Kyle Broflovski

Kyle Broflovski is a fictional character in the animated series South Park. He is one of the four central characters, all of whom are eight or nine year old boys; he is voiced by Matt Stone. Matt Stone has said that Kyle was loosely based on himself when he was younger. His most notable catch phrases are to exclaim "You Bastard(s)!" following Stan's catch phrase "Oh my god, they killed Kenny!", and "I've learned something today", usually before the end of an episode. Kyle is a member of the Jewish religion.

He wears a bright green ear-flapped cap (or ushanka), a bright orange polyester jacket with black-edged pockets with a dark green collar, dark green pants and lime-green mittens. He is rarely shown without his cap, but underneath it, he sports a curly red "Jew-fro" first seen in "How to Eat with Your Butt", a hairstyle which he seems to resent (it is likely based upon the hair of series co-creator Matt Stone). He enjoys TV shows like The Terrance and Phillip Show and Family Guy.

Strengths include: Intelligent, perceptive, individualistic, caring, open-minded, cautious, moralistic.

Weaknesses include: Out-dated, lacks rhythm, overly moralistic.

Family

Kyle uncapped

His mother, Sheila, is very overprotective: she instigates a war between the USA and Canada in the feature-length movie South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut because of (Canadian natives) Terrance and Phillip's extremely scatological R-rated movie. Mrs. Broflovski is very prone to "making a mountain out of a molehill" whenever something threatens her son. Even so, in the "Cherokee Hair Tampons" episode she turns to holistic and nature medicine when Kyle almost dies of kidney failure because he is diabetic. Stan is very upset about the possible death of Kyle (much more than about the deaths of Kenny), and ultimately saves him by tricking Cartman into donating one of Cartman's kidneys to Kyle (Cartman had flatly refused to voluntarily do so).

Kyle's father Gerald is a lawyer, but Kyle reiterates that despite his father's profession, they are not as wealthy as Token Black, whose father is also a lawyer (probably because Gerald isn't a very good lawyer and has gambling problems). Kyle has an adopted younger brother, Ike, whose birth parents are Canadian and a cousin from New York City (also named Kyle) who is a Woody Allen-like Jewish stereotype.

Within his family, Kyle seems to have the strongest relationsip with his brother Ike. Ike follows Kyle around and generally imitates his older brother whenever possible. For his part--and despite actions such as playing "kick the baby" (which features Kyle punting Ike like a football, usually through a window)--Kyle is fiercely protective of his little brother, and tries on occasion to educate Ike in the ways of the Jewish faith.

Life

Relationships

Kyle was first thought by many fans to be gay. In "Clubhouses", he is the only kid that doesn't make light of girls and the only boy that has not had a girlfriend, although he did pursue a relationship with Rebecca Cotswold in "Hooked on Monkey Phonics" (Kenny had one in "Rainforest Schmainforest", Stan had Wendy Testaburger throughout the series till season 7, and Cartman had a short one with her in "Chef Goes Nanners"), and was one among the group of boys who was affected by Bebe's boobs in "Bebe's Boobs Destroy Society". On the other hand, in a recent episode "Follow that Egg!", he worked with Wendy on a project but failed to have any feelings towards her. He also probably kept himself out of any feelings as he realised that Stan was still deeply affected from this relationship and it would be a natural betrayal of his best friend's feelings to going out with latter's former girlfriend. His lack of interest toward girls can also be referred to the fact that Kyle is still only nine years old and after witnessing the painful dissolution of Stan's relationship, decided to stay away for the time.

