Professor Exclamation

**Professor Exclamation**, also referred to as **Jack Ampersand**, is a recurring villain in *Hamster & Gretel*. He appears to be an inventor, who decided to become a supervillain after losing his elbows in an industrial accident (which may explain his short arms), deciding that if he couldn't bend his arms, he would bend everyone else to his will.

Professor Exclamation is the very first villain that Hamster, Gretel and Kevin have faced in the series, debuting in the episode "Empower Failure", the series' first episode. He also has a son named Nordle, a prodigy with altered DNA, whom he wishes to grow up becoming an evil genius like himself.

## Physical appearance

Professor Exclamation is a tall man with a large, protruding chin, a crooked nose, bags under his eyes, misaligned glimmers in his eyes, and most notably, very short arms. In "Romancing the Scone", it is revealed that Professor Exclamation had lost his elbows due to an industrial accident, which not only could explain why his arms are so short (as it could mean his forearms may have been lost as well), but further reveals he cannot bend his arms, either. Due to this, it is possible that his hands may be artificial, but it's also entirely possible that only his elbows are lost and that his arms are naturally short.

He wears an purple costume with yellow rings around the sleeves, a collar and a yellow exclamation on the torso, a gray undershirt, white shoes, and a purple hat with a yellow exclamation mark on it. This purple hat conceals a black-haired lock on his forehead; aside from this lock of hair, Professor Exclamation is otherwise bald.

Before losing his elbows, Exclamation had a slightly smaller chin, no bags under his eyes, correctly aligned glimmers in his eyes, and arms of normal length. He also wore a green shirt.

*Click here to view a full list of outfits and designs for **Professor Exclamation** throughout the series.*

## History

### Early life and background

When he was a teenager at Eastside High School, Exclamation was known as Jack Ampersand, a very calm and easygoing person who loved to juggle all the time, being very talented at it, earning the nickname of Jugglin' Jack. He was quite popular and beloved by his peers, including his metal workshop classmate, Dave Grant. The two seemed to be friends, as Jack even wrote in Dave's copy of his senior yearbook to "never change, bro!" Ironically to his present day self, Jack is stated to be a nice person who would remain so for the rest of days.

During his adulthood, Jack lost his elbows in an industrial accident prior to the events of *Hamster & Gretel*, but presumably after Nordle was born (as Nordle remembers that they ate custard at a boardwalk before his dad lost his elbows). It was after this incident that he decided to become evil, figuring that if he couldn't bend his arms anymore, then he should bend everyone else to his will instead. It's also presumably after this incident that he decided to change his name to Professor Exclamation, growing resentment for his high school and his reputation as Jugglin' Jack.

Up until "Romancing the Scone", Professor Exclamation had largely kept his villainous side a secret from his son, only planning to tell him when the time is right, keeping his façade as a used tire salesman until then. However, he already made preparations for Nordle to become his successor and tried sterring him to the path of evil while raising him.

### Season 1

Professor Exclamation made his debut in "Empower Failure", the first episode of *Hamster & Gretel*. In "Empower Failure", he uses an army of robots to attack city hall on the night of the Duck Boyz concert, having specifically chosen this night to attack because the mayor gave everyone the day off, and sends a video message, challenging Hamster and Gretel for a fight. Hamster and Gretel do arrive at city hall, but so does Kevin, afraid since Hamster and Gretel never fought supervillains before. After a talk between Kevin and Gretel, the fight could finally begin.

However, the fight turns out to be a mere distraction in order to Professor Exclamation to trap Hamster and Gretel, locking them up in an unbreakable energy cage that draws its power from the city's local power grid, leaving Hamster and Gretel completely helpless so long the city still has electrical power. However, Exclamation is defeated after Kevin manages to convince everyone watching the Duck Boyz concert at home to overload said power grid via a message in song; this causes the city to experience a blackout and lose its electrical power, thus freeing Hamster and Gretel, who promptly beat him up and escort him to the police station.

Professor Exclamation later appears in "A Mammoth Problem", as he drops off Nordle to the Eastside Elementary School science fair with a science project he made for his son with the intent for Nordle to dominate the science fair. Said science project accidentally freed a mammoth from a glacier Gretel brought in to one-up Nordle, withe the mammoth causing a ruckus and escaping into the city with the laser. Professor Exclamation shows up at the end to pick Nordle up, disappointed after hearing from his son that he and Gretel got second place after they decided to combine their two projects. Before leaving, Exclamation notices Gretel; despite not realizing a connection between the one that befriended Nordle, and the superhero he fought in "Empower Failure", he does find that Gretel looks familiar. He shrugs it off, noting that he'll figure out why eventually.

