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After my involuntary year long "vacation", I really need to be in a familiar environment, surrounded by the people I love... to hurt! Ha ha ha!
„
~ Chris McLean sadistically noting his pleasure for hurting the contestants at the beginning of All-Stars.
Chris McLean is the main antagonist of the Canadian animated television franchise Total Drama.
As the announcer of the show, Chris is in charge of designing challenges for the contestants to compete in—all of which he intentionally makes excruciating and gruesome for the contestants to satisfy his sadistic tendencies. In-universe, it is confirmed that Chris did not create Total Drama by himself—as he mentions the producers multiple times in the series.
His most important co-host, employee, and best friend is Chef Hatchet, as well as several interns whom he torments (even recklessly murdering via neglect for their well-being) for fun. Whenever he is absent, he lets Chef host in his dangerous challenges. He has since become one of the most iconic characters of the series.
In the first five seasons, he was voiced by Christian Potenza, who also voiced Trevor Troublemeyer in Sidekick. For the sixth and seventh seasons, he was voiced by the show's writer and executive producer Terry McGurrin.
Chris is a tall and slim man with black neck-length messy hair in a wolfcut, black dotted eyes and a five o clock stubble. He also wears a dark-turquoise collared shirt over a white white undershirt with rolled up sleeves, in addition to dark green cargo pants and white & dark-green rubber shoes.
Personality[]
Chris McLean openly takes pleasure in watching the competitors suffer, and frequently goes out of his way to make things as difficult as possible for his amusement.
Chris has zero concern for fairness and sportsmanship in the competition and loves to deliberately eliminate contestants who don't deserve it in extremely abrupt, unfair, and even outright cruel ways. On more than one occasion, he even outright breaks the fundamental rules of the game. Chris thoroughly enjoys it whenever contestants fight with, bully, exploit, betray, and cheat against each other, and sometimes tries to exacerbate the conflicts between them. In the fire-building challenge in "Up the Creek", Chris claimed that there were no rules against those carrying lighters when Duncan used them for the fire. In "Super Happy Crazy Fun Time Japan", instead of giving a panda for Cody, he chose Sierra to be his pinball buddy. In "Slap, Slap Revolution", he allowed Team Chris is Really Really Really Really Hot to use Owen to slide down the hill due to him eating raw meat.
Chris does not tolerate contestants who quit his show. such as Duncan when he had Chef whip the delinquent with his Olympic towel whenever he talks instead of singing. Chris will also get offended and punish those who make fun of him such as when Sierra revealed his past and his former boy band, Fame Town, and he then ordered the stalker to zip her mouth. He is also vengeful to those who cross him, such as Scott when he arranged Fang to hurl the injured Scott as payback for flinging him into the "pit of poo". This is also shown by his dislike of Topher, who attempted to take over the show, and, while admitting that Chris himself would have also committed Topher's actions if he were in his shoes, still desired to rid himself of any potential rival or someone who insulted his work as the host. Chris eliminated another rival when he pushed Blaineley out of the plane after she tried to reveal that she was the initial choice as the announcer of Total Drama.
One of his more identifiable traits is his narcissism and absolute concern for himself. Chris mainly acknowledges his appearance as one of his most prized possessions, viewing himself as highly attractive. This habit escalates into fully altering his face into a smile, no matter the emotions he displays. An example of this preoccupation with physical appearance is Chris's panic and paranoia after Topher lies and says the producers will replace him with someone younger-looking. Additionally, he is sensitive about his past embarrassments and age, to the point of intentionally making things harder for or even pettily eliminating contestants when they bring up either of these subjects. In every season, Chris has only himself and Chef (although the latter is added mainly because he provides Chris protection) protected when actual danger is imminent in the challenges, disregarding everyone else's trouble in favor of his own safety. Additionally, Chris severely neglects and apathetically torments his interns, from having them test-run the challenges to severely ignoring their health (and lives). This neglect gets to the point where Chris accidentally kills one of the interns by ignoring the scarab beetles eating the intern alive and refusing to feed his other interns for weeks. [Although while he mainly forgot to do so at first, his decision to make the contestants eat their own sundaes regardless of how horrible they were {i.e. Courtney} ultimately culminated in him starving the interns, which is a crime he would be arrested for in the real world.]
