I don’t think so. Not at all. I think that Kyle respects Cartman.
He respects Cartman’s capabilities. And he knows that Cartman is incredibly valuable to the group.
Kyle has come to a point of understanding; that Cartman enjoys hanging out with his friends. And he knows that Cartman prioritizes the atmosphere of the group. It’s usually what has Cartman’s attention. He knows from experience that if something is beneficial to the group as a whole, Cartman will usually go along with it.
Cartman is incredibly competent. And if Kyle gets him on the same page, he can utilize Cartman’s immense drive and competence for his own gain.
And in the later seasons especially, Kyle has reached an equilibrium with Cartman. He knows Cartman well enough to the point where he won’t push him too far, just enough to have interesting banter with him. He also happens to find him enjoyable when they’re in a group setting.
So yeah, Kyle’s morals are completely different from Cartman, but at the point we are now, he’s found some useful loopholes.
To Kyle, Cartman is essentially a torch. It has a massive ball of fire at the end of it that can burn down the whole town, but as long as you don’t drop it, it works in your favor.
It’s plainly obvious. Heiman is a toxic relationship.
Heidi and Cartman were built on false pretenses, and therefore doomed to fail. Cartman’s a bad boyfriend. He’s terrible to her. We all want it to end.
But I think in our rush to see this bad thing that made us all so uncomfortable be done with, for it all to just go away, we forget what this relationship was like before it all went sour.
In our need to see Cartman return to his normal self, we never really stopped to look at his relationship with Heidi. How it functioned. We all just said, “bad. fake.” and waited for it to end.
I don’t know HOW many times I’ve heard “Cartman is incapable of being in a relationship unless he’s controlling the person, and Heiman proves that.” And that just bugged me. And I realized why.
Because Cartman WAS in a good relationship. And to start off with, it was a shaky foundation, sure, but nonetheless, he proved that he CAN be a kind, supportive person.
In season 20 one of their biggest strengths as a couple was communication. They’d tell each other their plans, their hopes and dreams, even their worries. And it worked like a functional relationship. Cartman was relaxed. He hardly stressed out about anything. Hell, he didn’t even get mad when Kyle reminded him of the confrontation that alienated him from the group he was a part of. It was just so far out of his mind that he didn’t care. He was in a good place. And he would do anything to conserve that.
The Mars analogy in season 20 is symbolic of his relationship. A completely alien world to him, but one to make his own. He feels like he’s walking on air, and he’s mesmerized.
And it’s not as if this relationship only benefited Cartman. Heidi was encouraged to realize how smart she was.
Whenever she was discouraged, Cartman told her it was unwarranted. To “get over” herself, which is a perfectly sound piece of advice. Her doubt was the only thing standing in her way. In the end she realized she was so smart that she could help a fucking space program create a massive amount of energy.
It was a mutually beneficial relationship.
However, I do want to say that I personally believe this relationship was doomed to fail. simply because, as we see in Cartman’s Mars vision, Heidi is MILES away from Cartman. He doesn’t feel legitimately close to her, and that would’ve surfaced without anyone’s interference.
So let’s dive a little deeper in. Let’s ask the most obvious of questions.
What does Cartman think of relationships?
I’m sure most people would say “He thinks partners are supposed to be like Alexa.”
But the answer is actually directly given to us, way back in season 16.
In an earlier post I explain that Cupid Me is a manifestation of what Cartman considers love.
Cartman tells cupid me that he believes in him, and that love can change everything. Very strong feelings about love.
A bit surprising from Cartman, huh? But before the naysayers start insisting that “Cartman Finds Love was out of character!!!” I should tell you that Cartman has consistently admired the concept of love throughout other episodes
In The Ring when Kenny gets with a girl named Tammy Warner, Cartman is invested in Kenny’s relationship and comments on how it’s “kind of beautiful.”
In Tweek x Craig he is so invested in their relationship that he fantasizes about assisting them when they need it.
In “Where My Country Gone?” he encourages Butters to pull a Lion King 2, while having an affectionate expression while Butters wooes Charlotte.
It’s entirely consistent that Cartman loves the concept of love and has specific ideals of what those should be. And it’s NOT an Alexa.
Ironically he does ask Alexa what love is, which is sad to say the least. But he does understand at the end of that episode that what he has with Heidi isn’t love.
But the point is, back when he thought he loved Heidi, he was pretty damn good at expressing it.
Compliments.
Patience.
Positivity,
Support,
Cooperation,
and most of all, communication.
If Cartman is so incapable of showing love to anything unless he has complete control over it, how and why did he do that FOR AN ENTIRE SEASON?
I mean seriously people. It’s not like he was possessed. He wasn’t being threatened. He genuinely believed he loved Heidi, and he had no problems spending time with her. Because he WANTED to.
And what he gave Heidi was probably one of the best relationships you can get as a 4th grader. I mean compare it to any other relationship we’ve seen on south park. Heiman – despite being obnoxious to those who know the “real Cartman,” – is easily the best a 4th grade boy has treated a 4th grade girl in this series. EASILY. It’s no wonder we see Heidi in the 21st season so desperately wanting her Cartman back.
That is – her reflection back.
Because as cupid me says, “People who are the same belong together,” right? So that’s what Cartman did. Cartman and Heidi were polar opposites. So in order for Heidi and Cartman to work, Cartman became like her.
