Eric Cartman

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South Park character
Eric Theodore Cartman
Age:	9
Gender:	Male
Hair color:	Brown
Job:	Student
Religion:	Roman Catholic
First appearance:	The Spirit of Christmas
Voiced by:	Trey Parker

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, portrayed as being extremely evil and often reacting in violent and over-dramatic ways to any event that involves him in the series. Common examples of such behaviour include a dislike and often open hatred of any race or group to which he does not belong, particularly of the Jews. This is the root of his intense rivalry with and dislike of Kyle Broflovski, and several other groups which differ from his world view in South Park, such as hippies. Plots often revolve around his manipulation of others to meet his own ends, regardless of the consequences, even if it can result in death and destruction.

Contents 1 Characterization 2 Relationship with others 3 Achievements 4 Concept and creation 5 In popular culture 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Characterization

Eric Cartman is portrayed as the "fat kid"^[1] and the antihero of the South Park gang.^[2] His personality has notably changed over the course of the series. While always self-centered and bigoted,^[3] he was portrayed as more of a mean, immature brat in the earlier seasons. As the seasons progressed, writers altered his personality to become more aggressive and cunning, while his bigotry morphed seamlessly into Nazi-like hatred and theorizing, as well as vicious sadism. There are several examples of this over the course of the series. 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 is 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 been made keener over the course of the series, along with his overall intelligence. His characteristic 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 - an 9th grader who scammed him out of $16.12. In the denouement of the episode, Cartman exacts 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.^[4].

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"). This trait has been developed and expanded throughout the long-running series. His deep Anti-Semitic behaviour shows this development effectively. Originally, this was used to pick on his friend, Kyle Broflovski, but later this evolved into a Nazi-esque hatred after seeing Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ, in which Cartman was shown idolizing both the movie and Mel Gibson for its perceived Anti- Semetic tone. This ultimately lead Cartman 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, the character has shown other forms of racism, such than throwing racial slurs to black classmate, Token and singing In the ghetto when in a Mexican class room. Cartman's characteristic hatred of views other than his own is shown clearly through his hatred of hippies, and other similarly alternative groups.

An effective and central element of many plots in the series is that 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 griefer begins to kill all the players, it is Cartman who is shown to rally the other three kids to face and defeat the hacker and save the online game. This, coupled with the afformentioned manipulative abilities, allows him to form and control mobs with great speed and efficiency, and just as easily disperse them ("Ginger Kids").

Cartman is often portayed as a somewhat precocious language student, despite his characterisation as a lazy student of South Park Elementary. In a number of different episodes, including "My Future Self n' Me," it is shown that he is 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 has to teach a high school class full of Mexicans. A budding penchant for photography is well-versed with highly technical jargon used by professional photographers, as illustrated in both "Cartman Sucks" and the "Imaginationland" series. The character's other talents are diverse and 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 is 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 poor fighter, bursting into tears from a single slap, although this trait was altered in the episode "With Apologies to Jesse Jackson", when he defeats Dr. David Nelson, a midget who visits teaching of tolerance.

Cartman is portrayed as of Dutch and Irish ancestry.^[5]

[edit] Relationship with others

Cartman's relationship with his friends and family is portrayed 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, due obstensely to his reluctance to listen to an annoying soap opera-style narrator asking, "Who is Eric' Cartman's mother?" whenever the issue is brought up.

Cartman is characterised as maintaining a love-hate relationship with his three main friends, Stan, Kyle and Kenny, and is often shown teasing them for various reasons; Stan for being a wuss or hippie; Kyle for being a Jew and Kenny for being poor. Although the three appear to resent Cartman for constantly berating them, they are normally tolerant of him as they consider him their friend whether they like it or not. Since Stan is a middle-class Christian, Cartman obstensely prefers Stan to Kyle and Kenny, and is less likely to insult or antagonize Stan for no reason. This is evident in "Trapped in the Closet", when Stan has abandoned his friends to become the leader of the Church of Scientology, Cartman says, "Stan, I just want you to know that I still hate Kyle more than you," which is one of the few nice things Cartman has ever said to one of his friends. Kenny generally seems to accept Cartman as his best friend ("Kenny Dies"), athough 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 has been speculated that Cartman treats Kenny the way he does because he does not know how to react to having a friend. Cartman has sometimes shown blatant and unprompted hostility towards Kenny, such as in "Jakovasaurs", when he sings a song to the other boys about his hatred for them, saying "'Specially Kenny, I hate him the most", and in the feature film South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, in which Cartman says, unprovoked, "I hate you Kenny," when left alone with him for a moment.