However, though only in the beginning of the series, Chris has shown a slightly caring side, such as feeling sorry for Justin when he was eliminated in the first two seasons and when he became disgusted with Courtney for knowingly making a sundae that would make the interns ill. This soft side is rather rare, since he typically doesn't care about the campers' safety. Nevertheless, when Gwen was nearly attacked by the real Chainsaw Killer, Chris went with the other contestants to save her—even though this could have been motivated by his worries of getting sued for her death. In World Tour, Chris was shown to wince when Gwen got caught on a cactus. He also seems to care for DJ when he is scared.
Even when Chris left Duncan, Gwen, Heather and Owen marooned for a challenge, he felt pity for them and asked Chef for his opinion about going after them. This compassion, however, seems to have faded away in later seasons, with Chris descending or more likely revealing himself to be a sadistic and sociopathic person. One could argue that he was always like this, and simply stopped caring about his image because he knew that his wealth would allow him to get away with most [if not all] of his crimes. When Lightning fell and landed on his groin, Chris showed his despair at the groin landing.
Chris does have some later moments when he seemingly shows kindness, like when he hugged Harold after Duncan called him "Doris" (although he showed some annoyance when doing so). Furthermore, while Chris treats Owen horribly, he has a soft spot for him and even considers him one of the few contestants he likes when giving him food (even if it is disgusting). In the Total Drama All-Stars finale, Chris decides to bring back Owen to fill the eliminated All-Stars in the balloons with his farts, by feeding Owen with beans. He also shows sympathy for Owen being eliminated.
Chris also has a soft side for Lindsay—one of the few contestants he likes. He is sensitive of Lindsay's name gag when she called him Kyle and Chip. He tried to advise her when he told her to vote her fellow contestants wisely due to her dimwitted nature when she accidentally voted herself off. He didn't let her and her boyfriend Tyler kiss before she took the Drop of Shame when it was only a half-hour show.
Chris also showed his disgust of Harold and his "skills", especially his underwear. He proves to be considerably nicer towards contestants he likes—yet still cruel towards them—and has been shown to find some of the more villainous contestants' actions intolerable. However, those feelings either become antipathy for them in later episodes or slight respect for the fact that they create drama to bring in more viewers.
Christian Potenza, Chris' voice actor, likes to believe that something happened in Chris' life that made him the sadistic host he is today. Unfortunately, the staff hasn't had any time to make a story for that yet. Furthermore, because they no longer are making any new seasons of Total Drama, what made Chris so evil will never be revealed. Thus, one might assume that he let his fame get in the way of what little morals he had, or that the whole year he spent in prison after the fourth season might have toughened him.
Throughout the series, Chris mentions how he makes things tedious and deadly for the contestants due to the ratings the show can get. This could be another explanation for how Chris becomes increasingly sadistic with each new season of the show, as he knows he will get away with cruel acts as long as he brings in viewers.
However, Chris starts losing his redeeming qualities as the series progresses. While he did originally have some light standards at the beginning of the show, these standards eventually disappear as he starts to encourage dangerous villains like Mal and Scarlett. At some point, Chris outright refuses to save the campers or get them on his chopper. While he does genuinely start off as an easygoing person who is not really antagonizing in the two first seasons, he loses most of his humanity and redeeming qualities by the third season. Later on, he even sadistically mocks an intern that got horrifically mutated due to his “pranks” , starts torturing animals, and plays with toxic wastes—all occurrences that portray him as a highly unsympathetic and horrific person.
