A list of characters from the Cartoon Network show Sheep in the Big City.
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Protagonist (and Narrator)
Sheep
Voiced by: Kevin Seal
An anthropomorphic sheep who finds his way into the city and spends his time avoiding a top secret military organization that intends to capture him and use him to power a sheep-powered ray gun.
- A Dog Named "Dog": He's a sheep named Sheep. Farmer John apparently named him Sheep because he looked like one when he was born.
- Butt-Monkey: He often gets subjected to injuries and misfortunes.
- Evil All Along: Spoofed at the end of "To Sheep, Perchance to Dream", where he reveals himself to be the real villain of the show and that he intends to use the narrator in a narrator-powered ray gun. Predictably, this was disregarded in the second season.
- Fangs Are Evil: His teeth become sharp when he turns out to be the real villain in "To Sheep, Perchance to Dream".
- Flat Character: Despite being the titular star, Sheep doesn't have a whole lot going for him character-wise. He mostly acts as an unwitting foil to his various adversaries and the general mayhem of the big city.
- Fur Is Clothing: There are occasional gags involving his wool being treated like clothes. For instance, he leaves his wool at the dry cleaner's in the pilot and he sometimes covers himself in embarrassment when his wool unravels.
- Hopeless with Tech: In "Baa-ck In Time", he's so fed up with constantly struggling with new tech that he almost strands himself in Ancient Greece after using a time machine to escape General Specific. After suffering even more misfortune in the past, the Narrator helps him realize that it's not technology that's the problem, Sheep just has bad luck in general.
- Interspecies Romance: He is in love with a poodle named Swanky.
- New Job as the Plot Demands: Sheep is seen working a different job in nearly every episode, including a telemarketer, busboy, stunt wig, and barber.
- Suddenly Speaking: He only ever says "Baa", but the season one finale "To Sheep, Perchance to Dream" shows him as capable of speech when he's revealed to be the real villain. None of this is ever mentioned again in season 2.
- Temporary Bulk Change: One of his attempts at impressing Swanky in "Going Off the Sheep End" involves getting buff at the gym (where a personal assistant just forcefeeds him muscle powder until he bulks up). It completely backfires, as Swanky, along with everyone else who sees him, just end up terrified, and his new mass makes him too slow to escape General Specific. After the Narrator forces a happier ending, Sheep escapes by letting the air out of his muscles like a balloon and returns to normal.
- Throw the Dog a Bone: Occasionally, things will go well for him in spite of his constant misfortune.
- "Wish You Were Shear" has Swanky forgive him for not getting her an anniversary present and turn away the greyhound Sheep was at risk of losing her to.
- At the end of "An Officer and a Gentlelamb", he gets his job at the barbershop back and his boss hires a gorilla to keep the top secret military organization from trying to capture him while he's working.
- After having his previous attempts at helping people out thwarted by glory hound firemen and police officers in "Oh, the Ewemanity", Sheep manages to save the Big City from being destroyed by a flood, a meteor, and a volcano in one fell swoop and is subsequently rewarded for his heroism when the same firemen and police officers from before praise him and protect him from General Specific.
- The Unintelligible: He's a sheep, so he can't talk very well (not counting the season 1 finale). Like most animals of the series, Sheep is sentient, but can only communicate with animal noises.
- Wasteful Wishing: In "Beauty And the Bleat", he gets three wishes from a genie, and later on, another three to help fix the mess he got himself into. He wastes two of the first set, and one of the second, on fancy hats. Or rather, two fancy hats, and a larger version of one of them.
The Narrator/Ben Plotz
Voiced by: Ken Schatz
The show's narrator.
- Deadpan Snarker: Frequently makes sardonic and mocking comments whenever the story takes an unrealistic or ridiculous turn or whenever certain characters are acting dumber than usual.
- Interactive Narrator: He often directly speaks to the characters.
- Large Ham: Often delivers his narration in bombastic, overblown announcements.
- Lemony Narrator: As noted in the other entries, he's commenting as much as narrating.
