WARNING: The following contains spoilers for South Park Season 25, Episode 3, “City People,” now available on Comedy Central.
South Park has no bigger brat than Eric Cartman. Stan, Kenny, Kyle and all the other kids in the snowy Colorado town often show empathy and compassion, not just for each other but their friends and family, too. Meanwhile, Cartman’s the total opposite — selfish and toxic beyond belief, like during the Season 25 premiere when he stirred up a rebellion based on a false equivalency after Pajama Day got cancelled.
Cartman totally lacks a conscience, which is why he fed Scott Tenorman to his parents and attempted various genocides and race wars just to make the utopia he felt he deserved (a terrible point that this season passed on to Randy Marsh). But even with all of that, Season 25 shocked viewers by having Cartman wrapped up in another conflict that proved he’s even more spoiled than the show has already displayed.
In “City People,” Cartman formed South Park Realty Group to rival his mom’s new job at South Park Realtors. One would think he’d be glad Liane found employment, given the city’s economic downturn during the pandemic thanks to meddling administrators. Instead he was irate, making it known her one job was to wait hands and feet on him in a foul-mouthed tirade similar to his rants against celebrities like Matt Damon.
Liane tried to explain how she needed to make money so he could continue his pampered lifestyle — eating whatever he wanted and engaging in frivolous hobbies — but Cartman just wouldn’t have it. No matter what, he wanted to be his mom’s only priority. The plotline harkened back to when Cesar Millan visited town in Season 10’s “Tsst,” applying his tactics from The Dog Whisperer to subdue Cartman and discipline him. Sadly, when Cesar left, Liane let Cartman regress into his old ways and in “City People” she paid the price.
Cartman decided to secretly plot revenge with his company, manipulating the housing market, selling houses that weren’t for sale and sabotaging rivals for the sole purpose of selfishly crushing Liane’s dream of being an independent, successful single-mom. His plan culminated in bringing in a bunch of obnoxious people to the city, only for fed-up locals to bear arms in an attempt to try to take both him and Liane out.
Luckily for him Liane quit, realizing that Cartman wouldn’t stop terrorizing people until she became his slave again. But rather than learn from the experience, she saw his relentless nature as something cute. She didn’t care how he damaged the real estate market, started a war that took out other realtors or gave the town a bad name — she was just glad he loved her again. Liane didn’t even chide her son when they lost their own home and had to move into a dilapidated hot dog stand.
“City People” proved Cartman will continue to get his way no matter what it costs anyone else in the city of South Park. The only upside of this latest shocking plot is that he might eventually regret what he did and how easily Liane submitted to his will because he’s also not going to settle for living in poverty. At least viewers know from the South Park: Post Covid specials that he gets his comeuppance in the future.
South Park Season 25 airs every Wednesday at 8 PM ET/PT on Comedy Central.
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