Don’t get it twisted, this doesn’t mean he was lying about believing he liked her. It doesn’t mean he’s “faking” because he’s “manipulating her into liking him.” Everyone does this. Everyone in a relationship mimics their partner to some extent. Because the more we admire someone, the more we find ourselves taking on their qualities. Their laughs, their nervous habits, their interests, you know exactly what I’m talking about.
Cartman’s reason for taking on her traits isn’t all involuntary though. You can see several times where Cartman gets shifty eyed, that he’s putting on a front. But the front is genuinely for the sake of conserving the relationship.
And, for the record, the fact that when talking to Butters Cartman continues to put on his soft-spoken, well-mannered demeanor that he finds it admirable in Heidi. Note the shift in his voice.
He wants that demeanor from Heidi because he believes it’s part of what makes her so likable.
In this relationship, Heidi is the one being imitated because she’s the one being admired. She is the one making actions, and Cartman is the making reactions.
And in turn, she is functionally the one in control. Cartman takes control and pushes her to do things, it’s just in his nature to be assertive, but he too understands that when it’s all said and done, her whims are the deciding factor in the relationship.
And, he understands that if he wanted any semblance of a shot with this likable person, he couldn’t act like himself. When Kyle talks about “the old Cartman,” Cartman fidgets and takes a sip of his drink, subtly hiding his anxiousness that Kyle would even mention that in front of Heidi. Then he continuously changes the subject to distract Kyle.
And this is where it all starts to go to shit.
Kyle is the first person to create/quicken the downfall of Cartman’s relationship (because of course he is.). When Kyle threatens to expose the meanest parts of Cartman’s personality, Cartman panics.
We know now that if Heidi did see those things Cartman said their relationship could have easily recovered. Her patience with him is unmatched. It’s interesting that Cartman placed Heidi in such high regard that he thought her knowing he criticized a group of women would fuck him over.
Shame is definitely not a new thing for Cartman, but shame towards his entire personality is. Cartman is so terrified of losing the relationship that he won’t risk being himself. He knows he’s lucky as fuck to have her, so much that he tries to go to a whole other god damn planet just to keep them together.
And what’s interesting about this is that the whole time, even though he’s lying, he still puts the care and effort into talking and expressing his feelings to Heidi. He doesn’t want her to worry, but to some extent, he can’t help but open up to her.
And this might seem like a minor thing, since he’s still lying to her and all, but it’s a polar opposite to his distance and refusal to communicate in season 21.
This is why I insist that the amount of heart that Cartman put into the relationship before shit hit the fan is praiseworthy. He’s putting effort and care into someone like he’s never done before. And it’s amazing.
And then Butters came along with a dialogue.
The truth is girls hate us, Eric. They’re sick of our shit. And one day, they plan to make us obsolete, stick us underground where we just get milked for our semen. Boys’ only hope is to start over on Mars.
Which matched Cartman’s initial dialogue.
The icing on the cake is, Butters also predicted that Heidi was doing all this to fuck him over.
That’s how it ends, Eric. Girls get you to feel for them, make you think they’re the best thing in the world, and then they leave, move on to the next thing; and you’re left there crying, with your heart covered in poop.
And for Cartman, who secretly glorifies and holds in such high regard – love – this resonates with him. Because his self-esteem is actually garbage. He knows he will never be with anyone, because he’s him.
In that sense, is it really so far fetched for Cartman to believe that Heidi was just playing an elaborate trick on him?
But Cartman, so genuinely enamored with Heidi, fights this initially.
That is Cartman’s test. In order to prove to everybody (to himself) that Heidi is in fact, not tricking him, she must be smart and funny, which he believes she is.
This of course, makes him nervous. He doesn’t want to believe that what he thinks about Heidi isn’t based in reality. Because to him, that would mean that Heidi is tricking him.
Cartman genuinely believes that Heidi is smart. You can see his two reactions here of what he thinks about both of those qualities in Heidi, respectively.
When Heidi asks if Cartman believes she’s smart, Cartman doesn’t need any time to think about it. But when she asks about being funny, you can see his brain working, trying to search his memories of when she was ever funny.
Because he’s so enamored with her, he laughs at whenever she says something mildly goofy. But when he looks back on it, it’s never funny. It’s so not funny that he can’t remember what the joke was.
But the concept of faulty memory is thrown out the window when he realizes that nothing she said would’ve been funny in real time.
He genuinely thought she was funny. He equated his smiles and laughs of joy to her being funny. But with the rose colored glasses off, his claim of her not manipulating him falls apart in his eyes.
So by the end of the season, when all is said and done, we of course are left with a bitter, cold Cartman, who wants nothing to do with Heidi.
In our first impression we might’ve said that he was buying into a conspiracy that Butters sold him, and is forcing the idea that she betrayed him because he wanted to believe the conspiracy.
But that’s not what this is.
This is Cartman convinced that no one would ever genuinely like him. That of course after all he’s done, the only reason anyone would ever be with him, under any circumstance, would be doing it simply to trick him. And everything that Heidi made him feel, like the idea that she could make him laugh by saying anything, even though it wasn’t funny, was all part of her plan to bring him high up and watch him crash to the ground.
Not because he actually believes that women want to milk men’s semen. The smart and funny test had nothing to do with that.
