Why do stan, kyle, kenny and butters care about cartman so much, even though he's a total douchebag?

[Anonymous]

He's a total dbag, yet, you always see the others care about him so much. Like in the episode where cartman wants to be a nascar driver when he grows up, but he says he's not poor and stupid enough to be one.

[CupcakeTheDestroyer]

The watsonian (in canon) explanation would be that they’re good kids and they know that killing someone is wrong as well as the fact that cartman doesn’t really have any other friends and, for the most part, he’s pretty funny and also the group wallet bc his mom spoils him rotten.


The doylist explanation is recognizing that the writers need someone to be the asshole to represent certain groups they want to make fun of and making cartman an incredibly racist douchebag is a really good base to work with

[BarryLiverstone]

Cus that’s how they show they like their friends.. by insulting them