Bash Street Kids

The Bash Street Kids is a comic strip in the British magazine Beano. The strip was created by Leo Baxendale in 1954 under the title When the Bell Rings, and became The Bash Street Kids in 1956. Baxendale continued to draw it until 1962.

The comic is about class 2B of Bash St School, a fine institution where the teacher and the headmaster still wear mortarboards and gowns. The class contains 10 students:

• Erbert - A shortsighted boy who can see perfectly well without spectacles. But with them, he is as blind as a bat.

• Fatty - A boy that can never stop eating.

• Danny - The leader with the soul of a pirate. Wears a skull and crossbones jumper that his grandma knitted him, a floppy red school cap which indicates his rebellious nature. He is quite crafty with his own sort of intelligence.

• Spotty - A short sarcastic character who is often compared to christmas pudding. He is quite handy when he wants to be, and his attire (like his extraordinarily long tie) often helps the kids out in tough situations.

• Wilfred - An interesting boy, with thoughts hidden behind the depth of his green jumper. He often resembles a tortoise and has a mystery about his neck that he never reveals. Whenever he takes off his jumper all we see is a vest up to his nose.

• Toots - Sidney's twin sister and the girl of the class and the youngest. A classy tomboy who can be as bossy as Danny when she wants to be, but has more of a heart than any of her friends. She is very tough and the boys have no problem letting her join in their games.

• Smiffy - The naive, somewhat dumb one who often confuses genderss and nouns. He can be very kind and aware of things, but most of the time he can't even remember 1+1.

• Plug (Percival Proudfoot Plugsley [see footnote *]) - The hideously ugly one who uses his face to his best defense. In fact he's so ugly that when he pulls a face he becomes handsome. He also has a great sense of humor. His name comes from the word pug. Later, in the 1980s, he appeared in his own comic, The Plug Comic, which starred him and his two pets, Pug, from The Bash Street Pups, and Chunkee the Monkey. His name used to be Pug - the L was added when Smiffy had a spare one when spelling the word "sily".

• Cuthbert Cringeworthy - A teacher's pet that tends to be bossy, rude, and spoiled. He has a name for every letter of the alphabet.

• Sidney - Toot's twin brother and the keeper of a dozen animals. He wishes to become a vet when he grows older because he knows more about animals than anything. Sidney always has spiky hair resembling a chimney sweeper's brush in which he takes pride.

• Teacher - never "Teach" - is also worth a special mention for having to put up with Class IIB all these years.

• Winston The Cat - The school's cat. He is often seen mopping the floor with Janitor.

• Janitor - The school's janitor. He hates litter and rule breakage. He seems to enjoy bossing Winston about.

• Olive - The school cook. Everyone hates her food, as the ingredients for it include items such as old books and the like. On the other hand, she has a high opinion of her cuisine.

Some of these characters are referred to only by their occupation; for example Teacher, Head, etc. This is fine example of surreal and bizarre British humour at its best - in one strip, the headmaster's brother's name is Mr. Headsbrother.

Each child's parents look exactly the same as the child. Mrs. Teacher also looks like Teacher, right down to the moustache.

The comic has various spinoffs, including the Bash Street Pups, Simply Smiffy, and The Plug Comic.

[Footnote *] Plug's "real name" was first revealed as "Percival Proudfoot Plugsey" on the cover of The Plug Comic (circa 1976/7) although earlier issues of the Beano give him the name Claude.