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Jimbo Kern


Jimbo Kern is Stan Marsh's maternal uncle, a Vietnam veteran, and an avid gun enthusiast. He first appears in the Season One episode, "Weight Gain 4000".

Background[]

Vietnam War[]

MexicanStaringFrog32

Jimbo riding a horse during the Vietnam War.

Jimbo was a helicopter pilot in the Vietnam War where he met his lifelong buddy, Ned Gerblanski. However, his memory of the events are heavily distorted. When he relates his memories to the boys for their history assignment, he recalls that there were amusement park rides and that he and Ned defeated the entire Viet Cong by themselves, and then riding away on a white stallion.

Mr. Garrison does not believe the boys' story, thinking that they made it up, and gives them detention. Mr. Garrison also hints that he was in Vietnam himself. However, a cameraman who was also a Vietnam veteran appeared to share memories of amusement park rides as well, implying that while some of Jimbo's story was fabricated (him and Ned winning the war single handedly) other aspects of his retelling was truthful.

In South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, and "The Red Badge of Gayness", Jimbo is also shown to be known for his guerrilla tactics.

Hunting[]

Jimbo is best known for being a hunter. Most of his episodes circle around him hunting with his ever-present life partner, Ned. Jimbo is often shown carrying a rifle.

In "Volcano", Jimbo revealed that because there was a law issued, which forbade the killing of an animal unless in self-defense, he and Ned would always say, "It's coming right for us!" before killing an animal. However, in "The Mexican Staring Frog of Southern Sri Lanka", it was revealed that hunters were no longer allowed to exploit this loophole. Instead, he would say, "We need to kill them to thin out their numbers", under the pretense that they were culling animals in order to prevent overpopulation.

Jimbo also runs the local gun shop. This was first shown in "Weight Gain 4000", when he sold Mr. Garrison and Mr. Hat a gun to shoot Kathie Lee Gifford with.

Television Show[]

MexicanStaringFrog3

Jimbo and Ned hosting a hunting show in "The Mexican Staring Frog of Southern Sri Lanka".

Jimbo and Ned also co-host a TV show called Huntin' and Killin'. It is first featured in "The Mexican Staring Frog of Southern Sri Lanka", in which Jimbo and Ned get into a ratings war against Jesus and Pals. Huntin' and Killin pulled in about twenty-four viewers, beating Jesus and Pals by about two viewers.

The show has not been mentioned since that episode, but one of its episodes can be heard on Cartman's TV in "Hooked on Monkey Fonics".

Cannibalism[]

CartmansMomIsStillADirtySlut75

Jimbo, Ned, and Mayor McDaniels eating human flesh.

In "Cartman's Mom is Still a Dirty Slut" he and Ned, the mayor, Officer Barbrady, Mr. Garrison and Mr. Hat, the film producer, his assistant, and actor Eric Roberts all got snowbound. After a while, they got hungry, and Jimbo said they would have to eat each other since there was no other food available. They started with Eric Roberts, and eventually ate the film producer and his assistant. Curiously, this does not seem to have affected Jimbo or Ned, and they have simply moved on with their lives.

Sexuality[]

Jimbo's sexual orientation remains ambiguous. Jimbo has never been married, and his only companion is his lifelong partner Ned, who in "Jakovasaurs" is shown walking around Jimbo's house wearing skimpy underpants and an open short red dressing gown, which Jimbo seems entirely comfortable with. In the Season Five premiere "It Hits the Fan", Jimbo is able to say "fag" without being censored, heavily implying that he is gay. In "Two Guys Naked in a Hot Tub" he admits that "everyone is a little gay."

However, in "Goobacks", he is reluctant to participate in a gay orgy in order to prevent the people of the future from ever existing. In "Cartman's Mom is a Dirty Slut", it is revealed that he had sexual relations with Liane Cartman (but so did Mr. Garrison). In "South Park is Gay!", he is caught in the metrosexual craze, and explains to Mr. Garrison that he is not gay. In "Scott Tenorman Must Die", he and Ned got excited when Mrs. Tenorman was taking off her bra.

The confusion surrounding Jimbo's sexuality may be a reflection of his own confusion; he identifies with a very stereotypically heterosexual and macho culture, which he may find hard to reconcile with his homo/bisexuality.

Health[]

In "The Pandemic Special", Jimbo falls gravely ill from COVID-19. It is mentioned that he has alcoholism when Randy says his obesity and alcoholism would have made him very ill anyway. Randy attempts to cure him by giving marijuana contaminated with his semen. He gets better and Sharon brings him back to Tegridy Farms. However, he soon grows a mustache after smoking the marijuana and falls ill again. However, in "South ParQ Vaccination Special", he is seen to have fully recovered.

