Eric Cartman

Eric Cartman is one of the main characters from the South Park series.

Cartman is sometimes the main antagonist of an episode, for example "Trapper Keeper". None of the other three main children really consider Cartman their friend and do not know why they started hanging out with him in the first place, but a certain form of unstable friendship ends up being born between them. However he is usually Kyle's first choice when he breaks his friendship with Stan. In earlier episodes, Kenny was his best friend, however, in later seasons, Butters Stotch is usually depicted as such.

Appearance
Cartman wears a red jacket, yellow mittens, a blue hat with a yellow puff ball on top, brown pants, black shoes, and white socks (as seen in "Super Fun Time"). He sometimes wears a green t-shirt with a bear picture on under his jacket, a white tank top, and occasionally a dark red t-shirt. He has medium-brown hair and a double-chin. He also has triangular-shaped eyebrows, in contrast to the other main boys' rectangular ones. Even though Cartman is overweight, he always denies it (especially in the earlier seasons) by saying, "I'm not fat, I'm just big-boned", or some variation thereof. However, as seen in "Merry Christmas Charlie Manson!" and "Cartmanland", his weight problem may be, in truth, be genetic and runs in the family, as seen by the fact that, with the exception of his mother an aunt, and a cousin, his entire family is extremely overweight. But in "Fat Camp", when he tells his mother to talk about how he's big boned and such, she instead says, "Those were all lies, sweetie, you're just fat." In "Tsst", he is slightly thinner, although in later episodes, he was shown to have regained the lost weight. Cartman likely has blue irises, as, due to the events of "The Succubus", he has Kenny's eyes, which were shown with blue in "Starvin' Marvin". In Season Twenty, he wears a t-shirt with the words "Token's life matters".

Personality
Cartman is described in various terms, in short, he is an evil, vicious, angry, self-absorbed, immature, destructive, sarcastic, snooty, loud-mouthed, lazy, and insane child. He is the most foul-mouthed character in the show. He is also racist and stereotypes almost everyone he sees. The very dark, usually disturbing undertones to his personality often hint at an extreme mental imbalance. Apart from being portrayed as having a general lack of moral responsibility or social conscience, he also seems to take pleasure from others' misfortune and is generally unable to show empathy, although there have been exceptions, such as in "How to Eat with Your Butt." Despite the severity of his actions, it is likely that they are a type of emotional defense mechanism against his insecurity and (potential) confused sexuality. This "defense", however, does not seem to be impenetrable, as evidenced by "1%". This has been parodied as well, in the cliché of a typical villain becoming benevolent. In these episodes, he usually convinces Kyle that he has good intentions, such as in the "Cartoon Wars" two-parter, where Cartman appears to Kyle that he is concerned about people's safety at the beginning, but it is later shown to only have been doing it to get Family Guy off the air. In the "Do the Handicapped Go to Hell?" and "Probably" two-parter, Kyle and many others fall for Cartman's apparently "good intentions" for trying to prevent the children of South Park from going to hell. However, it is revealed that he only did it so he could earn money. In "Kenny Dies", he is distraught at Kenny's impending death leading Kyle to console him. Later when his supposedly real motives were revealed, knowing how Cartman typically is, Kyle promptly fights him in Kenny's defense, although Cartman was genuinely distraught over Kenny's illness before and after he learns that he can benefit from it. This clearly shows that Cartman went through Congress for Kenny and reveals that he does not have a healthy way of dealing with the death of his friend.

