Jay Cartwright

Jay Cartwright is one of the two tritagonists (alongside Neil Sutherland) of the British coming-of-age comedy series The Inbetweeners. He is a student at Rudge Park Comprehensive. He is the least socially acceptable of the group, being rude and abrasive, but he has deeper feelings than a first glance would suggest. By Series 3 he drives on a provisional licence, but Simon still takes leadership when it comes to travelling. He often makes large claims, only to rarely deliver.
==Characterization==
===Personality===
Jay tends to lie, either about some form of sexual encounter or something to improve his social status, this backfires as only Neil tends to believe him. The fact that he has never engaged in any form of sexual activity causes him to feel insecure and therefore relies heavily on pornography to inform him about sex, giving him a very false idea about both women and sex, making hims sometimes come across as both a sex pest and misogynistic. He is obsessed with the idea of sex, he constantly tries bizarre forms of masturbation That he often ends up getting caught at an awkward moment, such as claiming when he supposidly fingered a girl when he was twelve, she proceeded to deficate all over his arm. He mocks his friends at every opportunity despite the fact he's unlikely too make new ones should he go too far, he has themes of sorts when he insults his friends, Will: his posh personality and fit mother, Simon: his hair and obsession over Carli, and Neil: his dad's "homosexuality" and him being an idiot. Jay is also shown to be quite arrogant when he thinks he can get more girls than his friends as he posses himself as the most sexually experienced person of the group when in actuality he's the least sexually experienced. This fact plauges him as all three of his other friends have had sexual encounters with extremley popular and beautiful girls, causing him to claim that he has engaged in sex with pornstars, in three ways and other things. He is extremely unpopular with women as his abrasive and ***** nature causes him to say the wrong things all the time damaging both his own and his friends reputations.
===Appearance===
Jay is average in build and height, with straight hair and blond highlights in his hair, and smiles that can single him out as trouble. It may be this appearance which adds to his desire to be noticed. He has a *******/Essex accent, with Will pointing out that Jay's belief that an area was 'quality' when it was as a known **** hole, using his accent as a basis for his belief to confirm the rumours of the area. In terms of uniform he is very rarely seen in a jumper and never in a blazer. Jay walks with a swagger, stemmed from his belief of easy skills with the '******'.
==Relationships==
=== Friendships ===
Neil Sutherland: Neil is the only one of the boys gullible enough to believe Jay's lies, causing Jay to see Neil as his best friend. He frequently uses Neil as his wingman when going after girls. In 'The Camping Trip' when Neil reveals he had lost his virginity, Jay mentions how he knew Neil would be the first of the boys to do so.
Simon Cooper: Jay and Simon had known each other since they were children. The two clash constantly, with Jays bragging and Simon's sexual frustration being a focal point in their relationship. Whilst in Malia, Jay and Simon get into a fight and split. They patch up shortly before the boat party. Jay shows a softer side around Simon, agreeing to go with him to hearten Will, Jay anounces he was hoped the two of them could start their own business together.
Will McKenzie: Jay shows a dislike to Will when he first met him.. But despite that, the two hang around each other for the sole reason that they are all they have got. Whenever Jay tries to bring down Will, Will retorts with dry humour. Jay's dislike of Will at times gets to the point where he tries to get Will into trouble, such as hiring a stripper for Will's birthday, jeopardising Will at the Duke of Edinburgh awards and causing vandalism in Will's neighbourhood, which Mr. Gilbert and a neighbour both trace back to Will. When Jay realises he may never see his friends after school, he attempts being a little kinder to Will.
=== Romance ===
Chloe: Chloe was presumably Jay's first love. After getting with her, Jay starts to act less vulgar, even around his friends and his dad. The relationship was tarnishes when Jay's father tells him to keep tabs on her making sure she wasn't cheating on him. Jay begins to send her messages constantly, which overwhelms Chloe to the point she realises Jay is too needy. Mr. Gilbert also notes "she can't be too keen" when he confiscates Jay's phone, he points out the phone "didn't buzz once". After Chloe dumps Jay, he breaks down and reverts to his compulsive lying self to cope with grief. In series three, Will brings her up and Jay winces, hinting that he still hadn't gotten over her yet.