Kyle's Judaism: A Closer Look

Kyle is evidently the only Jewish kid in town (of Eastern European ancestry), although South Park does have a synagogue and, given his father's conservative observance, it is most likely within walking distance of his home. Kyle's last name has been alternately given as Broslovski, Broflofski, Broflovski, and Brovlofski in the series, though the characters say "Broflovski" or "Broslovski" the most often. The name comes from the maiden name of Matt Stone's mother, Sheila Belasco (Broslovski had been changed to Belasco when her ancestor immigrated to America). In the Spontaneous Combustion episode there is a shot of Kyle's father Gerald's law office - on the façade it says 'Brovlofski'. In the Sexual Harassment Panda episode his name is shown as 'Broflofski'. The various spellings may be due to some confusion in trying to transcribe the Russian surname Бровловский into the Latin alphabet; the letter в is normally transcribed "v" but when voiceless is often written as "f" in English, like in the name "Rachmaninoff". Most likely, however, it is because Trey and Matt are not sticklers for minor details such as this. The two have confirmed that Kyle's last name is indeed Broflovski. [1]

Брацлав (Bratslav) -- a small town in Ukraine with long time Jewish traditions. It's very likely for Kyle ancestor's last name to be Браславский (Braslavsky) or Брацлавский (Bratslavsky).

Kyle appears to be very ambivalent about his Judaism. Although his parents are very observant, Kyle is far more secular. This is most likely part of his effort to fit in with his friends, who are Roman Catholic. Kyle is often more defensive than proud of his Judaism, and though he regularly attends such functions as "Jew Scouts", he often has a poor grasp on the history, traditions and rituals of his religion, though this could be attributed to his young age. This could also be the fault of his parents, who, in a misguided attempt to shelter their son, generally refuse to discuss with him the finer points of their religion. For example:

• when he heard that his brother Ike was going to be circumcised, he was under the misapprehension that it involved cutting off the entire penis rather than just the foreskin. This was despite the fact that Kyle has also been circumcised.
• after seeing Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ, he told Cartman that Cartman was right about Jews all along and stood up in his synagogue to demand that Jews apologize for the death of Christ.
• when he learned of Catholicism's conditions for getting into heaven, he renounced his faith on the basis that if the Jews were right about the matter, it would make no difference if he were a Catholic, but if the Catholics were right, he would go to hell for not accepting Christ. See Pascal's Wager.

Kyle also sometimes expresses feelings of self-loathing. Kyle is always saying that Jews are just like everyone else, and is often distressed when they display behaviour that is stereotypically Jewish. He is often brought to anger by Jews who conform to such stereotypes, namely his cousin (also named Kyle) from New York City who has hypochondriac tendencies, is very good with money, and is a poor athlete.

In the Show

He and Stan alternate as leader of their group/voice of reason. Kyle is quite witty, but unlike his best friend Stan, he tends to be quite cautious and is less likely to want to get involved in uncertain situations. He sometimes exhibits better moral standards than the others. Kyle is a constant target of his friend Eric Cartman's anti-Semitic abuse and is frequently singled-out and taunted by Cartman. (Example: Kyle: "Cartman can I please have some candy?" Cartman: "Nope, sorry, I don't have any Jewish candy".) However, Kyle seems to be unafraid of physical confrontation and has attacked Cartman several times.

In the Emmy-nominated season three episode, "Chinpokomon", Kyle is the only kid in South Park who tries to resist the Pokémon-based fad, Chinpokomon.

Kyle nearly dies of a hemorrhoid when Cartman gets his own theme park in "Cartmanland".

As revealed in the episode commentary for the episode "Kenny Dies", Matt Stone and Trey Parker were going to kill off Kyle for a whole year instead of Kenny but decided not to.

In the season eight, Kyle was the center on one episode- "The Passion of the Jew"- which parodied the controversy surrounding The Passion of the Christ. In the episode, he sees The Passion because of Cartman's continuing use of it as an excuse to pick on Kyle more than usual. Kyle was also featured prominently in the episodes "Cartman's Incredible Gift" and "Woodland Critter Christmas". In the former, he attempts to convince the local police that Cartman's "psychic powers" are entirely false; at the end of the episode, it is implied that Kyle has real psychic powers. In "Woodland Critter Christmas", the Satanic woodland animals attempt to use Kyle as birth vessel for The Antichrist because he's a "heathen" and is not baptized because he's Jewish. Stan attempts to stop this by teaching young mountain lions to give abortions, but Christmas is eventually saved by Santa Claus, who shoots all of the critters with a shotgun. However, the entire "Critter" episode is really just a story written by Eric Cartman, which ends with Kyle dying of aids.