In "Romancing the Scone", Professor Exclamation shows up when Gretel and Nordle leave the latter's room in his house, revealing that he's the creator of the robot that chased the two children earlier, and incidentally revealing to Gretel that he's Nordle's father. Since the robot, Tobor, detected evil energy coming from Nordle, Exclamation wants to have a private talk with his son, while tasking Tobor to tend to Gretel's needs. Professor Exclamation decides it's time to reveal that he has become a supervillain, thinking that Nordle has become evil like him and apparently gained superpowers. Nordle explains that the evil energy that Tobor detected is actually coming from a scone that accidentally dropped in his backpack; this scone is, unbeknownst to them, mistakenly laced with evil energy, courtesy of a pair of aliens.

Upon hearing this, Exclamation goads Nordle on to eat the scone and become evil, so they can be evil together. Gretel has overheard all of this and steps in, pleading to Nordle to not eat the scone and just destroy it. In the end, Nordle decides to destroy the scone, wishing to not become evil like his dad, which upsets Professor Exclamation, claiming that he'll disown Nordle. Despite this, he still acts as a father to Nordle as if nothing happened.

Despite not appearing in "When Life Gives You Lemons", Nordle does mention to Gretel and Bailey that Professor Exclamation has recently created and patented a radioactive compound which causes fruits to grow rapidly, which he had called Fruitonium. Nordle has used Fruitonium to enlarge the one lemon Gretel and Bailey had left for their lemonade stand, in part of an attempt to improve the business.

Professor Exclamation appears again in "Two Girls, A Guy and the Council of Düm"; this time, he has set up a meeting with The Nightmarionette, The Earworm and La Cebolla to form the Council of Düm and eliminate Hamster and Gretel. The meeting was originally supposed to take place at The Earworm's lair, but due to an overabundance of earwigs, they're holding a meeting at Exclamation's residence instead, at the same time as Nordle is having an afternoon soiree with Gretel and Bailey. After ordering pizza based on a vote, Exclamation begins a presentation on why he became evil, before La Cebolla announces that her onions have detected Gretel and Bailey spying on them. Exclamation decides to erase Gretel and Bailey's memories so they wouldn't snitch on them, before Nordle steps before them, stating he'd have to erase his mind as well. Exclamation gives in, claiming he cannot erase their memories. This causes the other supervillains present to believe that Exclamation is too soft and weak-willed to lead the Council, as then a battle between the supervillains commences.

Eventually, Nightmarionette, Earworm and Cebolla are locked up in energy cages, as Nordle chides his dad for continuing this supervillain business. It's then that Exclamation reveals that he planned this all along, figuring that the other villains would only complicate his plans to destroy Hamster and Gretel and thus had to neutralize them. It's also revealed that he lied about being unable to erase Gretel and Bailey's memories as well, as he threatens to erase their memories again. Due to the house's anti-superhero defense system, Gretel cannot change into her superhero self; however, she instead tricks Professor Exclamation into saying that he's a superhero for defeating those three supervillains, to which the defense system cannot decipher whether that was meant figuratively or literally, and locks up Exclamation in a glass box to fling far away regardless.

Although he is not present during the events of "Finding Professor Ex", Gretel, Nordle and Tobor do attempt to locate him in that episode. They investigate the lab in which Exclamation was flung away from; after Tobor splices a table in half, the trio find Professor Exclamation's hat. Nordle claims that his dad would never go anywhere without his hat, so he must've gotten it replaced immediately. With that in mind, Gretel, Nordle and Tobor visit Martina's Punctuation-Themed Hats, the hat shop Exclamation got his hat from, where they find out that Exclamation ordered a replacement a couple days prior, and got it shipped to an old abandoned doll factory at the edge of town.

