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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
Despite being one of the two tritagonists 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 alongside 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 a 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.
Heroic Acts
Perhaps the most heroic act of Cartman is in the film, "South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut", his frequent use of vulgarity, after getting electrocuted by a power box, coupled with the experimental V-chip implanted in his brain to stop him from swearing (which gave him temporary electrostatic powers), deliberately helps save the world from Saddam Hussein.
In "Major Boobage", he hides his pet cat and other cats in his attic so they won't get taken away, at first he refuses to hide them because he didn't want to get in trouble, but his love for cats got the better of him and decides to hide them.
In "Follow That Egg", he and Hedi are paired for a project. They had to raise an egg like it was their child, Cartman went up to Garrison, brought her a broken egg, and said that he broke it and Heidi didn't, and told Garrison to give him an F and Heidi an A, that way the grade will be C-, he was taking full responsibility for breaking the egg.
In "Fishsticks", when Kanye West and his friends confronted Cartman and Jimmy because he thinks that they say he's a gay fish even though it was quotes to a joke, Cartman tells Kanye and his friends to let Jimmy go and that he was the one who came up with the joke. He knew Kayne wanted to hurt and/or kill the person who came up with it. He was trying to take Jimmy's place so that Jimmy would be alive and well.
In "Rainforest Shmainforest", Cartman asks the construction workers to save Miss Stevens and the remaining children from the tribe of natives called the Yamagapa.
In "Die Hippie, Die", his intolerance of hippies saves South Park from a drug-filled hippie music festival.
In "I'm a Little Bit Country", by filling his TiVo with the history channel and dropping it and himself into a pool, he able to travel back in time to 1776, where he is able to institute the American tradition of Ice Cream Thursdays and return to South Park with a special 100th episode message about war and peace.
In "The Snuke", Cartman's intolerance against Muslims and his use of racial profiling save the day.
In "Grey Dawn", Cartman is the boy that figures out that by shutting down Country Kitchen Buffet, the Elderly won't have anywhere to get food, this being one of the few occasions where the boys rely on Cartman's planning (but only to an extent; Cartman wanted Kyle to suicide bomb the Buffet, but Stan over-ruled that and said they would only lock the doors).
In "The Death of Eric Cartman", Cartman is under the belief that he was a ghost trapped on Earth until things were made right. He distracts three escaped convicts who were holding ten people hostage at the Red Cross while Butters lets them escape. Also in this episode Cartman makes up for all his previous wrongs such as the Sally Struthers incident ("Starvin' Marvin"), feeding parents to their child ("Scott Tenorman Must Die"), and crapping in the Principal Victoria's purse (seven times), however this was only to get in to the afterlife (Even though he wasn't dead), he didn't feel that way, and was not sorry to any of them at all.
In "Smug Alert!", he saves Kyle's family from a smug storm (however, this is due to the fact that Cartman had no one else to taunt and insult).
In "Make Love, Not Warcraft", Cartman, Stan, Kyle and Kenny logged into World of Warcraft together to kill the player killer Jenkins' character. First, Stan retrieves the Sword of a Thousand Truths from his dad. Second Kenny shoots his arrow and Kyle uses magic to paralyze Jenkins' character. And finally, after Cartman says, "Looks like you're about to get pwned", he crushes the player killer's head with his war hammer.
In "The Succubus", Cartman helps his friends to save Chef from unknowingly marrying a Succubus. Unfortunately, he doesn't prove to be very useful because at the time he was recovering from laser corrective surgery for his eyes.
In "Miss Teacher Bangs a Boy", Cartman helps Kyle to save his brother Ike from his Kindergarten teacher Ms. Stevenson, whom Ike was having an unhealthy sexual relationship with. Although Cartman was doing it because the two were making out in the school hallways while he was the hall monitor (A job he took very seriously), he proves extraordinarily helpful and Kyle thanks him.
In "Roger Ebert Should Lay Off the Fatty Foods", Cartman, angry at the other boys for missing his commercial debut, kicks the star projector, sending the full blast of the mind control machine into Dr. Adams' brain, saving the kids, Mr. Mackey, and Nurse Gollum from being put under mind control.
In "Osama bin Laden Has Farty Pants", Cartman repeatedly outsmarts, injures, and humiliates Osama Bin Laden until he is executed by a US soldier.
In "Cat Orgy", Cartman helps Shelly get back at Skyler for dumping her. When Skyler tries to get his revenge towards them as well, Cartman throws the box of catnip at his face, making the cats try to rape him and rip his pants off in the process.
