Butters Stotch

Leopold "Butters" Stotch
Voiced by series co-creator Matt Stone, Butters is a nine-year-old fourth grader attending elementary school in his hometown of the fictional South Park, Colorado. He is cheerful, naïve, optimistic, and more passive relative to the show's other child characters, and can become increasingly anxious, especially when faced with the likelihood of his parents' austerity. Originally just a background character, Butters's role gradually increased as the series progressed, eventually reaching a status of prominence alongside that of the show's original core group of Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman, and Kenny McCormick. The character is loosely based on South Park director of animation Eric Stough, whom Stone and Trey Parker regarded as a "goody-goody" because of his reluctance to offend. His nickname evolved from Parker and Stone repeating "little buddy" for about three years, the latter having been eventually morphed into "Butters".