Randy Marsh

Randy Marsh is the son of Marvin and Grandma Marsh, the husband of Sharon, and the father of Stan and Shelly. He makes his debut in the Season One episode "Volcano", and is voiced by Trey Parker.

Despite being a geologist with a doctorate, he is generally portrayed as an absent-minded idiot, driving many episode plots in the later seasons, though this was later revealed to be due to him being unhappy over his marriage. However, in earlier seasons he was calmer and more level-headed, often providing advice to the boys. In "You're Getting Old", he divorced his wife and moved away. However, in "Ass Burgers" he reconciled with Sharon and remarried, therefore getting their old house back. Since Season Twenty-Two, Randy has been running the Tegridy Farms hemp farming business.

Randy is named after and based upon Trey Parker's father, Randy Parker, who is also a geologist.

Political Views
Randy Marsh is shown to be an actual liberal. He often fights for huge changes and only turns to conservatism when he is in a major problem, goes into an obsession stance, or misunderstands something. His liberalism is first seen in "Spontaneous Combustion", when he tells the people of South Park that they have to fart all the time in order to avoid being burned alive. He was also shown to support the people of the future in "Goobacks", and thinks of them just as normal people. He even grounds Stan for calling these people Goobacks in a fast food restaurant, but his grounding was lifted after Randy loses his job to one of those people from the future. In "About Last Night..." Randy's political views are confirmed after he is seen supporting Obama. In "Member Berries", he strongly supported Hillary Clinton's run for presidency but made it clear this was an unusual occurrence and was only supporting her because of his dislike of Herbert Garrison, although he is briefly enticed by Garrison's run in "The Damned".

Sexual Appetite
As first seen in "Two Guys Naked in a Hot Tub", Randy has a very unhealthy addiction to masturbation. He often masturbates without thinking straight and becomes obsessive on whatever he is masturbating on. In "Scott Tenorman Must Die", he was watching Mrs. Tenorman take her bra off. Later, in "Over Logging", he sneaks in the room where the internet is hidden then goes on it and starts looking at unusual pornographic material. In "Crème Fraiche", he was beating it to cooking shows. This soon became an obsession and it forced Sharon to give Randy an "old fashioned" in order to end his obsession and save their marriage.

Alcoholism
In "The Red Badge of Gayness", "Clubhouses", and "The Losing Edge", it was hinted that Randy has a drinking problem. Cartman also mentioned it in "Grey Dawn", at one point stating, "Looks like Stan's dad's been hitting the bottle again." His problem was more closely examined in "Bloody Mary" after he was pulled over for suspicion of drunk driving. He got a DUI and his driver's license was suspended. The judge made him go around schools including South Park Elementary to explain to kids why heavy drinking is bad, and sentenced him to 2 weeks of Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. As a result of the A.A meetings, Randy misunderstands the concept of alcoholism and believes that only spirituality can cure him of this.

He has been depicted as everything from a casual drinker to a heavy alcoholic. He still is not as bad as Kenny's father, Stuart McCormick, as, unlike the latter, he is sober most of the time. He also had a job until he got himself fired in "About Last Night..." for a drunken tirade directed toward his boss. (It was revealed, though, that he was re-hired as a geologist in "You Have 0 Friends"). It appears Randy Marsh is a binge drinker - one who stays most of the time sober but drinks heavily at suitable instances. He might have a family history of alcoholism because his son Stan was seen getting drunk in order to avoid his cynicism in "You're Getting Old".

He was shown to still have a drinking problem in "Freemium Isn't Free" and "Stunning and Brave" although he denied this in both cases.

Marijuana
Randy has an unhealthy attraction to marijuana, going as far as to intentionally giving himself cancer just so he could get his hands on legal marijuana. He tried many ways to get cancer, such as smoking, getting a tan, and attaching cell phones to his face. He eventually came up with the idea of sticking his testicles in a microwave, as seen in "Medicinal Fried Chicken", just to get weed. Ten other men, including Jimbo and Ned, soon follow Randy's example.

Despite being drawn to marijuana in the aforementioned episode, he seems to display some level of contempt for it in "My Future Self n' Me", as not only do he and Sharon hire someone to scare Stan from drugs, he also is the one to defame marijuana at the end as he points out that the worst thing about pot is that one could be doing something better with their life instead of smoking it.

Ultimately, Randy purchases a hemp farm in Season Twenty-Three and gives up geology to begin his own marijuana business, Tegridy Farms.

Musical Talent
It appears Randy Marsh is very musically talented, and occasionally the show states that he once had dreams of being a famous musician. He is a good singer and he can play guitar really well as seen in "Guitar Queer-O" and "Over Logging". He also sang and played the guitar in "You're Getting Old", but this was not a display of good talent.

In "Something You Can Do with Your Finger", it's revealed that Randy was part of a boy band in the 1980s called "The Ghetto Avenue Boys". His group was successful for a few years, but he and the other members were quickly replaced due to getting "too old."

