South Park has made a rather controversial change to Butters with the latest seasons, and he might never be the same as he was in the older episodes. South Park Season 28 continues the string of new episodes that have been hitting Comedy Central since earlier this Summer, and with them continue the story that began with Season 27. The newest episode brings it all one step closer to its grand finale as it seems like this multi-season story is coming to its natural conclusion. But each of the characters has been significantly changed across the episodes seen thus far as a result of everything going down.
Butters has seen the most of these changes as well as recent seasons have seen him turn away from the more naive and innocent version of the character we had seen in his earlier appearances. He’s gotten a lot angrier, and has been taking some extreme actions in response to the ways girls have been treating him lately. This comes to even more fruition in the latest episode as he uses artificial intelligence to create terrible videos, and it goes to show that he really isn’t the same Butters anymore.
South Park Has Changed Butters for the Worse
South Park Season 28 Episode 3 “Sora Not Sorry,” continues the story from earlier in the season as Butters is angered over the fact that Red had essentially baited him into getting her the Labubu that she had been asking for. He had thought they were potentially going to have a romantic relationship, only to find out that she only wanted the doll instead. But rather than brush it off as we have seen Butters do with rejection before, he decides to get his revenge on her by creating fake videos where cartoons were doing terrible things to her.
It eventually leads to Red creating her own fake videos in revenge, and sparks an investigation around town to find out what’s going on. But the important aspect of this sees Butters entirely denying his involvement through it all to keep the police from figuring out he’s the one that started spreading fake videos in the first place. It’s an action that the much sweeter Butters from earlier seasons might not have ever made, and it’s another example of the kind of transformation the character has gone through since the pandemic.
When Did Butters Change?
Butters has really started to change, much like the rest of the world, during the COVID-19 pandemic. It was a clear story that Butters was being worn down by everything around him as his childlike wonder has essentially been drained out of him. In “The Pandemic Special” all he wanted was to go to Build-a-Bear, and it goes so poorly that when he returns in “South ParQ Vaccination Special” he seems like an entirely different kind of person. But if you really wanted to go back in the vault, this shift in Butters’ personality began all the way back in Season 20 with “Wieners Out.”
When he’s dumped by his Canadian girlfriend, he decides to protest against the girls by pulling down his pants and starting a whole movement. It was a ridiculous move at the time, but was a clear indication of the kind of path that Butters was going down. He’s no longer someone who just brushes things off, but instead is angered by all of it and gets his revenge. It’s a change that fits the modern era, but it’s bittersweet considering his role in the series used to be as just a lowly sad sack that we all loved to see smile in spite of it all. It’s just not the case anymore.
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