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Teaching Staff
Jack Griffin
Played by Glenn Howerton
The Main Character, Jack is a former Harvard Professor who was thrown out of academia for unknown reasons. He "is" an AP Biology teacher who doesn't care for biology and wants to be reinstated at Harvard as a philosopher.
- Apathetic Teacher: He does not care at all for the future of his students.
- Apple for Teacher: He constantly is holding an apple, but throws them all away after only one bite.
- Attention Whore: He gets mad whenever he's not the center of attention, especially among young attractive women.
- Brilliant, but Lazy: He actually does know biology, but won't teach it. Matter of fact, he's very much a genius who's nearly impossible to deceive.
- The Bully: To his students. He makes them throw out their biology textbooks, insults them on a daily basis and forces them to work hard to make him rich and popular with women. He at least once an episode threatens to give his students F's if they don't do as he says. Ironically, he does not accept bullying towards his own students, even if he does it himself all the time.
- Casanova Wannabe: Wants to in his own words "bang as many women" as he can find in California.
- Catchphrase:
- "Alright everybody, start to shut up!" or "Finish shutting up!"
- "If you (___________), you get an F!" (the blank often means if said student(s) do not do as he says).
- "_________, or you get an F!"
- Child Hater: He's not fond of children and teenagers. Just because he never teaches his students anything useful doesn't stop him from calling them stupid and ignorant.
- Comedic Sociopathy: It’s rare when Jack cares about the consequences of his actions. From tossing items in the general direction of the garbage can and not even looking to see if they go in, to destroying a school sign, to refusing to teach his students and forcing them into his petty, often borderline illegal schemes, to manipulating Principal Durbin to actively trying to hurt his academic rival. As long as he thinks he can get away with something, he won’t think twice about doing it.
- Control Freak: Being a Lazy Bum, he forces his students to build up his future and career instead of doing it himself.
- Determinator: Jack refuses to ever teach his students any AP Biology despite the fact that A) he's an expert on the subject and can profess it with relative ease and B) his students are always rebelling and trying to get him fired as retaliation for forcing them to skip learning biology and do ridiculous tasks about helping him gain a much better job as a philosopher and to score with women. He will go through any means to avoid teaching them any biology no matter how badly he suffers doing so.
- Evil Genius: Whenever his students lie or try to get rid of him, Jack will always find out.
- Expy:He’s a smarter, much less predatory and more empathetic version of Howerton’s Always Sunny character Dennis Reynolds.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Towards Miles Leonard for becoming the head of Philosophy at Stanford, a position that Jack feels should have went to him.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Jack setting up Miles through catfish with his students in the pilot episode is the one revenge mission to ruin Miles' career that succeeded so well not only did Stanford fire Miles, but even Jack can't replace Miles as head of Philosophy in Stanford because Miles recommended him.
- Humiliation Conga: Despite managing to never get caught mishandling his teaching duties and corrupting his students, Jack’s schemes rarely succeed, both where his attempts with women are concerned, but even more so, his attempts to break Miles, which usually backfire so completely that he finds himself in the position he wished to place Miles.
- It's All About Me: He's incredibly shallow and selfish.
- Jerkass: He is very anti-social, petty and vindictive egotist that treats his own students like toilet paper, routinely yells at them to shut up, not write down what he says and bullies/insults them for petty reasons like not making progress in helping launch him into a rich, high-profile philosopher who is popular with women.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: However, as the series progresses Jack proves to be this. In spite of his petty, anti-social tendencies, Jack will typically do the right thing in the end. He also comes to care about his students, with the possible exception of Marcus, as the show goes on.
- Karma Houdini: He gets away with whatever he does, mainly because of Ralph's incompetence.
- Narcissist: Jack thinks he outsmarts everyone else.
- The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: He's an AP Biology teacher who never teaches biology, matter of fact he wants his students to stay uneducated about science.
- Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: His main ideological reason for never teaching biology: cause it's his classroom and he runs it however he wants. Durbin is completely oblivious to just how Jack runs his classroom really.
- Seven Deadly Sins:
- Wrath: His "favorite" sin. He's always taking out his frustration and anger on both Ralph and his students. By the way, what did he do the first time we see him on-screen? Rage-drive through the school sign and scare off an angry bystander he almost ran over with a crowbar!
- Pride: He considers himself smarter than everyone, especially his students.
- Lust: He wants to have hard sex with his ex-high school girlfriend and pursue other Californian women. Many times he even draws crude stick figures of him having sex with nude women on the chalkboard for his students to see.
- Gluttony: Always, ALWAYS eating in the classroom.