In "The Poor Kid", Cartman told on the abusive foster parents to his councillor. If he didn't tell on the foster parents, Mysterion wouldn't have been able to save Karen and the foster kids as easily.
In "Imaginationland" ManBearPig kills Kyle and Cartman is devastated. Cartman then starts to punch the chest of Kyle's dead body in an effort to revive him, to which Kyle begins to breathe after coughing. (Although, Cartman did this to get Kyle to suck his balls rather than genuine care.)
While all four boys have been through adventures over the years and share similar goals of wealth and popularity, there is no weaker link between the four than the often intense rivalry between Cartman and Kyle. While the latter sees himself as more moral and philosophical, often trying to take the safest and most logical route, the notoriously stubborn and selfish Cartman will take what he wants by any means necessary, a common source of conflict between the two. Though they have been shown on rare yet notable occasions to be on civil terms, Cartman often shows an extremely sadistic and hateful side towards Kyle and will stop at nothing to humiliate him, and Kyle in turn often sees humiliating Cartman as morally justifiable, particularly given his anti-semitism. The two have also been known to make bets with full intent of humiliating one another, such as the loser having to pay a sum of money, being each other's slave or on one famous occasion, suck the winner's balls. Cartman in particular takes extreme pleasure in Kyle's suffering- going as far as to break him in Ginger Cow and even fantasizing about his tears, oddly enough. Cartman himself has shown a disturbing lack of care for Kyle's wellbeing as well; whether it be laughing at his bodily mutation from a certain apple company, or offering him up to a room of very angry Germans.
Cartman and Kyle have come to blows on multiple occasions, mostly notably after Cartman and Butters broke into the Broflovski Residence to infect Kyle with the HIV virus, when they had to be broken up by Mr. Mackey, as well as the FOX headquarters when they came into conflict over a controversial Family Guy episode, and after Kenny McCormick's death and funeral, when Cartman used stem cells to create a new Shakey's Pizza. Despite hatred, when the two boys can set their differences aside, and a common goal is clear in sight, Cartman and Kyle can make incredibly strong allies, although this always seems to disband one way or another. They do have some common interests they do not share with Stan and Kenny in the same fashion, such as Faith Hilling and the Xbox One, and also share a particular shared business talent that is displayed both in their time together working at the Crack Baby Athletic Association and during their time at the Washington Redskins start-up company, where they even lead a high-profile press conference together. They maintain a surprising degree of tolerance for one another, with Kyle in particular continuing to feel sympathy for Cartman and his moments of plight despite their problems, and Cartman recognizing Kyle’s assets for various schemes, allowing no bathroom break stop him.
Another thing to note is Cartman's obsessive hatred with Kyle. Although hating his opponent dearly, when faced with the possibility of loosing him permanently from the horrors of San Francisco, he's willing to save him to avoid boredom and have an entertaining rival to torment once more. Kyle himself is willing to save Cartman as well, although for significantly less selfish reasons. Although loathing him with all his heart, Kyle is willing to compromise it all in order to see Cartman do the right thing once in his life- although he may be too optimistic in that regard.
The two have occasionally gotten along such as in "Kenny Dies" and "Pinkeye" when Kyle put his hand on Cartman's shoulder when was upset about Kenny dying. In fact, in "You Have 0 Friends", Cartman helped Kyle make new friends, even though Cartman did not appear to be gaining anything out of it. In "It's a Jersey Thing", Kyle was ironically the one who saved Cartman when he was being raped by Snooki. Cartman showed genuine appreciation for this act, thanking him and later going as far as to say that although Kyle was a "monster" (for having Jersey blood running through his veins), he was "my [Cartman's] little monster", and pinched his cheek. Although they bicker constantly, the two haven't full on fought since then, and have had a lot more moments together where they seem happy, such as Kyle sharing music with Cartman in "You're Getting Old". There are also moments such as in "Faith Hilling" where the two share a common goal. However, there are many moments where they are at ends like earlier in the series, such as in the Coon trilogy. Therefore, their friendship is in a constant state of disrepair.
The back-and-forth of their outward conflict yet still regularly meeting with the other boys can be seen as somewhat ironic. Therefore, Kyle and Cartman could be seen to have a more complex connection than Stan and Kyle with . In "The Entity", Kyle described Cartman as "my sort of friend-ish", as his best explanation of their relationship.
In "You're Getting Old", Stan's behavior change upon turning 10 causes a rift to develop occurs in his friendships with Kyle, Cartman and Kenny to the point where they no longer wish to interact with him. As a result, at the episode's end with Cartman and Kyle playing video games together, the pair offer each other kind smiles, showing their friendship growing even further.
