Russell



Russell is one of the main characters in the Happy Tree Friends series.

Character Bio


A pastel green sea otter with typical pirate accessories like a Jolly Roger's hat, a striped red/white shirt, a hook, an eyepatch and two wooden peglegs. He enjoys fishing, sailing and eating seafood, one of his animal instincts, especially mussels, which was why he was named Russell. He also likes kite flying and even runs his own fast-food restaurant (Mime to Five). Some fans mistook him as a cat because of his whiskers and his appetite for fish, but he's really a sea otter. His hook started off on his left hand, but later on, it is on the right hand for the rest of the series. Russell's initial character design depicted him with a five o'clock shadow, though since his early appearances, it seems as though he shaves regularly.

He stopped having a five o'clock shadow since Get Whale Soon. Typically, his vocabulary consists only of "Yar!", though in the episode Get Whale Soon, he also says things like 'Aha!' and 'Huh?' In the episode A Sight for Sore Eyes, he was heard apologizing to The Mole after he accidentally bumped into him.

Sometimes, when put in a scary or violent situation, Russell will go insane and start laughing in a crazy manner and his eye turns into the color of gray, as seen in Get Whale Soon and Snow Place to Go. Because Russell spends most of his time in the water, he is rarely seen with the other characters, though he does appear in a few episodes with Lumpy, although nowadays he seems to appear with all the others as well. His deaths usually involve sea animals or getting impaled.

From the episode, Sea What I Found, when Russell woke up and went to his closet to change his peglegs, it is evident that his legs are partially amputated. He is the second character to wear pants. Also, he's the third character without visible ears as seen in his Internet shorts introduction when he took his hat off for a few seconds. Russell wears a stripy undershirt when he goes to sleep. He lives in a big pirate ship shaped treehouse and sleeps on a hammock.

Since he only has one eye and his vision is becoming blurry, he's recommended to wear a contact lens as seen in A Sight for Sore Eyes.

He appears to be friends with Lumpy in Sea What I Found. He has also been seen with Nutty and Handy in Ipso Fatso, Disco Bear in The Wrong Side of the Tracks and Sniffles in Double Whammy Part 1. And in Can't Stop Coffin he was seen playing baseball with Cuddles, Toothy and Cro-Marmot

During the internet series, he died in almost every episode he appeared in. So far, the only internet episode he survived in was Can't Stop Coffin. During the TV series he has survived in A Sight for Sore Eyes, The Wrong Side of the Tracks, (Debatably) Mime to Five, Chew Said a Mouthful, See What Develops, Easy Comb, Easy Go, and Double Whammy Part 1. He also survived in the game Milk Pong

Famous Deaths

 * Whose Line Is It Anyway?
 * Off the Hook
 * Get Whale Soon
 * Sea of Love
 * In a Jam

Starring Roles

 * Whose Line Is It Anyway?
 * Off the Hook
 * Get Whale Soon
 * Sea What I Found
 * Snow Place to Go
 * A Sight For Sore Eyes
 * Something Fishy

Featuring Roles

 * Class Act
 * Remains to be Seen
 * The Wrong Side of the Tracks
 * Who's to Flame?
 * Mime to Five
 * See What Develops
 * Idol Curiosity
 * In a Jam
 * Hear Today, Gone Tomorrow
 * Can't Stop Coffin
 * Milk Pong

Appearance Roles

 * From Hero to Eternity
 * Ipso Fatso
 * Concrete Solution
 * Chew Said a Mouthful
 * Aw, Shucks!
 * Easy Comb, Easy Go
 * Double Whammy Part 1
 * Wrath of Con

Love Bites Roles

 * Sea of Love

Occupations and Careers

 * 1) Pirate - Almost every regular episode he has starred, featured, or appeared in
 * 2) Fisherman - Whose Line Is It Anyway?; Sea What I Found
 * 3) Treasure Hunter - Sea What I Found
 * 4) Sanitation Engineer - Who's to Flame?
 * 5) Fast-Food Restaurant Owner - Mime to Five
 * 6) Ship Deck Swabber - Idol Curiosity
 * 7) Carnival Booth Operator - Aw, Shucks!; Double Whammy
 * 8) Bass Guitarist - In a Jam
 * 9) Fish Market Trucker - Hear Today, Gone Tomorrow
 * 10) Student/School Play Actor - Something Fishy

Seen on Computer and on TV

 * 1) Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Impaled through mouth by a swordfish.
 * 2) Off the Hook: Hits a seamine and explodes.
 * 3) Get Whale Soon: His head is impaled on a ship's mast.
 * 4) Class Act: Dies in an explosion.
 * 5) Remains to be Seen: Dies in a truck crash, revived as a zombie, and run over with a lawn mower by Lumpy.
 * 6) From Hero to Eternity: Sinks into a whirlpool and burned by lava.
 * 7) Ipso Fatso: Sliced to pieces by flying glass shards (along with Nutty).
 * 8) Concrete Solution: Possibly dies when bridge collapses.
 * 9) Sea What I Found: Suffers decompression sickness, causing his muscles to expand through his skin.
 * 10) Who's to Flame?: Gets impaled by sharp and pointy objects.
 * 11) Snow Place to Go: Eaten by an orca.
 * 12) Mime to Five: Eaten alive by some killer ducks. (Death not seen and Debatable)
 * 13) Idol Curiosity: Drowns when a boat he's connected to sinks.
 * Aw, Shucks!: Crushed by a huge piece of popcorn.
 * 1) In a Jam: Electrocuted by an electric guitar and blown to dust.
 * 2) Hear Today, Gone Tomorrow: Dies in a truck explosion.
 * 3) Sea of Love: Skin ripped off his face by a little anglerfish and possibly drowns or is eaten by the anglerfish.
 * 4) Wrath of Con: Head pierced by tip of pen flicked by Splendid (along with Disco Bear & Mime).
 * 5) Something Fishy: Head eaten by his killer fish.

