Leopold "Butters" Stotch is a fictional character in the animated television series South Park. He is voiced by series co-creator Matt Stone and loosely based on co-producer Eric Stough. He is a third- then fourth-grade student at the fictional South Park Elementary School. Butters is depicted as more cheerful, naive, optimistic, gullible, and passive compared to the show's other child characters and can become increasingly anxious, especially when faced with the likelihood of being punished, which is usually just being grounded, to which he is extremely terrified of. As a result, he is often sheltered and unknowledgeable of some of the suggestive content his peers understand. His name is a play on the confection butterscotch. Butters debuted as an unnamed background character when South Park first aired on August 13, 1997; his role gradually increased, becoming one of the series' most recurring characters beginning with Season 3. Creators Parker and Stone have stated that he is one of their favorite characters.