Beef Tobin

### Age

40 (a month before Beef’s Craig Beef Adventure until Pa-Shank Redemption Adventure (speculated))41 (speculated age from Pa-Shank Redemption Adventure to present)

## Family

### Parents

Rutger Tobin (great grandfather)
Rutger's son (grandfather)
Beef's dad (father)
Beef's mom (mother)

### Children

Wolf Tobin (son)
Ham Tobin (son)
Judy Tobin (daughter)
Moon Tobin (son)

### Other

Wilhelm Tobin (reindeer grandson)
Becca Tobin (niece)
Honeybee Shaw (daughter-in-law)
Danica Tobin (cousin)

## Behind the scenes

### Voiced by

Nick Offerman

**Beef Tobin** is the main protagonist of *The Great North*. He is the patriarch of the Tobin family and the father of Wolf, Ham, Judy, and Moon.

## Appearance

Beef is a forty-year-old man (later 41) with red hair parted to the left (his brother does this as well), a scruffy red mustache and beard, eye wrinkles, and a twinkie-shaped nose. He wears a red plaid coat, blue jeans, and brown boots. When inside, he wears a white Henley shirt. Without his beard, he has a round chin.

As a child, Beef had messier hair in the same style. For clothing, he would wear a white t-shirt, dark blue shorts in warm weather, dark blue pants in cold weather, a light brown coat with a fluffy collar, and green velcro shoes.

As a teenager, he was skinnier, had a rounder face, shorter beard, and slightly longer hair.

Thirty years ago when he was ten he did not have a beard.

## Personality

Beef is a man of tradition and family. He goes into a state of depression whenever his equilibrium is thrown off, especially by unexpected change (e.g. Judy getting a job, Wolf and Honeybee moving into the guest cabin, someone forcing him to acknowledge that his wife, Kathleen, left him and their children for a man in Pennsylvania).

## Relationships

### Love Interests

#### Rosey

Rosey, the robot from The Jetsons, was Beef's first crush.

#### Kathleen Tobin

Beef was deeply devoted to his ex-wife, Kathleen, whom he idolized and maintained a shrine to despite her having been an unfaithful partner, a bad mother, and a low-level criminal. She eventually left Beef and the children to move to Pittsburg to be with her lover, Marcus. While the Tobin kids were fully aware that their mother left them and Beef (Judy even admits to reading Kathleen and Marcus’s blog about shoplifting called “The Pittsburg Stealers”), Beef claimed that Kathleen was killed by a bear while out buying and trying to buy and deliver medicine to the children’s hospital. In the pilot episode “Sexi Moose Adventure”, Beef is devastated when a moose destroys his shrine to Kathleen that includes her “glorious” hair extensions and fur bikini. When the Tobin kids tell Beef that they know Kathleen is still alive, Beef finally admits the truth and slowly comes to terms with Kathleen leaving.

### Family

#### Wolf Tobin

As with all his children, Beef is close to his oldest son. He is reassuring with him, such as giving Wolf a small pep talk during the Feast of Not People Festival.

#### Ham Tobin

As with all his children, Beef is close to Ham. They often plan parties together, albeit with Judy doing most of the work, and tend to go into great detail with what they think they are planning.

#### Judy Tobin

As well all his children, Beef is close to his only daughter. They give each other pep talks, such as Judy telling him her mother is never coming back and Beef telling her not to be scared of kissing after one bad kiss.

#### Moon Tobin

As with all his children, Beef is close to his youngest son. They comfortably talk to one another during meals and share a love for the outdoors.

#### Honeybee Shaw

Beef is accepting of Honeybee as a member of his family and wife of his eldest son, Wolf. She often helps Beef with his relationship troubles

#### Parents

Beef is estranged from his parents. Not much is known about them, but it’s heavily implied they were super neglectful and toxic to Beef and Brian, as evidenced by Beef saying that they never celebrated his birthdays as a kid and frequently getting in trouble with the law.

**Sibling**

**Brian Tobin**

Beef originally is upset that Brian moved to Anchorage, but learns to let go after Brian tells him he wasn’t happy living in Lone Moose. Despite this, Beef and Brian love each other deeply and are close, as evidenced by Brian being the only pre-marriage relative that Beef keeps contact with and Beef always wanting to hang out with Brian when he visits.

**Cousin**

**Danica Tobin**

Beef has a toxic relationship with his criminal cousin, with Danica taking joy in criticizing everything around her (especially Beef). Because of her verbal abuse, Beef cut off contact with her, but as of recently, she’s been popping back into his life to continue criticizing him.

### Friends.

#### Delmer

Delmer acted as a surrogate father to Beef and his brother, Brian, when their parents were in jail or part of a cult. He is thankful for his stepping in when he did.

## Trivia

* Beef enjoys fishing and owns a boat, *The Mighty Kathleen*, named for his ex-wife.
* His parents were conspiracy theorists.
* While it isn't confirmed, Beef has many autistic traits. He finds change to be especially difficult as shown with his increased desire for togetherness with his family, and has coping mechanisms that makes this transition easier (Example: saying Kathleen is dead instead of absent, telling his family not to go to certain places where he shared good times with Kathleen etc). Unexpected changes cause him to shut down. He speaks in a monotone voice. He does not understand small talk, jokes, or sarcasm, and has to be coached on these things by Londra. He takes things literally and has a hard time reading the room and sometimes acts in ways that make other people confused or uncomfortable. He's also very uncomfortable in social situations and expresses his thoughts and feelings in ways that other people find difficult to understand. (Example: the knife club couldn't tell that he was excited/having a good time at their meeting.) He finds excitement in unusual things, like sock darning. (A sewing technique used to repair holes in socks.) He is shocked to learn that he often appears upset and unapproachable. He has a special interest in fishing and fishing boats--his relationship with his brother Brian mostly revolved around a shared interest in fishing. He engages in rituals--when it's his turn to choose the movie for movie night, he always chooses "Enough Said". While he has many acquaintances, he doesn't appear to have any close friends outside of his immediate family.
* Beef had 3 dates to the Fall Frenzy Dance: Greta, Alyson, and Dell. They realized that they had a lot in common and none of them were mad at Beef. All 4 of them danced together. Judy remarks that he "might be swinging (no judgement)".
* It hasn’t been confirmed in the show or by the creators whether Beef or Brian is older (and by how much) or if they are twins.
* He and Craig Ptarmigan shared their 18th birthday celebration together Beef's Craig Beef Adventure
* He had Wolf Tobin at age 19 Sister Pact Too Adventure
* Beef is similar to (though less negative than) Ron Swanson, who is also played by Nick Offerman.
* Though it was not stated how old he turned in Pa-shank Redemption Adventure, it’s most likely that he turned 41 because in Beef's Craig Beef Adventure, Wolf stated that Beef turned 40 a month before the episode’s events and that episode came out a year before Pa-shank Redemption Adventure. Also a year after Beef's Craig Beef Adventure aired, Sister Pact Too Adventure aired and Zelda Blop came to Tobin house on her 40th birthday to marry Beef after she and Beef had made a pact in high school that they would marry if they were single by the time they turned 40, meaning Beef was already 40 by that episode and Beef celebrated a different birthday a few episodes later in Pa-shank Redemption Adventure.