List of Courage the Cowardly Dog characters

The following is a list of characters from the Cartoon Network series Courage the Cowardly Dog.

Current characters

File:Muriel and Courage.jpg

Courage, Muriel and Eustace

Courage

• Voiced By Marty Grabstein

Courage is an overly frightened dog who lives in Nowhere, Kansas He was abandoned as a puppy after his parents were sent into outer space, but was adopted by Muriel Bagge. Her husband, Eustace, regularly mistreats him. Ironically, given his name, Courage is a genuine coward, but he will still go to great lengths to protect his owners; to this end, he often gets injured, sometimes quite brutally or almost killed and only surviving through his determination and/or pure luck. He got his name when Muriel found him as a puppy alone in an alley and remarked that he must be quite brave to be there by himself. Though capable of speaking fluent English, Courage largely tends to speak in unintelligible gibberish. He is able to briefly transform into any person, creature or object, though he normally retains either his pink coloration, his eyes, and/or his ears, commonly using this ability to transform into something similar to an event he just witnessed in a usually-futile attempt to warn Muriel and Eustace of impending danger. He often says, "The things I do for love," when he is about to do something brave, "I just know something bad is going to happen," when there is something afoot, and "I know I shouldn't, but I gotta," when he is about to enter a villain's hideout. He tends to whisper "Oh no" to himself, when something bad is going on. He also sometimes quotes, "Something fishy is going on, or my name is (insert strange and random name here). And it`s not." (variations include "I'm telling you there's someone here" and "Something smells fishy"), though this was discontinued after the first season.

He was voiced by Howard Hoffman in the pilot, and Marty Grabstein in the series. In the early seasons, Courage spoke English quite often, but his dialogue became increasingly limited to gibberish and screaming as the series progressed.

Muriel Bagge

• Voiced by: Thea White

Muriel Bagge is a kind and elderly over weight Scottish woman who took Courage in when he was a puppy. She is the damsel in distress. She often carries a rolling pin that she hits Eustace with when he harasses Courage. She likes tea and usually tends her garden, has a fondness for cookery (in which she usually uses an excessive amount of vinegar, which frequently disgusts Courage and Eustace), plays the sitar, or watches television. She is frequently kidnapped by the villain of the week, and is highly gullible, as she is easily tricked by the villains no matter how bizarre or pathetic their disguises are. Muriel's screams are loud. Muriel always tries to get Eustace to do the right thing. A running gag through out the series is Muriel showing off her underwear. She has white hair and glasses and typically wears a mustard colored dress underneath a brighter yellow apron and black boots. On some occasions, she is seen wearing a frilly pink nightgown with matching slippers.

Eustace Bagge

• Voiced by: Lionel G. Wilson and Arthur Anderson

Eustace Bagge (commonly referred to simply as "the Farmer" by characters other than Muriel and Ma Bagge, and "the Stupid One" by Shirley the Medium) is a grumpy, selfish, and cruel old farmer, obsessed with money and his truck, who mistreats Courage and calls him a "stupid dog." Eustace often simply refers to Courage as "Dog", and rarely, if ever, addresses him by name. He also regularly mistreats Muriel as well By saying: "Muriel! Where's My Dinner?!". Though Courage frequently goes out of his way to save his life, Eustace still openly dislikes him. He takes great pleasure in scaring and physically harming Courage, which primarily stems from jealousy of the fact that Muriel pays more attention to Courage than him; however, he has also been known to scare Courage just for laughs or simply to get Courage to stop bothering him. The most common of these scare tactics against Courage is Eustace pulling out a large painted mask with a crazed look in its eyes and shouting, "Oooga-booga-booga!". His cruelty towards Courage often results in Muriel bashing him over the head with a rolling pin or whatever else may be handy at the time usually causing him to respond with "What did I do?". A running gag through out the series is when Courage manages to defeat the villain in each episode, Eustace often suffers a horrible fate, such as being mummified, possessed, eaten or ejected into space, though he is alive and seemingly unhurt in the next episode. Often, Eustace's extreme greed causes trouble for Courage, leading either to Eustace becoming the villain of an episode or Eustace agreeing to aid a villain in his schemes due to being bribed with money. Despite his gruff and selfish nature, he occasionally shows compassion and has worked alongside Courage to save Muriel more than once. Though few and far between, he can even have memorable moments of kindness (a well known example of this is in The Curse of Shirley, where Eustace is cursed by Shirley, and a cloud start to rain and follow Eustace, and lost his eye-glasses in the process. But, thanks to his blindness and a help of a magical mirror, he thought Courage was his young and suffering self, apparently the only person he would ungrudgingly want to help, and helpfully gives Courage his hat. This undoes the spell and pleases Muriel.). He is also insecure due to not having teeth, having a hunched back, and being bald. He had a father named Ickett and a manly older brother named Horst (who he never got along with) who are both currently deceased. He also has a mother, but she dislikes Eustace and is more fond of Courage.