His actions now aren’t him mistreating Heidi because he just can’t help himself. He proved for an entire season that he can. His actions are out of resentment.
In s21e01 he’s simply non-confrontational. He tries to make it work at minimum capacity – minimal communication, spending very little time with her, but her nagging makes him resentful. And yes, he places himself as the victim in this situation. In his paranoid mind, he is being unresponsive to not give her the pain she wants. Because he still feels for her. (I think that’s why he can’t decide whether or not he wants to break up with her.)
But when she pushes, he lashes out. He hates talking about this relationship he once thought was great. But at the same time, he doesn’t want it to go away. Just the status of being in a relationship makes him feel good. He feels needed. He feels trapped, in that sense, and in turn even more angry that that “bitch” is trapping him.
But really it’s him struggling with his emotions, and she happens to be caught in the middle of it.
What Cartman does to Heidi is sad, and definitely sadistic. And to him it feels justified. But at the same time, I think he still believes the statement he blurted in the midst of his panic.
In his sadistic, projecting, paranoid little head, Heidi already accomplished what she sought out to do. Lift him up and knock him down.
For that brief moment in his life, he really experienced something beautiful.
And now it’s over.
Because he destroyed it.
I think, and I hope, for the development of his character, that he knows that.
Honestly, after taking another look at Put It Down, I can’t credit it as a bad episode. The A plot and B plot tied together perfectly in such a South Park fashion that I’m once again excited for this season.
Matt and Trey have had enough time with the continuity formula that they can pull off some great episodes in comfort. Season 21 was a flop because Trump’s victory fucked up their entire storyline (should’ve had a back up plan but I digress) but they’re getting back to making some great episodes. Put it Down was a prime example of this.
First we have Tweek freaking out about North Korea missiles and then we have a seemingly irrelevant plot about Cartman and Heidi’s train wreck of a relationship.
Tweek is upset at Craig because Craig isn’t offering him the comfort he needs to calm down. Cartman is upset that people are paying attention to people who are already dead instead of paying attention to his suicide threats.
And while we’re at it, I know people are upset about Cartman acting like a shit after being nice for so long, but I’m ultimately VERY happy. Because this IS Cartman. This is the Cartman formula.
Cartman begrudgingly (even though it was out of desperation) goes back to Heidi, and to save his ego, he says he’s only doing it because Heidi is threatening to kill herself if he doesn’t. Which turns out to be projection when Stan finds out that Cartman was threatening to kill HIMSELF.
Fake or not, having all his friends laugh at him is a serious blow to Cartman’s ego, and like he always used to do, our boy does some serious tryhard shit in order to twist the situation in his favor.
Did it work? It’s debatable. It certainly got people to stop laughing at him and instead be annoyed by his presence, and ultimately he was allowed to perform as a bridge in the school’s production. I think that’s enough for his delusional little kid head.
But the point is that’s exactly what he does in this situation. And I’m frankly glad to have the OG back.
Back on track, even though to some extent Cartman’s argument makes sense, save the people that are still alive, not people who are dead, he’s not accounting for the fact that the awareness of what’s causing the accidents can prevent further deaths as well.
But the heart of his argument is “They’re already dead, don’t waste time on them.”
It’s logical. The same way Craig is logical about everything, but being logical does nothing for emotions.
The way they were able to tie these two plots together in a single sentence by Heidi, in a very well placed scene in a cafeteria, ugh, that’s perfect.
The best part is, Plot A and Plot B are both starkly different relationship problems. But it doesn’t bash you over the head with the whole “Craig’s a better boyfriend than Cartman” concept. That would’ve been so fucking easy, and to do that for a whole episode would be so yawnworthy.
Instead they tie the subplot’s SUBPLOTS together, NK is scary, Suicides > Death, in such an intricate way that you don’t even see the theme solidify as related until Heidi says those words.
It’s not like it’s obvious, but it’s very subtly there. If you’re an incredibly observant person you might be able to see it through all the mania going on in the episode, but I sure didn’t until the very end. I literally went “OHHHH” when the theme was verbally stated and was ashamed that I hadn’t seen it sooner.
That’s good writing.
Tweek and Craig’s relationship is fucking beautiful by the way. I fucking love that this isn’t a touchy feely relationship.
Near the end where Tweek felt so incredibly thankful and comforted by Craig Matt and Trey had every chance to do the “-music swell- and then they run up and share an EPIC HUG and the camera pans around them from all different angles” but they didn’t. It doesn’t suit any of their characters to do this. Tweek is too anxious to do anything of the sort, and Craig is practically robotic. This does some real justice to their characters and I’m very thankful that Matt and Trey aren’t hamming this up. Show’s the care they put into these two and this episode.
Yeah. This episode just shows that he’s codependent to Heidi and he feeds off of her validation, not that he’s sexually attracted to women. The evidence for him liking men is overwhelming as compared to evidence of him liking women.
It’s strange though because Heidi doesn’t really validate him that much at all. I think he was just upset with the fact that Heidi was able to accept him breaking up with her. He probably saw it as indifference and didn’t want the attention he was getting from Heidi to end, even if it was negative.
Even though he doesn’t like her he’s codependent in the sense that he feeds off the idea that someone cares about him. He doesn’t want to deal with her, but without her, he’d go back to the single status and he also wouldn’t have someone that cared about him in some regard.
