In both the Season 2 episode “City on the Edge of Forever” and the Season 6 episode “Cartmanland,” Eric Cartman pointed out to the residents of South Park the fact that Kenny dies all the time. The reason Cartman can see what Stan and Kyle can’t see may be related to the Season 3 episode, “Succubus,” where he gets an eye transplant using Kenny’s eyes from his severed head. That might have given him the ability to literally see through Kenny’s eyes. In a Season 6 episode, “A Ladder to Heaven,” while Kenny was still officially dead in the show, Cartman drinks his ashes and begins to receive visions of Kenny’s life also through his eyes via supernatural possession, thus further linking Cartman to his friend.
An eerie connection linking the two characters came from “South Park” creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker’s 1992 short film “The Spirit of Christmas.” This short features Jesus fighting Frosty the Snowman and came before the second “Spirit of Christmas” short in which Jesus fights Santa Claus; this made Stone and Parker a VHS viral sensation leading to their hit series. In the short, four children resembling the four from the show watch on as the fight ensues. A character the others call Kenny actually resembles the series’ version of Cartman. He is the first to be killed in the short by the killer snowman before the monster then kills an unnamed child who resembles Kenny. The corpses of the two children are thrown together and their blood pools in the show. Some fans think that this scene represents these two characters always being linked in death.