- Who Writes This Crap?!: He frequently complains whenever the plot gets unrealistic or cliched.
Secret Military Organization
General Specific
Voiced by: Kevin Seal
The general of a top secret military organization. His goal is to capture Sheep so he can be used to power a sheep-powered ray gun.
- Bad Boss: He doesn't treat any of his subordinates very well.
- In "Agony of De-Bleat" and "Fleeced to Meet You" we see that he will fire his subordinates without a second thought the moment he doesn't think they are needed. The former episode states that the entire reason he hired them in the first place is to capture Sheep. So if Sheep is caught, he doesn't need them anymore.
- Bald of Evil: When he isn't wearing a hat, he is shown to be bald.
- Big Bad: He's the main antagonist, since the conflict revolves around Sheep having to avoid General Specific's attempts at capturing him.
- Dumbass Has a Point: In "Agony of De-Bleat" he's the one who points out how stupid the idea of the Angry Scientist's Clome of Sheep is (and yes, that's Clome with an M), since it's not a genetic copy of Sheep at all, and instead appears to be some sort of weird bear. Sure enough, when they try to test the ray gun with the Clome inside at the Angry Scientists insistance, the whole thing blows up.
- Early Installment Character-Design Difference: The pilot depicted him with hair on his temples and had the brim of his hat colored black instead of green.
- Fat and Skinny: He's the fat guy to Private Public's skinny guy.
- Fat Bastard: He's overweight and very mean.
- Gag Nose: He has a big bulbous nose.
- General Failure: It's astounding how often he fails in capturing Sheep no matter how easy it is for him to find him in the city.
- Generation Xerox: He's a dead ringer for his grandfather, who was a police chief in the Big City during the early 1900's, as shown in "Baa-Dern Times".
- Karmic Transformation: This sheep-hunting antagonist is shown turning into a sheep in "To Sheep, Perchance to Dream", but like many of the scenes in that episode, it turns out to only be a dream.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: The secret military organization actually manages to capture Sheep in "Agony of De-Bleat." And General Specific announces that the only reason anybody besides him has a job in the organization is to capture Sheep, and makes it clear he will fire his remaining subordinates once the ray gun is working. This leads to them letting Sheep go so they can keep their jobs.
- Punny Name: His name consists of two words that mean the opposite (general and specific).
- Surrounded By Buffoons: Even though General Specific isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer, his subordinates (such as Major Pain, Major Minor, and Major Know-It-All) make him appear much more competent by comparison.
- Superpowers For A Day: Briefly gained Flying Brick superpowers thanks to an invention by the Angry Scientist, and assumed the somewhat unimaginative name of General Specific-Man. He lost his powers at the end of the episode after Sheep destroyed the machine, allowing the X Agent to defeat him.
- Verbal Tic: Of a sort: Whenever he speaks, he does so through gritted teeth. The number of times he actually opens his mouth can be counted on one hand.
Private Public
Voiced by: James Edmund Godwin
General Specific's right-hand man, who often seems to have more common sense than his boss does.
- Alliterative Name: Both parts of his name begin with P.
- Almighty Janitor: Despite being a mere private (the lowest possible rank in a military other than a recruit rank), he's the right-hand man of General Specific.
- Fat and Skinny: The skinny guy to General Specific's fat guy.
- Hypercompetent Sidekick: Lampshaded, he is just a private despite being the smartest man in the secret military organization, which granted isn't saying much
- Only Sane Man: Is usually the only sensible one of the antagonists.
- Punny Name: Like his boss, his name consists of two words that mean the opposite (private and public).
Angry Scientist
Voiced by: Mo Willems
A mad scientist who prefers to be called "angry scientist". His job is to make inventions that can be used to capture Sheep.
- Amazing Technicolor Population: For some unstated reason his skin seems to naturally be green in color.
- Bald of Evil: He doesn't have hair.
- Berserk Button: He gets infuriated whenever people call him a mad scientist, always irately reminding those who do that he is an angry scientist. He also can't stand stupidity, which is a problem considering who he works for.
