Eric Cartman

Eric Theodore Cartman, commonly referred to by his family name, Cartman, is a fictional character in the animated series South Park. He is voiced by series co-creator, Trey Parker.

Cartman is a main character in the fictional series "South Park". He often acts as a catalyst for their adventures through his over-enthusiasm and selfishness. Cartman is notably eccentric, often reacting in violent and over-dramatic ways to events he dislikes and openly expresses his hatred of any race or group of which he is not a member, particularly of the Jews due to his rivalry with Kyle Broflovski, leading to him idolizing Adolf Hitler. He often manipulates others, at which he is very adept, to meet his own ends, regardless of the consequences to other people, even if it can result in deaths and destruction.

According to Trey Parker and Matt Stone, when they were creating South Park they were vexed that it would be impossible to put a character like Archie Bunker on late-20th century television. They thought, however, that if he were an animated eight-year-old boy, it might just be allowed. Thus, Cartman was born.

Cartman's personality has notably changed over the course of series. While always self-centered and bigoted, he was portrayed as more of an immature brat in the earlier seasons. As the seasons progressed, his personality became more aggressive and cunning, eventually crossing the line into outright sociopathy, while his bigotry morphed seamlessly into Nazi-like hatred and theorizing. His abilities to manipulate other people into doing what he wants have become keener, along with his overall intelligence.

In 2005, Cartman was ranked number nineteen on Bravo's 100 Greatest TV Characters.

Personality and impact

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Cartman uncapped in "How to Eat with Your Butt"

Eric Cartman is selfish, spoiled, foul-mouthed, ill-tempered, insensitive, sociopathic, greedy, racist, hypercritical, wildly insecure, bigoted and manipulative. He is portrayed as having a general lack of moral responsibility or social conscience. He also seems to take pleasure from others' misfortune, and is generally unable to show empathy, although there have been exceptions, such as in "How to Eat with Your Butt". This has been also parodied, as well as the cliche of a typical villain becoming benevolent. In these episodes, he usually convinces Kyle that he has good intentions, such as in the episdes "Cartoon Wars", where Cartman appears to Kyle to be concerned of people's safety at the beginning, but it is later shown to only have been acting in his own interests, and in "Kenny Dies", he is apparently distraught at Kenny's impending death, leading Kyle to console him, and later, when his real motives were revealed, Kyle promptly beats him up in Kenny's defense. In "The Death of Eric Cartman", Kyle brands him a "fat, racist, self-centered, intolerant, manipulative sociopath". Cartman, however, does not consider himself to be a bad person, in fact he seems to disregard good or bad altogether and does whatever he feels is necessary for him to get ahead. Cartman seems to be motivated not so much by personal gain as by asserting superiority over others, usually Kyle. In Red Hot Catholic Love, he won $20 in a bet with Kyle, but instead of using the money, he simply flaunted it in front of Kyle until Kyle conceded that Cartman was right, ruining his sense of victory and causing him to throw a tantrum. The same thing happens in Christian Rock Hard. Kyle makes a $10 bet that he can get a platinum album before Cartman, but Cartman makes a successful album and makes millions of dollars and earning the album. But when Cartman discovers that the Christian companies do not give out Platinum albums (they give out Myrrh albums), thus meaning he cannot win the bet, so he angrily destroys the album, showing that he did not care how he just made millions of dollars, he just wanted to beat Kyle. Cartman's much quoted line, "Respect my authority" (or as Cartman pronounces it, "authori-tah") highlights his power hungry and dictatorial characteristic.

Ironically, despite (or perhaps because of) these qualities, Cartman also seems to be a natural-born leader, able to utilize overwhelming charisma and rhetoric to gain the obedience of large groups on a moment's notice (as in "The Passion of the Jew" episode) . He appears innately aware of how to take advantage of "mob mentality" and direct it toward accomplishing his personal goals, as has been evidenced in countless episodes throughout the series' history. In situations where the other boys share his goals, Cartman is often the De facto leader (for example, Make Love, Not Warcraft and Marjorine). Indeed, the others consistently show a willingness to follow him and trust in his leadership when he's using his abilities for "good."

Anti-Semitism and other forms of bigotry

"If you had a chance right now to go back in time and stop Hitler, would you do it? I mean, I personally wouldn't stop him because I think he was awesome, but you would, right?" — Cartman - “Make Love, Not Warcraft”

Due in part to his adversarial relationship with Kyle (who is Jewish), Cartman is extremely anti-Semitic. In the season eight episode “The Passion of the Jew,” after seeing The Passion of the Christ, he believes the film was Mel Gibson's way of rallying people against the Jews, and idolizes him for it. He then dresses up as Hitler and manipulates people, who think that they are simply raising awareness for the movie and Christianity, to join him in an anti-Jew march while chanting in mispronounced German: "Es ist Zeit für Rache" (It is time for revenge.) and "Wir müssen die Juden ausrotten" (We must eradicate the Jews). When Cartman plans to cheat and win the special olympics by feigning a disability, Kyle attempts to talk him out of it by telling him, regardless of their differences, that Cartman will surely go to Hell for such an act; Cartman replies that Kyle does not understand that Hell is reserved for the Jews, indicating once again his self-righteousness.

