5. Kenny McCormick - South Park
Kenny has been killed countless times in South Park since the adult animations inception in 1997 so many times in fact that his demise became a running joke and fans stopped caring, as the orange-hooded character kept on popping back up again every other episode following the famous exclamation Oh my god! They killed Kenny! However, fans were shocked when, in 2001, show-creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone decided to kill Kenny for real, in the season 5 episode Kenny Dies. In it, Kenny is diagnosed with a terminal illness, presumably muscular dystrophy, and slowly dies from the disease. Worse still, Stan is wracked by guilt when he decides he cannot bear to watch his friend die, and therefore refuses to visit him in hospital, and by the time he does pluck up the courage to pay a visit, Kenny has already died. What makes this death stand out from all the other Kenny deaths is that A) it was done seriously, I.e he wasnt comically splattered to death by a falling object and B) he didnt come back until 2002, in the season 6 episode Red Sleigh Down. Kennys 12 month absence from South Park hit hard, and it took fans a while to adapt.