Out of all the fourth graders on South Park, Butters Stotch is one of the only ones who acts his age, leading to some of the best Butters quotes. As soon as South Park premiered over two decades ago, Eric Cartman in particular became a cultural icon. He was on t-shirts and stickers and beach towels within a few short weeks. However, what Trey Parker and Matt Stone discovered later in the series’ run was that on of their most popular characters was a supporting one — Leopold “Butters” Stotch, the most innocent and also most downtrodden kid in South Park.
Butters had found a huge fan base of his own. Outside of being wholly innocent and naive compared to the rest of the cast of South Park, he's constantly in hot water with his parents for absolutely nothing at all, and almost every interaction with them ends up with him being grounded. Butters also moonlights as the supervillain Professor Chaos in his free time, later turning into Victor Chaos for the South Park Post COVID special. Butters is certainly one of the most endearing characters on the show, and here are the best Butters quotes that prove it.
10 “Mom, Dad, I Love You. Please Don’t Sell Me To Paris Hilton.”
Season 8, Episode 12, "Stupid Spoiled Wh*re Video Playset"
The Paris Hilton episode of South Park is often included on lists of times the show went too far, and in many ways, that’s justified. It does feature the suicides of various adorable pets, and it does end with Mr. Slave putting the whole of Paris Hilton inside himself.
But when something really bothers Trey Parker and Matt Stone, like the fact that Paris Hilton is seen as a role model for young women, they really let audiences know how much it bothers them. The B-plot of the episode involves Paris Hilton trying to buy Butters to be her new pet after the last one shot itself, leading to one of the most iconic Butters quotes.
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9 “My Name Is Butters. I’m Eight Years Old, I’m Blood Type O, And I’m Bi-curious.”
Season 11, Episode 2, "Cartman Sucks"
As with most South Park episodes, the one about Christian “gay conversion” camps is very sharp and insightful. It examines the way these places operate, why they shouldn’t exist in the first place, and how they can rectify their mistakes. In the episode, Butters' parents send him to a Christian gay conversion camp after they find Cartman trying to pull a lewd prank on him in his room. All in all, it's one of the worst things the gang did to Butters in South Park.
At the end of the episode, Butters reconciles the gay-bashing thoughts of the priests with the sexually confused feelings of the boys and says, “My name is Butters. I’m eight years old, I’m blood type O, and I’m bi-curious. And even that’s okay, because if I’m bi-curious, and I’m somehow made from God, then I figure God must be a little bi-curious himself.”
8 “Hey, Government. It’s Me, Butters.”
Season 17, Episode 1, "Let Go, Let Gov"
In the season 17 premiere episode “Let Go, Let Gov,” Cartman tells Butters that the government is watching his every move, listening to all of his conversations, and tracking everything he does on his phone and online. This was 2013, and the big fears about the NSA had just kicked off.
However, rather than fearing the government, Butters starts seeing them as a religious deity. Every night before bed, he prays to the government, and thanks it for watching over him and keeping him safe, leading to one of the funniest Butters quotes that he says before each prayer. This is why the episode’s title is taken from the Christian expression “Let go, let God.”
7 “You Think It’s Because Gay Weiners Are Less Threatening To Women Viewers?”
Season 17, Episode 8, "A Song of A** and Fire"
South Park’s “Black Friday” trilogy is one of the greatest multi-part parody episodes South Park has ever done — maybe the greatest — as it takes on the PS4 vs Xbox One debate and the craze of Black Friday through the lens of Game of Thrones parody. The episode brings out one of the funniest Butters quotes, as he tries to make sense of all the male nudity on Game of Thrones.
A running joke through these episodes is that Butters has been catching up on GoT and is unhappy with how the male nudity is framed: “Wizard Cartman, I started watching Game of Thrones...It’s pretty good, I guess, but have you ever noticed that almost every time they show a guy’s weiner, that guy’s character is gay?...You think it’s because gay weiners are less threatening to women viewers?”
6 “Do You Know What I Am Saying?”
Season 13, Episode 9, "Butters' Bottom B****"
The episode “Butters’ Bottom B****” is a hilarious one, because both the A-plot and the B-plot work. The A-plot follows Butters as he becomes a pimp, taking a cut from all the girls at school who sell kisses on the playground, and the B-plot follows Detective Harris as he gets a little too committed to his undercover persona as a prostitute.