South Park : White People Renovating Houses – A Review / An Analysis of Eric Cartman’s Behavior and Mentality
Okay, so Randy is distracting with his brand new show that Sharon clearly wants no part of. I wonder why she’s even doing it. Is she okay? Are Randy’s shenanigans becoming too much for her? …It’s okay, Sharon. It’s okay.
The white supremacists thing was nicely handled. They made the hateful group look stupid and at the same time did it in a subtle enough way to make the episode more about a flipping houses analogy in regards to convincing old fashioned people to change and move on with the times. They DID say they would stop being as political, which I’m happy about because I want to watch the kids lives when I watch South Park. Politics were exhausting enough on TV all year without South Park also getting in on it, but I digress.
The main thing I want to touch upon in this episode is Cartman’s character development from the entirety of the last couple seasons to the first episode of this season.
The events in this episode in regards to Cartman was the end of a long needed character redemption/arc. Cartman’s core personality was almost entirely (at least on a surface level) put into question the moment PC Principal beat the ever loving shit out of him for not being PC.
Cartman was a rude, blunt, angry, character who was pretty much commissioned by his friends (Kyle mostly) to blackmail PC Principal into doing what he wanted. He tried to do this by claiming PC Principal took Butters underwear, and in his threat he said he wouldn’t want to end up being like the spokesman for Subway or something. Then he gets beat senseless for ‘using a term that excludes women from the workplace’, following that with ‘are you purposefully using words to assert your male privelege?’
Right after this event, Cartman is in the hospital denouncing any beliefs he had before out of trauma. All he could do was spout PC nonsense and claim how much he needed to change etc. Something like that. This insinuates that physical abuse/force or unjustified violence/overpowering domination is something that forces Cartman into a very submissive people pleasing state of behavior. He wears shirts that insist women are superior than men because he subconsiously thinks that if he says what he really thinks or even talks about men in any good way, he will be attacked physically. So instead he does it sarcastically because people don’t know if he’s serious or not, which is enough for him to get away with his comments while also maintaining his facade. But his submission is still apparent, because he still lacks the complete control over his thoughts and his own expression that we’re used to him having.
And we see this when he begins to feel better in the skankhunt episodes, dealing with his trauma by using distraction with electronics and his friends attention, like any normal kid would. And then because his friends believe that he is skankhunt, they metaphorically kill him through destroying his technology in the same way that Heidi metaphorically killed herself through tossing her phone in the river.
After this happens, Cartman is not only torn from his mental distraction devices that gave him joy when he was feeling most suppressed, but he’s also been betrayed by the only people he emotionally trusted and cared about. He feels completely alone, like a ghost, alienated and quite literally stabbed in the back, if by back I mean his laptop, and he even becomes somewhat mute.
This brings me to Heidi. Heidi was going through a similar depression, the difference being that she alienated herself while Cartman was falsely forced into this weird death analogy. They connected through their loneliness and because they were both deprived of affection and attention. This started their unhealthy relationship of neverending validation. Heidi gave Cartman a relationship/ hugging / hand holding/ showing her his vagina/ being company for him while Cartman gave her constant validation and viewed her affectionate rewards as a result of his obedience to PC ideology.
This created a new comfort zone for Cartman. He had one person who could give him attention and make him feel needed, in return for him basically complimenting her ever five minutes while putting himself down and in a very repetitive and brainwashing-like manner. Hence the shirts, hers saying beauty and his saying the beast.
As the season progressed, we saw Cartmans hallucinations worsen. His homosexual thoughts were fighting with his new PC sense of reality, which was stressing him out. Not only that but with the threat of troll trace, Cartman was terrified of Heidi discovering the type of person he was before he started acting PC. As Heidi used an ingenious method of emoji analysis, Cartman began to have his fake reality distorted since Heidi was no longer telling jokes to him so he could in his patterned behavior tell her she was funny. Because his patterned behavior was altered, Cartman began to doubt his feelings for Heidi.
Butters made this worse, clearly having the intentions of stealing Heidi from him or at least threatening that. Cartman wanted to flee to Mars with Heidi, (visions of Mars having vaginas that resembled a penis because he likes penis more clearly) but Butters also wanted to go. When Heidi finally figured out a way to get to Mars, Cartman was fully convinced that Heidi was changed and wanted to break his heart, so he sabotaged it.
His feeling towards Heidi we’re never genuine. They were a patterned coping mechanism that, changed in even the slightest way, became toxic in Cartmans mind. He is constantly searching for a new coping mechanism for his trauma, both new trauma and old trauma.
FINALLY WE ARE AT THE POINT OF THE NEW EPISODE IM SORRY OK??
So, now we see Cartman obviously reunited with technology in the form of a new phone and Alexa. Alexa also sounds like a woman, and is funny, like the PC version of women Cartman was forced to think he adored to avoid physical/societal abuse.
Alexa is the perfect tool to make Cartman hyper aware that the affection he felt for Heidi could be easily replicated with Alexa, the main difference being that when he is with Heidi he was expected to spout out a script that was demeaning to him, self deprecating, and that appeased her no matter what. This is a sign of Cartman being forced into the ultimate submission.
Of course, this script is self imposed. Cartman views acting disingenuously as the only way he can stay with Heidi because that’s the version of Cartman she liked, guys. Heidi fell in love with the version of Cartman that hated himself and adored/doted on her. A validation party. And now that Cartman had his friends back, he didn’t need what Heidi gave him. He got his phone back too, which was another thing Heidi had been a replacement of emotionally.
