Courage the Cowardly Dog
Courage the Cowardly Dog


Eustace⁥ Bagge is the anti-heroic tritagonist of the series Courage the Cowardly Dog.

He is a farmer who lives in the middle of Nowhere, Kansas with his wife Muriel Bagge and her dog Courage. He is usually antagonistic to Courage, but has frequently had to ally with or be rescued by Courage, occasionally showing him respect as a result.

Appearance[]

List of Eustace Appearance

Eustace⁥ wears round glasses and a pale yellow shirt with olive green overalls with black buttons. He also has a dark brown hat and large black shoes. In the dark, his shirt appears to be orange and his overalls dark green.

Under his hat he is bald. Eustace⁥ does not appear to have any teeth.

Whenever he is seen without a shirt on a surgical scar on his right side of his stomach can be seen.

Personality[]

Eustace⁥ is a very cynical and jaded old man who is usually irritated and frustrated by the world around him. He is also money-obsessed and has an unquenchable thirst for monetary gain. In almost every episode, he is seen sitting in his favorite red chair while reading a copy of the Nowhere News and possibly watching his television, which he deems precious to him. He has an adamant disliking for Courage and frequently calls him "stupid dog", taking great pleasure in tormenting him whenever possible, which largely stems out of jealousy that Muriel constantly pampers and dotes on Courage. It is very common for Eustace⁥ to scare or mess with Courage, whether it's to make Courage leave Eustace alone, or just for the fun of it. In some episodes, it is also possible that Eustace⁥ himself also has a jealousy of Courage's superior intellect and talents compared to his.

Eustace's lack of talent, education and good looks fuel ⁥his demeanor that he's been a wreck since his childhood. Throughout his life, he lived under the shadow of his mean spirited and far more successful brother Horst, was hated by his mother and neglected by his father. This caused Eustace to develop a very negative attitude in life, with him holding a resentful and callous attitude towards the world and those around him. He is in constant denial over his lack of abilities, talent, charisma and knowledge, and believes he can fix anything, which massively backfires whenever he does attempt to "fix" something. His self-labelling as a farmer may also be proven false, as he has failed to grow anything around the Bagge farmhouse, (even as far as weeds, as mentioned in The Magic Tree of Nowhere). Despite this, he claims to have a "green thumb" and blames the lack of crops on the soil around the farm being bad, but according to the Spirit of the Harvest Moon, it stems from ⁥Eustace not respecting his land in the slightest. ⁥

Eustace is exceedingly greedy and will seize any opportunity to be paid, no matter how illegal, risky, or life-threatening the act may be. He often resorts to being cheap as well, possibly due to his lack of clean money.

Courage's arrival was an unwelcome addition to his life, as it often distracts his wife Muriel from doting on him and paying her full attention towards his various needs and wants, which often relate to food and being fed. ⁥Eustace has at times shown a genuine love towards Muriel (though not unbending in the least), and has also allied with Courage on a few occasions to protect her. He is immune to emotions but has a soft spot for children that remind him of himself. His frequent scaring of Courage may also be a disguise to cover up his own cowardice, which is quick to be displayed in a scary situation, with him often displaying much more cowardice than Courage himself. His favorite musician is Velvet Vick, and his interests include watching television, fishing, reading his newspaper and working on his truck.

His recklessness and obliviousness often gets the better of him in a variety of episodes, whether it's him dying bizarre or brutal deaths, encountering tragic fates or being served karma for his actions.

History[]

Eustace

⁥Eustace⁥ as a child

Eustace was raised in a small household with his deceased father Ickett Bagge (whom he bares a great resemblance to), mother, and his deceased older brother Horst. He was often neglected and abused by his mother, who would refer to him as "stupid boy" and make fun of him because he was bald. His older brother would also abuse and belittle him, for example referring to him as "Useless" instead of Eustace.

During his adulthood, he married a woman named Muriel. One day, Muriel was walking with Eustace⁥ and they found a puppy named Courage. Muriel felt bad for him, finding him abandoned in a dirty alleyway after the disappearance of his parents to outer space, and subsequently adopted him much to Eustace's dismay.

Sightings[]

Episodes[]

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Other[]

Trivia[]

  • The name "Eustace ⁥Bagge" is possibly a minced oath for "useless bag".
  • ⁥Eustace⁥ is one of seven characters (the others being Courage, Muriel, Shirley, Dr. Vindaloo, the Computer, and Katz) to appear in every season.
  • ⁥Eustace⁥ appears in almost every episode of the series except for "Cajun Granny Stew".
  • ⁥Eustace⁥ is only seen without his glasses in "The Chicken from Outer Space", "The Curse of Shirley", and "Le Quack Balloon". But most of the time, he never takes them off even when sleeping or taking a bath, like Muriel.
  • ⁥Eustace⁥ has an old farm truck loosely based on a late 1920s Ford Model AA. He considers it his prized possession and the only thing he may truly, unconditionally care about.
  • Originally, Eustace was going to scare Courage with a shotgun, but this was later changed to a mask due to network censors.
  • Although ⁥Eustace⁥ is referred to as "the farmer" by many people in the show (Courage himself never calls him by his actual name, with a couple of exceptions being one scene in "The Gods Must Be Goosey" and "The Great Fusilli"), he is never shown performing any actual farm work, further displaying his lack of skill in agriculture.
    • This is even more ironic when considering that his own name "Eustace" means "fruitful" (deriving from Greek).
  • Surprisingly, ⁥Eustace⁥ actually called Courage by his name instead of the usual "stupid dog" in "The Hunchback of Nowhere", "Ball of Revenge", and the Cartoon Network 20th Anniversary Party bumper.
    Season 2 Ep 2 - Eyes