In "Ass Burgers", Kyle and Cartman have quite a few friendly moments together. Although they are shown bickering, the argument isn't angry as most of the arguments between the two can be. Kyle is quick to support Cartman in his new business, even going so far as to tell Stan that they can't be friends anymore because he's with Cartman Burgers now. When Stan shows up, drunk, talking to Kyle, it is shown that Cartman is keeping a close eye on them from where he was standing. He even eventually comes over to check if Kyle is okay, giving Stan a distasteful look. However, this is rapidly tarnished by the episode's end when Kyle discovers his method for producing his burgers.
In "Jewpacabra", Cartman constantly rips on Jews throughout the episode, even to the point of making up a Jewish creatures that eats children in Easter egg hunts. When Cartman believes that the creature could be real and is chained so the creature can eat him, he is tranquilized and is hazed. Kyle finds him and takes him home and puts him to bed. The next day, at the Sooper Foods Easter egg hunt, Cartman claims that he is Jewish and knows how Kyle feels.
In "Skank Hunt", Kyle was convinced that Cartman was the online troll Skankhunt42, and he along with Stan, Butters, Craig, Token, Clyde, and Jimmy lured Cartman to a cabin and smashed all of his electronics. Later they discovered that Cartman was telling the truth and that was not Skankhunt. Kyle later felt tremendous guilt for his actions and even cried when viewing a class photo. Despite Cartman being ostracized from his male peers, Cartman was in contact with Kyle and Butters the most, but still did not rejoin their circle. After the conclusion of Season Twenty, Cartman was able to fully forgive Kyle and his former group of friends, as he is no longer isolated from them and rejoined his cricle of friends. Despite this, due to Cartman relapsing to his old ways prior to Season Twenty, he became a horrible boyfriend to Heidi Turner, often mistreating her and even tried to kill her, but Kyle called him out for it. Cartman also tricked Heidi into eating meat while knowing she is a vegan. Kyle, on the other hand, was constantly irritated by Cartman repeatedly calling Heidi derogatory and hurtful things, and not understanding how Heidi can go out with a person like Cartman. Heidi then reveals to Kyle that she tolerates Cartman's abuse because she does not want to admit to her friends that she made a bad decision when she became his girlfriend, as they are constantly criticizing her and not giving her the space she needs, causing her to double down. Kyle, along with Heidi's friends convinced Heidi to break up with Cartman, and she did. She also started a relationship with Kyle, though the outcome did not go the way as he hoped, he went along with. When Cartman found out that Kyle had stolen his girlfriend, he became furious and confronted Kyle about it in the school hallway, leading to a brief physical confrontation between the two, with Kyle knocking Cartman out. Cartman and Heidi later got back together after he manipulated her into taking him back, and he also got Heidi to inadvertently call Kyle a "dirty Jew".
Rumors of a relationship have been spurred by Cartman on occasion but have never been endorsed by Kyle in any way, shape or form.
Cartman and Stan's friendship is clearly existent but it is very tense. In fact, when Kyle and Kenny aren't around, he and Stan often don't show a close friendship with each other or rarely interact one-on-one.
In "Two Days Before the Day After Tomorrow", Stan and Cartman hang out at the boating rack, and Cartman even comments that it is great that they are hanging out with each other without Kyle, to which Stan does not disagree to, implying that Stan somewhat shares these feelings. Stan also agrees with Cartman in the episode, such as not telling Kyle he caused the dam to break, and not telling Randy he was the one who broke the dam.
Cartman's song "Kyle's Mom's a Bitch" was joined by all the other classmates (minus Kyle of course), even getting Stan's attention in which Stan actually enjoys the song.
In "Fat Butt and Pancake Head", while Kyle is immediately distrustful of Cartman's claim that he cannot control the actions of his hand (which has seemed to take on a life of its own), Stan gives Cartman the benefit of the doubt and admits that, with all the stuff that happens in South Park, Cartman could be telling the truth. Cartman and Stan were also seen interacting one on one in "Sexual Healing" when Kyle, Kenny and Butters were away at the Karne Institute for Sex Addicts and they were playing with each other on the domestic violence/golf video game Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2011 at Cartman's house and they were getting along just fine with no arguments. When the boys were playing street hockey in "Grey Dawn", Stan was the only one he didn't insult, referring to him as "Marsh", as any commentator would, as opposed to Kyle and Kenny, who he referred to as "the Jew" and "the Poor Kid", respectively.
