Mr. Garrison

Herbert Garrison, voiced by Trey Parker, is a fictional character in the South Park cartoon series. For the first eight seasons of the series, the character was known as Mr. Garrison but in season 9 underwent sex reassignment surgery. The character is thereafter known as Mrs. Garrison, despite being unmarried.

Garrison grew up in Arkansas and speaks with a Southern accent.

For the first three seasons, Mr. Garrison was the third-grade teacher at South Park Elementary School. In the fourth season he left the school to publish a sexually explicit romance novel titled In the Valley of Penises (a possible reference to Jean M. Auel's The Valley of Horses, which was also very sexually explicit), but went into hiding after the book was "considered the best homoerotic novel since Huckleberry Finn". After he admitted his homosexuality, he tried to re-acquire his job as third-grade teacher but was turned down because the school did not hire gays. He was later rehired as the kindergarten teacher, where he enjoyed teaching sex education. By the end of the sixth season he was promoted to the fourth grade after the death of Ms. Choksondik. In contrast to the naïve majority of adults in South Park, Mr./Mrs. Garrison is one of the show's more cynical characters. He ends up eventually getting a sex change operation and becoming Mrs. Garrison.

Personality and sexual identity

"Children, there's a BIG difference between gay people and Mr. Garrison. Do you understand that?" - Chef

Although acknowledged only sparingly in the series, Mr. Garrison suffers from a wide variety of social problems, the most noticeable of which appears to be dissociative identity disorder. Mr. Garrison constantly held a puppet known as Mr. Hat which he used as a sort of second, more aggressive personality, as well as for emoting his internal conflicts. It was suggested that Mr. Hat (and subsequently Mr. Twig) were manners through which Mr. Garrison could express his repressed homosexual feelings. Though Garrison staunchly denied he was gay, he acknowledged that Mr. Hat was. Mr. Twig also was gay, as his pink triangle on his shirt proved. Another one of Mr. Garrison's personality disorders is shown in the episode The Brown Noise. He is not angry at his father for molesting him, he is angry at his father for Not molesting him.

Upon moving up to fourth grade, he abandoned the puppet in favor of a human assistant, Mr. Slave, claiming fourth grade kids may be too old for Mr. Hat. Mr. Slave's name is what it is for a reason; he is quite literally Mr. Garrison's slave, in the sense of sexual bondage. He wears black leather clothing and restraints, sometimes including a ball gag. His catch phrase is "Oh, Jesus Christ", with a heavy, stereotypical gay lisp. Garrison adopted Mr. Slave in an attempt to be so offensive he would be fired so he could sue the school for discrimination, but to his disappointment no one seemed to have a problem with it, and he was instead praised for being "courageous."

His changing sexual identities are a continual source of problems. One time, he saw Cartman's pot-bellied pig Fluffy give birth to what was supposed to be a pot-bellied elephant, but looked very much like Mr. Garrison, revealing that he may have once been a zoophile. Though he often acts in a very clichéd homosexual manner, for a long time Garrison could be seen chasing women and displaying a very homophobic attitude towards gays. However, this appeared to be a coping mechanism for his own homosexual tendencies, and he eventually "came out" as a homosexual in season 4. Still, as a sign of his continual emotional and psychological problems, he continues to use homophobic language. He also was in despair over the fact that his father had not sexually molested him as a boy, believing that he didn't love his son. Garrison Sr. considered having sex with his son in order to save his life, but he instead had recording artist Kenny G., whom Mr. Garrison thought was his father, sexually assault him. Both father and son reconciled their differences somewhat.

Mr. Hat

Mr. Hat initially appeared to be simply a rather odd-looking puppet used by Mr. Garrison as a teaching aide. However, Mr. Hat later performs things not possible if he was merely a puppet (a case in point: driving a car), and it is not entirely clear how much autonomy Mr. Hat and Mr. Garrison have from each other.

