Eustace Bagge

Jeff Bergman (Cartoon Network 20th Anniversary Party, Straight Outta Nowhere: Scooby-Doo! Meets Courage the Cowardly Dog, Blue's Clues & You!, The Funtastic World of Warner Bros.)Wallace Shawn (The Fog of Courage)

### Debut

A Night at the Katz Motel

**Eustace Bagge** is the anti-heroic tritagonist of the series *Courage the Cowardly Dog*.

He is a farmer who lives in the middle of Nowhere, Kansas with his wife Muriel Bagge and her dog Courage. He is usually antagonistic to Courage, but he has also has had to frequently ally with or be rescued by Courage, occasionally showing him respect as a result.

## Appearance

Eustace wears a pale yellow shirt with olive green overalls with black buttons. He also has a dark brown hat and large black shoes. In the dark, his shirt appears to be orange and his overalls dark green.

Under his hat he is bald. Eustace does not appear to have any teeth.

Whenever he is seen without a shirt on a surgical scar on his right side of his stomach can be seen.

## Personality

Eustace is a very cynical and jaded old man who is usually irritated and frustrated by the world around him. He is also money-obsessed, perfectly illustrated by his unquenchable thirst for monetary gain. In almost every episode, he is seen sitting in his favorite red chair while reading a copy of the *Nowhere News* and possibly watching his television, which he deems precious to him. He has an adamant disliking for Courage and frequently calls him "stupid dog", taking great pleasure in tormenting him whenever possible, which largely stems out of jealousy that Muriel constantly pampers and dotes on Courage; however, it is not uncommon for Eustace to scare or mess with Courage, whether it's for him to leave Eustace alone, or just for the thrill of it. In some episodes, it is also possible that Eustace himself also has a jealousy of Courage's superior intellect and talents compared to his.

Lack of talent, education and good looks fuel Eustace's demeanor that he's been a wreck since his childhood. Throughout his life, he lived under the shadow of his mean spirited brother Horst, was hated by his mother; and neglected by his father, which then caused him to follow the same path as them by sharing the same resentment towards those around him. He is in constant denial over his lack of abilities, talent, charisma and knowledge, and, as such, believes he can fix anything, although this massively backfires when he attempts to "fix" something. His self-labeling as a farmer may also be proven false, as he has failed to grow just about anything by the Bagge farmhouse (even as far as weeds, as mentioned in The Magic Tree of Nowhere), despite his claims of having a "green thumb"; he blames the lack of crops on the soil around the farm being bad, but according to the Spirit of the Harvest Moon, it stems from Eustace not respecting his land in the slightest. Eustace is excruciatingly greedy, and will seize any opportunity to be paid, no matter how illegal, risky, or life-threatening the act may be, though he can resort to being cheap as well, due to his lack of clean money.

Courage's arrival was an unwelcome addition to his life, as it distracts his wife Muriel from feeding him; a fact that he emphasizes frequently, due to his constant hunger, and paying attention to his other needs and wants in general. Despite this, Eustace has shown a genuine love towards Muriel (though not unbending in the least) and has, on occasions, allied with Courage to protect her. He is immune to emotions but has a soft spot for children that remind him of himself. His constant tormenting of Courage seems to be a disguise to cover up his own cowardice, which is also quick to be displayed in a scary situation; in fact, he often displays even more cowardice than Courage himself. His favorite musician is Velvet Vick, and his interests include watching television, fishing, and reading his newspaper.

His recklessness and obliviousness often gets the better of him in a variety of episodes, whether it's him dying bizarre deaths, encountering tragic fates or being served karma for his actions.

## History

Eustace was raised in a small household with his deceased father Ickett Bagge (whom he bares a great resemblance to), mother, and his deceased older brother Horst, he was often abused by his mother whom she angrily called "stupid boy", and made fun of him because he was bald.

During his adulthood, he married a woman named Muriel. One day, Muriel was walking with Eustace and they found a puppy named Courage. Muriel felt bad for him, following the disappearance of his parents to outer space, and subsequently adopted him much to Eustace's dismay.

