Johnny 2x4

**Jonny** is a kid in the Cul-de-Sac who is quite often a nuisance to the other kids. Jonny has a huge, bald head, which is often the butt of many jokes and repeatedly gets caught in branches whenever he climbs trees. He is talkative and frequently gets on the other kids' nerves. He is rarely seen without his imaginary friend, a wooden board with drawn-on eyes and mouth named Plank.

Jonny seems kind, innocent and gullible, and he often forgives people no matter what they do. With some exceptions, he does not seem to mind the antics of the Eds, as he befriends them and sometimes even enjoys spending time with them.

He probably gets his nickname "Jonny 2x4" from his imaginary friend Plank, who happens to be a 2x4 piece of wood.

## Background

Jonny and his best friend Plank are based on a kid that creator Danny Antonucci knew during his childhood. During an interview Danny said the following regarding Jonny:

## Personality

Perhaps the most important thing about Jonny is his large imagination. The defining trait in regards to this, and in regards to him as a character, is his attraction to his best friend, a piece of wood with crayon-drawn eyes and smile named Plank. In *"Dear Ed,"* Edd describes Jonny's need to communicate with objects such as Plank to be "quite normal." He also states that it might be "stemming from a lack of self-confidence, or social phobias." This would imply that Jonny uses objects such as Plank as a means to make up for his lack of appropriate social skills, which seems to make sense since as on many occasions, most notably in *"Shoo Ed,"* Jonny is portrayed as an annoyance.

Jonny is a free-spirited person as he does whatever he wants to do and usually enjoys it all the while. He gives little regard to what others think of him and Plank, and seems to exist in his own world half the time. Evidence of this attitude to the world is given in *"Truth or Ed,"* where he stated that he likes Bobby Blabby even though the aforementioned reporter made up lies about him in one story. Jonny is also very willing to try new things. He is easily fooled and amused (see the opening scene of *"Who's Minding the Ed?"*) and he often finds that many of the Eds scams are great entertainment for himself and Plank. This is perhaps best exemplified in *"Avast Ye Eds."*There, he faces down danger happily, finding the adventure entertaining and not scary in the least.

Jonny is also very curious. He always wants to know what's going on and will often appear at the most random times. He usually chooses a very bad time to make an appearance, and his presence isn't always welcome. In *"Wish You Were Ed,"* Jonny stumbles upon the Ed's Old World Village and ruins the scam with his cluelessness. In *"An Ed is Born,"* Jonny runs into the Eds in the midst of their film-making and tries to make off with their camera.

Perhaps the best example of his power to annoy people comes in *"Shoo Ed."* Jonny is so annoying to some of the other kids that they are more than willing to pay the Eds to get rid of him. The Eds then try using his talents to their advantage, but like most of their other scams, this ultimately failed (although they did make a decent amount of money off of the scam initially). It's failure is due to the fact that Rolf seems curiously immune to Jonny's antics, as some of these follow in the strange social conventions of his old country; a combined attack of boundless questioning, relentless poking, and anchovy breath is used as a friendly greeting, and in some cases, conversation.

Jonny seems to possess the ability to utterly freak out Ed with his inherently odd nature, to the point of causing Ed to have a mental breakdown. While this was most prominent in *"Rock-a-Bye Ed,"* it has occurred in other episodes, both before and after. Another one of Jonny's quirks is that he is apparently immune to hypnosis, as during *"Look Into My Eds"* when Jonny was completely unaffected by Eddy's hypnotizing wheel. Jonny did claim that it turned Plank into a mindless zombie, which leads some credence to the theory that Plank is the brains of the two.

Jonny also doesn't know what an imaginary friend is, despite always having Plank with him (see *"Who Let the Ed In?"*). When questioned, he could not answer what one was; Plank was able to provide the information on how to capture an imaginary friend, though.