Randy began performing again in "You're Getting Old", presumably out of a midlife crisis but quit because it was causing trouble in his marriage. He performed "tween wave" in Mick's Bowling under the stage name Steamy Ray Vaughn.

As shown in "The Cissy", he eventually achieved success as Lorde, although in this case, it was due to his voice being changed with computers although it was implied in "Handicar" that he also plays guitar in Lorde's music. He eventually ended his music career in "#HappyHolograms", after an embarrassing live performance at The Pepsi Center and becoming disillusioned with the music industry and their use of holograms.

History
It is also implied in "Die Hippie, Die", that Randy and his wife, Sharon used to be Hippies, and they met at Woodstock in 1969. If this was the case, though, they would be in their mid-forties to mid-fifties. However, this may have been simply a cutaway joke. Also, Randy and Sharon were revealed to have met in a tree-fort playing Truth or Dare, in "Clubhouses".

Randy tells the other adults in town, at the end of "Child Abduction is Not Funny", that he studied Mongolian in college, possibly minoring in the subject. He then speaks it to the children, who have joined a tribe of Mongolians. However, it appears that he does not apply his knowledge of the language to his life, as this is the only time he is heard speaking it. He may also have a Ph.D. in Geology as he has been called Dr. Marsh on two separate occasions (although one of those times was himself).

In "Make Love, Not Warcraft", Randy makes a World of Warcraft account (which is named Falcorn and is a level 2 human hunter, which is not possible in the actual game at the time of the episode's creation) after seeing his son Stan play it.

In "Pinewood Derby" he makes Stan cheat in his derby race, accidentally discovers warp drive, and consequently becomes the first contact for aliens coming to Earth. He and the leaders of the world keep trying to cover their lies. He grounded Stan for telling the truth, however, he and the others lied to the aliens. As punishment for failing that test so badly, Earth and the Moon are permanently enclosed in a gigantic, cubical force field and isolated from the rest of the Universe — to which Randy says, "Well, that sucks."

Vehicles Owned
Randy has driven red sedans, Lexus RX300s, and Lincoln Navigators. In "Smug Alert!", he is seen driving a Honda Civic Hybrid.

Careers and Occupations
Randy is currently a hemp farmer. He has had numerous other occupations throughout the series, the most notable one being a geologist.

Boy-Band Singer
In "Something You Can Do with Your Finger", Randy reveals to Stan that he was in a boy band when he was eighteen, after having been in a choir during high school. He was so eager about this new career, that he dropped out of school, left his girlfriend and his family, and immediately joined a boy band. The name of his band was The Ghetto Avenue Boys, which is meant to be a parody of The Backstreet Boys. They had a hit single, "You Got It", and they made millions, living in a big mansion with dozens of women sharing his bed with him at once. But one year later, all of the group members were fired for being too old for a boy band, despite the fact that Randy was only nineteen at the time. Randy was in debt to the studio, and in order to make up for it, he had to give up all of his possessions. He then returned home at last and used up what money he had left resuming his education.

An interesting thing to note is that Randy is shown to be very proficient at the guitar in "Guitar Queer-O". He also mentions in that episode that he knows how to play several famous rock songs on the guitar, such as Carry On Wayward Son by Kerry Livgren.

Geologist
Ever since his first appearance, he has been shown to be a geologist. In later seasons, notably in the Season Eight episode "Goobacks", he is known to be a worker for the United States Geological Survey. He became famous for his theory on moderation in "Spontaneous Combustion", and won the Nobel Prize Award for it. He is often called upon to perform many scientific tasks, due to his education and positions. He usually is unable to perform the tasks despite the fact he is a geologist and thus has a high level of understanding of many areas of science, including chemistry, biology, physics, and mathematics. However, his skills in geology might not be that good as well, as in "Volcano" he had to call someone to figure out why the "needle thing" was moving and what it meant when the mountain was smoking, and even after discovering it was a volcanic eruption, he casually finishes his coffee first. He lost his job in "About Last Night..." for verbally and physically abusing his boss and then punching him because he thought he did not need his job now that Obama was president. Randy was eventually re-hired, as first seen in "You Have 0 Friends" when he tells Stan that he saw his new Facebook page while at the office.

He may hold a Ph.D. in geology as he has been referred to as Dr. Marsh on two occasions; once by a Republican Senator in "Two Days Before the Day After Tomorrow" and once by himself in "T.M.I." while he was teaching children about penis measurement. The Surgeon General rebuked his complicated formula for measuring a penis; she does not consider him to be qualified enough, which is hardly surprising as his doctorate is in Geology, not human sexuality.

In the Season Twenty-Two episode "Tegridy Farms", he moves his family to Tegridy Farms and starts a new weed business, presumably quitting his geologist job.

Wall-Mart Employee
In "Something Wall-Mart This Way Comes", Randy worked at the Wall-Mart in South Park until Stan saved him from being killed as the store was destroyed in the end.