In the episode "Pinkeye," Cartman dresses up as Hitler for Halloween. When shown a documentary to demonstrate why dressing like him “isn't cool,” Cartman is enthralled and imagines himself being the one commanding the Nazi troops in the video. Cartman’s admiration for Hitler is further emphasized in episode: “The Entity,” after being offered $40 by Kyle not to tease Kyle's cousin, Kyle Schwartz. Since Cartman has trouble restraining himself from teasing Kyle about his Jewish heritage, when the class teacher (Ms. Choksondik) later tells Kyle's cousin to concentrate, Cartman impulsively blurts out: “Maybe we should send him to concentration camp!”

A contradiction of his idolization of Hitler is seen in "I'm a Little Bit Country" where in this episode Cartman is incapable of pronouncing “Nazi” correctly (pronouncing it "Nay-zee") upon seeing it written, as though he had never come upon the word before. However, as established above, Eric is a Nazi sympathizer and an admirer of Adolf Hitler. Another contradiction occurs in "Tsst", when Cartman compares his mother – who had been instructed how to treat her rampantly egocentric son by the Dog Whisperer – with Hitler, as a reason why she should be killed, though this was only because his mother was punishing him had she been doing it to someone else he most likely would not have cared.

In addition to taking regular jabs at racial, ethnic and religious minorities, as well as people of lower income, Cartman is also prejudicial against redhaired, light skinned, freckled people, or ‘Gingers’. (Though this hatred may come from the fact that Kyle has red hair.) When the other three boys lead him to believe he has become a redhead himself, he is horrified. Later, he organizes a cult of homicidal ginger children bent on world conquest known as the ‘Ginger Separatist Movement,’ remarking: “I'm not going to live my life as a Goddamn minority!”

Cartman’s most passionate abhorrence is aimed at hippies, though he seems to use this term for liberals in general. In episode: “Die, Hippie, Die,” he believes that hippies will destroy the town, and while the rest of the town is initially skeptical, his fears are eventually borne out. When too close to liberals, he suffers what could be called an allergic reaction. He also wore a bio-suit apon entering San Fransisco.

Cartman's bigotry and anti-semitism seem to come in second next to his personal needs, however; despite his hate for the Jews, Cartman saves Kyle in the episode "Smug Alert" because he can find no one else to pick on. In Le Petit Tourette, he is not above thanking Kyle for stopping him from possible public humiliation.

Eccentricities

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“Whateva! I do what I want!”

---

Cartman in drag on The Maury Povich Show.

It has been repeatedly shown that Cartman has serious behavioral and emotional problems. He has shown incredible anger issues and violent tendencies while upset: at one point, he ground the parents of a teen he was angry with (Scott Tenorman) into chili and fed it to him, causing Kyle to say that he and Stan should never make Cartman angry again (this has since been regarded as Cartman's defining moment and has been brought up again numerous times during the series).

He also has displayed traits of gender confusion, as he occasionally has tea parties with stuffed dolls (pretending they are talking about how cool he is), owns a female cat named "Mr. Kitty", and in the episode "Bebe's Boobs Destroy Society", he was seen re-enacting a scene from The Silence of the Lambs as Buffalo Bill with a rag doll he named Polly Prissy Pants trapped down a well. In episode 601, "Freak Strike", Cartman goes on the Maury Povich Show to be a panelist during a discussion on out of control kids. In an attempt to win the assumed prize, he dresses up as a promiscuous teenage girl.

In episode: “AWESOM-O,” Butters reveals to the residents of South Park a video of Cartman dressed as Britney Spears, while dancing around a cardboard cut-out of Justin Timberlake, which he apparently later had made out with. Cartman's possible gender confusion is most apparent in the episode "Cartman Sucks", in which Cartman takes pictures of himself with Butter's penis in his mouth to make Butters look homosexual. However, Kyle, Stan and Kenny explain that such actions actually make Cartman look gay, which results in Cartman trying to get a picture taken of his own penis in Butter's mouth.

This is not the first time Cartman has performed oral sex on another man. In episode 607, "Simpsons Already Did It", Cartman comes home with so called Sea Men which he adds to his aquarium. He apparantly got the Sea Men from a man named Ralph, quoting "He just made me close my eyes and suck it out of a hose". The kids did not understand the difference between semen and Sea Men.

