Eric Cartman’s shocking moments in South Park are some of the most outrageous depictions on television. The character created by South Park creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, is easily the most controversial and favorite character of the adult animated sitcom. He carried the show from the get-go with an obscene narrative in the premiere episode, “Cartman Get an Anal Probe.” From farting fire and ejecting an alien machine through his rectum in the first episode, Eric Theodore Cartman has personified everything wrong and inappropriate since the show’s debut in August 1997.
The character has evolved beyond hating Jews, Gingers, and Kyle, into a master manipulator with psychopathic tendencies. Cartman’s narcissistic behavior fuels his lack of empathy and exaggerated sense of self-importance. While he’s had some genuinely nice moments, the character’s arc mostly consists of vile deeds and crossing moral lines. Widely considered one of the most disturbing TV villains of all time, here are Eric Cartman’s most shocking moments in the long-running adult animated series.
1. When He Fed Scott Tenorman The Remains Of His Parents
Perhaps the most shocking Eric Cartman moment, this incident seemingly unlocked the character’s psychopathy. Though he has always been bigoted and morally corrupt, he evolved into a darker, more menacing version of himself when he exacted his revenge on Scott Tenorman. In “Scott Tenorman Must Die,” Season 5, Episode 4, Cartman gets even with Tenorman for conning and humiliating him. After failed attempts to get back his money, Cartman carries out an elaborate revenge that involves killing Tenorman’s parents. He then tricks Tenorman into consuming the remains of his parents in a chili, licking his tears while he wails.
2. When He Deliberately Infected Kyle With HIV
Cartman and Kyle are strange friends who disparage each other for being Jewish and overweight, respectively. While Kyle believes Cartman deserves every trouble that comes his way for being depraved, Cartman hates Kyle because he’s Jewish. “Tonsil Trouble,” South Park Season 12, Episode 1, epitomizes their rivalry and turbulent friendship. The episode saw Eric Cartman contract HIV following a botched blood transfusion. Learning this, Kyle laughs hysterically at Cartman who decides to teach him a lesson. He sneaks into Kyle’s room at night and infects him with the AIDS virus.
3. When He Became Hitler
Eric Cartman’s spite for the Jews culminated in an attempt to exterminate them in “The Passion of the Jew,” South Park Season 8, Episode 3. After seeing Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ, Kyle tells Cartman his antisemitic disposition is justified. Kyle’s assertion excites Cartman who prays to Mel Gibson and embarks on a campaign to exterminate the Jews. He takes on the appearance of Hitler and leads a group for what he calls “the cleansing.” The episode ended with another humiliation for Eric Cartman; his campaign falls apart as Gibson shits on his face.
4. When He Pretended To Have Tourette Syndrome
“Le Petit Tourette,” South Park Season 11, Episode 8, captures another Eric Cartman’s shocking moment. The 2007 episode follows Cartman as he fakes Tourette’s syndrome so that he can say nasty things and get away with it. After witnessing a boy with the condition at a toy store, Cartman convinces his mother and a doctor he has the disorder and goes about saying whatever he wants, especially to the Jews. While Kyle seeks to prove his friend doesn’t have Tourette syndrome, Cartman realizes that faking the condition has made him prone to humiliating himself. He can no longer control his words, even when they are embarrassing details from his past.
5. When He Removed Kenny’s Feeding Tube To Get His PSP
Eric Cartman will manipulate his way around anything stopping him from getting what he wants, even if it will result in the death of a friend. Of his three friends, Cartman seems to regard Kenny as his best friend. While this is often a manipulative ploy to get something, he’s quite affectionate towards Kenny compared to Stan and Kyle. But then, no one is safe from Cartman’s sociopathic behavior. In “Best Friends Forever,” South Park Season 9, Episode 4, Cartman asserts himself as Kenny’s best friend and removes his feeding tube. He claims to know what’s best for his friend who’s brain damaged and in a vegetative state, but he wants Kenny to die so he can inherit his PSP.
6. When He Had The Whole Of South Park Searching For Butters
Butters has been at the receiving end of several Eric Cartman’s shocking moments. A soft target for the South Park overweight kid, Butters suffers one of Cartman’s devious schemes in “Casa Bonita,” South Park Season 7, Episode 11. After Kyle invites Butters instead of Cartman for his birthday party in Casa Bonita, he plots to take Butters’ place. Cartman convinces Butters a meteor is heading towards Earth and hides him in a bomb shelter. While the whole town searches for Butters, Cartman has brainwashed him into believing civilization has collapsed with radioactive cannibals roaming the Earth. He takes Butters’ place but eventually gets arrested and sent to juvenile hall when the truth emerges.
7. When He Led A Campaign To Kill All Non-Gingers
Another of Eric Cartman’s shocking moments revolves around his hate for Gingers. This climaxed in “Ginger Kids,” South Park Season 9, Episode 11, when he delivers a class presentation against the groups, instigating a prejudice towards Ginger kids in school. To teach Cartman a lesson, his friends transform him into a Ginger, subjecting him to the discrimination he brought upon the group. Unable to cope with the bigotry he receives, even from the people he convinced to loathe Gingers, Cartman forms the Ginger Separatist Movement. The Nazi-like group proclaimed Gingers the “great race” and began abducting non-gingers kids in a bid to exterminate non-gingers from South Park. Check out 6 Times Eric Cartman was the unlikely hero on South Park.
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