#sometimes you just gotta spend 2k+ words dissecting literally every bit of canonical info about an extremely minor character ya know

[alister312]

What Do We Canonically Know About Gregory?

“I must say, I don’t think I belong with these rogues. I attended school at Yardale and had a 4-0 grade point average.”

Gregory may have only ever appeared as a secondary character in the 1999 film South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut, but years after the film, the SP fandom still loves him. However, with such a disproportionate ratio of screen time to fan appreciation, what is fanon versus what is canon can get confused. Therefore, today I’d like to go through everything we canonically know about Gregory, with some light personal speculation based on the canon.

To start, I’ll state that what I am taking to be canon is everything that happened in the movie, along with South Park Studios wiki page about him (as close to an official wiki as I can get).

In the very first scene Gregory appears in, we learn a few concrete things about him.

Firstly, he can ice skate and it seems he’s relatively talented, as he mentions doing jumps earlier. Second, he introduces himself as “Gregory” and mentions he has just transferred from Yardale where he had a “4-0 grade point average”. His fandom wiki page mentions that Yardale is meant to be a portmanteau of Yale and Harvard, though I haven’t found anything to back this up. If it’s true, though, it speaks highly of his intellect. Whether it’s true or not, it’s clear that intelligence, or perhaps education generally, is important to Gregory, if he tells others his grades before even his last name. This tracks for later in the movie, when he and Wendy smile at one another when Garrison says that there’s “a lot to learn today” before class.

The value that Gregory places on intelligence and education are likely why he seems to only want to interact with Wendy. He tells Stan that he and Wendy spent time “talking of memories past”, which probably involved her frustrations with being one of the few more mature (and therefore “intelligent”) kids in her grade. Gregory quickly loses interest with Stan when he mentions that he’s gone to see the Terrance and Phillip (T&P) movie, saying a simple “Oho!” before leaving to talk with Wendy more. Considering they’re the only ones who didn’t wear T&P shirts to school, he obviously sees Wendy as his only intellectual equal.

Despite this, Gregory readily joins in with the others during “It’s Easy MMMkay”. He does have a line about how he doesn’t think he should be there, yet he sings and dances throughout the song/rehabilitation. He even laughs with the other kids at the end of the whole thing! In fact, I’d say this song is the time when he is the most similar to the other kids. It’s possible that the song and dance components brought that out in him.

This sequence is also the only hint we ever get towards Gregory’s parents, and not even that in depth, but I wanted to mention it anyway. Mr. Mackey tells all the students at the beginning that “[their] mothers insisted they be taken from [their] normal schoolwork and taught not to swear”. Therefore, we can reasonably say that 1) Gregory at least has a mother and 2) she believes in good manners. Based on how poshly Gregory conducts himself, I’d go a step further and say that his mother (and perhaps dad if he has one) places a heavy emphasis on manners, especially if she’s willing to pull him from schoolwork (something he has previously demonstrated to be of great importance to him and likely his parents as well).

Now, let’s get into political Gregory, another key canonical component of his character. The first instance we see of this is when Garrison makes a comment about all the mothers being on their periods, a lame explanation as to why they’ve arrested T&P. Wendy whispers something to Gregory and he feels compelled to share what she told him (“Wendy and I think that was a sexist statement”). It’s unclear why Wendy didn’t say it out loud herself, but my guess is that because Garrison is a sexist, she assumed she’d be dismissed and hoped Gregory would be taken seriously. If this is the case, then Gregory is aware of the privilege he holds and is keen to use it to uplift and bring attention to those oppressed.

Since we’re talking about political Gregory, let’s circle back to the idea that Wendy is Gregory’s only intellectual equal at school (in his eyes at least). For most of the movie, only they (and arguably Christophe) demonstrably understand the political nuance of the Canadian war and what it implies. When the declaration of war is announced, Wendy and Gregory appear to be the only students who are scared rather than confused. Even when Gregory tries to explain why this is wrong, what he says goes over everyone’s head except for Wendy.

However, while they’re mostly on the same page, there’s a few differences in what exactly they seem to take issue with. During Gregory’s recess soapbox speech, he seems to fixate on how this is an issue with America as a country (“The American government thinks it has the right to police the world. Your government is going to kill two Canadian citizens, an action condemned by the UN. Home of the free indeed!”). These lines tell us that Gregory is not American (“your government”). This is further confirmed when he uses kilometers as measurements later in the movie. Additionally, his direct accusation of the country and sarcastic tone at the end indicates that he doesn’t think very highly of the U.S. at all.

Wendy, meanwhile, seems to focus more on freedom of speech and censorship, suggesting that she is not quite as radicalized against America as Gregory is. After she speaks, Gregory starts talking again, although we don’t get to hear what he says because Stan (the current audience perspective) is distracted. However, based on the fact that Wendy asks Stan what he thinks afterward, I think it’s likely that Gregory is explaining why he feels so strongly and why others should too. This could connect back towards his potential want to use his privilege to educate and uplift others.

