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Eric Cartman

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Template:South Park character Eric Theodore Cartman, voiced by Trey Parker, is a fictional character in the animated series South Park. He is one of the four central characters, all of whom are nine year old boys.

Cartman wears a light blue and yellow cap, a red jacket, yellow gloves, and brown pants most of the time. He has light brown hair (although it is occasionally black, such as when he is presented as Adolf Hitler or a sumo wrestler); and of the four leads is the one who is most frequently seen without his cap. He has a double chin, large hands and feet, and is often made fun of because of his obvious weight problem.

According to Trey Parker and Matt Stone, when they were creating South Park, they were perplexed about how nowadays, it would be impossible to put a character like Archie Bunker on TV. They however thought that if he was an animated eight-year-old boy, it might just be allowed, thus, Cartman was born. [1]

Cartman's persona has notably changed over the course of series. While always self-centered, racist, anti-Semitic, and bigoted, he was portrayed as a more of an immature brat in the earlier seasons. As the seasons progressed, his personality became more aggressive and cunning. His abilities to manipulate other people into doing what he wants have become keener, along with his overall intelligence. Cartman also tends to be better-informed and far less naïve politically and socially than his friends.

Cartman's bêtes noires throughout the show have been hippies, whom he despises for a number of reasons.

In 2005, Cartman was ranked number nineteen on Bravo's 100 Greatest TV Characters, beating out beloved and respected characters like Lenny Briscoe, Frasier Crane, Cliff Huxtable and Mr. Spock.

Cartman's personality and impact

Template:Spoiler

File:EricWithoutHat.jpg
Cartman uncapped

Cartman (usually only addressed by his last name) is spoiled, foul-mouthed, ill-tempered, insensitive, manipulative, and greedy. Generally speaking, he has exhibited at one time or another every negative trait that can be found in a human being, or expressed a desire to do so. Interestingly enough, Cartman does not seem to consider himself a bad person, but rather a superior human being.

A recurring joke throughout the series is that despite the seeming sweetness and surface wholesome appearance of his 'mother' Liane Cartman — she is, in fact, a promiscuous, hermaphroditic, crack-smoking porn queen, prostitute and overall degenerate. As a result of being exposed to Liane's questionable behavior, Cartman knows some things that most children should not. In episode "An Elephant Makes Love to a Pig" Cartman exclaims, "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 bed room and have sex with some guy I don't even know, on my dad's bed! '"

Generally, Liane dotes on her son endlessly, beyond simply spoiling him. Cartman usually gets what he wants simply by whining (i.e, But Meehhmmm!!). His attitude (along with his obesity) is hinted to be genetic, as most of the Cartman family appears to have exactly the same temperament and physical form as Eric does. His disposition is also factored by environment; as when the kids appointed Clyde Donovan as the 'replacement fat kid' while Cartman was away in a juvenile detention center, he took on an ill-tempered temperament similar to Cartman's when he was subjected to the same kind of teasing — implying that Cartman acts the way he does as a sort of defense mechanism.

Popularity

As the anti-hero of the four leads, Cartman was never intended to be the focus of the series. Immediately after the show premiered, however, his outrageous and shocking behavior made him instantly popular with viewers. Another reason Cartman tends to stand out more 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 after running up to them and breathlessly shouting "You guys! You guys! Guess what?"

Aware of Cartman's popularity, the show's writers are careful to temper the many unfavorable aspects of his behavior with contempt. 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.

For example, in "Christian Rock Hard"; Cartman bets Kyle that he can sell a million albums with a Christian band and thus score a platinum album. While he accomplishes the former, his dreams of the latter are extinguished when it's discovered that Christian music has no platinum sales rank, only Myrrh. Therefore, in the end, Cartman lost the bet.