Jane: Originally, Jay was put off by Jane's overweightness, but after a while, he begins to see her in a different light. When the boys and girls go out skinny-dipping, two men make fun of Jane's weight. Jay, having just been threatened by James earlier, wimps out. This upsets Jane, giving him the cold shoulder, but soon forgives him. After Jay and Jane officially become a couple, Jay shows a more chivalrous side, chastising Neil for mentioning her size and swiping Simon's hospital pillow for her to sit on.
In the second film, it revealed that Jane dumped him, despite Jay stating that he no longer thought about her during his text to Neil. Jay begins a gap year to Australia so he can find Jane and get her back. He mentions this to Simon at the campfire. The next day, Jay begins his search at Splash Planet where he is told by a employee of Splash Planet that Jane is no longer working in the water park and now works in a farm in the Outback. After getting the address from Lucy, Jay, Simon and Neil search for Jane and is later joined by Will soon after. After getting stranded in the Outback, Jay is rescued by Jane and her boss. Jay apologizes about getting her a Wii-Fit and attempts to get her back and ask her to marry him, despite her pleased and honored by his effort of finding her, she does not take him back.
===Family===
Terry Cartwright (Father): Jay fears his dad, who in turn, constantly insults, contradicts and undermines his son, any of Jay's attempts to stand up for him self is discarded as an womanly hissy fits and ignored. Terry either doesn't know or doesn't care how damaging he is for his son, he seems merciless when it comes to insulting Jay and is probably why Jay acts the way he does, Jay, although afraid of him, seems desperate to earn some form of approval from his dad.
Mrs Cartwright (Mother): Having walked in on Jay masturbating on more than one occasion, she is not phased by Jay's behaviour. Also she is shown to stick up for him against his Dad's bullying.
Benji the Dog: Jay likes Benji the Dog, although he does have a tendancy, if Benji interrupts him at an opportune moment, say, while masturbating, to swear very loudly at him and move him of the room. That said, he does display genuine affection to Benji on a number of occasions.
Jay's Sister Jay's younger sister made brief appearances at the beginning of the first movie, but her personality is unknown.
Uncle Bryan: Bryan is Jay's Uncle who resides in Australia. He appears in the second film, where Jay spends a year living with him. Bryan's personality is similar to Jay's Dad's. It is shown as he mocks Jay's tiny penis and reveals to Neil that all the things that Jay has texted to him was a complete lie. However Bryan has been shown to stick up for Jay when he told Terry he presumed that he taught Jay how to fight like a girl which causes Terry and Bryan to brawl it out.
Michelle (Cousin): Neil mentions that he ******** Jay's cousin; Michelle.
==Character History==
===Series 1===
In his first appearance, Jay is seen bragging about his latest imaginary conquest, only to stop when Mark Donovan glares at him. He takes an instant dislike to Will, which is only made worse when Will grasses all of his classmates. Presumably the only reason he lets Will hang out with him is because of his mother.
In "Caravan Club" the boys question Jay's stories about Caravan Club secretly being a sex club. Jay invites them to prove himself right and sets Simon up with Becky, one of the caravan owner's daughters. He almost got away with his lies until Simon exposed himself to Becky. On the ride home, Neil reveals that he had a mutual masturbation session with a red-haired punk girl in Simon's car, which Jay eagerly uses as evidence that he wasn't lying. Further evidence maybe that, the punk girl had earlier offered to have sex with Will, Jay just picked out the wrong girl for Simon. At the end of the first series, he opens up to Big John, admitting that many of his stories are somewhat exaggerated because he is worried that people don't notice him, and that he is afraid of being ignored.
===Series 2===
In "Field Trip" Jay and Neil travel to Swanage in the hopes of finding a housewife that supposedly gives ******** to schoolboys. Since Jay was absolutely committed to this rumour, it may be possible that it wasn't a lie.
