The Butcher (WordGirl)

The Butcher is a major antagonist in the PBS Kids TV series, WordGirl.

He is a meat-based supervillain who uses his meat powers to commit crimes, mainly in the form of theft. He is also known for frequently butchering his words, as his name implies. As a bonus, he is Kid Potato's son, Dupey's former love interest, and the Masked Meat Marauder's rival.

The Butcher is voiced by the former series head writer and co-developer, Jack D. Ferraiolo.

Biography[]

The Butcher is a supervillain who dresses like any normal butcher would. However, he's been shown to butcher words (much to WordGirl's chagrin). However, he has tried to improve in his mispronunciation of the English language, and, so far, only reached enunciation. When learning that there was more to the English language, he seemed to give up on improving on his speaking altogether.

One thing that separates him from other villains like Tobey or Dr. Two-Brains is that he has genuine super powers and as such can face WordGirl head on without a plan. Because of this, he is generally a lot less intelligent than most of the other villains, though this doesn't make him stupid as when he realizes his plan can't rely on blunt force alone, he exposes a more cunning side of him. While not as bad as Seymour Orlando Smooth or Mr. Big he can be a bit of a con man, tricking art lovers into thinking his cheap recreations that were made of meat were the real deal and distracting bank security with a BBQ while he robbed them blind.

His gimmick is meat-related crimes, and his main power is releasing meat attacks. At first, he had proven himself to be so powerful, that WordGirl had difficulty handling this foe. Because of this, she sought her ally, Professor Steven Boxleitner's aid.

Personality[]

Despite being labeled a vicious villain in his debut, The Butcher has shown that he's not a monster, and can be downright charitable and a fairly nice guy. WordGirl is always trying to help him with his vocabulary, which he seems to genuinely appreciate. He also seems to have no personal disdain for WordGirl and acts rather friendly towards her when not committing a crime, even going as far as to talk about problems he's having in his live with her as he admitted he considers her a good listener. WordGirl herself also doesn't have too much of an issue opening up to the Butcher as he usually tries his best to understand and give advice to, and he can do it on occasion relate to her problems. In his own words, he's a sensitive guy.

He also seems to genuinely love his cat, Little Mittens, and is very attentive to her needs and blesses her with little kisses every now and then. He also fell head over heels for Lady Redundant Woman's clone, Dupey, and was heartbroken when she said that she couldn't be with him, due to being a vegetarian. As a bonus, the Butcher loves his father dearly as well, even if he can be a little tough on him at times.

That being said, The Butcher is a brutish criminal and at the end of the day wants to steal as much money as he possibly can. He is brash and often tries his best to beat WordGirl and any enforcer of the law, and when robbing the bank has no problem insulting/attacking anyone who make fun of his poor language.

During one of his robberies, he locked his hostages in a bank vault. However, he admitted that he wasn't going to harm them, and that only put them there, so that they wouldn't get in the way of his heist. He also had no issue with kidnapping Reginald when he made it clear that he could be a useful aspect in his crime spree. Despite this, he did make sure to feed him. And at the end of the episode, Reginald asked The Butcher to kidnap him again, much to the latter's shock.

The Butcher has shown that he can be pretty childish at times, such as blowing raspberries at people who insult him, clapping his hands when he's happy and/or excited like a toddler, believing simple magic tricks to be real magic and throwing a fit when he got a hair cut that he disliked. That being said, when he's not out for money, his motivation for crime is petty revenge. He did this getting a bad haircut, or feeling like he should've been paid more for a gig that he did.

It's shown that his father (Kid Potato) was a villain, and that his father tried his best to raise The Butcher to be a villain himself. However, his father thinks that he failed at this angle, and he constantly tells The Butcher that he's a lousy villain, which is something that the Butcher takes very personally. This is what mainly motivates the Butcher, to follow in his father's footsteps and to become like his childhood hero. This and the fact that civilian life seems boring are the reasons why the Butcher is a criminal.