Lionel G. Wilson originally voiced the character, but left midway through the third season due to illness and was replaced by Arthur Anderson, although a handful of voice samples originally by Wilson were used during Anderson's time on the role.

Recurring villains

Benton Tarantella

• Voiced by Earl Boen

Benton is a former murderer/movie director that has become a zombie. He and his partner, Erroll Von Volkheim, would pose as ordinary movie producers to lure unsuspecting victims to their fates, killing twelve people in the process. Eventually, they were jailed for their crimes. However, von Volkheim was released from jail for good behavior, while Tarantella died in prison (possibly executed). He first appears at the Bagges' house claiming he wants them to be in a movie he's making, but tricks them into filming a fake movie only to resurrect von Volkheim in order to devour Muriel together, who is cast in the film as a human sacrifice. Their weakness was that they follow the script to the "movie", even after Courage modified it. They, frustrated, decided to give up their plan and end their partnership. Tarantella returns on his own and casts the Bagges and Courage in a TV show called Angry Nasty People, and is eventually defeated and apparently killed when Courage drops him in "instant quicksand".

Benton's name is based on real-life director Quentin Tarantino.

Cajun Fox

• Voiced by Jim Cummings in Cajun Granny Stew and then by series creator John R. Dilworth in Ball of Revenge.

A fox obsessed with cooking, he appears as the main villain in Cajun Granny Stew. He kidnaps Muriel in order to make a stew using her as the final ingredient. He wears oval-shaped sunglasses that hide his big, bulging eyes. He was among the six villains to reappear in Ball of Revenge.

Erroll Von Volkheim

Volkheim is a former murderer/movie director that has become a zombie. He and his partner, Benton Tarantella, would pose as ordinary movie producers to lure unsuspecting victims to their fates, killing twelve people in the process. Eventually, they were jailed for their crimes. However, von Volkheim was pardoned from jail for good behavior, while Tarantella died in prison (possibly executed). He first appears at the Bagges' house after being resurrected by Tarantella, however due to Courage messing with the script Tarantella created they both became frustrated, decided to give up their plan and end their partnership.

Freaky Fred

• Voiced by Paul Schoeffler in Freaky Fred, and Ian James Corlett in Ball of Revenge.

Fred is Muriel's creepy nephew who was sent to a psych ward for crazy barbers, due to his obsession with cutting hair. While visiting Muriel, he gets locked in the bathroom with Courage because of Eustace and shaves off all of Courage's fur except his tail while reminiscing about similar incidents involving his pet gerbil, his girlfriend, and a customer at his barber shop. Aside from his obsession with cutting hair, he has no other psychotic tendencies, and does seem to have a sense of what he thinks is weird, as he chooses not to shave Courage's tail on the grounds that it "would be weird". Most of his dialogue is rendered to himself in prose, in which he inserts the word "naughty" at every fourth line, or alternatively "in a certain mood" or "you know". He return briefly at the end of Ball of Revenge on the TV screen, saying Courage in a drawn out way.

Clutching Foot

• Voiced by Paul Schoeffler.

The Clutching Foot is a foot fungus that possessed Eustace. It resembles a giant purple foot with heads for toes and acts as if it were a stereotypical mob with the big toe as the kingpin. They commit crimes such as bank robberies and train crashes. The big toe sounds exactly like Edward G. Robinson. The fungus was eventually separated from Eustace and returned to face Courage in a game of dodgeball.

