Kyle Broflovski
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
Connecticut (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 partKyle is fiercely protective of his little brother, and tries on occasion to educate Ike in the ways of the Jewish faith.
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 be 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.
His best friend is Stan. Kyle and Stan rarely fall out in the series (such times being "Prehistoric Ice Man," "Super Best Friends," and "The Biggest Douche in the Universe"); otherwise they are very good friends with each other. His worst friend is Cartman. Throughout the series Cartman and Kyle exchange insults between one another. Cartman insults Kyle for being Jewish whilst Kyle frequently calls Cartman "fatass" or "fatboy". Kyle does not start the arguments however: whenever making an important/intelligent point Cartman will often try to outsmart him but usually Kyle ends up the winner of the argument.
Kyle's friendship with Kenny isn't as strong as his friendship with Stan, nor is it adversarial (like that with Cartman).
Kyle's Judaism: A Closer Look
Kyle is evidently the only
Jewish kid in the fourth grade (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, which is also the spelling used in the "4th Grade" intro, seen in episodes 412 to 513. [
1]
Брацлав (
Bratslav) is 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).
Although the true origins of Kyle's family's nationality have not been revealed by the creators of the show, and, therefore, are unknown, there are many hypotheses circulating around the
South Park fanbase regarding the true nationality of the Broflovski family. One hypothesis is that Kyle may be of
Serbian-
Jewish ancestry, based on a term created by
Eric Cartman in Episode 713, "
Butt Out", the "Serbian Jew Double Bluff" [
2] . However, insufficient information has been released by the creators confirming if Kyle is indeed a
Serb. The "Serbian Jew Double Bluff" may be another one of the show's trademark expressions, or another jab at Kyle's heritage, one of
Cartman's habits.
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.
Also, Kyle seems to use the phrase "Jesus Christ!" more than most Jews, and sometimes even more than his Catholic friends. He is also willing and able to acknowledge Christ in the many episodes when he meets him.
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).
Kyle has trouble accepting that Cartman is never sincere. Kyle keeps falling for Cartman's seemingly good intentions time and time again. This is seen 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. Sometimes, Kyle will make it very clear that he knows Cartman is manipulating before finally giving in.
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.
Kyle has also brought democracy to the Communist country Cuba.
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 whatsoever in "Rainforest Schmainforest". He also concurrently played the violin (badly) in "
Summer Sucks" with Stan and Kenny. He was also part of a boy band in "Fingerbang."
Computer Skills
Kyle is quite a proficient hacker, as seen in
South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut.
Weaponry
The most surprising of all Kyle's skills. He seems to be able to handle weapons well for his age. Kyle is seen using an energy weapon in "Towelie", with surprising effectiveness. In the episode "Wing", Kyle is able to wield a
Heckler & Koch G36 assault rifle somewhat better than Cartman, despite both of them firing on full automatic. As far as marksmanship goes, however, Kyle is still nowhere near as good as Pip.
*"Goddammit!"
*"You bastards!" - after Kenny's death
*"Cartman you fat ass!"
*"Shut up fat ass!"
*"I hate you so much"
*"Cartman you asshole..."
*"Holy Shit."
*"I hate this town."
*"You know, I learned something today..."
*Kyle: "Kick the baby!"
Ike: "Don't kick the god damn baby."
Kyle: "Kick the baby." (Kyle kicks Ike into a window)
*"Whoa dude(!)"
*"Holy Crap Dude!
*"Don't call my mom a bitch, Cartman!"
*"Jesus Christ Cartman that's not funny"
* Voiced by Matt Stone and considered Matts representation in South Park, as Stans in Treys.
* According to the
South Park Calendar, Kyle's birthday is
May 26.
* Kyle and Cartman are the only two in South Park who share the AB negative
blood type, the very reason Kyle currently has one of Cartman's kidneys in him, which was transplanted in Season 4.
* Kyle has
diabetes.
* In the
Japanese language dub of the show, his
seiyu is
Kappei Yamaguchi.
* Kyle seems to be able to shout out his catchphrase "You bastard(s)!" after Stan yells out "Oh my God, you/they killed Kenny!". In "
Clubhouses", Cartman shouted it out after Kenny got trampelled to death in his clubhouse. Kyle walked by Cartman's house and shouted out "You bastards!" and then continued walking by. And in "
Super Best Friends", Stan shouted out the you killed Kenny line and Kyle, despite being trapped in a bubble and about to be drowned, yelled out his catchphrase, using this, Stan was able to find him.
* Kyle also convinced
Fidel Castro to change Cuba to a democracy in order to attend a concert.