Powers and Abilities[]

Meat Powers: The Butcher can shoot an unlimited amounts of meat from his hands, strong enough to hold down the likes of WordGirl (whose power is on par with that of Superman). However, he sometimes loses his meat powers when he's exposed to tofu, or when he runs out of meat to shoot.
The Beef Jerky And Bacon Earrings Of Supreme Power: When The Butcher wears the Beef Jerky and Bacon Earrings Of Supreme Power, he starts to float in the air, and he has the ability to summon meat that he never had before. This was only shown in the episode, "Jerky Jerk".

Gallery[]

Trivia[]

The Butcher's powers (and criminal ideology) were inherited from his father, Kid Potato.
In the episode, "Ch-ch-ch-change Day", it's revealed that the Butcher doesn't believe in gambling.
Tofu is the Butcher's biggest weakness. Anytime he comes into contact with it, it cancels out his abilities to summon meat.
- Despite this, WordGirl has only used tofu against the Butcher twice. The first time was in the episode, "High Fat Robbery". The second time was in the episode, "The Meaty Dimension". However, the latter episode reveals that WordGirl forgets that tofu is the Butcher's weakness.
The Butcher considers Captain Huggy Face (WordGirl's sidekick) to be less of a threat to him than WordGirl. In the episode, "Super-Grounded", he got upset when she sent Huggy to fight him instead of WordGirl arriving to fight him herself, despite the fact that Captain Huggy Face was the key to his downfall in his debut. Without Huggy, WordGirl can't handle The Butcher nearly as well. This was shown in the episode, "The Meaty Dimension". In fact, "The Meaty Dimension" episode revealed that Huggy was capable of eating all of the meat in the Meaty Dimension (where the Butcher summons his meat from), which is something that WordGirl could never do.
In the episode, "Jerky Jerk", the Beef Jerky of Supreme Power gives the Butcher the ability to summon kielbasa. But in later episodes, the Butcher uses kielbasa as one of his main meat attacks. Because of this, it's unknown how he managed to summon kielbasa without wearing the Beef Jerky of Supreme Power. However, it's possible that he started to summon kielbasa at some point.
The Butcher is known for mispronouncing words. However, some of his mispronunciations are actual words. In "Jerky Jerk", he said "Sunbeam" instead of "Supreme". In "The Meaty Dimension", he said "Overpowdered" instead of "Overpowered". In "Granny's Book Club", he said "Respire" instead of "Retire".
"High-Fat Robbery", "The Meaty Dimension", and "Meat-Life Crisis" are the only episodes where the Butcher loses the ability to summon meat. In "High-Fat Robbery", he can't summon meat after getting covered in tofu. In "The Meaty Dimension", he runs out of meat after Huggy eats all of the meat from the titular dimension, and when Violet uses tofu to trap him. In "Meat-Life Crisis", he loses the ability to summon meat during his fight with WordGirl. As a bonus, the latter episode is the only one that doesn't involve tofu.
The Butcher, Kid Potato, Dr. Two-Brains, and Chuck the Evil Sandwich-Making Guy are the only villains that are food-based.
When the Butcher summons hamburger meat, he uses two different meat attacks: Hamburger Hammer and Hamburger Hurricane.
In some episodes, the Butcher uses two different types of pastrami.
In part 2 of "A World Without WordGirl", it's revealed that the Butcher would become a police officer if WordGirl didn't exist.
The Butcher is considered one of Fair City's most feared villains, and he's second to the main antagonist of the franchise, Dr. Two-Brains.
- Despite this, Dr. Two-Brains was overjoyed at the potential of committing a crime alongside The Butcher, even thought the Butcher being underneath him on the criminal radar, he considered him a huge deal.
He finds vegetarians disgusting. Every time he's informed on what they are (he's forgotten three different times), he displays mass amounts of disgust.
- Ironically enough, his former love interest, Dupey, was a vegetarian. She considered this to be one of the reasons why she couldn't be with him.
Despite his powers being inherited, and even his father claiming that his abilities are unique to only him, the Masked Meat Marauder (the Butcher's temporary criminal rival) is shown to have identical abilities to that of the Butcher.
The Butcher's shoe size is twelve, as revealed in the episode, "Meat With a Side of Cute".

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