    Eustace⁥'s eyes

  • Despite ⁥Eustace's mistreatment of him, Courage was shown to be worried about ⁥Eustace⁥ in "The Mask", when he thought that Kitty was planning to eat Muriel and ⁥Eustace⁥.
  • Eustace's personality was said to be based on John R. Dilworth's early incorrigible attitude. However this was deconfirmed by Dilworth himself but he jokingly said he can easily grow into being Eustace.[1]
  • It's revealed in "Bad Hair Day" that the reason Eustace refers to Courage as "stupid dog" is because his mother has always referred to him him as "stupid boy".
  • Although ⁥Eustace⁥ is bald in old age and was the same way since childhood, he had a small amount of brown hair in his younger adulthood, briefly seen in a flashback in "Farmer-Hunter, Farmer-Hunted".
  • ⁥Eustace⁥ was unvoiced in the pilot episode "The Chicken from Outer Space", and was voiced in the first 33 episodes by Lionel Wilson. Wilson retired due to illness during the show's production, with the role being picked up by Arthur Anderson afterwards up to the show's end. Anderson was replaced by Wallace Shawn for the CG pilot "The Fog of Courage".
    • During Anderson's time in the role, many of ⁥Eustace⁥'s catchphrases that were originally voiced by Wilson were reused as stock audio. Such phrases include "Stupid Dog!" , "What's, huh?", and his laughs.
  • He and Mr. Nasty have the same model.
  • He is also named Pooh-bah by Professor Frith and Uncle Twinkletoes by Basil in "Courage Meets the Mummy" and "Family Business".
  • A running theme throughout the series (more so in earlier episodes), is that every time ⁥Eustace⁥ scares Courage, Muriel hits him on the head with something such as a rolling pin, frying pan, or whatever happens to be nearby, such as her purse. After getting hit on the head, Eustace⁥ would ask," Ow! What'd I do?"
  • As evidenced in "The Curse of Shirley", ⁥Eustace⁥ appears to despise his birthday, possibly because it only serves as a reminder of his miserable life due to his family's mistreatment of him.
  • Usually when a villain calls Courage "Stupid dog", he will remark happily, "That's what I tell him all the time! You stupid dog! You stupid dog!"
  • ⁥Eustace⁥ saying "OOGA BOOGA BOOGA!" when he scares Courage with his mask is likely based on Eddie Valiant saying "OOGA BOOGA!" to the gorilla in the movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
  • A recurring idea in the series is the fact that ⁥Eustace⁥ is always enticed by a villain's offer of a large sum of money which drives him to carry out their intentions. This is more so evident in episodes like "Everyone wants to Direct", "Shirley the Medium", and more.
Ooga

⁥Eustace angrily scaring Courage with his "Ooga-Booga" mask

Quotes[]

  • "Stupid Dog You made me look bad!”
  • "Get away from me!"
  • "OOGA BOOGA BOOGA!"
  • "Where's my dinner?"
  • "Where's my lunch?"
  • "Big deal..."
  • "Nope..."
  • "Blah, blah, blah..."
  • "Ow! What did I do?!"
  • "Eh?"
  • "What's huh?"
  • "Who the heck are you?"
  • "What's yer offer?"
  • "We don't want any!!"
  • "Works for me!"
  • "I told you I didn’t wanna go."
  • "Kaboom!"
  • "Grr!"
  • "Get off my property!!"
  • "No solicitors!"
  • "Lousy telemarketers!"
  • "Where's my chair?!"
  • "No, sir! Not gettin' out of this chair!"
  • "What about me food?!
  • "Muriel, I'm hungry!"
  • "No dinner, no nothing!"
  • "Mr. Nasty, where are you going? You're my meal ticket!"
  • "This looks like a crummy place to end a crummy vacation."
  • "That's it! I'm gettin' me mallet!"
  • "Can't bop a mouse without me mallet!"
  • "Hey, that's mine!"
  • "So Happy Birthday to nobody!"
  • "Ain't no such thing as curses! And there ain't going to be no parties either!"
  • "Make me!"
  • "I'm rich! And finally rich!"
  • "Go away!"
  • "What a waste of good wood!"
  • "What are you doing sittin' at the table?!"
  • "I'm not useless, I'm ⁥Eustace⁥!"
  • "I'm a deer! Useless the Deer! Ha! La la la la la..."

Gallery[]

The image gallery for ⁥Eustace Bagge can be found here.