Residing in South Park, he is the only child and son of Steve and Linda Black, who were originally the only African American family in the town until the Daniels family first appeared.
Character
Creation and design
Tolkien debuted in the series' first episode, "Cartman Gets an Anal Probe", though having no spoken lines. He was composed with construction paper and animated through stop motion. From "Weight Gain 4000" onward he is animated digitally, though in a way which mimics the original use of the construction paper. Tolkien is not offered the same free-ranged motion as hand-drawn characters, as he is shown on one angle, and is animated with a jerky fashion.[1][2]
Tolkien is African-American, with dark brown skin and short black hair, and usually wears a light purple long sleeve shirt with a yellow letter "T" on it, and dark blue jeans. Up until season 5, Tolkien, along with other African-Americans, had darker skin. Adrien Beard speaks with his normal vocal range and is edited with Pro Tools, which alters the pitch to that of a fourth grader.[3]
Following the release of "The Big Fix", Tolkien's name was edited in all previously-released material to match the retcon, including subtitles of past episodes. Because "The Big Fix" establishes that Stan and Randy have been unaware of Tolkien's real name up until this point, Tolkien's name is still subtitled as "Token" in their dialogue. Stan and Randy are meant to represent the audience, as the episode contains a scene of a character directly speaking to the audience about Tolkien's real name.[4]
Personality and traits
In "With Apologies to Jesse Jackson", Tolkien is upset by Randy Marsh's use of the word "niggers" on Wheel of Fortune, and refused to acquiesce to Stan's demand that he declare that it was not a problem. In "Christian Rock Hard" he becomes increasingly irritated with Eric Cartman's pandering to racial stereotypes. In that episode, he is annoyed when he is able to spontaneously play bass guitar, despite never having learned to play it, a confirmation of one of Cartman's claim that all black people can play the bass guitar. Cartman's racial language culminates in Tolkien beating him up by the end of the episode.
Paste magazine ranked him at No. 17 on a list entitled "The Top 20 Best South Park Characters".[5] He was ranked at No. 19 by Looper on a list entitled "25 Popular South Park Characters Ranked Worst to Best".[6]
