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1----
2
3[[foldercontrol]]
4
5[[folder: Main Characters]]
6Insofar as a comic like Webcomic/{{xkcd}} can ''have'' main characters, that is...
7
8* TheBlank: None of them have visible faces – although they nonetheless manage to be surprisingly expressive.
9* NoodlePeople: Well, they ''are'' stick figures...
10* OddFriendship: Why do the eccentric-but-decent Megan and “Cueball” still hang around with the downright-psychopathic Black Hat Guy and his girlfriend?
11
12!!“Cueball” AKA Rob
13Probably the most commonly-recurring character of the strip – although it's hard to tell because he's distinguished from the others by his complete ''lack'' of distinguishing features. Randall Munroe's AuthorAvatar. Used as the default character for any strips that don't specifically require someone else.
14----
15* AuthorAvatar: He is by far the character most likely to get Randall Munroe's own opinions put in his mouth.
16* TheEveryman: As a result of being used as the default character for strips that don't require someone remarkable.
17* LovableNerd: He's a physics major and very enthusiastic about science and random trivia, in addition to being something of a NiceGuy and easy enough to get along with that even Black Hat Guy likes him.
18* NoNameGiven: Initially. Later his name was [[http://xkcd.com/782/ suggested]] to be 'Rob'. This was seemingly [[http://xkcd.com/1168/ confirmed]].
19* OfficialCouple: With Megan – even though they are occasionally shown to temporarily be not together.
20* StraightMan: Occasionally acts as this towards Black Hat Guy.
21* TwiceShy: Early on, his self-esteem was so low that he couldn't believe he and Megan could ever become a couple, to the point where a fantasy about the two of them getting together [[https://xkcd.com/429/ ended]] with her concluding that it couldn't ''possibly'' ever happen in real life and must be a fantasy (and, rather than simply accept death [[DreamApocalypse when said fantasy ended]], ''burning down the whole world''). He was unaware that she actually [[https://xkcd.com/642/ felt]] [[https://xkcd.com/817/ the same way]], but was just as shy about the whole thing as he was. They did, however, ultimately overcome it and get together.
22* WalkingTechbane: Whenever bizarre tech issues and general mishandling of computers and their code happen in the comic, he's the one involved.
23
24!!Megan
25Cueball's [=girlfriend/wife/statistically-significant other=]. Distinguished by her shoulder-length dark hair. Used whenever a female or more sensible character is required, or as a sort of {{Foil}} to Cueball.
26----
27* ADayInTheLimelight: The “[[https://xkcd.com/264/ Choices]]” story arc.
28* AmbiguouslyBi: She's in a relationship with Cueball, but she's also apparently made out with [[ScrewYourself a parallel version of herself]], and seemed rather... enthused by her own idea for porn of women playing electric guitar in the shower.
29* DistaffCounterpart: Serves as one to Cueball in many ways, but she is eventually shown to have a few different personality traits.
30* [[TheEveryman The Everygirl]]: Essentially a female version of Cueball, so she ends up coming across as this.
31%%* ManicPixieDreamGirl
32* NerdsAreSexy: Or at least, 'Nerds Are Found Sexy By Other Nerds'.
33* OfficialCouple: With Cueball. 'Megan' is also the name of Randall Munroe's RealLife LoveInterest.
34* [[OnlySaneMan Only Sane Woman]]: Easily the most well-balanced of the recurring cast. See [[http://xkcd.com/1014/ here]] for a perfect demonstration.
35* [[StraightMan Straight Woman]]: Often plays this role to Cueball.
36* WomenAreWiser: Despite her own nerdy eccentricities, she seems to be more down-to-Earth than Cueball, and she's ''definitely'' saner than Black Hat Guy or the Beret Existentialist.
37
38!!“Black Hat Guy”
39Cueball's friend (and possibly onetime flatmate, since several early strips seem to show them living together). Distinguished by his unique, black, boater-like hat. Turns up whenever a joke requires someone to do something evil (or very very ChaoticNeutral).
