SOUTH PARK creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone talk a bit about bringing Kenny back to life this season.
If South Park fans have heard this catchphrase once, they’ve heard it 1,000 times: “Oh my God, they killed Kenny! You bastards!” But the hapless red-hooded boy always lived to die again ó that is, until the end of season five, when a muscular disease seemingly snuffed him for good. (Kenny was totally M.I.A. in season six.) But take heart, for TV Guide Online has learned Kenny McCormick will return!
“We’re not exactly bringing Kenny back,” teases South Park co-creator Trey Parker. “We’re doing something more clever than that.” Adds his partner, Matt Stone: “We’re kinda sorta bringing him kinda back…” Finishing Stone’s irksomely vague thought, Parker says: “In the very way you’d expect South Park to bring him back, we’re bringing him back.”
Is it true that Parker and Stone deep-sixed Kenny simply because they got tired of writing all of his unholy deaths and resurrections? “It actually came just from an idea that it would be really funny to do an episode where Kenny died and everyone cared,” Parker laughs. “It was a whole sort of movie-of-the-week episode where this child was dying and everyone was concerned ó whereas obviously it had been going on for years and no one gave a s–t.
“It turned out to be a really funny episode,” Parker proudly adds, “and we were like, ‘Let’s keep him gone. Let’s see how long we can ride this out.’ We started focusing on other characters, like Butters, to take his place and really had fun. It’s been cool.”
Well, Kenny’s impending exhumation is sure to have South Park fans in speculation overdrive. Might he turn up as a ghost again? Could he have a long-lost twin? Or will he rise out of Kyle’s toilet bowl like Mr. Hanky the Christmas Poo?
Like the gleeful geeks they are, Parker and Stone reply in unison: “It’s better than that! Better than that!”
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