It is debatable if Chris McLean genuinely started as a good person in the beginning, as he did cause the death of an intern prior to season 1 while putting him on a test knowing he would likely die. He even endangers his best friend’s life by having him see if it is possible to jump from a high cliff, while neglecting to warn him of the starving sharks. This event in season 1 somewhat foreshadows his true psychopathic nature, which will begin to become clear in season 3.
Strangely enough, by the time of the reboot, which is greenlighted fifteen years since the series began (from TDI to TDPI), Chris has significantly mellowed out. The difficulty of the challenges and his utter disregard for the interns are unchanged; however, his treatment of Chef and his new contestants does begin to change. Not only does Chris nicely receive his fourth cast at the Dock of Shame like he did with his first cast, but he isn't as rough as them and treats them far better than he did with his second and third casts. Chris doesn't force the fourth cast to live in dangerous grounds like the intoxicated Camp Wawanakwa or look for their own shelter and food like in the Pahkitew Island. While he does maintain his claims that he doesn't care for anybody and invents things to make contestants miserable [like blackmailing Damien into staying to avoid being sued by the show, letting Scary Girl bring havoc wherever she goes, or allowing the contestants to revote and get rid of Zee for naively trying to remove him from the program], Chris shows himself surprisingly capable of courtesies like giving Ripper a new T-shirt after stupidly ripping off his original one, warning the contestants if dangerous animals are involved in the challenges, properly sending Wayne and Raj to a hospital when they get severely injured, or even giving Chase a pizza after being eliminated. It's unclear what happened for Chris McLean to recover some of his humanity, but one can speculate that he may have softened with age, considering the fifteen year interim between the original series and its reboot.
Oh there will be prizes for those make it down the hill alive. And there will be punishment for one sorry loser on the last place team. Behold, Der Penalty-Hosen.
„
~ Chris in "Slap Slap Revolution".
“
Today's challenge is a good old-fashioned game hide-and-seek. You all get 10 minutes to hide before Chef Hatchet comes looking for you. With his military background and advance degree of man hunting, he's neatly qualified to make this game excruciatingly hard.
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~ Chris announced the challenge in "Hide & Be Sneaky".
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Duncan, you're first up. Let's spin the wheel of misfortune to select your torture. Turtle Puck Shots! Our interns spent weeks collecting the grumpiest, angriest, crustiest, hungriest old snapping turtles on the island. While you stand in the goalie net completely unprotected, Chef will fire off turtle slap shot. If I were you, dude, I'd protect my coconuts.
~ Chris reveals the punishment of the loser in "Wawanakwa Gone Wild!"
“
Okay! Let's get this party started! Duncan's dare: Lick Owen's armpit. Gwen, you can perform the dare yourself. Or dare one of your competitors to do it. (laugh) Either way, someone's licking some armpit in the next minute.
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~ Chris to Gwen when landed on Duncan's dare in "I Triple Dog Dare You".
“
Dude, you have two freebies you can use. Better yet, you can dare an opponent like, say... one without a freebie.
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~ Chris tries to manipulate Owen.
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Oooh... You're not gonna like this one. Have your head shaved by Chef.
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~ Chris reveals Lindsay's dare to Heather, sealing her fate in the first season.
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Owen. NO!! Not in the confession can!
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~ Chris when Owen used the confessional bathroom.
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Not so fast, quitter! Thought you could skip out of the game, eh? Thought I wouldn't find you, hmm?
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~ Chris to Duncan after Courtney and Gwen found him in "I See London".
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Chris: My decision is final, Duncan.
Duncan: (mumbles) Chris: Excuse me? Duncan: I didn't say anything. Chris: And you won't say anything else until the Olympics are over. Between now and then, you can either zip it or sing it. That'll begin to make up for the songs you missed while you were in breach of your contract. And if you speak instead of singing, you'll earn a lash from Chef's Olympic towel. Duncan: Ha, ooh, a towel! I'm so scared! Chris: You should be. Exhibit A.
(Chef whips Duncan) Duncan: OW! Chris: Shucks. Really should've sung that "ow", bro.