- Catchphrase: Almost every time someone calls him a mad scientist, he replies by yelling "ANGURY! I AM AN ANGURY SCIENTIST!"
- Creator Cameo: He is voiced by the show's creator Mo Willems.
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": His actual name (if he has one) is never revealed.
- Gag Nose: Yet another character on the show with a large and bulbous nose.
- Green and Mean: He has green skin and is quite a grouch.
- Insistent Terminology: He insists that he is not a mad scientist, but an angry scientist.
- Mad Scientist: He is an eccentric scientist who creates odd inventions, but he'll always insist that he is an angry scientist rather than a mad one.
- Poirot Speak: His grasp of the English language is somewhat flawed.Angry Scientist: Why are you not my Englishness be understanding? All the timing with that.
Plot Device
Voiced by: Stephanie D'Abruzzo
A robot whose purpose is for the top secret military organization to know what they need to know and get to where they need to go to advance the plot.
- Catchphrase: "Hello."
- Flat Character: She's a plot device. That's pretty much all there is to her character.
- Meaningful Name: True to her name, her purpose is to move the plot forward.
- The Omniscient: She appears to know everything, or at least whatever the secret military organization needs to know.
Recurring characters
Farmer John
Voiced by: James Edmund Godwin
The farmer who runs the farm Sheep ran away from. He usually tries to convince Sheep to come home to the farm, whenever he isn't being tricked into helping General Specific and Private Public capture Sheep.
- Berserk Button: Messing with his animals overrides his usual Extreme Doormat Nice Guy persona.
- The Ditz: He is very dumb and gullible, given how easy it is for General Specific and Private Public to deceive him.
- Gag Nose: He has a tremendous and protuberant nose.
- His Name Really Is "Barkeep": "Farmer" isn't just a title and is actually part of his name.
- My Beloved Smother: While he's Sheeps former owner rather than an actual relative, he acts exactly like an overbearing, clingy parent towards Sheep, often trying to get him to return to the farm and not respecting Sheeps privacy.
- Papa Wolf: On rare occasions, he actually tries to help Sheep when he knows he's in trouble.
- Retcon: The pilot establishes his first name as Farmer because he loved farming, which is contradicted in a sketch in the episode "Belle of the Baah" where it is revealed that his name is actually Far Mer John, his first name being so because his parents wanted him to go far and his middle name being so because his father wanted to name him after his aunt Mer.
- Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?: Upon first meeting Farmer John, General Specific actually asks Private Public who would name their child Farmer.
Lady Virginia Richington
Voiced by: Ruth Buzzi (pilot), Stephanie D'Abruzzo (remainder of series)
A wealthy woman who owns a pet poodle named Swanky and has an irrational hostility toward her dog's suitor Sheep.
- Berserk Button: She has an aversion toward sheep so potent that she'll beat Sheep with her wig unprovoked the instant she sees him.
- Child Hater: She is implied to not care for children in "The Wool of the People". When General Specific and Sheep both momentarily stop chasing each other while running for mayor to kiss a baby, Lady Richington is also given the baby, but she doesn't want to and has her butler kiss the infant instead.
- Early Installment Character-Design Difference: In the pilot, she was burlier and her wig had a different shape. She also lacked her necklace and bracelets.
- Improbable Weapon User: She uses her stainless steel wig to beat up Sheep.
- Irrational Hatred: Of sheep. No reason is ever given. When she was turned into one, she started hitting herself!
- Karmic Transformation: "Beauty and the Bleats" ends with Sheep stopping her from beating him by using his last wish to turn her head into a sheep's head.
- Mind Screw: How, exactly, does a steel wig work?
- Rich Bitch: She's very opulent and constantly attacks Sheep unprovoked.
- Wealth's in a Name: She is a rich lady named Lady Richington.
Swanky the Poodle
Voiced by: Stephanie D'Abruzzo
Lady Richington's poodle, who has a mutual love for Sheep.
