Every Time That South Park Revealed Kenny's Face

While South Park season 26 revealed Kenny's face for the first time in a decade, this was only one of almost a dozen times the show has done this.

While South Park has revealed Kenny’s face around a dozen times in the show’s run, almost all of these instances happened within a select few seasons of the long-running series. Kenny McCormick is one of the strangest characters in South Park history, which is a considerable achievement. Originally, Kenny was based on a school friend of South Park co-creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone who wore an orange hoodie that, not unlike Kenny’s distinctive signature outfit, covered his face with its hood, and he frequently seemed to vanish from school for days at a time (prompting Stone and Parker to joke that he had died).

As South Park continued, the lore surrounding Kenny’s character grew more complex and stranger. While South Park revealed Kenny’s face only a few times over the show’s 26 seasons, the series made up for this by revealing quite a lot about Kenny himself during this time. In an infamous running gag, the first four seasons of South Park killed off Kenny in almost every episode, with the character invariably appearing unharmed in the next outing. South Park season 5 killed him off for almost an entire season, while season 14 took Kenny’s mysterious existence a step further. During a three-episode arc, Kenny was revealed to be an immortal cursed to respawn after every death.

10 South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut (1999)

The best view that audiences ever got of Kenny’s face remains its first appearance. In South Park’s lone theatrical movie, 1999’s South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut, Kenny’s face is revealed when the character speaks during the movie’s climax. Hilariously (and inevitably), Kenny turns out to be a pretty nondescript young boy who looks much like the rest of the South Park gang. Despite how unsurprising this appearance is, it would be a long while before South Park showed Kenny’s face again. Over the coming seasons, Kenny’s face was occasionally glimpsed, but most of these appearances were too swift for viewers to even freeze-frame.

9 "The Tooth Fairy's Tats 2000" (Season 4, Episode 1)

In South Park season 4, episode 1, “The Tooth Fairy's Tats 2000,” Cartman learns about the tooth fairy and immediately attempts to steal some baby teeth to make fast cash. In the ensuing crime caper, Kenny is thrown into a river with concrete shoes in classic mob-movie fashion. While this doesn’t kill him until the episode’s ending, the antics do provide a glimpse-and-you’ll-miss-it image of Kenny’s face as he is pulled from his hoodie.

8 "Super Best Friends" (Season 5, Episode 3)

One of South Park’s first banned episodes, season 5, episode 3, “Super Best Friends” is the first outing of the series to feature a depiction of the Prophet Muhammad. This sparked massive controversy some years after the episode’s release when a later South Park outing depicted the religious figure again. However, what a lot of fans may have missed is that "Super Best Friends" also technically featured Kenny’s un-hooded face when he shaved his head alongside the rest of the school's children.

7 "Lil’ Crime Stoppers" (Season 7, Episode 6)

In South Park season 7, episode 6, “Lil’ Crime Stoppers,” Kenny, Kyle, Cartman, and Stan play detectives only for their game to get too serious when they become embroiled in serious real-life crime. In this episode, Kenny’s face can be glimpsed during a brief scene where the boys are showering together. Once again, this appearance is a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it one, as is the case with most of the character’s hood-less cameos outside of South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut.

6 “The Losing Edge” (Season 9, Episode 5)

In South Park season 9, episode 5, “The Losing Edge,” Kenny’s face is briefly visible as the boys sit around a table in Whistling Willy’s. This outing was one of the first times South Park made Randy a lead character, with its plot following Stan’s father and his attempts to fight other parents at his child’s basketball games. Meanwhile, the boys tried to lose their games on purpose to get more free time for video games.

5 "Lice Capades" (Season 11, Episode 3)

In South Park season 11, episode 3, “Lice Capades,” Kenny’s face can be seen when he is stripped by his peers thanks to Cartman falsely blaming him for bringing lice to their school. Kenny isn’t the guilty party but Cartman and the frenzied mob of kids that he leads assume that, since his family is poor, Kenny must be to blame. While South Park season 26 improved Cartman (slightly), “Lice Capades” relied on the character’s uglier side for its blackly comic story.

4 "The Coon" (Season 13, Episode 2)

In “The Coon,” Cartman’s attempts to become a local superhero are thwarted at every turn by the more accomplished, powerful, and authentically selfless Mysterion. When this superhero is unmasked at the episode’s end, the joke seems to be that he is simply a random South Park background character. However, later outings revealed that Mysterion was Kenny, meaning the scene retroactively counts as an instance of South Park revealing Kenny’s real face.

3 "You’re Getting Old" (Season 15, Episode 7)

In South Park season 15, episode 7, “You’re Getting Old,” Stan starts to question whether his life is worth during after a particularly brutal bout of depression. Viewing the world and everything in its as nothing more than excrement, Stan accidentally alienates his friends and family and ends up isolated and alone by the end of this bleak outing. While Stan does get better, “You’re Getting Old” remains one of the show’s darkest hours. Kenny’s face briefly appears in the outing during Stan’s birthday party, where he has shorn his hood.

2 "Broadway Bro Down" (Season 15, Episode 11)

While the story of “You’re Getting Old” saw South Park mock itself as Stan viewed his life as predictable and formulaic, season 15, episode 11, “Broadway Bro Down,” saw the show’s co-creators make light of another one of their successful projects. Hot off the success of Book of Mormon, South Park’s co-creators mocked the cultural institution of Broadway with this outing. Eagle-eyed viewers will also notice that this episode offered a short look at Kenny’s face as he lines up on the diving board alongside his fellow students.

1 "Sarcastaball" (Season 16, Episode 8)

In South Park season 16, episode 8, “Sarcastaball,” Butters becomes an overnight sports star when a sarcastic remark from Stan’s father Randy inadvertently invents a new version of football. This plot line sets up the last revelation of Kenny’s face until South Park season 26, episode 5, “DikinBaus Hot Dogs,” as he stands beside Butters in the locker room without his signature hood. This insubstantial glance was the last glimpse that viewers got of South Park’s silent hero until a decade later.