Eric Cartman

Eric Theodore Cartman, voiced by Trey Parker, is one of the four central characters of South Park.

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 a cartoon character, it might just be allowed. Hence, Cartman was born.

Family
His mother (Liane Cartman) is an intersexual porn-queen (but a very sweet mom all the same), his other parent is unknown. Ms. 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 a parallel universe).

Friends
Kenny McCormick seems to be his best friend out of the bunch as he'll do almost anything Cartman wants. But he's also friends with Stan Marsh and Kyle Broflovski although they usually get into an argument and he try's to out-do them. Eric, who is often only addressed as Cartman, "Fatass" or "the fat kid", is spoiled, self-centered to the point of narcissism, foul-tempered, foul-mouthed, disloyal, manipulative, cowardly, racist, anti-Semitic, bullying, and openly contemptuous of the few who can stand his company.

Popularity
As the chubby antihero of the four lads, he was never intended to be the hero of the series, but within the first season he captured the popular imagination more than his three friends. The more outrageous his behavior, the more audiences seem to love him. (Compare Archie Bunker's original inspiration, Alf Garnett.)

Problems
Cartman has been hinted as having serious emotional problems and/or gender issues; he occasionally has tea parties with stuffed dolls, and has also been shown dressing up as and pretending to be Britney Spears. During Season 4, episode #406, Cartman joins NAMBLA, the North American Man-Boy Love Association and becomes their poster boy, before he is rescued by NAMBLA, the North American Marlon Brando Look Alikes.

Apperance
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 Hitler outfit). Cartman has dressed up as Hitler in one of the halloween specials and in an episode from the 8th season. He tries to organize people in the episode where he sees The Passion, and thinks it is Mel Gibson's way to rally people against the Jews. He can be seen as Hitler after he organizes all the people in his anti-Jew march (though they think it's something else.) The eradication of all the Jews is one of his life goals, with his other goal to make 10 million dollars. He has had numerous attempts, including starting a church and collecting donation money and starting a boy band called "Fingerbang" (Cartman doesn't know what it really means, he says he saw it on HBO), which he had a vision of in a dream. When Cartman got a million dollars, he used it to buy his own amusement park, which he did not allow anyone else to go into. It went about as well as anyone would have expected. When Officer Barbrady is fired for his illiteracy, he becomes Deputy Cartman, and he begins to enforce the law in South Park.

Favorite words and catchphrases

 * Eric Cartman quotes
 * "Screw you guys, I'm going home."
 * "You're breaking my balls man, you're breaking my balls!"
 * "You will respect my authoritah (sic)!"
 * "I'm not fat, I'm big boned"
 * "This is all a bunch of tree-hugging hippie crap!"
 * "... or I'll kick you (square) in the nuts!"
 * "Sweeeet!"
 * "You can go over nyahh, but I'm going over nyah!"
 * "Your family's poor Kenny! YOUR FAMILY'S POOR!"
 * "hippie!" (to any person he is displeased with)
 * "balls" (a word that somehow finds its way into Cartman's lines in nearly every episode)
 * "Sieg Heil! Sieg Heil! Sieg Heil!" In Season 1, where he dresses up as Adolf Hitler and goes to school.

Links
Cartman's Quotes South Park Biography