Wilt

**Wilt** is an imaginary friend created by Jordan Michaels and one of the tritagonists in *Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends*.

## Background

Wilt prides himself on finding abandoned imaginary friends, making him a "helper friend," and is kind-hearted to a fault, sometimes apologizing a lot even when it is unnecessary; he just can't say "no," especially when someone asks him to do something, even if it's incredibly inconvenient. For example, in "Where There's a Wilt, There's a Way", he missed an entire basketball game doing favors for everyone who saw him (including thugs). Though he has not been able to say "no" in that episode, he said it twice before admitting he couldn't say it and has also said it numerous times in other episodes, even ones made before that episode. Bloo's laziness and idiotic attitude sometimes make him take advantage of Wilt's niceness by pretending to be sad or hurt. In "Partying Is Such Sweet Soiree", we also learn that he's an excellent dancer, but tends to get nervous in front of large gatherings as seen at the County Imaginary Friends Talent Show Pageant in "Hiccy Burp", resulting in him flubbing his lines and becoming too frozen with stage fright to continue afterward. Wilt also hosted the contest the previous year, apparently forgetting his lines and causing something horrible (which was frequently mentioned but never explained), but after messing up the most recent time, Madame Foster says "That was much better than last year."

Wilt is generally a pushover, although he does have his dignity and will stand up for himself past a certain point. In "Room With A Feud", a vacant bedroom was available, and he was quite insistent that he deserved it being that the room was very large with basketball wallpaper, two basketball hoops and even a scoreboard. Bloo attempted to fake sadness, in an attempt to coax Wilt into giving Bloo the room, stating, "But Wilt, if you take it, you'll hurt my feeeeewiiiings!" Wilt responds with, "You know, I was just thinking about that. And the thing is... I really don't care." In another episode, "Beat With a Schtick", he refused to help Bloo after he discovered he was making fun of tall people. In "Bus the Two of Us", Mac and Bloo ask Wilt to distract Frankie while they are out in the Foster's bus taking a joyride. After several attempts to keep Frankie in the house, Wilt screams into the phone, "Two minutes! You have *two minutes* before Frankie leaves the house and there's nothing I can do to stop her, Mac! I am trapped in a tangled web of *lies* and I can't do it anymore! I tried, I really tried, but it's too much, okay?! It's too much! The Wilt man is signing off. You are on your own, Mister!" He then slams down the phone, then picks it up to say, "Sorry." In "Squeeze the Day" he apparently got all of Foster's banned from the beach after some unknown accident involving homeless jellyfish and lots of sand.

Although Wilt is sweet and kind at heart, he does have a "dark side," as seen in "Pranks for Nothing". When Bloo gets back on the bus bragging about how he gave the last prank, he ends up sitting down on a whoopie cushion. Bloo realized that the prank couldn't've been pulled by Coco, because she got on the bus after him. Bloo demands to know who set the whoopie cushion on his seat, making Wilt smile at the end, implying that it was he who pulled the last prank.

## History

In "Good Wilt Hunting," his history is revealed. His creator, Jordan Michaels (a play on the famous basketball player Michael Jordan), wasn't very good at basketball, so he created Wilt, who, when created, had a left arm and eye exactly like his current good ones. With Wilt's help, Jordan became unbeatable. For a whole year, they were unstoppable. However, a jealous boy created Foul Larry (a double pun on former Boston Celtics star Larry Bird and the penalty is known as a "foul" in basketball) a giant with a basketball head. Jordan and Wilt faced off against them, and they were ahead 48-47 until Larry went in for a final shot. Wilt was ready to defend, but Jordan was right under Larry when he jumped. Wilt, setting aside the victory, rushed in and pushed Jordan out of the way just as Larry came down, saving Jordan's life, but crushing Wilt's left arm, leaving it crooked. The ball went through the basket and knocked out his left eye, bending it into its current shape. (It is still unknown how he got his scars, but they may have been acquired on his journey for a place to stay which ended up being Foster's, or how he actually lost his arm.) Jordan was so upset about the loss, that Wilt, distraught, ran away. It wasn't until Stats, the scorekeeper, told Jordan what happened that he went to look for Wilt, but all he found was the wristband from Wilt's broken arm. Jordan went on to become a professional basketball star, and while filming an ad in Japan was found by Mac, Bloo, Frankie, Coco, Eduardo, Nina Valarosa, and the scientists who researched Coco (Douglas and Adam), who looked for him after Wilt left to take on Foul Larry. The two were reunited, and Wilt promised to visit Jordan whenever he wanted. Wilt, however, could still be adopted.

## Trivia

* Wilt's name and appearance were inspired by legendary Basketball player Wilt Chamberlain (who was known for his exceedingly tall height), as confirmed by Craig McCracken, in a response to a comment on his DeviantArt page.
* Unlike most imaginary friends who are abandoned by their creators, for Wilt, it's the other way around as he abandoned his creator after he believed he let him down.
* Aside from Mac & Bloo, Wilt has appeared the most out of any other character, being absent from only two episodes. This makes him the 3rd most occurring character, as Bloo has appeared in every episode, and Mac was only absent in one.
* Wilt is the first handicapped main character in a Cartoon Network original series, though he wasn't the first handicapped character seen on the channel.
* Wilt can sometimes be a bit naïve in some episodes. For example, while he was bowling in "The Big Lablooski", he threw a bowling ball like a basketball (this may be due to his basketball experience). Another example is in "Good Wilt Hunting" when he helped some strangers move their furniture. However, it was revealed that these strangers were actually burglars trying to steal the furniture.
* Wilt has been in Foster's longer than both Eduardo and Coco.
* He is one of the oldest imaginary friends, as he was created over thirty years ago.
* Out of all the characters that have gone to jail at some point, Wilt has gone to jail the most times. This is very ironic, considering Wilt's kind character. It's worth noting that more often than not, Wilt gets arrested either because he gets roped into bad situations or due to his own naivete, not malicious behavior:
	+ In "Cheese a Go-Go", Wilt gets jailed because he was with Eduardo, who was the one causing trouble, and police most likely assumed they were both causing problems.
	+ In "Good Wilt Hunting", Wilt gets arrested after he mistakenly helps burglars steal furniture.
	+ In "Where There's A Wilt, There's A Way", Wilt gets jailed for accidentally aiding a bank robbery.
	+ In "Crime After Crime", Wilt turns himself into the police when trying to find a proper punishment for himself due to Mr. Herriman's made-up rules.