earlier on, and one of the saner adults overall. Now...not so much...
* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Especially during the obsession phases.
* CorruptCorporateExecutive: In Season 23, after Tegridy Farms becomes a successful weed company and a major corporation, he becomes greedy and unethical, committing countless murders for Tegridy to thrive and engaging in numerous unethical business ventures, like selling vegetarian burgers made out of the unusable parts of weed to the citizens of South Park and selling weed to the Chinese government so they can plant them on student protesters to arrest them.
* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: Despite his dim-witted nature, he's demonstrated multiple times to be a highly competent brawler.
* ADateWithRosiePalms: A major part of "Overlogging" is the fact that he wants to masturbate, but can't without Internet porn. In Cream Fraiche, he masturbates to cooking shows. ItMakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext.
* DeadpanSnarker: Speeds UpTo11 in Sarcastaball faster than a jet.
* DirtyCoward: In "Fantastic Easter Special", he [[ItMakesSenseInContext gets captured and interrogated by the American Catholic League's ninjas over the location of a rabbit, which he gave to his son to hide in a good place]]. When they ask him where it is, he responds:
-->I don't know, and even if I did know then... I'd probably just tell you because I don't want to be here anymore.
* DiscOneFinalBoss: Though it appears that Randy will become the BigBad for Season 23, he gets a HeelRealization in "Season Finale" where he reforms and becomes OutOfFocus for the rest of the season, while a [[TheBigBadShuffle Big Bad Shuffle]] will occur between Heather Swanson and Clark Malkinson and eventually Santa Clause becomes the FinalBoss.
* DotingParent: Even at some of his least sane moments, he absolutely adores both his kids and often goes to outrageous lengths whenever he thinks they need help, [[UnwantedAssistance even if they'd disagree,]] [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} usually for good reason.]]
* {{Expy}}: Season 23 turns him into one of [[Series/BreakingBad Walter White]], both being scientists who began selling drugs with the help of a partner and justifies it and the horrible crimes he commits to sell the drugs as providing for his family. The only difference is that the drugs Randy sells are legal, and he lacks most of the intelligence Walter has.
* {{Fetish}}: Randy has some really odd fetishes like Japanese girls puking on each other, bestiality and so forth. Oh, and murder porn, but every adult in South Park seems to be into that.
* FallenHero: He went from the hero that drove [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Jeff Bezos]] out of South Park in Season 22, into becoming just as amoral, corrupt, and greedy as Bezos, if not more.
* {{Flanderization}}:
** Randy started out as one of the smartest characters on the show. His 'wild side' stemmed from a desire to connect with his son, and he simply failed to grasp the idea of fads changing rapidly, a frequent plot point in ''South Park''. As the series progresses, he evolves into a hyperactive, extremely paranoid and idiotic ManChild.
** Even within his earlier stupid bouts, he was still usually a KnightTemplarParent, genuinely having the best intentions for Stan and only spearheading the same hysteria the other parents succumbed to. From about Season 9 onward however, Randy's motives became more selfish and childish, having his family in collateral damage for whatever fad he takes to and leaving even the other brain dead residents of South Park dumbfounded by his behavior.
* {{Foil}}:
** Stan, the sanest kid, has the craziest parent.
** To his CloserToEarth wife Sharon, see MarsAndVenusGenderContrast.
* GeniusDitz: He is a brilliant scientist and is capable of a lot of amazing musical feats (culminating in being Lorde), but otherwise he's an alcoholic with barely any common sense.
* GivingTheSwordToANoob: The [[TropeNamer nominal]] noob.
* GoodParents: Despite his [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} eccentricity]] and BumblingDad status, he deeply cares about Stan and Shelly and will go out of his way to save them when they're being endangered.
* TheHeavy: Randy serves as this for Season 23. Most of the conflict in the season can be traced back to Randy's antics where commits more and more crimes to preserve his drug business. Even when Santa serves as the FinalBoss for the season, Randy would still be this as his decision to sell cocaine to the adults is what drives the plot for the episode.
* HeelRealization: While in prison for the bombings he committed, withdrawal from his weed results in him realizing he's become a monster and been a {{Jerkass}} to his family. He resolves to let himself go to prison and accept the consequences for his behavior, and even after being set free he resolves to stick to small-scale farming.
* HiddenDepths: His talent as a musician is impressive as he was in a successful boy band, writes and edits his own song as Lorde, and is a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kY0P6o_FLEk very competent guitar player]], as seen in "Guitar Queer-O".
* HisOwnWorstEnemy: Season 23 shows that Tegridy Farms would be printing money were it not for Randy's insistence on throwing away money on unnecessary, expensive marketing gimmicks.
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: His idea to make the town more PC and get wholesale foods ended up making everything so expensive that it's no longer possible for the Marshes to live in South Park. As usual Randy blames [[NeverMyFault someone else]] until Caitlyn Jenner beats him up.
* {{Hypocrite}}: Randy is frequently the most hypocritical character in the show.
* IdiotHoudini: Thus far, Randy doesn't seem to have learned any real lessons from being an idiot.
* IgnoredEpiphany: In Season 23, after breaking off his partnership with [=MedMen=] and the Chinese government and vowing to stop being greedy and return Tegridy Farms to its roots, the very next episode has him sell vegetarian burgers made of the unusable parts of weed (which still get people high) and run every other restaurant in South Park out of business by taking away their customers.
* ItsAllAboutMe: In newer episodes, Randy is far more likely to be self-obsessed and selfish, stubbornly refusing to listen to anyone else. In Season 23, he thinks anyone who has the same business idea as him should give it up and let him reap all the profits. Also, whenever the rest of the family makes it clear they don't enjoy living/working on Tegridy Farms and want to go back to their old life, he accuses them of not caring about the family.
* JadedWashout: He was once in a boy band, got fired because he aged out at 19, and was mocked by the town once he returned. He has also had dreams of being a proper rock star that never went anywhere.
* {{Jerkass}}: At his worst, he can be a spoiled, irrational ManChild who often disregards his son to erupt into chaos over everything.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Aside from his the insane things he has been a part of, he is a normal, well-meaning father. He can be selfish but he has shown that he genuinely loves his wife and children.
* KarmaHoudini: He becomes one of these in Season 23, where he gets away with selling out to the Chinese government by killing Winnie The Pooh, letting them use his weed to frame student protesters, and killing numerous homegrown weed owners to get a monopoly on the weed business.
* KarmaHoudiniWarranty: In “Let Them Eat Goo”, him unethically murdering cattle causes him to lose his customers when the Goo Man shows a video tape of it to the whole town, turning everyone against him.
* LargeHam: Randy pretty much embodies this trope.
* LethallyStupid: He even accidentally killed his daughter’s boyfriend!
[[/folder]]
[[folder:M-Z]]
* ManChild: Randy has the intelligence of an adult, yet the behavior of a child. "You're Getting Old" reveals that this is a response to him being unhappy with his current life.
* MarsAndVenusGenderContrast: With his wife, Sharon. Sharon is generally far more levelheaded and less impulsive than her husband, with a much more restrained wild side. Increasingly, she becomes the only real adult in the house, with Randy devolving more and more into a man-child.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: He has this reaction after realizing what an ass he's been throughout Season 23.
* NeverLiveItDown: An InUniverse example happens to him in the episode "With Apologies to Jesse Jackson", when he is forever known as "The 'Nigger' Guy" when he says the n-word on the game show "The Wheel of Fortune" on ''National TV''.