Cartman has a rather bizarre and sinister relationship with Butters, around which many plots have been based in the series. Butters views 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 is willing to replace him with Butters as the "dumb Jew to rip on" despite Butters not being Jewish.

Although Cartman doesn't generally appear to like anyone in particular, he seemed 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 is hinted that this cat is female in "Cat Orgy", the episode "Major Boobage" states clearly that it is male. Cartman is always yelling at it, and very rarely gives him any love.

One of the few, if not only things he has ever shown any true care towards is Clyde Frog, one of his stuffed animals.

Cartman also seems to have a tension with Wendy Testaburger, as seen in "Chef Goes Nanners" where Wendy kisses Cartman and Cartman still had feelings for Wendy. This is the only instance and hasn't been revealed later in the show.

[edit] Achievements

Eric Cartman has achieved several great deeds. one of these achievements was in "Tonsil Trouble" when He, Kyle Brovlaski and Magic Johnson. this was done by injecting thousands of dollars directly into the blood stream. in "Cartmanland". Cartman was the succesful owner of the theme park cartmanland where he made an extreme amount of profit after inheriting $1000000 dollars from his dead grandma. in "Red Hot Catholic Love" Eric Cartman discovers that it is possible to excrete out of your mouth, this method was spread world wide. For discovering this Eric was given a medal from the mayor of South Park. In "Kenny Dies", Cartman legalises stem cell research in a quest to save the life of Kenny McCormick. In "Red Sleigh Down" along with Stan Marsh, Kyle Bravslaski, Mr Hankey,Jesus and Santa, Eric Cartman bought Christmas to Iraq for the first time in many years. Cartman originally thought up this plot when trying to get on Santa's nice list. In "Christian Rock Hard", Cartman was in the famous Christian rock band Faith +1 along with Butters Stotch and Token Black. He once agin made thousands of dollars beofre he spent it all on their mur album award ceremony, and lost all of his fans. cartman has saved Kyle's life four times. Once in "Imaginationland episode II" where he bought Kyle back to life after he was savaged by Manbearpig, once in "Smug Alert" where Cartman saved Kyle from the San Fransisco smug, once in "Cherokee Hair Tampons" where Cartman (although unwillingly) gave a kidney to Kyle and in "Tonsil Trouble" where (although Cartman gave him it in the first place) Cartman finds a cure for Kyle's aides. Cartman has also saved South Park several times, such as in "Die Hippie Die" where he ridded the town of the growing hippie music festival, and in "The Snuke" where Cartman accidently stops a mass terorist attack on America. Cartman also won a teaching award in "Eek A Penis" where he tought a class into cheating their way through their collage exams.

[edit] 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.^[6]

[edit] In popular culture

Cartman was placed tenth on TV Guide's 2002 list of the "Top 50 Greatest Cartoon Characters".^[7] In 2003, he was chosen as one of "VH1's 200 Greatest Pop Culture Icons", at number 198.^[2] Also, in 2005, Cartman was ranked number nineteen on Bravo's 100 Greatest TV Characters.^[8]

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.^[9][10]

Cartman's "You Will Respect My Authoritah!" in the "Chickenlover" episode May 20, 1998. is covered by The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.^[11][12]

ABC used Cartman to introduce the starting line-ups of a Colorado Buffaloes game on November 24, 2007. ^[13] 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 Futurama: Bender's Big Score.

Cartman's head can be seen in the ACT Easts picture under the name adam doyle.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• South Park Studios - Official Site
• Eric Cartman at the Internet Movie Database
• Eric Cartman Article on South Park wiki
• Lyrics to Cartman's Songs

v • d • e South Park characters Main characters (The Boys) Eric Cartman · Stan Marsh · Kyle Broflovski · Kenny McCormick · Butters Stotch Other major characters Chef · Mr. Garrison Family members Gerald and Sheila Broflovski · Ike Broflovski · Jimbo Kern · Stuart and Carol McCormick · Liane Cartman · Randy and Sharon Marsh · Stephen and Linda Stotch · Others Recurring characters Jesus · Saddam Hussein · Satan · Terrance and Phillip Others School children · Townsfolk · School staff · Families · Minor characters · Fictional species