Do I think this is fair to Heidi? Not completely. But Heidi was also using Cartman for her own self esteem and her own validation, just in a much less twisted way because she didn’t get traumatized the way he did. Cartman has a fucked up brain because of his trauma. Look at all his hallucinations this episode! They get worse as he gets more confused with himself.
That need for control doesn’t make Cartman a psychopath. It makes him starved for dominance. In his relationship with Heidi, he is 100% submissive to her and he’s trying to make himself happy again with the things that made him happy before, but Heidi doesn’t care about Cartmans happiness even though she thinks she does. If she did, then why would she be angry about him getting a new phone? It’s because she is still suffering and she wants Cartman to suffer with her so she has someone to validate her.
Alexa represents a female presence that gives Cartman control, control which Cartman has been starved for since it was forcibly taken from him by PC Principal and by his friends betrayel.
Heidi and Cartmans relationship was never healthy on either end and in order for both Heidi and Cartman to recover from their experiences and move on, they needed to separate. Because being together was a constant reminder of their previous issues that they could now move on from.
This entire episode was about progress and moving on. The rednecks stuck in their old ways moved on to better more progressive things and got jobs etc, and Cartman needed to free himself from the submission that had been forced on him. PC Principal was laying off, Cartman got his stuff back and his friends back, and… Then there was Heidi. Constantly nagging him to stay the same for the sake of a their relationship which, in my opinion, from the very beginning was abusive and toxic.
Like Heidi said, it’s 50-50. And they both were abusive towards each other in a tragic subconsious way.
Also I doubt Liane told Cartman ANYTHING Heidi asked her to. Which could’ve saved their relationship, who knows. But that’s just another example of a consistent abuse in Cartmans life. His mother. But that’s a whole other topic, haha.
Oh god. It’d make Cartman crazy. He’d go to ridiculous lengths to get Kyle to talk to him and make himself look completely ridiculous and not care. And then when/if all that didn’t work, he’d basically do whatever Kyle needed to stop being silent towards him.
What I got from it is that he used Alexa to regain the lack of control he had in his relationship. Whenever he was with Heidi he knew he didn’t wanna be with her but didn’t want to say it.
He knew he was complacent with his relationship status wise, but he was completely unsatisfied with it functionally. He was still in the mindset that he had last season. “I must say this in order to maintain having a girlfriend. There’s a script I must follow. That script is fail safe.”
This episode was him FINALLY breaking out of that submissive mindset by reminding himself that having control over something, anything, is what made him feel less stress. Because he had absolutely no comprehension of how to handle the relationship he was in. He had so little control that he was panicked, and stressed, and he rooted it to her.
That’s why he called her abusive – because whenever he was around her, he was stressed. He in his little child brain figured that it HAD to be her, because he doesn’t get complex emotions like that.
Because for two whole seasons he was brainwashed into being PC, he had to think about it in a PC term. He had to think of a way to break up with her without disagreeing with her and make himself the victim. That’s the way he could justify it in his brain.
But at the same time I think this is Cartman’s reawakening, by reminding himself that he doesn’t like being submissive, that he likes being dominant in some form, he’s finally able to free himself from the stressful guilt trip that became his relationship.
These will be my own interpretations of each of the main four. Since these are gonna take a while I may as well separate them into individual posts by character. Besides they’re easier on people’s dashes this way.
Extraverted – “I like getting my energy from active involvement in events and having a lot of different activities. I’m excited when I’m around people and I like to energize other people. I like moving into action and making things happen.”
Pretty self-explanatory. Anyone who’s watched the show could tell you that Cartman’s favorite place is the spotlight. He thrives on the things going on around him, but only concerns himself with what he’s interested in. If he personally doesn’t deem the newest trends cool enough, he doesn’t want to be a part of them and will need a lot of pushing to get into it.
Despite his obvious notoriety, Cartman actually has a very high range of influence, and if he really wants to, he can manipulate others to do what he wants. Whether that’s making every kid think Kyle did 9/11
Or rallying a group against Wendy for killing smurfs.
Granted the anti-wendy group was much smaller but Wendy’s popularity counteracting his influence, combined with the stupidity of his statements made only a few students actually believe him. But still, Cartman can say “Wendy kills smurfs,” and there are people that will actually believe him. That is evidence of his people skills.
The hidden con to this is that if Cartman is ignored for long enough, he becomes incredibly malleable to those who will give him attention. External attention is Cartman’s life force. He needs it to function. And when he says he would love it if he was the only person existing on the planet it’s definitely a front. That would be Cartman’s worst nightmare.
That being said, Cartman doesn’t mind alone time. It’s more the situation of there being people around that aren’t paying attention to him that gets him. In general if there was a threat of Cartman never getting attention again, he would not be happy.
Sensing – “Paying attention to physical reality, what I see, hear, touch, taste, and smell. I’m concerned with what is actual, present, current, and real. I notice facts and I remember details that are important to me. I like to see the practical use of things and learn best when I see how to use what I’m learning. Experience speaks to me louder than words.”
This is the businessman in Cartman. You’d think with his crazy schemes and big imagination that would not make him very in-tuned with reality, but it’s the opposite. Cartman is very observant of what’s around him, more so than any other boy in school.