At one point in the episode, Butters goes to a pimping convention to get some notes from other pimps. All he gets is the word “b****,” the word “motherf***in’,” and the phrase “Do you know what I am saying?” The reason this is one of the funniest Butters quotes comes from the over-enunciated delivery of the line, and hearing it from someone as innocent as Butters makes it extra hilarious.
5 “That’s My Face, Sir!”
Season 6, Episode 2, "A**pen"
In the sixth season of South Park, Butters briefly becomes the fourth member of the group after Kenny was killed off semi-permanently (it was permanent, but only for one season — in the season finale, he returned again with little explanation and everything went back to normal). Serving as an underdog sports film parody, the episode follows the four boys on a ski trip, where a bully instructor named Tad demands that Stan races him.
As for the new South Park group post-Kenny's death, Butters was later replaced by Tweek when the other three get tired of making fun of him, and that’s what drives him to become the supervillain Professor Chaos. In the episode with one of the best Butters quotes, Cartman gave him “a Hitler” (a smear of feces on his upper lip). A ski instructor points it out to him, but he thinks he’s just referring to his face. This particular South Park episode also contains some great pop culture references.
4 “I’m Pretty Sure The Car Is Moving. Looks Like I’m Heading For The Water.”
Season 5, Episode 14, "Butters' Very Own Episode"
The episode “Butters’ Very Own Episode” was modeled after wholesome family sitcoms from the ‘50s, with the joke being that Butters’ family life is so dark and disturbing and dysfunctional that in that style, it would seem really messed-up — and it did. His mom tries to drown him halfway through the episode.
Butters' innocence is often what brings about the best Butters quotes. When his mom tries to off him, he absentmindedly says, “I’m pretty sure the car is moving. Looks like I’m heading for the water. Yeah, I think maybe now might be a good time for you to come back inside the car and drive, Mom.” But she ignores him, and he just drifts away into the night. In the end, it's one of South Park's darkest episodes.
3 “Well, Yeah, I’m Sad, But At The Same Time, I’m Really Happy That Something Can Make Me Feel That Sad.”
Season 7, Episode 14, "Raisins"
This was one of those instances in which Butters has proven to us that he is one of the wisest and most insightful characters on the show. One of the most insightful Butters quotes comes from the episode “Raisins,” in which Wendy breaks up with Stan, and the guys take him to a Hooters-style restaurant for kids called Raisins to take his mind off her.
It doesn’t work, and he falls into a deep depression with the goth kids. Meanwhile, Butters thinks a waitress who flirted with him is his girlfriend. When she tells him the truth, that it's all just a part of her job, he’s sad — but also sees the positive in it, saying one of the wisest Butters quotes when confronted about his feelings.
2 “Oh, Hamburgers!”
Unlike pretty much every character in South Park, and especially the other kids, Butters tends to watch his language. While characters like Eric Cartman will make every other word in their dialogue a swear word, Butters hardly ever swears. And when he does, which is rare, he seems to have a hard time saying a bad word.
This leads to some of the most iconic Butters quotes. He either can’t string together a decent sweary sentence, or he physically struggles to get a curse word out of his mouth. Whenever he’s upset or angry or scared, there is one clean, family-friendly phrase that he will always use to express his anguish: “Oh, hamburgers!”
1 “Lu-lu-lu, I’ve Got Some Apples. Lu-lu-lu, You’ve Got Some, Too!”
Season 8, Episode 4, "You Got F'd in the A"
The most harmless, meaningless, pointless songs are associated with Butters, leading to some of the funniest Butters quotes. He won’t listen to any music that actually has something to say or sing lyrics that have some deeper subtext. When he dances in a dance contest and ends up killing a bunch of people, the song goes, “I’ve got something in my front pocket for you!” — which does have a much cruder subtext.
Whenever he’s alone, playing with his toys, he sings, “Lu-lu-lu, I’ve got some apples. Lu-lu-lu, you’ve got some, too!” The first time the song pops up is in South Park season 8, episode 4, "You Got F'd in the A," but he sings it numerous times after that. Audiences must’ve heard him sing that banal song a hundred times, but when he came to sing it at the talent show, he forgot the words and froze up on stage.