History Characters / SouthParkEricCartman

* CosmicPlaything: Given what an evil and terrible {{Jerkass}} Cartman is, the universe seems to enjoy making him suffer whenever possible; its favorite method is giving him whatever he wants, only to take it all away and leave him in worse shape than before. The ultimate example of this is during the [[WesternAnimation/SouthParkPostCovid Post-Covid]] [[WesternAnimation/SouthParkPostCovidTheReturnOfCovid duology]] where he is given the perfect future with a wife and children only for it to be taken it all away when he decides to help Stan and Kyle make the future better for everyone else and leave him off as a homeless, lonely, and miserable alcoholic while everyone else gets a happy future.

* CruelMercy: Cartman becomes subjected to this in the revised future. Cartman's peers and everyone else in South Park decide not to seek any retribution for all the things that he had done to them, simply cutting ties with Cartman and leaving him all by himself, and just focusing on their own happiness. Of course with no one bothering to give Cartman the attention he wants, he goes mad from loneliness, growing up to become a homeless alcoholic who's miserable as a result of a complete lack of any human contact. This proves to be such a terrible fate for Cartman that the next time Stan and Kyle him, they consider Cartman's predicament a FateWorseThanDeath and feel extreme pity for him.

* SpoiledBrat: He constantly demands his mom give him everything he wants [[AllTakeAndNoGive without ever showing gratitude]], and she caters to his every whim (with [[TheDogBitesBack a few exceptions]]) because of how lonely she is.

* CruelMercy: Cartman becomes subjected to this in the revised future. Cartman's peers and everyone else in South Park decide not to seek any retribution for all the things that he had done to them, simply cutting ties with Cartman and leaving him all by himself, and just focusing on their own happiness. Of course with no one bothering to give Cartman the attention he wants, he goes mad from loneliness, growing up to become a homeless alcoholic who's completely miserable as a result of a complete lack of any human contact. This proves to be such a terrible fate for Cartman that the next time Stan and Kyle him, they consider Cartman's predicament a FateWorseThanDeath and feel extreme pity for him.

* PracticallyJoker: Cartman is often called the Joker to [[PragmaticHero Kyle's]] Batman, and it definitely has some merit: he's LaughablyEvil and sporadically commits appalling crimes for either [[EvilIsPetty petty reasons]] or [[ForTheEvulz his own amusement]], is a notorious [[TheSociopath sociopath]] whose actions disturb [[EvenEvilHasStandards even other villains]], and had a girlfriend whom he emotionally abused (though per his BitchInSheepsClothing routine, he ''did'' call her funny and probably had her [[DontExplainTheJoke explain some jokes]]), leading up to her eventually becoming his DistaffCounterpart. At the end of the day, he doesn't truly want to kill the Batman of this scenario (despite what he may claim) because tormenting him, [[Film/TheDarkKnight screwing up his love life, blackmailing him with the threat of other people dying]], [[Series/Batman1966 having lackeys lock him in a freezer and going]] TheFagin [[Series/Batman1966 route in an inner-city school just to prove him wrong about not being able to blend in]] is all just too much fun. Cartman will eventually meet a similar fate to the [[Characters/BatmanArkhamSeriesTheJoker Arkham version of The Joker]] in that, for all the horrific crimes that he has committed for the sake of [[AttentionWhore attention]], he will ultimately be forgotten by society, with everyone he used to torment having moved on from his past deeds and are now [[KarmicShunning ignoring and shunning]] him (including his ArchEnemy), while Cartman himself has faded into obscurity, only being sparingly recognized out of pity at best and as a bad memory at worst. Just like with the Joker, being ignored and forgotten is the one fate that Cartman truly fears, and it ends up being the one thing that has officially broken him and made him so miserable.

* RichInDollarsPoorInSense: On a few occasions Cartman becomes rich, such as in "Cartmanland" where he inherits one million dollars from his grandmother or in "Christian Rock Hard" thanks to his very successful christian rock band Faith + 1. However due to his pettiness and lack of understanding of economics he wastes all of his money on petty and absurdly high expenses such as an amusement park just so he can be the only one to enjoy it, or a ridiculousely lavish award ceremony to make him winning a bet against Kyle the sweetest possible. It always ends with him losing his fortune by the end of the episode.

