Billy Bunter: Difference between revisions

 

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* [[Annoying Laugh]]: Bunter: "He he he!"

* [[Break the Haughty]]: Pride comes before a fall. Wharton and Vernon-Smith never quite learn from their mistakes, however.

* [[The Bully]]: Loder is a cruel prefect held in poor regard by most of the school. Bolsover major plays this role within the Remove itself.

* [[Catch Phrase]]: Bunter: "I say, you fellows!" "He he he!". Hurree Jamset Ram Singh: "The (whatever)fulness is terrific!" or "the (whatever)fulness is the esteemed proper caper." Lord Mauleverer: "Yaas."

* [[Character Development]]: When he first joins the Remove, Vernon-Smith is a weedy [[Spoiled Brat]] with no skills in fighting nor sports, and who gets his confidence from his father's standing with Dr Locke. By the end of the series he is one of the Remove's best fighters and footballers, and utterly self confident.

* [[Class Trip]]: From the mid-1920s onwards ''The Magnet'' ran holiday series which coincided with the real-life school holiday times and often featured Harry Wharton and Co, Bunter and other characters journeying abroad, particularly in the long summer holidays.

* [[Crossover]] Greyfriars' students are familiar with characters from other associated school stories, e.g.: St Jim's (The Gem) and Cliff House (Schoolgirl's Own).

* [[Deadly Prank]] pranks have a bad habit of getting out of hand and going awry, to the surprise of the characters but often not the reader. For example, when the Highcliffe nuts lie in wait on a coastal path to give Redwing a ragging, the reader is alerted to the sheer drop over the cliff edge, while the nuts apparently don't notice until Ponsonby and Redwing fall off of it.

* [[Department of Redundancy Department]]: the writing style.

* [[Disaster Dominoes]]: A common plot - often escalating from trivial to incredibly serious as the dominoes fall.

* [[First-Name Basis]]/[[Last-Name Basis|Last name Basis]]: You can often get an idea of where a character stands in the series' estimation of [[Black and White Morality]] by how the narration refers to them. Most characters, from thoroughly good fellows (e.g.: Harry Wharton, Tom Redwing, Mark Linley) to the flawed but essentially harmless (e.g.: Billy Bunter and Horace Coker) are regularly referred to by their full names. A very few thoroughly good fellows, such as Bob Cherry, make it to a chummy [[First-Name Basis]]. Those black sheep who have crossed the line, however, are kept at a little distance; Vernon-Smith, Skinner and Bolsover, for example, seldom have their first names mentioned at all.

* [[Food Porn]]: as you'd expect with in a series headed by one of the greediest characters ever written, tuck hampers full of moist, sugar-encrusted plum cakes, rich chocolates, sweet and crumbly macaroons, etc., etc., feature prominently. Not to mention all the hot muffins and steaming cocoa by the study fire on a foggy November evening...

* [[Funny Foreigner]]: To modern eyes the portrayal of Hurree Jamset Ram Singh is pretty cringe-worthy.

** Hurree Singh was always shown as a good-natured fellow, a first-rate cricketer and nobody's fool. On the other hand, Fisher T. Fish, the American member of the Remove, hardly showed the USA in a good light.

* [[High Hopes, Zero Talent]]: Bunter mistakenly fancies himself as everything from a world-class footballer to a world-class detective.

* [[Ho Yay]]: Almost entirely averted, despite the homosocial setting. None of the characters form strong, exclusive friendships with one other person, with the sole exception of Vernon-Smith and Redwing.

** There's also plenty of awkwardness caused by money. It's fine to accept loans, favours, offers of places to stay in the holls, etc., unless you are in real, genuine need. Then no matter how pressing, how miserable, how desperate your circumstances, or how the donor begs you to accept, it is ''charity'', and must therefore be refused.

* [[I Have Many Names]]: Although the nicknames are less impenetrable than in other boarding school settings, some characters have so many, and they are used so interchangeably, that it's hard to keep track. For example, on a single page Vernon-Smith might be refered to as 'Vernon-Smith', 'Smithy', 'The Bounder', and 'the Scapegrace of Greyfriars'.

* [[I Owe You My Life]]: Many, many quarrels, misunderstandings and feuds are resolved by one character saving another - usually from drowning.

* [[Incorruptible Pure Pureness]]: Many of the characters are too good for their own good. Redwing is a particularly shining example - lying, cheating, sponging, cruelty, pettiness and the like are utterly alien to him and his poor-but-honest upbringing.

* [[Malaproper]]: Bunter is wont to mangle any non-pedestrian word he is forced to repeat, coming out with monstrosities such as 'unparallelogramed' and 'voluntaciously'.

* [[Manly Tears]]: Blubbing, of course, is utterly shameful. However, in the depths of deepest woe and blackest injustice it is acceptable to lock oneself in one's study and roughly rub one's eyes with the back of one's hand.

* [[Viewers Are Goldfish|Readers Are Goldfish]] The writing style, particularly in some of the novels. A <s>good</s> bad example of this is Bunter the Bad Lad. We are constantly reminded who wrote the limerick (Coker), what it said (his form master is an idiot), who now has a hand written copy (Bunter), what he doing with said copy (blackmail), what will happen to Coker if a master reads it (expulsion), what Coker is in (a jam), etc, etc, pretty much every chapter (of which there are 35).

* [[Sadist Teacher]]: Especially in the comics, where Billy is often beaten by the headmaster, even when something wasn't exactly his own fault.

* [[Self Propelled Barrier of Stupidity]]: Coker.

* [[Serious Business]]: School sports are serious business and no mistake.

* [[Smug Snake]]: Ponsonby has elegant looks, dresses like a dandy, speaks with a high-class drawl and can be good-humoured company when he pleases. He enjoys being a beastly cad so much, however, that he can barely bother to conceal it.

* [[Sour Supporter]]: Johnny Bull. His plain-speaking country wisdom spots the flaw in every plan and, when it all goes wrong, he doesn't forget that he told them so.

* [[Stern Teacher]]: Mr Quelch's firm but fair manner as a form master wins him the respect of most of the form. However, he in not nearly fierce enough to earn the obedience of all.

* [[Stiff Upper Lip]]: a celebrated virtue.

* [[Strong Family Resemblance]]: Billy, Sammy and Bessie Bunter are extremely alike in habits and (alas for Bessie) looks.

* [[Suspiciously Specific Denial]]: A typical plea of innocence for Bunter is about 90% confession. "Don't you go telling Smithy I had his chocs. He never had any chocs, as far as I know, and they weren't in a box, and the box wasn't on his study table..."

* [[True Companions]]: Known variously as "The Famous Five", "The Co.", "The Chums" etc. Wharton, Bob Cherry, Nugent, Huree Jamset Ram Singh and Johnny Bull are the main driving force of the Remove, and will back one another up through thick and thin.

* [[Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist]]: Bunter, after he took the title role.

* [[Was It All a Lie?]]: Vernon-Smith has a well-developed sense of honour and soon leans the value of playing the game and pulling with the team, but has a dark streak in his nature that draws him to the shadier pursuits in schoolboy life. His periodic slips cause his friends to doubt him, while his old comrades are always happy to [[Welcome Back, Traitor|welcome him back]].

* [[Written Sound Effect]]: Very common. There's a lot of fights and corporal punishment in the series and most of it is rendered as sound effects and bizarre exclamations. A typical example of a caning: Whop! "Wow!" yelled Bunter. Whop! "Whooooooop!" Whop! "Yarooooh!" Whop! "Yow-ow-ow! Leggo!"

[[Category:British Series]]

[[Category:British Comics]]