In "Woodland Critter Christmas", Cartman made Stan the protagonist of his Christmas story (he is described as 'the boy in a red poof-ball hat'). Everyone but Kyle likes the story, including Stan. The fact that Stan is portrayed normally in the Christmas story hints that Stan is Cartman's friend, unlike Kyle, who is portrayed as evil. In "Douche and Turd", Stan votes for Cartman's mascot instead of Kyle's, much to Kyle's dismay. Also, in the episode "Are You There God? It's Me, Jesus", when Stan appears to be the only boy who hasn't gotten their period, Cartman reassures him that he will get it one day. However, in "Osama bin Laden Has Farty Pants", Cartman declares that he hates Stan because Stan loves animals. Even so, in the episode "Trapped in the Closet", all three boys de-friend Stan after he becomes the leader of Scientology. As the boys leave, Cartman turns to Stan and says, "I still hate Kyle more than you". In "Fun with Veal", when Cartman was negotiating for weapons and an escape route for him and the rest of the boys, he is at first reluctant to meet the demands of the timid FBI negotiator, but soon agreed to his conditions when he looked at Stan and recognized the sores (which were actually mini-vaginas) on his body and his deteriorating health. This implies that Cartman cares about Stan's well being to an extent. Another reference to their friendship is in "Pee" when Cartman notices that Kyle, Stan, Butters and Jimmy are still alive he instantly hugs Stan, running past Kyle.
In some episodes Stan is shown having a strong hatred for Cartman even if Cartman isn't doing anything. In "Trapper Keeper" when the cyborg says he has to kill Cartman, Stan asks if he can do it, and prepares to shoot Cartman before the cyborg decides against the idea. In "Spookyfish" Stan is fully for sending Cartman away forever. Although Stan is much more tolerant and accepting of Cartman than Kyle is, sometimes even Kenny, he often holds Cartman in very high contempt for his unacceptable behavior. In "Bass to Mouth", when Mr. Mackey claimed that Cartman killed himself for being fat when the school faculty "threw him under the bus", Stan was only concerned with preventing Eavesdropper from publishing the biggest story.
In "You're Getting Old", Cartman ends his friendship with Stan rather quickly after Stan's personality change, and soon begins getting along better Kyle, who also ends his friendship with Stan. Though, they did become friends again in "Ass Burgers".
In "Skank Hunt", Stan along with Kyle, Craig, Butters, Clyde, Token, and Jimmy smashed all of Cartman's electronics in the search for Skankhunt42. However, when they discovered that Cartman was not the troll and that he was indeed telling the truth, they felt remorse for their actions. Despite this, Cartman isolated himself from Stan and the other boys as he felt that he had no one. Between Seasons Twenty and Twenty-One, Cartman eventually forgave Stan and the other boys for breaking his stuff as he rejoined his group of friends and is now in close contact with Stan once again.
Because of Cartman's selfish personality, his friendship with Kenny isn't as obvious as Stan and Kyle's, and it sometimes looks fake, but it is clearly existent. They're also shown to share a sense of humor, as can be seen in the episode "How to Eat with Your Butt" when Kenny and Cartman continue an elaborate joke, despite Stan and Kyle's objections.
On the other hand, while they often insult one another openly, with Cartman once declaring his hatred of Kenny purely because they were alone together, a close friendship nonetheless exists between both boys, and they have considered themselves each other’s best friend for years. Before his complete transformation into the vile sociopath we know today, Cartman had mourned at Kenny’s funerals, and exhibited concern over his well-being. Even after his alteration of character, Cartman has admitted multiple times at his deathbed that he felt both him and Kenny were best friends. Kenny as well also mentions in his will that he “feels sorry for [Cartman” and leaves him his most valuable possession. While Stan and Kyle often bond over mutual trust and similar beliefs, Kenny and Cartman often seem to bond over vices and mischief. They have shared secrets, such as when they borrowed Stephen Stotch's drone, and have also been to Casa Bonita together on occasion, but often disagree nonetheless, most notably during the bitter Console Wars, and of course, on the methods of superheroism, coming to a head when Cartman teamed up with the mighty Cthulhu.
While most episodes depict the boys as ignorant of Kenny's deaths, Cartman has acknowledged them more than any other character on the show, openly mentioning that he "dies all the time" on one occasion, though this has not been fully consistent. He has also been visited by Kenny's spirit after his passing, and after mistaking his ashes for chocolate milk mix, hosted Kenny's spirit for several episodes during the sixth season.
