Character from South Park by Trey Parker & Matt Stone
South Park Elementary's teacher turned President of the United States — a character whose arc through gender identity, sexuality, and political power is the show's most chaotic and somehow never-ending journey.
Mr. Garrison has been a closeted man, an openly gay man, a transgender woman, a transgender woman who regretted transitioning, a man again, and the President of the United States. The show has handled this arc with the precise level of sensitivity you'd expect from South Park, which is to say: none on the surface and a surprising amount underneath. As a teacher, he is catastrophically unqualified. He teaches whatever he feels like — usually wrong — and treats his students with open contempt. His teaching puppet Mr. Hat was his way of saying things he couldn't say himself, until he could say them himself, at which point he got worse. He has been fired and rehired by South Park Elementary more times than anyone can count because there is literally no one else who will take the job. His presidency was the show's extended Trump satire — Garrison as a man who never wanted the job, got it by being the loudest person in the room, and then had to figure out what to do with power he never expected. The satire worked because Garrison, like the thing he was parodying, was simultaneously horrifying and impossible to look away from.
Balding middle-aged man with a fringe of grey hair, glasses, and a perpetually irritated expression. His look has changed dramatically over the series — from mousy teacher with Mr. Hat to various gender presentations to a Trump-like president. In his default teacher mode, he wears a green shirt and grey pants and carries himself with the beleaguered authority of someone who hates his job but is too angry to quit.
Also known as: Garrison, Mrs. Garrison, Mr. Hat, President Garrison