One of the previous running gags Matt Stone and Trey Parker's animated sitcom South Park was the repeated, comical death of Kenny McCormick. Kenny (Stone) was the best friend of Stan (Parker), Kyle (also Stone) and Cartman (also Parker), and seemed to be the worldliest of the four. Kenny's face was usually covered in a strange orange coat, and all of his dialogue was muffled and unintelligible. Later, it is established that Kenny is incredibly impoverished and seems to know a lot more about sex, drugs and crime than an eight-year-old should know.

In the first six seasons of the series, from 1997 to 2002, Kenny died in almost every episode. Kenny's death was usually very demonstrative, with the youngster impaled on a flagpole or cut in half with a chainsaw. When Kenny died, one of his friends would curtly reply, "Oh my God, they killed Kenny!" (with another "Bastard!" chime). Both Kenny's death and the reactive line of dialogue come from Stone and Parker's 1992 short Jesus vs. Frosty, as well as their much slicker 1995 short The Spirit of Christmas. Kenny's death was a cheap, shocking way to get laughs, and it was mostly effective. To add to the grimness of Kenny's many deaths, his body could often be seen being picked at by rats.

Kenny was also miraculously resurrected at the start of each episode, often without any fanfare. Sometimes, he just appeared out of thin air. Then, like clockwork, he will die once more. No one seemed to remember that he had died many times before.

Eventually, Stone and Parker stopped killing Kenny, and the character now lives on for the rest of most South Park episodes. This, of course, begs the question: how many times has Kenny died? Fortunately, we have access to those numbers.

As mentioned, Kenny dies regularly for the first six seasons of South Park. He was spared in "Mr. Henky the Pooh Christmas" (December 17, 1997) as a show of Christmas mercy, but he was killed off fairly regularly outside of that.

Indeed, sometimes Kenny dies several times in one episode. In "Pinkeye" (October 29, 1997) Kenny died when a satellite fell on him. When he was embalmed, an incident with Worcestershire sauce brought him back to life as a zombie. Kyle then ends up chainsawing Zombie Kenny in half, killing him again. In the epilogue, Kenny once again digs himself out of his grave, only to have his tombstone fall on top of him. Then a plane hit him. Recall that in 1997, a certain brand of "shock" humor was just coming into vogue (largely led by the success of "South Park") and many comedians began telling jokes that brought the well-worn sitcom tropes of the 1980s to violent extremes. Kenny's death should have been oddly shocking in its random violence.

The continuity of Kenny's death is intentionally played with regularly. Sometimes, Kenny's death is a big deal, and the characters mourn his loss. Other times, it's so mundane that Stan and Kyle almost sigh their "They killed Kenny" line and walk away like nothing happened. In the episode "Summer Sucks" (24.06.1998) there is a flashback to when Kenny was in kindergarten, and he dies in the flashback. However, he is well back in the present.

Counting all the multiple deaths in the first six seasons of South Park, Kenny has died or been killed 98 times. This does not count the deaths Kenny experienced in the show's title sequence, as they would be difficult to count properly.

In the 1999 feature film South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut, Kenny dies early in the film when he accidentally sets himself on fire after igniting his own gas. At the hospital, the doctor (George Clooney) accidentally replaces his heart with a baked potato and he dies on the operating table. The film, however, follows Kenny into Hell, where he befriends Satan (Parker) and comforts the Lord of Darkness over his abusive relationship with Saddam Hussein (Stone). Kenny briefly returns to Earth during the film's climax, says goodbye to his friends, and ascends to heaven. That counts as two deaths.

As mentioned, South Park started out as Christmas shorts, and a Kenny-like character is killed off in Jesus vs Frosty. (A character named Kenny in that short set resembles the eventual Cartman.) In the 1995 sequel, Kenny was correctly named and he also died when Santa accidentally killed him with a psychic blast.

There have also been, throughout its history, numerous bumpers, shorts, specials and original commercials made by Stone and Parker, and Kenny has died in many of them. They were made for The Tonight Show, MTV Movie Awards, The Aristocrats movie and other such special events. In all the shorts and special pants, about 22 in total, Kenny died an additional 14 times. Jay Leno's beard even killed him once.

If one wanted to be particularly liberal, one could also include the several South Park video games, all made with Stone and Parker. Kenny, throughout the video game stories, was offended another 14 times. 98 (TV series) + 14 (specials and shorts) + 14 (video games) + 2 (the movie) = 128. Kenny died a total of 128 times. Again, this does not count the title sequence from seasons 7 to 11 where he was killed by Death. If you want, apply those additional 71 samples, making a total of 199.

After a while, Matt Stone and Trey Parker began to tire of killing Kenny, and even took his death very seriously in the episode "Kenny Dies" (December 5, 2001). Kenny was hospitalized after being diagnosed with muscular dystrophy, and his friends had to deal with the grief of actually losing a friend. Tragically, Stan was out of the room when Kenny actually passed, and Kenny's last words were "Where's Stan?" Stan became deeply depressed after that.

On a DVD commentary track, Parker and Stone explained that Kenny had become too much of a comic "prop", and his death was becoming tiresome for them to write over and over again. They also became fans of newer characters like Butters (Stone) and Tweek (Stone) and wanted to give them more screen time. After "Kenny Dies", Kenny was off the show for most of the show's sixth season. He remained essentially dead except for a few appearances as a ghost. In the season six finale, "Red Sleigh Down" (December 11, 2002), Kenny was officially brought back (again, without much fanfare), and he's been alive (mostly) ever since.

Chekily, Stone and Parker decided, many years later, to canonically explain why Kenny died so many times. In "Cartman Joins NAMBLA" (2000-06-21) Kenny dies, but his parents give birth to a baby brother... whom they also name Kenny. Contrary to this explanation, however, are the events of the episode "Mysterion Rises" (November 3, 2010). In that episode, it is explained that Kenny's parents belonged to a cult he worshipped the powerful Lovecraftian Elder God Cthulhu. Kenny, through their participation, became cursed, not fated to die every day, only to wake up fully clothed the next morning. The curse of immortality also meant that anyone who witnessed his death would forget about it. Kenny is stabbed to death in that episode as well. Nobody remembers that.