Butters has become Cartman's most frequent victim. Butters sees Cartman as his good friend and treats him as so but in later episodes he treats Cartman the same as everybody else. But, Cartman takes advantage of this and finds Butters extremely easy to manipulate and convert to his point of view, or get him to do what he wants.
While the foundation of Butters and Cartman’s relationship has largely been driven by Cartman’s selfishness and Butters’ kind, earnest desire to listen to his problems, comfort him after his failures, help him with any scheme he suggests and allow himself to be manipulated in unspeakable ways, the two have gradually the two boys have developed a genuine friendship over the years and Butters’ naivete seems to have invited Cartman to trust and confide in him in ways he rarely has with the other boys. Butters has picked up a number of habits from Cartman both positive and negative, including transphobia and misogynism, but has also notably pushed back on occasion and stood up to Cartman.
Eric Cartman has a surprising history with Heidi Turner that goes back quite a while.
When Cartman began to lead a Church in South Park at the end of the kids' third grade year, he attracted the attention of kids far and wide throughout the town including a girl named 'Marcy'. The church ended up to be a get-rich-quick scheme resulting in her father's death.
Heidi and Cartman were later partnered for the fourth grade egg project and despite a mutual dissatisfaction with the initial choices, the two took care of their egg. When Cartman damaged the egg, he asked Mrs. Garrison to give Heidi a better grade in hopes of averaging it for both of them, it's still altruistic by Cartman standards. On a side note, he received four days of detention from PC Principal for referring to Heidi as "clitty litter".
When the girls were harassed online by a troll named skankhunt42, Heidi was the first to openly accuse Cartman of being behind it despite his denial. The troll's continued abuse eventually drove Heidi to quit Twitter and the to would later form an unlikely friendship when Cartman was cast out of social media by his friends. Apologizing for her earlier accusations, they began comfort each other over the isolation they found themselves in.
They took their relationship even further when Heidi settled Cartmans dilemma as to whether girls do have balls. The experience of seeing hers in the dark with a flashlight triggered a spiritual awakening for Cartman and they officially became a couple. The two of them constantly held hands hang out and referred to each other by pet names like "boo" or "babe". Despite the disgust and disbelief of their classmates Heidi and Eric would defend each other and work to create positive changes in the school.
Their relationship however started to show a lack of depth on Cartmans behalf. Despite how Eric showed to be genuinely happy and protective of being with Heidi, Cartman doesn't actually respect her, he just talks about respecting her. A common phrase he had used was to constantly say how Heidi's "really smart and funny" but after a foreboding chat with Butters along with seeing Heidi cleverly solving a real problem for the first time, Cartman becomes convinced that Heidi, (and all women), are not only not funny but conspiring against men.
Eventually things soon took a rocky turn as Cartman could not bother to be honest or even stand being around Heidi, convincing his friends she was mentally abusive. He would even go so far as to nearly kill her by pushing her in front of a car and by having a witch try to abduct her (because of her lack of time management skills). Heidi however remains with him in part due to his threats to kill himself if they ever break up but also as a reaction to the constant criticism she gets from her friends causing her to double down. Eventually she attempts to avoid this by adopting Cartman's views, further alienating herself from the people who care about her.
Despite trying to help Cartman for the better, Heidi ending up becoming more like her boyfriend herself, adopting his attitude and becoming fat and self loathing. She began to adopt his self-loathing and bad attitude and by blaming everything else instead of her toxic relationship, Heidi fell in a downward spiral with only her boyfriend and the torment of others to sustain it. Only after an adventure with the boys in which she visited the places in which her romance with Cartman was born was she able to reflect on her relationship and how it transformed her for the worse. She then held Cartman at gunpoint blaming him for the person she became, but soon realizes that she has been engaging in self-victimization ever since she started her relationship with Cartman. She decides to abandon the victim-hood lifestyle and break up with Cartman. Cartman tries to get Heidi to take him back by threatening suicide but the attempt failed as Heidi is now fully aware of Cartman's manipulative nature and simply leaves him.
The two haven't had much onscreen interactions since then, but it can be assumed that they are currently on bad terms since their final break-up. Heidi is shown sitting far from Cartman in her two appearances in "The Problem with a Poo" implying that she’s intentionally trying to avoid him. Likewise Cartman claims to have anxiety in "Buddha Box" because he can no longer trust or stand people anymore, including Heidi, and in "Board Girls" he insults her and the other girls for reading the rule books to win at board games and Heidi ignores him. In "Basic Cable", Scott Malkinson asks Cartman for love advice mentioning how he and Heidi were together a long time and Cartman tells Scott that girls and relationships are diabetes times ten showing that Cartman is still bitter about the break-up.