In episode 316, "Are You There God? It's Me, Jesus", Cartman claims that he has begun his first period because he is bleeding from his anus due to a stomach virus which causes his colon to bleed. He believes that every boy needs to have their period to become a man, leading to the other boys to wait for theirs unsuccessfully (this, however, can be attributed to his ignorance).

Cartman also confuses English people with French people. In the early seasons, he often teased Pip and called him a "French piece of crap". On the other extreme, in the movie, he called The Mole a "British piece of crap", despite The Mole being supposedly French.

Additionally, in The Jeffersons, he alludes to despising Austrians, apparently failing to note the irony of this: he admires Hitler, who is an Austrian.

He also exhibits obscure ways of talking. Aside from the sheer volume of expletives in his dialogue he also uses words in different contexts (i.e. instead of saying 'I'm serious' he will say 'I'm seriously')

Greed

A defining arc during the show’s fourth season was Cartman’s single-minded quest to make 10 million dollars. The schemes he has tried include becoming a part of the “tooth trade” and stealing Tooth Fairy money from kids, starting a boy band called “Fingerbang,” and culminating in forming his own church and embezzling the church’s collection money. He also tried at it in the episode Cherokee Hair Tampons when Kyle's kidneys were failing and Cartman, being the only one with Kyle's blood type, demanded a payment of 10 million dollars when Stan begged him to let Kyle have his kidney. There is also an episode in which he tries to sell a crashed truck-load of aborted fetuses to the highest-bidding stem cell research center, and even to a restaurant as food. In the episode Up The Down Steroid, Cartman had also pretended he was retarded to compete in the Special Olympics and win $1000. The reasons for this are never fully explained, although in one episode Cartmanland, after inheriting a million dollars from his grandmother, he reveals that he wishes to buy his own amusement park so he won't have to wait in lines for the rides. He also stated that it has been his dream to own a million dollars since he was two years old. In the episode Manbearpig Cartman stumbles upon a pile of treasure while the boys are trapped in a system of caves. Afraid that the others might find the treasure and demand a share, Cartman decides to swallow as much of the coins and jewels as he can, causing him to become extremely bloated and unable to walk or swim on his own. Later in the episode it is revealed that the treasure is fake and used for photographs for tourists at the caves.

Obesity

In spite of his insistence that he is just "big-boned", Cartman is obese. It is normally shown that Cartman has no self-consciousness or even realization of his obesity. He is often depicted as overeating and is shown to have a preference for fatty and sweet food items. His favorite snack is Cheesy Poofs, a take on Cheetos. In Fat Camp, he makes a snack that includes a melted stick of butter coated in chocolate milk mix and stuck between two toaster pastries. His mother's spoiling plays the main role in his overeating, although at the end of "Fat Camp" it is indicated that depression may be a major factor.

Ignorance

Although Cartman can at times be worldly, he is often wildly misinformed — once believing that dolphins lived in igloos. Cartman has also been known to formulate complex, yet insane, plans, some of which have succeeded. In episode, "I'm a Little Bit Country", instead of studying, Cartman records various documentaries on the American Revolution from The History Channel on a TiVo and then electrocutes himself with it in a tub, which sends him on a flashback to 1776, and ultimately helps him stop the riots going on in present-day South Park between pro and anti-Iraq War activists after waking from a coma. One time, he threatened a woman with "Bitch I'll twist your nuts off". Whether he was implying that the woman was a transvestite, or that he knows nothing of the female anatomy is unknown. Also, in the episode Chickenpox, when he was told that his mother sent him to Kenny's house so he would catch chickenpox, he claimed that he would "kick her in the nuts." But this may be because of the fact that his mother is an intersexed person. In Miss Teacher Bangs a Boy it is shown that Cartman's idea of intercourse is to "Stick it inside her and pee. If you don't want to get her pregnant you pull it out and pee on her leg." In the pilot episode Cartman Gets an Anal Probe, Cartman complains "Mom! Kitty's being a dildo!", showing ignorance of the context in which "dildo" is used and, possibly, what a dildo is.

Impatience

Cartman shows a pathological degree of impatience when forced to do something he doesn't want to do or when he has to wait for something he wants. An example of the former is seen in "I'm a Little Bit Country," in which Cartman electrocutes himself in an attempt to create a flashback and avoid studying; the latter is evidenced in the episode “Go God Go”, where Cartman freezes himself so that he won't have to wait three weeks for the Wii console to be released, which shows irony in the end, as Cartman eventually ends up two months before the Wii's release.

