General Trivia[]
- Russell is the first character to have a bonus episode in the DVD First Blood.
- He was seen only as a black silhouette with a big white question mark on the back of the First Blood DVD/VHS case.
- Russell can be seen without his hat on in Whose Line Is It Anyway?, Get Whale Soon, Sea What I Found, Snow Place to Go, Something Fishy, and Bottled Up Inside.
- By The Seat Of Your Pants is the only episode where we see Russell with his shirt off.
- Russell appears in the most episodes without trees.
- Whose Line Is It Anyway?, Bottled Up Inside, Put Your Back Into It, and Sea of Love are the only episodes where Russell appears without Lumpy.
- It's been hinted in the episode In a Jam that Russell lost his eye and wears the eye patch over it (which is the reason Cuddles got his part in the band). However, in Sea of Love, when an angler fish rips Russell's face off, Russell's right eye socket is shown to be empty.
Russell with an empty eye socket.
- Russell is the thirteenth character to come back to life after dying, as he died in Whose Line Is It Anyway? and appeared later in Off the Hook.
- His Jolly Roger hat has a human skull. After The Cursed Idol, this is the another glaring example of human existence in the series (Debatable) as the skull is depicting a dead bear, not a dead human.
- Despite being in a show where anything can cause death and destruction, Russell's hook has never killed or injured another character. In fact the most damage it's ever done is leave slashes in a whale's stomach.
- In Off the Hook and Sea of Love Russell does not 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 only has short-term breathing abilities underwater or that he was in a deep area with a lot of pressure. Lifty and Shifty survived the area fine, however.
- His name may come from the word "mussel", as he was seen eating and catching some in Whose Line Is It Anyway?.
- He has an iPhone, as is seen in YouTube Copyright School. The size bears most resemblance to the Fourth generation with a iOS 6 style menu.
- In season 3, his alliterate sentence is: Row, row your boat down a running river!
- Russell was originally going to be the stuntman in Brake the Cycle, but Lumpy took his place since they needed someone with two legs and hands.
- Some fans think that Russell was born without legs, but this is unlikely for two reasons:
- If he never had legs, he would not keep trying to use them.
- He probably would not keep them peg-legged up the way he does.
- If Russell is chosen in the Vision-O-Rama feature in the Third Strike DVD, the movie theater's screen will show a "half" Spin Fun Knowin' Ya (the right section of the screen is covered, representing Russell wearing an eyepatch on his right eye).
- The first (and so far only) time he plays an antagonistic role is in YouTube Copyright School, where he commits crimes of copyright infringement.
- In YouTube Copyright School, he has 70 videos.
- Russell appears as a boss in Deadeye Derby, in the level "Rabid Rapids".
- He is the only character who has not yet interacted with Petunia. This is interesting, considering he's dating her best friend.
- His looks are similar to Captain Hook from the Disney movie Peter Pan.
- Russell is the only character who is a boss in Deadeye Derby, but isn't an antagonist in any capacity.
- He is the first main character in Happy Tree Friends not based on a forest animal. The second is Lammy, and the third is Mr. Pickels.
Design[]
- Russell's hook and eye patch often change places between and within episodes. As with Lumpy's antlers and Nutty's eyes, this is probably the result of the animators mirroring him when he turns around, instead of making new models with his hook and patch in the right places.
- Russell is sometimes mistaken as a cat due to his whiskers and love of fish.
- Of the four limbs of the body (arms and legs), it only has a single arm.
- Although Russell has amputated legs, none of his pictures show that he has invisible legs, and it is unknown whether Russell has boot-like legs or not. This is similar to The Mole's mouth, Handy's paw shape and Cro-Marmot's eyes.
- He and Handy are the only characters in the series who don't have an arm forever.
- Russell originally had a five o' clock shadow on the bottom of his face. However, it was removed when he debuted in Season 2.
Russell with his season 1 beard.
- Russell was originally going to have a bushy beard but it was removed when animating the episode Whose Line Is It Anyway? because the beard made it hard to notice the blowfish in Russell's throat.
- Russell's tail is flat and beaver-like. In reality, sea otters have only slightly flattened tails.