Physical confrontations

Although Cartman frequently insults and taunts his friends (particularly Kyle, Kenny, and Butters), 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; in "Christian Rock Hard" Cartman is beaten up by Token after provoking him with racial jibes; and in several episodes he is unable to overpower Kenny. This, however, depends on the situation. In the earlier episodes such as "Damien", "Spookyfish" and "Tweek vs. Craig", Cartman has no problem with fighting the other boys back physically. His peers also give as much as they take; constantly calling him "fat ass", questioning his intelligence and intimating how they like him the least.

Eccentricities

It has been repeatedly hinted that Cartman has serious behavioral and emotional problems and/or gender issues, since he behaves effeminately on occasion. It may be from his mother being a hermaphrodite, and/or not growing up with a father figure. He exhibits several compulsive behaviors, including the need to complete singing the Styx song "Come Sail Away" if someone sings the first few lyrics, and humming other prog-rock songs (including singing Asia's "Heat of the Moment", which helped him convince Congress to lift the ban on stem cell research). Cartman also repeatedly mimics the line "they mostly come at night… mostly" from the film Aliens.

Cartman occasionally has tea parties with stuffed dolls, pretending they are talking about how cool he is, and on one occasion was seen re-enacting a scene from The Silence of the Lambs as Buffalo Bill with a doll he named Polly Prissypants trapped down a well. Butters once videotaped Cartman dressing up as and pretending to be Britney Spears while dancing round and kissing, a cardboard cut-out of Justin Timberlake.

Cartman has had brushes with sexual abuse at least twice: In the episode Cartman joins NAMBLA, he joins the North American Man Boy Love Association to try and make mature friends. This leads to he and his friends being chased after by a group of naked men. In another episode, Simpsons Already Did It, Cartman discovers that semen causes Sea-Monkeys to form a civilization and become more like people. He then goes to a sperm bank, on the advice of his mother, to collect more semen to cause his 'seaciety' of sea people to grow at an even faster rate. Cartman empties a bowl of semen into the tank, telling his friends that he collected most of it from the sperm bank and the rest from a man named Ralph. He tells his friends that he was not charged for Ralph's semen, that the man 'just made me close my eyes and suck it out of a hose.'

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 inane, plans — some of which have succeeded. In "I'm a Little Bit Country", instead of studying, Cartman records various documentaries on the American Revolution on a TiVo and then electrocutes himself with it in a tub, which sends him on a flashback/time travel experience to 1776, and ultimately helps him stop the pro-war/anti-war fighting going on back in present-day South Park.

Cartman also 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 mature than his friends, which frequently ends in him doing something that is anything but.

A defining character trait of Cartman is his single-mindedness when pursuing his life-long goal of making US$10 thousand. The schemes he has tried include forming his own church and collecting donation money, and starting a boy band called "Fingerbang". He also appears to be driven by a desire to outdo Stan, Kyle, and Kenny. Knowing that his satisfaction chiefly comes with seeing other people unhappy, Kyle once deliberately congratulated Cartman on winning a bet, which of course ruined all of Cartman's egotistical satisfaction at having humiliated him.

Cartman's hatred of hippies runs very deep, and he even mutters about them in his sleep. When he was forced to venture to San Fransisco he was so afraid of contamination that he wore a protective suit with its own airhose. Cartman also has a patholgical hatred of redheads, or Gingers, although when the other kids lead him to believe he has become a redhead himself, he briefly leads a cult of homicidal redhead children bent on world conquest.

Cartman apparently sees scenes of sickening destruction and horror 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 if he was not drinking milk. 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 otherwise functioning organ.

File:Southpark1.jpg
Cartman being chased by Kyle

Anti-semitism

Thanks to his adversarial relationship with Kyle (who is Jewish), Cartman is very anti-Semitic. In episode "The Passion of the Jew", after seeing The Passion of the Christ, he believes the film was Mel Gibson's way to rally 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 misspronounced German: "Es ist Zeit für Rache" (It is the time for revenge) and "Wir müssen die Juden ausrotten" (We must exterminate the Jews).

Redeeming qualities

Cartman has some redeeming qualities: though not always intentionally, he has saved the boys, the town and the entire world on quite a few occasions.