(Chef whips again) Duncan: (falsetto) OW! Chris: Much better.
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~ Chris punishing Duncan in "Greece's Pieces" for quitting his show in the third season premiere.
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Owen is stuffed with meat. I say he's fit for sausage duty.
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~ Chris accepts Team Chris to use Owen as a sled in "Slap, Slap Revolution".
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Mike: There seems to be some sort of four-legged shark monster down there!
Chris: You mean Fang? (laughs) Yeah, it turns out toxic waste can mess with stuff underwater too. Who knew?
Chris: Those ungrateful puppets JUST CROSSED THE LINE! Remember your nasty challenges, Chef? The ones that got the red light? Yeah, the light just turned GREEN!
Chef Hatchet: I'll bring the pain!
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~ Chris announced to Chef that he will host the challenge after he was flung from Scott's booby trap in "Eat, Puke and Be Wary".
“
Yep, I'm the hurl master around here. You see, Scott, the hurl of shame is both shameful and painful, so I arranged for a friend to share your journey. (Fang appears) (Scott screams) (Fang takes his tooth and reattaches it) It's my way of saying thanks for flinging me into a pit of poo!
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~ Chris' revenge on Scott for flinging him into the toilet.
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MY COTTAGE!!!
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~ Chris when seeing Playa Des Losers destruction in "You Regatta Be Kidding Me".
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Chris: So many pictures of me, gone. All, all gone.
Chef: We'll build you another cottage. Courtney: It was not a cottage!
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~ Chris missing all his pictures of him in his "cottage".
“
Where's all this anger coming from? Was it Season 3, when I kicked you off the plane, made everyone hunt you down, and threw you in a volcano? Huh? Was it last year, when I sealed you inside a minefield of toxic waste? Oh! Was it this season, when I flew you back in just to boot you out again?
„
~ Chris (who is captured and about to be dropped into a vat of toxic waste) to the now-feral Ezekiel.
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Behold, my sad, skinny interns. (An intern groans) I totally forgot to feed them this week. (Mal posing as Mike laughs, then Chris does too) I know. Funny, right?
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~ Chris in "Sundae Muddy Sundae"
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Congratulations on making it to the finale. It's something you'll regret for the rest of your lives, which will likely be rather short, since this final challenge is so vicious, so brutal, so savage, (Zoey gasps) that our lawyer said we had to change it. (Zoey: (sighs) So you made it less, dangerous?) No, but we told them we did. (laughs and turns to Chef) High five. (Chef: People gonna die.) Yeah, those people. (pointing to Zoey and Mal)
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~ Chris in the All-Stars finale "The Final Wreck-ning".
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Zoey: Seriously? Can they breathe in there?
Chris: I don't know. Ask our classic competitor, Owen. He filled them.
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~ Chris to Zoey of the eliminated All-Stars in the finale.
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NOOOOOO! I've had it with the singing and the taming of the animals. Scuba Bear, do your job and EAT THE GIRL!
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~ Chris having a mental breakdown and demanding Ella be eaten by Scuba Bear.
“
I'm glad you're OK. I thought maybe hearing Sky say you had no chance, none, like zero, never gonna happen, would have depressed you. (Dave: Nope.) 'Cause that kind of rejection, can - (Sky: Chris, stop it.) I mean, she was all you cared about! (Sky: Please!) To have her stomp on your heart and toss it in the toilet like that, with all of us here, watching it happen! Wow, gotta hurt!
Chris: You're right. Chef, move us to a safe distance. She's gonna blow. Sky: What? Jasmine: You can't just let us die. Chris: Um, yeah, you all signed a release. One million bucks is a lot of cash.
„
~ Chris showing a total willingness to let Pahkitew Island explode and kill the contestants.
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You are so eliminated! You're even more eliminated than the rest! Even that beatbox guy! This island is total freakshow!