Cartman has always had a rivalry with the intelligent and level-headed Wendy Testaburger, his buddy Stan's girlfriend and one of the smartest students at South Park Elementary. They argue in class on a frequent basis, and he has targeted her for humiliation on more than one occasion. Cartman is known to taunt Wendy for her liberal and environmentalist views, and often refers to her as a hippie or a tree hugger. However, in "Chef Goes Nanners", after they were working together on the flag debate, he entertained her by talking through two action figures. During this encounter, they found out that they had a lot in common with each other. When Wendy kissed him at the presentation to get her emotions out of her system, he was pleased and facially bragged to Stan about it. He later seemed dejected when Wendy told him her feelings for him were gone which obviously proved he fancied her. It is believed his taunting of her is his way of "pulling pigtails".
In "Bebe's Boobs Destroy Society", after Wendy grows adult-sized breasts Cartman and the other boys laugh at her and Cartman calls her a "stupid bitch".
In the episode "Breast Cancer Show Ever", Cartman treats Wendy's plea for breast cancer awareness as a joke, and subsequently she beats him up, leaving him in a pool of his own blood.
In "Dances with Smurfs", Cartman began a smear campaign against Wendy. He consistently accused Wendy of hating Smurfs and repeatedly called her derogatory names. He wrote What Happened to My School?, a book about Wendy's supposed sexual exploits, and held a book signing, selling the books for $5 each. This is likely an act of revenge against Wendy as he may still hold a grudge against her after she beat him up in "Breast Cancer Show Ever".
He has simultaneously described her as having "huge frickin' hooters" and being "flat as a pancake". If anything, it shows he's a little bit preoccupied with her chest.
Cartman maintained a friendly relationship with his neighbor Chef until the latter's departure and later death, crying when he left town and admitting to Butters that he genuinely cared about him. Chef also played a crucial role in curing Cartman when Kenny's soul was trapped inside his body. Chef is the only recurring character, besides Cartman's own mother, that he has ever shown any selfless interest toward.
Throughout the series, Cartman shows a special dislike for Craig. He usually tries to prove Craig wrong and annoy him. In many episodes Craig competes against Cartman and shows satisfaction when he has advantages. This can be seen "Quest for Ratings" or "South Park is Gay!", where Cartman declares wrathfully "God, I hate Craig! That son of a bitch!". In another episode Cartman tries to go to Craig when runs from home, but Craig tells him he hates him and shuts the door in his face. However, whenever all the boys join forces for a common cause, such as in "Marjorine", "Imaginationland" or "The List", Craig is usually Cartman's right-hand man. In "Tweek vs. Craig", Cartman trained Craig in sumo wrestling. In "Good Times with Weapons", Cartman is the most excited in showing off their weapons to Craig. In "Skank Hunt", he along with Stan, Kyle, Butters, Clyde, Jimmy and Token smash Cartman's electronics due to them thinking that he is Skankhunt42.
After the events of "The End of Serialization as We Know It", Cartman appears to have forgiven Craig as well as the other boys for breaking his stuff, as he is now shown to be no longer ostracized from them and is seen with them regularly.
Ever since "Cartman's Silly Hate Crime 2000", Clyde seems to show great respect for Cartman, since he went through everyone calling him a fat ass. Everyone seems to be shocked whenever Clyde stands up for Cartman, especially Cartman (one example was in "Marjorine"). Clyde joined Cartman's pirate crew in "Fatbeard". He is also always in Cartman's groups whenever Cartman assembles a group against other enemies. In "You Have 0 Friends", he invited Cartman to participate in his birthday party at "Casa Bonita". After watching the Terrance and Phillip commercial in the episode "The New Terrance and Phillip Movie Trailer", he immediately calls Clyde and goes to his house to watch it again. Furthermore, in You Have 0 Friends, Cartman encourages people to add Clyde as a friend on Facebook. However, "Make Love, Not Warcraft", Clyde is reluctant to join the Cartman-led attack on the Jenkins the Griefer, and ultimately no-shows as he is more preoccupied looking at a Playboy centerfold than playing the game. Cartman also once slingshotted Clyde in the balls for his own (and, as he later defended his actions in "Red Sleigh Down", Token's) amusement. In "Skank Hunt" Clyde joins Stan, Kyle, Butters, Jimmy, Craig and Token to smash all of Cartman's electronics due to them thinking that he was Skankhunt42.
