Dick Dastardly



"Drat, drat, and double drat!"

- Dick Dastardly

Dick Dastardly is a recurring villain from many Hanna-Barbera television productions.

Wacky Races
His first appearance, Dastardly appears as one of the many racers in a cross-country rally. Along with his dog partner Muttley, he piloted The Mean Machine, which was fully equipped with all sorts of traps and hazards that he uses in his many attempts to cheat in the race. Dick, however, never won a single race, because his plans always fail because of his and Muttley's incompetence, the other racers being already prepared for his traps, or simply by his bad luck. His plans generally backfire on him, making him finish last in most races, if he does end the race at all. Some times, he does have the opportunity to win the race without cheating, but fails because of little details (to the point that it's shown that he could won if he had not cheated).

Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines
His second major appearance as a villain, Dick and Muttley are joined by two new henchmen, Zilly and Klunk (Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines, piloting the Vulture Squadron. His goal was to catch the homing pigeon Yankee Doodle, who carried messages for the opposing armies. Just like in Wacky Races, all of his plans fail miserably, and the homing pigeon always escapes unscathed.

Personality
Being an infamous card-carrying villain, Dick Dastardly enjoys causing problems of any kind. He attempts to build all kinds of machinery to trip up his opponents. Although incompetent, he remains persistent in his attempt to spread villainy.

Trivia

 * Dick Dastardly has become a kind of go-to villain for various Hanna-Barbera specials and series, owing to his easy recognizability.
 * His voice actor used much the same voice as he used for the even more iconic Gargamel.
 * When the Hanna-Barbera crossover cartoon Laff-A-Lympics was made in the 1970's, it ran into several legal problems with characters they intended to use. Hanna-Barbera's version of Jeannie (I Dream Of Jeannie) was not owned by them, nor were Josie And The Pussycats. Dick Dastardly and Muttley were also victims of this, though it was a mistake. Believing that the two were owned or co-owned by another company (they weren't), substitutes were made in the form of the Dread Baron and Mumbly. Mumbly had once been a heroic dog detective who talked in Muttley-speak, and in a comic based on Laff-A-Lympics, the Baron was revealed to be Dick's twin brother.