40----
41* AffablyEvil: He's quite nice to those he considers friends... and merciless to everyone else.
42* BetaCouple: With his girlfriend.
43* CardCarryingJerkass: Self-identifies as a “classhole” – an asshole with class.
44* ComedicSociopathy: His sense of humour ''runs'' on this.
45* CynicismCatalyst: [[NoodleIncident Whatever happened]] in [[http://xkcd.com/792/ March of 1997]], it caused him to, by his own admission, "not believe in much of anything anymore."
46* ADayInTheLimelight: The “Secretary” arc.
47* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: His relationship with his girlfriend (and possibly with Cueball and Megan).
48** He does seem to be more benevolent towards Cueball than to the average person. [[http://xkcd.com/1455/ He would even promise]] to pull a lever to save Cueball's life – for only a dollar...
49* EvenEvilHasStandards: The 'classhole' thing. Also, he has shown hatred for people who [[http://xkcd.com/169/ communicate badly on purpose]], [[http://xkcd.com/322/ belittle women]], [[http://xkcd.com/562/ park across two spaces]] or [[http://xkcd.com/496/ expect him to quarter troops in his house]].
50* ForTheEvulz: He usually gets nothing out of his exploits except a bizarre sense of gratification at making the world a more 'interesting' place.
51* HumanoidAbomination: See the RealityWarper section. Also, one What If? entry has him encouraging people to drop a mountain from so high it causes utter devastation. The AltText indicates that not only did he survive, he's immortal.
52-->'''Black Hat Guy:''' [[https://xkcd.com/2174/ My first memory]] is when we landed on the moon. My second memory is my Mom telling us we were moving to Earth instead, to blend in with the humans.
53* JerkAss: He's a self-described "[[EvenEvilHasStandards classhole]]".
54* LaughablyEvil: He'll recklessly endanger lives and manipulate people's emotions, but it's always in the service of comedy.
55* MasochismTango: The relation between him and Danish started with her seeing through one of his manipulative schemes and [[https://xkcd.com/377/ replying]] with a HannibalLecture and stealing his hat. He gets it back, but explicitly admits [[https://xkcd.com/433/ at the end of the arc]] that they genuinely understand each other.
56* NoNameGiven: His real name is never revealed. Even ''Randall'' just calls him “Hat Guy”. He even jokes about it at the end of the “Secretary” arc – no-one can take legal action against him because no-one knows his name.
57* NumberOneDime: He ''likes'' his hat.
58* PersonWithTheClothing: He is identified by his black hat.
59* PetTheDog: He was once caught speaking all lovey-dovey to his girlfriend – although he did immediately murder the guy who caught him. His version of white knighting in [[http://xkcd.com/322/ this strip]] is also strangely cute. And he has a journal filled with things he'd say to girls “if he was nice like [Cueball]”.
60** Though the AltText of that comic says that he burns it when it gets filled up. When asked why, he says [[ForTheEvulz "How can I not? It's like shooting lonely, angsty fish in a barrel]]."
61* RealityWarper: As seen in [[http://xkcd.com/1094 this strip.]]
62** [[http://xkcd.com/412/ What?]]
63* RefugeInAudacity: Among others, he once turned a United States Senate chamber into a ball pit. While the senators were in it, having ''sentenced him to death'' in a hearing to be Internet Secretary after reading just part of his ListOfTransgressions. [[ItMakesSenseInContext And proceeded to steal Tron Paul's light cycle and escape on Cory Doctorow's hot air balloon.]]
64* SickeninglySweethearts: With his girlfriend (but [[http://xkcd.com/515/ no one must know]]).
65* SlapSlapKiss: He met his girlfriend when he tried to destroy her self-confidence and she retaliated by stealing his hat. He got his hat back by [[DisproportionateRetribution almost-hitting her with a nuclear submarine]]. She placed mines on her driveway before he arrived at her house. [[OutGambitted He moved them to her garage before she blew them up]]. ''Then'' they got together.
