Arlo Dittman

**Arlo Dittman,** portrayed by Brandon Rogers, is a character on *Magic Funhouse*. He portrays the colorful **Mr. Marble** on the show *Magic Funhouse*, where he acts as the primary host and creator. He's an immature and bratty man-child with a short temper, as he never got to properly grow up. Despite his childishness, Arlo smokes, drinks, and swears profusely.

## Description

### Appearance

Arlo has brown eyes, tan skin, and short brown hair typically dyed at the tips.

As Mr. Marble, Arlo wears a bright blue bobbed wig, white contact lenses that sometimes give him the appearance of having no irises whatsoever, and a uniform consisting of a lilac crown- hat, a bright pink suit, and a blue, sequined shirt.

### Personality

Arlo has only been a living, conscious human being for nine years, but has the body of a twenty- nine year old. Essentially, even though he’s an adult in every way, including in terms of brain development, he skipped the entire portion of his life where an ordinary child/ teenager would learn about things like morality, human rights, altruism, and self- control.

This means that Arlo is shockingly impulsive and self- absorbed. He seems to genuinely not understand things like why stealing is bad, or how to put others before himself. He drinks, smokes, and swears constantly, and despite having only been conscious for nine years seems to have the emotional intelligence of a teenager, frequently playing videogames and treating Mrs. Bory like a rebellious teenager would.

As a child, Arlo was kind and friendly. He protected Sacha Barbican from bullies and apologized to her for his parents’ awful behavior. Arlo is truly not a bad person at heart. He might murder and steal and lock Dave inside a dog crate, but he also risks his life to save Sacha. Once he trusts someone, he truly trusts them, only contributing to his extreme sense of betrayal when he finds out his friends had been lying to him for years about his parents’ deaths. He can be extremely naive, but also extremely observant.

## History

Arlo's parents, **Malcom and Darla**, were constantly fighting and screaming at each other for as long as he could remember. Arlo used his imagination as a way to escape the reality of his broken home. One day he met **Sacha** after fighting off a group of bullies for her on the play ground. They became close friends and promised to be there for each other.

When Arlo was 7 years old, a fight between his parents ended with him accidentally getting hit in the head and being sent into a coma. He finally awoke 22 years later still in his bed to find that his parents had gone missing and left him in the care of their neighbor **Mrs. Bory**. By the time we see him on screen he has only been awake from his coma for 2 years.

One night while wandering around, Arlo met Manjusha, who took him in for the night. After seeing Majusha's old show on local TV station TV30, Arlo realized that he could create his own show as a way for his parents to find him. And thus began the creation of *Magic Funhouse.*

Arlo would track down and recruit Sacha to be an actress on his new show after once again helping her get out of trouble with a group of guys harassing her at a club. Later he would hire Jimmy to be his secretary and Cliff to be his other costar.

## Plot

When Dave comes into the picture, Arlo is quick to resent him after he ruins an episode of the show. Throughout the first few episodes he constantly antagonizes Dave, but warms up to him as time goes on.

The more time passes, the more Arlo doubts that he will ever find his parents, or that they even want to be found. Unfortunately, he discovers that his parents had died 5 years before he even woke up and, worse, that his friends knew about it. Betrayed and angry, Arlo goes into a fit of blind rage on live TV where he purposely gets *Magic Funhouse* banned and fires everyone (at gun point). This sends Dave into his own spiral, resulting in Dave luring Arlo to his house and attempting to kill him. Arlo escapes to the TV30 studio, where Sacha has warned everyone and gotten Manjusha to start streaming so there are as many witnesses as possible. Dave confronts him and grabs **Chronis**'s gun. Despite Arlo's attempts to talk him out of it, Dave fires. At the last minute, Jimmy jumps in front of Arlo and takes the bullet.

After Dave's trial and *Magic Funhouse*'s cancellation, Arlo works as the cashier at a candy shop until the rest of the group convinces him to become Mr. Marble once again.

## Relationships

### Julia Bory

Arlo is perpetually annoyed by Mrs. Bory, especially when she breaks into the studio (which occurs on a daily basis) to offer him tuna sandwiches, but treats her like a mother figure.

### Sacha Barbican

Sacha is Arlo’s oldest friend. After he protected her from bullies on a playground, the two quickly became friends. Arlo has saved Sacha from various mishaps at least four times, both protecting her from bullies and risking his life to save hers. The two are extremely close.

It‘s unknown whether Arlo and Sacha’s relationship is romantic or platonic. After Arlo is injured in a fight with Dave in Season 2, he dramatically tells Sacha that he has something to tell her, but is cut off as Dave stands back up.

### David Rolland

Arlo and Dave met in elementary school. Arlo somehow got his hands on an embarrassing photo of Dave with a full beard at age seven, and posted it all around their school. Dave’s parents decided to abandon him directly due to this incident.

Arlo and Dave hate each other with a passion. Throughout Season 1 it seems as though the two are getting closer, despite Arlo’s initial dislike of Dave, but when Arlo discovers that his parents are dead, and that his friends have been lying to him the whole time and cancels the show, Dave snaps. Dave tries to murder Arlo multiple times.

### Manjusha

Manjusha is one of the first people Arlo interacted with after coming out of his coma. The two quickly became friends, and watching Manjusha perform in her own TV show made Arlo decide to start Magic Funhouse. Manjusha seems to work as Arlo’s servant / surrogate parent.

### Clifford Cork

Cliff and Arlo don’t have many direct interactions, but they seem to be close. Arlo, at Dave’s request, plans a surprise party for Cliff after feeling like the latter was particularly stressed out by work.

### Jimmy Rustler

Jimmy is blatantly and very creepily in love with Arlo, but Arlo feels ambivalent about Jimmy. He knows about Jimmy’s obsession with him, and frequently uses Jimmy as a punching bag or as waste disposal, much to Jimmy’s delight. Arlo doesn’t particularly care for Jimmy, and sees him as a friend and nothing more. He seems to dislike Jimmy’s constant staring and touching but sees it sometimes as an ego boost.

## Trivia

* Arlo has stated that he is a virgin.
* In the final episode of Season 1, after walking out of the courtroom Arlo tells various reporters “Ask me questions.” The first question that comes up is “Have you ever considered a career in politics?” Both of these lines are referenced to by Bryce Tankthrust from Brandon’s YouTube channel. During one interview in Brandon’s series “Blame the Hero”, Bryce also uses the line “Ask me questions“ and later becomes President of the USA.
* Arlo's "Mr. Marble" design was based on and is a reference to the character Raymond Marble from the movie Pink Flamingos, directed by John Waters.
* Some fans theorized that Arlo would become Blah Blah the Clown, another character created by Brandon Rogers, due to the similarities in their designs (white contacts and bright wigs) and stories (deranged children's television hosts) as well as Sacha's actress (Elise Christian) appearing in one of Blah Blah's videos. However, Blah Blah's real name was revealed to be Eddie Oswald, effectively debunking the theory.
* Both Arlo and Arlo's father, Malcom, are played by Brandon Rogers.
* Arlo's name is derived from a fan's name whom Brandon Rogers thought was cool. The fan has given consent to use his name in his works.