- Interspecies Romance: She and Sheep are in love and are obviously different species.
- Lying to Protect Your Feelings: A comic issue had Sheep go to a boxing ring to earn enough money to buy her a gem-encrusted dog bowl. She happily takes Sheep's present, but hides the fact that she already owns the same bowl, presumably to make her boyfriend feel good about himself.
- Pink Is Feminine: She has pink fur.
Lisa Rentel
Voiced by: Stephanie D'Abruzzo
A bratty little girl obsessed with making Sheep her pet.
- Amazing Technicolor Population: Goes unmentioned why but her skin color is purple.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: In her debut episode, she at first seems nice when she prevents General Specific and his men from capturing Sheep, but she then reveals her true colors and tries to keep Sheep as her pet against his will.
- Bratty Half-Pint: She's a young girl who is very ill-behaved.
- Kids Are Cruel: A manipulative, spoiled brat who constantly harasses poor Sheep and tries to force him to be her pet.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: After being confronted by the X Agent, she's smart enough to realize she can't take him on and backs down.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Usually refers to Sheep as being a dog, but one time mentioned she's only pretending and knows he's actually a sheep.
- Obstructive Bureaucrat: In "Baah-dern Times", she sings a musical number where she states that she wants to grow up to be a bureaucrat because she'd get paid to make things frustrating and miserable for other people.
- Punny Name: Lisa Rentel = Lease a rental.
- Spoiled Brat: She gets furious and whiny when she doesn't get her way.
X Agent
Voiced by: ???
A sheep who was originally hired by the top secret military organization to pretend to be Sheep's friend in order to lure him into a trap until he ended up seeing Sheep as a real friend.
- Becoming the Mask: He originally pretended to be Sheep's friend as his cover before eventually helping Sheep escape upon realizing that he truly liked him.
- Fur Is Clothing: In his second appearance, where he always wears his wool like a superhero cape. He can also shoot wool strands from his hooves like Spider-Man to trap his enemies in itchy cocoons.
- Heel–Face Turn: Pretending to be Sheep's friend was initially his cover for luring Sheep into a trap, but he came to see that he really did like Sheep and ended up helping him escape.
- Put on a Bus: At the end of his second appearance, Completely Powerful Guy informs the X Agent that he's urgently needed in Toledo. Humorously, Completely Powerful Guy claims this wasn't an excuse to remove him from the show.
- Unwanted Assistance: In his second appearance, he tries to help Sheep by becoming his bodyguard, but Sheep finds it annoying because the X Agent keeps on beating people up just for getting within ten feet of Sheep.
- Xtremely Kool Letterz: His name causes some initial confusion for General Specific, who thinks it meant he was an "ex-agent" and demanded a "current agent" instead. After Private Public explains that X is to indicate his mysterious name, Specific "reacquaints himself with the alphabet" about how he thinks "L" is more mysterious.
General Lee Outrageous
Voiced by: Joey Mazzarino
General Specific's party-loving cousin.
- Cool Shades: He wears opaque sunglasses.
- Punny Name: His name is a play on "generally outrageous".
- Strong Family Resemblance: He looks identical to his cousin, except he wears a gold uniform and shades, has a gold tooth, and teal hair worn in a ponytail.
- Sunglasses at Night: Is never seen without his iconic, mirrored sunglasses, even in the middle of the night.
- Unmoving Plaid: The gold pattern of his uniform stays in place in spite of his movements.
Victor
Voiced by: Ken Schatz
The spokesman for Oxymoron products, who often appears in Parody Commercials to annoy random people by touting the benefits of the products he's shilling.
- Blatant Lies: His attempt at selling the "Super Cool Fresh Action Ball" is one of the few times when Victor outright lies in his pitch. His claim that the "ball", which is just a metal cube, can bounce twice as high as a regular ball, is obviously false, and when the kid he's pitching it to demands a demonstration, Victor just sort of avoids the question, then has the jingle play again.