- Greed: Refuses to pay for the lucrative school sign he demolished in the pilot episode, coldly forces Ralph to just repair the sign himself using funds from the school's tight budget.
- Sloth: Never teaches his students ANY biology. Period.
- Envy: He seriously envies his nemesis Miles Leonard for stealing his job as a philosopher.
- The Snack Is More Interesting: He's always eating, never teaching in the classroom.
- Took a Level in Kindness: While calling him kind is a big stretch by season 3 he is more petty than malevolent and his help to Ralph in Get Hoppy! and his help to Helen in the season 3 premiere (in the end of the episode) is geniune.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Sun Chips and frozen TV dinners.
- Villain Protagonist: And he's well-aware he fits this trope.
- Voice Changeling: He pulls this off on his students to insult them further in "Walleye".
Principal Ralph Durbin
Played by Patton Oswalt
The pushover principal of the school.
- Adults Are Useless: He never catches on that Jack is neglecting his teaching duties in class.
- Butt-Monkey: He constantly suffers getting taken advantage of by Jack and the other teachers for his generosity and pushover personality.
- Extreme Doormat: Always lets other people, especially Jack, walk all over him.
- Fat Idiot: He's an obese and incompetent school principal.
- Henpecked Husband: Ralph isn't really fond of his socially awkward wife, but doesn't have the courage to stand up to her as he prefers running away to go sleep at Jack's place than spend the night with her.
- Lovable Coward: He often lacks the courage to stand up to anyone, including his own employees such as in "Burning Miles" when he tried to make cuts to the school's budget to repair the school sign Jack broke and every teacher he went to demanded they get an unnecessary luxury such as a parachute or a karaoke machine. And of course Ralph gave in to their petty demands.
Stef Duncan
Played by Lyric Lewis
A history teacher.
- Token Black Friend: Averted a little in that she's no less a part of the gang as Michelle or Mary
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Stefanie and Mary aren't afraid to rag on Durbin or Michelle. They also constantly make fun of everything Jack isn't self-aware of while being very endearing towards him.
Mary Wagner
Played by Mary Sohn
An art teacher.
- Narcissist: She's very vain about her appearance and enjoys making her students create seductive drawings of her.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Stefanie and Mary aren't afraid to rag on Durbin or Michelle. They also constantly make fun of everything Jack isn't self-aware of while being very endearing towards him.
Michelle Jones
Played by Jean Villepique
A home economics teacher.
- Cloudcuckoolander
- Womanchild: She acts like a big baby.
Helen Demarcus
Played by Paula Pell
Durban's eccentric secretary
- Abhorrent Admirer: Always smothers Jack with affection to his annoyance which Jack the antisocial Jerk with a Heart of Gold he is really doesn't appreciate.
- Butch Lesbian: As revealed in Season 2.
- Comically Missing the Point: Her sexual harrassment orientation of Jack as her assistant consists of tons of sexual harrassment.
- Large Ham: Paula Pell definitely over emotes and goes for big grand gestures.
Dave Pugh
Played by David Neher
The quirky and ditzy teacher that's hated by the rest of the school staff
- Butt-Monkey: All of the faculty pick on fellow teacher Dave, who always protests but does nothing else to stand up for himself.
- The Chew Toy
- Extreme Doormat: Dave is a friendly but spineless teacher who gets abused by the rest of the staff whenever he appears. He ineffectually complains about their pranks but does nothing to put a stop to them.
- Nice Guy
- Sanity Slippage: as his mistreatment by everyone worsens, he begins to react like a Cloud Cuckoo Lander, wide-eyed and laughing maniacally.
Lynette
Played by Elizabeth Alderfer
A payroll employee who is Jack's love interest
- Foil: Jack prides himself on his academic achievements and got a PhD. Lynette is unimpressed with the idea of a college education, philosophy majors, and didn't even go to undergrad. She also challenges other aspects of his personality as well.
Coach Dick Novak
Played by Charlie McCrackin
The P.E. coach.
- The Bully: He bullies his own boss Ralph into giving him a parachute in "Burning Miles".
- Drill Sergeant Nasty: As PE coach, he deliberately tires out all the boys to make sure they don't have the energy to vandalize the school.
- Fat Bastard: He's despicable, loud, rude and very fat in spite of being a health teacher himself.
- Jerkass: He's always bossing other people around (even if it's Principal Durbin).
- No Indoor Voice: He's prone to yelling.
Students
Sarika Sarkar
Played by Aparna Brielle
An Indian-American student who vocally opposes Jack's laziness and hostility towards the class.