* RichInDollarsPoorInCommonSense: On a few occasions Cartman becomes rich, such as in "Cartmanland" where he inherits one million dollars from his grandmother or in "Christian Rock Hard" thanks to his very successful christian rock band Faith + 1. However due to his pettiness and lack of understanding of economics he wastes all of his money on petty and absurdly high expenses such as an amusement park just so he can be the only one to enjoy it, or a ridiculousely lavish award ceremony to make him winning a bet against Kyle the sweetest possible. It always ends with him losing his fortune by the end of the episode.

* IronicHell: In the real world, Cartman's numerous atrocities would most likely cause him to either be sent to jail or be murdered by one of the people that he so brutality atrocities. However, in the show, Cartman's permanent karma isn't him getting arrested or murdered, but instead becoming homeless and alone, while the people he used to torment simply deciding to shun him and move on with their lives. However, since Cartman is such a massive AttentionWhore, him getting [[KarmicShunning shunned and ignored by everyone]] is worse than getting killed or arrested for Cartman since the latter two fates may give him some recognition to fuel his need for attention, while getting shunned doesn't whatsoever, which drives Cartman insane from loneliness and leads to him becoming a homeless alcoholic, making this a FateWorseThanDeath (and ironically the most appropriate punishment) for Cartman.

* PracticallyJoker: Cartman is often called the Joker to [[PragmaticHero Kyle's]] Batman, and it definitely has some merit: he's LaughablyEvil and sporadically commits appalling crimes either for [[EvilIsPetty petty reasons]] or [[ForTheEvulz his own amusement]], is a notorious [[TheSociopath sociopath]] whose actions disturb [[EvenEvilHasStandards even other villains]], and had a girlfriend who he emotionally abused (though per his BitchInSheepsClothing routine, he ''did'' call her funny and probably had her [[DontExplainTheJoke explain some jokes]]), leading up to her eventually becoming his DistaffCounterpart. At the end of the day, he doesn't truly want to kill the Batman of this scenario (despite what he may claim), because tormenting him, [[Film/TheDarkKnight screwing up his love life, blackmailing him with the threat of other people dying]], [[Series/Batman1966 having lackeys lock him in a freezer and going]] TheFagin [[Series/Batman1966 route in an inner-city school just to prove him wrong about not being able to blend in]] is all just too much fun.

[[center: [- [[Characters/SouthPark Main Page]] | [[Characters/SouthParkTheBoys The Boys]] ([[Characters/SouthParkStanMarsh Stan Marsh]], [[Characters/SouthParkKyleBroflovski Kyle Broflovski]], '''Eric Cartman''', [[Characters/SouthParkKennyMcCormick Kenny [=McCormick=]]]) | [[Characters/SouthParkOtherStudents Other Students]] ([[Characters/SouthParkButtersStotch Butters Stotch]], [[Characters/SouthParkWendyTestaburger Wendy Testaburger]], [[Characters/SouthParkHeidiTurner Heidi Turner]]) | [[Characters/SouthParkAntagonists Antagonists]] ([[Characters/SouthParkAntagonistsBigBads Big Bads]], [[Characters/SouthParkAntagonistsSecondaryAndMinor Secondary and Minor]], [[Characters/SouthParkAntagonistsJerksAndBullies Jerks and Bullies]]) | [[Characters/SouthParkFamilyMembers Family Members]] | [[Characters/SouthParkElementarySchoolStaff Elementary School Staff]] | [[Characters/SouthParkOtherRecurringCharacters Other Recurring Characters]] | [[Characters/SouthParkTheStickOfTruth The Stick of Truth]] ([[Characters/SouthParkTheNewKid The New Kid]]) | [[Characters/SouthParkTheFracturedButWhole The Fractured but Whole]] | [[Characters/SouthParkPhoneDestroyer Phone Destroyer]] -] ]]