Dr. Gerbil

Dr. Gerbil is a Southern-accented gerbil that has gone crazy due to being experimented on and feeling trapped by his previous owners. He now performs strange experiments on humans with homemade cosmetic products, because he believes that he needs to exact revenge on humans for what they do to animals.

Dr. Zalost

A very unhappy scientist who lives in a giant, moving tower. He lives with his "assistant", Rat, who he constantly asks for a hug. The tower has a giant number of cannons, which are charged with "special" cannonballs, that if a person is hit by one of them, this person will become unhappy. Eventually, Muriel is hit by one of them, and Courage had to enter the tower to save his owner. But a cannonball slide made Rat much more terrible and strong than before, but feeding him and the tower's core with Muriel's recipe of Happy Plums, Dr. Zalost finally found happiness. Rat also became a tiny weakling, who would look up to Dr. Zalost. Dr. Zalost is most certainly from somwhere in former Yugoslavia, probably from Serbia, because of his Serbian accent. Zalost means misfortune in Serbian.

Goose God

• Voiced by Tim Curry.

He searches for the woman of his dreams and ends up falling in love with Muriel, who he competes for with Eustace to make his wife and queen. He later falls for Eustace's truck after hearing it honk. He has cameos in various other episodes, usually lying on top of the truck.

Jeeves "Evil" Weevil

• Voiced by Tony Jay.

He is a giant polite blood-sucking weevil who wears a blue tuxedo and hat. He is accepted into the Bagges' home after they unintentionally run him over in their truck and injure him. While a seeming gentleman, he begins to suck the life out of the ever-oblivious Muriel and Eustace, but Courage ultimately stops him by tricking him into sucking his own blood. He becomes a tiny weevil, and angrily leaves after saying in a high pitched voice, "Stupid Dog" and kicking Courage.

Katz

• Voiced by Paul Schoeffler.

Katz is a red, lanky anthropomorphic cat, complete with his own sinister background music theme whenever he appears. He is Courage's arch-nemesis and the show's most recurring antagonist. The main humor in his role is that, if not for his villainous occupations and ruthless cruelty, Katz would appear so much more the hero than Courage; he is more athletic, cunning, and "handsome". He specializes in scam businesses such as a vacation resort, a confectionary shop, a motel, and a submarine cruise line, always with the intent to kill the patrons when he has no further need for them. He always cons Muriel and Eustace (who never seem to have any memory of him) into trying whatever service he is providing, but Courage never falls for his schemes. All of his businesses enforce a strict "No Dogs Allowed" policy, forcing Courage to sneak in. He always enjoys a "little sport", as all of his battles with Courage are games such as a staring contest. His catchphrase (typically uttered whenever he gets injured) is "I wish you hadn't done that.".

King Ramses

• Voiced by unknown

The ghost who wants his slab back from Eustace and has a flood curse, a radio curse and a locust curse.

LeQuack

• Voiced by Paul Schoeffler in Dr. LeQuack-LeQuack Balloon, and Mary Testa in Ball of Revenge.

LeQuack is another recurring villain. He is a French con artist duck that has a fake amnesia-specialist license, and comes to their house when Muriel suffers from amnesia. Since then, he frequently returns and manages to dupe the Bagges into helping him commit crime sprees. He is always arrested by the end of the episode, but manages to escape, often shown leaving a scene of destruction with implied casualties of his captors, stating, "You have not seen the last of LeQuack.".

Mecha Courage

Mecha Courage is a mechanical version of Courage that is created by Di Lung in attempt to prove that he has created a more superior dog than Courage. He is destroyed by overheating as a result of him ruthlessly beating Courage. Eustace liked Mecha Courage and at the end of the episode he tells Muriel that they should get a mechanical dog to replace Courage and Muriel refuses.

Mr. Nasty

Mr. Nasty is a being created by Benton Tarantella from Eustace's true essence. He is similar to Eustace in identity and temperament, only with sunglasses, bluish skin, and a deeper voice.

Queen of the Black Puddle

• Voiced by Tress MacNeille.

She is a beautiful and seductive sea monster who hypnotizes her victims into allowing her to take them into her puddle. She is defeated by Courage later. She later returns in "Ball of Revenge" to have her revenge on Courage.