  • In the full-length feature film, South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut, his filthy mouth, getting electrocuted by a power box, coupled with the experimental V-chip implanted in his brain to stop him from swearing (which gave him temporary electrostatic powers), saves the world from Saddam Hussein.
  • In the episode "Roger Ebert Should Lay Off the Fatty Foods" he gets angry at Stan and Kyle for having not watched his 'Cheesy Poofs' commercial, then throws a temper tantrum that unwittingly saves them from becoming zombie plane'arium (sic) slaves by destroying the planetarium's projector.
  • In the episode "Rainforest Schmainforest" after Cartman's lack of respect for the choir teacher's authority leads him to wander astray; he later returns with help when the rest of the group is in trouble.
  • In the episode "Osama Bin Laden Has Farty Pants" he destroyed the Taliban and set up Osama bin Laden's death (in a spoof of a Bugs Bunny cartoon).
  • In the episode "Die Hippie, Die", his intolerance of hippies saves South Park from a drug-filled hippie music festival.
  • In the episode "Best Friends Forever", he unwittingly saves the world from a gruesome Armageddon by going to the Supreme Court and acquiring the rights to pull out Kenny's feeding tube so that he can get his hands on the PlayStation Portable that Kenny had left for him in his will; acting in complete opposition to Kyle and Stan, who try to save him by rallying to keep Kenny on life support.
  • Cartman was intentionally benevolent in the episode "Smug Alert!" wherein he travels to San Francisco (a place he had vowed never to go) and ultimately saves Kyle and his family from the smug storm that sucked San Francisco out of existence and into "its own asshole". Quite uncharacteristically, Cartman did not take any credit for having saved the Broflovski's.

In the episode "Tsst", it is hypothesized that Cartman is the way he is because of his mother's submissive nature. Under the tutelage of Cesar Millan, Liane learned how to be the dominant figure in her relationship with her son as Eric eventually became submissive. This evolved to the point where he would carry out commands from his mother, even if he hated performing them; though his under-lying personality remained the same.

In an attempt to free himself from his mother's now unbreakable control, Cartman attempts to murder Liane in her sleep. The training and changes he had gone through, however, had begun to affect his personality. He began to question aspects of his nature that made him selfish and only want what he wanted. The two sides of his personality, good and evil, attempted to win Cartman over until he passed out. When Liane awoke in the morning, she found him calmly eating breakfast and doing his homework — indicating that Eric had developed a dominant good side.

When Cesar Millan later rejects Liane's attempts at a relationship, destroying the hope for a husband/father figure she desires in the process, she lost the confidence she had learned and once again turned to Cartman for support and companionship; spoiling him once more. When she then offers to indulge him with food and toys, it subsequently tempted the evil side of Eric to become dominant again.

In the episode I'm a Little Bit Country, the show's 100th episode, Cartman travels back in time to 1776 in order to meet the founding fathers and eventually save the day and the town from total chaos.

Cartman's Family

Cartman is the only boy in the series who does not have a father shown at any time. This is because of his hermaphrodite mother, who actually had sex with a woman, thereby fathering him. After his birth, Liane raised him under the guise of being his mother. 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". So, technically, Cartman does have a father on the show. His biological mother, however, remains unknown (he does not appear interested in finding out who she is and is content to continue treating Liane as such). Interestingly, in the unaired pilot Cartman did have what appears to be a father and sister, though they had no lines.

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

Pets

Cartman has two pets: Mister Kitty (who is actually a female cat) and Fluffy the Pig (also female), both of whom Cartman often chastises and hits with sticks.

He also has a stuffed toy that he keeps with him sometimes; "Clyde Frog" (called "Artemis Clyde Frog" while playing "Wild Wild West" in the episode "Cat Orgy", referring to the Artemus Gordon character) being his seemingly closest and most beloved inanimate companion.

