10 TV Villains Who Stole The Show

10. Cartman (South Park)

When we first meet Eric Cartman, he’s a foul mouthed little fat kid with big dreams and delusions of grandeur. He’s crass and annoying, spoiled and demanding, but he’s not a villain. He has redemptive qualities and mitigating circumstances, too: his home life is hardly the happiest, and on occasion has saved the world.

Something changed around season five - specifically, the classic episode Scott Tenorman Must Die. Cartman enters into a feud with the titular older kid, and as the prank war escalates, Cartman takes the nuclear option of murdering Tenorman’s parents and feeding them to him. From there, Cartman is a vessel of limitless darkness. He attempts genocide, he infects his friend with AIDS, he carries out further murders, all the while remaining in the body of a small child.

This of course served only to make Cartman a more beloved comic creation, and his status in South Park is that of an astonishingly accomplished super villain. He’s sometimes described as the show’s antihero, but really he’s a full fledged monster, and all the funnier for it.