Criminal Record[]

Quotes[]

  • "It's comin' right for us!"
  • "Kyle, Kyle, he's our man! If he can't win it... I'm out 50 bucks."
  • "I can't wait to see what you kill next!"
  • "No nephew of mine is gonna be a tree-hugger!"

Appearance[]

He wears an orange hat, orange shirt, green vest, and brown trousers. Underneath his hat he is nearly bald, but what little hair he has is light brown. He is overweight and has a double chin. His jawline is very broad and square.

Jimbo was given an updated look in "Night of the Living Homeless"; his jacket was shaded around the edges of the pockets. In "South Park is Gay!", Jimbo shaved his head; however, it is likely his hair has since grown back, since the "metrosexual" fad faded near the end of the aforementioned episode.

Jimbo, along with Ned, Chef, and Skeeter's Friends are the only adult characters on the show that have black rectangular eyebrows. He is also one of the few adults who does not have a nose.

He somewhat resembles Looney Tunes character Elmer Fudd.

To see images of Jimbo Kern, visit Jimbo Kern/Gallery.

Personality[]

Although Jimbo generally seems amiable, he occasionally has streaks of madness, such as when he saw Kenny McCormick as a platypus in "Damien". Though the platypus stood on two legs, was dressed like Kenny, and was indoors with the other children, he shot him immediately.

He tried to kill him again in "Cripple Fight". Timmy had given Jimmy Valmer an orange parka to make him look like Kenny, in hopes that this would kill him. One of the obstacles he narrowly escaped was Jimbo, who says "Look! There's Kenny! Get him!" and fires, before taking a closer look and saying "Oh wait, that's not him!".

He also directed the other men in South Park on how to bully Mr. Cotswolds in "Hooked on Monkey Fonics". He likes the idea of being Stan's "cool uncle". He took him hunting, openly swears in front of him and the boys, and offers them alcohol in "Volcano".

Although he has good technical knowledge, having been a pilot and being able to operate many different weapons, he is frequently shown to be quite dimwitted; for example, being unable to tell the difference between Cartman and Scuzzlebutt in "Volcano", thinking that a plastic frog was a deadly animal "The Mexican Staring Frog of Southern Sri Lanka", thus causing Ned to go into a coma, and repeatedly forgetting to lie to checkpoint controllers when smuggling in Mexican fireworks "Summer Sucks".

Family[]

Sharon Marsh[]

Jimbo and Sharon do not interact much, but when they do, they seem to be on good terms. In "The Pandemic Special", she seemed to care a lot for Jimbo while he was battling COVID-19.

Randy Marsh[]

Randy is Jimbo's brother-in-law; they appear to have a decently friendly relationship, often drinking together and talking about their interests.

Stan Marsh[]

Jimbo cares for his nephew, but he gets frustrated by Stan's animal-loving nature. In "Volcano", Jimbo seemed to give up on Stan because he refused to shoot anything. All the same, at the end of the episode when Stan shot the Scuzzlebutt, Jimbo still got upset and explained that one should not shoot just anything, especially not when it just saved your life. He then tells Stan that he'll always be his nephew, and he'll always love him, even if he is a sissy.

Unnamed Members[]

Interactions[]

Ned Gerblanski[]

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Jimbo and Ned in "Volcano".

Jimbo and Ned met while deployed in Vietnam. They soon formed a solid friendship, and are almost always seen together. They share each other's enthusiasm for firearms and hunting. It is not known if their relationship is entirely platonic, as they both live together and neither are married (although Ned used to have a wife). Ned is also seen walking around immodestly dressed in Jimbo's house in "Jakovasaurs". In South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, they work together to fight and hunt animals.

The Boys[]

Jimbo takes the boys on a hunting trip in "Volcano". He warms especially to Kenny, whom he makes his honorary nephew. He usually tries to be helpful towards the boys in later episodes. He tends to get along with Cartman as well, teaming up with him during the airsoft match in "Help, My Teenager Hates Me!" However, in "Bebe's Boobs Destroy Society", he becomes annoyed when the boys throw a rock at his truck.

Kenny McCormick[]

As of "Volcano", he became Jimbo's honorary nephew due to the fact that he enjoyed hunting animals and shooting or bombing them as he did. However, shortly thereafter, Ned accidentally shot Kenny dead. He also enjoyed guzzling down alcohol and gasoline.

