Eric Theodore Cartman, commonly referred to by his family name, Cartman, is one of the four main fictional characters in the animated series South Park, which also includes Stan, Kyle, and Kenny. He is voiced by the series co-creator Trey Parker. In the original "The Spirit of Christmas (Jesus vs. Frosty)" short, he is referred to as "Kenny."

Characterization

Cartman is portrayed as both the "fat kid" and the antihero of the South Park gang. His personality has noticeably changed over the course of the series. While always self-centered and bigoted, he was more of a mean-spirited characterization of adolescence in the earlier seasons, with little psychological (in logic) or ethical grounding in life. Fact: date=August 2008 As the series progressed his personality became more aggressive and cunning, evolving into conduct disorder, that would likely be categorized as antisocial personality disorder were he over the age of 18, by the fifth season; in the premiere episode, Cartman masterminds the murder of a boy's parents in order to feed them to the boy. His bigotry visibly morphs into racial hatred and theorizing, and, while it is not presented as being overtly fascist, the dirty hippy and evangelical attitudes to capitalism are taken as corruptions of the racial ideal, and hence open to exploitation.Fact: date=June 2008 His abilities to manipulate other people into doing what he wants have become keener, along with his overall intelligence. His descent into sadism is usually acceptedFact: date=August 2008 as being brought about in the famous and very dark episode "Scott Tenorman Must Die", in which he develops a fierce obsession with - and later exacts revenge upon - a 9th grader who cheated him out of $16.12. The episode was ranked by fans as the greatest of his top twenty-five moments in a range vote on Comedy Central's website.

Cartman has a rivalry with Kyle, whom he views as inferior because Kyle is Jewish. His lazy and rude, antisemitic behavior towards Kyle often provokes a large argument, to which in the earlier seasons Cartman replied "Screw you guys, I'm going home!"; later his comeback to Kyle's criticisms was "Shut up you Jew!!" or similar invective. Though fights between the two have become a centerpiece of the show, their default relationship is "friend", however uncomfortable they may be with that. Cartman is nearly always the aggressor, yet he rarely brings the matter to fisticuffs, something which Kyle is more apt to do. It is also notable that both Cartman and Kyle have saved the other's life, Kyle in the episode Trapper Keeper after Cartman's title item turns him into a monstrous blob similar to Tetsuo in Akira and in ManBearPig when he pulls Cartman (who has been incapacitated by consuming a large amount of treasure) to safety from a flooding cave. Cartman has also saved Kyle's life on two occasions: once in Smug Alert, when Kyle is incapacitated both by LSD and the titular smug and Cartman transports him and his family to safety. The other is in the Imaginationland series, when he revives Kyle after it appears Kyle has lost his heart beat. Though the reasons behind his rescues are selfish - in Smug Alert because he realizes he needs Kyle around to mock, and in Imaginationland because he desperately wishes Kyle to uphold his end of a bet - Cartman's rescues are arguably more noble. In Smug Alert, he urges Butters, the only other person to know of Cartman's heroism, to keep quiet.