He is aware of patterns in groups, genders, races and even social classes. Granted he uses these to pass judgement on people in a way that he can unfairly dismissive manor, but he is very observant and even points out stereotypes he’s never heard anybody use before. And he’s especially observant of Kyle, so much that he can predict how he’ll respond to things.
Not only that, he knows what laws are being passed. He knows what he can and can’t do legally, whether it’s taking the Washington Redskin’s name or using the girl’s restroom because he identifies as a girl.
By observing and keeping up with the world around him he uses these like pieces of a puzzle to put together a big picture of whatever he wants.
Thinking – “When I make a decision, I like to find the basic truth or principle to be applied, regardless of the specific situation involved. I like to analyze pros and cons. I notice inconsistencies. Sometimes I miss or don’t value the ’people’part of a situation.”
Cartman is a very passion oriented person. However, he’s also very methodical.
I take Thinking over Feeling because these traits simply don’t apply to him;
I have a people or communications orientation.
I am concerned with harmony and nervous when it is missing.
I look for what is important to others and express concern for others.
I make decisions with my heart and want to be compassionate.
I believe being tactful is more important than telling the “cold” truth.
Sometimes I miss seeing or communicating the “hard truth” of situations.
I am sometimes experienced by others as too idealistic, mushy, or indirect.
While Cartman is definitely a people person, it’s more so because he understands how they work as opposed to feeling how they feel. It takes a much deeper connection for Cartman to actually care about how people are feeling, and this is only with a select group of individuals. His Mom, His four friends, and cats.
But Cartman is very down to business when he needs to be. He cares about potential and wastes no time turning potential into results. Morality isn’t a concern to him, just efficiency. To him morality is just a word he can use to dupe competitors.
He will speak very bluntly with no regard for others’ feelings unless they’re valuable partners to him.
and he will push his subordinates and not let anybody slack.
Overall, he’d make a very efficient boss.
Him not being overly concerned about subordinate comfort will often make people defect from him, but it also means that he maintains efficiency. So while some leave, the ones that stay benefit from his methods.
This being clearly seen in the Wacky Molestation Adventure episode. Kyle and Stan left Cartman because he was in their eyes too strict and created their own sect of people. Even though they were lenient with their half of the town, their side also ended up filthy and savage while Cartman’s half had their usual clean clothes, while utilizing some weird fucking jar technology that Stan and Kyle’s side didn’t have.
At the end of the day even if he is affected by the atmosphere surrounding him, his actions do still make sense and he still weighs the pros and cons in most situations. This only stops being a fact when his ego is threatened, and then he becomes a wildcard.
Percieving – “
I use my perceiving function (whether it is Sensing or Intuition) in my outer life. To others, I seem to prefer a flexible and spontaneous way of life, and I like to understand and adapt to the world rather than organize it. Others see me staying open to new experiences and information.”
Cartman can be very stubborn, but only if what he’s pushing for is plausible in the atmosphere he’s in. Cartman is a very opportunistic person and adapts with whatever’s going on, attaching to the newest event and finding out ways to make it work for him.
His biggest struggle was with the PC agenda, unable to fit it into his personal interests at first. As he first saw it, PC was a threat to everything he enjoyed doing. PC Principal quickly beat that out of him, at which point he was actually having an internal arc in the hospital, trying to decide whether or not he should just adapt to this weird philosophy.
Before and afterward, his resistance to the PC trend strongly stemmed from Kyle.
Kyle is a very strong influence to Cartman, and, in a dilemna where Cartman’s ego is clashing with his adaptability, he would rely on Kyle’s support to make that kind of decision.
The three things that keep him going in this decision being, his set of values, his adaptability, and Kyle’s set of values.
Kyle ultimately gave up on going against political correctness.
In turn, so did Cartman.
And with this change he was able to adapt to the PC culture and use it to feed his ego the way he saw other people do the same. Despite what everyone thought he would do, he became part of PC culture and was able to make it benefit him.
Because he doesn’t need a set of values to be an asshole, he just needs to know how to use the set of values that the majority people believe in to his advantage.
He generally however adapts way quicker and much more instantaneously, never missing a beat. This PC culture along with the High School Musical scenario are the only two scenarios where he struggled to adapt.
Other times he was crowd funding, running a business, running half a town, rolling with the weird reality that there were creatures from the void invading their dimension, starting a peruvian flute band on the fly and making a boyband.
Though Cartman is a domineering person, that doesn’t necessarily mean he’s a stubborn person. A lot of his control is being able to adapt to his surroundings and properly understand them. This requires him to be Percieving, to think on his feet and be receptive to whatever the universe throws at him.
Similar to Stan’s functions, Cartman’s are tightly knit together and complement each other very fluidly, allowing him to act without much hesitation most times.
These will be my own interpretations of each of the main four. Since these are gonna take a while I may as well separate them into individual posts by character. Besides they’re easier on people’s dashes this way.
Kenny… I fully expect this to be a tough one.
Introverted – “
I often prefer doing things alone or with one or two people I feel comfortable with. I take time to reflect so that I have a clear idea of what I’ll be doing when I decide to act. Ideas are almost solid things for me.”
Well this one’s easy. Kenny’s very clearly an introvert. He talks to only a handful of people and only chooses a few moments to do so, other times simply taking in information or satiating his own boredom. But socializing? Not one of his hobbies. There’s even some times where he’s silent even when people directly talk to him.
