List of Students at South Park Elementary - Overview

Overview

While a few characters from varying grades have been depicted in recurring minor roles, the students in the fourth grade—including central characters Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Kenny McCormick, Eric Cartman, and Butters Stotch—receive the primary focus of the series. The fourth grade class is taught throughout most of the series by Mr. Garrison, with a hiatus between seasons 4 and 6 when he is replaced by Ms. Choksondik. These students also attended class under Mr. Garrison during their previous time as third graders during South Park's first three-and-a-half seasons.

In tradition with the show's cutout animation style, all characters listed below are composed of simple geometrical shapes and bright colors. Ever since the show's second episode, "Weight Gain 4000" (season one, 1997), all characters on South Park have been animated with computer software, though they are portrayed to give the impression that the show still utilizes the method of animating construction paper composition cutouts through the use of stop motion, which was the technique used in creating the show's first episode, "Cartman Gets an Anal Probe".

In addition to the main characters, other students below will sometimes give a brief monologue as a means of expressing the lessons they have attained during the course of an episode. Most of the characters are foul-mouthed as a means for series creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone to display how they claim young children really talk when they are alone. Most of the male students are amused by bodily functions and toilet humor, and their favorite television personalities are Terrance and Phillip, a Canadian duo whose comedy routines on their show-within-the-show revolve substantially around fart jokes. In response to the focus on elements of satire in South Park, Parker has said that the main goal of the show is to portray the students as "kids just being kids" as a means of accurately showcasing "what it's like to be in in America".