Jay is later recruited into Will's Duke of Edinburgh scheme where the boys have to do volunteer work at an old folk's home. Jay spends the entire time masturbating over articles and pictures in womens magazines he finds laying around the home. This would backfire on him, when having run out of available magazines, he was caught tugging himself off to a photo of a young lady in a bathing suit from the 1940's, by the now old woman from the picture, startling him so bad he ejaculated all over his hand. Her son then mistakenly shook hands with Jay,  "He did that looking at me" the old lady proudly tells her son and  thus Jay's perfect job at the home is over ( "I'm getting paid to ****") and he and the other inbetweeners are kicked off the *** awards scheme. In the final episode of the second series "End of Term", Jay finally gets a girlfriend called Chloe and he is more interested in her than for just sex; he genuinely has feelings for her. Following his dad's advice he begins texting her and messaging her over the Internet frequently, and this leads her to dump him at the end of the episode, citing that he is too sensitive and needy for her. Jay attempts to twist this into him dumping her when the rest of the gang find him crying, but as per usual, they don't believe him.
===Series 3===
In series 3 we can see Jay can now drive (albeit incredibly carelessly, confusing whose right of way it is, and only on a provisional license), calling his red Nissan Micra 'The *****mobile'. He is very confident in his own abilities, although none of his friends believe any of his outlandish claims.
We see in Series 3, Episode 5 ('Home Alone') that Jay has a dog called Benji who is mixed breed terrier, who was eventually put down in the same episode. Jay claims that he has played for West Ham and always wears football shirts. Jay also likes motorbikes although in Series 3, Episode 3 ('Will's *******), Neil gets a new motorbike and because Neil broke his wrist, Jay had to ride it and crashes. In the final episode of Series 3, it is briefly touched upon that Jay was sexually abused as a child by his neighbour - and Jay's Dad reveals (in a text) that Jay went to see a psychologist when he was younger.
===Film===
In the feature film, Jay's grandfather passes away leaving him a large inheritance. Jay decides to spend his new found wealth on a 'mental lads holiday' for him and his three friends: Neil, Simon, and Will (it is stated in the film that everyone's parents pitched money in as well). The holiday gets off to a bad start when the boys discover that Neil has booked them into a 1 star hotel. Jay, however, is still optimistic and later that night sets off to find some ' holiday ******'. Jay is pleasantly surprised when an attractive woman starts flirting with him and tells him to wait for her at a bar. In the bar four girls walk in and Jay begins talking to a girl, whose name is Jane. The pair have some kind of connection, but Jay is put off by Jane's weight and the fact that there is a "better" looking girl outside. It turns out, however, that the attractive girl only flirted with Jay so he would go to the bar. Feeling rejected, Jay goes off alone for the night. The other boys find him the next morning, passed out in an ant's nest. Jay goes with the other boys to another hotel where the four girls are staying, although Jay has no intention of meeting with Jane. Instead he tries to show off to some girls at the poolside, but is publicly humiliated when a child pushes him into the pool and then pulls down his shorts, and makes fun of the "so small" size. After this humiliation, Jay throws the child into the pool, nearly drowning him. He gets the boys thrown out of the hotel, and Simon does not get to purchase his Party Boat tickets. Jay gets frustrated over Simon's obsession with Carli and the two have a fight of sorts in the street. Jay storms off after this, taking Neil with him. Jay becomes determined to have a better time than Simon, so he and Neil head to a bar to pick up some girls; however they have accidentally made their way into an exotic bar. They are mocked for this by obnoxious holiday rep James, who aggressively threatens Jay. Jay leaves in tears and he and Neil head back to the bar were they first met the four girls. They find Simon and Will there and Jay uncharacteristically apologizes to Simon. They then meet the girls again, and Jay realizes how much he likes Jane. The groups decide to indulge in some skinny dipping. Jay and Jane are about to kiss when Jay notices people laughing at Jane, and all the while Jay does nothing to come to her defense. Jane realizes Jay is embarrassed to be with her and storms off, leaving Jay confused and upset. The boys decide to spend the night drinking away their sorrows, and back at the hotel Jay gets quite upset when he learns Will and Simon are going to university when they get back home. The next morning Jay reveals to Simon that he bought tickets to the boat party the previous night, but he had torn them up in a fit of rage after his fight with Simon. The friends go to find their own individual girls. Jay apologizes to Jane for his behaviour; she gives him a blowjob in the ship's toilets for his apology, leaving Jay stunned because this is the first sexual experience he has encountered. The pair bump into James, who makes fun of Jane's weight, but Jay gets revenge by giving a him euro bill to snort coke with that has spent some time in Jay's **** crack. Jay spends the rest of the holiday enjoying himself with Jane, before returning home ready to start the next part of his life.
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