Nudnik (Character)

Nudnik is a hapless, bumbling hobo whose days don't usually go according as planned.

Nudnik is a mute, pantomime character, though one instance in a paper, involves an unseen character asking Nudnik "Hey, Nudnik! How do you feel now that you've been nominated for an academy award?", to which he responds: "Humble".

## Nudnik

### Relatives

Mama Nudnik (Unnamed), Papa Nudnik (Satcha)

## Appearance

Nudnik is a rather skinny individual, and this is especially apparent when he breathes in to where his ribs are more visible. Nudnik is of short stature, and has grey skin, though how grey his skin is varies in episodes, for example, in the later bumpers his skin is a darker grey color, while in the episodes it's a lighter tone. In some instances, there's also a hint of green to it.

Nudnik wears particularly heavy clothing, including a red bandana on his head, an orange scarf, an open pink jacket, baggy purple pants, and white sneakers that are usually untied. Despite the scarf he wears, Nudnik wears no shirt under his pink jacket, as Gene thought it would help symbolize a character who was always "Out in the cold". His bandana and shoes make for some recurring gags that exist within the series. His scarf was a gift from his mama, as it can be seen worn by her in a painting in Home Sweet Nudnik, as well as the pants he wears handed down from his mama. It's unknown what species Nudnik is, as there are many other humans present in the series, and Nudnik has a much more unique and quirky design than that of the humans in the series. Whatever species Nudnik is, his parents are the same.

### The Bandana

Nudnik's red bandana is the subject of a recurring gag in the series, usually in the beginning of each episode, where Nudnik has various ways of tying his bandana when he wakes up. in fact, it's one of the only things he can do perfectly every time. As to what inspired the bandana, Gene says:

"At first, I tried with a bowler hat for Nudnik because...it seemed like a useful prop for gag ideas. And it worked -- Nudnik actually won his Oscar nomination wearing a bowler hat! But I realized I'd be in trouble with Terrytoons if Nudnik seemed to be a copy of Foofle, even if Foofle was also my creation. So when Paramount offered to distribute a series of Nudnik cartoons, I decided to rework the prize-winning film. I suddenly remembered something from my childhood, when I lived on the Venice, California, oceanfront. One of the funniest sights to me in those days of the 1930s was of the old men snoozing on the beach with knotted handkerchiefs to protect their heads from the sun. That was it! The dimwit red bandana headpiece and the ridiculously bounteous bloomer pants completed the unique and bizarre Nudnik look."

### The Pants

In the book "Nudnik Revealed!", In regards to his mother's pants, Gene states "They were his mother's pants, who fattened out of them", though on the Nudnik Facebook page, he also states "He so adored his beautiful mother, that when she passed away he made her purple skirt into his copious purple pants", so it's unclear what the true canon of where he got his iconic baggy pants from. As for the inspiration to such unique pants, Gene says: "It was a running gag in the Marx Brothers movies for Harpo to pull some useful items out of his pockets. So it was convenient for Nudnik to pull something useful out of his pants."

### The Shoes

Nudnik's white, untied sneakers can date back to his first conceptual designs. Though it's not clear if they're based off of anything specific, they tie in with the rest of Nudnik's discombobulated nature. Whenever Nudnik attempts to tie his shoes, he usually gets his fingers or something else stuck in some fashion. In a later episode, Nudnik notices a sale on shoelaces and decides to get some new ones, though that only leads for more catastrophe to ensue with Nudnik just trying to get them.

## Personality

Nudnik can be described as an everyman character, simply put, an ordinary and humble character without anything too extraordinary going for them. Adam Snyder (son of William Snyder, the producer of the episodes) when asked about the show described Nudnik this way, saying "He can't quite get anything right, but he always keeps on going with that irrepressible smile."

Nudnik is a very caring, considerate, adorable and optimistic individual, as he often proposes the offer to lend someone a helping hand whenever he finds the chance. However, he is also very inept and naive, and these traits of his are a contributing factor to each episode's plot.

Page 8 of "Nudnik Revealed!" puts this best: The dreadful environment, contrasted with Nudnik's resigned acceptance of it, is part of the classic comedic point of the series. But he perseveres, unaware of -- or undaunted by -- his fate, and enters each situation with unreasonable optimism. His rags and barebone existence do not squelch his ambitions.

