Eric Cartman

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 eight-year old boys.

Related Topics:
Trey Parker - Fictional character - Animated series - South Park

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According to creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, when they were creating South Park, they were upset that "nowadays, it would be impossible to put a character like Archie Bunker on TV". But they thought that if he was an animated eight year old boy, it might just be allowed. Thus, Eric Cartman was born.

Related Topics:
Trey Parker - Matt Stone - Archie Bunker

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Eric, who is usually only addressed by his last name or by "fatass," is a true described example of what a friend is NOT, as he is:

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• (over)spoiled
• foul-mouthed
• ill-tempered
• exhibits Hubris
• narcissistic
• disloyal
• greedy
• manipulative
• insensitive
• sadistic
• sociopathic
• a bully
• cowardly
• racist
• bigoted
• anti-Semitic
• xenophobic
• hypocritical
• distrustful
• an experienced liar
• openly contemptuous of the few who can stand his deviant behavior.
• an admirer of Adolf Hitler

Perhaps his family life is to blame. A recurring joke throughout the series is that despite the sweetness and kindness of his mother, she is, in fact, a promiscuous, hermaphroditic, crack-smoking porn queen. Typically, Diane Cartman dotes on her son endlessly, beyond simply spoiling him. Cartman can almost always get what he wants simply by whining. Then again, his bad attitude may possibly be genetic, as all of his other relatives appear to have exactly the same temperament as Eric himself (except for his good counterpart from an evil parallel universe).

Related Topics:
Family - Hermaphroditic - Crack - Porn - Genetic - Parallel universe

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As the fat antihero of the four lads, he was never intended to be the focus of the series, but within the first season he captured the popular imagination more than his three friends Stan, Kyle Broflovski, and Kenny. The more outrageous his behavior, the more audiences seem to love him (Compare Archie Bunker's original inspiration, Alf Garnett). Another reason for his apparent popularity is that Cartman tends to be the most pro-active of the four main characters. He is frequently the one to come up with new ideas and plans, usually told excitedly to his (often unimpressed) friends after running up to them and breathlessly shouting "You guys! You guys! Guess what?"

Related Topics:
Antihero - Stan - Kyle Broflovski - Kenny - Alf Garnett

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However, the show's writers do seem to be careful to treat the many unfavorable aspects of Cartman's behavior with contempt, and Cartman is often shown receiving the brunt of consequences generated by his behavior. For example, although Cartman frequently insults and taunts his "friends", especially Kenny and Butters, he appears to be much more cowardly than they are when it comes to physical confrontation. In one episode Kyle punches him and Cartman immediately bursts into tears. In another he provokes Token with racial jibes and Token easily beats him up. In several episodes he is not able to overpower Kenny. His peers also give as much as they take, constantly calling him "Fat Ass" and intimating that they like him the least.

Related Topics:
Butters - Token

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Frequently, Cartman will come up with an idea---often one he bets on with Kyle---that sounds ridiculous, stupid, or even racist, but that initially proves to be true. However, while Cartman appears to initially take the upper hand, and his stupid/racist ideas seem to be taken as true, he inevitably gets screwed over at the end of the episode. This has happened, for example, in Red Hot Catholic Love (he initially is thrilled at having beaten Kyle in a bet, but becomes furious when Kyle is not crushed) and Christian Rock Hard (where he wins a bet that he could sell a platinum album as a Christian band, but then discovers that Christian music has no platinum rank). Therefore, in the end, Cartman almost always loses (though there are exceptions, such as in Die Hippie, Die).

Related Topics:
Red Hot Catholic Love - Christian Rock Hard - Die Hippie, Die

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It has been repeatedly hinted that Cartman has serious behavioral and emotional problems and/or gender issues. He exhibits several compulsive behaviors, including singing the Styx song 'Come Sail Away', and humming other prog-rock songs (such as one by Asia). He also seems to enjoy humming the Carson Era theme song to The Tonight Show and the Dawson's Creek theme when going about doing dull tasks. He also subconsciously mimics the line "they mostly come at night... mostly," from the 1986 Aliens movie. He occasionally has tea parties with stuffed dolls, pretending they're 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 him dressing up as and pretending to be Britney Spears by dancing round a cardboard cut-out of Justin Timberlake. During Season 4, episode #406, Cartman joins the North American Man-Boy Love Association (NAMBLA) and becomes their poster boy, before he is rescued by the North American Marlon Brando Look Alikes (also NAMBLA).

Related Topics:
Gender issues - Compulsive - Styx - Prog-rock - Asia - Carson Era - The Tonight Show - Dawson's Creek - 1986 - Aliens - The Silence of the Lambs - Buffalo Bill - Britney Spears - Justin Timberlake - North American Man-Boy Love Association - Marlon Brando

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Although quite naive and often wildly misinformed (he once thought dolphins lived in igloos), and frequently characterized as a "fat retard," Cartman has been known to formulate complex plans that have succeeded. In one episode instead of studying, Cartman records the American Revolution on TiVo and electrocutes himself with it in a tub which sends him on a flashback/time travel experience to 1776.