It has been implied throughout the series that Mr Hat is not necessarily controlled by Mr. Garrison, but rather has a life of its own. Mr. Hat has been able to move his eyes at Mr. Garrison, and in a fictional crossover psychotherapy session with Dr. Katz (from another Comedy Central series) in "Summer Sucks", Katz suggests that Mr. Hat was a personification of Mr. Garrison's gay side. Garrison rejected this, and Katz was never able to counterpoint because he was killed shortly afterward by a gigantic novelty firework.

Later on, Mr. Hat starts torturing Mr. Twig, Mr. Garrison's next puppet. On Mr. Twig's "advice", Garrison later made up with Mr. Hat after Garrison and Chef are rescued from prison by Mr. Hat. Even though every time Mr. Hat "talks" Mr. Garrison moves his lips, It's been suggested that perhaps Mr. Hat is real and not just a personality of Mr. Garrison. Even claims that Mr. Hat's actions are a figment of Mr. Garrison's imagination were disputed in the episode "Chef Aid", where Mr. Hat somehow drives a car through a prison wall to save Chef and Mr. Garrison. Much to Chef's annoyance, it is never explained how Mr. Hat reached the pedals or steered the car. Further evidence of Hat's autonomy is in South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut. When Satan picks up Mr. Hat as a companion to replace Saddam Hussein, Satan speaks Mr. Hat's lines in a voice very similar to Mr. Garrison's (perhaps in allusion to the fact that Trey Parker provides the voices for both characters, in addition to hints towards Hat's autonomy).

Mr. Hat is also a racist, as seen in "Chef Goes Nanners," where he is a member of the South Park branch of the Ku Klux Klan. Mr. Garrison claims to not be a racist, and in fact at one point refuses to go with Mr. Hat to a Klan meeting (and is then shocked when Mr. Hat disappears from his hand and appears later at the rally, again leading one to speculate on his autonomy). The episode "Here Comes the Neighborhood," however, implies that Garrison may be a racist himself, leading to the possibility that, just like Mr. Hat's sexuality, his racism may be a product of Mr. Garrison's psyche (or vice versa). In another episode, "An Elephant Makes Love to a Pig", Mr. Hat further proves that he is racist when he says that Germans are one of God's mistakes: "Yes Mr. Garrison, genetic engineering let's us correct God's horrible, horrible mistakes... like German people."

Mr. Twig

Mr. Twig was a short-term companion to Mr. Garrison. Mr. Twig was introduced in the series two episode, Summer Sucks, as a replacement for Garrison's former puppet, Mr. Hat (see Herbert Garrison). Mr. Garrison's reasoning for replacing Mr. Hat was that he was "A two-timing whore". He speaks with a French accent and features a pink triangle.

Mr. Twig was not received well by Garrison's third grade class, with frequent questionings of "When is Mr. Hat coming back?", followed by a reprimand from Garrison.

Though Garrison constantly assured himself that Mr. Twig was a better choice than Mr. Hat, he finally came to terms with his attachment to Mr. Hat in the episode Chef Aid, upon being broken out of jail by him. Mr. Twig, advising Garrison to follow his heart, was discarded, and has not been heard from since.

Mrs. Garrison

File:MrsGarrison.png

Mrs. Garrison

In the 9th season premiere episode, "Mr. Garrison's Fancy New Vagina" (original airdate: March 9, 2005), Mr. Garrison revealed that he had not, in fact, been gay, but was actually a "woman trapped in a man's body". Following a vaginoplasty Herbert became Mrs. Garrison. Despite also getting breast implants, Herbert never got a hair transplant and continues to have male-pattern baldness. Mrs. Garrison also seems to still have a masculine voice.