* NeverMyFault: While he shares this with the other adults, he's by far the worst offender. He almost NEVER acknowledges his fault in anything, and childishly clings to his own delusions. Subverted in the midseason finale of Season 23, where he realizes that him going to prison is a consequence of his own actions, and after how much of a {{Jerkass}} he's been, he decides to face the consequences with grace. During his trial he apologizes to his family for what he's done (except Shelley, who he forgot exists), and after getting set free he resolves to stick to small-scale farming.
* NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist: In Season 23 he justifies his murders and unethical and underhanded business ventures as him doing desperate things to provide for his family. However, its clear that Tegridy Farms has more than enough money to thrive and his family would be more than happy to leave, but Randy just wants to live his dream of being a weed farmer and is just greedy and wants a monopoly on the business. Also, most of Tegridy Farms’ genuine money problems are caused by him spending massive amounts of money to make expensive and unnecessary advertising gimmicks, and he refuses to stop doing so after Sharon points this out to him because of his NeverMyFault tendencies.
* OldShame: InUniverse. He joined a boy band before finishing high school.
* OmnidisciplinaryScientist: {{Parodied}} or {{Subverted}}. A few episodes ("Spontaneous Combustion," "T.M.I.") have him take on non-geology jobs on the ground that he is a "scientist." In the first case it's {{Lampshaded}}, though he actually turns out to be competent; in the latter it's not, but he does poorly. "Die Hippie, Die" has him volunteering in Cartman's plan to dig through the hippies because he is the only scientist the city has.
* PapaWolf: In "Die Hippie, Die", "Pee", and "Broadway Bro Down".
* ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything: Randy is supposed to be a geologist, but rare is the time we actually see him doing any geological work. Instead, we see him trying to set the world's record for taking the biggest crap, aiming to become a TV chef, giving himself testicular cancer so he can smoke medical marijuana, etc.
* PornStache: He has a mustache.
* ProtagonistJourneyToVillain: Randy is a central character in season 23, possibly the main character of the show at that season. The show shows him going from a jerkass that is trying to make a living with farm life to an outright amoral sell out who is willing to do acts of terrorism and murder to protect his bottom line.
* RabbleRouser: In a more literal case than most, he has managed to start a rabble at least once by shouting "Rabble!" a few times.
* RunningGag: His pants falling when he gets drunk.
* SarcasmMode: In "Sarcastaball", he is diagnosed with a mental condition that causes everything he says to be a sarcastic comment.
* SanitySlippage:
** "A Nightmare on FaceTime" makes it very clear he's lost it.
** Season 23 shows that he's utterly lost it, with the first episode alone having him bomb homegrown weed owners in an act of domestic terrorism and seriously wondering if he is actually a towel.
* SeriousBusiness: Whatever the focus of the episode is, he's taking it waaaay too seriously.
* ShamelessSelfPromoter: He takes every opportunity possible to sell his weed in Season 23 no matter how unethical or counterproductive (read: expensive) it is.
* SnapBack: Quits/gets fired at least 4 times.
* StageNames: He performed his interpretation of Tween Wave music as "Steamy Ray Vaughn".
* SupremeChef: In "Creme Fraiche", he's shown to be a very talented chef, being capable of replicating dishes he sees on cooking shows. Much to the chagrin of his family, who have to clean up the resulting massive pile of dishes. However, its implied that his food still doesn't ''taste'' very good, and he's just imitating the flashy "gourmet" style popular on cooking shows without really understanding it.
* TooDumbToLive: Has become this post {{Flanderization}}, but his biggest moment comes in "Medicinal Fried Chicken" where he gives himself testicular cancer just to be legally qualified to have medical marijuana.
* TookALevelInDumbass: Takes a level every episode he appears in, and probably the ones where he doesn't appear, too.
* TookALevelInJerkass: In Season 23, where he becomes obsessed with [[{{Greed}} profiting off of Tegridy Farms]], and commits an act of domestic terrorism by blowing up houses with homegrown marijuana and killing numerous people to take out the competition, and brutally garroting Winnie the Pooh to curry favor with the Chinese government. He also starts to neglect his family, and even emotionally manipulates Stan into wearing a Tegridy Farms shirt at a concert in "Band in China", and accuses them of not caring about the family whenever they make it clear they hate Tegridy Farms.
* ToxicFriendInfluence: He's an alcoholic, and none of his friends try to keep him from getting drunk (even encouraging him on occasion).
* TrademarkFavoriteFood: His preferred beer brand is Pabst Blue Ribbon, and ever since [[Recap/SouthParkS18E2GlutenFreeEbola the gluten scare]], he has been exclusively drinking gluten-free beer.
* {{Tuckerization}}: Parker named Randy after his own father.
* VillainProtagonist: He would serve as this for Season 23 where it mostly focuses on Randy's committing crimes to keep his business afloat.
* WackyParentSeriousChild: To Stan. Randy is an over-the-top, sex-crazed, alcoholic and drug addict, while Stan is the StraightMan who is [[WiseBeyondTheirYears wise beyond his years]].
* WholesomeCrossdresser: As revealed in "[[Recap/SouthParkS18E2GlutenFreeEbola Gluten-Free Ebola]]" and "[[Recap/SouthParkS18E3TheCissy The Cissy]]", he has a double life as Music/{{Lorde}}, using AutoTune to make himself sound like a teenage girl.
-->'''Clyde:''' Lorde sucks.\\
'''Jimmy:''' Yeah, she isn't as hot in person.
[[/folder]]
to:
!Randy Marsh
[[quoteright:320:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/randy-marsh_8649.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:320:''"Stanley, you call your friend an asshole this instant!"'']]
->''"Stan? '''Staaan?'''"''
->'''Voiced by:''' [[Creator/TreyParkerAndMattStone Trey Parker]]
->'''Debut:''' "[[Recap/SouthParkS1E3Volcano Volcano]]"
Stan's dad, a geologist (and thus the only non-[[MadScientist mad]] scientist in South Park; sometimes) turned cannabis farmer. Deficient in common sense, but makes up for it with great passion and enthusiasm for... well, whatever happens to be the focus of the episode. The de facto leader of the town whenever they face a threat. He tends to be the main character in storylines involving the adults of South Park, and thus is the adult figure that most interacts with the boys in the main plot.
----
[[foldercontrol]]
[[folder:A-L]]
* AbusiveParents: If there was any doubt before, he's become very much this of the emotional kind once the family moves to Tegridy Farms. He constantly belittles his family for not wanting to be involved in the business and ignores their own activities and needs in favour of getting high. It gets to the point where Stan and Shelley are positively gleeful about the prospect of Randy being given a lengthy prison sentence.
* TheAlcoholic: The plot of "Bloody Mary" focuses on him going to A.A., though he's less an "alcoholic who needs to drink constantly" as "an idiot who also drinks too much." Since then, he's slightly better and doesn't drive while drunk, but he does often make excuses for his drinking and is shown drunk on several occasions.
* AlcoholicParent: Subverted. Randy likes to drink with friends, but is only seen drunk in a couple episodes. In one episode he gets a DUI, has to attend AA meetings, where instead of taking responsibility and controlling his behavior, he is told he has a "disease." At the end of the episode, he possibly learns discipline and self-control, but it doesn't seem to stick.
* AllMenArePerverts: He's very into porn, masturbating and has some very disturbing fetishes.
* AscendedExtra: Originally he was just Stan's dad, but nowadays it's not unheard of to have entire episodes focused on Randy with the boys relegated to background characters.
* AmazinglyEmbarrassingParents: The show's crowning example of this trope, when accounting for the other degrees of uselessness of the adults.
* TheAtoner: Near the end of Season 19, when he finally came to realize that South Park's gentrification was doing more harm than good (with some help from a beatdown courtesy of Caitlyn Jenner), he pledged to help undo the damage he helped cause.