Additional

 * 1) Overkill DVD box set: Possibly killed in the explosion from Flippy's bomb. (Death not seen)
 * 2) Happy Tree Friends: False Alarm gameplay: Deaths and injuries various, depending on the environment of the level, such as getting sliced by blades and saws, getting crushed and flattened like paper or cardboard, getting electrocuted or burned.
 * 3) Mayhem 2008 Wallpaper: Possibly killed by a chainsaw (Debatable, and not seen).
 * 4) Happy New Yar 2008 Calendar: A hook goes through his mouth and his eye.
 * 5) Fall Harvest Wallpaper: Splatters on the ground. (Death not seen)
 * 6) Un-named Wallpaper: Killed when Flippy's Dynamite explodes. (Death not seen)
 * 7) HTF Hot-Topic T-Shirt: Burnt by Flippy.

Seen in arcade Games

 * 1) Fire Escape: Fell to his death.
 * 2) Petunia Balance: Drowned in the bloody water.

Seen on Computer and on TV

 * 1) Whose line is it anyway: Chokes on a blowfish.
 * 2) Off the hook: Gets zapped by an eel.
 * 3) Chew Said a Mouthful: A bucket of hot water splashes on him, painfully burning him.
 * 4) A Sight for Sore Eyes: He puts on Nutty's googly eye, mistaking it for his contact lens, and his vision reddens.
 * 5) Hear Today, Gone Tomorrow: (before death) Pinned under a truck.

Number of Kills

 * Cuddles – 0
 * Giggles – 0
 * Toothy – 1 ("Snow Place to Go")
 * Lumpy – 1 ("Get Whale Soon")
 * Petunia – 0
 * Handy – 0
 * Nutty – 0
 * Sniffles – 1 ("Something Fishy")
 * Pop – 0
 * Cub – 0
 * Flaky – 0
 * The Mole – 1 ("Hear Today, Gone Tomorrow")
 * Disco Bear – 0
 * Lifty – 0
 * Shifty – 0
 * Mime – 1 ("Something Fishy")
 * Cro-Marmot – 0
 * Flippy – 0
 * Splendid – 0
 * Generic Tree Friends – 0
 * Others – 0

Trivia

 * Russell's hooks and eye patch often change places between and within episodes.
 * Russell is the first character to have a bonus episode in the DVD, First Blood. Plus, he is seen only as a black silhouette on the back of the First Blood DVD case with a big white question mark.
 * Russell and Petunia are the only Happy Tree Friends with realistic human names.
 * He is the only main character that isn't a forest or tree creature (sea otters live in the ocean)
 * Russell, Lumpy, Handy and Flaky (along with Sneaky from W.A.R. Journal and The Rat from Mole in the City) are the only characters without visible ears. Even in Something Fishy, when Lumpy removes Russell's hat, his ears still cannot be seen.
 * Russell, Mime and Cro-Marmot are the only characters without secret information from the "Collect Them All" section, even though Russell appears in the bonus episode in the "First Blood" DVD.
 * He owns his own fast food restaurant in Mime to Five.
 * Russell doesn't have external ears, as seen in Whose Line Is It Anyway? and his season one intro animation.
 * It is shown that Russell has poor vision in his one eye in A Sight for Sore Eyes.
 * It's been evident in the episode In a Jam that Russell probably lost his eye and wears the eye patch over it (which is the reason Cuddles got his part in the band). Further, in Sea of Love, when the little angler fish rips Russell's face off, it shows that Russell's right eye socket is empty.
 * In Off the Hook and Sea of Love Russell doesn't need an underwater suit for oxygen, but in Sea What I Found he wears a suit while searching for treasure. This could be because in Sea of Love and Off the Hook he was only underwater for about a minute while in Sea What I Found he was underwater longer, possibly indicating he has only short term breathing abilities underwater.
 * Russell is the first character to die in the Love Bites series.
 * Russell, along with Splendid starred in two episodes in the Internet series season 1 and once in the internet series season 2.
 * Russell is one of the few characters that flips out when stressed but does not kill, the others being Petunia (though she did killed herself in Wishy Washy), and Nutty.
 * Russell is one of the playable characters in Happy Tree Friends: False Alarm.
 * So far the only starring role he has survived in is A Sight for Sore Eyes.
 * Russell was the only character to have had facial hair.
 * He used to have a stubble in Off the Hook and Whose Line is it Anyway?. He no longer has his stubble since Get Whale Soon.
 * His name probably come from "mussel", and was seen eating and catching some in Whose Line is it Anyway?.