They Killed Kenny Again: Difference between revisions

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{{quote|'''Stan:''' Oh my god, [[Trope Namer|they killed Kenny]]!

'''Kyle:''' You bastards!|Almost every episode of ''[[South Park]]'' for the first five seasons.}}

'''Kyle:''' You bastards!|[[Once Per Episode|Almost every episode]] of ''[[South Park]]'' for the first five seasons.}}

A [[Recurring Character]] [[Red Shirt]], as impossible as it sounds. This character is, and sometimes exists only to be, killed off repetitively (sometimes even [[Once Per Episode]]), [[Snap Back|always returning by the next one]], as a [[Running Gag]].

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== Advertising ==

* Louie the Fly, in the Mortein insect spray commercials. For the character's 50th anniversary, Mortein are having a public poll on whether to kill him off permanently.

== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==

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* ''[[Carnival Phantasm]]'' has Lancer, who seems to die in his every appearance. In fact, he once got spontaneously struck by lightning on a clear day. The [[Beach Episode]] is the only episode where he doesn't die because he doesn't show up there. {{spoiler|Episode 11 remedies this by revealing that he was hiding in the rocket when it got punctured by a ballistic volleyball}}.

** And as of the special, every death is accompanied with "You aren't human!", [[Shout-Out|the Japanese localization of]] ''[[South Park]]'''s "You bastards!"

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== [[Card Games]] ==

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* ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'' features a [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=39710 handful] [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=45123 of] [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=43555 cards] whose [[Flavor Text]] references the various deaths of a hapless goblin named Furt.

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** More famously, there's [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=106473 Squee], who eventually proved to be so popular he got his own card, complete with a returning-to-play mechanic.

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{{quote|"He is Yawgmoth's reward to me. I shall kill him a hundred times a day."}}

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*** More recently, the card [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?printed=false&recentpage=4&multiverseid=205066 Reassembling Skeleton] lampshades a lesser-known rule regarding creature cards; If a non-token creature leaves play for any reason but returns at some point, the game state considers it a different creature. To sum up, same ''card'' does not equal same ''creature''.

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** ''[[Chaotic]]'' has similar flavor text for some cards involving Bodal.

== [[Comic Books]] ==

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* [[Iznogoud]], in his plots to overthrow the Caliph, always ends up locked in a dungeon, permanently transformed, vanished, etc. and is back to resume his plotting at the beginning of the next episode.

* Freddy in ''[[Horndog]]''.

== [[Fan Works]] ==

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* In ''[[The Emiya Clan]]'', [[Fate/stay night|Lancer]] gets this shoved upon him at every possible point. It got to the point where {{spoiler|AU!Illya and Zelretch}} were summoning him just to see how many strange and peculiar ways they could make him suffer.

** Also, an army of Lancers makes for a great supply of expendable labor.

== [[Film]] ==

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* [[The Three Stooges]] die at the end of four of their shorts "Half Shot Shooter", "Three Little Sew and Sews", "You Nazty Spie!", and "I'll Never Heil Again".

* In several of the ''[[James Bond (film)|James Bond]]'' movies, CIA agent Felix Leiter is fed to sharks ("He disagreed with something that ate him") only to go through it again in another movie.

== [[Literature]] ==

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* Master Pangloss from Voltaire's [[Candide]] dies a few times.

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== [[Live-Action TV]] ==

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== [[Live Action TV]] ==

* ''[[Dinosaurs]]'' had a [[Show Within a Show]] called Ask Mr. Lizard. The young volunteer, Timmy, would die as a result of the science experiment every episode, prompting Mr. Lizard to spout his much anticipated [[Catch Phrase]], "We're gonna need another Timmy!"

* [[Saturday Night Live|Mr. Bill]] is another early example.

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* Obligatory Lana Lang from ''[[Smallville]]'' reference. Well first she died in a car crash but then Clark flew around the world to reverse time like in the film and brought Lana back to life, [[Balancing Death's Books|resulting in the death of his father instead.]] Great to have you back, [[Creator's Pet/Live Action TV|Lana]].

** Then she apparently died in ''another'' car accident when a bomb went off underneath her truck. Turned out she'd faked her death and was living in Shanghai as a fake blonde. Naturally she came back to Smallville to relive the horror, cry some more, and break a few more hearts before being [[Put on a Bus]] and she hasn't been seen since.

== [[Newspaper Comics]] ==

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** Everyone in ''Brewster Rockit'', but especially Winky.

* [[Show Within a Show]] version: In ''[[Pearls Before Swine]]'', Rat's "Angry Bob" stories tend to have the titular character die in all sorts of absurd and gruesomely comic ways, only to be alive at the start of the next story with no explanation (though in a few occasions Rat did write that Bob "undied")

== [[Radio]] ==

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* The later British radio comedy series ''[[The Burkiss Way]]'' featured the character of Eric Pode of Croydon, most of whose appearances ended with him getting shot by whoever he was talking to, usually the long-suffering Fred Harris. On one single occasion, Pode shot Harris, announcing 'I had to do that, he was getting on me nerves.'