* AuthorAvatar: Trey Parker has said that Randy has become more prominent, due to the fact that he has started to get older and identifies with the character more.
* AxCrazy:
** In "T.M.I." he goes insane and is the spearhead of the movement to take over the Federal Express.
** Taken UpToEleven in Season 23, where he becomes increasingly fixated on his Tegridy Farms profits, to the point that he starts committing murder in an effort to help boost sales.
* BecameTheirOwnAntithesis: In Season 22 Randy fancied himself and Towelie to be the sole legal drug company with integrity, and crusaders against big business. In Season 23, he becomes just as unethical as the other drug companies, if not more so.
* BecomingTheMask: In "Sarcastaball," he loses control over his ability to be sarcastic and can't stop doing it. Music/{{Lorde}} was originally just an excuse to use the girls bathroom.
* BigBad: Of Season 23, [[spoiler: until he has a HeelRealization in "Season Finale".]]
* BigBadSlippage: He started off a simple Marijuana peddler, but his greed starts consuming him making him commit unethical crimes to increase his business and effectively becomes the BigBad for Season 23.
* BigNo: Does [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJAeD1f2YnI Picard's]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGI1IHuNy2Y Vader's]], with the sound taken directly from ''Film/StarTrekFirstContact'' and ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith''.
* BigOMG: He gets two separate Big [=OMGs=] when he realizes every senior citizen in town is driving at the same time.
* BreakoutCharacter: Randy has become increasingly more important lately due to a mix of popularity and Trey Parker's identifying with Randy more as he gets older.
* BumblingDad: The king of this trope.
* ButtMonkey: Seems to have gained this status to a certain extent in Season 21, where more and more people view him with contempt and regard his antics strictly as being immature and absurd, and treat him accordingly. Sharon even seems to call him out on his selfish behavior much more often.
* CatchPhrase: "Stan? ''Staaan''?", "Hey, Sharon," "(Oh my) Gawl!", "Well, ''that'' sucks", "Score!", [[LamarckWasRight and a few of his son's]].
** In Season 23, he gains a new one, "Hey, ''fuck you.''"
*** Also "It just so happens" when he finds a new chance to sell his weed.
* CaughtWithYourPantsDown: In the episode "Overlogging" Randy has gone for weeks without masturbating to internet porn, eventually near the end he sneaks into the camp's computer room, looks at a bunch of perverted things, and eventually ejaculates all over the room, everyone comes in thinking he was grunting in pain and with his pants down, he tells them that he was doing that because "a ghost was attacking him and left his ectoplasm everywhere".
* CerebusRetcon: "You're Getting Old" sheds some very harsh light on Randy's zany moments. It turns out the reason he's been acting increasingly bizarre is because he's suffering depression and wants to distract himself from his humdrum extistence.
* CharacterizationMarchesOn: He used to be the more laid back of the Marshes earlier on, and one of the saner adults overall. Now...not so much...
* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Especially during the obsession phases.
* CorruptCorporateExecutive: In Season 23, after Tegridy Farms becomes a successful weed company and a major corporation, he becomes greedy and unethical, committing countless murders for Tegridy to thrive and engaging in numerous unethical business ventures, like selling vegetarian burgers made out of the unusable parts of weed to the citizens of South Park and selling weed to the Chinese government so they can plant them on student protesters to arrest them.
* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: Despite his dim-witted nature, he's demonstrated multiple times to be a highly competent brawler.
* ADateWithRosiePalms: A major part of "Overlogging" is the fact that he wants to masturbate, but can't without Internet porn. In Cream Fraiche, he masturbates to cooking shows. ItMakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext.
* DeadpanSnarker: Speeds UpTo11 in Sarcastaball faster than a jet.
* DirtyCoward: In "Fantastic Easter Special", he [[ItMakesSenseInContext gets captured and interrogated by the American Catholic League's ninjas over the location of a rabbit, which he gave to his son to hide in a good place]]. When they ask him where it is, he responds:
-->I don't know, and even if I did know then... I'd probably just tell you because I don't want to be here anymore.
* DiscOneFinalBoss: Though it appears that Randy will become the BigBad for Season 23, he gets a HeelRealization in "Season Finale" where he reforms and becomes OutOfFocus for the rest of the season, while a [[TheBigBadShuffle Big Bad Shuffle]] will occur between Heather Swanson and Clark Malkinson and eventually Santa Clause becomes the FinalBoss.
* DotingParent: Even at some of his least sane moments, he absolutely adores both his kids and often goes to outrageous lengths whenever he thinks they need help, [[UnwantedAssistance even if they'd disagree,]] [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} usually for good reason.]]
* {{Expy}}: Season 23 turns him into one of [[Series/BreakingBad Walter White]], both being scientists who began selling drugs with the help of a partner and justifies it and the horrible crimes he commits to sell the drugs as providing for his family. The only difference is that the drugs Randy sells are legal, and he lacks most of the intelligence Walter has.
* {{Fetish}}: Randy has some really odd fetishes like Japanese girls puking on each other, bestiality and so forth. Oh, and murder porn, but every adult in South Park seems to be into that.
* FallenHero: He went from the hero that drove [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Jeff Bezos]] out of South Park in Season 22, into becoming just as amoral, corrupt, and greedy as Bezos, if not more.
* {{Flanderization}}:
** Randy started out as one of the smartest characters on the show. His 'wild side' stemmed from a desire to connect with his son, and he simply failed to grasp the idea of fads changing rapidly, a frequent plot point in ''South Park''. As the series progresses, he evolves into a hyperactive, extremely paranoid and idiotic ManChild.
** Even within his earlier stupid bouts, he was still usually a KnightTemplarParent, genuinely having the best intentions for Stan and only spearheading the same hysteria the other parents succumbed to. From about Season 9 onward however, Randy's motives became more selfish and childish, having his family in collateral damage for whatever fad he takes to and leaving even the other brain dead residents of South Park dumbfounded by his behavior.
* {{Foil}}:
** Stan, the sanest kid, has the craziest parent.
** To his CloserToEarth wife Sharon, see MarsAndVenusGenderContrast.
* GeniusDitz: He is a brilliant scientist and is capable of a lot of amazing musical feats (culminating in being Lorde), but otherwise he's an alcoholic with barely any common sense.
* GivingTheSwordToANoob: The [[TropeNamer nominal]] noob.
* GoodParents: Despite his [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} eccentricity]] and BumblingDad status, he deeply cares about Stan and Shelly and will go out of his way to save them when they're being endangered.
* TheHeavy: Randy serves as this for Season 23. Most of the conflict in the season can be traced back to Randy's antics where commits more and more crimes to preserve his drug business. Even when Santa serves as the FinalBoss for the season, Randy would still be this as his decision to sell cocaine to the adults is what drives the plot for the episode.
* HeelRealization: While in prison for the bombings he committed, withdrawal from his weed results in him realizing he's become a monster and been a {{Jerkass}} to his family. He resolves to let himself go to prison and accept the consequences for his behavior, and even after being set free he resolves to stick to small-scale farming.
* HiddenDepths: His talent as a musician is impressive as he was in a successful boy band, writes and edits his own song as Lorde, and is a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kY0P6o_FLEk very competent guitar player]], as seen in "Guitar Queer-O".
* HisOwnWorstEnemy: Season 23 shows that Tegridy Farms would be printing money were it not for Randy's insistence on throwing away money on unnecessary, expensive marketing gimmicks.
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: His idea to make the town more PC and get wholesale foods ended up making everything so expensive that it's no longer possible for the Marshes to live in South Park. As usual Randy blames [[NeverMyFault someone else]] until Caitlyn Jenner beats him up.
