Eric Cartman is widely known as one of the most sadistic and narcissistic characters in all
of animation. He’s accumulated a huge tally of absolutely repulsive and evil deeds over
the last couple decades. Frankly, he’s often considered one of the worst fictional people
ever created... But believe it or not, Eric has also managed to do more than a few
good deeds… and since everyone always talks about the evil in his heart,
we thought we’d look at some of the decent things he’s done…
I’m Kyle with WickedBinge and this is Eric Cartman’s Best Moments.
For this list, we’re going to cover times where Eric made the most positive
impact on others and times where the more humane
side of his personality revealed itself. We’re going to be ranking times where Eric
displayed the best of himself through helping others and displaying his own inner strength.
#5 - Playing Cupid
This one was a hit and a miss. Most of the time when Eric’s Cupid self comes out,
it leads to some weird interactions between not only Eric and the Cupid, but between
others around them. It was a way for Eric to display the more romantic half of his personality,
even though his standards for himself and others are warped to a degree.
Still, we wanted to mention it because Eric’s behavior was far more tame than it normally is
when he was more focused on pairing people up. Though we disagree with his thinking about Token
and Nicole being good for one another based on superficial factors, it was surprising
to see Cartman not use his normal tricks when confronting Nicole about liking Kyle.
Rather than snapping at Kyle right away as Eric is normally seen doing, locking Kyle
away as Eric had once done with Butters or trying to make Nicole lose interest by making disgusting
remarks about his supposed friend... He decides to use a different strategy. In this situation,
Eric decides to simply lie and say that he and Kyle were already in a relationship but just
weren’t out in the open, appealing to the fact that Nicole wouldn’t try to steal someone away.
It isn’t that Eric hasn’t lied before to get his way, but this was a much gentler
tactic than he would typically be seen using. Even when Nicole and Kyle go on their date,
Cartman doesn’t try to call in a threat to the game or use some other violent
method. He opts instead to use the giant screens to claim to everyone there that
he and Kyle are a couple in order to get Nicole to back off and go back to Token.
It was a really conflicting episode, as were the ones to follow. The next time the Cupid
returns to help another relationship, it’s when Craig and Tweek are believed to be together,
Eric thinks they suit one another and is surprisingly supportive, even being deluded into
thinking their fighting is flirting, calling it cute and teasing that they should just get a room.
While he was clearly mistaking violence for affection (as expected from Cartman)
it was nice to know that he did genuinely believe Craig and Tweek
deserved happiness as a couple and supported them rather than berated them.
#4 - Helping Shelly get Revenge
Stan’s sister Shelly is a known bully towards her brother, though has pulled back from doing it as
much in the more recent seasons. In one of the earlier episodes, she’s entrusted to babysit Eric,
being one of the few residents of South Park to not be intimidated by him.
She invited her boyfriend over to spend some time with him away from her parents.
And we quickly see why she wouldn’t want him at her house.
The guy Skyler was twenty-two and he breaks up with her after she refuses to have sex with him.
Eric had originally planned to use a recording of their date as leverage to get Shelly fired as
his babysitter. But seeing Shelly heartbroken at being dumped, Eric winds up being sympathetic for
her and offers to help take the man down a few pegs. The two team up to go into Skyler’s home,
break his beloved guitar and place the remains in a litter box,
leaving the message that the man was now dubbed King Turd.
Eric took the time to let Shelly know that she was better off without the man and that
he was scum anyway. This message is made all the more valuable when we see time and time again
how much Eric struggles with seeing his mother date so many people so casually.
The words may have directed at Shelly in this episode to get her to see her worth,
but it was clearly something Eric had felt strongly about beforehand about his own mother.
#3 - Helping Cure Aids
This, like many of Eric’s other sweeter moments, is also a bitter one. In the
episode Tonsil Trouble, Eric finds out that he was given tainted blood during his procedure
to have his tonsils removed. Though Eric is given a lot of sympathy and attention,
it doesn’t soothe him the way it would under most circumstances. He quickly becomes offended
about Kyle laughing at his predicament and so purposely infects his friend.
Kyle reacts like any normal human being, wanting to destroy everything Eric held
dear for committing such an act. The threat of losing his xbox leads Eric
encouraging Kyle to go with him to see Magic Johnson about a cure.
This trip does actually prove to be beneficial...to an extent. They do find
a cure for AIDs, being that one had to have enormous sums of money concentrated and injected
directly into their bloodstream. It wasn’t a cure that helped a lot of the people who
needed it and it wound up not being enough to keep Kyle from destroying Eric’s xbox,
but it was an effort and that’s more than he usually gives.
#2 - Saving Kyle (Twice)
Now, we know Eric has tried to take Kyle out more than a few times,
such as in the previous listing, But we want to cover two times in particular
where he showed how valuable Kyle’s life really was to him.
The first comes during the Imaginationland adventure. To long time fans, it’s well known
what Eric was gunning for this entire time. He spent almost all of his time on screen demanding
Kyle perform a certain act after Kyle lost a bet. But this wound up being derailed when
Kyle was attacked, MarBearPig coming from the portal to grab at him and then the two being
shocked violently when the officials forced the creature back into the portal. The attack left
Kyle unresponsive and deemed dead by the people present. What follows is an emotional display,
with Eric screaming and flinging off his crown and robe to give Kyle chest compressions and
demand they use the paddles again. Seeing a normally composed and manipulative Cartman
crying and begging for his friend to keep fighting earned Eric a lot of compassion among viewers.
The second time came when Kyle and his family moved to San Francisco,
his father Gerald claiming the mountain town wasn’t progressive enough for them.
When a large cloud of smug threatened the lives of the people in the large city,
Eric drags Butters with him so the other boy can help pull him back out.
We see Eric burst into the new Broflovski home, find Kyle and Ike high on acid, and the screen
cuts to black as Eric tries yelling for his friend to come to. When we see them all again,
Kyle’s family is unable to explain how they were able to escape, stating they woke up on
the bus heading back to Colorado. Eric makes it clear that he makes Butters keep quiet
about the whole incident, clearly not wanting people to know he did in fact miss his friend.
#1 - Taking out Sadam
We had to place this one first as it’s not only a classic moment,
but wound up being one of Eric’s shining achievements, helping a lot of people.
This is all the result of the first film, with the people of South Park upset by the new Terrance and
Phillip movie and how much toilet humour and crass language was in it. Parents soon began
trying to find ways to curb their children from mimicking the behavior and Eric was the
one selected to test the new V-chip, meant to shock him every time he uttered an obscenity.
This was valuable later on when confronting Satan and his lover Sadam as they rose to try and take
over the earth. Eric retaliates, cursing and winds up shocking the former terrorist leader
violently, giving him the idea to let loose and use his newfound ability to torment the man.
Eric winds up not being the one to ultimately defeat the man, with Sadam even appearing in
a later episode. But it did buy everyone time to fight back against the new threat and even
helped Satan to reflect on his life choices, realizing that he didn’t need the man holding
him back. And you have to appreciate how Eric thought Barbara Streisand was a dirty term.
But what do you think? Who are the best moments Eric Cartman has during the running of South Park?
Let us know in the comment section. Don't forget to hit that notification bell
and binge our Good-to-Evil playlist. Be sure to check out our South Park Good to Evil video
where we break down the morality of all of the characters. But most importantly, stay wicked!