South Park Fans Are Divided Over The Extent Of Eric's Family's Screen Time

"South Park" has been on the air for over 20 years at this point. It's only natural for some changes to take place, and one of the biggest ways this has manifested is in the distribution of time devoted to the central kids' families. Early in the show's run, much of the plot focused on Stan, Kyle, Cartman, and Kenny, with their parents more in the background. However, as time has passed, their parents have taken on more prominent roles, especially when it comes to Stan's father, Randy.

However, some fans think not enough time has been paid to one of the funniest families out there, namely Eric Cartman's brood. Of course, Cartman's mother, Liane, is featured heavily throughout the show's run. But in Season 2's "Merry Christmas, Charlie Manson!," we meet his extended family in Nebraska, who are all pretty much as gross and foul as Eric is. Seeing how they're in another state, it'd be tough to incorporate them into the Colorado shenanigans, but some fans think we needed to see more of them over the years.

Some of Cartman's extended family return for Season 5's "Cartmanland" when his grandmother dies and leaves him $1 million. But they don't really get a chance to talk and show off some comedy like in Season 2. Many fans view that as a missed opportunity, like Redditor u/shreklover257: "Does anybody else think they wasted a opportunity with Eric's family. We haven't seen them since season 2 and there's definitely a lot of episodes they could've used them in." In the comments that followed, many fans agreed, saying things like, "Yes please please bring them on!!! They were incredibly funny for the show" and "I especially want to see Elvin again!"

Others felt the extended Cartman family served their purpose, like u/Joed112784, who wrote, "I think it was funnier for a one off episode cause all the comedy comes from how they all talk like cartman. It would get old after a while." Meanwhile, u/DrRavineOfficial felt focusing on the family more would be detrimental to Cartman's character: "I think if Cartman has this big family, then he wouldn't be a spoiled brat at all."

It makes sense Trey Parker and Matt Stone wouldn't want to overutilize Cartman's relatives. Still, seeing how "Merry Christmas, Charlie Manson!" is held in such high regard, with MovieWeb ranking it the best "South Park" Christmas episode ever, it wouldn't be out of the question for the Cartmans to return. It's been over 20 years since we've last seen them, so chances are they'd be welcomed by fans.