Chris's birthday is November 18th, making him a Scorpio, and his birth year is 1978. This means that his full birth date is November 18th, 1978, which makes him 27 when he started the show, meaning he is currently 42 years old as of the seventh season. He stated prior in Pahkitew Island that he was 30.
It should be noted that in Total Drama Island, Chris wasn't as evil as in later seasons. He was mostly social to the contestants when they first arrived at Camp Wawanakwa in the first episode and showed to care about them, at least a little, in some episodes and even giving recommendations, such as when he felt that Ezekiel would be voted off immediately due his poor social skills. That said, he does become far more sadistic and uncaring since Total Drama World Tour started.
A running gag after Revenge of the Island is that Chris is regularly called by his lawyer warned him not to go too far with the challenges as he's only out of jail under parole. That said, said gag diminishes after All-Stars.
Chris has a name gag of Team Chris is Really, Really, Really, Really Hot.
Team Chris Is Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Hot. Alejandro replied that there are 4 really(s) which Chris ignored him.
Team I Am Really, Really, Really, Really Hot.
Team Chris is Really, Really, Really, Crazy Hot.
Team Chris is Reeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaally Hot.
Team I Am So Hunky, Dory, Dreamy Hot.
Team I Am Super, Duper, Mega, Whooper Hot.
Team I Am So Wicked, Wicked Hot.
Team Me.
Team Super Hot Me.
Team Chris Is Super Hot.
Team I Am Totally Smokin' Hot.
Team Mini Me
Team Perfect Me
Team Me Be Hot.
Chris is contrasted by Don, the host of Total Drama: The Ridonculous Race. Though Don does put the contestants in dangerous challenges and is a bit of a narcissist (but not as much as Chris), there are mass differences between the two:
Don isn't sadistic despite having some moments of mocking the contestants. Chris, on the other hand, is known for his sadism and lack of regard for the contestants' lives.
Don shows more concern for the contestants than Chris, who rarely shows any true compassion in the later seasons.
Don doesn't break his own rules and sticks to the rules he has planned.
Don doesn't tolerate contestants breaking them and punishes them proportionally to their misdeeds. He also only lets things slide when he doesn't have proof that they did cheat or in rare cases, when he considers it not worth his time. Chris does sometimes punish them for breaking them, but only to torment them/in extreme cases.
Chris will overrule eliminated contestants while Don doesn't. Also, unlike Chris, Don will never eliminate contestants for petty reasons, although he isn't beyond expressing his glee when contestants he dislikes does get eliminated.
Don is never seen mistreating his interns while Chris's treatment of his staff is one of the worst things about him.
Ironically, Don's voice actor Terry McGurrin would later replace Christian Potenza for the sixth Total Drama season.
Chris has a physical resemblance to Jeff Probst from Survivor, yet he has the sadistic nature of Joe Rogan from Fear Factor.
Given that Chris is the host of the show, the only character (along with Chef Hatchet) to appear in every season, and more or less the mascot of the series, one could argue that he's a villain protagonist.
If one counts The Ridonculous Race as a Total Drama season (Cartoon Network in the United States referred TDRR as "Season 7"), then Chris is the only Total Drama character to appear in every season.
Two well-known Internet memes from Total Drama have originated from Chris McLean. The first meme is a scene that doesn't actually happen in the show in which Chris says "Alright campers! I heard from an anonymous source, that someone is [whatever the meme mocks]... Not. Cool. Dudes". Another one, best known in Latin America, is the scene from the Total Drama Island episode "Phobia Factor" in which Chris tells Trent that "You're one sick dude!h", translated as "Eres un enfermo, amigo", in regards to pursuing Geoff with a stormy little cloud, with the meme being commonly used to describe situations in which someone says something perceived by the others as sick or gross.
Chris' real full name is confirmed to be Christian McLean in an interview, originally named after Christian Potenza.
The name, "Christian", was meant to serve as an ironic contrast to Chris' sadistic behaviour. It was also meant to serve to the irony of Topher being named as such to finish Chris' name, unaware his real name is Christian, not Christopher.