His reactions are mostly internal, making external reactions seem very minimal.
Another thing I noticed, on the topic of that ^ Kenny doesn’t really talk to his parents. It’s more like they tell each other things and then that’s the end of it.
There are only a handful of scenes I’ve seen where Kenny talks to his parents and they’re all short and to the point. The only exception is when he’s dressed as Mysterion. That’s actually an interesting thing to note. I could totally see Kenny using this as a way to talk to his family completely unfiltered.
The fact that Kenny doesn’t talk to his family much actually makes the depiction of his friendships even more heartwarming, since with the four boys he definitely comes out of his shell, showing a little snippet of every side of him to them.
But even then, he’s still pretty reserved. There’s very few times when Kenny will do something like go on a long winded speech or go out of his way to start a conversation. That’s got nothing to do with a comfort zone. That’s just the way Kenny is. He’s not shy, especially with his filthy mouth. He just doesn’t talk much.
Sensing – “Paying attention to physical reality, what I see, hear, touch, taste, and smell. I’m concerned with what is actual, present, current, and real. I notice facts and I remember details that are important to me.“
When I took the test I got the result of INTJ, but that was a little while ago, and looking at Kenny with the info I’m reading about the MBTI, the way he makes decisions is definitely in a Sensing approach, not an Intuitive approach.
Kenny is very much about the reality of every situation. He observes things in a very “that’s the way it is” manner, constantly weighing his options over whether or not it’s worth taking action as opposed to letting it happen. Most of the time he doesn’t interfere with most things, probably from a fear of dying if things escalate too quickly, which, they tend to do. And that of course is because of his repeated experience of dying at the drop of a hat.
But that’s when things are already in motion. On the flip side, when nothing is happening and he is asked to do something, he often doesn’t object. Especially if it’s for the sake of an activity for his friends,
or for the sake of money.
But despite all the watching and thinking he does, he really doesn’t bother with philosophical or morally dubious questions. It’s an easy task for Kenny to accept things the way they are without much hesitation, and he can’t really be bothered with the question why.
That’s probably how he ended up being Cartman’s best friend. A loyal friend who doesn’t ask questions makes for a good partner in crime.
Feeling –
“I believe I can make the best decisions by weighing what people care about and the points-of-view of persons involved in a situation. I am concerned with values and what is the best for the people involved. I like to do whatever will establish or maintain harmony. In my relationships, I appear caring, warm, and tactful.”
Probably the biggest misconception in the fandom is how Kenny handles relationships. Sure he talks a lot about how he wants to fuck tons of bitches to his friends and is incredibly crude about it, but that’s not how he treats his girlfriends.
Despite his frustrations with them and the fact that he actually does want to get laid with them, he treats them very sweetly and never directs any anger towards the particular girl he’s with.
And even when it looks like he’s not going to get what he wants he still sticks around with them, even though he’s not happy with the outcome. He’ll go along with it for them.
The fact that he changed his entire lifestyle for Tammy with no hope of a reward was a very drastic decision, but considering it was his first real life girlfriend it was probably a nice change to his usual domestic setting.
At a first glance this may not seem like a drastic decision considering it’s just settling into a dreary life, but it really is one. Kenny was consistently exposed to completely different stimulants before he went along with Tammy’s weird ring philosophy. Huffing paint, drawing tits, playing bloody video games, looking at playboys… For him to live a very opposite life, even when Tammy wasn’t around to catch him doing something different is very much an extreme. And it’s very rare for him to do.
Usually consistent in his everyday but subtly delinquent life, Kenny’s decision making rarely leads him to jumping into action. When it does, it’s purely emotion driven.
And most of the time incredibly reckless.
Those decisions aren’t logic driven. There may be logic behind it, but that isn’t what makes them happen. He feels the emotion, for maybe a few seconds he may rationalizes, but then he just does it.
Perceiving – “I use my perceiving function (whether it is Sensing or Intuition) in my outer life. Others see me staying open to new experiences and information. I like to stay open to respond to whatever happens. I appear to be loose and casual. I like to keep plans to a minimum. I work in bursts of energy.”
Kenny doesn’t give a fuck.
I mean he does, but he certainly doesn’t think it’s worth worrying over. Kenny goes with the flow. STDs? Fuck it let’s roll the dice. Girlfriend not giving you a blowjob? Fuck it, watch some Grey’s Anatomy. Peruvian Flute Band stealing your thunder? Fuck it let’s dance.
He’s very fond of not being stressed and he definitely doesn’t like to brood. Slowing down to Kenny is the worst and he’d always rather being doing something than sitting down and moping about something not going his way.
Kenny just goes wherever life takes him, constantly being entertained by what he sees and just going with it as best he can.
Kenny isn’t negative or bored unless he’s absolutely forced to be. He’ll look for any kind of stimulant to avoid boredom and negativity. And considering he’s poor and lives in an abusive household, sometimes these wacky adventures his best friend and friend group drag him on aren’t around enough. Sometimes he needs a little substitute.
Kenny isn’t picky. He’s flexible and willing to try anything.
Overall Kenny is definitely a rare type of character. The quiet kid who will roll with anything you throw at him. An incredibly loyal friend who talks about doing the filthiest things but is also a sweetheart to women, and also a little bit of a druggie. But somehow, it all ties together. Character goals.