Arriving at said doll factory, Gretel, Nordle and Tobor discover that Professor Exclamation has set a variety of riddles to test his son. The three continue exploring the factory while correctly answering riddles, up until they reach a final room, which houses a robotic mannequin of Professor Exclamation. As Nordle places the hat on the mannequin's head, it plays a recorded voice of Professor Exclamation, claiming he will reveal to Nordle where he is hiding, as well as the details of his plan to destroy Hamster and Gretel, if Nordle manages to correctly state his birthday. Nordle types in his birthday of May 9; however, Tobor reminds Nordle that Exclamation could never remember Tobor's birthday and always said it was 01-01-01 since that was easier to remember. Nordle tries to undo his answer, but it's too late, as the mannequin deems the answer incorrect and proceeds to activate a flurry of destructive lasers from the machine behind it. As Tobor protects Nordle from the laser flurry, Nordle begins to realize that Tobor really cared for him as a father the whole time. After the lasers have been dealt with by Gretel, the three decide to leave the doll factory satisfied, still unsure where Professor Exclamation is hiding.

In "I Was a Teenage Mad Scientist", Professor Exclamation returns to town in the flesh to proceed with the second step in his plan to destroy Hamster and Gretel, as he needs to locate Unbendium, an elusive material said to be the strongest metal in the world. Thanks to a tracing device he made during three layovers, he discovers that there is Unbendium located underneath the Eastside High School, the school he used to attend as a teenager, much to his dismay. He is even more dismayed when it happens to be reunion night as well. Since he really needs that Unbendium for his evil plans, however, he reluctantly enters the building after changing into something more sensible for the occasion.

Upon entering, he meets Kevin at the check-up, although neither of the two fully recognize each other but do find each other vaguely familiar. Kevin proceeds to ask for his name, as Exclamation states his previous name of Jack Ampersand, and enters the gym hall. He continues locating the Unbendium as he's suddenly recognized by Dave, who introduces him to Carolina and shows the two of them a video tape of Ampersand's school life as Jugglin' Jack, much to Exclamation's annoyance. The conversation between the three is interrupted by class representative Emily, who proceeds to shout out some past class award winners. Exclamation, much to his chagrin, is called on stage as the one "Most Likely to Stay Nice Forever". He uses this to direct everyone outside with the promise of a "diabolical surprise" at the school parking lot, so he can excavate for the Unbendium in peace.

By this time, Kevin realizes that Jack Ampersand is Professor Exclamation thanks to Hamster, Gretel and Fred recognizing him from Dave's yearbook, and arrives in the gym hall to see Exclamation having already found the Unbendium. Exclamation states he's mining the Unbendium for his diabolical scheme and then plans to destroy the school for "catharsis". Hamster and Gretel arrive, upon which Professor Exclamation realizes why he finds Kevin familiar. He proceeds to leave with the Unbendium while siccing laser-guided homing drills on the three of them, which proceed to wreck the school in the process. Hamster, Gretel and Kevin eventually manage to get the drills to impact on each other, causing an explosion of fireworks, long after Exclamation has left. Exclamation needs only one more item for his evil plan, as he is headed to Las Vegas.

## List of appearances

### Season 1

* "Empower Failure" (First appearance)
* "A Mammoth Problem"
* "Romancing the Scone"
* "When Life Gives You Lemons" (Mentioned)
* "Two Girls, A Guy and the Council of Düm"
* "Finding Professor Ex" (Mentioned)
* "Shush Hour" (Pictured)
* "I Was a Teenage Mad Scientist"
* "Exclamation Strikes Back"

### Shorts and spinoffs

* *Chibi Tiny Tales*
	+ "Ice Cream Mayhem"
	+ "Museum Mayhem"
	+ "Rollercoaster Romance"
	+ "Laundry Day"
	+ "Life with Linda"
* *Chibiverse*
	+ "Chibi Villians Unite"
	+ "Kiff's Chibi Tiny Tales Quiz Challenge" (Pictured)
* *Broken Karaoke*
	+ "Evil As Can Be" (Not voiced)
* *Random Rings*
	+ "Dr. Doofenshmirtz Calls Hamster & Gretel" (Cameo)

## Trivia

* Professor Exclamation is a recurring villain character in all three of the 2022 *Hamster & Gretel*-themed *Chibi Tiny Tales* shorts, but does not appear in the actual *Hamster & Gretel* series again until "A Mammoth Problem", long after the aforementioned shorts.

## References

1. ↑ by Gretel in "Romancing the Scone"
2. ↑ High school nickname, revealed in "I Was a Teenage Mad Scientist"
3. ↑ Mentioned by Nordle in "Romancing the Scone"; she's stated to be a groundskeeper.
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Mentioned by Professor Exclamation in "Romancing the Scone"; Bob and Darren are stated to bond over model trains.