- Despite being a sea otter, he resembles a beaver more than a sea otter.
Episode Statistics[]
- Russell survives in 11 out of the 33 episodes he appears in.
- The only TV episode he doesn't appear in is Marooned Five.
- Russell has the third highest survival rate out of all the characters who rarely survive.
- Russell has the the highest survival rate in the TV Series of any character who rarely survives.
- He is one of the few characters who starred in three TV episodes. The others are Pop, Cub, The Mole, Disco Bear, Giggles, Flippy, and Splendid.
- So far, the only starring roles he has survived are A Sight for Sore Eyes and YouTube Copyright School.
- In You're Kraken Me Up, he is an appearing character, despite having more than enough screen time to be a starring or featuring character.
- Russell has co-starred with Lumpy (thrice), Lifty, Shifty, The Mole, and Giggles.
- Like most characters, Russell co-stars with Lumpy the most.
- He and Pop are the only characters to survive their TV debut but not their internet debut.
- Russell survived his debut in the TV series, along with Pop, Flaky, Disco Bear, Splendid, and Flippy.
- In the TV series, Lumpy and Cuddles appeared in all of his starring roles. Both characters die in only one of the three episodes.
- In the third internet season, Pop appears in both of Russell's starring roles. He survives in both of them.
- He along with Giggles, The Mole, Disco Bear, Lifty, Shifty, Sniffles, Cro-Marmot, Lammy, and Mr. Pickels don't appear in any of the Still Alive episodes.
Kills and Deaths[]
- Russell's deaths usually involve sea animals, explosions, or getting impaled.
- Russell is the fourteenth character to die in the TV series and the Internet series, and the tenth in the shorts.
- Russell survives in 11 out of 33 episodes he appears in. If he survived his debatable death he would have survived in 12 episodes.
- He has the third highest survival rate out of all the characters who rarely survive.
- He has the lowest death count out of all the characters who rarely survive.
- Russell is the only character who has never survived an episode in old designs, like Season 1, 2 and HTF Break episodes.
- The only episodes where Russell's death isn't caused by other characters are Whose Line Is It Anyway?, Get Whale Soon, Snow Place to Go, In a Jam, and You're Kraken Me Up.
- Russell is the only character without a frequent victim, as he has only killed each of his victims once.
- Russell is one of the few characters with more deaths than kills, the others are Cuddles, Handy, Petunia, Cub and Mime.
- Despite being a character who rarely survives, he only dies first in one episode, In a Jam. In contrast, he dies last in Get Whale Soon, Snow Place to Go, Something Fishy, and Bottled Up Inside.
- Russell is one of two characters not to get their first TV victim in the first four TV segments, the other character being Cro-Marmot.
- He is the only handicapped character to die in his debut episode.
- In addition, ironically, he is also the only handicapped character to survive his TV debut.
- Russell is one of the few characters to never posthumously kill another character. The others are Cro-Marmot, Splendid, Lammy, and Mr. Pickels.
- He is also the only character who rarely survives to have never killed anyone posthumously.
- He is one of the few characters who haven't killed all of the four primary characters. The others are Petunia, Handy, Flippy, Lammy, and Mr. Pickels.
- The only characters who haven't killed Russell are Cuddles, Cro-Marmot, Flippy, Lammy, Petunia and Mr. Pickels.
- The only characters he has killed alone are Lumpy, Toothy, and Disco Bear.
- Russell has the second lowest number of kills, behind Lammy and Mr. Pickels.
- Most of Russell's deaths take place next to or involve water. He dies next to large bodies of water in Whose Line Is It Anyway?, Get Whale Soon, and Snow Place to Go. He dies underwater in Off the Hook, From Hero to Eternity, Sea What I Found, Idol Curiosity, Sea of Love, and You're Kraken Me Up. Sometimes he dies with small portions of water like in In a Jam, Something Fishy, and Bottled Up Inside. Since he is a sea otter and a pirate, this makes sense.
- All of Russell's deaths in his starring roles take place around water.
- Russell is one of the few characters who haven't been decapitated, along with Cro-Marmot, Splendid, and Lammy.