The Big Ape & Monkey Man

In the episode 1,000 Years of Courage, a giant ape poses as the Banana God at Bananahalla in order to consume the citizens of the Banana Republic, while his nephew disguises himself as a benevolent sovereign. Courage exposes the monkey and ape's scheme, inciting the wrath of the banana people, who swiftly exact their revenge.

The Chicken from Outer Space

• Voiced by Howard Hoffman.

He is the first villain of the series. In his first appearance he tries to take over the farm, and ends up being shot by his own laser gun. He appears in a later episode as a cooked chicken, missing its head and attempting to steal Muriel's. He gains Eustace's head, but is later shot into space, killing him for good.

The Cruel Vet

• Voiced by Earl Boen

The Cruel Vet is responsible for separating Courage from his parents as a puppy. He captured them, put them in a rocket ship, and sent them to the moon, believing they would turn into superdogs. However Courage escaped from this fate and was adopted by Muriel. He later tries to do the same to Eustace, Muriel, and Courage years later but is sent to the moon himself, where he finds that all the dogs survived (all the dogs he had also sent to the moon before Courage's parents), including Courage's parents. For revenge, the dogs proceed to beat him up.

The Empress

She was the aunt of Di Lung, and she appeared in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dog, where her source of power (a magic silkworm) is dying and needs the bones of someone truly innocent to recharge it. Her twin sister whom is good is the true Empress.

The Great Fusilli

• Voiced by Jim Cummings.

He is an alligator devoted to theater arts who turns people into puppets so that they cannot leave his show. He is defeated by being turned into a puppet himself.

The Snowman

• Voiced by Paul Schoeffler.

A super-intelligent snowman believed to be the last of his kind due to global warming. He is possibly based on actor Sean Connery (of James Bond fame), because of his Scottish accent and the way he introduces himself ("The name's "Man", "Snow-Man", a play on James Bond's introduction in films and novels). After returning to make the West Pole in Nowhere, Kansas; Courage sews up the hole in the Ozone and his ice land returns, along with his friends. He is last seen enjoying snow cones with his friends.

Weremole

• Voiced by Richard Newman.

It is a legendary mole similar to a werewolf but much smaller, yet just as mean. It has a taste for rabbits and people and if you get bitten by a weremole, you become one yourself as the computer stated. It bites Muriel on the hand and when the moon is full she transforms into a weremole. Courage and Eustace team up realizing that they are in more trouble than they thought.

Minor characters

Computer (Simon Prebble) - Courage's computer that speaks with a British accent and gives him advice on how to deal with crazy situations. He is very sarcastic towards Courage (frequently calling him a "twit") and has a habit of regularly cracking jokes in any situation. It came to life in one episode to try to live a daring life in Muriel's body, but soon got stuck in a bad situation, was saved by Courage, and went back to being a computer, calling people "boring."

Courage's Parents (Susan Yezzi and Tom Kenny) - Not much is known about his parents even their names, as they were seen only in a few episodes, with one episode centering on flashbacks to his parents in the veterinarian's office, where Courage last saw his parents. They were launched into space by the veterinarian, and Courage avoided a similar fate by escaping through a garbage chute, where he was found by Muriel. The veterinarian was trapped in the rocket, and transported to the planet where Courage's parents and other dogs resided. The father's name might be known as Henry.

Di Lung (Tim Chi Ly) - A young Chinese inventor and the creator of Mecha Courage. He is very inconsiderate and rude at times, and usually gets caught in the middle of the chaos going on in Nowhere. He has twin aunts; one evil and the other good. Tim Chi Ly also serves as one of the show's animators. He is known for saying, "Watch where you're going, ya fool!"

Dr. Vindaloo (Paul Schoeffler) - An Indian doctor with a thick accent, whom Eustace and Muriel see when something is wrong. He is one of the very few characters in the series who can perfectly understands what Courage is trying to say. He diagnoses his patients as not having serious problems or that there is nothing that he can do but has, on occasion, been a great help, as in "Invisible Muriel", where he managed to discover how to return Muriel to normal. The sign on his office door reads, "Dr. Vindaloo, M.D. Quack."