However, in later episodes, Jimbo has (sometimes successfully) attempted to kill Kenny on several occasions. In "Damien", he sees Kenny in the form of a duck-billed platypus and immediately opens fire on him. In "Cripple Fight", Jimbo shouts, "There he is, shoot him!" when he sees Jimmy in the orange parka Kenny always wears. Exactly why Jimbo attempted to kill Kenny in this instance is not known.

Timmy Burch[]

In "Helen Keller! The Musical" Jimbo almost shot a runaway Gobbles, who at the time belonged to Timmy. Timmy came to Gobbles' rescue just as Jimbo was about to shoot him and jumped in his way, causing Timmy to take the bullet instead. Luckily, Timmy was left merely wounded, and to make it up to him, Jimbo went with Timmy to the fourth graders' Thanksgiving play to shoot the turkey that replaced Gobbles.

Video Games[]

South Park Let's Go Tower Defense Play![]

Jimbo plays a major role in the game South Park Let's Go Tower Defense Play! alongside Ned Gerblanski, hunting out at Stark's Pond when it is attacked by Jakovasaurs and other enemies. He and his partner both function as powered-up 'fiery-works' towers, but without costing the player any money. Neither character is playable, however, and it is unknown if the game is canon.

South Park: The Stick of Truth[]

Jimbo has his store in the northwest corner of South Park, right next to Skeeter's bar. In addition to selling the player a number of high-level weapons, he also gives the player a quest to hunt down a bunch of rare wild creatures for rewards.

South Park: The Fractured But Whole[]

In the Peppermint Hippo Lost & Found mission, Jimbo reveals that he had left his wallet back in The Peppermint Hippo. Retrieving it and coming back to him will unlock the Ham Radio (the summon) and the ability to take a selfie with him.

South Park: Phone Destroyer[]

Hunter Jimbo is a 4-Cost Rare Tank of the Adventure theme that sees Jimbo with a brown vest instead of a green one and without wearing his hat. He gives the nearest Ranged unit a buff to their Attack whenever he attacks, which was later nerfed to last temporarily. His shotgun can hit flying enemies, as well as target multiple enemies like Swarms all at once.

Trivia[]

  • Jimbo drives a Hummer H1.
  • Jimbo Kern and Ned Gerblanski were inspired by characters Trey Parker drew while in high school.[3]
  • South Park's supervising technical director during Season One and Season Two is referred to as "Uncle Jimbo" Valladao, in the credits.
  • Jimbo, Ned, Jesus, and Barbrady are the only adult characters in South Park with an unseen nose. In earlier episodes, he did sometimes have a nose, but only when his head is in profile view.
  • Despite Matt Stone mentioning offhand in an interview that Jimbo was Randy's half-brother, he is finally confirmed in canon to be Sharon's brother in "The Pandemic Special".
    • This implies that Sharon's maiden name was Kern before she married Randy, though it is also possible that Jimbo is Sharon's maternal half-brother as it was previously established that Sharon's maiden name was Kimble in "My Future Self n' Me". This last name discrepancy could also just be a continuity error.

Prominence[]

Jimbo's role is one of those which has diminished greatly since the beginning. In the first several seasons, he had an average of three or four prominent roles per season. Around the seventh season and onward, his importance faded to the point at which he now gets to have about 1 or two prominent appearances each season. He made a temporary comeback in Season 10, though, when his level of prominence equaled three episodes once more.

Movies[]

References[]

  1. Summer Sucks
  2. "South Park" Volcano (TV episode 1997). IMDb.com.
  3. Trey Parker, Matt Stone. (2003). South Park: The Complete First Season: "Weight Gain 4000" (Audio commentary) [CD]. Comedy Central.
South Park families

Main characters' families
Broflovski Family | Cartman Family | Marsh Family | McCormick Family

Other characters' families
Adams-Makowski Family | Barbrady Family | Biggle Family | Black Family | Burch Family | Charlotte's Family | Cotswolds Family | Daniels Family | Donovan Family | Garrison Family | Gray Family | Gueermo Family | Hakeem Family | Hankey Family | Harrison Family | Mackey Family | Malkinson Family | Mephesto Family | Nelly's Family | Red's Family | Rodriguez Family | Stevens Family | Stotch Family | Tenorman Family | Testaburger Family | Tucker Family | Turner Family | Tweak Family | Valmer Family | White Family

Kern / Kimble / Marsh Family

Jimbo Kern | Aunt Flo Kimble | Marvin Marsh | Grandma Marsh | Randy Marsh | Sharon Marsh | Shelley Marsh | Stan Marsh | Sparky

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