Eric Cartman is one of the four main schoolboys in South Park, the long-running animated sitcom created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone that premiered on Comedy Central in 1997, with Parker voicing Cartman. His self-satisfied laugh became one of the character's most recognisable trademarks, clipped and shared from episodes across YouTube, soundboards and social media as a shorthand for smug mockery. It endures because the sound needs no context: even viewers who have never watched the show recognise the tone instantly and use it to puncture pomposity, celebrate a rival's slip-up or add a villainous edge to a joke.