However in "White People Renovating Houses", Clyde and most of the other boys (except Craig) are seen hanging out at Cartman's house, showing that he is no longer isolated from them as seen throughout Season Twenty. This also means that he most likely forgave Clyde and the other boys for destroying his stuff in Skank Hunt.
It appears that Cartman has a strong hatred for Clyde, as shown by his "Shit List" in "The Fractured But Whole" where he placed Clyde 3rd for his most hated person, after Kyle and Liane Cartman respectively.
Cartman has a mixed relationship with Token Black, although it is mostly negative, displayed by his use of stereotypes and general, reoccurring meanness to him. Token really hates Cartman because he's generally racist toward numerous minority groups, including black people. In "Cartman's Silly Hate Crime 2000", when Token constantly mocks Cartman about his weight, and Kyle after provokes him, Cartman throws a rock Token. However, after being released from prison and after winning the race against the girls, Cartman vows to never take his friends for granted again, much to Token's delight, who starts to warm up to him. In "Here Comes the Neighborhood", Cartman makes fun of him because he is rich and wealthy. In "Christian Rock Hard", Cartman got beat up by Token after he wasted money that they made and scared their crowd away; he also racially insinuated that Token could play bass guitar on the grounds that he was black, which turned out to be true. Him, Butters and Token have their own album, Faith + 1. In "The Death of Eric Cartman", Cartman remorsefully apologizes to Token for ripping on him for being black (thinking that he was a ghost and doesn't realize that he was being ignored at the time). In "1%", Cartman hides in Token's house, thinking that he will be safe from any assaults because Token is black. In "Cartman Finds Love", Cartman repeatedly worked to ensure that Token and Nichole became a couple, on the grounds that, in his words "blacks belong together". In "Skank Hunt", he joins Stan, Kyle, Butters, Jimmy, Craig and Clyde to smash Eric Cartman's electronics.
However, after the conclusion of Season Twenty, following Cartman's return to his male friends, he may have forgiven Token and the other boys for breaking his electronics as Token is seen hanging out at Cartman's house in "White People Renovating Houses".
Wendy's best friend, Bebe, often shows hatred for Cartman, as he does for her. In "Raisins", Bebe tells Stan that Wendy wants to break up with Stan, leading to a heated argument between Cartman and Bebe, Cartman calls Bebe a whore numerous times to which Bebe calls Cartman a fat ass. In "The Ungroundable" at the beginning of the episode, all of the kids are seen playing Call of Duty: World At War. Cartman is shot and killed by someone within the game and he says, "Ah! Who just shot me?!", and Bebe leans away from her computer and flips Cartman off, saying that she killed him within the game, when Cartman's character respawns, he immediately attacks Bebe and refers to her as a "bitch". Also, in "The List", When Bebe refused to give him the list, Cartman says: "Fuck you, Bebe! Fucking bitch!". He also disagress with Bebe about farts in "Eat, Pray, Queef". In "Bebe's Boobs Destroy Society", Cartman role plays "Silence of the Lambs" with his dolls with Bebe. The two get on well together, although this was only due to her breasts.
Jimmy is one of the kids that Cartman have manipulated sometimes, and sometimes becomes his rival in Craig's Gang. However, Jimmy seems to be one of the few people that Cartman respects and is willing to do good deeds for. As shown in many episodes, he enjoys Jimmy's comedy and often goes to him whenever he needs advice. He was even willing to sacrifice himself to save Jimmy in "Fishsticks". Even though this was because Cartman believed he wrote Jimmy's joke and was in a way trying to take credit, the fact that he was willing to sacrifice himself to Kanye West to save Jimmy, this is still very noteworthy as one of the few times Cartman did a good deed without being promised anything in return. Jimmy also sometimes go to Cartman for advice, such as when Cartman helped Jimmy with his love life in "Erection Day". When he thought he lost his sense of humor in "How to Eat with Your Butt" he goes to Jimmy for help. However Cartman beats Jimmy up in "Casa Bonita" in an attempt to gain Kyle's friendship even though Jimmy was trying to help Cartman.
Ike has been shown working with Cartman on occasion, and is the only Jew that Cartman does not seem to discriminate against (although it is possible he does not know he is Jewish, which is unlikely due to events in "Ike's Wee Wee"). In the earlier seasons, Cartman seemed either indifferent or hostile to Ike, although recently he has started to work with him more. Ike joined Cartman's crew in "Fatbeard", and was the only Jew in the crew. He acted as Cartman's right hand man and second in command, Cartman usually going to him when he needed something done.
