Eric Cartman

Eric Ubercool 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, Kenny McCormick). Cartman is voiced by the series co-creater Trey Parker.

Cartman is notably and darkly eccentric, to the point of being extremely 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, which is the cause of his dislike of Wendy Testaburger, the Jews, which is the cause of his intense rivalry and dislike with Kyle Broflovski, Homeless people, and oddly enough "Ginger Kids". 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. He'll sometimes show kindness to others but only to get something in return or to compensate for some personal short coming.

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, 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, being the only one of the main characters to not have one. Eric Cartman is also a bed wetter, displaying signs of homosexuality revealed in Le Petit Tourette after he tells everyone that he touched genitals with his cousin, although he is more along the lines of bicurious than anything else.

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 - an 9th grader who scammed him out of $16.12. Cartman exacted his revenge on him by having the boy's mother and father killed and subsequently, tricked him into unknowingly eating 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. Despite his great skills in manipulating however, he often says stupid things, makes stupid claims, and attempts stupid actions (although, to add comic flair to the storyline, his claims sometimes prove to be correct). Cartman is also very immature, and throws terrible temper tantrums when things don't go his way. Other prime examples of Cartman's sadistic behavior and schemes include infecting Kyle with AIDS, plotting to destroy the TV show Family Guy, randomly spraying people with bear mace, attempting to force Kyle into sucking his balls, almost restarting the civil war, was the mastermind behind everyone crapping their pants in World Wide Recorder Concert, getting Santa Claus shot down by Iraqi terrorists, and violently beating suspects for no reason when he was a South Park police deputy in the Chicken Lover episode.

Cartman is a deep-seated racist and a 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 (In the episode "Ginger Kids).

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 Afghans, calling them "sand monkeys" and "towel heads" in class. In the episode "Helen Keller! The Musical", it is revealed that Cartman sees extremely disturbing images whenever he closes his eyes.

However the greatest group that Eric Cartman despises is hippies or liberal minded people. He has showed a great hate towards the City of San Francisco, drilled to death and kidnapped many hippies in South Park and stated that he hated them all his life. He also expresses fear of them in his sleep and disgust when he fears that not eating veal will turn him into a hippie.

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, Cartman is 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 opponents. Despite this, Cartman does show skill in using weapons like mace, night sticks, and any random object he can find. However, he remains unable to use a taser as seen in the Preschool episode. In the episodes Cartoon wars 2 and Damien, however, he beat up Kyle.

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". 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". 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 as shown in the Fun with Veal episode, and Powerpoint presentations as shown in the Mystery of the Urinal Deuce and Ginger Kids episodes.

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 Nazi and not like a son, allowing him to take advantage of her.

The details of Cartman's parentage have been the focus of much speculation over the course of the series. The identity of his father was always a mystery, with Liane only acknowledging that Eric was conceived at the town's annual Drunken Barn Dance. Cartman tried unsuccessfully to convince his friends that his father was John Elway, but it was actually revealed that the promiscuous Liane is actually a hermaphrodite, and that she might actually be his father, leaving open the question of who his biological mother could be.

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 are 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 (in Kenny dies), but in a later episode, Kenny states in his will that he never liked Cartman (Best friends forever), and the two have been seen playing together without Stan and Kyle. It is possible Cartman treats Kenny the way he does because he does not know how to react to having a friend.

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 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.

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.

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 affection. In Chef Goes Nanners, he and Wendy were briefly attracted to each other, culminating with Wendy kissing him. At the end of the episode, Wendy reveals that her feelings for him have disappeared, leaving Cartman feeling 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 disappear when they find out the effect that the breasts had on 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.

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.

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.

External links

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