The operation turns out to have consequences that Garrison had not adequately considered. Mr. Slave, who had been Garrison's gay male lover and had not been consulted before the operation, declines Garrison's sexual overtures afterwards, saying "But I'm gay! I don't like vaginas!" Garrison unrealistically responds that they can still continue as lovers, "All you have to do is stop being gay!" When Mr. Slave leaves, Garrison exclaims, "You're just gonna walk out?! You men are all alike! Go ahead and find somebody who doesn't have a vagina, you fag!" Garrison also notes that there have been no menstrual periods after the vaginoplasty. When a woman says, sarcastically, "Well, normally if a woman misses her period, it means she's pregnant." Garrison took the woman's statement too seriously, and believing this is the result of pregnancy, is delighted by the prospect of having an abortion.

After being told that a vaginoplasty does not result in the ability to have periods, pregnancies, or abortions, ("You mean, I'll never know what it feels like to have a baby growing inside me and then scramble its brains and vacuum it out?.... I'm not really a woman.… I'm just a guy with a mutilated penis! Oh boy, do I feel like a jackass…"), Garrison wanted to change back. Unfortunately, Herbert's scrotum and testicles — lost through surgery — had been used to turn Kyle's dad into a dolphin and to turn Kyle into a tall black man so that Kyle could play basketball. Kyle destroyed the testicles while doing a slam dunk, so Mrs. Garrison was thus unable to reverse the reconstructive surgery reversed.

Mrs. Garrison had no choice other than to remain a woman … "Even though I'm not truly a woman, I think I still like the new me. I'd rather be a woman who can't have periods than a fag. Hey guys! This girl is staying a woman! Who wants to pound my vag? Girl power!" She appeared less than she had for many of the episodes following "Mr. Garrison's Fancy New Vagina", but was given an important role again in "Follow That Egg!" in an attempt to prevent legislation granting gay citizens the right to marry.

Trivia

• In one episode, Mr. Garrison attempts to shoot Kathie Lee Gifford from the South Park book depository but misses and kills Kenny instead. In this episode, he is shown as a young boy, and we can see that he was already bald and had grey hair at that age. However, in a following episode about Cartman's father, he is shown aged about 20 and has long brown hair.

• In another episode, an inaccurate flashback to the Kathie Lee Gifford scene shows Garrison killing Kathie Lee and revealing that she is a space alien. Although, in the end it turns out that this was an inaccurate description by one of the boys, and was intended to be wrong in the series.

• In the David Zucker comedy spoof BASEketball, Trey Parker speaks the line "I forgot how much Doug Reemer cares about kids!" in Mr. Garrison's voice.

• It is rumored that Mr. Garrison's character is based on the flamboyant Ray Baker, the mayor of Fort Smith, AR. These speculations have not been confirmed by the show's creators.

• In the episode "Cartman Joins NAMBLA", we learn that Mr. Garrison's screen name is Hammer Head.

• It has also been said that Mr. Garrison is based on William Lloyd Garrison, an American Abolitionist and Journalist. Herbert Garrison's physical features are similar, as is his vitriolic style of argumentation, though Herbert Garrison more often seems to argue in favor of bigotry than against it. His physical appearance (and possibly even his beliefs) are also very similar to Australian Prime Minister John Howard.

• Trey Parker has said that Mr. Garrison is based on a gay English Literature teacher he had when he was in college. Mr. Hat is based on a puppet that his kindergarten teacher used in place of conventional teaching.

• Mr. Garrison is apparently racist, particularly towards Mexicans. A running gag is that every Christmas, he requests that the town get rid of all the Mexicans. (What exactly he dislikes about them is never indicated.) In the episode "Here Comes the Neighborhood", he expresses intense animosity towards the rich African-American families moving into South Park and commits himself to driving them out of town. Recruiting a number of other people to his cause, Mr. Garrison proceeds to publicly burn a crucifix (which he tells his supporters is a lowercase T standing for "Time to leave") and persuades the other citizens to dress up in "ghost" costumes to scare the new residents into leaving. He persuades the white townsfolk to help by telling them it's a battle of the rich vs. the poor, but at the end, when the wealthy African-Americans have gone, he reveals in the very last line of the episode that his intentions all along were purely racist. It has also been noted that he is intolerant of all other religions apart from Christianity and most recently intolerant of homosexuals for personal reasons.