confessions-in-south-park:

I feel like people completely miss the point of Cartman. He’s basically like a panto villain whom you’re supposed to hate for being a prejudiced asshole, and you kind of have to have him there to exemplify the argument the writers want to mock (episodes like Rainforest Schmainforest or Cartoon Wars when he’s obviously shown to be right aside).

That implies that he’s more of a concept. But he’s not. He’s a character with a personality, backstory and his reasoning of his own. Therefore people like him.