66* TheVietnamVet: [[https://xkcd.com/206/ Apparently]], he took part in [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Lai_Massacre the My Lai Massacre]].
67* TokenEvilTeammate: Especially before his girlfriend turned up. His role in the comic is that, if ever a joke requires someone to be comically villainous, he is the one they go with.
68* UnholyMatrimony: [[http://xkcd.com/432/ With]] [[http://xkcd.com/433/ his girlfriend.]]
69
70!!"Beret Guy"
71A possibly-insane philosopher whose connection to the others is unclear. Distinguished by his white beret. Turns up whenever a {{Cloudcuckoolander}} is required.
72----
73* TheAntiNihilist: [[https://xkcd.com/167/ His philosophy]], apparently.
74* BewareTheNiceOnes[=/=]BewareTheSillyOnes: [[http://xkcd.com/677/ Holy crap.]]
75* BlitheSpirit: His CloudCuckooLander worldview seems to be somewhat infectious. Possibly due to his RealityWarper tendencies.
76* ContemplateOurNavels: He likes philosophy, although he's unusually energetic about it.
77* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: [[http://www.xkcd.com/1115/ It's contagious, too.]]
78** He also does things occasionally incomprehensible to other people. For example, when Ponytail broke up with him, he spent the ''entire night'' painting a key on the side of her car, and woke her up to ask her what she thought, beaming with pride.
79-->'''Cueball:''' I... is he playing revenge mind games?
80-->'''Ponytail:''' I genuinely can't tell if he remembers that we broke up.
81** [[AltText He then proceeded to do the same thing to]] Music/CarrieUnderwood [[AltText and mail Ponytail a scone.]]
82* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: Insult him once, he'll take your criticism on board and change his habits. Insult him a second time, he'll ''smack you with an excavator''.
83* EldritchLocation: [[https://www.xkcd.com/1293/ His]] [[https://www.xkcd.com/1812/ business]].
84* TheFool: He is apparently quite successful as a businessman despite being completely out of touch with reality.
85* HumanoidAbomination: Just reread the other tropes listed here. He's an immortal reality-warper with infinitely long concealed wings and a thoroughly alien mindset, who happens to look like a normal dude with a beret.
86* {{Immortality}}: Going by the AltText of [[http://xkcd.com/1493/ this strip.]]
87* {{Keet}}: He's very energetic and literally enthusiastic about everything, whether he can understand it or not.
88* LiteralMinded: Often how his {{Cloudcuckoolander}} tendencies manifest (ie. "keying" Ponytail's car [[http://xkcd.com/1030/ by painting a very detailed key on the side of it]]).
89* MissingMom: “Pull harder, Mom. [[http://xkcd.com/502/ I miss you.]]”
90* MontyHallProblem: [[https://xkcd.com/1282/ He happily took the goat]], confusing Monty.
91* NiceGuy: He's almost always the most optimistic and friendly person in the strip, if a bit off his rocker.
92* NoNameGiven: He's never named in the strip.
93* PersonWithTheClothing: Despite having NoNameGiven, everyone seems to have settled on calling him some variant on "Beret Guy" or "Beret Existentialist". Cueball just calls him "that weird guy with the beret".
94* RealityWarper: Several examples.
95** His hat always stays on his head, [[http://xkcd.com/291/ regardless of gravity]]. (Well, that or he can staple things to his hair, as implied by the AltText.)
96** Apparently, he has [[http://xkcd.com/1099/ infinite wings]].
97** He can inflate a laptop [[http://xkcd.com/1395/ by blowing into the power cord]].
98** He's somehow a businessman, despite the fact that [[http://xkcd.com/1032/ his cards just say "This is my business card"]], [[https://www.xkcd.com/1493/ his customers don't seem to exist]], and [[https://www.xkcd.com/1772/ his company literally doesn't do anything]].