Manipulation and leadership ability

Although having his origins as little more than a comic foil, Cartman has evolved into a character of stunningly articulate manipulative talents, following closely in the footsteps of other famous manipulators such as the character Iago from William Shakespeare's Othello. In several episodes throughout the series, he employs this skill to get what he wants. His most frequent targets are Butters and adults in general, including convincing Butters to "take one for the team" and be anally gang-raped by men from NAMBLA in Cartman Joins NAMBLA. He was able to get Congress to lift the ban on stem-cell research in the episode Kenny Dies and talked the ginger kids out of killing all non-gingers after Kyle told him that they had played a trick on him in "Ginger Kids". Earlier in that episode he had rallied all the gingers to exterminate all non-gingers in a Hitler-esque way. In the episode "Tsst", Cartman was able to drive several nannies from his house with insults and insinuation (even causing one to be put in a mental hospital and eat her own feces from a toilet).

Cartman's perceived stupidity by his friends can be attributed to his sometimes naive behavior, however his uncanny skill at manipulation, bilingualism, and ability to create elaborate schemes which are often effective imply a surprisingly high intellect. Cartman seems to have no problem talking to people and speaking in general. He has an uncanny way with words and uses that to his advantage whenever he plots an idea. For example, in Kenny Dies, Cartman delivers a speech to the United States House of Representatives convincing them to vote in favor of stem cell research. He also appears to be multilingual (though not very well). He claims to be able to speak Spanish in Rainforest Schmainforest when he tells a Costa Rican freedom fighter that he wants burritos, and in My Future Self n' Me, he actually speaks Spanish to the Mexican workers hired to smear Butter's home with excrement. In D-Yikes Eric Cartman again demonstrates his proficiency in Spanish when hiring Mexicans to write an "essay" (which the immigrants mistake for the Spanish informal word for a friend [ese]) on The Old Man and the Sea. In The Passion of the Jew, Cartman speaks German (but most of his words are mispronounced).

In "Cartoon Wars", he exploited a controversy involving the appearance of Muhammad on FOX's Family Guy to try to get the show off the air; he pretended to be the hapless victim of an Islamic terrorist attack to try to discourage the FOX president and the Family Guy staff writers from airing the Muhammad episode. On another occasion he was able to convince the majority of the adults of South Park to nearly take over the U.S. via an out-of-hand re-enactment of the Civil War, as long as he kept them drunk so they wouldn't realize what they were doing.

Cartman's shining accomplishment (according to Comedy Central's list of "Cartman's 25 Greatest Moments") came in the episode "Scott Tenorman Must Die.", a testimony to Cartmans hidden ingenuity and cunning. Though Scott Tenorman continually defeats Cartman throughout the episode, Cartman has the last laugh as he indirectly coerces Scott's parents into a situation where they are trespassing, and are consequently shot and killed. Cartman then steals the bodies and makes them into a chili which he promptly feeds to Scott. In addition, Scott's plan to trick Cartman into eating chili filled with the pubic hairs of all the teenagers in town is foiled when Cartman switches this chili with Chef's. To make matters worse, Tenorman's favorite band, Radiohead, whom Cartman had arranged to be there so that they would be at the scene just as Scott had found out about his parents' deaths, sees him crying over the loss of his parents and deems him a cry baby. Cartman then teases Scott while licking his what he calls 'tears of unfathomable sadness'.

Physical confrontations

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Cartman holding a knife in the episode “Something Wal-Mart This Way Comes”.

Although Cartman frequently insults and taunts his friends, he sometimes appears to be more cowardly than they are when it comes to physical confrontation. In "It's Christmas in Canada," Kyle slaps Cartman and he immediately bursts into tears, thus showing that Cartman is not pain tolerant; a similar instance was during Cartman Sucks, although Kyle only punched Cartman in the arm. Also in “Goobacks” Cartman threatens Kyle and it leads to Kyle giving Cartman a bloody nose; in “Christian Rock Hard,” Cartman is beaten up by Token after provoking him with racial jibes, and in several episodes, he is seen unable to overpower Kenny. However, in such earlier episodes as “Damien,” “Spookyfish,” and “Tweek vs. Craig,” Cartman has no problem with fighting the other boys back physically (and it is revealed that Sumo is his martial art of choice). Most recently, in episode “Cartoon Wars Part II,” he did not back down from fisticuffs with Kyle, and in the episode "With Apologies to Jesse Jackson", he was dominant in a physical fight against a midget (who supposedly had a black belt in karate).

