Mr. Garrison

Mr. Garrison is a fictional character in the South Park cartoon series.

For most of the series he was the third-grade elementary school teacher at South Park Elementary. In a later season he was fired, and is now the kindergarden teacher. His first name is Herbert.

Mr. Garrison suffers from a wide variety of social problems, the most notable of which appears to be schizophrenia. Mr. Garrison constantly holds a puppet known as Mr. Hat who he uses as a sort of second, more aggressive personality. For a period in the third season Mr. Garrison "broke up" with Mr. Hat, and used a different, more subdued puppet named Mr. Twig.

Another source of problems for Mr. Garrison is his sexual identity. Though he often acts in a very cliched homosexual manner, for a long time Garrison could be seen chasing women, and displaying a very homophobic attitude towards gays. However, he would eventually have a change of heart, and "came out" as a homosexual in season 5. He continues to use homophobic language however, indicating that he still may have sexual issues that need to be resolved.