Herbert Garrison

Mr. Garrison
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Character Information
Gender	Male, formerly Transwoman
Age	46
Hair	Grey, formely brown
Occupation	School teacher
Religion	Roman Catholic
Voice	Trey Parker
Appearances

Herbert Garrison (formerly known as Janet Garrison between his two sex changes), was a homosexual who underwent sex reassignment surgery. He was thereafter known as Mrs. Garrison, despite being unmarried. He underwent yet another sex change operation. Garrison is particularly cynical, especially in comparison with the rest of South Park's adults. He's left-handed.

Character history

Garrison grew up in Arkansas, speaks with a Southern accent, and has a master's degree in mechanical engineering from Denver Community College. Mr. Garrison's sexuality is complex. During the entirety of the show he has had heterosexual and same-sex relationships, both as a man and woman. Across the series he displays a myriad of somewhat conflicting and ambiguous sexual identities, which he clings to exclusively for long periods of time. This may have some relation to the [multiple personality disorder, which Mr. Garrison manifested in earlier seasons through Mr. Hat and Mr. Twig.

Mr. Garrison temporarily replaced Mr. Hat with "Mr. Twig", who consisted of a twig wearing a purple shirt with a pink triangle symbol. His voice was identical to Mr. Hat's until his final scene, where he spoke with a French accent. Mr. Twig was not well-received by the children in Garrison's third grade class, who repeatedly called for the return of Mr. Hat and suggesting Mr. Twig would be better used as a coat rack, which Garrison took much offense to. Though Garrison constantly assured himself that Mr. Twig was a better choice than Mr. Hat, he came to terms with his attachment to Mr. Hat in "Chef Aid", upon being broken out of jail by him. Garrison got back with Mr. Hat after Mr. Twig advised him to follow his heart.

Garrison also revealed racist tendencies often. Mr. Hat, his puppet, was a member of the local Ku Klux Klan, which Mr. Garrison resented and insisted to Chef that he wanted nothing to do with. However, later he tried to get rid of the "richers" (who were all black) using Klan techniques, such as wearing their robes or burning crosses and reveals in his last line of the episode that his intentions were purely racist. Every Christmas, he suggests that the town get rid of all the Mexicans, but Mayor McDaniels repeatedly declines to do so. Exactly why he wishes to do this has not yet been explained.

In the early seasons, Garrison was portrayed as a closeted gay man and was ashamed and afraid to be open about it as a result of this. Mr. Garrison constantly held a puppet known as "Mr. Hat", which he used as a sort of second, more aggressive personality, as well as for emoting his internal conflicts. It was suggested that Mr. Hat (and subsequently Mr. Twig) were manners through which Mr. Garrison could express his repressed gay feelings. Though Garrison staunchly denied he was gay and tried to completely keep it a secret, he acknowledged that Mr. Hat and Mr. Twig had homosexual fantasies. It has been established that Garrison has had heterosexual relationships as a male.

Garrison was the Third Grade teacher at South Park elementary until he tried to solicit sex from a minor in an online chat room, and after meeting him near at South Park docks for sex (only then discovering then that it was his student, Eric Cartman), he was charged and subsequently told by the school to take time off from his job. In his sabbatical, Garrison wrote a romance novel that he intended to be purely heterosexual in nature; entitled In the Valley of Penises, it contained 6,083 instances of the word "penis". Along with his other works, it sold well until he learned that it won the Gay Pulitzer Prize. At some point after that, Garrison had a nervous breakdown and fled South Park to become a hermit, where he eventually came to terms with his gay tendencies. At this point, he openly embraced his homosexuality, and informed everyone of this fact. He even went so far as to cheerfully proclaim himself a "fag" repeatedly to anyone he encountered. He was re-hired by South Park elementary, but as the[kindergarten teacher, as his old job was taken and his old class was then held by Ms. Choksondik. Later, he was promoted to the fourth grade after the death of Ms. Choksondik. This was a move on the principal's part to avoid any semblance of sexual-orientation discrimination against him. However, when Garrison found that he could sue the school for substantial compensation if he were discriminated against, he attempted to be so offensive he would be fired. To that end, he abandoned his puppet counterpart in favor of a human assistant, Mr. Slave, his personal BDSM slave and lover. He then proceeded to perform several sexually explicit homosexual acts in front of his students, including putting the class gerbil into Mr. Slave's rectum. His plan, however, did not succeed, and he was instead praised for being "courageous".

His changing sexual identities are a continual source of problems. Despite having come out, Garrison continued to be ashamed of it as part of his continual emotional and psychological problems. He also was in despair over the fact that his father had not sexually molested him as a boy, believing that he didn't love his son. Garrison Sr. considered having sex with his son in order to save his life, but he instead had recording artist Kenny G., whom Mr. Garrison thought was his father, sexually assault him. It is also apparent in many episodes that Mr. Garrison is very religious and extremely aggressive about his religion.

By season nine, Garrison transitioned from being a man to being a woman, taking the identity of "Mrs. Janet Garrison." She was then rejected by Mr. Slave, who no longer found Mrs. Garrison appealing to him, as he is gay. During this period, Mrs. Garrison remains attracted to men, just as Mr. Garrison had been, although the attraction had technically become heterosexual because Mrs. Garrison was now a woman. However, fed up with rejection by men, Garrison comes out as lesbian, and begins having relationships with women.

Garrison is later frustrated with the sex change - seeing it as a bad mistake - and was suspended from teaching until she had learned how to cope with her situation without bothering her fourth graders with it continuously. Utilizing a penis grown on the back of a mouse, Garrison underwent surgery again and became, once again Mr. Garrison. Immediately following surgery, Garrison displayed the contempt for homosexuality that was one of his trademarks in the early shows.

As a teacher, Mr. Garrison is almost completely inept, regularly teaching bizarre and pointless lessons, such as showing Barnaby Jones videos to the class for eight days, asking the class why Chubby Checker left The Beatles in 1972 and teaching the students how to tell the difference between a prostitute and a police officer. On the other hand, he will occasionally teach the children advanced subjects such as theories on evolution, Stalin and Communism. Despite his cynical nature he appears to genuinely enjoy his job.