Sexual Abuse

Cartman has also had brushes with sexual abuse. In the episode, "Weight Gain 4000", his friends talked about a huge rainbow they saw. Cartman replied that he hates rainbows, and that he explains that "You'll just be sitting there, minding your own business, and then they come marching in, crawl up your leg and start to bite your ass, and you'll be like, AY, GET OUTTA MY ASS, YOU STUPID RAINBOWS!" It was obvious that Cartman was explaining that a bunch of homosexuals were hitting on him. In the episode "Cartman joins NAMBLA", his attempt to find older friends winds up with him almost being raped by members of the North American Man/Boy Love Association. In the episode, "Simpsons Already Did It", after discovering that semen will fertilize his Sea-People, he goes to a sperm bank to collect more. At the sperm bank, he pretends to test a semen sample by smearing it on his fingers. When Cartman later empties a bowl of semen into the tank, he tells Stan and Kyle that he got some of it from a man named Ralph in an alley, who told him to "close his eyes and suck it out of a hose". In episode AWESOM-O, a movie producer asks Cartman (who’s disguised as a robot) if he is a pleasure model. Cartman does not understand him until he takes his pants off, at which point, he runs out screaming. Also, in the episode "Fat Butt and Pancake Head", Cartman convinces Ben Affleck (among others) that his left hand is an actual woman named Jennifer Lopez; Affleck later has a sexual encounter with "Miss Lopez", leaving Cartman’s hand covered with his semen. In the episode Pre-School, Cartman moons Trent while still having nipples painted on, a photo of which the kids had sold as boobs to the sixth graders previously. The sixth graders are so overwhelmed that they take Cartman with them, apparently to abuse the "boobs". Also, in the episode "Cow Days" Cartman suffers a head trauma and thinks he is a Vietnamese prostitute named Ming Li. At the end of the episode, after he is back to normal, Cartman says he had had a weird dream where Leonardo DiCaprio had spanked him for several hours. Right after this, a man drove by and said "Bye, Ming Li, thanks again". In the episode Fun with Veal, Cartman is awakened by the other boys and blurts out "No, uncle Jesse! No!" before realizing where he is. In Cartman Sucks he tries to prank Butters by putting Butters penis in his mouth and taking a picture, which of course goes horribly wrong, resulting in the picture being seen on a projector during Show and Tell by the entire class. In Le Petit Tourette, he accidentally blurted out to Butters that he and his cousin touched weiners.

Sexual Tendencies

Cartman consistently shows less interest in sexuality than the other boys. This seems intentional on the writer's parts, and fits with his self-absorption, immaturity and gender confusion. An example for this would be seen in the episode "Raisins", where the boys end up in a Hooters-like restaurant, and all Cartman shows interest in is the food, rather than all the skimpily-dressed waitresses.

Cartman also displays a lack of knowledge about sex, despite the fact that his mom is frequently having sexual relations with other people in South Park. When Kyle says that Ike is too young to understand sex in "Miss Teacher Bangs a Boy," Cartman replies, "What's there to understand? You get a boner, slap her titties around some then stick it inside her and pee." Cartman's lack of knowledge is also displayed in "Sexual Harassment Panda" when he tells Mr. Garrison that sexual harassment is "when you're trying to have intercourse with a lady friend, and some other guy comes up and tickles your balls from behind."

In the episode Cartman Sucks Cartman sought to humiliate Butters by taking a picture of himself with Butter's "wiener" in his mouth. After being told that being photographed that way is humiliating him rather than Butters, Cartman then sought to make Butters put his (Cartman's) penis in his mouth, and was not quite successful. Also, in the episode Imaginationland Cartman made a bet with Kyle that required Kyle to suck Cartman's balls if Cartman could prove that Leprechauns are real. In both episodes, the sexual act is Cartman's idea, and as such the incidents raise questions about Cartman's sexuality.

However, during the episode "Chef Goes Nanners", Cartman briefly became an object of affection for Wendy Testaburger. After being passionately kissed by Wendy at the end of the episode, he is disappointed when she says that she no longer has any feelings for him. In "Stupid Spoiled Whore Video Playset," Cartman shows a desire to be invited to the fourth grade girl's boy-girl party, and is angered when they reject him. He later gets a hip make-over and attempts to crash the party. The only other time Cartman was attracted to someone of the opposite sex was Bebe's Boobs Destroy Society, in which he and the other boys were hypnotized by Bebe's newly-grown breasts (much to her chagrin). In the episode Le Petit Tourette, Cartman blurts out that he fantasizes about making out with a girl named Pattie Nelson. He also blurted out that he had a sexual encounter with his male cousin. With random swings of sexual outbursts on both males and females, Cartman may be on the verge of being bisexual, or perhaps horribly confused.

Stereotypes

Cartman has a series of stereotypes aimed toward several races. In "Two Days Before the Day After Tomorrow", Cartman said to Stan that Kyle has "Jew Gold" (and so do all other Jews) and he won't share the gold with anyone else. After Cartman said this, Kyle actually pulled out a bag of Jew Gold. In Christian Rock Hard, Cartman had a stereotype against black people that all blacks play bass guitar and/or own one.