* {{Hypocrite}}: Randy is frequently the most hypocritical character in the show.
* IdiotHoudini: Thus far, Randy doesn't seem to have learned any real lessons from being an idiot.
* IgnoredEpiphany: In Season 23, after breaking off his partnership with [=MedMen=] and the Chinese government and vowing to stop being greedy and return Tegridy Farms to its roots, the very next episode has him sell vegetarian burgers made of the unusable parts of weed (which still get people high) and run every other restaurant in South Park out of business by taking away their customers.
* ItsAllAboutMe: In newer episodes, Randy is far more likely to be self-obsessed and selfish, stubbornly refusing to listen to anyone else. In Season 23, he thinks anyone who has the same business idea as him should give it up and let him reap all the profits. Also, whenever the rest of the family makes it clear they don't enjoy living/working on Tegridy Farms and want to go back to their old life, he accuses them of not caring about the family.
* JadedWashout: He was once in a boy band, got fired because he aged out at 19, and was mocked by the town once he returned. He has also had dreams of being a proper rock star that never went anywhere.
* {{Jerkass}}: At his worst, he can be a spoiled, irrational ManChild who often disregards his son to erupt into chaos over everything.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Aside from his the insane things he has been a part of, he is a normal, well-meaning father. He can be selfish but he has shown that he genuinely loves his wife and children.
* KarmaHoudini: He becomes one of these in Season 23, where he gets away with selling out to the Chinese government by killing Winnie The Pooh, letting them use his weed to frame student protesters, and killing numerous homegrown weed owners to get a monopoly on the weed business.
* KarmaHoudiniWarranty: In “Let Them Eat Goo”, him unethically murdering cattle causes him to lose his customers when the Goo Man shows a video tape of it to the whole town, turning everyone against him.
* LargeHam: Randy pretty much embodies this trope.
* LethallyStupid: He even accidentally killed his daughter’s boyfriend!
[[/folder]]
[[folder:M-Z]]
* ManChild: Randy has the intelligence of an adult, yet the behavior of a child. "You're Getting Old" reveals that this is a response to him being unhappy with his current life.
* MarsAndVenusGenderContrast: With his wife, Sharon. Sharon is generally far more levelheaded and less impulsive than her husband, with a much more restrained wild side. Increasingly, she becomes the only real adult in the house, with Randy devolving more and more into a man-child.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: He has this reaction after realizing what an ass he's been throughout Season 23.
* NeverLiveItDown: An InUniverse example happens to him in the episode "With Apologies to Jesse Jackson", when he is forever known as "The 'Nigger' Guy" when he says the n-word on the game show "The Wheel of Fortune" on ''National TV''.
* NeverMyFault: While he shares this with the other adults, he's by far the worst offender. He almost NEVER acknowledges his fault in anything, and childishly clings to his own delusions. Subverted in the midseason finale of Season 23, where he realizes that him going to prison is a consequence of his own actions, and after how much of a {{Jerkass}} he's been, he decides to face the consequences with grace. During his trial he apologizes to his family for what he's done (except Shelley, who he forgot exists), and after getting set free he resolves to stick to small-scale farming.
* NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist: In Season 23 he justifies his murders and unethical and underhanded business ventures as him doing desperate things to provide for his family. However, its clear that Tegridy Farms has more than enough money to thrive and his family would be more than happy to leave, but Randy just wants to live his dream of being a weed farmer and is just greedy and wants a monopoly on the business. Also, most of Tegridy Farms’ genuine money problems are caused by him spending massive amounts of money to make expensive and unnecessary advertising gimmicks, and he refuses to stop doing so after Sharon points this out to him because of his NeverMyFault tendencies.
* OldShame: InUniverse. He joined a boy band before finishing high school.
* OmnidisciplinaryScientist: {{Parodied}} or {{Subverted}}. A few episodes ("Spontaneous Combustion," "T.M.I.") have him take on non-geology jobs on the ground that he is a "scientist." In the first case it's {{Lampshaded}}, though he actually turns out to be competent; in the latter it's not, but he does poorly. "Die Hippie, Die" has him volunteering in Cartman's plan to dig through the hippies because he is the only scientist the city has.
* PapaWolf: In "Die Hippie, Die", "Pee", and "Broadway Bro Down".
* ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything: Randy is supposed to be a geologist, but rare is the time we actually see him doing any geological work. Instead, we see him trying to set the world's record for taking the biggest crap, aiming to become a TV chef, giving himself testicular cancer so he can smoke medical marijuana, etc.
* PornStache: He has a mustache.
* ProtagonistJourneyToVillain: Randy is a central character in season 23, possibly the main character of the show at that season. The show shows him going from a jerkass that is trying to make a living with farm life to an outright amoral sell out who is willing to do acts of terrorism and murder to protect his bottom line.
* RabbleRouser: In a more literal case than most, he has managed to start a rabble at least once by shouting "Rabble!" a few times.
* RunningGag: His pants falling when he gets drunk.
* SarcasmMode: In "Sarcastaball", he is diagnosed with a mental condition that causes everything he says to be a sarcastic comment.
* SanitySlippage:
** "A Nightmare on FaceTime" makes it very clear he's lost it.
** Season 23 shows that he's utterly lost it, with the first episode alone having him bomb homegrown weed owners in an act of domestic terrorism and seriously wondering if he is actually a towel.
* SeriousBusiness: Whatever the focus of the episode is, he's taking it waaaay too seriously.
* ShamelessSelfPromoter: He takes every opportunity possible to sell his weed in Season 23 no matter how unethical or counterproductive (read: expensive) it is.
* SnapBack: Quits/gets fired at least 4 times.
* StageNames: He performed his interpretation of Tween Wave music as "Steamy Ray Vaughn".
* SupremeChef: In "Creme Fraiche", he's shown to be a very talented chef, being capable of replicating dishes he sees on cooking shows. Much to the chagrin of his family, who have to clean up the resulting massive pile of dishes. However, its implied that his food still doesn't ''taste'' very good, and he's just imitating the flashy "gourmet" style popular on cooking shows without really understanding it.
* TooDumbToLive: Has become this post {{Flanderization}}, but his biggest moment comes in "Medicinal Fried Chicken" where he gives himself testicular cancer just to be legally qualified to have medical marijuana.
* TookALevelInDumbass: Takes a level every episode he appears in, and probably the ones where he doesn't appear, too.
* TookALevelInJerkass: In Season 23, where he becomes obsessed with [[{{Greed}} profiting off of Tegridy Farms]], and commits an act of domestic terrorism by blowing up houses with homegrown marijuana and killing numerous people to take out the competition, and brutally garroting Winnie the Pooh to curry favor with the Chinese government. He also starts to neglect his family, and even emotionally manipulates Stan into wearing a Tegridy Farms shirt at a concert in "Band in China", and accuses them of not caring about the family whenever they make it clear they hate Tegridy Farms.
* ToxicFriendInfluence: He's an alcoholic, and none of his friends try to keep him from getting drunk (even encouraging him on occasion).
* TrademarkFavoriteFood: His preferred beer brand is Pabst Blue Ribbon, and ever since [[Recap/SouthParkS18E2GlutenFreeEbola the gluten scare]], he has been exclusively drinking gluten-free beer.
* {{Tuckerization}}: Parker named Randy after his own father.
* VillainProtagonist: He would serve as this for Season 23 where it mostly focuses on Randy's committing crimes to keep his business afloat.
* WackyParentSeriousChild: To Stan. Randy is an over-the-top, sex-crazed, alcoholic and drug addict, while Stan is the StraightMan who is [[WiseBeyondTheirYears wise beyond his years]].
