Cartman and Heidi’s relationship is one of the oddest things
I’ve seen from South Park in a while. Why would the sociopathic Eric Cartman
want to be in a relationship? And why would anyone who knows his reputation get
in a relationship with him under any circumstances?
Cartman and Heidi first started going out in season twenty. Both
had left social media, Heidi because she was being harassed, and Cartman
because the other boys destroyed all his electronics. They both ended up as exiles
in the community, and start building a relationship. Cartman had adopted a “feminist”
persona for the season in yet another attempt to coopt a movement and deflect criticism
from himself. He quickly adopts the opinion that Heidi is the smartest and
funniest person ever and any attempts to disagree or direct the conversation
elsewhere resulted in Eric leveling personal attacks on the person in question.
Naturally this did not last as Eric developed a paranoid
fear that Heidi would discover his internet history and put him in a semen farm
on Mars. This never happens of course, and they stayed together. Though now
Cartman secretly resented his girlfriend. Heidi and Cartman had somehow settled
into a normal but unhappy relationship.
What Cartman gets out of the relationship becomes obvious by
season twenty one: it’s all about him. He uses Heidi when it’s convenient but otherwise
tries to break up with her. Cartman finds spending time with Heidi a living
hell. He is unhappy with having to wait for her to get ready and discuss his
feelings. But he is so self-centered he cannot bear the thought of breaking up
with her. So instead he plots to kill her or drive her away. When she does break up with him he can’t stand
being rebuffed, so he begs Heidi to get back together with him.
But what does Heidi get out of the relationship? We finally
got that answer in the last episode. She was in a bad place after leaving
social media and Eric told her what she wanted to hear. She grew dependent on
him and kept rationalizing his many negative traits.
This last episode Heidi once again broke up with Cartman. What
does Cartman do? he went back to acting out, but once he learns that Heidi is
now with Kyle he launched into an anti-Semitic fantasy which sees him and Heidi
as the victims of Kyle’s machinations.
Alas, despite it being what’s best for both of them they get
back together. After Heidi endured a round of humiliation from her girlfriends
making fun of her relationship with Cartman, she ended up going back to Cartman.
He told her it’s not her fault, He essentially poisons her with his anti-Semitic
perspective, and convinced her everything is Kyle’s fault, and they end up back
together.
So we see what is really at the root of their relationship: A
denial of personal responsibility. Cartman is unwilling to face his selfish
behavior, and Heidi is unwilling to face her bad decision in hooking up with
him, so she instead buys into Cartman’s absurd world view rather than face the
truth.
Cartman and Heidi have been hit and miss comedically, but this
is actually a brilliant story arc that has finally paid off. South Park has
long skewered people for denying responsibility and refusing to face truths
that make them uncomfortable. Reading the reviews the next day it seemed many
people were uncomfortable with such a dark ending. But this is important
because we see both of them faced with the consequences of their actions, and unfortunately
for the victim Heidi, the consequences are much worse. Of course, there is the
political parallel they were drawing, which I didn’t factor in because I wanted
to look at their relationship as a standalone arc. In any case I am satisfied
with what they have done with the relationship so far and I want to see if they
continue to peruse it.
-Gedaemon
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