Kitty and Bunny (Susan Roman & Katie Griffin) - A cat and a rabbit who were best friends. After Bunny fell in love with a gangster named Mad Dog, Kitty tried to get her to leave him, but failed, being threatened by Mad Dog when he found out. At some point afterwards, she came to the farmhouse and beat Courage whenever possible, believing dogs to be bad. Courage later rescued Bunny from and defeated Mad Dog and his gang and Bunny reunited with Kitty, while telling her that Courage saved her life. Kitty then admitted that she had been wrong about dogs and helped Bunny onto a train she was on. The two thanked Courage and rode off together.

Ma Bagge (Billie Lou Watt) - Eustace and Horst's mother, with whom he shares a love-hate relationship. Like him she is actually bald but wears a wig and looks almost identical to her son, but much shorter. Like Eustace, Ma is insecure due to being bald, but she does have her teeth. She frequently dotes on Courage, much to Eustace's dismay. She is the C.E.O. of Growth Industries, a company that manufactures wigs and performs experiments on hair, which leads to her developing an antagonistic role in some episodes. In later episodes Ma hates Courage but not as much as Eustace and has a justified reason for doing so, due to him foiling her greedy schemes.

General and The Lieutenant - They take pleasure in fighting each other and are, usually, doing so while trying to solve an important problem, often badly hurting each other by shooting each other or dropping sixteen-ton weights on each other.

Nowhere Newsman - He is the newsreporter of Nowhere, Kansas. He introduces every episode stating, "We interrupt this program to bring you the Courage the Cowardly Dog Show."

Shirley the Medium (Mary Testa) - A Chihuahua dressed as a gypsy fortune teller who lives in, and sells junk out of her caravan, she also has magical powers, such as putting curses on people who wrong her, calling spirits in the afterlife, and even summoning a giant monster. She is one of the very few characters in the series who understands what Courage is trying to say, possibly because like him, she's a dog. When giving Courage advice, she normally plays a saxophone between sentences, sometimes with an extended solo at the end, she also does this to cast spells. While she doesn't very much care for Eustace and Murial (even putting curses on them on occasion), she seems to at least be friends with Courage. She often refers to Eustace as "The Stupid One".

The Duck Brothers - Three brother ducks from outer space; one of them is always laying eggs even though he is male ("I just don't think it's appropriate for duck brothers to be laying eggs"). They were voiced by Samuel Vincent and Jess Harnell in "Ball of Revenge". The Duck Brothers sound like Ringo Starr.

Mona Lisa - A woman painted by Leonardo da Vinci and is a work of art long adored by Muriel. After the Bagges are inadvertently locked inside the Louvre, an eerie alignment of the planets occur and the exhibits come to life including she and The Thinker who are apparently lovers. After switching places with the Bagge couple, they find a new place to spend eternity. Her spell is broken after Courage bangs a portrait of Muriel over her and the Thinker and Muriel gets out. She only appears in the episode "So In Louvre Are We Two"

The Thinker - A masterpiece who is in love with Mona Lisa. He also went with her to find a place to spend eternity. His spell is also broken while being hit by Muriel's portrait along with Mona Lisa used by Courage and Muriel steps out. The final scene after the planets are no longer aligned shows them sharing a kiss. He also only appears in the episode "So In Louvre Are We Two"

The Three Government Ninjas (Earl Boen) - Three ninjas that work for the United States Government who wear the numbers 1, 2, and 3 respectively on their shirts. They are seen in a few episodes such as "Invisible Muriel" and "The Last of the Starmakers."

Space Dino - Dinosaur-like creature that sits on a meteor outside Earth's atmosphere, and is always seen with a tennis racket, which he uses to hit celestial objects. A female space critter is seen force feeding Eustace food much to his dismay.

The Stitch Sisters - A strange two-headed woman that attempt to be immortal by sewing people's souls into a quilt. Muriel is almost their next victim when she tries to join their "quilt club", but they are stopped by Courage and sewn into the quilt themselves.

The Star Maker - A female space squid that landed on Earth with her un-hatched offspring. Her mate had recently died saving them from a space whale. Eustace called the government, who contained the squid in a mobile laboratory, but Courage manages to hatch her offspring, who flew up into space to make new stars. Afterwards, she died peacefully and her body became a garden of large flowers and bushes.