* WholesomeCrossdresser: As revealed in "[[Recap/SouthParkS18E2GlutenFreeEbola Gluten-Free Ebola]]" and "[[Recap/SouthParkS18E3TheCissy The Cissy]]", he has a double life as Music/{{Lorde}}, using AutoTune to make himself sound like a teenage girl.
-->'''Clyde:''' Lorde sucks.\\
'''Jimmy:''' Yeah, she isn't as hot in person.
[[/folder]]
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* FallenHero: He went from the hero that drove [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Jeff Bezos]] out of South Park in Season 22, into becoming just as amoral, corrupt, and greedy as Bezos, if not more.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 30 (click to see context) from:
* BigBad: Of Season 23, [[spoiler: until he has a HeelRealization "Season Finale".]]
to:
* BigBad: Of Season 23, [[spoiler: until he has a HeelRealization in "Season Finale".]]
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
* BigBad: Of Season 23, [[spoiler: until he has a HeelRealization "Season Finale".]]
* BigBadSlippage: He started off a simple Marijuana peddler, but his greed starts consuming him making him commit unethical crimes to increase his business and effectively becomes the BigBad for Season 23.
* BigBadSlippage: He started off a simple Marijuana peddler, but his greed starts consuming him making him commit unethical crimes to increase his business and effectively becomes the BigBad for Season 23.
* DiscOneFinalBoss: Though it appears that Randy will become the BigBad for Season 23, he gets a HeelRealization in "Season Finale" where he reforms and becomes OutOfFocus for the rest of the season, while a [[TheBigBadShuffle Big Bad Shuffle]] will occur between Heather Swanson and Clark Malkinson and eventually Santa Clause becomes the FinalBoss.
* TheHeavy: Randy serves as this for Season 23. Most of the conflict in the season can be traced back to Randy's antics where commits more and more crimes to preserve his drug business. Even when Santa serves as the FinalBoss for the season, Randy would still be this as his decision to sell cocaine to the adults is what drives the plot for the episode.
Changed line(s) 107 (click to see context) from:
%%* VillainProtagonist: In Season 23.
to:
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 1,2 (click to see context) from:
[[center: [- [[Characters/SouthPark Main Page]] | [[Characters/SouthParkTheBoys The Boys]] | [[Characters/SouthParkStanMarsh Stan Marsh]] | [[Characters/SouthParkKyleBroflovski Kyle Broflovski]] | [[Characters/SouthParkEricCartman Eric Cartman]] | [[Characters/SouthParkKennyMcCormick Kenny McCormick]] | [[Characters/SouthParkButtersStotch Butters Stotch]] | '''Randy Marsh''' | [[Characters/SouthParkWendyTestaburger Wendy Testaburger]] | [[Characters/SouthParkHerbertGarrison Herbert Garrison]] | [[Characters/SouthParkHeidiTurner Heidi Turner]] | [[Characters/SouthParkPCPrincipal PC Principal]] | [[Characters/SouthParkOtherStudents Other Students]] | [[Characters/SouthParkAntagonists Antagonists]] | [[Characters/SouthParkAntagonistsBigBads Big Bads]] | [[Characters/SouthParkAntagonistsSecondaryAndMinor Secondary and Minor]] | [[Characters/SouthParkAntagonistsJerksAndBullies Jerks and Bullies]] | [[Characters/SouthParkFamilyMembers Family Members]] | [[Characters/SouthParkElementarySchoolStaff Elementary School Staff]] | [[Characters/SouthParkOtherRecurringCharacters Other Recurring Characters]] | [[Characters/SouthParkTheStickOfTruth The Stick of Truth]] | [[Characters/SouthParkTheFracturedButWhole The Fractured but Whole]] -] ]]
to:
[[center: [- [[Characters/SouthPark Main Page]] | [[Characters/SouthParkTheBoys The Boys]] | [[Characters/SouthParkStanMarsh ([[Characters/SouthParkStanMarsh Stan Marsh]] | Marsh]], [[Characters/SouthParkKyleBroflovski Kyle Broflovski]] | Broflovski]], [[Characters/SouthParkEricCartman Eric Cartman]] | Cartman]], [[Characters/SouthParkKennyMcCormick Kenny McCormick]] | [[Characters/SouthParkButtersStotch Butters Stotch]] | '''Randy Marsh''' | [[Characters/SouthParkWendyTestaburger Wendy Testaburger]] | [[Characters/SouthParkHerbertGarrison Herbert Garrison]] | [[Characters/SouthParkHeidiTurner Heidi Turner]] | [[Characters/SouthParkPCPrincipal PC Principal]] McCormick]]) | [[Characters/SouthParkOtherStudents Other Students]] ([[Characters/SouthParkButtersStotch Butters Stotch]], [[Characters/SouthParkWendyTestaburger Wendy Testaburger]], [[Characters/SouthParkHeidiTurner Heidi Turner]]) | [[Characters/SouthParkAntagonists Antagonists]] | [[Characters/SouthParkAntagonistsBigBads ([[Characters/SouthParkAntagonistsBigBads Big Bads]] | Bads]], [[Characters/SouthParkAntagonistsSecondaryAndMinor Secondary and Minor]] | Minor]], [[Characters/SouthParkAntagonistsJerksAndBullies Jerks and Bullies]] Bullies]]) | [[Characters/SouthParkFamilyMembers Family Members]] ('''Randy Marsh''') | [[Characters/SouthParkElementarySchoolStaff Elementary School Staff]] ([[Characters/SouthParkHerbertGarrison Herbert Garrison]], [[Characters/SouthParkPCPrincipal PC Principal]]) | [[Characters/SouthParkOtherRecurringCharacters Other Recurring Characters]] | [[Characters/SouthParkTheStickOfTruth The Stick of Truth]] | [[Characters/SouthParkTheFracturedButWhole The Fractured but Whole]] -] ]]
]]
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 66,67 (click to see context) from:
* ItsAllAboutMe: In newer episodes, Randy is far more likely to be self-obsessed and selfish, stubbornly refusing to listen to anyone else.
** In Season 23, he thinks anyone who has the same business idea as him should give it up and let him reap all the profits. Also, whenever the rest of the family makes it clear they don't enjoy living/working on Tegridy Farms and want to go back to their old life, he accuses them of not caring about the family.
** In Season 23, he thinks anyone who has the same business idea as him should give it up and let him reap all the profits. Also, whenever the rest of the family makes it clear they don't enjoy living/working on Tegridy Farms and want to go back to their old life, he accuses them of not caring about the family.
to:
* ItsAllAboutMe: In newer episodes, Randy is far more likely to be self-obsessed and selfish, stubbornly refusing to listen to anyone else.
**else. In Season 23, he thinks anyone who has the same business idea as him should give it up and let him reap all the profits. Also, whenever the rest of the family makes it clear they don't enjoy living/working on Tegridy Farms and want to go back to their old life, he accuses them of not caring about the family.
**
Changed line(s) 103,104 (click to see context) from:
* TookALevelInJerkass: Starting in "My Future Self 'n Me."
** It reaches new heights in Season 23, where he becomes obsessed with [[{{Greed}} profiting off of Tegridy Farms]], and commits an act of domestic terrorism by blowing up houses with homegrown marijuana and killing numerous people to take out the competition, and brutally garroting Winnie the Pooh to curry favor with the Chinese government. He also starts to neglect his family, and even emotionally manipulates Stan into wearing a Tegridy Farms shirt at a concert in "Band in China", and accuses them of not caring about the family whenever they make it clear they hate Tegridy Farms.