99* TheBartender: Appears to have been his job early on in the strip, as he has been observed ObsessiveCompulsiveBarkeeping on several occasions. That said, he has a far less common philosophy than other barkeepers.
100* ThePhilosopher: If a strip requires someone to wax philosophical, it will generally use the Beret Guy for that role.
101* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Scones.
102* WingedHumanoid: They're ''infinite'' wings, too. But he usually keeps them hidden for whatever reason.
103
104!!Black Hat Guy's Girlfriend / “Danish”
105The second newest addition to the recurring cast, since she entered a relationship with Black Hat Guy. Distinguished by her long, wavey, dark hair. Essentially a female Black Hat Guy.
106----
107* BetaCouple: With Black Hat Guy.
108* BullyingADragon: She tends to be the dragon. It's possible that she intentionally tries to make herself look vulnerable so as to attract assholes whom she can beat at their own game.
109** In fact it's how [[http://xkcd.com/377/ she and Black Hat Guy met]]
110* DarkMistress: To Black Hat Guy. Their courtship mostly involved exchanging clever cruelties, and now that they're together they focus their cruelties on everyone else.
111* DistaffCounterpart: Functionally a female version of Black Hat Guy.
112* ForTheEvulz: Like her paramour, she never really seems to gain anything from her actions other than a sense of satisfaction at having beaten people.
113* MasochismTango: The relation between her and Black Hat Guy started with her seeing through one of his manipulative schemes and [[https://xkcd.com/377/ replying]] with a HannibalLecture and stealing his hat. He gets it back, but explicitly admits [[https://xkcd.com/433/ at the end of the arc]] that they genuinely understand each other.
114* SlapSlapKiss: How she met Black Hat Guy.
115* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: She ''[[http://xkcd.com/1027/ excels]]'' at this.
116* UnholyMatrimony: With Black Hat Guy.
117
118!!White Hat Guy
119The newest addition to the recurring cast, a figure occasionally seen talking with Cueball. Distinguished by his hat, which resembles that of Black Hat Guy but is white instead of black. Seems well-meaning but pretentious.
120----
121* {{Foil}}: In most strips he appears in, he pretty-much serves as someone Cueball can argue with so as to get across a point Randall wants to make.
122* KnowNothingKnowItAll: In one strip he's persuaded to look up what he's saying (that normal matter contains anti-quarks) on his phone, and immediately convinces himself that he hadn't been saying that at all, his ''actual'' point was...
123* OnlySaneMan: When he isn't being a strawman he's being this.
124* PersonWithTheClothing: Again, he's known primarily by his hat because he doesn't have a canon name.
125* {{Socialite}}: He has strong views on wine, art and culture, he has expensive tastes, and he spends all his time wandering around having high-minded conversation with no indication that he's ever had an actual job.
126* StrawCharacter: His usual role in the strip is to make logical fallacies to help advance Randall's point.
127* WineIsClassy: Doesn't understand how Cueball can drink cheap wine.
128
129!!Blonde Girl/"Ponytail"
130A recurring character. Used sometimes as a RecurringExtra, or a female companion to Megan. Is sometimes implied as Rob's ex.
131----
132%%* [[TheEveryman The Everywoman]]
133%%* OddFriendship: With Megan
134* LoveTriangle: She has one with Rob and Megan in a few strips.
135%%* PsychoExGirlfriend: Is sometimes this to Rob
136* [[TheSmartGuy The Smart Girl]]: Usually either she or a character who looks very much like her can be seen working on science projects, or even as Megan's doctor.
137%%* VitriolicBestBuds
138[[/folder]]
139
140[[folder: Other Recurring Characters]]
141!!The Boy in the Barrel
142The very first character xkcd featured. A young boy inexplicably floating around in a barrel.
143----
144* ArtShift: It was only after the Boy in the Barrel's debut that the art shifted from 'semi-realistic' to 'stick-figures', making him the only non-stick-figure recurring human.