## Identity

Nudnik is often referred to with 'He' and 'Him' and is overall referred to as male, though Gene has stated before that Nudnik's identity is a bit more complex than that (See here), but if anything's for sure, Gene also wanted to make it clear that Nudnik was not strictly a girl as some people had thought after screenings of his films, with this predicament he encountered leading to the inspiration for the interstitial titled "Nudnik All Washed Up".

## Backstory

Nudnik inherited his haplessness from his mama, who dropped him on the head as a baby. She never gave Nudnik a first name simply because she couldn't think of one, and after dropping her baby son on the head, she figured it wasn't worthwhile to strain hers. After her passing, Nudnik inherited various things from her, like her scarf, a pocket watch, and purple clothing of sorts which he made into his iconic purple pants. Nudnik also has a father named Satcha Nudnik, which isn't referenced in the series, but makes an appearance in the 2013 book "Nudnik Revealed!" and is said to actually deserve the Nudnik name, for he's a rather boring individual. It isn't said what happened to him, but it is believed that he traveled overseas, as on the Nudnik Facebook page it's said that the photo of him supposedly came via a glass bottle by way of the ocean, also because Gene describes him in the book as "Nudnik's wandering father". Besides his mama and papa, it's unknown if Nudnik had known any other relatives.

Nudnik never bothered with school, as he naively believed the world would be kind to him. As the series shows, this definitely isn't the case, as it seems to be an unwritten rule that every creature, even inanimate objects, tend to turn on him in the world he lives in.

Nudnik has been shown to be both Jewish & Christian. His Jewish origins come from Gene's own partial Jewish origins, and a Facebook post which states "Unlike NUDNIK you have 8 nights to give gifts! His menorah only has 6 candles!" And an old tumblr post which says “Nudnik got into the Synagog at Hanukkah time only after they carefully double-checked his genealogy.” His Christian origins come from the fact he and at least his mama both celebrate Christmas, from a Facebook post which says "NUDNIK wishes everyone a Happy Yuletide Holiday, even though experience tells him that there's no polite word for what he'll get for Christmas!" and an old Tumblr post which says "Nudnik was his mama's Christmas present. She then stopped believing in Santa claus". This also implies Nudnik was born on Christmas day.

## References in media

Nudnik is a rather obscure character, so he doesn't receive any blatant references in media. However, although it isn't directly referenced, in the Simpsons episode "A Star is Burns", where The Critic makes an appearance, he can be quoted saying "Hey Nudnik, your shoe's untied", which could possibly be a reference to recurring gag of how Nudnik struggles with tying his shoes, especially considering The Critic's occupation as a film critic.

One other possible reference is the work of Slava Polunin, a Russian pantomimist who started doing his act 20 years after Nudnik had been created, and share many similarities, such as the baggy outfit, wild hairdo and orange scarf.

## Trivia

* Nudnik is Gene's favorite of the characters he's created.
* The first real concept of Nudnik was portrayed through the character "Foofle" which Gene designed for Terrytoons before he left to work in Prague. Episodes were made with the character after he left, and were completely off with how Gene envisioned the character. Gene was never credited in the episodes produced.
* Nudnik's iconic sighs are all voiced by Gene himself.
* Nudnik has a couple of foreign names, including Oiva Tumpeloisen in Finnish, and Yaramaz Nudnik in Turkish.
* Sometime around a year after Gene's death, the Tumblr page for Nudnik Revealed was deleted. It's unknown why this is, but some archives of the page can be seen through Wayback.org.
* Chuck Jones believed Nudnik should have won the 1965 Oscar, so much that he wrote Gene a letter expressing his appreciation towards the character and the short.
* An inconsistency in every Nudnik episode is the number of fingers Nudnik has. Despite Nudnik having 4 fingers in the reference sheet, frames often switch between depicting him with 4 or 5 fingers.
* Despite the fact he can feel pain, Nudnik is most likely invincible, as many situations he's been in could never leave a human standing, but in many instances he's walked out of a situation just fine.
* Despite Nudnik's many flaws, in "Nudnik's Nudnickel", Nudnik is shown to be able to write left handed and in cursive, being a lesser acknowledged talent of his other than his bandana tying abilities.

## Citations

* "Nudnik Revealed!" 2013, Fantagraphics
* https://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/for-the-love-of-cartoon-animation-1/
* https://www.facebook.com/pg/nudnikrevealed/photos/
* http://web.archive.org/web/20160406233435/http://nudnikrevealed.tumblr.com/