** It reaches new heights in Season 23, where he becomes obsessed with [[{{Greed}} profiting off of Tegridy Farms]], and commits an act of domestic terrorism by blowing up houses with homegrown marijuana and killing numerous people to take out the competition, and brutally garroting Winnie the Pooh to curry favor with the Chinese government. He also starts to neglect his family, and even emotionally manipulates Stan into wearing a Tegridy Farms shirt at a concert in "Band in China", and accuses them of not caring about the family whenever they make it clear they hate Tegridy Farms.
to:
* TookALevelInJerkass: Starting in "My Future Self 'n Me."
** It reaches new heights inIn Season 23, where he becomes obsessed with [[{{Greed}} profiting off of Tegridy Farms]], and commits an act of domestic terrorism by blowing up houses with homegrown marijuana and killing numerous people to take out the competition, and brutally garroting Winnie the Pooh to curry favor with the Chinese government. He also starts to neglect his family, and even emotionally manipulates Stan into wearing a Tegridy Farms shirt at a concert in "Band in China", and accuses them of not caring about the family whenever they make it clear they hate Tegridy Farms.
** It reaches new heights in
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
Single bullet points are against formatting policy; bullet points are only used for multiple examples of the same trope.
Changed line(s) 59 (click to see context) from:
* HeelRealization: While in prison for the bombings he committed, withdrawal from his weed results in him realizing he’s become a monster and been a {{Jerkass}} to his family. He resolves to let himself go to prison and accept the consequences for his behavior, and even after being set free he resolves to stick to small-scale farming.
to:
* HeelRealization: While in prison for the bombings he committed, withdrawal from his weed results in him realizing he’s he's become a monster and been a {{Jerkass}} to his family. He resolves to let himself go to prison and accept the consequences for his behavior, and even after being set free he resolves to stick to small-scale farming.
Changed line(s) 80,83 (click to see context) from:
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: He has this reaction after realizing what an ass he’s been throughout Season 23.
* NeverLiveItDown: An InUniverse example happens to him in the episode "With Apologies to Jesse Jackson," when he is forever known as "The 'Nigger' Guy" when he says the n-word on the game show "The Wheel Of Fortune" on ''National TV.''
* NeverMyFault: While he shares this with the other adults, he's by far the worst offender. He almost NEVER acknowledges his fault in anything, and childishly clings to his own delusions.
** Subverted in the midseason finale of Season 23, where he realizes that him going to prison is a consequence of his own actions, and after how much of a {{Jerkass}} he’s been, he decides to face the consequences with grace. During his trial he apologizes to his family for what he’s done (except Shelley, who he forgot exists), and after getting set free he resolves to stick to small scale farming.
* NeverLiveItDown: An InUniverse example happens to him in the episode "With Apologies to Jesse Jackson," when he is forever known as "The 'Nigger' Guy" when he says the n-word on the game show "The Wheel Of Fortune" on ''National TV.''
* NeverMyFault: While he shares this with the other adults, he's by far the worst offender. He almost NEVER acknowledges his fault in anything, and childishly clings to his own delusions.
** Subverted in the midseason finale of Season 23, where he realizes that him going to prison is a consequence of his own actions, and after how much of a {{Jerkass}} he’s been, he decides to face the consequences with grace. During his trial he apologizes to his family for what he’s done (except Shelley, who he forgot exists), and after getting set free he resolves to stick to small scale farming.
to:
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: He has this reaction after realizing what an ass he’s he's been throughout Season 23.
* NeverLiveItDown: An InUniverse example happens to him in the episode "With Apologies to JesseJackson," Jackson", when he is forever known as "The 'Nigger' Guy" when he says the n-word on the game show "The Wheel Of of Fortune" on ''National TV.''
TV''.
* NeverMyFault: While he shares this with the other adults, he's by far the worst offender. He almost NEVER acknowledges his fault in anything, and childishly clings to his owndelusions.
**delusions. Subverted in the midseason finale of Season 23, where he realizes that him going to prison is a consequence of his own actions, and after how much of a {{Jerkass}} he’s he's been, he decides to face the consequences with grace. During his trial he apologizes to his family for what he’s he's done (except Shelley, who he forgot exists), and after getting set free he resolves to stick to small scale small-scale farming.
* NeverLiveItDown: An InUniverse example happens to him in the episode "With Apologies to Jesse
* NeverMyFault: While he shares this with the other adults, he's by far the worst offender. He almost NEVER acknowledges his fault in anything, and childishly clings to his own
**
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
A Jerk With A Heart Of Jerk is a jerkass who subverts the Jerk With A Heart Of Gold trope - not just a Jerk With A Heart Of Gold who develops into a jerkass.
Deleted line(s) 71 (click to see context) :
* JerkWithAHeartOfJerk: He becomes on in Season 23, though he seems to get better in the midseason finale.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* HeelRealization: While in prison for the bombings he committed, withdrawal from his weed results in him realizing he’s become a monster and been a {{Jerkass}} to his family. He resolves to let himself go to prison and accept the consequences for his behavior, and even after being set free he resolves to stick to small-scale farming.
Added DiffLines:
* JerkWithAHeartOfJerk: He becomes on in Season 23, though he seems to get better in the midseason finale.
Added DiffLines:
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: He has this reaction after realizing what an ass he’s been throughout Season 23.
Added DiffLines:
** Subverted in the midseason finale of Season 23, where he realizes that him going to prison is a consequence of his own actions, and after how much of a {{Jerkass}} he’s been, he decides to face the consequences with grace. During his trial he apologizes to his family for what he’s done (except Shelley, who he forgot exists), and after getting set free he resolves to stick to small scale farming.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 16 (click to see context) from:
* AbusiveParents: If there was any doubt before, he's become very much this of the emotional kind once the family moves to Tegridy Farms. He constantly belittles his family for not wanting to be involved in the business and ignores their own activities and needs in favour of getting high.
to:
* AbusiveParents: If there was any doubt before, he's become very much this of the emotional kind once the family moves to Tegridy Farms. He constantly belittles his family for not wanting to be involved in the business and ignores their own activities and needs in favour of getting high. It gets to the point where Stan and Shelley are positively gleeful about the prospect of Randy being given a lengthy prison sentence.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