I believe Gregory is able to accomplish this to an extent! While it’s Kyle (along with Stan and Cartman) who puts out the call for others to meet for La Resistance, when Gregory shows up with Wendy, he says that others are coming. Considering he’s new in town and has no friends besides Wendy, how would he know this? I think that, once he and Wendy learned there was a resistance group, they went and convinced others to join. Only two kids leave when they learn there isn’t any punch or pie, so the rest are actually dedicated to the cause. Considering how uninterested they were before, it makes sense that somehow Gregory was able to get through to them.

Even if this is what Gregory wants, however, it’s obvious that he struggles at being patient with anyone who isn’t as informed as he is. He is impressed by Stan and the others’ willingness to try, he is quickly frustrated at their lack of experience. He has enough manners in him to ask “May I?” when it’s revealed that Stan’s plan is useless, but not enough patience to wait for a yes before he takes over the La Resistance meeting. While this could be seen as rude or snobbish, it’s evident that Gregory has already spent a lot of time researching, likely already planning to do something himself. How else would he so intricately know the layout of the base where T&P are being kept or the exact window of opportunity during the USO show?

Gregory’s song, of course, says a lot about his perspective on the world. For starters, despite his pessimism about America, Gregory does seem to believe in freedom. He is not just fighting to dismantle– he is fighting to improve. Also, religion seems to be a rather heavy influence for him. Not only does he invoke God when talking about fighting for freedom, but he claims they are all “blessèd” and ultimately “only the righteous” will stand. Often, the connotation behind righteousness is a religious one, or a moral one which can stem from religious teachings.

Another tenet of Gregory’s belief seems to be the idea that sacrifice is admirable, necessary, and inevitable when fighting for freedom. He describes various potential and graphic scenarios where they die for the cause, but these are meant to be inspiring rather than scary. Additionally, he implies that these are not hypotheticals (“when you all get shot”, “when they torture you”, “that’s the way it goes / in war you’re shat upon”). Gregory definitely takes revolutionary work very seriously, but he also seems to romanticize the idea of being a martyr. While that paints him in a slightly naive light, he is at least willing to be hands on and isn’t scared to be a part of the body count (switching from “for though you die” to “for though we die”).

The way Gregory acts throughout the whole of the La Resistance meeting and later in the film (when he realizes Stan and the others failed) really shows that Gregory has a lot of self confidence, which can manifest as arrogance. It’s not as if his confidence is unearned– he is clearly very competent and experienced when it comes to revolutionary work. However, Gregory does automatically assume others can’t handle dangerous or complicated tasks (and is unsurprised when proven right). I don’t think he realizes that he is coming off as pretentious, considering how unfazed he is whenever people get annoyed with him.

In fact, the only time Gregory seems truly offended is when Wendy vocally renounces him, saying “Fuck Gregory, fuck him right in the ear!” This isn’t the first time she’s looked at him angrily or the first time he’s been “insulted” right to his face (earlier when Cartman called him a “fucking faggot”), but this is the first time it upsets him. Why? I think it’s a combination of two things. First, he doesn’t seem that great at picking up on subtleties. He couldn’t tell when Wendy was annoyed with him, or when Stan was, and he’s not great at being subtle himself. Second, either Gregory doesn’t consider faggot to be an insult or Wendy’s opinion is one he actually values, especially when compared to Cartman. Both of these are possible, though the latter is more likely.

Is it possible for Gregory to overcome his arrogance and dismissive mindset when it comes to others? It seems so! The way he praises Stan for volunteering and seems impressed when he finally understands the heart of the issue (i.e. freedom of speech) suggests that Gregory grows to like people as long as they are trying. He even entrusts the very symbolically important role of La Resistance banner holder to Butters, despite the fact that Butters trips when he holds it. This could even connect back to why Gregory is so into Mr. Mackey’s rehabilitation– he appreciates when others put in the effort to better themselves and the world around them. This is likely why he praises Christophe (calling him an expert), as Christophe is shown to be a very dedicated and determined individual, even if he’s misotheistic (contrasting Gregory’s positive tone towards God) and prone to toilet humor (the “buttfor” joke).

So now that we know all there is to canonically know about Gregory, what are the core components of his character? He places a lot of his own worth in his intelligence/education and expects others to as well. I’d argue that his high expectations of hyper competence tie into this as well. All of that contributes to his slight arrogance and inability to truly connect with others who aren’t on the same level as him, with Wendy and Christophe (and perhaps Stan by the end) seeming to be the only ones who have his respect. Despite this, Gregory uses his privileged standing to advocate for others and speaks out against (and actively fights) injustice. He has very strong (perhaps Christian-inspired) morals and isn’t afraid to sacrifice himself for what he believes in.