‘South Park’: Meet the Teen Who Went Viral for Turning Her Bedroom into a Shrine to Randy Marsh

On the third ever episode of South Park, a legend was born. No, not Scuzzlebutt, the creature with celery for a hand and Patrick Duffy for a leg that haunts the proceedings. Instead, it’s a humble seismologist who proved to have far more staying power — Randy Marsh.

Randy only appeared on-screen for a few seconds, and he wasn’t even established as Stan’s dad yet — he just happened to notice irregular seismic activity that would turn out to be a volcano about to erupt. Still, this inauspicious start didn’t stop Randy’s profile from growing over the last quarter century, and it certainly didn’t stop Norah, a 19-year-old artist from Michigan, from noticing him either.

Norah only started watching South Park this year, but she quickly binged all 25 seasons. Over the course of more than 300 episodes, she fell in love with Randy to the point where she began collecting every piece of Randy memorabilia she could find, including both official and unofficial collectibles, as well as some she made herself. She also wallpapered her room with hundreds of images of Randy and declared herself to be his wife (you should keep a better eye on your man Sharon).

Recently, Norah went viral on TikTok, Twitter and Instagram for her extensive collection. But despite online haters imploring her to seek help, Norah swears that her Randy fixation is totally healthy, an assertion she says her psychiatrist backs up, and that it’s simply a classic example of the heart wanting what it wants.

Love at First Sight

I don’t know why, but the second I saw Randy, my obsession started. I can’t explain it, but he was so funny and I just took notice of him. I really like the episode “Crème Fraiche,” where he becomes a chef as well as the first episode with Tegridy Farms. But there was no one episode where I fell in love with him, he just grew on me over time.

A lot of people online complain about how Randy and Tegridy Farms have taken over the show, but I’m living for it. Tegridy Farms is great, and Randy is great.

A Passionate Love Affair

My first Randy item was this tiny plush that I now have hanging in my window. I got it off of Mercari as a joke. It was $50, and I really thought it was going to be bigger. After that, I got more and more stuff. There is some official merchandise for Randy — like some Funko Pops and a few plushies — but not nearly as much as there is for the main boys. My favorite official piece of merchandise is my big Randy plush.

The rest of my collection is stuff I’ve made myself or I’ve commissioned. My Randy body pillow is my favorite Randy thing. It’s like five-feet long, and I know that no one else has it but me. I had a friend draw it for me, and then I had it made on Amazon. 

A lot of people have remarked on how I’ve wallpapered my room with pictures of Randy. There are a lot of pictures of him, but it really didn’t take that long. I had a bunch of pictures of him on my phone, I printed them all out and I began taping them up. I did one wall in one day because I couldn’t sleep until it was finished. Then I did the other wall a month or so later. 

The shrine is always growing, but right now, I’m at the point where I can’t find anything that I don’t have, which kind of makes me sad.

Declaring Her Love to the World

For a while, I was afraid to tell people how much I liked Randy, just because of how divided the fanbase is about him. But I decided to post the shrine back in August. The collection was way smaller than what it is now, but when I woke up the next morning I had 700 pageviews, and by the end of the day, I had a million.

A week or so ago, I posted my latest pictures of the shrine, and it’s gotten more attention than ever — even the official South Park account liked it. That was also when it blew up on Instagram and Twitter. Most people were cool about it, but there were a lot of mean people, too. They were like, “‘You need professional help!” and “This isn’t normal!” Some, of course, just wanted to know “why Randy?” But, I mean, would you rather it was one of the kids? That’s creepy!

The thing that gets me about the negative remarks is that these people don’t know me. I have a normal life outside of this. If anything, Randy is my professional help. People should be allowed to collect weird things — after all, this makes me so happy. My psychiatrist even tells me that she thinks the Randy shrine is a healthy thing. And so, when people say, “Get help,” my response is, “I did, and they don’t see a problem with this!” 

It’s something that makes me happy, and it’s something I’m able to find joy in. I can’t find joy in a lot of things, but Randy always brings me happiness. In that case, why not build a shrine to him?