*** Also "It just so happens" when he finds a new chance to sell his weed.
Added DiffLines:
* ShamelessSelfPromoter: He takes every opportunity possible to sell his weed in Season 23 no matter how unethical or counterproductive (read: expensive) it is.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* AbusiveParents: If there was any doubt before, he's become very much this of the emotional kind once the family moves to Tegridy Farms. He constantly belittles his family for not wanting to be involved in the business and ignores their own activities and needs in favour of getting high.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 1,2 (click to see context) from:
[[center: [- [[Characters/SouthPark Main Page]] | [[Characters/SouthParkTheBoys The Boys]] | [[Characters/SouthParkStanMarsh Stan Marsh]] | [[Characters/SouthParkKyleBroflovski Kyle Broflovski]] | [[Characters/SouthParkEricCartman Eric Cartman]] | [[Characters/SouthParkKennyMcCormick Kenny McCormick]] | [[Characters/SouthParkButtersStotch Butters Stotch]] | '''Randy Marsh''' | [[Characters/SouthParkWendyTestaburger Wendy Testaburger]] | [[Characters/SouthParkHerbertGarrison Herbert Garrison]] | [[Characters/SouthParkHeidiTurner Heidi Turner]] | [[Characters/SouthParkOtherStudents Other Students]] | [[Characters/SouthParkAntagonists Antagonists]] | [[Characters/SouthParkAntagonistsBigBads Big Bads]] | [[Characters/SouthParkAntagonistsSecondaryAndMinor Secondary and Minor]] | [[Characters/SouthParkAntagonistsJerksAndBullies Jerks and Bullies]] | [[Characters/SouthParkFamilyMembers Family Members]] | [[Characters/SouthParkElementarySchoolStaff Elementary School Staff]] | [[Characters/SouthParkOtherRecurringCharacters Other Recurring Characters]] | [[Characters/SouthParkTheStickOfTruth The Stick of Truth]] | [[Characters/SouthParkTheFracturedButWhole The Fractured but Whole]] -] ]]
to:
[[center: [- [[Characters/SouthPark Main Page]] | [[Characters/SouthParkTheBoys The Boys]] | [[Characters/SouthParkStanMarsh Stan Marsh]] | [[Characters/SouthParkKyleBroflovski Kyle Broflovski]] | [[Characters/SouthParkEricCartman Eric Cartman]] | [[Characters/SouthParkKennyMcCormick Kenny McCormick]] | [[Characters/SouthParkButtersStotch Butters Stotch]] | '''Randy Marsh''' | [[Characters/SouthParkWendyTestaburger Wendy Testaburger]] | [[Characters/SouthParkHerbertGarrison Herbert Garrison]] | [[Characters/SouthParkHeidiTurner Heidi Turner]] | [[Characters/SouthParkPCPrincipal PC Principal]] | [[Characters/SouthParkOtherStudents Other Students]] | [[Characters/SouthParkAntagonists Antagonists]] | [[Characters/SouthParkAntagonistsBigBads Big Bads]] | [[Characters/SouthParkAntagonistsSecondaryAndMinor Secondary and Minor]] | [[Characters/SouthParkAntagonistsJerksAndBullies Jerks and Bullies]] | [[Characters/SouthParkFamilyMembers Family Members]] | [[Characters/SouthParkElementarySchoolStaff Elementary School Staff]] | [[Characters/SouthParkOtherRecurringCharacters Other Recurring Characters]] | [[Characters/SouthParkTheStickOfTruth The Stick of Truth]] | [[Characters/SouthParkTheFracturedButWhole The Fractured but Whole]] -] ]]
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
Zero-context.
Changed line(s) 103 (click to see context) from:
* VillainProtagonist: In Season 23.
to:
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 16,17 (click to see context) from:
* TheAlcoholic: The plot of "Bloody Mary" focuses on him going to A.A., though he's less an "alcoholic who needs to drink constantly" as "an idiot who also drinks too much." Since then he's slightly better and doesn't drink drive but he does often make excuses for his drinking and is shown drunk on several occasions.
* AlcoholicParent: Subverted. Randy likes to drink with friends, but is only seen drunk in a couple episodes. In one episode he gets a DUI, has to attend AA meetings, where instead of taking responsibility and controlling his behavior, he is told he has a "disease." At the end of the episode, he possibly learns discipline and self-control.
* AlcoholicParent: Subverted. Randy likes to drink with friends, but is only seen drunk in a couple episodes. In one episode he gets a DUI, has to attend AA meetings, where instead of taking responsibility and controlling his behavior, he is told he has a "disease." At the end of the episode, he possibly learns discipline and self-control.
to:
* TheAlcoholic: The plot of "Bloody Mary" focuses on him going to A.A., though he's less an "alcoholic who needs to drink constantly" as "an idiot who also drinks too much." Since then then, he's slightly better and doesn't drink drive while drunk, but he does often make excuses for his drinking and is shown drunk on several occasions.
* AlcoholicParent: Subverted. Randy likes to drink with friends, but is only seen drunk in a couple episodes. In one episode he gets a DUI, has to attend AA meetings, where instead of taking responsibility and controlling his behavior, he is told he has a "disease." At the end of the episode, he possibly learns discipline andself-control.self-control, but it doesn't seem to stick.
* AlcoholicParent: Subverted. Randy likes to drink with friends, but is only seen drunk in a couple episodes. In one episode he gets a DUI, has to attend AA meetings, where instead of taking responsibility and controlling his behavior, he is told he has a "disease." At the end of the episode, he possibly learns discipline and
Changed line(s) 26 (click to see context) from:
* BecameTheirOwnAntithesis: In Season 22 Randy fancied himself and Towelie to be the sole legal drug company with integrity, and crusaders against big business. Im Season 23 he becomes just as unethical as the other drug companies, if not more.
to:
* BecameTheirOwnAntithesis: In Season 22 Randy fancied himself and Towelie to be the sole legal drug company with integrity, and crusaders against big business. Im In Season 23 23, he becomes just as unethical as the other drug companies, if not more.more so.
Changed line(s) 41 (click to see context) from:
* ADateWithRosiePalms: A major part of "Overlogging" is the fact that he wants to masturbate, but can't without Internet porn. In Cream Freiche, he masturbates to cooking shows. ItMakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext.
to:
* ADateWithRosiePalms: A major part of "Overlogging" is the fact that he wants to masturbate, but can't without Internet porn. In Cream Freiche, Fraiche, he masturbates to cooking shows. ItMakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext.
Changed line(s) 50 (click to see context) from:
** Even within his earlier stupid bouts, he was still usually a KnightTemplarParent, genuinely having the best intentions for Stan and only spearheading the same hysteria the other parents succumbed to. From about Season Nine onwards however, Randy's motives became more selfish and childish, having his family in collateral damage for whatever fad he takes to and leaving even the other brain dead residents of South Park dumbfounded by his behavior.
to:
** Even within his earlier stupid bouts, he was still usually a KnightTemplarParent, genuinely having the best intentions for Stan and only spearheading the same hysteria the other parents succumbed to. From about Season Nine onwards 9 onward however, Randy's motives became more selfish and childish, having his family in collateral damage for whatever fad he takes to and leaving even the other brain dead residents of South Park dumbfounded by his behavior.
Changed line(s) 54 (click to see context) from:
* GeniusDitz: He is a brilliant scientist and is capable of alot of amazing feats like being a talented musician, songwriter and being Lorde, but otherwise he's an alcoholic with barely any common sense.
to:
* GeniusDitz: He is a brilliant scientist and is capable of alot a lot of amazing musical feats like (culminating in being a talented musician, songwriter and being Lorde, Lorde), but otherwise he's an alcoholic with barely any common sense.
Changed line(s) 56,57 (click to see context) from:
* GoodParents: Despite his [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} eccentricity]] and BumblingDad status, he very much cares about Stan and Shelly and will go out of his way to save them when they're being endangered.
* HiddenDepths: His talent as a musician is impressive as he writes and edits his own song as Lorde and is a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kY0P6o_FLEk very competent guitar player]], as seen in "Guitar Queer-O".
* HiddenDepths: His talent as a musician is impressive as he writes and edits his own song as Lorde and is a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kY0P6o_FLEk very competent guitar player]], as seen in "Guitar Queer-O".
to:
* GoodParents: Despite his [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} eccentricity]] and BumblingDad status, he very much deeply cares about Stan and Shelly and will go out of his way to save them when they're being endangered.
* HiddenDepths: His talent as a musician is impressive as he was in a successful boy band, writes and edits his own song asLorde Lorde, and is a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kY0P6o_FLEk very competent guitar player]], as seen in "Guitar Queer-O".
* HiddenDepths: His talent as a musician is impressive as he was in a successful boy band, writes and edits his own song as
Changed line(s) 63 (click to see context) from:
* ItsAllAboutMe: In newer episodes, Randy is far more likely to be self obsessed and selfish, stubbornly refusing to listen to anyone else.
to:
* ItsAllAboutMe: In newer episodes, Randy is far more likely to be self obsessed self-obsessed and selfish, stubbornly refusing to listen to anyone else.
Changed line(s) 65,66 (click to see context) from:
* JadedWashout: He was once in a boyband and got fired because he turned 19 and was mocked by the town once he returned and has had dreams of being a proper rock star that never went anywhere.
