The Bash Street Kids

The Bash Street Kids is a comic strip in the UK comic The Beano, and is often seen as respresentative of the comic. The strip was created by Leo Baxendale under the title When the Bell Rings, and first appeared in The Beano in issue 604, dated 13 February 1954. It became The Bash Street Kids in 1956. Baxendale continued to draw it until 1961, and David Sutherland has drawn the majority of the strips since then.

Like many long-running UK comic strips, The Bash Street Kids is anachronistically frozen in the era the strip began in. About Class 2B of Bash Street School, where the teacher and the headmaster still wear mortarboards and gowns and pupils sit at wooden desks with inkwells. They are taught by a sterotype teacher, who appears to actually have the name Teacher (his wife is called Mrs. Teacher).

The class contains 10 pupils:

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

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

• Fatty - An obese boy that can never stop eating.

• Plug - The hideously ugly one who uses his face to his best defence. He's so ugly that when he pulls a face he becomes handsome. He also has a good sense of humour. His name comes from the word pug. He later appeared in his own comic, called simply Plug (1977 - 1979), which starred him and his two pets, Pug, from Pup Parade, and Chunkee the Monkey. His name used to be Pug - the L, according to The Beano, was added when Smiffy had a spare one when spelling the word "sily". Plug's "real name" was first revealed as "Percival Proudfoot Plugsey" on the cover of 'Plug', although earlier issues of the Beano give him the name Claude.

• Sidney - Toots' 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 has spiky hair resembling a chimney sweeper's brush in which he takes pride.

• Smiffy - The naïve, somewhat dumb one who often confuses genders and nouns (for example when Teacher calls the register and he is supposed to say 'present', he says 'gift' instead). He can sometimes be very kind and aware of things on an emotional level similar to an idiot savant, but most of the time he can't even remember what colour the sky is. He has two brothers, Whiffy and Normal Norman.

• Spotty - A short character who is often compared to a Christmas pudding. He is quite handy when he wants to be, with his attire (his extraordinarily long tie) often helping the kids out in tough situations. In the 1981 Beano Book, it was revealed that Spotty has 976 spots.

• Toots - Sidney's twin sister, 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.

• Wilfred - A thoughtful and introspective boy, with thoughts hidden behind the depth of his green jumper that goes all the way up to his nose. He often resembles a tortoise and has a mystery around his neck, which is never seen; whenever he takes off his jumper all we see is a vest as high up as his jumper.

• Cuthbert Cringeworthy - The brightest child in the class, and a teacher's pet that tends to be bossy, rude, and spoiled; he tends to be ostracised by the others. He has a name for every letter of the alphabet. First appearing in 1971, he looks very much like Teacher (a play on the DC Thomson comics' tradition that pets look like their owners (e.g. Dennis the Menace and Gnasher), and his status as teacher's pet).

Recurring characters include:

• Head - The pompous and portly school headmaster. He is very fond of tea and biscuits.

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

• Winston - The school's cat. Anthropomorphic, he is often seen mopping the floor with Janitor.

• Olive - The school cook, who first appeared in the strip in 1980. 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.

As can be seen, some characters are named after their occupation; for example Teacher, Head. This is typical of eccentric British humour, and even borders on surrealism; the headmaster's brother's name is Mr. Headsbrother, and the children's parents (who look almost exactly the same as their child) are called Plug's Dad, even in flashbacks they are themselves children.

The strip has had various spin-offs over the years, including Pup Parade, Simply Smiffy, Plug and Singled Out. The Bash Street Kids Annual is published every year, as were summer specials during the 1990s.