A work in progress list of the characters.
Tom's Family
In General
- All of the Other Reindeer: Their family is widely known across Shady Oaks for being poor, dumb losers.
- Butt-Monkey: An entire family of them! None of Tom's family members have achieved any measurable amount of success and are usually in the bottom of the social pole. They are also prone to being humiliated in many awkward situations.
- Failure Is the Only Option: Nothing ever goes right for them.
- Perpetual Poverty: Any time the family comes across the chance to make riches always gets cruelly thrown away by the end.
Tom
Our main character, an extremely unlucky ten-year old named Tom who often finds himself in strange situations.
- All for Nothing: Much of Tom's efforts ultimately amount to nothing by the end of the episode. "Tom Tucks His Shirt In" for example has Tom Streaking as a form of protest against the school's new uniforms and as a way to gain back his friends, only to discover that the school had already gotten rid of the uniforms and only ends up worsening his friendships.
- Be Yourself: A few episodes show that Tom is genuinely capable of being fairly popular in his school by just being himself, but his own ditzy actions caused by an outside source and unlucky circumstances always prevent that from fully happening.
- Butt-Monkey: Tom can't go a single episode without being humiliated, made fun of, or forced to do something that he doesn't want to do.
- Can't Get Away with Nuthin': No matter what misdemeanor Tom creates, he always gets caught by everyone.
- The Ditz: Tom is not the sharpest knife in the drawer. He has a terrible habit of misinterpreting advice and making plans that have glaring holes, all of which inevitably backfire and spiral Tom into a world of social humiliation and embarrassment.
- The Dog Bites Back: Of an unintentional variety. Some episodes (especially in season two) have people who wronged Tom getting their comeuppance at the latter's hands. However, Tom is not a vengeful person and most karma he causes are mostly accidental.
- Dreadful Musician: Downplayed, he's not very good at the bassoon, but by the second season he has somewhat improved after practicing.
- Easily Forgiven: Probably the only remotely positive thing that Tom has going for him. No matter how much of a social pariah Tom becomes or the various terrible actions he (in)directly commits, by the next episode everyone forgives him and he is treated the same as normal (as in being seen as a weird loser). Likewise, Tom never holds a grudge for the people who drag him into horrible situations.
- Expy: He is a younger, more innocent, but just as a stoic and horrifically unlucky version of Tim.
- Extreme Doormat: Most of Tom's misadventures wouldn't happen if he didn't cave to every person who insists he joins their Zany Scheme and/or stand up for himself when he gets blamed for the ensuing chaos.
- Fall Guy: Tom always gets the most blame for the trouble, even when it is usually the others who set him up who are more responsible. Unfortunately Tom has no backbone, usually never elaborates on what happened, and takes all the blame in with almost no resistance.
- Free-Range Children: Tom's Mom allows him to pretty much do anything he wants as long as it does not affect her personally.
- Hero with Bad Publicity: By the first episode, Tom is widely known across town for being "the boy who pooped his pants during a baseball game".
- Hilariously Abusive Childhood: Tom gets involved in multiple incidents no child should ever be subjected to and is repeatedly berated and insulted by everyone around him, especially the adults, who always blame him for everything that goes wrong in the town, which is all Played for Laughs.
- Intergenerational Friendship: Tom has formed many tenuous friendships with the weird adults in Shady Oaks. In fact, Tom is seen interacting more with adults than his actual peers in school (aside from Nelson).
- Little "No": Whenever an adult or a friend relays to him a bizarre plan that usually has him doing something weird or make him look bad, Tom's expected reaction is a always a small, monotone "no". Of course he goes with it anyways.
- Loser Protagonist: Dumb, unathletic, not good at anything, widely mocked, and almost never wins.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Particularly in season two. While Tom has extremely bad luck, the catalyst for most of his problems were caused by his very own dumb and misinformed actions.
- "The Nurse's Baby" probably being the biggest offender. Where not only is he mainly responsible for polluting the town's lake and killing all the fish, but he also doomed the town for generations of lead poisoning after a mishap involving lead plaques of his name.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Tom is on the receiving end of one by a random character every few episodes. Most times are caused by misunderstanding, but a rare few are deserved.
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Despite being seen as weak, he once kicked Randy hard enough that he appears in a later scene wearing a head brace. All because he stole his stick of cheese.
- The Stoic: Much like Tim, he has no emotional response to all the horrific things he is subjected to, especially as a kid, beyond "disappointment".
- Throw the Dog a Bone: Tom is such a Butt-Monkey that virtually any episode where he is not in a bad situation can be considered a victory for him.
- Played for Laughs in "History Week", in which the principal chastises Tom for destroying getting his office burned down by an angry mob. The principal says that he will be known as "the kid who burned the principal's office down," which Tom states that it's an improvement of his reputation over being known as the kid who crapped his pants in baseball.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Tom gets this treatment at least Once an Episode. Sometimes deservered, sometimes not.
Tom's Mom
Tom's irresponsible mother. Her husband recently ran off to Myrtle beach with a female masseuse, leaving her to take care of Tom.
- Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Just like her son, most schemes she enacts end up with her getting humiliated, which by proxy, harms her son's reputation.Tom's Mom: I can not be the mom who brought a fart gun to get out of carpooling!Tom: That's who you are!