* {{Jerkass}}: At his worst, he can be a spoilt, irrational ManChild who often disregards his son to erupt into chaos over everything.
* {{Jerkass}}: At his worst, he can be a spoilt, irrational ManChild who often disregards his son to erupt into chaos over everything.
to:
* JadedWashout: He was once in a boyband and boy band, got fired because he turned 19 aged out at 19, and was mocked by the town once he returned and returned. He has also had dreams of being a proper rock star that never went anywhere.
* {{Jerkass}}: At his worst, he can be aspoilt, spoiled, irrational ManChild who often disregards his son to erupt into chaos over everything.
* {{Jerkass}}: At his worst, he can be a
Changed line(s) 90 (click to see context) from:
** "A Nightmare on Facetime" makes it very clear he's lost it.
to:
** "A Nightmare on Facetime" FaceTime" makes it very clear he's lost it.
Changed line(s) 95 (click to see context) from:
* SupremeChef: In "Crème Fraiche", he's shown to be a very talented chef, being capable of replicating dishes he sees on cooking shows. Much to the chagrin of his family, who have to clean up the resulting massive pile of dishes. However, its implied that his food still doesnt ''taste'' very good, and he's just imitating the flashy "gourmet" style popular on cooking shows without really understanding it.
to:
* SupremeChef: In "Crème "Creme Fraiche", he's shown to be a very talented chef, being capable of replicating dishes he sees on cooking shows. Much to the chagrin of his family, who have to clean up the resulting massive pile of dishes. However, its implied that his food still doesnt doesn't ''taste'' very good, and he's just imitating the flashy "gourmet" style popular on cooking shows without really understanding it.
Changed line(s) 100 (click to see context) from:
* ToxicFriendInfluence: He's an alcoholic and none of his friends try to keep him from getting drunk (even encouraging him on occasion).
to:
* ToxicFriendInfluence: He's an alcoholic alcoholic, and none of his friends try to keep him from getting drunk (even encouraging him on occasion).
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* ProtagonistJourneyToVillain: Randy is a central character in season 23, possibly the main character of the show at that season. The show shows him going from a jerkass that is trying to make a living with farm life to an outright amoral sell out who is willing to do acts of terrorism and murder to protect his bottom line.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 26 (click to see context) from:
* BecameTheirOwnAntithesis: In Season 22 Tegridy Farms was a small business and Randy was a crusader against larger, more unethical companies. By Season 23, Tegridy Farms has become one of these companies and Randy has become just as unethical as the other companies, if not more so.
to:
* BecameTheirOwnAntithesis: In Season 22 Tegridy Farms was a small business and Randy was a crusader fancied himself and Towelie to be the sole legal drug company with integrity, and crusaders against larger, more unethical companies. By big business. Im Season 23, Tegridy Farms has become one of these companies and Randy has become 23 he becomes just as unethical as the other drug companies, if not more so.more.
Added DiffLines:
* {{Expy}}: Season 23 turns him into one of [[Series/BreakingBad Walter White]], both being scientists who began selling drugs with the help of a partner and justifies it and the horrible crimes he commits to sell the drugs as providing for his family. The only difference is that the drugs Randy sells are legal, and he lacks most of the intelligence Walter has.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 26 (click to see context) from:
* BecomingTheMask: In "Sarcastaball." he loses control over his ability to be sarcastic and can't stop doing it. Music/{{Lorde}} was originally just an excuse to use the girls bathroom.
to:
* BecameTheirOwnAntithesis: In Season 22 Tegridy Farms was a small business and Randy was a crusader against larger, more unethical companies. By Season 23, Tegridy Farms has become one of these companies and Randy has become just as unethical as the other companies, if not more so.
* BecomingTheMask: In"Sarcastaball." "Sarcastaball," he loses control over his ability to be sarcastic and can't stop doing it. Music/{{Lorde}} was originally just an excuse to use the girls bathroom.
* BecomingTheMask: In
* CorruptCorporateExecutive: In Season 23, after Tegridy Farms becomes a successful weed company and a major corporation, he becomes greedy and unethical, committing countless murders for Tegridy to thrive and engaging in numerous unethical business ventures, like selling vegetarian burgers made out of the unusable parts of weed to the citizens of South Park and selling weed to the Chinese government so they can plant them on student protesters to arrest them.
* NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist: In Season 23 he justifies his murders and unethical and underhanded business ventures as him doing desperate things to provide for his family. However, its clear that Tegridy Farms has more than enough money to thrive and his family would be more than happy to leave, but Randy just wants to live his dream of being a weed farmer and is just greedy and wants a monopoly on the business. Also, most of Tegridy Farms’ genuine money problems are caused by him spending massive amounts of money to make expensive and unnecessary advertising gimmicks, and he refuses to stop doing so after Sharon points this out to him because of his NeverMyFault tendencies.
Changed line(s) 84 (click to see context) from:
* SanitySlippage: "A Nightmare on Facetime" makes it very clear he's lost it.
to:
* SanitySlippage: SanitySlippage:
** "A Nightmare on Facetime" makes it very clear he's lostit.it.
** Season 23 shows that he's utterly lost it, with the first episode alone having him bomb homegrown weed owners in an act of domestic terrorism and seriously wondering if he is actually a towel.
** "A Nightmare on Facetime" makes it very clear he's lost
** Season 23 shows that he's utterly lost it, with the first episode alone having him bomb homegrown weed owners in an act of domestic terrorism and seriously wondering if he is actually a towel.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
** In Season 23, he gains a new one, "Hey, ''fuck you.''"
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* KarmaHoudini: He becomes one of these in Season 23, where he gets away with selling out to the Chinese government by killing Winnie The Pooh, letting them use his weed to frame student protesters, and killing numerous homegrown weed owners to get a monopoly on the weed business.
* KarmaHoudiniWarranty: In “Let Them Eat Goo”, him unethically murdering cattle causes him to lose his customers when the Goo Man shows a video tape of it to the whole town, turning everyone against him.
* KarmaHoudiniWarranty: In “Let Them Eat Goo”, him unethically murdering cattle causes him to lose his customers when the Goo Man shows a video tape of it to the whole town, turning everyone against him.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
* IgnoredEpiphany: In Season 23, after breaking off his partnership with [=MedMen=] and the Chinese government and vowing to stop being greedy and return Tegridy Farms to its roots, the very next episode has him sell vegetarian burgers made of the unusable parts of weed (which still get people high) and run every other restaurant in South Park out of business by taking away their customers.
Changed line(s) 88 (click to see context) from:
** It reaches new heights in Season 23, where he becomes obsessed with [[{{Greed}} profiting off of Tegridy Farms]], and commits an act of domestic terrorism by blowing up houses with homegrown marijuana and killing numerous people to take out the competition, and brutally garroting Winnie the Pooh to curry favor with the Chinese government. He also starts to neglect his family, and even emotionally manipulates Stan into wearing a Tegridy Farms shirt at a concert in "Band in China."
to:
** It reaches new heights in Season 23, where he becomes obsessed with [[{{Greed}} profiting off of Tegridy Farms]], and commits an act of domestic terrorism by blowing up houses with homegrown marijuana and killing numerous people to take out the competition, and brutally garroting Winnie the Pooh to curry favor with the Chinese government. He also starts to neglect his family, and even emotionally manipulates Stan into wearing a Tegridy Farms shirt at a concert in "Band in China."China", and accuses them of not caring about the family whenever they make it clear they hate Tegridy Farms.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* HisOwnWorstEnemy: Season 23 shows that Tegridy Farms would be printing money were it not for Randy's insistence on throwing away money on unnecessary, expensive marketing gimmicks.
