Five ‘South Park’ Characters Who Disappeared Without Explanation
Kenny has notoriously died over 100 times, but many other Pip is crushed by Barbra Streisand, Ms. Crabtree is murdered by a serial killer and Ms. Choksondik swallows brine shrimp — just to name a few.
But plenty of other once-prominent characters have disappeared without explanation, and usually without fanfare. Or else they’ve been demoted to the point where they haven’t spoken in years, appearing only in crowd shots.
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Here are five South Park characters, once pretty integral to the show, that haven’t been heard from in far too long. Maybe someone should check in on them?
Nurse Gollum
Nurse Gollum first arrives in the Season Two’s “Coned Fetus Lady” as the new school nurse. She appears a bit later in Season Two in “Roger Ebert Should Lay off the Fatty Foods” as well, but that’s pretty much it for speaking roles. Since then, she can occasionally be seen in the background of big shots of the town, but we don’t hear from her anymore. Part of this absence may be due to the ing of the actor who voiced her, Mary Kay Bergman, in 1999, but it’s more likely because there was never much to this character. Her central joke was that, besides her medical condition of having a dead fetus on her face, she was entirely normal in contrast to a town of crazy people. “Entirely normal” isn’t much fun to write for, so it’s no wonder we haven’t heard a peep in ages.
Dr. Doctor
Voiced by George Clooney in South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut and Trey Parker in the series, Dr. Doctor’s character is as well-developed as his name. However, by virtue of his profession, he’s around for many pivotal moments in the series, like when he transplants Cartman’s kidney into Kyle. He also presides over several of Kenny’s deaths, including one in the trailer for the film in which he tells Kenny, “Son, we accidentally replaced your heart with a baked potato, you have about three seconds to live.”
The last major time we heard Dr. Doctor speak was when he diagnosed Randy with testicular cancer back in 2010. Fifteen years is a long time to go without hearing from a character.
Officer Barbrady
Officer Barbrady may be a trigger-happy moron, but he’s also kind of lovable. So when South Park decided to include more cutting takes on police brutality, they developed the character of Sergeant Harrison Yates to use in those stories instead. This dynamic has helped to protect Barbrady as a beloved oaf, but it sometimes means he’s underused. The last time we saw him talk was in 2015, which means he’s well overdue for a “Chickenlover”-type adventure that allows him to play hero.
Damien Thorn
Even among these other underused characters, Damien is a unique case. He first appears in Season One’s “Damien” as the son of the devil and the new kid in school. After that, he’s seen very regularly in the school, but without ever saying a word. This is made even stranger by the fact that his father, the devil, has made so many appearances in the show.
Saddam Hussein
After serving as a prominent villain in the show for years, including in the feature film, the former Iraqi dictator was last seen in an episode that aired in 2003 as the Prime Minister of Canada. He is arrested by Canadian authorities, never to be seen from again.
While the real-life Saddam Hussein died in 2006, South Park’s take on the character never had much connection to him, so it’s surprising we haven’t seen him since. Plus, even if South Park’s Saddam is dead, it’s very likely we would have seen him in hell, as we have many other times. After all, where else is he going to go, Detroit?