Abilities
Cartman is often shown to be a poor student, but excels in leadership and team organization which usually involves exploitation of others weaknesses. Although having his origins as a secondary role as the comic foil, Cartman has evolved into a character of stunningly articulate manipulative talents and techniques. His abilities are deeply Machiavellian in nature, and his character follows closely in the footsteps of other famous manipulators such as the character Iago from William Shakespeare's Othello. In several episodes throughout the series, he employs this skill to get what he wants. His most frequent targets are adults and Butters, though he often targets other children for more personal purposes, including convincing Butters to "take one for the team" and be anally gang-raped by men from NAMBLA in "Cartman Joins NAMBLA", and repeatedly convincing Kyle that he is doing good, only to exploit Kyle's help later on. He talked the ginger kids out of killing all non-gingers after Kyle told him that they had played a trick on him in "Ginger Kids". Earlier in that episode, he had rallied all the gingers into a genocidal frenzy, convincing them that all non-gingers are inferior in a Hitler or KKK-esque way, as well as stage violent protests and march down the streets chanting "red power!". He then made them kidnap all the children in town and hold them in a cage over a pit of lava, but managed to convince them to stop when he was told by Kyle that his case of "Gingervitus" was a prank. Along the same line, in "The Passion of the Jew", he is able to rally all the members of the Mel Gibson fan club to march through the town while yelling, "Wir müssen die Juden ausrotten!" (We must exterminate the Jews!). However, it should probably be noted that they were ignorant of the true meaning of this phrase, mistaking it for Aramaic. But given the fact that it caused a large argument in the middle of the city between his group and some Jews, and given the violent and ignorant nature of most adults in South Park, it would not be surprising if it had turned into violence if allowed to continue. Cartman was also shown smiling in the background at the argument, as if all was according to his plan. He also demonstrates great understanding of the human mind and the way to exploit it. In the episode "Tsst", Cartman was able to drive several nannies from his house with insults and insinuation (even causing one to be put in a mental hospital). In the same episode, he also made one child saw his own leg off in a reference to the movie "Saw".

Cartman's perceived stupidity by his friends can be attributed to his sometimes naive, careless behavior. However, his uncanny skill at manipulation, bilingualism, and ability to create elaborate schemes which are often effective imply a high intellect, despite his ignorance. 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 plots an idea. For example, in "Kenny Dies", Cartman delivers a speech to the United States House of Representatives convincing them to vote in favor of stem cell research. He also appears to be multilingual (though not very well). He claims to be able to speak Spanish in "Rainforest Shmainforest", when he tells a Costa Rican freedom fighter that he wants burritos, and in "My Future Self n' Me", he actually speaks Spanish to the Mexican workers hired to smear Butters home with excrement. In "D-Yikes!", Cartman again demonstrates his proficiency in Spanish when hiring Mexicans to write an "essay" (which the immigrants mistake for the Spanish informal word for a friend, ese) on The Old Man and the Sea. He is the only one of the children in South Park to speak Spanish fluently, as shown when kids go to him when they can't understand people, although he is sometimes prone to grammatical errors, such as the previously mentioned example.