Miscellaneous mannerisms

Cartman has a disturbing habit of appearing in other peoples’ homes in the middle of the night. He has a preoccupation with becoming “mature,” or at least more so than his friends, which frequently ends in him doing something that is anything but. Cartman also appears to be driven by a desire to surpass Kyle (especially), Stan, and Kenny. Knowing that his satisfaction chiefly comes with seeing other people unhappy, Kyle once deliberately congratulated Cartman on winning a bet. This, of course, ruined Cartman’s egotistical satisfaction at having humiliated him.

Cartman apparently sees scenes of sickening and/or disturbing imagery every time he closes his eyes, but thinks nothing of it. He also occasionally has milk come out of his nose when he laughs, even when he was not drinking any. This milk-sneezing problem is due to a malfunctioning kidney, which Cartman is tricked into donating for transplant, benefiting his friend Kyle, who receives the malfunctioning organ as seen in the episode "Cherokee Hair Tampons". Many of Cartman’s mannerisms were revealed to be inherited in "Merry Christmas Charlie Manson!", in which most of the Cartman family were depicted in a similar manner.

Cartman also has some strange funny accent when it comes to words whose sounds end with an L. This can be frequently noticed when he says for example "cool" or "asshole", which he pronounces more like "kew" and "ass-hoe".

Popularity

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Cartman during a prostitution sting in “Chickenlover.”

When South Park first premiered, his outrageous and shocking behavior made him instantly popular with viewers. Another reason Cartman tends to stand out is because he is generally the most pro-active of the four main characters. Cartman is frequently the one to come up with new ideas and plans, usually told excitedly to an often unimpressed Stan, Kyle, and Kenny. Cartman frequently comes up with ideas that are ridiculous or offensive, and while he may appear to have the upper hand, his antics tend to inevitably turn on him. He is often shown receiving the brunt of consequences generated by his behavior by the end of the episode, although on certain occasions, Cartman is shrewd enough to either earn himself a pyrrhic victory ("Toilet Paper", for example), or allowing Stan and Kyle only such a gain (most notably "The Red Badge of Gayness").

Family

Cartman is the only boy in the series who does not have a father shown at any time. This is because of his intersexual mother (Liane Cartman), who actually fathered him herself. This shocking twist is revealed at the end of the two-part story arc, "Cartman's Mom is a Dirty Slut" and "Cartman's Mom is Still a Dirty Slut." In Le Petit Tourette, he accidentally revealed that he cries at night because he does not have a father.

A recurring joke throughout the series is that, despite his mother's sweetness and wholesome demeanor, Liane Cartman is in fact a promiscuous, intersexed, crack-smoking, Scheisse porn queen and prostitute.

If a girl was ever beating me up I'd be like, AY! Why don't you stop dressing me up like a mailman, and making me dance for you, while you go and smoke crack in your bedroom and have sex with some guy I don't even know, on my dad's bed!

— Eric Cartman, An Elephant Makes Love to a Pig

Cartman's extended family is shown in episode: Merry Christmas, Charlie Manson! where he and the others go on a trip to Nebraska to visit them for Christmas. Most of his relatives appear to be similar in manner to him; all fat, with the same speech accent and catchphrases. The family is seen again in the episode "Cartmanland," at his grandmother's funeral — where she leaves her estate (valued at $1,000,000) to Eric, citing that all the other family members would have spent it all on crack.

Pets and toys

Cartman has a cat named Mr. Kitty (who despite the name is actually female), and a pot bellied pig named Fluffy (Mr.Kitty and Fluffy have never been seen together in the series thus far). He also has a stuffed frog toy named "Clyde Frog" though he has also referred to him as "Artemis Clyde Frog". Other beloved stuffed animals include Wellington Bear (a take on Paddington Bear), Polly Prissy Pants the rag doll, purple lizard Rumpertumskin (a take on Rumpelstiltskin), and Peter Panda. Cartman nearly always plays with these toys by himself, perhaps out of embarrassment or (just as likely) mean-spiritedness. Occasionally others are allowed to play with him, such as Bebe in Bebe's boobs destroy society. Not surprisingly, Cartman's games with these toys can demonstrate his vindictive and cruel nature; one of his games, as seen in "Bebe's boobs destroy society," is "Lambs", in which Cartman reenacts scenes from Silence of the Lambs with his dolls, such as placing a doll in a pit in his basement and then voicing the doll begging to be released while the doll holding it prisoner threatens the pit-bound doll. Often Cartman's games involve the toys telling him how cool and smart he is, and he directs towards them an affection which is not seen towards any other person except his mom. In Die Hippie, Die, every other guy on his team has someone to tell him goodbye, except Cartman, who just has Artemis Clyde frog on a chair.
Cartman: "I...don't want you to worry about me, Clyde Frog."
(Clyde Frog just sits there)
Cartman: "Hey, you're the best stuffed animal I ever had."