145* TheBusCameBack: [[spoiler:No really. In "Click & Drag" he's drawn as a bald stick figure like everyone else, but he's there, go as far right as you possibly can before you get to the flat blackness. He has a balloon now.]]
146* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: Seriously, what is his personal arc even ''about''?
147* MissingMom: “None of the places I floated had mommies”.
148* {{Robinsonade}}: He somehow survives drifting through the sea in a barrel on his own.
149
150!!The Flying Ferret
151A ferret with tailor-made wings.
152----
153* BigDamnHeroes: Turns up just in time to save the Boy in the Barrel.
154* StationaryWings: But he can somehow fly anyway.
155* WeaselMascot: Presumably was one to the guy who built his wings.
156
157!!Armchair Nihilist
158An occasionally-recurring character who turns up when the joke calls for some straw existential nihilism. Resembles Megan, but is distinguishable from her by both her personality and the fact she almost never leaves her chair.
159----
160* ContemplateOurNavels: She spends all her time in a chair, musing about how dark and depressing the world is.
161* {{Foil}}: She's basically a perfect inversion of the Beret Existentialist, and [[http://what-if.xkcd.com/6/ one What If?]] contrasts them against each other as 'the optimist' and 'the pessimist'.
162* TheEeyore: Just as we've never seen the Beret Existentialist sad, we've never seen this woman happy.
163* NewJobEpisode: When she eventually leaves the chair, she becomes a [[http://xkcd.com/1111/ reporter]]. Turns out she's not very well suited to it.
164* StealthPun: She's an ''armchair philosopher''.
165%%* StrawCharacter
166* StrawNihilist: Her sole function in the strip is to be a comedic exaggeration of the more depressive brand of nihilism.
167
168!!Creator/CoryDoctorow
169A fictionalised version of the real person, who lives in a hot air balloon in the blogosphere. Distinguished by his red cape and black goggles.
170----
171* BadassCape: The main way he's distinguished from everyone else in the strip's art style is his cape. It's even in colour!
172* BigDamnHeroes: Rescued Black Hat Guy at the end of the “Secretary” arc.
173** And he joined forces with Richard Stallman to rescue [[ItMakesSenseInContext Elaine Roberts from two thugs from the MPAA and RIAA in the 1337 arc.]]
174* TheCameo: An actual real celebrity who briefly turns up in one or two stories.
175* CoolAirship: His hot-air balloon has a ''retractable gun turret''.
176%%* InformationWantsToBeFree: His motivation, presumably.
177
178!!Richard Stallman
179Again, a fictional version of the real person. He lives in fear of Microsoft sending their lackeys to do him in. Distinguished by his long hair and beard, and the fact that he wields two katanas.
180----
181* BigDamnHeroes: He rescued Elaine Roberts at the end of the 1337 arc.
182%%* TheCameo
183* InformationWantsToBeFree: The reason he and Doctrow were following the two thugs chasing the Roberts'.
184
185!!The Stargazer
186A woman who teaches a ... peculiar ... guide to the night sky. May or may not actually be an astronomer. Resembles Megan and the Armchair Nihilist, but is ''far'' too enthusiastic to be the latter, and probably too weird to be the former.
187----
188* BunnyEarsLawyer: Most of what she actually says ''about'' the stars is right, minus her personal opinions. At the same time, she thought her career was over when dawn broke, because the stars were ''gone''.
189* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: To almost the same degree as Beret Guy, but specifically for weird opinions about astronomy.
190* EnmityWithAnObject: Says Betelgeuse can't explode fast enough for her, and yells at comets in the hope they'll go away.
191* PhonyDegree: In "[[https://xkcd.com/1644/ Stargazing]]" she says she's "a doctor or whatever". The AltText to "[[https://xkcd.com/2017/ Stargazing 2]]" reveals that when the FAA came to shut down the observatory, she ''stole'' a bunch of doctorates in the confusion.
192* TheWorldIsJustAwesome: "''Holy shit, did you see that meteor?!?'' Space is ''awesome''!"
193[[/folder]]
194

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