List of fictional tricksters

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The trickster figure Reynard the Fox as depicted in an 1869 children's book by Michel Rodange.

This list of tricksters attests to both the enduring nature of the mythological figure of the trickster and its continued popularity in a variety of media.

The trickster, in later folklore or modern popular culture, is a clever, mischievous person or creature, who survives in a dangerous world through use of trickery. An archetypical example is the fairy tale of the King who puts suitors for his daughter to the test. No brave and valiant prince or knight succeeds, until a simple peasant arrives. Aided only by his natural wit, he evades danger and triumphs over monsters and villains without fighting. Thus the most unlikely candidate passes the trials and receives the prize. Such characters are a staple of animated cartoons, in particular those used and developed by Tex Avery et al. during the Golden Age of American animation.

[edit] Characteristics

Hynes and Doty, in Mythical Trickster Figures (1993) state that every trickster has several of the following six traits:^[1]

1. fundamentally ambiguous and anomalous
2. deceiver and trick-player
3. shape-shifter
4. situation-inverter
5. messenger and imitator of the gods
6. sacred and lewd bricoleur

[edit] Tricksters in fiction

• Anansi the spider trickster of African origin
• Brer Rabbit - a slave trickster of African origin.^[2]
• El-ahrairah - the Prince of Rabbits, or "the Prince with the Thousand Enemies"; the trickster folk hero of the rabbits in Watership Down.
• Harvey the pooka, a large anthropomorphic rabbit who can be seen only by the protagonist, from the play and film bearing his name.
• Jack Mary Ann - a folk hero from the Wrexham area of north Wales whose fictionalised exploits continue to circulate in local folklore.
• The Man with No Name - a cunning character in the movie A Fistful of Dollars, played by Clint Eastwood. Many of Eastwood's characters have Trickster qualities.
• Q and fellow members of the Q Continuum - from the TV series Star Trek.
• Puss in Boots is a magical cat who tricks a king into raising a low born miller to the station of a great noble.
• Reynard is a red fox and trickster figure who plays a central role in the moralistic fables of the Reynard cycle.
• The Trickster - The main antagonist in four episodes of the children's BBC drama The Sarah Jane Adventures
• Wisakejak - appears as a Coyote-spirit trickster, alongside Harriet, a rabbit-shaped Pookah, in the game Ghost Master for PC and Mac.
• The Doctor from Doctor Who, who relies on his technical knowledge and natural cunning to get out of seemingly impossible situations. He is also a shapechanger.
• Peter Pan - The boy who wouldn't grow up from J.M. Barrie's famous play and books. Apart from sharing a name with Pan, the goat-legged son of Hermes and trickster god from Greece, he regularly plays tricks on his enemies, specifically Captain Hook, whose hand he cut off and fed to a man-eating crocodile.
• Three-head - Mentioned in the book Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz, appears as a human with three heads. Two of the heads are coyotes, and the middle neck is unoccupied. The trickster searches for a new head to occupy it.
• The Trickster - One of the several creatures to appear in the CW's drama/horror Supernatural. This Trickster was something like a demigod who enjoyed using his mischief to give people their "just desserts." The Trickster is a shape-shifter and appears as any other human. (The Trickster is later revealed to be the alter-ego of the archangel Gabriel.)

[edit] In animation and comics

• Aang- The hero of Avatar: The Last Airbender is certainly a trickster and enjoys tricking his foes. Most of the Fire Nation thinks this of him. ^[3]
• Bugs Bunny - a rabbit trickster, in some respects similar to Brer Rabbit.^[4]
• Felix the Cat - a "transgressor of boundaries" (in the most literal sense).^[5]
• Impossible Man - an amoral, childlike, shapeshifting extraterrestrial from the Fantastic Four comics.
• The Joker - A murderous clown and archenemy of Batman in comics and movies.
• The Trickster - One of the many enemies of The Flash
• The Mask - wears a mask imbued with Loki's powers and lack of inhibition.
• Mister Mxyzptlk - an imp from the fifth dimension featured in the Superman comics.
• Bart Simpson - from the animated TV series The Simpsons.^[6]
• Wile E. Coyote - featured in the Road Runner cartoons and based on a traditional Native American trickster figure, Old Man Coyote.^[7] An argument might also be made that Wile E. Coyote's arch nemesis, the Road Runner itself, is also at least as great a trickster as Wile E. himself.
• Woody Woodpecker - "A less complex version of the Trickster"^[8]

[edit] Notes