- However, in Something Fishy his head had fallen off after being reduced to a skeleton, which may not be considered considering that he had already died and that the head had fallen off just due to weight loss.
- He is also the only character who rarely survives to have never been decapitated.
- Russell is the first character to die in the Love Bites series.
- He is one of the few characters who have not killed a Generic Tree Friend.
- Russell has died in every season 1 and season 2 internet episode he appeared in. He also dies in the one HTF Break and Love Bites episodes he ever appeared in.
- Nutty dies in every TV episode Russell survives in.
- Russell is one of the nine characters who have never intentionally killed a character. The others are: Toothy, Cub, Disco Bear, Cuddles, Lifty, Nutty, Mime, and (debatably) Lammy.
- Out of the characters who rarely survive, Russell is one of the few who have never been the only death of an episode (in an episode featuring 3 or more characters). The others are Lifty and Shifty.
- However, if you consider the episodes with 50% survival with just 2 characters or solo episodes, he is the only one to die in Whose Line Is It Anyway?, Off the Hook, and Sea of Love. Shifty is also the only one who dies in Cheesy Does It, while Lifty is the only one who wasn't the only death in any type of episode.
Superlatives[]
- If one counts Double Whammy Part I and Autopsy Turvy as the same episode, then Flaky and Russell would be the only characters to survive both the first and last episodes of the TV series.
- He is one of the three characters to do something religious in the show, as he is seen praying for his life in Snow Place to Go. The others are The Ants, who are also seen praying, and Lumpy, who is a priest in Read 'em and Weep.
- He, The Mole and Splendid are the only main characters to have had their official name change during the show (in Russell's case from 'Russell The Pirate' in Whose Line Is It Anyway? to 'Russell' in Off the Hook)
- Russell wears a hat, along with Shifty, Pop, Handy, Flippy, and Cub.
- Russell, Petunia, and Rudy are the only Happy Tree Friends with realistic human names.
- Russell's eyepatch and hook tend to switch positions; much like Lumpy's antlers, Lammy's bow, Nutty's eye and candy, Flippy's beret, The Mole's mole, Handy's tools, Sniffles' pocket protector, and Cub's diaper pin.
- He is one of the two main characters (along with Lammy) that isn't a tree or forest animal. He is a sea animal.
- Russell is one of the few characters to eat/drink the remains of themselves or another character, the others are Cuddles (thrice), Giggles (four times, one time offscreen), Toothy, Lumpy (twice, one time offscreen), Petunia, Nutty (twice, one time offscreen), Pop (Offscreen), Cub, (twice, one time offscreen), Flaky (twice, one time offscreen), The Mole (Offscreen), and both sides of Flippy (thrice).
- Russell, Lumpy, Handy, Mr. Pickels, and Flaky are the only characters without visible ears. In Something Fishy, when Russell's hat is removed, his ears still cannot be seen.
- Russell, Mime, and Cro-Marmot are the only characters without secret information in the "Collect Them All" section.
- Russell, Sniffles, and Nutty are the only characters to debut in a solo episode.
- Just like Lumpy, Russell is often killed by animals. Coincidentally, the animals that kill Russell are water creatures while the animals that kill Lumpy are usually land animals. The only animal that has killed both Russell and Lumpy in the same episode are ducks, which are semi-aquatic.
- He's one of the five characters who never appear in all three segments of a TV series episode, the other four being Splendid, Handy, Disco Bear, and Nutty.
- Russell is one of the eight characters wearing clothes. The others are Mime, Disco Bear, Flippy, The Mole, Lammy, Pop and Lumpy.
- He is one of the three main characters without good vision, the others being The Mole and Sniffles.
- He is one of the three characters who wear footwear. The other characters are Disco Bear and Cuddles.
- He is one of three characters to have permanently missing hand/hands, the other two being Handy and Tiger General.
- Russell and Cub have some similarities to each other:
- They are both characters who rarely survive.
- They have more deaths than kills.
- They both have accessories.
- They have a high survival rate in Season 4 despite rarely surviving.
- They are both currently alive.
- They both wear a hat.
- They both wear clothes.
- Their survival rates are close to each other.