As we’ve seen in the first part, Kenny had already a potential mystery around himself established by the creators in JUST the pilot episode. But this mystery actually got its first potential answers in the earliest seasons of the show. Which shows that Trey Parker and Matt Stone actually always had something planned for Kenny.

2.THE FIRST ANSWER TO KENNY’S IMMORTALITY

In the early episodes of the show, we could theorize that the idea of the aliens and paranormal things were still present in Trey and Matt’s heads for the show, but so was the idea of Kenny dying and magically coming back as if nothing had happened in the next episode, but sometimes even in the same episode, specifically in the first season, Kenny had ‘questionable deaths and revivals’.

For example in:

• Weight Gain 4000 (102) - Kenny gets crushed by Teepee in Garrison’s play, but shows up alive in the next scene

• Volcano (103) - Crushed and burned by hot lava rock, but shows up later

• The Succubus (303) - Dies mysteriously while waiting for Chef, then revives at dawn miraculously.

What these 3 episodes have in common is the fact that Kenny seemingly actually died and got revived in the same episode, with the only reaction from Stan being. “Look! Seems like Kenny’s okay!” in only one of these episodes. (Volcano)

By then, his Immortality was pretty much left unexplained and completely random, he wouldn’t have a really specific way to come back, he could come back in the same episode, literally respawn on screen sometimes in another episode like in the Cartman’s mom is a dirty slut episodes. It wasn’t until Season 4 that Kenny’s mysterious revival would be given a theorical explanation.

Cartman Joins NAMBLA (406)

In this episode, Kenny dies ran over by a car after desperately trying to stop his parents from having a baby. (It’s worth noting Karen didn’t exist in the series at the time, but not that she wasn’t born. When she was added into the series, they probably retconned her having been never part of the family.) To Kenny’s dismay, the baby manages to be born but to the viewer’s surprise, the baby turns out to be an exact copy of Kenny. Which the parents acknowledge (They even acknowledge how many times this has happened) and even give the same parka to him AND name him Kenny.

What’s interesting tho, is that the both of them don’t seem to acknowledge the baby as a reincarnation of their son, but just as another baby that looks just like him. And so they also name him Kenny. So if we follow this logic, Kenny doesn’t come back from his deaths and it’s just his parents giving birth to copies of Kenny over and over again which somehow grow out to be the Kenny we see in the next episode and act the same, still acknowledges the fact he can die and seemingly remembers his previous deaths. So basically, different body, same soul.

But it goes further than that even in this episode, because what it teaches us, is that somehow Carol was pregnant with a Kenny copy, before Kenny was even dead. So Kenny was actually trying to kill himself the whole time. So the universe was literally predicting Kenny’s death later on in the episode and giving him a new body to be revived into, creating an actual paradox. This was the first time ever we got a glimpse at Kenny’s Immortality power being beyond human comprehension and logic itself.

This, had somewhat answered the question about Kenny’s immorality and let the viewer assumed that’s how he came back to life, but nothing else was established, how the others didn’t remember his deaths, was it just cluelessness on their part? We didn’t know.

But this answer didn’t actually explain how Kenny would magically reappear in the few instances I mentioned either. Could it be that he was given birth to and then magically respawned back to the others grown to the same age as the previous Kenny? How did it work? And why could her Mother do that? What about the times he was turned into a Zombie!? Or the time he went to Hell and Heaven?!

This would have been an answer with more mysteries around it.

The mystery of “How did it work? Where did it come from?” and no more “What is up with Kenny?”

Did that mean he would just be brought back into the baby Kenny whenever his mom would be pregnant again? Was that the same soul? What exactly was Kenny’s power?! Did it have limits? Did it matter how long Kenny could stay dead?

This was something we wouldn’t be given answers to until Season 6…Where something really strange had happened.

Which we will discuss in the part 3.

Note: Something I wanted to add was the fact that at that point of the series, every character including Stan and Kyle were partially aware of Kenny’s deaths even if they didn’t remember them. They all had a quote or reaction alluding to the fact they were used to it. But this later on disappeared completely, being retconned from the show.

• Kyle killing Kenny without hesitation (S01 EP 7)

• Stan specifically making a comment whenever Kenny would theorically survive his deaths (In a few episodes, including the pilot)

• Cartman saying that “Kenny dies all the time” when being faced with the consequences of him dying in his Amusement Park. (S05 EP 6)

• The boys laughing at Kenny’s deaths or making a wink at how predictable it was

But I would put these instances in the 4th wall breaking moments that shouldn’t be taken as proofs that they don’t remember.

I’ll actually talk about these things more deeply in a specific part about how the others react to his deaths.