Eric Cartman

"Screw you guys! I'm a-goin' home!"

- Cartman's famous catchphrase. "RESPECT MY AUTHORITAH!"

- "Officer" Cartman's famous catchphrase.

Eric Theodore Cartman, more commonly known as Cartman, is one of the four main protagonists, as well as the overall main antagonist and anti hero, of the highly popular adult animated sitcom .

He is a fat, racist, manipulative, selfish, misogynistic, narcissistic sociopath who is friends with Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski and Kenny McCormick.

He is voiced by the South Park co-creator, Trey Parker, who also played Kim Jong-il in Team America: World Police and Balthazar Bratt in Despicable Me 3.

Biography
Cartman has an intense rivalry with Kyle Broflovski (his arch-enemy) due to his constant scheming and disrespect for other cultures - the rivalry has intensified over the course of the series and the struggle between Kyle and Cartman can be seen in some ways as a struggle between good and evil in some later episodes. Also, no matter how much Kyle keeps telling Cartman the truth, he refuses to believe the Jewish boy. Cartman is shown to be delusional, which makes him believe that he is awesome and better than anyone, but he is too ignorant and arrogant to see that he is sociopathic. He has always been in denial about the fact that he is really fat and disliked by nearly everyone in town (especially by Kyle and the other kids). However, he was truthful about the fact that he loves being a racist (making fun of Jews, ripping on black people and doesn't care if he's being rude) It is also shown that he worships Adolf Hitler as seen in the episode, "Pinkeye".

Cartman is often portrayed as very immature and quite cowardly, being reduced to tears once with a single passive hit from Kyle - however, despite this he has also shown remarkable knowledge when he wants to, sometimes verging on the role of an evil knowledgeable and master manipulator as he has managed to gather large crowds to his will via impressive speeches and charisma.

Cartman's plans vary from story to story but are often small-scale and petty, such as cheating someone out of money or obtaining a new toy/gadget - though he has also had grander plans, some of which have verged on world-domination, though he always fails to achieve his goal (with one notable exception). Some of his more evil plans usually revolve around committing murder (or worse, genocide), which usually happens.

Cartman is mostly portrayed as a spoiled brat who will do anything to get what he wants. Denying Cartman of his goal is a dangerous game as he easily develops obsessions over such things and can be extremely vindictive when he feels wronged and if sufficiently annoyed he can develop a psychopathic glee in destroying his perceived enemies. Despite this, Cartman has no qualms about whining, begging and manipulating people as well and he has a foul temper that can explode at any moment.

The cause of Cartman's seemingly endless list of flaws seems to be a product of his environment, having been given everything from an early age he has come to expect such treatment and his lazy, selfish behavior is often rewarded rather than punished by his mother - who also seems incapable of disciplining her demonic child regardless of the abuse she receives.

Unlike the other central characters (Kyle, Stan, Kenny, and Butters), Cartman doesn't seem to learn from his mistakes and thus continues to do things that often backfire and blames everyone except himself for the results.

Another recurring theme in the series is that if Cartman is ever seen doing something good or selfless it is almost always a cover-up for some selfish plan - the effort put into these master plans show that Cartman is not as stupid as he often acts but are usually doomed to failure due to either the actions of the other characters (especially Kyle) or some other factor.

Personality
Despite being one of the five main characters on the show, and arguably the most popular and mascot, Cartman is arrogant, sociopathic, foul-mouthed (the most foul-mouthed on the show), argumentative, spoiled, greedy and openly prejudiced against anyone who is not a heterosexual Caucasian male. Cartman usually does and says despicable things for fun or a higher self-serving purpose, such as theft, lying, slander, even torture and murder. He once calmly said that other peoples pain and suffering amuses him, seemingly not realizing that this was a bad thing. On occasions he embraces the negative side of life, such as willingly and knowingly being a fear monger for petty and avaricious reasons. He is constantly making nasty remarks at the expense of Hebrews, African Americans and flatly thinks females are automatically inferior to males in everything. He also stereotypes every race and religion (positively and negatively) without hesitation or shame. Due to the messed up nature of South Park, his stereotyping usually turns out right.

Possibly due to being spoiled rotten by his mother, Cartman has a ridiculously excessive condition of superiority complex. He knows in his heart of hearts that he is a cruel, overindulged, obese beast of a child but it seems no human discovered method will make him actually see it. He constantly denies being fat except once when he used his weight to abuse the rights of mobility scooter riders and never seems to realize that just about everyone hates him (no matter how obvious they make it). Cartman's ego also makes up preposterous and nonsensical alternatives to things that happen so he always sees himself as an awesome hero who everyone loves. This also causes him to think that he is indeed humble and that everyone who challenges this delusion are the ones with the ego problems.

