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| Eric Cartman | |
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| Age: | 9 |
| Gender: | Male |
| Hair color: | Brown |
| Job: | Student |
| Religion: | Roman Catholic |
| Voiced by: | Trey Parker |
Eric Theodore Cartman, commonly referred to by his family name, Cartman, is one of the four main fictional characters on the animated television series South Park, along with Stan, Kyle, and Kenny. Cartman is the series' main antagonist and antihero. He is voiced by series co-creator Trey Parker. He is always seen with a double chin.
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Eric Cartman is often spoiled, foul-mouthed, sadistic, ill-tempered, insensitive, sociopathic, selfish, greedy, loudmouthed, lazy, fat (he believes that he's not fat, but big-boned), wildly insecure, bigoted, and manipulative. He is portrayed as having a general lack of moral responsibility or social conscience. He despises Kyle because of his Jewish background and will make fun of him about being Jewish. Though he hates Kyle, he will socialize with him along with Stan and Kenny. Cartman has a habit of bullying and teasing all of his friends, Kyle is the most threatened and teased by Cartman during most episodes. Cartman teases Kenny for coming from a very poor family, Butters, for being introverted and shy, and Stan for being a try-hard and a bit of a pussy, regardless to whether the boys are his friends or not during some episodes sometimes Cartman acts differently around the other boys, even states that Kenny is his best friend and hes okay with Stan, but later goes back to annoying everyone.
The adults in the series, as well as Butters and Jimmy, call him Eric, while the other main characters call him Cartman. It is unclear which name he considers to be his principal one. He has referred to himself by both names, although when phoning Kyle to ask for his help in the episode "Go God Go",and when talking to Jimmy in the episode "The Death of Eric Cartman", he identified himself as Eric, and this is how he introduces himself to strangers, suggesting he sees this as his more polite and agreeable persona. Cartman is portrayed as both the "fat kid"[1] and the "antihero" of the South Park gang,[2] and has also been called "South Park's main villain".[3] His personality has noticeably changed over the course of the series. While always self-centered and bigoted,[4] he was more of a mean-spirited characterization of adolescence in the earlier seasons, with little psychological (in logic) or ethical grounding in life. As the series progressed his personality became more aggressive and cunning, evolving into conduct disorder, that would likely be categorized as antisocial personality disorder were he over the age of 18, by the fifth season; in the premiere episode, Cartman masterminds the murder of a boy's parents in order to feed them to the boy.[5][6] His bigotry visibly morphs into racial hatred and theorizing.[7]
Cartman can usually manipulate people into doing what he wants. His manipulations can be extremely cruel and occasionally violent. Butters Stotch, an innocent and unpopular South Park boy, is the most frequent victim of Cartman's manipulations, and is often talked into helping Cartman execute his plans, acting as his sidekick in many episodes.[8] Cartman's descent into sociopathy occurred in the episode "Scott Tenorman Must Die", in which he developed a fierce obsession with, and later exacted revenge upon, a 9th grader who cheated him out of $16.12. The episode was ranked by fans as the greatest of his top twenty-five moments in a range vote on Comedy Central's website.[9]
Cartman is very aggressive verbally, threatening and challenging others repeatedly, but almost invariably proves to be incapable of following through with his threats. This can be seen in several episodes, most prominently "It's Christmas in Canada": After he didn't make it home on time for Christmas, Cartman repeatedly provoked Kyle into fighting, only to be left mewling on the ground after Kyle reluctantly slapped him in the nose. Although Cartman acts tough, he is in actuality emotionally vulnerable and needy (as might be expected with a bully), frequently relying on his mother for support and as a means of escape when situations get out-of-hand or punishment looms. When locked in jail in Cartman's Silly Hate Crime 2000, he cries for his Mom, and learns to appreciate his friends, at least for the episode.
Cartman has an intense rivalry with Kyle, whom he views as inferior primarily because Kyle is Jewish. His lazy, rude, and antisemitic behavior towards Kyle (or occasionally Stan) often gives rise to loud arguments, which in earlier seasons typically ended with Cartman peevishly saying "Screw you guys... I'm going home!" and leaving the group. In later seasons, as the character became noticeably more sociopathic, he would respond to Kyle's criticisms with "Shut up, Jew!!" or similar invective. Though fights between the two have become a centerpiece of the show, their default relationship appears to be "friend", however uneasy the friendship may be. Notably, both Cartman and Kyle have saved each other's life: Kyle saving Cartman in "Trapper Keeper" and "ManBearPig"; Cartman saving Kyle in "Smug Alert" (when Kyle is incapacitated both by LSD and the titular smug and Cartman transports him and his family to safety), and in the "Imaginationland" series, when he uses CPR to revive Kyle after he died. Cartman's ostensible heroism in the latter episode, however, stems from his purely selfish desire to ensure that Kyle makes good on a bet to "suck his balls" in the event that Leprechauns actually exist (which for that episode's purposes, they do).