[[center: [- [[Characters/SouthPark Main Page]] | [[Characters/SouthParkTheBoys The Boys]] ([[Characters/SouthParkStanMarsh Stan Marsh]], [[Characters/SouthParkKyleBroflovski Kyle Broflovski]], '''Eric Cartman''', [[Characters/SouthParkKennyMcCormick Kenny [=McCormick=]]]) | [[Characters/SouthParkOtherStudents Other Students]] ([[Characters/SouthParkButtersStotch Butters Stotch]], [[Characters/SouthParkWendyTestaburger Wendy Testaburger]], [[Characters/SouthParkHeidiTurner Heidi Turner]]) | [[Characters/SouthParkAntagonists Antagonists]] ([[Characters/SouthParkAntagonistsBigBads Big Bads]], [[Characters/SouthParkAntagonistsSecondaryAndMinor Secondary and Minor]], [[Characters/SouthParkAntagonistsJerksAndBullies Jerks and Bullies]]) | [[Characters/SouthParkFamilyMembers Family Members]] ([[Characters/SouthParkRandyMarsh Randy Marsh]]) | [[Characters/SouthParkElementarySchoolStaff Elementary School Staff]] | [[Characters/SouthParkOtherRecurringCharacters Other Recurring Characters]] | [[Characters/SouthParkTheStickOfTruth The Stick of Truth]] ([[Characters/SouthParkTheNewKid The New Kid]]) | [[Characters/SouthParkTheFracturedButWhole The Fractured but Whole]] | [[Characters/SouthParkPhoneDestroyer Phone Destroyer]] -] ]]

* ButtMonkey: He's the character that the other boys make fun of the most. The pilot episode is literally about things going into and coming out of Cartman's ass. Of course, he's still a Butt-Monkey now, but [[KarmicButtMonkey he actually deserves the bad stuff that happens to him]]. {{Exaggerated}} in the revised timeline onwards, where none of his schemes work in his favor and instead backfiring at him very badly while he's destined to grow up a homeless, lonely, and miserable alcoholic while everyone else gets blessed with a happy and fulfilled life.

* ButtMonkey: He's the character that the other boys make fun of the most. The pilot episode is literally about things going into and coming out of Cartman's ass. Of course, he's still a Butt-Monkey now, but [[KarmicButtMonkey he actually deserves the bad stuff that happens to him]].

*** They also have shown leadership skills. Stan usually inspires people to join good causes and even when the cause isn't noble, it's not outright malicious either, is a courageous {{determinator}} and even acts as the TeamDad to the main boys on occasion (or at least towards Kenny and Kyle). By contrast, Cartman often [[TheCorrupter corrupts masses into doing heinous things]] and [[DirtyCoward would often leave when things get messy for him]]. He does sometimes use his leadership skills to help his teammates, but even then he's a NominalHero at best (at least usually).

* KindheartedCatLover: He's incapable of empathy towards people, but exhibits a strong bond with cats despite being a speciesist. In "Major Boobage", cats are made illegal because Kenny, along with several other kids around the country, begins using male cat musk as a hallucinogenic drug. Cartman lies to the police, claiming that he had his cat put down when he really is hiding his cat in the attic. Throughout the episode he collects abandoned cats in his attic out of sympathy. His cat has been on the show since the series began, and his love for cats could have developed from his lack of other family members besides his mother; he has no father or siblings. This empathetic relationship is reserved for cats and not humans; he does not (or more likely chooses not to) recognize a parallel between his cat safe-haven to the history of Jews hiding from Nazi soldiers during the Holocaust, which Kyle points out.

** He only cares about himself and getting whatever he wants, and is perfectly willing to lie, cheat, manipulate, and commit mass murder to do so. In "Cherokee Hair Tampons", when Kyle is in dire need of a kidney transplant and Cartman is the only match, Cartman blatantly refuses to do so unless he's paid $10 million for it, forcing Stan and the other people of South Park to resort to trickery to get said kidney.

* DemotedToDragon: Throughout "Moss Piglets", Cartman has been doing Heidi's bidding for ''fear'' of her.

** In a deleted scene of "Reverse Cowgirl", he is one of the kids that genuinely tries to help Clyde laugh and [[EvenEvilHasStandards even looks saddened at Butters's joke about Clyde accidentally killing his mom]]. Then again, he did accidentally kill his biological father.