- Everyone Has Standards: In one ad, he's selling Oxymoron Roach Motels, which are actual tiny motels meant to make roaches relaxed and happy, rather than real-life roach motels which are glue traps meant for pest control. When the angry customer demands a product that will kill the roaches in her house, Victor is absolutely horrified.Victor: You... sick woman! I don't think Oxymoron wants to sell ANYTHING to you!
- Exact Words: When he's advertising "Only For Men Named Harold", a rejuvination product that actually sounds quite useful, the name isn't a joke; it's literally only for men named Harold, and Victor refuses to sell it to anyone else. Even if your name is something derivative of Harold, like Harry.
- Honest John's Dealership: Many of the products he's promoting have unpleasant side effects or are more trouble than they are worth.
- Jerkass: He tends to barge into people's houses unannounced and cause trouble and inconvenience for the people he talks to about his products in the Oxymoron commercials and he doesn't care.
The Ranting Swede
Voiced by: Kevin Seal
A Swede who appears to rant about stuff at the end of almost every episode.
- Fauxreigner: Hinted at in the Animated Actors episode "Baa-hind the Scenes", where he is shown talking without the accent off-camera.
- Funny Foreigner: His entire thing is that he makes comedic complaints while talking in a Swedish accent.
- Hypocritical Humor: The episode "To Bleat or Not to Bleat" ends with him ranting on how everyone thinks ranting is all he ever does. He even claims that he's done with ranting even though his segment continues to appear in subsequent episodes.
- Literal-Minded: Some of his rants consist of him getting cheesed off from misinterpreting a figure of speech, like thinking "Suit yourself" is an instruction to make yourself a suit and taking it literally when someone asked him how he was able to juggle his job, house, and family.
- Oddball Doppelgänger: The Ranting Norwegian, who substituted for the Swede in one episode due to a scheduling issue. Not only is he much more mild-mannered, he didn't actually have anything to rant about, much to the annoyance of Ben Plotz.
Jay
Voiced by: Ken Schatz
A bald little man with glasses who usually shows up to read any signs, billboards or documents out loud, seemingly for no other reason than his own enjoyment.
- A Day in the Limelight: "Baa-Dern Times" has Jay narrate most of the episode, since it features a silent movie, and Jay reads all the dialogue cards out loud.
- Evil Laugh: For some odd reason, he pops up in "The Wool Of the People" to join in with General Specific and Lady Richington's evil laughter. Specific quickly notices him and throws him out.
- "Reading Is Cool" Aesop: Parodied; he sometimes ends his narration with slogans like "I like to read" or "reading is fun-ucational!"
- Sounding It Out: Since Sheep can't talk, Jay does this for him. In-universe, he just does it because he likes reading.
Completely Powerful Guy
Voiced by: Ken Schatz
The premier superhero of The Big City, for whatever that is worth, as Completely Powerful Guy is only in the superhero game for the image, and goes out of his way to avoid actually fighting any crime.
- Broken Pedestal: His sidekick, Wonderful Boy, quickly realizes that his "mentor" is a Dirty Coward who really doesn't deserve to call himself a hero.
- Destructive Savior: After the X Agent leaves for Toledo, Completely Powerful Guy takes Sheep home and vows to become his new protector, not noticing that Sheep keeps smacking into random objects while they're flying.
- Flying Brick: Is shown to possess the whole Superman package, for all the good it does as he refuses to use any of it other than flight.
- Heroic Build: Ironically enough, as he's got the muscles, but not the attitude.
- Rogues Gallery: A few are mentioned in one skit, mainly so Completely Powerful Guy can make up excuses why he can't go out and fight them; Blaster Dynamite, Professor Pollen and the Mad Tickler. In another episode, and one of the few times he actually does any crime fighting, he's up against the minor recurring villain Count de Ten.
- Super Loser: An absolute joke of a superhero who blatantly ignores his own hero signal so he doesn't have to fight any villains.
- Weaksauce Weakness: Claims to have several, including a pollen allergy, though it's unclear how many, if any, of them are true, and which are just pathetic excuses.