South Park Elementary Chef
Randy becomes obsessed with cooking after seeing the Food Network in "Crème Fraiche". He loves it so much, that he becomes the boys' new cafeteria chef. He creates his own show, called "Cafeteria Fraiche ". Other celebrities of the Food Network then challenge him to a cook-off. However, he used this position mostly just to show off his cooking skills rather than serving meals to the students.

Tween Wave Singer
In "You're Getting Old", Randy impulses his career as a solo singer of a popular musical genre called "Tween Wave" naming himself as "Steamy Ray Vaughn".

Broadway Bro
In "Broadway Bro Down" Randy begins to write, compose, and direct a musical play originally titled Splooge-Drenched Blowjob Queen. After making having a bro down and making amends with the Broadway Bros, they agree to help Randy with the musical and re-title it as The Woman in White. It is unknown if the musical was ever completed.

Sarcastaball Coach
Randy ironically invents the sport of sarcastaball in the aptly named "Sarcastaball", but no one realizes he is being sarcastic and the school makes him the coach of South Park Elementary's sarcastaball team. Eventually, the NFL is officially replaced with a sarcastaball league and Randy becomes the coach of the Denver Broncos until he drinks Butters' cum, causing him to make his first genuine comment in a long while and curing him of his sarcasm disorder.

Blockbuster Owner
In "A Nightmare on Face Time" Randy purchases Blockbuster for $10,000. The dialogue suggests he may have owned what was left of the entire business. Randy is driven to madness due to the lack of customers and everyone telling him that renting is outdated. After Shelly burns down the store, the Marsh family gets some of their money back from insurance and Randy goes back to his job as a geologist.

South Park Mall Security
In Season Seventeen's "Black Friday" trilogy, Randy takes a second job as a security officer at the mall. He tells everyone it's to earn some extra holiday cash, but in truth he wants to be inside the mall on Black Friday before everyone else so he can shop on great deals before things get too hectic. After the former chief of security is killed by an out-of-control parent anticipating the new Elmo doll, he is promoted to succeed him. Randy becomes upset when all the security guards he grew to like keep dying.

Lorde
In "Gluten Free Ebola", Randy performs at the end party as Lorde. This is carried on to the next episode, "The Cissy" where he is revealed to have a double life as Lorde and is secretly hiding cash he earns for writing the songs inside the walls of their house. He wrote the song "Hunger Games (Ya-Ya-Ya)" and "Push (Feeling Good on a Wednesday)".

In "#REHASH", Lorde performed at The Women of Rock concert at the Pepsi Center where he embarrassed his daughter with the lewd performance.

In "HappyHolograms" Randy helps defeat the Record Producer's hologram performers at the Washington Redskins: Go Fuck Yourself Holiday Special.

Cock Magician
In "Cock Magic", Randy shows the boys his own interpretation of Cock Magic, which involves him doing magic tricks with his penis. Later, he performs at a kindergartner's birthday party, with horrible results. Even later in the episode, Randy performs yet again at Panda Express.

Hemp Farmer
After moving his family to the Tegridy Farms in the eponymous episode of the Season Twenty-Two, Randy becomes a hemp farmer, starting a new weed business. In the season finale "Bike Parade", Sharon tells Randy that the hemp farm was a bad business idea because people barely buy from him, but Randy manages to get a lot of customers during the Amazon strike, expanding his business with the help of Towelie.

Why He Rocks

 * 1) He’s a very caring father to Stan and Shelly and a well-meaning husband to Sharon as he has his flaws and wrongdoings, he‘s shown to learn from his mistakes and shows remorse.
 * 2) His addictions to drugs and tobacco are always funny, especially in Season 23 in Tegridy Farms.
 * 3) He has many, MANY funny moments, especially this scene.
 * 4) Trey Parker does a fantastic job at providing his voice as his dumb founded voice manage to make Randy very enjoyable as a character.
 * 5) He’s a lot more understanding than he appears to be and although he is stupid for the most part, he is a geologist and has some intelligence.
 * 6) He spawned many hilarious memes, a good example is the “I thought this was America”, "Change", and "What seems to be the officer, problem".
 * 7) Even when Randy is doing something that’s idiotic or ridiculous, it’ll still come off as hilarious, much like Homer Simpson, Peter Griffin, Cleveland Brown (in his spin-off series) and Stan Smith.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) He can be an absolute retard at times and doesn't always think about the decisions he makes and that even results in him being annoying, such as in "Pandemic/Pandemic 2: The Startling" where he uses a camera
 * 2) Season 23 overused him several times and that was one of the contributing factors to the mediocrity of Season 23. He was flanderized in Season 23 as his over-usage would give less episodes relating to the main boys and although he was likable in "Band in China"
 * 3) He has his unlikable moments such as in "Pandemic/Pandemic 2: The Startling", "Dead Kids" and "Pinewood Derby".

Reception
Randy's characterization has received acclaim as he is a fan-favorite of South Park for his dumb founded character, and enjoyable antics.