Talents

Music: Cartman is apparently able to play the piano quite well (although it plays itself on the Christfest stage), as seen in the episode "Christian Rock Hard", the violin ("Something Wall-Mart This Way Comes"), the French horn ("Summer Sucks"), and the recorder ("World Wide Recorder Concert"). He can also sing the entirety of Styx's "Come Sail Away" in 27 seconds flat (in fact, he cannot avoid doing so once he hears the first few notes of the song, an occasional running gag used in the show, which first appeared in the episode "Cartman's Mom is Still a Dirty Slut").

Aside from the Styx song, Cartman frequently bursts into song, often spontaneously. This penchant for ad hoc songs was specifically mentioned in "Ginger Kids".

Public Speaking: Unlike the other boys, 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 comes up with an idea.

Manipulation: Cartman is able to get pretty much anyone to do pretty much anything. 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. 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 when Kyle told him that they had played a trick on him in "Ginger Kids". In "Tsst" Cartman was able to manipulate his nanny to leave his house with insults and insinuation.

In "Cartoon Wars", he exploited a controversy involving the appearance of Mohammed 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 (before he finds out those writers are manatees) from airing the Mohammed episode.

Cartman's shining accomplishment (according to Comedy Central's list of "Cartman's 25 Greatest Moments") came in the episode "Scott Tenorman Must Die". 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, shot and killed. Cartman then steals the bodies and makes them into a chili which he promptly feeds to Scott. To make matters worse, Tenorman's favorite band, Radiohead, sees him crying and deems him a crybaby. Afterwards, Stan and Kyle decide it would be best to avoid angering Cartman again.

Rectal Smuggling: Cartman has the ability to use his rectum to smuggle a variety of unusual objects. The ability first appeared in Season 4, in the episode "Cartman's Silly Hate Crime 2000" where an incarcerated Cartman smuggles several cigarettes and later a complete board game into his cell using his rectum. At the end of the episode it is hinted, although not definitively seen, that he smuggles a number of popular attractions from Disneyland, among them being Pirates of the Caribbean, Splash Mountain, and the Disneyland Monorail System. His rectal smuggling was put to the test again in the Season 10 episode "Manbearpig" when Cartman swallowed several pounds of artificial gold and jewels (not rectal smuggling) under the impression he was going to sneak millions of dollars of precious stones and metals out of a cave without his friends knowing about it. He later was seen uncontrollably defecating large quantities of the "treasure", causing him great pain to do so. In the first South Park episode "Cartman Gets an Anal Probe" and later in the 7th season on the 100th episode "Cancelled", Cartman's ass was used by aliens over the years to store one of their satellite dishes to transmit the reality show "Earth" back to the network headquarters.

Languages: Cartman speaks fluent German, particularly when he drums up his Nazi and racist ideals to others whilst dressing up as Hitler, although his pronunciation of the language is very poor. Cartman also knows at least some Spanish which is shown in the episode 616, "My Future Self n' Me", where he directs a group of cheap-labor Mexican children while covering Butters's house in shit. This indicates that he may have been telling the truth about his knowledge of Spanish when the choir director asked if anyone knew it in the season 3 episode "Rainforest Schmainforest".

Quotes and catchphrases

Note: Since about Season 6, Cartman has been using his classic words and catchphrases less and less, so you may find most of these words and catchphrases more in seasons 1 to 5. (Some words are intentionally misspelled to imitate Cartman's accent.)