There are more episodes that focus on Cartman than any other character but he is never presented as a hero in these cases (at least not a hero with nothing to repent for). When an episode focuses on Cartman it is usually because he has or is about to do something terrible for personal gain and the other boys attempt to stop him or resolve it. Even when Cartman is fighting along side his friends for what is right, he goes about it in a morally dubious way.

Though Cartman seems generally stupid academically, this could just be a lack of regard for academics. He has demonstrated exceptional cunning and intelligence for his age in all other situations. He seems to know how to speak Spanish and German and understands enough about economics, politics and religion to manipulate them with little effort. Cartman is also a powerful leader and has easily rallied his classmates and even large groups of adults to follow him in missions. Despite seeming to be rather lazy in most cases, Cartman has demonstrated a great passion for method acting. When he thought he was of Native American and then African American heritage, he flawlessly took on the stereotype of both cultures, adopting their mannerisms, attire and gestures perfectly. He also showed this talent whilst temporarily acting as a police officer, Adolf Hitler, a mentally handicapped child, a Christian Rock Musician and Gandalf the Wizard among many others.

Cartman has an uncanny habit of sneaking into peoples houses at night and spontaneously bursting into song to express his deepest feelings. His racism stems from an obsessive paranoia that all other ethnic groups are xenophobic towards the Caucasian race and will attempt an uprising as revenge for years of oppression. Another interesting note about Cartman is the one of the few South Park residents with a Southern accent. Due to this, he mispronounces several words in the first few seasons: Mum as "Myem" or "Meeeem", guys as "Geyz", hey as simply "I" or "A", here as "Myau" and most words that end in "ity" as "itah". One prime example of the final one is Cartman's famous catchphrase of "Respect my authoritah!" Cartman's sanity is a thing of question too. In addition to obviously being a psychotic child, Cartman has split personality. This is demonstrated when he was doing the voices of his stuffed animals, making them all compliment him immensely but then having one of them insult him. He also thinks that his make-up hand puppet, Mitch Conner, is another person entirely. Despite doing Conner's voice, Cartman seems to be oblivious to the fact that is just his hand.

There are instances where Cartman's long suppressed ethics manage to surface, such as:


 * When he fully redeemed for a few hours at the end of 'Tsst'.
 * When he made up for everything he had done wrong in "The Death of Eric Cartman" (though this was for self-serving reasons).
 * When he attempted to help the other boys stop everyone from playing the brown noise in Word Wide Recorder Concert.
 * When he saved Terrence and Philip from execution in the movie and even single handedly fought of Saddam Hussein, surprisingly saving the world.

While being simply tendentious and nasty in the earlier seasons, Cartman has gotten considerably worse as the show has progressed, but occasionally becomes more laid-back and then goes right back to being a villain throughout the episodes. Cartman also can not seem to make up his mind if he likes Stan, Kyle and Kenny or not, as he is always saying he hates them, sometimes even singing about it, but occasionally says he loves them and is always hanging out with them. In addition he usually seems horrified when Kenny dies, though later takes advantage of it. It is important to note, however, that these instances have been before season 5, (before Cartman's infamous sociopathic breakthrough with Scott Tenermon) and Cartman since then has attempted to both kill his friends and remain indifferent to their well-being overall.

Criminal Record
Cartman is notable for having a very large criminal record and Moral Event Horizon. Although he has committed many atrocities and crimes, he has only or rarely been arrested 6 times. Cartman's criminal record includes but never limited to:

Cartman's Redemption

 * Although rarely, Cartman sometimes becomes aware of his evil deeds, if it was self-redemption in the episode "The Death of Eric Cartman" where he thought he had died and had left on earth like a lost soul because of his wrongdoings, he made every effort to do good, more specifically it suggests in his song: "Make It Right". However, he only did it because he thought that if he didn't do it, he wouldn't go to the afterlife and he did not mean to apologize to them and wasn't sorry at all.


