Eric Cartman

Eric Theodore Cartman, commonly referred to by his family name, Cartman, is a fictional character and one of four main leads in the animated series South Park. Cartman is voiced by Trey Parker.

Cartman is notably and darkly eccentric, to the point of being evil, and often reacts 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 hippies and Jews, which is the cause of his intense rivalry with Kyle Broflovski. He often manipulates others to meet his own ends (at which he is very skilled) regardless of the consequences, even if it can result in death and destruction.

Characterization

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, eventually crossing the line into outright psychopathy, 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 is 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, while his hatred of Jews can be traced to his intense rivalry with Kyle Broflovski and former rivalry with Scott Tenorman.

His abilities to manipulate other people into doing what he wants have become keener, along with his overall intelligence. His intelligence and manipulative skills are best shown 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. The 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 a deep-seated racist and bigot and regularly teases his friend Kyle for being Jewish. His anti-semitism originally started as an excuse to tease his friend Kyle, but later evolved into a Nazi-esque theorizing after seeing Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ, idolizing both Mel Gibson and the movie for inspiring him. While anti-semitism is the most common form of racism he uses, he showed a more bizarre hatred and disgust of "gingers", people with light skin, freckles and red hair. He also hates Stan for the fact that he is a pussy according to him.

Other than that he has shown little other forms of racism, other than to black classmate Token, throwing racial slurs, along with a rock, in episode Cartman's Silly Hate Crime 2000, at him in anger, but has shown no hatred of African-Americans in general. His bigotry is more diverse, teasing his friend Kenny for being poor, believing handicapped people were put on earth by God for his own amusement, and even religious bigotry against former classmate Bahir, who he develops an immediate distrust for and (unsuccessfully) attempts to prove that he is a terrorist on the basis of his Muslim heritage. Cartman, in general, dislikes Muslims - in Osama bin Laden Has Farty Pants he openly criticizes Arabs, calling them "Sand people" and "towel heads" in class.

Despite his personality flaws, or perhaps because of them, Cartman is incredibly charismatic, and is a natural born leader, usually being the default leader of the boys in times of crisis or adventure. His charisma also allows hims to manipulate crowds and mobs with ease, quickly gaining their trust and loyalty and just as easily dispersing them, almost always to forward his own interests. This is well demonstrated in the episode "Ginger Kids".

Though able to thoroughly manipulate and intimidate people on a psychological level, he is quite weak and sometimes cowardly when it comes to physical confrontations, with little more than a single punch enough to send him away crying or screaming. Even when fighting, he will constantly try to manipulate his opponent to gain the upper hand, usually resorting to a dirty blow to defeat his foes.

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 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". The same is true of his Mongolian in "Child Abduction is Not Funny."

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, 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, but not for long. 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.

Cartman maintains a love-hate relationship with his three main friends, Stan, Kyle and Kenny, and often teases 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 are normally tolarate of him as they consider him their friend whether they like it or not.

Cartman has a more bizarre and sinister relationship with Butters Stotch. 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 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”.

Although Cartman doesn't generally like anyone in particular, he is 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 goes to Chef with his problems, and Chef is always willing to help him.

Although he is mean towards the opposite sex, it has been revealed that he has attractions towards them, showing that he doesn't completely hate them. In Tom's Rhinoplasty, Cartman, along with Stan, Kyle, and Kenny were all attracted to the substitute teacher, Ms. Ellen. Although she was a lesbian, and the boys did not understand what it meant, they tried to become lesbians in order to try to win her. In Chef Goes Nanners, he and Wendy were attracted to each other, and Wendy kisses him. At the end of the episode, Wendy reveals that her feelings for him have disappeared, and leaves Cartman sad and alone. In Le Petit Tourette, he reveals that he's secretly in love with a girl named Patty Nelson and in Bebe's Boobs Destroy Society, Cartman (along with all the other boys) were greatly attracted to Bebe (after she began developing breasts). At the end of the episode, all of their feelings for her disappeared when they found out the control that breasts had over their lives.

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

In the late '90s, there was a pro wrestler in the WWF (Now WWE) named Golga (John Tenta) whose professional wrestling gimmick was to come to the ring wearing a Cartman t-shirt and carrying a Cartman doll, which he protected as if it were his child.

ABC used Cartman to introduce the lineups of a Colorado Buffaloes game.

In Futurama: Bender's Big Score, he has a small cameo as a head in a jar

External links

• South Park Studios - Official Site
• Template:Imdb character
• Eric Cartman Article on South Park wiki
• Lyrics to Cartman's Songs