Why Some South Park Fans Absolutely Love Butters

For more than 20 years, fans of the iconic adult animated series "South Park" have followed the exploits of several fourth graders living in the titular Colorado town: mainly focusing on the adventures of Stan Marsh (Trey Parker), Eric Cartman (Parker), Kenny McCormick (Matt Stone), and Kyle Broflovski (Stone). Although these four make up the series' main cast, several of their classmates at South Park Elementary have become increasingly important over the years — the most obvious examples being Butters Stotch (Stone), who has essentially become a main character in more recent seasons.

He was introduced as a background character during the show's first two seasons. The character is defined by his "goody-two-shoes" personality and childish innocence: both of which heavily contradict the crass tone of "South Park" overall. The character steadily grew in importance up until Season 5, when he was given his very own episode and later replaced Kennny as the fourth member of the main cast. Although Kenny eventually returned, Butters would only grow in popularity and importance as the rest of the series went on, becoming nearly as important as the four main characters and featuring prominently in many of his own special episodes and storylines.

In hindsight, it seems obvious why this lovably goofy character has become so important to the world of "South Park" — as fans on Reddit have continually praised Butters as perhaps the best character the show has ever created, particularly due to his hilarious personality and the level of compassion he brings to the series.

Fans of "South Park" have made it abundantly clear that they adore Butters Stotch as a character, especially those fans who frequent the official "South Park" subreddit. Indeed, a "Butters Appreciation Post” from Reddit received close to 4,000 upvotes in 2022 — and was flooded with compliments and praise directed at the most innocent boy in South Park Elementary.

"Butters is and forever will be my favorite character," wrote u/JBquill. "The silent hero of Southpark," echoed u/corvus66a. "Love him too." On top of the praise that Butters received as one of the best characters the series has to offer, other fans pointed out that he also drives some of the more heartfelt moments of the series. u/pRencessPeach recalled the episode in which Butters delivers a speech about finding happiness in spite of a broken heart, and u/Camel-Solid urged others to learn from Butters's heart and character.

While many fans throughout the post continued to recall some of Butters' funniest and most outrageous moments from "South Park," it's clear that many fans feel a connection to him that is beyond making them laugh. Not only do people love Butters because he is one of the funniest characters in the entire series, but also because he is one of the most compassionate and relatable characters the show has to offer.