Eric Cartman Totally Explained

Everything about Eric Cartman totally explained

Eric Theodore Cartman, commonly referred to by his family name, Cartman, is one of the four main characters in the animated series South Park (the others being Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, and Kenny McCormick). Cartman is voiced by the series co-creator Trey Parker.
Cartman is notably and darkly antisocial, to the point of being extremely evil and often reacts in violent and over-dramatic ways to any event that involves him in some manner. He dislikes and openly expresses his hatred of any race or group of which he isn't a member, particularly of the Jews, which is the cause of his intense rivalry with and dislike of Kyle Broflovski, and of hippies. He often manipulates others to meet his own ends (at which he's very skilled) regardless of the consequences, even if it can result in death and destruction.

Characterization

Eric Cartman is portrayed as the "fat kid" and the antihero of the South Park gang. His personality has notably changed over the course of the series. While always self-centered and bigoted, he was portrayed as more of a mean, immature brat in the earlier seasons. As the seasons progressed, his personality became more aggressive and cunning, while his bigotry morphed seamlessly into Nazi-like hatred and theorizing, as well as becoming viciously sadistic. There are several examples of this over the course of the series. He refuses, for example, to acknowledge his obesity (instead insisting that he's big boned). Also, in "Le Petit Tourette", he reveals his true sadness in the fact that he cries himself to sleep at night due to the absence of a father, being the only one of the main characters to not have one. Though it's obvious through the course of the show that Cartman shows signs of a personality disorder, it can never be pin-pointed to just one type, and instead showing signs of sociopathy, psychopathy and narcissism. Cartman is often criticized by his peers for his rash stereotypes and generalizations.
   Cartman's abilities to manipulate the other characters into doing what he wants have become keener over the course of the series, along with his overall intelligence. His intelligence and manipulative skills are perhaps best displayed in the famous and very dark episode "Scott Tenorman Must Die", in which he develops a fierce obsession with - and later exacts revenge upon - a 9th grader who scammed him out of $16.12. Cartman exacted his revenge by having the boy's mother and father killed and subsequently, having him unknowingly eat their remains. Upon discovering his parents demise, the boy burst into tears. This caused Cartman great delight, who then proceeded to lick the tears off the boy's face calling them "yummy and sweet". This episode was ranked number one in "Cartman's 25 Greatest South Park Moments", that were chosen by voting on Comedy Central's website..
   Cartman is viciously intolerant of anything he doesn't agree with, and will go to lengths in order to get his way (eg. "Cartoon Wars Part I", "Cartoon Wars Part II"). He is also deeply Anti-Semitic, something which he orginally used to pick on his friend, Kyle Broflovski, but later evolved into a Nazi-esque hatred after seeing Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ, idolizing both the movie and Mel Gibson for it. He then proceeds to dress up as Hitler in an attempt to restart the Holocaust. Later in the series, he was also shown to be Anti-Islamic, developing an immediate distrust for fellow classmate Bahir, who he tries to prove, albeit unsuccessfully, a terrorist based on his Muslim heritage ("The Snuke"). Other than this, he's showed little other forms of racism, other than throwing racial slurs to black classmate Token and singing In the ghetto when in a Mexican class room. His hatred of hippies has driven him to monitor their activities in South Park and he's unwilling to so much as enter the highly liberal city of San Francisco without a protective suit.
   Despite his personality flaws, or perhaps because of them, Cartman can, at times, be incredibly charismatic, and is usually the default leader of the boys in times of crisis or adventure. For example, in "Make Love, Not Warcraft," when a mysterious hacker begins to kill all the players, Cartman rallies the other three kids to face and defeat the hacker and save the online game. This, coupled with his manipulative abilities, allows him to form and control mobs with great speed and efficiency, and just as easily disperse them ("Ginger Kids").
   It would also seem that Cartman, though not known for his academic prowess, has exceptional skill with regard to language. In a number of different episodes, including "My Future Self n' Me," it's shown that he's near fluent in Spanish. In "The Passion of the Jew," he speaks passable German in his Hitler-like tirades. His use of Japanese is also essentially flawless in "Chinpokomon". In the episode Make Love, Not Warcraft he speaks the French language as well but to a lesser extent. The same is true of his Mongolian in "Child Abduction is Not Funny". In the episode Eek! a Penis!, Cartman tries to create a Mexican accent when he's to teach a high school class full of Mexicans. He also has a penchant for photography and is well-versed with highly technical jargon used by professional photographers, as illustrated in both "Cartman Sucks" and the "Imaginationland" series. Other talents include World Of Warcraft gameplay, stealing and negotiation as shown in "Fun with Veal", and Powerpoint presentations as shown in "Mystery of the Urinal Deuce" and "Ginger Kids". Although he basically shows no affection towards humans, he's fond of cats. This is shown when he gives them a hiding place when they become persecuted in the episode "Major Boobage". Kyle compares this persecution of cats to the holocaust, although Cartman seemingly didn't see any type of relation. Cartman is often depicted as a seriously bad fighter, bursting into tears from a single slap, although he beat Dr. David Nelson, a fictional midget in the South Park universe, in "With Apologies to Jesse Jackson".
   He is of Dutch and Irish ancestry.