Trivia

 * Cartman has Kenny's eyes, due to the events in the subplot of "The Succubus".
 * Kyle has one of Cartman's kidneys due to the events of "Cherokee Hair Tampons".
 * It is most likely that Cartman is the youngest of the four friends. His birthday was in the first season, and it's been clear that he turned 8, while the other boys already were 8 years old. However, Stan made it clear that Cartman and all the other boys were ten years old in "Crack Baby Athletic Association" while Stan was still nine years old only to turn ten two episodes later. It could be that the birth dates of all the boys were called out randomly and their permanent birthdays set in later. This mix up made Stan the youngest of the four boys.
 * Cartman is mostly known by his family name, and most characters, including Stan, Kyle, Wendy, and Token, call him by his surname.
 * In "Cartman's Silly Hate Crime 2000", it is shown that Stan and Kyle pick on Cartman because he is fat, not because of his many crimes.
 * 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 maintains somewhat friendly relationships with most of the boys at his school and is shown playing with them on occasion, despite the fact that all the kids openly hate him, though this is considered a love/hate relationship that he shares with the boys.
 * In the episode "Chickenpox", the boys sleep at Kenny's house. When they rolled out their sleeping bags, Kyle and Stan both had Terrance and Phillip and Cartman had Urkel from Family Matters on his.
 * According to the girls, Cartman is the ugliest boy in their class, likely because of his weight. He is the only one not invited to the girls' party in "Stupid Spoiled Whore Video Playset".
 * In the "The Unaired Pilot", Cartman was originally scripted to have a father and a sister. However, they had no speaking lines and were cut for the official pilot onward.
 * In the episode "It's a Jersey Thing" he (along with Dog Poo) was raped by "the Snooki", an evil creature from Hell.
 * In the episodes "It's a Jersey Thing" and "It's Christmas in Canada", Cartman is shown to cry when physically attacked.
 * He is the only one of the fourth graders to have noticed Kenny's reoccuring deaths, as shown in "Cartmanland".
 * Cartman saved Kyle for the sole reason to pick on him and have something to do in "Smug Alert!", despite his apparent desire to kill or get rid of Kyle.
 * Cartmans ass is shown to be very powerful in two ways:
 * 1) Cartman successfully fights off Craig using his ass in "Tweek vs. Craig".
 * 2) Cartman successfully imbues the tastes of several different restaurant chains foods into his own burgers by farting on them.
 * Cartmans farts are shown to be highly toxic and even deadly in "Osama bin Laden Has Farty Pants" when an American man in Afghanistan smells the inside of the cargo area Cartman farted in, and he throws up and appears to have died. Stan, Kyle, and Kenny's surviving could be due to their constant exposure of his farts, and have thus gained a tolerance / resistance to its fatal effects.
 * Cartmans farts are apparently harmless if they imbued with food and ingested, as no one gets sick from eating them in "Ass Burgers", at least until the people who ate them realize what they were eating.
 * Cartman is shown to undergo several things that would most likely help him psychologically; he sees a therapist in "T.M.I.", which screws him, as in the end his penis is still below average; he goes to Fat Camp in "Fat Camp", and resolves to lose his weight, but is then kicked out, and he is left crying and eating a donut; Cartman makes an altruistic shift in personality in "Tsst", when Caesar Milan successfully rids Cartman of his dark side, only for it to return to him when his mother, despite knowing what she did to him before, makes him turn back to his normal self.
 * "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.
 * Cartman's stuffed animal Clyde Frog was decapitated by Kyle in a fit of rage after he was infected with AIDS by Cartman in "Tonsil Trouble", but was not given a funeral, and in fact survived, and was repaired, presumably by his mother.
 * 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.
 * As shown in the 1992 short The Spirit of Christmas, the design of Cartman was originally going to be used for Kenny. As shown, when Frosty kills 'Cartman', Kyle yells "Oh my god! They killed Kenny!"
 * According to "1%", Cartman has the cholesterol levels of a 70-year-old man. Cartman's bigotry and greed has actually saved people. In "ManBearPig", his intent to sneak all of the "treasure" he found actually gave Stan, Kyle, and Kenny a head start before Al Gore flooded The Cavern of The Winds, which had probably saved them from drowning. In "The Snuke", Cartman's bigotry against the Muslim student Baahir led to the discovery of the snuke in Hillary Clinton's vagina, as well as the British Plan to invade America and unend The American Revolution, which prevented a nuclear device from going off in South Park, saving thousands of lives, most likely more, and even possibly saving America from being taken over by The British.
 * In "The Poor Kid", Cartman's greedy nature also led to Child Services being alerted to Kenny's Foster Families abusive nature, as he tried to go to Hawaii by using Child Services and getting his mother arrested. This led to him ratting out his foster parents, the same ones as Kenny's, and helping the foster children get sent back to their homes. However, Mysterion's interference would have probably led to the same thing, as he did get them drunk off of a can Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer.
 * Cartman gave only Clyde Frog a funeral in "1%", but neglected to give one to Peter Panda and his other stuffed toys after they died. This could be due to Cartman's favoritism of Clyde Frog, or due to his panicking from Peter Panda's death and trying to protect his other stuffed animals, only for them die one by one throughout the night.
 * Cartman's fear of being branded as "The Poor Kid" is actually very legitimate, as in "Cartman's Silly Hate Crime 2000", after he is arrested for hitting Token Black with a rock, Clyde Donovan is then branded as "The Fat Kid", and is thus treated just as Cartman was, being called several names.
 * Also, in "Here Comes the Neighborhood", Token Black is ridiculed for being "The Rich Kid", and thus not be like the other kids, who can't afford everything he has. Token then invites several black families to South Park, and is left out again. When Token goes back to the others, they tell him how they make fun of his being his rich because they make fun of everyone for being something else; Cartman being fat, as well as many other things, Stan being in love with Wendy, Kyle for being a Jew, Kenny for being poor, and Butters for being a wuss. This shows that the children go out of their way to find something that can insult and rip off each other for, and will transfer that insult to the next person if the present one is not around.