Related Topics:
Dolphin - Igloo - Retard

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Also in Scott Tenorman Must Die, an episode that captures the full essence of Cartman's evil character, he formed a plan to get revenge on Scott Tenorman for tricking him into believing he could enter puberty by getting "pubes" (pubic hair), which he than sold to Cartman. Cartman is humiliated when he learns the truth and when Tenorman dismissively refuses to refund his money, Cartman launches an elaborate plan to get revenge. Cartman has Scott's parents killed, and then cuts up their bodies and feeds them to Scott in a chilli, a la Titus Andronicus. Then, while Scott Tenorman is in shock (after realizing that his parents are dead and that he has been eating them), after a some further over-the-top humiliation results in his being overcome by grief, Cartman dances with delight and licks the tears off of Scott's face, saying "Mmm. Your tears are so yummy and sweet!" At this point Kyle turns to Stan and says "Dude, I think it might be best for us to never piss Cartman off again."

Related Topics:
Scott Tenorman Must Die - Titus Andronicus

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Cartman wears a light blue and yellow ski cap, a red jacket, yellow gloves, and brown pants. He has brown hair, which has been regularly seen since late in Season 5 (his hair magically turns black whenever he wears his Adolf Hitler outfit).

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He also has an evil habit of appearing in peoples' houses in the middle of the night, scaring the occupants silly. He frequently does this to Kyle (possibly entering via a hole in the ceiling he created in the episode Mecha Streisand), but has magically appeared in Butters' room (in the episode "The Death of Eric Cartman"), possibly after stealing the key to his house while disguised as Awesomo.

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A defining character trait of Cartman is his single-mindedness when pursuing his life long goal of making $10 million. The schemes he has tried include starting a church and collecting donation money and starting a boy band called "Fingerbang" (Cartman doesn't realise the sexual innuendo - he says he overheard the term on HBO and assumed it described imitating a firearm with one's finger). He also appears to be driven by a desire to outdo Stan, Kyle, and Kenny, and often lays down challenges and bets to them, such as building a bigger tree house and recording a platinum album. In one episode Kyle deliberately congratulated Cartman on winning a bet, which of course ruined all of Cartman's egotistical satisfaction at having humiliated his peers.

Related Topics:
Boy band - Fingerbang - HBO - Firearm - Platinum album - Egotistical

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Cartman is extremely anti-Semitic and racist. He frequently appears to be determined to eradicate Jews (though Kyle is, of course, Jewish). In the episode "The Passion of the Jew", he sees The Passion of the Christ and thinks it is Mel Gibson's way to rally people against the Jews. He dresses up as Hitler and organizes people in his anti-Jew march (they think it is a march trying to raise awareness for the movie, and Christianity, and that Cartman screaming German is a language used in the movie.)

Related Topics:
Eradicate Jews - Jewish - The Passion of the Jew - The Passion of the Christ - Mel Gibson

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Cartman's bêtes noires throughout the show have been hippies, whom he despises for a variety of reasons. The show drops frequent hints that Cartman gets many of his attitudes from his mother.

Related Topics:
Bêtes noires - Hippies

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Cartman has two pets: Mister Kitty (who is actually female - possible reference to the transgendered Mrs. Cartman) and Fluffy the Pig. In the season one episode, An Elephant Has Sex With A Pig, Fluffy has sex with Kyle's pet elephant and is impregnated by Mister Garrison. Cartman also enjoys hitting things with sticks- particularly Fluffy and Mister Kitty, but also rainforest animals and underpants gnomes.

Related Topics:
Transgender - Elephant - Mister Garrison - Rainforest

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In one episode where Cartman finally got his hands on $1 million, he used it to buy his own amusement park (like Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch), which he did not allow anyone else to enjoy. It went about as well as anyone would have expected. After this episode, Stone and Parker described Cartman as "the ONLY person who could have fun at an amusement park all by himself."

Related Topics:
Amusement park - Michael Jackson - Neverland Ranch

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He also once painted his hand with lipstick and claimed it was Jennifer Lopez. At first it was just to annoy his friends, but soon the hand took on a life of its own, landing a record contract singing pop songs about tacos and burritos and wooing Ben Affleck, drawing the real Lopez's wrath. The episode further hints at Cartman's sexual confusion when 'the hand' masturbates Affleck. The episode ended on a soap opera-like note, with the hand revealing itself as an ex-convict in drag named Mitch Connor who wanted one last chance at love, who then kills himself with cyanide, returning Cartman's hand back to normal.

Related Topics:
Jennifer Lopez - Taco - Burrito - Ben Affleck - Soap opera - Cyanide

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Cartman has some redeeming qualities: he has saved the boys, the town, and the entire world on a few occasions. In the episode, Rainforest Shmainforest, Cartman's hatred of the rainforest saves the boys and the choir group, Getting Gay With Kids, from the fictionalized violent native people of Costa Rica. In the full-length movie, ', his filthy mouth, coupled with the experimental V-chip implanted in his brain to stop him from swearing, saves the world from Saddam Hussein. More recently, in the episode "Die Hippie, Die", his intolerance of hippies saves South Park from a hippie music festival, and more recently, in Best Friends Forever, in an ironic twist, he saved the world from a gruesome Armageddon by going to the Supreme Court and accquiring the rights to pull out Kenny's feeding tube so that he can get his hands on a Sony PSP, whereas Kyle and Stan try to save him by bringing the media to save his life because they believe those are Kenny's wishes.

Related Topics:
Costa Rica - V-chip - Saddam Hussein - Die Hippie, Die - Music festival - Best Friends Forever - Armageddon - Supreme Court - Sony - PSP

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In many ways, Cartman is reminsicent of Daffy Duck: Both are unapologetically greedy and narcissistic, and both are often brought down by their hubris.

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Cartman is the only boy in the series who does not have a REAL father. This is because of his hermaphrodite mother, who became pregnant after self-insemination.

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Eric Cartman: Favorite words and catchphrases ►