Mr. Men



""Happyland, The birds are happy, the worms are happy, the sun is happy.""

- Mr. Happy

Once upon a time, there was a man called Roger Hargreaves. In 1971, his son asked him the question, "What does a tickle look like?" he answered it by creating Mr. Tickle. This became the first in a series of books about the Mr Men and Little Misses.

The series involves a various abstract people (mostly circles with arms and legs) who each have a distinctive characteristic which defines them, and are named after that characteristic (Mr. Forgetful, Little Miss Trouble, Mr. Wrong, Little Miss Wise, etc.) Each of the original books stars one of the characters, who has a brief adventure revolving around their character trait. And the sun has a face on some occasions.

There have been two animated series based on the books. The first The Mr Men And Little Misses was based closely on the original stories. The second The Mr. Men Show is a sketch show featuring the characters.

From 2004 to 2011, the Mr Men characters have been owned by Chorion; as of 2012, they are owned by Sanrio.

Mr. Men provides examples of:

 * An Aesop: Characters defined by negative traits such as Mr Uppity and Little Miss Bossy usually learn better by the end of their own story.
 * Aesop Amnesia: ...But when they reappear they still have these characteristics, because otherwise they wouldn't be that character any more.
 * Amusing Injuries: Mr Bump.
 * Arcadia: Happyland.
 * Born Lucky: Little Miss Lucky.
 * Big Eater: Mr Greedy, Little Miss Plump and Mr Strong, although the latter is that for eggs.
 * Distaff Counterpart: The Little Misses to the Mr Men in general and some Little Misses to specific Mr Men (Mr and Little Miss Chatterbox; Mr and Little Miss Busy; Mr Happy and Little Miss Sunshine; Mr Greedy and Little Miss Plump; Mr Small and Little Miss Tiny, etc.)
 * The Chew Toy: Mr. Bump.
 * Every Girl Is Cuter With Hair Decs: The Little Misses. Even Little Miss Bossy.
 * Friendly Tickle Torture: Doing this to people is the whole of Mr. Tickle's character.
 * Grumpy Bear: Mr Grumpy
 * The Klutz: Mr Bump.
 * Meaningful Name: All of them. Other characters have names like Doctor Makeyouwell.
 * Outlived Its Creator: Roger Hargreaves died in 1998. His son Adam (who had started the whole thing by asking what a tickle looks like) wrote new books about the existing characters, as well as new characters and characters his father had created but never used.
 * Shrinking Violet: Little Miss Shy and Mr. Quiet.
 * Title Theme Tune: The 1983 series. TWICE!
 * Honestly, what else can the Mr. Men sing?