Editing Eric Cartman (section)

===Personality and traits===
{{Quote box
| quote = There's a big part of me that's Eric Cartman. He's both of our dark sides, the things we'd never say.
| source = &nbsp;[[Trey Parker]]<ref>[https://huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/25/matt-stone-trey-parker-ar_n_475744.html Matt Stone & Trey Parker Are Not Your Political Allies (No Matter What You Believe)] by Alex Leo, ''[[The Huffington Post]]'', February 25, 2010</ref>
 | width = 30%
 | align = right
}}

Cartman uses profanity (as do his friends) to provide a means for Parker and Stone to portray how they believe young boys really talk when they are alone.<ref name="avr"/><ref name="abc4">{{cite web| author=Jake Trapper and Dan Morris| title=Secrets of 'South Park'| work=[[ABC News (United States)|ABC News]]| date=September 22, 2006| url=https://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/Entertainment/Story?id=2479197&page=4| access-date=April 18, 2009| archive-date=March 19, 2022| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220319073834/https://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/Entertainment/Story?id=2479197&page=4| url-status=live}}</ref> According to Parker, Cartman does not possess the "underlying sweetness" of the show's other child characters. Cartman is shown at times to be completely amoral and remorseless. Cartman, as with [[Stan Marsh]] and [[Kyle Broflovski]], is amused by bodily functions and [[toilet humor]],<ref name="time">{{cite news|author1=Jeffrey Ressner|author2=James Collins| title = Gross And Grosser | magazine = [[Time (magazine)|Time]] | date = March 23, 1998 | url = http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,988028,00.html | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090821033347/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,988028,00.html | url-status = dead | archive-date = August 21, 2009 | access-date = April 28, 2009}}</ref> and his favorite television personalities are [[Terrance and Phillip]], a Canadian duo whose comedy routines on their show-within-the-show revolve substantially around fart jokes.

Cartman is sensitive and in denial about his [[obesity]]. He often reasserts Liane's notion by exclaiming "I'm not fat, I'm big-boned!" and will just as often either threaten to bring harm to anyone who mocks his weight or curse them out in aggravation.<ref name="NPR"/> He has also had people killed due to his insecurity; for example, after his psychiatrist mocked his weight, Cartman framed the man as a [[pedophilia|pedophile]] to his wife, causing her to commit [[suicide]].<ref>{{Cite episode |title=T.M.I. |episode-link=T.M.I. (South Park) |series=South Park |series-link=South Park |last=Parker |first=Trey |author-link=Trey Parker |network=[[Comedy Central]] |date=2011-05-18 |season=15 |number=4}}</ref> He views himself as more mature than his fellow friends and classmates, and often grows impatient with their company; despite claiming to be more mature, he will often break down crying childishly and pathetically whenever he feels defeated. This often leads to loud arguments, which in earlier seasons typically end with Cartman peevishly saying "Screw you guys&nbsp;... I'm going home!" and then leaving.<ref name="NPR"/> In an action [[King's College (Pennsylvania)|King's College]] [[philosophy]] professor [[David Kyle Johnson]] describes as "directed either toward accomplishing his own happiness or the unhappiness of others", Cartman often feigns actual friendship with his classmates when needing a favor.<ref name="philo2"/> The lack of a true father figure in his life, and Liane's promiscuity and drug use have caused repressed [[psychology|psychological]] hardship in Cartman's life. As a parent, Liane often spoils Cartman,<ref name="salon">{{cite news|author=David Horowitz |title=Why Gore would censor "South Park" |work=Salon.com |date=July 19, 1999 |url=http://www.salon.com/news/col/horo/1999/07/19/south_park/index2.html |access-date=May 12, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091121035850/http://www.salon.com/news/col/horo/1999/07/19/south_park/index2.html |archive-date=November 21, 2009}}</ref><ref name="bw">{{cite news|author=Joan Oleck |title='South Park': Canny bait-and-switch |work=[[BusinessWeek]] |date=April 27, 1998 |url=http://www.businessweek.com/archives/1998/b3575069.arc.htm |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130118183134/http://www.businessweek.com/archives/1998/b3575069.arc.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=January 18, 2013 |access-date=May 12, 2009}}</ref> and is largely ineffectual as a disciplinarian.<ref name="nytimesmorals">{{cite news|author=Virginia Heffernan |title=What? Morals in 'South Park'? |newspaper=The New York Times |date=April 28, 2004 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/28/arts/television/28SOUT.html?ei=5007&en=9cf4a2bb20610253&ex=1398484800&partner=USERLAND&pagewanted=all&position |access-date=July 8, 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090803023224/http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/28/arts/television/28SOUT.html?ei=5007&en=9cf4a2bb20610253&ex=1398484800&partner=USERLAND&pagewanted=all&position |archive-date=August 3, 2009}}</ref> Cartman sometimes commands his mom to do tasks for him, but more often resorts to pleading with her in an ingratiating tone. When neither method works, he resorts to excessive and indecipherable whining, to which Liane usually succumbs.<ref name="lezard">{{cite news| author= Nick Lezard| author-link= Nicholas Lezard| title= Cartman, a true hero of our age| newspaper= independent.co.uk| date= August 27, 1999| url= https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/cartman-a-true-hero-of-our-age-1115522.html| access-date= May 9, 2009| archive-date= June 7, 2009| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090607100430/http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/cartman-a-true-hero-of-our-age-1115522.html| url-status= live}}</ref> Parker has noted that this is the primary cause for Cartman's behavior, stating that Cartman is "just a product of his environment".<ref name="NPR"/>

