Eric Cartman

Eric Theodore Cartman is a character on South Park voiced by Trey Parker, he is one of the five main characters on South Park (Stan, Kyle, Kenny, and Butters). His birthday is July 1st.

Appearance
Cartman wears a red jacket, yellow gloves and a blue hat with a yellow puff ball on top, brown pants, and black shoes. He sometimes wears a green T-shirt under his jacket, and other times a white tank top. He has medium-brown hair.

Personality
Cartman is a spoiled, foul-mouthed, ill-tempered, violent, insensitive, sociopathic, arrogant, greedy, racist, rude, hypercritical, wildly insecure, sadistic, bigoted, corrupt, and manipulative, fat ass. The very dark, often 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 express schadenfreude, which means taking 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". This has been parodied as well, in the cliche 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 to be concerned of people's safety at the beginning, but it is later shown to only have been acting in his own interests; in the "Do the Handicapped Go to Hell?" 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, but as we find out later, he only did it so he could get money; and in "Kenny Dies", where he is distraught at Kenny's impending death, leading Kyle to console him, and later when his supposedly real motives were revealed, knowing how Cartman typically is, Kyle promptly beats him up in Kenny's defense (although Cartman was genuinely distraught over Kenny's illness before and after he learns that he can benefit from it and the end of the episode clearly shows that Cartman went through Congress for Kenny and that he just doesn't have a healthy way of dealing with the death of his friend).

In "The Death of Eric Cartman", Kyle brands him a "fat, racist, self-centered, intolerant, manipulative sociopath". Cartman, however, does not consider himself to be a bad fat ass who likes to pick on other people to pleasure his self person; in fact, he seems to disregard good or bad altogether and does whatever he feels necessary for him to get ahead. Cartman seems to be motivated not so much by personal gain as by asserting superiority over others, usually Kyle. In "Red Hot Catholic Love", he won $20 in a bet with Kyle, but instead of using the money, he simply flaunted it in front of Kyle until Kyle conceded that Cartman was right, ruining his sense of victory and causing him to throw a tantrum (and apparently even abandon the money). The same thing happens in "Christian Rock Hard": Kyle makes a $10 bet that he can get a platinum album before Cartman, but Cartman makes a successful album and makes millions of dollars and earning the album. But when Cartman discovers that the Christian companies do not give out platinum albums (Christ did not believe in such things, the albums stem from the gifts of the three wise men--they give out Gold, Frankincense andMyrhh), thus meaning he cannot win the bet, he angrily destroys the album, showing that he did not care how he just made millions of dollars, he just wanted to beat Kyle.

Cartman's much quoted line, "Respect my authority" (or as Cartman pronounces it, "authori-tah") highlights his power hungry and dictatorial characteristic. Cartman's friendships with the other kids are clearly existent, but just not shown as much because of his personality.

Ironically, despite (or perhaps because of) these qualities, Cartman also seems to be a natural leader, able to utilize overwhelming charisma and rhetoric to gain the obedience of large groups on a moment's notice (as in "The Passion of the Jew"), appearing to be innately aware of how to take advantage of "mob mentality" and direct it toward accomplishing his personal goals, as has been evidenced in countless episodes throughout the series' history. In situations where the other boys share his goals, Cartman is often the de facto leader (for example, "Make Love, Not Warcraft" and "Marjorine"). Indeed, the others consistently show a willingness to follow him and trust in his leadership when he's using his abilities for "good."

He also shows interest in the planet Endor where the small, bearlike species of Ewoks live in the Star Wars universe created by George Lucas as shown in the episode "Clubhouses", when he and Kenny build a tree house called the "Ewok Village" and in "Chickenpox" when he writes a report on "how America should be more like Endor where the Ewoks live because they live in the trees and have barbecues" and he would like to live there.

Quotes

 * "You guys, I'm seriously!"
 * "I hate you Kenny."
 * "I'm gonna buy her a vaccum cleaner, chicks love vaccum cleaners."
 * "Shut up Kenny you poor piece of crap!"
 * "Screw you guys, I'm going home."
 * "Respect mah authoritah (authority)!"
 * "Damn Hippies!" (Used in a variation of ways)
 * "I'm not fat, I'm big boned."
 * "Nah nah nah nah naaaaaaah nah, I made you eat your parents."
 * "Ha, ha charade you are! (from Pink Floyd's Animals)"

Trivia

 * Cartman's birthday is July 1st.
 * Cartman is biologically Jewish.
 * Cartman's address is 28201 E Bonanza St, South Park, CO. in "Jackovasaurus".
 * Cartman's possible crush is Heidi Turner.
 * Stan's girlfriend Wendy Testaburger has kissed Cartman on the lips in "Chef Goes Nanners".

Season 3

 * Two Guys Naked in a Hot Tub
 * Jewbilee

Season 4

 * Pip

Season 10

 * A Million Little Fibers
 * Stanley's Cup

Season 11

 * More Crap