One of the earlier running gags on Matt Stone's and Trey Parker's animated sitcom "South Park" was the repeated, comedic death of Kenny McCormick. Kenny (Stone) was the best friend of Stan (Parker), Kyle (also Stone), and Cartman (also Parker), and he seemed to be the most ... worldly of the four. Kenny's face was usually covered mostly by an outsize orange coat, and all of his dialogue was muffled and incomprehensible. Later, it would be established that Kenny was incredibly impoverished and that he seemed to know a lot more about sex, drugs, and crime than an eight-year-old ought to.

For the first six seasons of the series, from 1997 to 2002, Kenny died in almost every single episode. Kenny's deaths were usually very demonstrative, with the young boy being impaled on a flagpole or cut in half by a chainsaw. When Kenny died, one of his friends would briefly respond,...