- Alliterative Name: Jack finds her name amusing.
- Anti-Education Mama: Humorously in "Freakin' Enamored" its revealed that Sarika Sarkar's mother is one. In contrast to her studious and grade obsessed daughter, she's in fact a laid back party girl who doesn't understand her daughter's obsession with academics, and admits she would much rather be relaxing by the pool drinking cocktails than attending the parent teacher conference.
- Book Worm: Thoroughly treasures her biology textbook above family and friends.
- Catchphrase: "I speak on behalf..."
- Even Nerds Have Standards: As socially awkward as she can be, she has no problem turning down Eduardo with panache.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Many schemes she cooks up to get rid of Jack often backfire on her and the entire AP Bio class, such as if Jack were to be framed for negligence and a student got hurt, then Jack would just go on paid vacation thanks to the corrupt teachers union representative.
- Ice Queen: She is usually hostile towards Jack, often trying to attack him psychologically (but she never succeeds), and has such a cold-hearted and perfectionistic personality that not even her own mother can stand to be with her.
- The Starscream: Is always scheming to get Jack fired, but never succeeds.
- Teacher's Pet: It's implied that she is this way for all her other teachers and was prepared to be the teacher's pet for Jack before he turned the paradigm upside down for her. It's possible her resentment of him is that it's impossible to be a teacher's pet to someone who has no interest in teaching.
Grace
Played by Sari Arambulo
A cheery girl who's also kind of psychotic.
- Ax-Crazy
- Cloudcuckoolander: Although not the only one in the ensemble.
- Creepy Child
- Hidden Depths: She seems to have extremely dark thoughts, erratic tendencies and a dark past.
- Out of Focus: While initially presented as one of the main students, she really hasn't received much focus over the course of the show.
Marcus Kasperak
Played by Nick Peine
A smug, insufferable nerd in AP Bio that has a secretly power-hungry side and is frequently tormented by Jack, who believes that bullying him is the only way of keep his obnoxious personality in check.
- Bullying a Dragon: He's always taking jabs at Jack's failures to achieve his dreams or just Jack's emotional state overall, which just makes Jack even angrier at him and proceed to get back at Marcus.
- Butt-Monkey: Marcus tends to suffer the most abuse from Jack (along with other staff members) due his grating voice, smug and condescending know-it-all demeanor and the way he sass backs Jack any chance he gets he gets.
- Deadpan Snarker: He's often fond of snarky and dismissive towards Jack which can be justified considering Jack is often acting callous towards Marcus.
- The Dog Bites Back: Marcus finally gets to retaliate against Jack's mistreatment of him when his position as Student Council President grants him power over things that Jack wants. The episode ends with him getting knocked back into submission, but also suggests that his relationship with Jack has improved somewhat.
- Insufferable Genius: Marcus is such an arrogant know-it-all that even the equally insufferable Miles is instantly annoyed by him when they first meet.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Marcus may be a smug know-it-all with a grating voice, but he tends to point out the obvious ethical problems of all of Jack's schemes, as well as cut through to the real issues that motivate Jack into doing them. It's implied that Jack hates him at least as much for this habit as he does his general obnoxiousness.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: While Marcus's traits can infuriate adults, he is still rational, has a sense of nobility and does generally get along with other classmates to the point that he even calls Sarika his best friend when she becomes socially insecure and the other students try to cheer her up. He also believes in not taking advantage of Jack in "Burning Miles" when Jack is clearly more pitiful than usual.
- Nerd Glasses
- Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: While it would be a stretch to say that Jack likes any of his students, he seems to especially hate Marcus, due to his grating voice and tendency to (rightfully) call him out on his behavior.
- Smug Snake: Marcus has shades of this when interacting with Jack who's just as obnoxious. While he's generally too powerless to flaunt it, "Overachieving Virgins" really highlights what a tyrannical and selfish jerk he can be when he bullies the rather timid Victor.
- Student Council President: Marcus is the student council president, and a rather controlling one at that. His clash with Jack over vending machine contents results in Jack revealing that his parents had rigged the school election to allow him to win, resulting in him losing his title in the same episode in which it is learned that he held it.
Heather Wilmore
Played by Allisyn Ashley Arm
A girl in Jack's AP Bio with a quintessential nerd appearance but who often betrays a sly, bold cloudcuckoolander personality.
- Ax-Crazy: Best seen as she eagerly hacks up a dead pig.
- Breakout Character: She was the first student to really stick out and steal scenes before the rest of the students were developed.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Is a creepy, eccentric and unpredictable teenager.
