Craig Tucker, voiced by Matt Stone, commonly characterized by his blue chullo hat and deep nasal monotone voice, is one of the more prominent members of the children's classroom. In the beginning of the series, Craig was said to be the most violent and strongest student in the class (excluding Cartman). Cartman once claimed that Craig was the "biggest troublemaker in [their] class",[12] and parents of his classmates have cited him as a "bad influence".[13] In a running gag during the show's earlier seasons, establishing shots of Mr. Mackey's office would feature Craig waiting outside, yet his activities were never seen.[14] In the first several seasons, Craig has a habit of giving people the finger,[15] a trait the show's official website attributes to his learning the behavior from his family, all of whom frequently use the gesture as well, most notably in the third season episode, "Tweek vs. Craig", in which his entire family take turns flipping each other off.[12][16] This trait was last seen in the season 6 (2002) episode "Fun with Veal".
Craig dislikes the four main characters and rivals them in several episodes. Craig is a pragmatist[17] and has no wish to become involved in any extraordinary adventures the other main characters on the show customarily experience.[18] In the season 12 (2008) episodes "Pandemic" and "Pandemic 2: The Startling", Craig repeatedly castigates the main characters' propensity for engaging in schemes that catastrophically backfire upon them. He also complains that they just seem to blindly accept that these things happen to them. He decides that he will no longer participate in such schemes, and walks away from the one in which they find themselves in the latter episode. However, by taking this action he fulfills an ancient prophecy, by stepping on a mysterious platform that allows him to defeat the giant guinea pig monster responsible for that story line's conflict. He concludes from this that just because there are things in life that cannot be controlled does not mean that one should accept them without protest.
Despite his dislike of the main characters, particularly Cartman, he is often depicted as one of the boys who repeatedly join Cartman in his many schemes, at times serving as a right-hand man.
In the Season 19 episode "Tweek x Craig", female students of Asian backgrounds started drawing homoerotic "yaoi" images of Craig and Tweek depicting them as lovers. Immediately, the two try to repudiate the rumors about them prompted by this. They eventually resolve to stage a public "break-up" to end the rumors. Though Tweek fears he cannot do this believably, Craig encourages him that he indeed can. However, Tweek goes too far by claiming that Craig is a manipulative cheater, which has the effect of ruining Craig's reputation with girls. Tweek later reveals that Craig's encouragement gave him the confidence to believe in himself. Following the father-to-son talk between him and his father about how "you can't fight being gay", the two boys have been forced in a relationship, at the time seemingly just to appease the townspeople. In later episodes however, such as the season 21 episode "Put It Down" and The Fractured But Whole, they are shown to have become sincere romantic partners and identify as gay. He plays the role of a Rogue in South Park: The Stick of Truth and plays the role of Super Craig in South Park: The Fractured but Whole (a parody of Superman from DC Comics).