Relationships

Liane Cartman

Liane dotes on her son endlessly, beyond simply spoiling him. Cartman usually gets whatever he wants simply by whining in his signature style. Although Liane possesses a social and moral conscience, Cartman is usually able to manipulate her into doing even morally reprehensible things for him. In Up the Down Steroid Cartman is able to have his mother sign him up for the Special Olympics, even though Cartman was not disabled. It appears that Liane appears convinced of her son's goodness and accepts any excuses or stories he makes up, no matter how improbable. The relationship between the two has shown a significant change in Tsst. To manage Cartman's behavioral issues, she hires Cesar Milan. Cesar's methods work, and Cartman becomes a normal, good natured, well behaved boy. Liane tries to form a relationship with Cesar, but he turns her down as she is just a client, and she soon begins to spoil Cartman again.

Kyle

Cartman appears to have a very strong hatred for his redheaded friend Kyle, and shows that he has no tolerance for Kyle's Jewish faith. Because of this, Kyle strikes back with making crude remarks about Cartman's weight; Cartman always fails to see that he is indeed overweight, and replies that he is simply "big-boned", an excuse his mother has clearly put into his head. Kyle is often put in the shoes of the protagonist to Eric Cartman's antagonist. For Example, in Cartoon Wars, the two of them work against each other; when Cartman tries to get Family Guy cancelled, Kyle tries to stop him. The two of them often have arguments about morals, like in Up The Down Steroid, where Cartman decides to pretend to be mentally handicapped so he can win the prize money. Kyle sees Cartman's plans as so horrible that he seriously worries that Cartman will go to hell for his antics in the episode. But Cartman says that Kyle is in no position to preach morals because he is Jewish. In South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, when they were facing certain death, Cartman tried to atone for all the times he called Kyle "A filthy Jew", telling him "I didn't mean it. You're not a Jew". Bewildered, Kyle says that he is a Jew, and Cartman telling him not to be so hard on himself (implying that Jew was an insult rather than a religion).

However, in Smug Alert Cartman saves Kyle and his family when a large storm is about to go towards their house in San Francisco. Cartman found Butters as too boring a nemesis since he would simply accept anything Cartman directed at him. At the end of the episode he hides the fact that he was their savior. He then insults Kyle, receives an angry reply, and is satisfied. Also in the episode Le Petit Tourette, Kyle (unintentionally) saves Cartman from shouting out all his secrets on TV, causing Cartman to hug Kyle and thank him, even saying "I love you." It is possible that in some perverse way Cartman is in fact in love with Kyle, as he is more obsessed with picking on him than anyone else. In the recent episode Imaginationland Cartman wins a bet with Kyle forcing Kyle to suck his balls, and goes to extreme lengths to make Kyle do so when he refuses to fulfill the agreement. Cartman also once offered to suck Kyle's balls (after Kyle said "Suck my balls, Cartman"), in exchange for Kyle's help in getting Cartman back from the distant future, although due to the circumstances this might merely have been a desperate plea for help.

In the end of the episode Imaginationland, Cartman is seen with a photo of an innocent looking Kyle. The scene ends with Cartman dragging his finger slowly across Kyle's lips in the photo, as an act of lust. The rivalry between the two characters has been a recurring theme as early as Season 4.

Butters

Butters has more or less become Cartman's sidekick and Cartman's most frequent victim. Cartman finds Butters extremely easy to manipulate and convert to his point of view, or get him to do what he wants. In "Douche and Turd" Cartman easily gets Butters to vote for his idea of a "turd sandwich" simply by describing the candidates in a certain way. In "Go God Go" he gets Butters to bury him in snow so that he can be unfrozen three weeks later in time for the release of the Wii video game console.

In many episodes entire plots are centered around Cartman's antics against Butters. In "Casa Bonita", Cartman faked an apocalypse so Butters would hide in a bomb shelter for over a week, so Cartman could go with Kyle, Stan, and Kenny to Casa Bonita instead of Butters. In "AWESOM-O" he dressed as a robot to trick Butters, but in the end this failed miserably and Butters showed a tape of him dressing like Britney Spears in front of everyone. In "The Death of Eric Cartman" all of the people in South Park decide to ignore Cartman because they feel he is a "selfish son of a bitch". Unlike the other boys, Butters isn't aware of the plan and Cartman believes that Butters is the only one who can see him now that he is dead. In "Cartman Sucks" he repeatedly invited Butters over to spend the night to play pranks on him, until it backfired on him and he made an inappropriate picture which featured him putting Butter's penis in his mouth, and which ended up being showed to the entire fourth grade class.

Kenny

Cartman and Kenny occasionally make "best friend" pacts with one another. This is mostly in response to Stan and Kyle being best friends, which sometimes leaves the other two boys alone with each other. They're also shown to share a sense of humor, as can be seen in the episode "How to Eat with Your Butt" when Kenny and Cartman continue an elaborate joke despite Stan and Kyle's rejection.