{{blockquote|We always had this thing where Cartman's mother was so sweet—she was always so sweet to him and giving him whatever he wanted. And I don't know if it's worse in L.A. than most places in the country—I hope so—but [we've met] so many parents who were just so desperately trying to be friends to their kids. And it was the thing we really picked up on. And it was just like, 'These [people] are making these really evil kids'.<br />– Trey Parker, discussing Liane's role in shaping Cartman's personality in an interview with [[NPR]]<ref name="NPR"/>}}
Cartman thrives on achieving ascendancy over others,<ref name="philo4">Arp and White, pp. 66–76</ref> and exerts his will by [[demagoguery]] and by demanding that others "Respect my authoritah!"<ref name="NPR"/> Cartman has several times declared that his dream is getting "Ten million dollars", and that if he got it he would be "so happy". He has shown initiative in taking a businesslike approach to earning money, starting his own "[[hippie]] control" and "parental revenge" operations, as well as a [[Christian Rock]] and a [[boy band]], a basketball team of [[crack babies]] (parody of the [[NCAA]]) and his own church.<ref name="crm">{{cite news|author=Amber Conrad |title=25 Things I Learned About Business from "South Park" |publisher=InsideCRM |date=June 3, 2008|url=http://www.insidecrm.com/features/south-park-business-lessons-060308/ |access-date=May 5, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090318170003/http://www.insidecrm.com/features/south-park-business-lessons-060308/ |archive-date=March 18, 2009}}</ref>

Cartman's anti-Semitism, while mostly limited to mocking Kyle, culminates in the [[South Park (season 8)|season eight]] episode "[[The Passion of the Jew]]". In the episode, Cartman, after watching ''[[The Passion of the Christ]]'' numerous times, [[Apotheosis|deifies]] the film's director, [[Mel Gibson]], and starts an official Gibson fan club, praising Gibson for "trying to express—through cinema—the horror and filthiness of the common Jew".<ref name="gross">{{cite news| author = Max Gross| title = 'The Passion of the Christ' Fuels Antisemitism—on 'South Park'| work = [[The Jewish Daily Forward]]| date = April 9, 2004| url = http://www.forward.com/articles/5445/| access-date = May 9, 2009| archive-date = June 6, 2011| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110606013626/http://www.forward.com/articles/5445/| url-status = live}}</ref> Cartman's interpretation of the film influences him to dress up as [[Adolf Hitler]] and lead other fan club members (who are oblivious of Cartman's actual intentions) in a failed effort to engage in a systematic [[genocide]] of the Jews similar to that of the [[Final Solution]].<ref name="gross"/> In the [[South Park (season 10)|season 10]] episode "[[Smug Alert!]]", Cartman anonymously saves Kyle's life in an effort to get him and his family to return to South Park from [[San Francisco]], revealing that he craves the animosity shared between the two.<ref name="smug">{{cite web|author=Eric Goldman |title=TV Review: This week's target? Hybrid drivers. |website=IGN |date=March 30, 2006 |url=http://movies.ign.com/articles/699/699373p1.html |access-date=May 3, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100426025359/http://movies.ign.com/articles/699/699373p1.html |archive-date=April 26, 2010}}</ref> Cartman later directs the "evil god" [[Cthulhu]] to destroy "most of the synagogues" during the [[South Park (season 14)|season 14]] episode "[[Coon vs. Coon and Friends]]".<ref>{{cite episode|title=Coon vs. Coon and Friends|series=South Park|author=Trey Parker|network=Comedy Central|airdate=November 10, 2010|season=14}}</ref>

Upon hearing his classmates tell him that they hold him in the lowest regard possible and that they could not possibly think any worse of him, a stubborn Cartman misinterprets this act as their attempt to make him feel better, and convinces himself that everyone thinks he is the "coolest kid in school". In the [[South Park (season 13)|season 13]] (2009) episode "[[Fishsticks (South Park)|Fishsticks]]", Cartman subconsciously believes that he helped in creating a joke that quickly becomes a nationwide sensation, despite the fact that the character [[Jimmy Valmer]] writes the joke without any assistance. Carlos Delgado of ''If Magazine'' noted this as "Cartman being so egotistical that he manipulates the past to serve his own purposes".<ref>{{cite news|last=Delgado |first=Carlos |title=TV Review: South Park – Season 13 – 'Fishsticks' |work=If Magazine |date=April 9, 2009 |url=http://www.ifmagazine.com/review.asp?article=3168 |access-date=April 10, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091015113520/http://www.ifmagazine.com/review.asp?article=3168 |archive-date=October 15, 2009}}</ref>

Though he is commonly portrayed as having a chauvinist disrespect for foreign cultures, Cartman is shown at least twice ("[[My Future Self n' Me]]" and "[[Pandemic (South Park)|Pandemic]]") to be able to speak fluent Spanish (and German).<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://southpark.cc.com/episodes/xfaqzg/south-park-my-future-self-n-me-season-6-ep-16|title=South Park - My Future Self n' Me|date=December 4, 2002|website=South Park United States|access-date=March 10, 2022|archive-date=March 19, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220319073835/https://southpark.cc.com/episodes/xfaqzg/south-park-my-future-self-n-me-season-6-ep-16|url-status=live}}</ref>