Cartman is also generally abrasive to Stan and Kenny (Kenny for being poor and Stan for being a "pussy"), though much less so than towards Kyle, and Stan and Kenny seem far more tolerant of the anti-social side of his personality. It has been suggested that Kenny and Cartman are best friends,[10][11] and Kenny is often the only one to laugh at Cartman's jokes. Stan is typically tolerant of Cartman, even on occasions when he is making fun of Kyle. In an apparent show of affection, Cartman tells him that he "still hates him less than Kyle" in the episode "Trapped in the Closet".
"Hate" is often used loosely to describe others' feelings towards Cartman. Kyle, along with several more minor characters typically refuse if Cartman asks them a favor, responding with the simple line, "Because I hate you," or a similar variation when Cartman asks them why, a reason that he typically sarcastically dismisses.
Besides being extremely talented at psychologically manipulating people, Cartman has been shown to have a vast number of talents, such as in many different episodes he has been show to be perfectly fluent in Spanish. He has also been shown to be able to play the piano (Christian Rock Hard), and also is able to play the violin (Something Wal-Mart This Way Comes).
Dr Toni Johnson-Woods, writer of Blame Canada: 'South Park' and Contemporary Culture, characterized Cartman as "a hybrid of Archie Bunker, Jackie Gleason of The Honeymooners and the animated Fred Flintstone." [3]
In the original 1992 student film short "The Spirit of Christmas (Jesus vs. Frosty)", the character most analogous to Cartman is referred to as "Kenny"; in the later 1995 version of "The Spirit of Christmas (Jesus vs. Santa)", Cartman is referred to by name, and Kenny is the separate character that continues throughout the series. On the series South Park, Cartman appears prominently in its first episode, "Cartman Gets an Anal Probe". While the four main boys originally did not have very distinctive personalities, Cartman's unique character developed quickly throughout the first season. Parker and Stone have said that they based Cartman on Archie Bunker, commenting that they thought it might be impossible to put a character like Archie Bunker on late-20th century television, after the introduction of political correctness, unless they "made him a little eight-year-old fat kid."[12][3]
His original catchphrase when he was angry was "I'll kick you in the nuts". Aside from Cartman's recurring antisemitic comments, one of his favorite catch phrases is "Screw you guys, I'm going home!". Upon winning or beating somebody in a challenge Cartman will give his signature laugh, "nah nah nah nah naah nah, heh heh heh heh hehh heh!" One of Cartman's most famous phrases [13], when he is attempting to exert his will upon others, is to say, "respect my authority!", which he pronounces "mah authoritah", in his southern accent (which he sometimes uses in some other words too). When called fat, he often replies by stating, "I'm not fat, I'm big boned!"[14] or, as shown in The Spirit of Christmas, A Very Crappy Christmas, and the movie "Don't call me fat butt fucker!" Additionally, whenever he asks his mom to do something for him, in many cases an outrageous request such as signing him up for the Special Olympics despite his lack of a disability, he will try to put a thin sugar-coat on the request, and after being denied, say, "But, Mooooom!" in a high-pitched voice — a second denial results in the phrase becoming even higher-pitched to the point it is near indecipherable. He also constantly repeats the expletive "God dammit!". Cartman often yells "HEY!" (pronounced "AY!"), followed by an order or a threat. Cartman often uses the phrase "you're breaking my balls" or variations on that phrase when engaging in business negotiations, often attaining a deal that he wouldn't otherwise[15]. When Cartman finds something gory, he often exclaims "Weak!" or "Super weak!". He also sometimes uses a short, enthusiastic "sweet" when referring to something he enjoys.
Despite being reasonably articulate throughout the later seasons, he seems to always use the adverb "seriously" when he should use the adjective "serious". For example: "You guys, I'm being totally seriously!" as opposed to the grammatically correct, "You guys, I'm being totally serious!"
In the earlier episodes of South Park, when Cartman's cat was near and started to meow (usually because it was hungry), Cartman would shout, "No kitty, that's a bad kitty!".
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