However, Cartman has at times displayed a special dislike for Kenny, often without any reason; most often, he shows contempt for Kenny's family living in poverty. In the "South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut" Kenny and Cartman are alone in the scene, and Cartman blurts out "I hate you, Kenny." out of nowhere. In the episode, “Jakovasaurs,” Cartman makes up a song called "I Hate You Guys" where he sings: "I hate you guys / you guys are assholes / especially Kenny / I hate him the most."It is possible that Kenny is Cartman's only friend and he does not understand how to react to having a friend. In episode, "Kenny Dies", Cartman proclaims that Kenny is his best friend among the three boys, but at the end of the episode it is implied that Cartman is Kenny's "worst friend" since he exploited Kenny's illness for personal gain. In the episode "Best Friends Forever", Kenny states in his will that he felt sorry for Cartman because of his inability to feel compassion and show decency. Also, Cartman proves that he is Kenny's BFF or best friend forever by combining his half of his necklace with Kenny's. Recently Butters has taken Kenny's place as Cartman's closest friend although the dynamic between the two pairs is very different.

Stan

Although Cartman and Stan have a tense relationship, it is still noticed that Cartman's hatred toward Stan is not nearly as strong as his hatred toward Kyle. In fact, when Kyle and Kenny aren't around, he and Stan often even show a close friendship with each other. Such as in Two Days Before the Day After Tomorrow, when Stan and Cartman where hanging out at the boating rack and Cartman even commented that it is great that they are hanging out with each other without Kyle or Kenny. In Fat Butt and Pancake Head, while Kyle was unhappy with Cartman who acted that his hand was possessed with Jennifer Lopez, Stan was more able to admit that, with all the stuff that happens in South Park, it could possibly happen. As well, Cartman showed that he would rather be stuck with Stan in situations rather than with Kyle in some episodes. As well, in many episodes, when Cartman would ask Stan and Kyle to do a ridiculous request, Kyle would get very angry, yell that he will not do it, and tell Cartman to leave, while Stan would only tell Cartman in a firm voice that he won't do it then get back to what he was doing earlier. In Douche and Turd, Stan voted for Cartman's mascot instead of Kyle's, much to Kyle's dismay. However, in "Osama Bin Laden Has Farty Pants, Cartman emphasises in a small voice that he has a powerful hatred of Stan because he loves animals.

Talents

Music

Cartman appears to be very musically talented. He plays the piano quite well in the episode "Christian Rock Hard" (although the piano plays by itself whilst he is singing), the violin in "Something Wal-Mart This Way Comes," the French horn in "Summer Sucks," the drums in "The Red Badge of Gayness," the harmonica in "Jakovasaurs," the recorder in "World Wide Recorder Concert," and the acoustic guitar in "Chinpokomon." His Christian rock group "Faith + 1" sold 1,000,000 copies of its album in the episode "Christian Rock Hard." In the film South Park: Bigger, Longer, Uncut, Cartman is shown singing in mock versions of Chinese, French, Dutch and an unidentified African language by singing "Kyle's mom is a Bitch". In "Mr. Hankey's Christmas Classics", Cartman sings, "O, Holy Night" (despite several interruptions). In Chef Aid, he sings and does a German dance to raise money for Chef's legal fees. He also leads a boy band in the episode "Something You Can Do With Your Finger"

Cartman's musical tastes run toward progressive and arena rock in general and maudlin power ballads in particular. "Cartman's Mom Is Still a Dirty Slut" shows for the first time that Cartman has the uncontrollable urge to finish singing Styx's "Come Sail Away" whenever he hears any part of the song, which he can do, under pressure, in 27 seconds. In Kenny Dies, Cartman sings "Heat of the Moment" to the United States House of Representatives convincing them to vote in favor of stem cell research. Cartman also appears to enjoy teen pop, as demonstrated in his Britney Spears dance sequence in "AWESOM-O". He also quotes, "Haha charade you are" from Pink Floyd's song, Pigs (Three Different Ones).

Cartman frequently bursts into song spontaneously, sometimes with melodies and topical lyrics of his own devising. This penchant for ad hoc songs was specifically mentioned in "Ginger Kids". This also happend in the episode "Cherokee Hair Tampons" when Stan asks Cartman to donate a kidney to a very sickly Kyle, Cartman replies by singing "No no no no no no no no no no!"

In a mean-spirited feeling, Cartman begins singing an Elvis version of "In The Ghetto" When in Kenny's neighborhood, namely, the ghetto.

For Rush's Snakes and Arrows tour, a short animated clip was made to introduce the song "Tom Sawyer," featuring the boys from South Park as a band attempting to perform the song. Cartman is featured as the lead singer.

Cartman has also been featured on several tracks on all three South Park albums.

External links

• South Park Studios - Official Site