Relationship with others

Cartman's relationship with his friends and family is mostly a turbulent one. He has a domineering relationship with his mother (actually his father), Liane Cartman, constantly ordering her around, to which she willingly submits for the most part. In the episode "Tsst," Liane, with the help of dog trainer Cesar Millan, was able to briefly control Eric's behavioral, weight and personality problems. In the commentary to the episode, Trey Parker said that Cartman's behavioral problems were mostly the result of Liane treating Eric like a friend and not like a son, allowing him to take advantage of her.
   An early episode in the show's first season explored the identity of Cartman's father. With most of the town's male populace as possible suspects, due to their having relations with Cartman's mother, it was revealed that the promiscuous Liane is actually a hermaphrodite, and is in fact Eric's father. Cartman's biological mother remains a mystery.
   Cartman adores Adolf Hitler. Cartman maintains a love-hate relationship with his three main friends, Stan, Kyle and Kenny, and often teases them for various reasons; Stan for being a wuss or hippie; Kyle for being a Jew and Kenny for being poor. Though they resent Cartman for constantly berating them, they're normally tolerant of him as they consider him their friend whether they like it or not. Kenny generally seems to accept Cartman as his best friend ("Kenny Dies"), though in "Best Friends Forever", Kenny states in his will that he never liked Cartman. The two have been seen playing together without Stan and Kyle. It is possible Cartman treats Kenny the way he does because he doesn't know how to react to having a friend.
   Cartman has a more bizarre and sinister relationship with Butters. Butters sees Cartman as a close friend with whom he can play and have sleepovers. Cartman, however, sees Butters as a loyal servant who will go along with anything he says — and uses this to manipulate and abuse Butters for his own gain and pleasure. Cartman often presents himself as a father figure to Butters, teaching him the finer points of negotiating in business, and the danger of Jews and “ginger kids”. Stone and Parker have both said in their DVD commentaries that they enjoy the antics between the two characters because they “are such opposites of each other”. Cartman mainly considers Butters to be a "fag" and even refers to him with insulting code names like "faggot" as seen in the first episode of the Imaginationland series. In Smug Alert!, when Kyle moves to San Francisco, he's willing to replace him with Butters as the "dumb Jew to rip on" despite Butters not being Jewish.
   Although Cartman doesn't generally like anyone in particular, he was very fond of Chef, as seen in "The Return of Chef" where Cartman was crying in front of Butters and even admitted that he was going to miss Chef, but didn't know how to tell him. He normally went to Chef with his problems, and Chef was always willing to help him.
   Cartman also has a pet cat named Mr. Kitty. Although it's hinted that this cat is female in "Cat Orgy", the episode "Major Boobage" states clearly that it's male. Cartman is always yelling at it, and very rarely gives him any love.
   One of the few, if not only things he's ever shown any true care towards is Clyde Frog, one of his stuffed animals.

Concept and creation

According to creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, they thought it would be impossible to put a character like Archie Bunker on late-20th century television but decided that it might be allowed if he was an animated nine-year-old boy. Thus, Cartman was born.

In popular culture

Cartman was placed tenth on TV Guide's 2002 list of the "Top 50 Greatest Cartoon Characters". In 2003, he was chosen as one of "VH1's 200 Greatest Pop Culture Icons", at number 198.
Between late 1998 and early 1999, World Wrestling Federation wrestler John Tenta was given the gimmick and name "Golga" which involved him wearing South Park t-shirts and carrying a Cartman doll to the ring.
Cartman's "You Will Respect My Authoritah!

" in the "Chickenlover" episode May 20, 1998.

is covered by The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. ABC used Cartman to introduce the starting line-ups of a Colorado Buffaloes game on November 24 2007. Cartman also appears on screen between play at Los Angeles Kings games.
In the Powerpuff Girls episode Imaginary Fiend, when Blossom was tripped and landed in the coat rack, she ended up dressed like Cartman. She also said "Uh he tripped me, seriously" a similar way Cartman says his lines.
Cartman's head can be seen in the Head Museum in .

Further Information

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