Randy first appeared in the third episode of South Park's first season, "Volcano," although it was never established in the episode itself that he is Stan Marsh's father. Early episodes where Randy featured prominently are the season two episode "Clubhouses," where Randy and his wife Sharon briefly separate, and the season three premiere "Spontaneous Combustion," where he (as the lone scientist in town) must figure out why South Park residents are spontaneously combusting.
In the early seasons, Randy's role was typical of a parent on South Park. Since then, more episodes focused on Randy as a wily and impulsive dope that quickly led to him becoming a fan-favorite. In the episode "The Losing Edge," while his son Stan tried to intentionally lose little league games, he got drunk in the stands and picked fights with other drunk dads. Each fight ended with an intoxicated Randy inexplicably naked and being escorted away by cops while slurring "I thought this was America!"
Randy's love of weed was first established in the season fourteen episode "Medicinal Fried Chicken," where he intentionally gives himself testicular cancer to have access to a newly-opened medical dispensary in South Park. As an unexpected side effect, both of Randy's balls grew to be the size of exercise balls. In the season twenty-two episode "Tegridy Farms," Randy's decided he's had it with the rat race in South Park, and moves the family to a hemp farm. This change has been reflected in each episode since, and the season twenty-three intro was changed to a Tegridy Farms-style version of the classic South Park intro.
Randy in his farm clothes, replacing his usual outfit seen in the first 22 seasons. The controversial episode "Band in China," which coincidentally led to the show being banned in China, had Randy going to China to sell "tegridy" (weed) to the Chinese. This was after Randy apparently just learned there are almost 2 billion people living in China. As luck would have it, this episode pre-dated China being the first country affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, which set the stage for the reveal in the show's "Pandemic Special" that Randy was in fact responsible for first case of COVID. While on a bender with Mickey Mouse, Randy was goaded into having sex with both a bat and a pangolin, the latter of which caused the coronavirus to mutate into its current form.
Like Butters, another background character who went on to be a main part of the show, Randy has grown to be one of the most popular characters on the show.
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