True to his sunny disposition, Jonny's usually happy to talk to and help anyone and everyone, including the Eds. He does, however, lose the sunny disposition when Plank goes missing. For example, when Plank leaves him in *"Urban Ed,"* he became worried and actually physically threatened Eddy when questioning him. Also, in Season 2's *"Home Cooked Eds,"* he is angry throughout the episode because Plank had been stolen from him by the Kankers, who used him as a backscratcher (more specifically, May). In *"Dear Ed,"* when Jonny & Plank had a tiff and went their separate ways, Plank wound up with Jimmy, while Jonny was unsuccessfully paired off with a series of Plank-a-likes ranging from the secretly psychopathic Bob the traffic cone, to Salty Sam the boot (not to mention a whole range of other objects hastily adorned with that blank Plank stare). Throughout the episode, Jonny is nervous and unhappy. Although things do work out eventually, it is apparent that Plank is in many instances a psychological prop, as Edd theorized earlier in the episode. In fact, Plank is so important that in Season 4's *"Postcards from the Ed,"* Jonny pretended that Plank's Parents had come to visit. Plank's backstory is expanded by the fact that when his mother and father are killed, Plank sends a sort of "wood mafia" after the Eds.

Above all else and much like Ed, Jonny is a dreamer. His head teems with ideas and he loves to be the hero. He saved the day "just like Errol Flynn" in Season 1's *"Avast Ye Eds,"* and in *"Robbin' Ed,"*he saved the kids cash from his scheming nemesis, Professor Scam (Eddy) as Captain Melonhead. However, it doesn't stop there–together, Jonny and Plank blaze a trail of glory as they liberate Rolf's chickens, save Jimmy from the Kankers, and get the better of those pesky Ed-Boys by turning the tables on their theme park scam.

Jonny is also shown to be very possessive of Plank and refuses to let him order around anyone else besides himself (See *"All Eds Are Off"*).

Jonny's imagination does become a liability for him on occasion. Like Jimmy, he is not very street smart. As such, he is treated as an ever-gullible target for the Eds' numerous scams.

## TriviA

* In the show, Jonny's tongue is light blue-green, a similar color to Edd's.
	+ Despite this, the 2000 style guide for merchandise licensing gives his tongue color as Pantone 182, a light pink color.
* Jonny is commonly shown with four toes, instead of three like the other characters typically have.
* Jonny was likely named after the show's dialogue editor, Johnny Ludgate.
* In *"Key to My Ed,"* Edd mentions that Jonny always naps at 3:00 in the afternoon.
* In *"It's Way Ed,"* Eddy revealed and confirmed Jonny gets his allowance on Tuesdays.
* The costume of Captain Melonhead (without the helmet) is actually the pajamas Jonny wears when he goes to sleep, as seen in *"Once Upon an Ed."*
* As the Gourd, Jonny dons the swirly-shirt and white pants from his Captain Melonhead costume.
* In *"Rock-a-Bye Ed"*, Jonny indicates that eating free-range soybeans before bed gives him nightmares.
* In *"Every Which Way But Ed"*, in a flashback, Jonny had a full head of brown hair. This hairstyle also appeared in *"Don't Rain on My Ed,"* during the "clean-up-mess" portion of the "Ed's Peek Into the Future" scam.
* Jonny appears to have a fascination with acorns. In *"If It Smells Like an Ed"*, Jimmy was to able to use one to lure him into his trap. In *"Robbin' Ed,"* Jonny uses acorns as weapons. He is also shown to keep them in his backpack during school, as seen in *"Mission Ed-Possible."*
* Jonny is possibly a Beatles fan, as he made a reference to their songs in *"Once Upon an Ed,"*exclaiming "We want a *real* story, with stuff like octopus's gardens, silver hammers, and Mr. Kite!" (Mr. Kite actually appeared on the *Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band* album while the other two derive from *Abbey Road*)*.*
* Jonny's favorite color is magenta, as mentioned in *"Take This Ed and Shove It."*
* In season five, it is hinted that Jonny has become a vegan. In *"Out with the Old, In with the Ed"*, he asks Eddy for a veggie burger. In *"This Won't Hurt an Ed"*, he is seen with a carrot in place of a hot dog (complete with a bun around it) and a carton of soy milk as a drink.