The continuity of South Park can be very confusing, with characters dying and coming back the next episode and no one remembering their demises, as always happens with Kenny – however, Cartman has shown awareness of Kenny's many deaths over the years, and there are two similar theories that explain how Cartman knows his friend is immortal. Animated shows for adults have gained force in recent years, and these have a lot to thank South Park for. The series created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone made its debut in 1997 in Comedy Central and has since been unstoppable, even though it's always involved in controversy.

South Park follows four kids – Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman, and Kenny McCormick – and their various (mostly disastrous) adventures in and around the titular Colorado town. The series is aimed at a mature audience, with sexual content, graphic depictions of violence, and addressing topics and real-life events and social issues that more often than not end up being quite controversial. Interestingly, this has only added to the success of South Park, which has been around for over 20 seasons. As such, South Park has many running gags, of which some mess with the already tangled continuity of the show, such as the many deaths of Kenny.

Perhaps the best-known gag in South Park is how Kenny always dies, most of the time in very gruesome ways, with Stan screaming "Oh my God! They killed Kenny!" followed by Kyle going "You bastards!". However, Kenny always returns alive and well the next episode, and his death is rarely addressed, but there's one character who seems to be aware of how his friend with the orange parka always dies: Cartman. Although Cartman isn't exactly the best friend in all South Park and is always aggressive, prejudiced, narcissistic, and more, he's the only one that has noticed that Kenny dies a lot, making way for two fan theories that try to explain how Cartman knows that Kenny is immortal.

In South Park's "Coon and Friends" trilogy, Kenny's immortality is confirmed and explained to be the result of his parents attending Cthulhu cult meetings, so every time he dies, his mother gives birth to him again and he grows back to the same age. Kenny even addresses his friends' amnesia every time he dies, as everyone's minds are wiped so they don't remember all his deaths (except for him and his parents), but this doesn't seem to apply to Cartman. As pointed out by fans on Reddit (via DigitalSpy), there have been a couple of episodes where Cartman is aware that Kenny dies a lot, such as in "City on the Edge Forever" where he's the only one who remembers Kenny died and "Cartmanland", where he says "what, Kenny? He dies all the time!". Another Reddit user suggests that after the episode "Succubus", where Cartman is given an eye transplant using Kenny's frozen head as the donor, he has been seeing everything through his perspective and thus is aware that Kenny is immortal.

Another theory has a similar basis but is drawn from a different episode. In "A Ladder to Heaven", Cartman drinks Kenny's ashes with milk and experiences many of his memories as he's also possessed by his soul. This, then, formed a link between these characters, so Cartman is immune to the memory wiping just like Kenny and his parents. It might be possible that Cartman and Kenny have a strong connection that none of the other characters have as either the result of the transplant or drinking the ashes, even if they aren't exactly the best of friends. Of course, it's also possible that this is just the writers not keeping track of South Park's continuity and adding these bits of awareness from Cartman as a "breaking the fourth-wall" sort of moment, all as part of the show's humor.

These moments from Cartman surely won't stop anytime soon, further feeding theories on how he knows that Kenny is immortal and the connection between them. It wouldn't be outside the realm of possibility, either, that South Park addresses the theories at some point, as the writers always add real-life elements, events, and more and give them their own twist to adapt them to the tone of the show.

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About The Author

Adrienne Tyler (3490 Articles Published)

Adrienne Tyler is a features writer for Screen Rant. She is an Audiovisual Communication graduate who wanted to be a filmmaker, but life had other plans (and it turned out great). Prior to Screen Rant, she wrote for Pop Wrapped, 4 Your Excitement (4YE), and D20Crit, where she was also a regular guest at Netfreaks podcast. She was also a contributor for FanSided's BamSmackPow and 1428 Elm. Adrienne is very into films and she enjoys a bit of everything: from superhero films to heartbreaking dramas, to low-budget horror films. Every time she manages to commit to a TV show without getting bored, an angel gets its wings.

When she's not writing, you can find her trying to learn a new language, watching hockey (go Avs!), or wondering what life would have been like had Pushing Daisies, Firefly, and Limitless not been cancelled. Breakfast food is life and coffee is what makes the world go round.

Guillermo del Toro said "hi" to her once. It was great.

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