In the October 27, 2004 election-based episode, "Douche and Turd", Kyle leads the campaign for Giant Douche to be elected the new school mascot at South Park Elementary after PETA leads a campaign against Mooey, the cow. A number of fans theorize that the Giant Douche represented John Kerry, thus reaffirming Kyle's liberal beliefs.

In the March 9, 2005 episode "Mr. Garrison's Fancy New Vagina", Kyle wanted to play basketball for the all-state team, but couldn't because the coach said he wasn't built for the game because he's Jewish, so he got a "negro-plasty," to make him black & tall. However, it didn't work out since the surgery was purely cosmetic; after trying to perform a slam dunk, Kyle's knees explode as the plastic surgeon had made his knee joints out of Mr. Garrison's former testicles.

In "South Park Is Gay!" his friends make him over into a metrosexual, as being metrosexual was the "cool" thing to do. Kyle then decides to not conform with the rest of South Park and goes back to dressing normally, despite teasing from his schoolmates. After Kyle gets beat up by the boys in his class and is rejected by his friends, he travels to New York with Mr. Garrison and Mr. Slave to kill the Queer Eye for the Straight Guy guys. They then discover that the Queer Eye people are actually crab people in disguise that are trying to take over the world.

In "Two Days Before The Day After Tomorrow", Cartman seemingly knew that Kyle, and all Jews for that matter, carried Jew Gold around their necks (as well as a Jew Gold decoy bag). Another stereotype made up by Cartman that is seemingly correct.

Kyle, for reasons unknown, seemingly cannot grasp the concept that Cartman is never sincere. Kyle keeps falling for Cartman's seemingly good intentions time and time again. We see this in "Casa Bonita", "Cartoon Wars Part I", "Kenny Dies", and other episodes. Perhaps it is Kyle's idealistic optimism that there is some good in everyone, even someone like Cartman.

Perhaps the best estimate of Kyle's moral character occurs in the recent episode "Manbearpig"; at one point, Kyle nearly drowns trying to save Cartman's life, despite their past history. Although, in "Butt Out" he didnt seem to care that the anti-smoking group members were trying to poison him.

Talents

Athletics

Not only is Kyle one of the stars on his school's football team (as seen in "Big Gay Al's Big Gay Boat Ride"), he is also apparently the best basketball player in South Park within his age group. Although he aspires to someday play for the Denver Nuggets, Kyle suffers from the "handicap" of not being tall and black, which he attempted to rectify with cosmetic surgery (with grisly results, in "Mr. Garrison's Fancy New Vagina").

Music

Kyle can play both the acoustic and bass guitar (as seen in the episodes "Hooked on Monkey Phonics" and "Christian Rock Hard"). He also showed his ability to play the flute in the episode "The Red Badge of Gayness". Despite this, Kyle is shown to have no rhythm in "Rainforest Schmainforest". He also currently played the violin (badly) in Summer Sucks with Stan and Kenny.

Computer skills

Kyle is quite a proficient hacker, as seen in South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut.

Considered Matt Stone's representation in South Park

Favorite words and catchphrases

• "Goddammit!"
• "You bastards!" - after Kenny's death
• "Cartman you fat ass!"
• "Shut up fat ass!"
• "I hate you so much"
• "Cartman you asshole..."
• "Holy S***."
• "I hate this town."
• "You know, I learned something today..."
• Kyle: "Kick the baby!"
  Ike: "Don't kick the baby."
  Kyle: "Kick the baby." (Kyle kicks Ike into a window)

Trivia

• According to the South Park Calendar, Kyle's birthday is May 26.
• Kyle currently has one of Cartman's kidneys in him, transplanted to him in Season 4.
• Kyle is a diabetic.
• In the Japanese language dub of the show, he is voiced by Kappei Yamaguchi.