- Characterization Marches On: In her first few episodes, she's used mostly as a sight gag, with her characterization being that she just stares blankly at people. As she gained more popularity, she became more talkative and personable.
- Hidden Depths: Several new angles about Heather have emerged as the show has gone on, like her love for Dan Decker and highly detailed knowledge of butchering.
- Likes Older Men: Her sycophantic relationship with Jack (always calling him "Boss") has shades of a crush. She also seems to have the hots for Miles Leonard in the first season, using a Miles mission to get close to him.
- Nerd Glasses: She's a socially awkward and mousy nerd who wears glasses.
- The Starscream: In "8 Pigs and a Rat", she tried ratting out Jack to Durbin about the fetal pig dissection. Granted, in the pilot episode Jack did force Heather at academic gunpoint to prostitute herself out to Miles Leonard online with (false) promises of sex.
- Unresolved Sexual Tension: With Dan for the second season. Their relationship becomes more overt in season three.
Victor Kozlowski
Played by Jacob Houston
A slow-talking glasses kid in Jack's AP Bio class who behaves a lot like an innocent child.
- Butt-Monkey: Is frequently abused by Jack and even Marcus in one episode.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Eduardo.
- Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: Helps Jack take down Marcus's position as the Student Council President after Marcus treated him horribly and always told Victor to shut up.
- Precocious Crush: On Stephanie Duncan.
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Was instructed by Sarika to fake an injury to get Jack replaced or suspended for leaving the class unattended in "Teacher Jail". Though Jack goes unpunished and the next day he correctly concluded Sarika and Victor staged the whole thing.
Anthony Lewis
Played by Eddie Leavy
A sassy, effeminate, corpulent young man who is not afraid to speak his mind.
- Ambiguously Gay: Anthony is generally rather effeminate and seems to have no problem with the idea of Devin being into him.
- Book Dumb: He laments he has a poor GPA and worries he might not get into college.
- Deadpan Snarker
- Gentle Giant: He's the biggest student in AP Bio and while he has an intimidating size, he often gets along with the other kids. He's also rather quiet and reserved even if his expressive T-shirts emphasize negativity.
Dan Decker
Played by Spence Moore II
A bully that Jack has transferred to his class to force him to get along with his victim Jacob.
- The Bully: To Devin in the pilot, throwing his backpack into a pond.
- Cool and Unusual Punishment: He gets forcibly enrolled into AP Bio without choice by Jack as punishment for bullying Devin in the pilot episode.
- Took a Level in Kindness: His bullying features seem to fade away after the pilot, and rather than pick on Devin some more has been seen once cheering for him.
- Unresolved Sexual Tension: With Heather.
Colin McConnell
Played by Tucker Albrizzi
An obese saxophone player who talks in a slow, deep voice.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Is gone from Season 2 much like Devin.
- Dreadful Musician: Jack and the other students seriously hate his saxophone music.
- Fat Idiot: He's the dumbest kid in Jack's class and second fattest only behind Anthony.
- Momma's Boy: Is more fond of his single mother than anyone else, even sabotaging Jack's chances of dating her on purpose.
Devin
Played by Jacob McCarthy
A quiet, reserved kid in AP Bio who spends his time there drawing Satanic rituals into a sketchbook. Jack calls him "Prince of Darkness".
- Apocalypse Anarchy: He enjoys reading and drawing about anarchy. He was first seen reading the book "Anarchy in Action" by Colin Ward.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: He disappears without a given reason from Season 2. His desk was empty in the Season 2 opener. It is unconfirmed if he'll return in Season 3.
- Hollywood Satanism: He is into a cult that worships Satan and the bringing of the Apocalypse.
- Mad Artist: He likes to draw Satanic symbols and figures into his sketchbook from the perspective of being a demon.
- Wild Card: He's not exactly on Jack's side, but not against Jack either like the other AP Bio kids. Matter of fact, he gets amused by Jack's rebellious attitude towards the institution of learning to which he utters "Cool".
Outside the School
Miles Leonard
Played by Tom Bennett
Jack's so-called nemesis and a renowned philosopher who is currently the Head of Philosophy at Harvard.
- Advertised Extra: Credited in the opening sequence fir the first season, but appears in about half the episodes, usually in just a cameo appearance. Perhaps made up for by how often he is mentioned.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: He's gone from Season 2 without a given reason.
- Hero Antagonist: Definitely the good guy compared to Jack.
- Nice Guy: In spite of Jack's burning hatred for him, he's actually a very compassionate person. Matter of fact, he vigorously tried to help boost Jack's career and get him a better paying job.
