Butters

Butters on South Park is an awesome character who seems to be getting more and more misappropriated on that show. I won't make the claim that they are going "over the top" with him, because the whole point of South Park is going over the top, but Butters is a subtle character; and as funny as it is to juxtapose him in situations that are totally out of character with him (like his parents mistaking him for evil demon spawn), to overuse that humor is to destroy the special uniqueness of Butters. Butters is hilarious because he is so innocent, and therefore he must stay innocent to a certain extent in order to stay funny.

The most perfect appropriation of Butters, I think, was in that one episode when Stan gets dumped by Wendy and falls into total abjectness. First his friends take him to Raisins (ie Hooters) to cheer him up, but when that doesn't work Stan joins the goth kids, whose whole schtick is to be depressed. Meanwhile, Butters falls in love with a Raisins girl, finds out, inevitably, that she was only using him for his tips, and gets "dumped," I guess, when she tells him that she was never his girlfriend in the first place. Stan comes upon Butters in the same condition he was in, dumped and totally abject, and invites him to join the goth kids and wallow in his misery.

Then comes Butter's golden moment: he says that he's okay with being so sad, because he knows it's only because he was so happy before, and it's important to know that he was able to feel that way. The layers are delicious! This stupid Pollyanna kid, with the stupidest cause for a broken heart possible, discovers the most profound lesson and utters it most philosophically. Plus, he adds that he'd rather be a loser crybaby than a goth wussy. Butters! yes, even he is cooler than another.