* The early "Guy Noir" sketches on ''[[A Prairie Home Companion]]'' (and its 80s substitute, ''Garrison Keillor's American Radio Company'') were set up in this manner, with the title character and his then-sidekick, Jimmy, repeatedly accidentally killing each other. After the [[Moral Guardians]] protested these violent acts, Jimmy was [[Killed Off for Real]] and "Guy Noir" adapted its current format, with Noir getting by on his wits alone.

== [[Tabletop Games]] ==

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== [[Card Games]] ==

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* ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'' features a [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=39710 handful] [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=45123 of] [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=43555 cards] whose [[Flavor Text]] references the various deaths of a hapless goblin named Furt.

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** More famously, there's [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=106473 Squee], who eventually proved to be so popular he got his own card, complete with a returning-to-play mechanic.

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{{quote|"He is Yawgmoth's reward to me. I shall kill him a hundred times a day."}}

⚫

*** More recently, the card [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?printed=false&recentpage=4&multiverseid=205066 Reassembling Skeleton] lampshades a lesser-known rule regarding creature cards; If a non-token creature leaves play for any reason but returns at some point, the game state considers it a different creature. To sum up, same ''card'' does not equal same ''creature''.

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** ''[[Chaotic]]'' has similar flavor text for some cards involving Bodal.

=== Tabletop RPG ===

* This is very easy to do in [[Mortasheen]], given how [[Death Is Cheap]] in the setting due to easy cloning.

** This also applies doubly to [[Paranoia (game)|Paranoia]].

== [[Video Games]] ==

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{{quote|'''Sissel''': It's Lynne! And she's not dead, for once!}}

* ''[[Demon's Souls]]'' as a whole makes the player character this Trope; a lower then average player can expect to die at least 100 times. Quite possibly all on the 1st level.

== [[Web Animation]] ==

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* ''Everyone'' on ''[[Happy Tree Friends]]''.

* In ''[[Dinosaur Office]]'', any time the Intern appears, Terry (a tyrannosaurus and their boss) eats him not long afterwards.

== [[Web Comics]] ==

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{{quote|'''Gardevoir''': ''The worst part is, when Roger comes back to life, he'l have to mop up his own shredded remains.''}}

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== [[Web Original]] ==

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== Web Original ==

* [[Phelous]] often dies at the end of his reviews.

** This running gag stopped for awhile after doing a Doctor Who parody for an April Fools joke, where he became someone else and then became himself again. He almost never dies by the end of the episode unless he lampshades it.

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* As a reference to her counterpart [[Final Fantasy|Aerith]]'s death, the character Aeromite from the ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'' parody ''Kingdom Paf'' gets killed several times in gruesome ways, only to ALWAYS come back alive a few minutes later.

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== [[Western Animation]] ==

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* Kenny McCormick from ''[[South Park]]'' is the best-known example and [[Trope Namer]]. During the first few seasons, Stan and Kyle would always give their trope-naming exchange (seen above), sometimes varying it depending on the situation. There's even a ''pie-chart'' devoted to the causes of each of his deaths at the top of this page! The formula was played with quite a bit over the years to keep it amusing—giving an obvious way he would die and then using something else instead, having him come back as a zombie for a [[Halloween Episode]] and get killed again, having his girlfriend give him CPR, etc. The show creators were aware that this could become an [[Overused Running Gag]] though, and made one [[Very Special Episode]] where Kenny's death [[Killed Off for Real|actually stuck]]. His place in the [[Five-Man Band|Four Man Band]] was later filled by [[Properly Paranoid|Tweek]] or [[Butt Monkey|Butters]], but he then [[Unexplained Recovery|returned with no explanation]] after one season ([[Word of God]] has hinted that it might have had something to do with Jesus dying in the episode he comes back). Now he no longer dies...[[Mauve Shirt|as often]].

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== Western Animation ==

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* Kenny McCormick from ''[[South Park]]'' is the ~~most well~~-known example and [[Trope Namer]]. During the first few seasons, Stan and Kyle would always give their trope-naming exchange (seen above), sometimes varying it depending on the situation. There's even a ''pie-chart'' devoted to the causes of each of his deaths at the top of this page! The formula was played with quite a bit over the years to keep it amusing—giving an obvious way he would die and then using something else instead, having him come back as a zombie for a [[Halloween Episode]] and get killed again, having his girlfriend give him CPR, etc. The show creators were aware that this could become an [[Overused Running Gag]] though, and made one [[Very Special Episode]] where Kenny's death [[Killed Off for Real|actually stuck]]. His place in the [[Five-Man Band|Four Man Band]] was later filled by [[Properly Paranoid|Tweek]] or [[Butt Monkey|Butters]], but he then [[Unexplained Recovery|returned with no explanation]] after one season ([[Word of God]] has hinted that it might have had something to do with Jesus dying in the episode he comes back). Now he no longer dies...[[Mauve Shirt|as often]].

** This is [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] in a few episodes, particularly in "Cartmanland"

{{quote|"''...and the rest of the money is owed to the family of a boy who died on one of your rides."''

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== Other ==

== Other Media ==

* At the New York Renaissance Faire, Sheriff of Nottingham Philip De Marque has been killed off a number of times at the end of many years' story lines.

* [[Alice Cooper]] "dies" at the end of his concerts.

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[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]

[[Category:Death Tropes]]

[[Category:Comedy Tropes]]

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[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]