Wikiquote has quotations related to Eric Cartman.
  • "Coo. (Cool. sometimes "Super coo.")
  • "Suck my balls!" (sometimes followed by the name of the person he says it to)
  • "Kick ass!"
  • "Shut your goddamn Jew-mouth!!!"
  • "Goddamnit!"
  • "Screw you guys…I'm goin' home."
  • "Respect my authoritah! (sic)"
  • "I'm not fat, I'm big boned!"
  • "Shut your mouth you fucking Jew"!
  • "Shweeeet!"
  • "Super sweeeet!"
  • "HEY! (pronounced- "AY!". Usually followed by an order.)
  • "Lame!"
  • "You guys! I'm seriously!"
  • "Weak!"(also "Super Weak")
  • "H'nyah" ('Here')
  • "AY! I kick you in the nuts!"
  • "You guys! You guys! Guess what?"
  • "But Meeehhhhmmm! ('Mom')" (when whining)
  • "I hate you guys." (said for no apparent reason)
  • "Ooooh Cheesy Poofs!"
  • "Hey! Don't call me fat, you fucking Jew!"
  • "Shut up, Jew!"
  • "Dirty, tree-huggin' hippie."
  • "Ah hate you, Kenny."
  • "Kenny, your family is poor."
  • "Poor piece of crap."
  • "Words cannot express how much I truly, truly, hate you guys."
  • "How would you like to suck my balls, Mr. Garrison?" (From the movie, South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999))
  • "No Kitty! This is my pot pie!"
  • "Mom! Kitty's being a dildo!"
  • "Butters, I hate you with every inch of my body"
  • "Kenny woulda dunnit"(Said only in the sixth season and usually quietly)
  • "Have you seen the poop swatches?"
  • "I'll make you eat your parents"
  • "Fine! That's Fine!"
  • "They mostly come at night........mostly."
  • (sung while beating a man to death)"I don't wanna wait for our lives to be over..."
  • "Good job,Jew!
  • "Hella cool! (Sometimes "Hella awesome" or just "Hella")

Who/What Cartman Likes

Who/What Cartman hates

Top Cartman Episodes

On October 14-October 16 of 2005, Comedy Central aired a marathon each night of episodes based on viewer votes on their favorite episodes related to Cartman. The list is as follows:

  1. 501 - "Scott Tenorman Must Die"
  2. 101 - "Cartman Gets an Anal Probe"
  3. 803 - "Up the Down Steroid"
  4. 902 - "Die, Hippie, Die"
  5. 107 - "Pink Eye"
  6. 413 - "Trapper Keeper"
  7. 709 - "Christian Rock Hard"
  8. 802 - "AWESOM-O"
  9. 705 - "Fat Butt and Pancake Head"
  10. 113 - "Cartman's Mom is a Dirty Slut"
  11. 906 - "The Death of Eric Cartman"
  12. 213 - "Cow Days"
  13. 102 - "Weight Gain 4000"
  14. 804 - "Passion of the Jew"
  15. 109 - "Starvin' Marvin"
  16. 807 - "The Jeffersons"
  17. 711 - "Casa Bonita"
  18. 601 - "Freak Strike"
  19. 617 - "Red Sleigh Down"
  20. 302 - "Spontaneous Combustion"
  21. 314 - "The Red Badge of Gayness"
  22. 506 - "Cartmanland"
  23. 607 - "Simpsons Already Did It"
  24. 406 - "Cartman Joins NAMBLA"
  25. 303 - "The Succubus"
  26. 608 - "Red Hot Catholic Love"
  27. 203 - "Chickenlover"

Trivia

  • According to the South Park calendar, Eric Cartman's birthday is July 1st.
  • "Cartman" is the codename for Red Hat Linux version 6.1.
  • According to the episode "The Succubus", Cartman has the eyes of the 32nd Kenny.
  • Cartman has only one kidney. The other is inside of Kyle, because they are the only two in South Park who share the AB negative blood type. It was transplanted into Kyle against Cartman's will in the 4th season.
  • Cartman is the only one of the four main boys whose middle name has been revealed on the show.
  • Cartman was originally called Kenny in the first ever episode of South Park called "Jesus vs Frosty".
  • Episode 713 Butt Out somewhat makes Cartman a murderer, in a hilarious way. After the shaming of Rob Reiner and his insidious methods to ban smoking, Cartman feels disgraced. So he grabs the fork that Rob Reiner was using to eat his cake and stabs him on the right side of his belly. Then green goo, which was Rob's lifeblood, leaks out profusely, leaving him in a puddle-like state. He also kills in "Scott Tenorman Must Die."
  • In the Japanese language dub of South Park, Cartman is voiced by LILIKO
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