Scott Tenorman is Cartman's half-brother and arch nemesis. Their first meeting was in "Scott Tenorman Must Die", in which Scott sold Cartman his pubic hair, convincing Cartman it would signify maturity for him. When Cartman realized the truth, he then proceeded to attempt several fruitless revenge plots, until at last he created an elaborate scheme in which he had their father Jack Tenorman, and Mrs. Tenorman killed, ground up into Chili and fed to Scott. This event drove Scott insane, and during his time in a mental institution he plotted his revenge. They met again in "201", in which Scott resurrected the Ginger Separatist Movement that Cartman created, as part of a complicated plan to get revenge on Cartman by revealing who his real father was. After capturing Cartman and all the surviving possible fathers of South Park and Liane Cartman, Scott revealed that Cartman's father was a member of the Denver Broncos, but that the town covered up the truth because they didn't want to ruin the Bronco's season by spreading knowledge of an illegitimate child scandal. Scott then explains that his own father was a member of the Broncos, and the only one who lived in South Park. Cartman is horrified to learn that Scott's father was also his father. After feeding Cartman tainted chili, Scott escapes capture by means of a jet-pack. Scott's plan works however, in that Cartman is left in tears, not because his father is dead however, but because he's half-ginger.
Shelly babysits Cartman in "Cat Orgy", after his mom goes off to attend the Meteor Shower party. At first they are displeased with each other's presence, but then they appear to get along near the end. In fact, Cartman comforts Shelly when she feels insecure about her appearance and feels that no one likes her. Cartman tells her that he doesn't think she's ugly, which makes Shelly feel better. And they become friends after Cartman convinces her to dump her boyfriend Skyler deeming him a jerk.
In "The New Terrance and Phillip Movie Trailer", when Shelly walks in the living room and changes the channel while the boys are watching TV, Cartman tells Shelly that he thinks she's hot. Shelly, however, seems to be annoyed by this compliment.
Social Standing in General
Most people at school regularly and openly despise and hate Cartman for being selfish and mean spirited, also mocking him for his weight (which has lead Cartman to be extremely insecure, going as far to be known to dismember children when they insult his weight), but most of the time Cartman seems to have a on and off relationship with everyone in in town. Kyle, and possibly Stan and Kenny, however, seem to be the only ones aware of how dangerous and mentally imbalanced he is, as well as the only ones who try to keep others from falling into his manipulation. Eric has also been portrayed as somewhat of a bully; he always insults new kids with offensive, often profane words, usually never leaving them alone. He physically abuses others, both through his fists and weapons (such as when he hit Token Black and Pip Pirrip with rocks). He is also shown to be very vulgar and disgusting, doing things like holding people down and farting on them and making them smell his rectum. He also tells extremely dirty jokes. While many of his male peers think this is funny (especially Kenny), it often causes the girls to despise him. Cartman is heavily implied to only pick on others because of the insecurity he has acquired from others calling him fat. Also, despite their hatred of him, all the kids seem to accept him as a leader because of his ability to manipulate people, and sometimes invite him to social events such as parties and vice versa. In "Pandemic 2: The Startling" particularly, it is implied that Stan, Kyle, and Kenny only hang around with Cartman because they can't find other friends or vice versa; Craig states that everyone at school hates them, of which the boys immediately dismiss.
Despite being generally disliked at school, Cartman maintains somewhat friendly relationships with most of the boys at his school, as they appear to be much more tolerant and accepting of him then the girls are, demonstrated by the fact that he is seen playing with them on several occasions. It is considered a love/hate relationship that he shares with the boys.
Quotes
“
You're right, guys. I'm gonna Tom Brady this thing!
„
~ Cartman after his friends convinced him to form a scheme to resolve the problem of PC Principal in "Stunning and Brave"
“
I'm gonna say, I'm gonna say "You're not giving me four day of detention! You're only giving me one!"
NO! No, to hell with that! "You're giving me NO days detention! And then I'm gonna go home and f%$k my hot wife! Who's not even that hot, kinda looks like a dude!"
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.
Cartman is only one of the protagonists, but is also generally antagonist and anti-hero.
He is similar acts like Helga G. Pataki which she is acted like a villain in depends of the episodes and usually the tertiary antagonist of the series (except Hey Arnold! The Jungle Movie).
In the 1996 unaired pilot episode, Cartman is depicted as having both parents and a younger sister. However the father and sister were scrapped, leaving only Liane.
