Why Donald Trump Reminds Me of Eric Cartman
Over these past few months, Donald Trump has become a major political figure in the upcoming presidential election. Love him or hate him, he has become the most popular and talked about politician, not only in the republican election, but in the election year at all. As a result, we can’t seem to talk about anyone else, with everyone jumping in to defend him or argue for a better president. Even South Park, a show with a hit or miss political history, ended up making fun of him this season, with a character designed to look exactly like Trump.
But for some reason it felt odd that the South Park creators would go out of their way to make fun of Trump like this. Why? Because they already have a character so similar to Trump that they don’t need to make another. They already have Eric Cartman. Don’t see the similarities? Lets take a look.
They Speak their minds.
We Know Trump isn’t afraid of speaking his mind. He refuses to listen to anything “Politically Correct” and has made several distasteful remarks over the course of the debates. Whether he’s calling Mexicans rapists or insulting Megan Kelley and claiming she was on her period, he is known for telling it as he sees it, and his supporters love that. Cartman, similarly, also loves speaking his mind. Whether he is mocking Breast cancer or insulting the Jews, Cartman is known for voicing his opinion. The past season was all about the PC debate, and its made clear that Cartman isnt a PC person, to the point that he won’t even pronounce someone’s name correctly because “It’s David, not Daveed”.
They are both great at gathering a following.
As stated above, Trump is great at gathering a following. He has overtaken most of the debates and discussions. Cartman is also great at gathering followers. Whether he is convincing everyone to lock Kyle in a freezer because he was born in New Jersey, turning everyone against the student council president by claiming she kills Smurfs (he even made a movie and a book about it), or using the Passion of the Christ to start a new Nazi inspired movement, Cartman never fails to turn people over to his side. He’s managed to take over vicious Somalian pirates, and we’ve seen his skills at manipulation when he arranged for the murder of Scott Tenorman’s parents and what followed. He once got Stem cell research legalized so he could get his own Shakey’s pizza (it makes sense in context), and he managed to convince the entire country that his mother raped him because she wouldn’t buy him an Ipad. He even became mayor of South Park when he convinced everyone to accuse their parents of molesting them and they ended up in a “Children of the Corn” scenario, and once tricked his “friend” into staying in a bomb shelter and then a dump for a whole week so he could go to someone’s birthday party. When Cartman sets his mind to it, he can convince anyone of anything.
They both agree on how to deal with Muslim immigrants.
Trump has been pretty open about his views on banning Muslim immigrants from entering the country. The episode “The Snuke” shows us that Cartman would agree. Cartman summaries both of their ideals pretty well. After being told by his teacher that not all Muslims are terrorists, Cartman mumbles under his breath “Not all Muslims are terrorists, but most of them are.” He then spends most of the episode torturing the new family that had just moved into town after a terrorist threat was discovered. Its made pretty clear that they are innocent form the start (Cartman’s evidence including their son saying his favorite band was different from the one Cartman saw on his Facebook page). Eventually, its revealed the terrorists are British, and not Muslim.
They both support border walls.
We’ve known Cartman disliked Mexicans ever since “Pee”, where he sang an entire song called “Minorities in My Water Park” which was about, well, too many minorities in the water park. We’ve also seen Cartman argue against immigrants from the future in “Goobacks”, but it wasn’t until “The Last of the Meheecans” that we really see how Cartman felt about immigrants. It starts with the boys playing a game called “Texans Vs Mexicans”, where one team (the Mexicans) has to sneak into Cartman’s backyard without getting caught, while the other team (The Texans), lead by Cartman, tries to keep them out of the backyard (Texas). The events of the episode lead to Cartman joining the border patrol as one of its most effective and ruthless members, due to a mass emigration of Mexican Americans back to Mexico leaving America in crisis.
They both know how to run a business.
Its no secret that Trump is rich, and he clearly knows how to run a business, despite the occasional bankruptcy or two (four) and a few botched investments like Trump vodka. Cartman is also great at running businesses. Whether it’s his “Crack baby Basketball Association” (although he admitted he needed Kyle, or any other Jew, to do his book keeping), his revenge company in “My Future Self n’ Me”, or his talent agency in “Wing”. Cartman has shown time and time again that he has the drive, knowledge, and ruthlessness of an American Business man. And like Trump he’s had his failures, like when he sold Cartmanland and ended up in debt after a lawsuit. But both he and Trump are capable of saying and doing what needs to be done for their business to succeed.
Their Biggest enemies are a Jewish man and a woman.
Although Hillary Clinton isn’t quite like Wendy Testaburger, South Parks number one activist for various causes like Breast cancer awareness, fighting censorship, and helping the poor, its very clear that Bernie Sanders is Kyle. He is Cartman/Trumps nemesis. Where as Cartman has been known for his racism, Kyle has actively fought against Cartman and his racism. Wether its trying to get Cartman to stop his anti- ginger movement (and later stop his ginger-separatist movement) or dealing with Cartman’s current racist opinion of the week, Kyle shows us time and time again that he is the Bernie (who protested segregation back in the day) to Cartman’s Trump. Plus, the episode where Kyle tried to fight a cult that worshiped the economy as a god and ended up bailing out the economy seems very reminiscent of Bernie Sanders.