That’s my character analysis on Kenny. Next up is Cartman… oh boy, that’s gonna be fun.
These will be my own interpretations of each of the main four. Since these are gonna take a while I may as well separate them into individual posts by character. Besides they’re easier on people’s dashes this way.
Stan
Extroverted – (”I like getting my energy from active involvement in events and having a lot of different activities. I’m excited when I’m around people and I like to energize other people. I like moving into action and making things happen.”)
While Stan has numerous moments where he’s withdrawn he makes it pretty clear that he likes being the center of attention. Even if he’s not a hyperactive social butterfly as the stereotype of extroverts goes, he definitely loves being the cool kid and having a large reach of friends. He might not seek it out all the time, but he definitely loves to impress people.
Literally when anyone gives the slightest bit of approval he has a 50% chance of making a movie, commercial or presentation about it.
This kind of approval will make him leap before he looks, often regretting it soon after.
He also tends to follow the crowd even if he doesn’t really want to and often doesn’t know why he’s doing what he’s doing as a result of that. This leads to him contradicting himself either intentionally or unintentionally and then being very dejected afterward.
Sensing – (”
Paying attention to physical reality, what I see, hear, touch, taste, and smell. I’m concerned with what is actual, present, current, and real. I notice facts and I remember details that are important to me. I like to see the practical use of things and learn best when I see how to use what I’m learning. Experience speaks to me louder than words.”)
This directly ties in with Stan’s cynicism. He is constantly critical of anything and everything and is the first, if not second to Kyle, to call something out for what it objectively is.
This is what grounds Kyle, a potential idealist, back to reality.
When Kyle saw one cold reading that insisted his dead grandma wanted him to go to Juilliard, Stan did some investigating, whipped out some books and went out of his way to convince Kyle to snap out of it and see the situation for what it really was.
When Kyle came to him with stars in his eyes about his great new business, Stan was skeptical. Kyle knew by instinct that Stan, the objective thinker would be just as hype about it if he just saw it with his own eyes. The video of two deformed babies struggling to grab a ball of crack, along with Stan’s “I don’t need to say anything. Listen to yourself.” approach broke Kyle’s illusion because it was so painfully objective.
When Kyle was believed he was being a martyr for the middle east, Stan looked at him and said “You’re just sucking farts and being all high and mighty about it.”
He’s always the first to call something out for being stupid.
Stan thinks in facts, not in ideas. What is, not what might be or what it could mean. Even when he’s caught up in his friends fantasies, which he does enjoy, he is usually the first to stop and call it stupid. This puts a great balance in his group, considering when he’s not caught up in his own ego, he provides solid ground for his friends.
Feeling – (”I believe I can make the best decisions by weighing what people care about and the points-of-view of persons involved in a situation.”)
Despite clearly having an ego, when Stan is faced with a situation where he has to conserve something he deeply cares about, his ego generally doesn’t get in the way. Most of Stan’s calls to action are either because of ego or purely out of sympathy.
Like hijacking a TV show and doing blatantly illegal acts of violence for the sake of saving whales. Or kidnapping a bunch of baby cows so they don’t get turned into veal. Or writing a hit song or tricking one of his friend’s to get an operation, both to save his best friend’s life. Also trying to do the right thing and turn himself in because he felt guilty about ruining people’s lives.
Stan unfortunately isn’t that in tune with other people’s feelings, but this doesn’t mean he’s not empathetic. He just gets really caught up in whatever’s in front of him and ends up hurting people in the process.
Despite his lack of malice, this happens frequently. He doesn’t mean to fuck up, but he does. His conflicting objective thinking, ego and emotional decision making constantly fucks him over. His peers abandon him, and his biggest support is gone. This quickly goes in a downward spiral and ends with Stan beating himself up about it.
Percieving – (”
I use my perceiving function ((whether it is Sensing or Intuition)) in my outer life. To others, I seem to prefer a flexible and spontaneous way of life, and I like to understand and adapt to the world rather than organize it. Others see me staying open to new experiences and information.”)
Percieving personalities are very flexible, but they also often don’t plan ahead.
This is already evident in Stan in the form of lack of control. His biggest conflict is prone to repeating itself time and time again. He doesn’t plan or prepare to avoid letting himself crash and burn, and in turn has no idea what he should do when the situation arises again except in that moment try a slightly new approach, but by that time, he is so caught up in the emotion of the situation that little to nothing changes.
However, Stan does get the good in the perceiving category as well. While he does tend to fuck up a lot, if he still has friends around who are encouraging him to do something new (most of the time) he will roll with it (provided his Extraverted Thinking doesn’t make him a total stick in the mud.)
The double edged sword to this is when he’s down in the dumps he’s more prone to trying new, addictive things like drinking and freemium games. But hey, anything for a change of scenery. This kind of flexibility is also what allows him to jump into new ambitious things that his ambitious friends might scheme up–
–like abandoning his subpar relationship for the sake of getting successful and being dripping in bitches.
In summary Stan’s traits seem to be very tightly knit together in all his actions. He loves to impress and entertain anyone he comes across, but is also cynical and gets caught up in what he’s doing and loses what he values most in the process. Despite this, he does have a tendency to maintain his confidence and stick with his true friends.
yummykyman 