## Trivia

* The name "Eustace Bagge" may likely be a minced oath for *useless bag*.
* Eustace is one of seven characters (the others being Courage, Muriel, Shirley, Dr. Vindaloo, the Computer, and Katz) to appear in every season.
* Eustace appears in every episode of the series except "Cajun Granny Stew".
* Eustace is only seen without his glasses in "The Chicken from Outer Space", "The Curse of Shirley", and "Le Quack Balloon". But most of the time, he never takes them off even when sleeping or taking a bath, like Muriel.
* Eustace has an old farm truck loosely based on a late 1920s Ford Model AA. He considers it his prized possession and the only thing he may truly, unconditionally care about.
* Originally, he was going to scare Courage with a shotgun, but this was later changed to a mask due to network censors.
* Although Eustace is referred to as "the farmer" by many people in the show (Courage himself never calls him by his actual name, with a couple of exceptions being one scene in "The Gods Must Be Goosey" and "The Great Fusilli"), he is never shown performing any actual farm work, which can further explain his lack of skill in agriculture.
	+ This is even more ironic when considering that his own name "Eustace" means "fruitful" (deriving from Greek).
* Surprisingly, Eustace actually called Courage by his name instead of the usual "stupid dog" in The "The Hunchback of Nowhere", "Ball of Revenge", and the Cartoon Network 20th Anniversary Party bumper.
* Despite Eustace's mistreatment of him, Courage was shown to be worried about Eustace in "The Mask", when he thought that Kitty was planning to eat Muriel and Eustace.
* His personality was based on John R. Dilworth's early incorrigible attitude.
* It's revealed in "Bad Hair Day" that the reason he angrily calls Courage "stupid dog" is because of his mother angrily calling him "stupid boy".
* Although Eustace is bald in old age and acted the same way since childhood, he had a small amount of brown hair in his younger adulthood, briefly seen in a flashback in "Farmer-Hunter, Farmer-Hunted".
* Eustace was unvoiced in the pilot episode "The Chicken from Outer Space", and was voiced in the first 33 episodes by Lionel Wilson. Wilson retired due to illness during the show's production, with the role being picked up by Arthur Anderson afterwards up to the show's end. Anderson was replaced by Wallace Shawn for the CG pilot "The Fog of Courage".
	+ During Anderson's time in the role, many of Eustace's catchphrases that were originally voiced by Wilson were reused as stock audio. Such phrases include "Stupid Dog!" , "What's, huh?", and his laughs.
* He and Mr. Nasty have the same model.
* He is also named Pooh-bah by Professor Frith and Uncle Twinkletoes by Basil in "Courage Meets the Mummy" and "Family Business".
* A running theme throughout the series (more so in earlier episodes), is that every time Eustace scares Courage, Muriel hits him on the head with something such as a rolling pin, frying pan, or whatever happens to be nearby, such as her purse. After getting hit on the head, Eustace would ask," Ow! What'd I do?"
* As evidenced in "The Curse of Shirley", Eustace appears to despise his birthday, possibly because it only serves as a reminder of his miserable life due to his family's mistreatment of him.
* Usually when a villain calls Courage "Stupid dog", he will remark happily "That's what I tell him all the time! Stupid dog!"
* Eustace saying "OOGA BOOGA BOOGA!" when he scares Courage with his mask is likely based on Eddie Valiant saying "OOGA BOOGA!" to the gorilla in the movie *Who Framed Roger Rabbit*.

## Quotes

* "Stupid dog! You made me look bad!”

* "That's what I tell him all the time! You stupid dog, you stupid dog. He don't do nothin' right."

* "Get away from me!"
* "OOGA BOOGA BOOGA!"
* "Where's my dinner?"
* "Where's my lunch?"
* "Big deal..."
* "Nope..."
* "Blah, blah, blah..."
* "Ow! What did I do?!"
* "Eh?"
* "What's huh?"
* "Who the heck are you?"
* "What's yer offer?"
* "We don't want any!!"
* "Works for me!"
* "I told you i didn’t wanna go."
* "Kaboom!"
* "Grr!"
* "Get off my property!!"
* "No solicitors!"
* "Lousy telemarketers!"
* "Where's my chair?!"
* "No, sir! Not gettin' out of this chair!"
* "What about me food?!
* "Muriel, I'm hungry!"
* "No dinner, No nothing!
* "Mr. Nasty, Where are you going?"
* "You're my meal ticket!"
* "Oh, wicket."
* "This looks like a crummy place to end a crummy vacation."
* "That's it! I'm gettin' me mallet!"
* "Hey, that's mine!"
* "So Happy Birthday to nobody!"
* "Ain't no such thing as curses! And there ain't going to be no parties either!"
* "Make me!"
* "I'm rich! And finally rich!"
* ”Stupid dog! You made me look bad!
* "Go away!”
* "What a waste of good wood!"
* "What are you doing sittin' at the table?!"
* "I'm not useless, I'm Eustace!"
* "I'm a deer! Useless the Deer! Ha! La la la la la..."