 * Incredibly, Cartman has become much more sympathetic and light in their wickedness in the 16 season, particularly in the episode "Jewpacabra" where his hatred of Jews seems to have been completely removed, and eventually (albeit apparently) converts to Judaism for the rest episode until "I Should Have Never Gone Ziplining" when he unintentionally blamed Kyle for killing Kenny which he dies from boredom and herpes and rest of the ziplining trip, unintentionally or likely re-converting back to Roman Catholicism for unknown reasons after the events of the episode.
 * And he originally disclaimed he is not fat but he snaps in "Raising the Bar" when he rethinks then tells Kyle he will spend his life in a scooter leaving him. Thinking to himself but instead of weight loss, he wants a scooter to make fun of Kyle and everyone else who are not fat.

The Coon
The Coon is the superhero (or rather, supervillain) alter-ego of himselt. He first appears in the self-titled episode "The Coon". He was also the leader of Coon and Friends in "Coon 2: Hindsight", but he was kicked out by the other members because he was beating them up and blackmailing other heroes.

The Coon eventually went to the evil side when he formed an alliance with Cthulhu in "Mysterion Rises". He embarks on a killing spree with Cthulhu, eventually making Cthulhu level the entire city of San Francisco. In "Coon vs. Coon and Friends", he continues on his killing spree, making Cthulhu destroy the Burning Man festival, slaughter Justin Bieber and most of his fans, and banish his friends to the Nightmare City of R'Lyeh.

However, Cthulhu is eventually defeated when Mint-Berry Crunch uses his super powers to seal him back into his own dimension. The Coon is made powerless and captured by the new Coon and Friends, who put him in the cell with Professor Chaos.

Coon is itself a racist term, Cartman's raccoon costume aside.

South Park: Tennorman's Revenge
Cartman is given a more heroic role then he has in the show in Tennorman's revenge. Instead of being a villain, Cartman is one of the four main protagonists, and helps the boys get back their hard drive. Besides making ocassional nasty comments, Cartman is much more tame in this game.

South Park: Stick of Truth
In the beginning, Cartman is more of an anti-villain by helping the New Kid join the game and recruit him to the Kingdom of Kupa Keep. You need to recruit the goths for Cartman. If you pick Kyle, Cartman's army will invade the school and if you attack Cartman you fight him. He tries to knock you out with his fire farts.

South Park: The Fractured but Whole
Cartman serves as a supporting protagonist, as he leads Coon and Friends against their rival superhero team Freedom Pals to make their own superhero franchise. His alter-ego Mitch Conner serves as the main antagonist, as he is the one behind all of the crimes in town.

Trivia

 * Cartman has much parodied the character Tony Montana in the 1983 film, Scarface, the first time was in a play imitating him, and the second was in the episode "Medicinal Fried Chicken" parody in the character completely.
 * Cartman has been shown to go to great lengths to get revenge on people who did relatively minor things. An example is in "Tsst", where Cartman made a kid saw off his own leg and get him sent to the hospital just because the kid called him chubby. Despite this, he never does something like this on any of his friends, despite the fact that they have called him much worse names than "chubby". He also has never arranged a gambit to get Wendy's parents killed like he did Scott Tenorman's, despite the fact that what Wendy did to Cartman was worse than what Scott did. Why he has not done these things yet is not yet known, although it is shown that Wendy can occasionally outsmart Cartman and turn his schemes against him. Cartman may not have sought extreme revenge on Wendy due to his feelings for her; it is shown that he likes Wendy in "Chef Goes Nanners". Cartman sends a fake police report to a psychiatrist's wife, who then commits suicide; It can be assumed that he knew she would do so, as he is a master of manipulation.
 * Cartman saved Kyle for the sole reason to pick on him and have something to do in "Smug Alert!", despite his apparent desire to get rid of Kyle.
 * "1%" marks the first time he possibly makes an advance in psychological health, as he kills all of his Stuffed Animals, who he gave voices and personalities, to the point that one even insulted him in an earlier episode, severing a dangerous psychological attachment to his Stuffed Toys, even if it was through a delusional episode.
 * If Cartman has split personalities, then he has, or rather had, at least five; Clyde Frog, Peter Panda, Muscleman Marc, Wumpletumpkins, and Polly Prissypants. If Mitch Connor/Jennifer Lopez is included, then he would still have one left.
 * In a scene removed from a season, he knocked out Token in a punch probably to settle old account.
 * In the early seasons, Cartman is introduced as the main villain of the show, but now has become more of an anti-hero.
 * Cartman along with his own namesake theme park Cartmanland from the titular Season 5 episode of South Park, share similarities with the sinister monarch King Bowser (with World Bowser and Bowser Land) from the Super Mario Bros. franchise and the mad scientist Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik (with Eggmanland and Robotnikland) from the Sonic the Hedgehog universe.

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Eric Cartman