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Tom's Mom can be extremely unsympathetic to the people around her and often uses her boyfriends just to mooch off their money and get free meals (just ask the school principal). Despite that, she still loves her son, even if she is not the best at showing it.
- Parents as People: She is a well-meaning parent who genuinely cares about her son and wants to give him a better life, but is also extremely irresponsible and is just as prone as Tom is when it comes to making dumb schemes that backfire on her and getting into awful situations.
- Tough Love: She claims that her punishments to Tom (i.e. pouring cheese all over his head, forcing him run around the neighborhood in his underwear, or making him bathe in soda) are this.
Uncle Bill
Tom's Manchild uncle who moves in the house by season two.
- Wild Card: Sometimes Uncle Bill is able to help and support Tom, but he often drags Tom into trouble as well.
Tom's Grandma
- A Day in the Limelight: She gets a lot of screen-time in "Bingo With Grandma".
School
Students
Nelson
Tom's best friend. Unlike Tom, Nelson is considerably more confident, smart, and cool, but is still usually willing to help out Tom with whatever bizarre situation he finds himself in.
- Black Best Friend: Is this to Tom.
- The Friends Who Never Hang: Outside of proximity or with Tom, Nelson and Dakota don’t really interact with each other. In “Filthy Tom”, both Dakota and Nelson are relieved when Tom finally shows up for his pool party, as they can only muster small talk to each other. Ditto for the bus driver who outright states that without Tom, they have literally nothing to discuss about.Nelson (once Tom arrives): It's about time. I can only make so much small talk with Dakota.Dakota: Yeah, we have very little in common.
- Sour Supporter: Nelson is not afraid to criticize how bad Tom is at practically everything. Yet he still tries to help him and never expects anything back.
- Toxic Friend Influence: An entirely unintentional example. The advice and help he gives Tom often sound good in paper, but they often have holes that will drag the two of them into awkward situation or can be easily misconstrued by Tom into something bad.
- True Companions: Mostly Played Straight. Nelson always tries his best to help Tom with whatever strange situation he is in and is usually the sole consistent person Tom can rely on for support. However there are instances where he leaves Tom to the wolves, but are mainly in specific instances where it is clear that being associated with Tom in this particular event will only end badly for himself also.
- Later episodes do show that he values Tom as a friend. They often play video games and whiffle ball together, gets distressed at the idea of Tom making new friends and ignoring him, and flat out admits that he does not really see himself making any additional friends outside of Tom.
- Virtuous Character Copy: Downplayed, while not without his flaws, Nelson is effectively a more supportive and mostly innocent version of Stu.
Dakota
Tom's other friend, although she would rather keep it a secret. While she does consider him a genuine friend, she is usually unreceptive to the antics he gets in.
- Berserk Button: Don't tell her to shut up. When Tom said it in frustration he quickly and sheepishly apologizes while Dakota calmly states that she will let it pass before warning him to never do it again.
- Only Sane Woman: She is one of the few characters without any glaring flaws and is usually the first one to comment on whatever insanity Tom has gotten himself in.
- Two Guys and a Girl: She is the girl with Tom and Nelson as the guys.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Especially in season two. She is often the first person to call out Tom on his actions and admits that she gets fed up with him a lot. Yet she still considers him a "secret" friend.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Out of everyone, Dakota is the one to call out Tom on his actions the most.
Yasmine
- The Generic Guy: While all of Tom's classmates have their fair share of unique traits, Yasmine is mostly shown as a completely normal kid who only serves to judge Tom whenever he does something bad.
Hector
- Laser-Guided Karma: He put Tom and a grocery store in a Frivolous Lawsuit while pretending to be handicapped over a bunch of fruit falling over him. Ultimately, while he did presumably get the money (from the store only as Tom's family is utterly broke), Tom accidentally smashes his eye with a cork and collapses on the floor — where the grocery store's automatic doors begin to smack him repeatedly.
Randy
- Hilariously Abusive Childhood: His dad clearly treats him terribly. Once shutting him inside a cabinet or dragging him around the floor.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: When Tom found himself cancelled with all his friends distancing from him, Randy (and the school janitor) were the few who stuck with him.
Faculty
Bus Driver
The school's only bus driver. A rather immature adult who regularly converses with Tom and Nelson on the bus.
- Manchild: He has the mentality of irresponsible teenage slacker, regularly hangs out with kids, and apparently still eats in the school cafeteria.
- Nice Guy: While being far from a role-model to the kids, he has a friendly relationship with Tom and Nelson and he regularly gives the former advice (that usually backfire, but the thought counts).
Principal
The school's principal who often has plans that almost always involve Tom in some manner.
- Butt-Monkey: Usually at the hands of Tom. The principal often has bad things happen to him when he drags Tom to help him with whatever he needs. “History Week” being the crowning example, where asking Tom to help him become more well-liked ends with him becoming a pariah and having his office burned down by an angry mob.
- Dude, Where's My Respect?: Despite being the principal, most people openly treat with him no respect. Hell, he claims that the school crossing guard has been routinely bullying him for over twenty years.
- Fall Guy: On two seperate occasions, he asked Tom to be this. In the second time, Tom refuses, after it led to him being outcast the first time.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: For all the ire he causes Tom (along with ire that Tom inflicts on the principal), he still genuinely sees him and all the kids as family. When Tom was reported missing in Mexico, he gathered as much people as he could and flew all the way to the resort to aid in the search.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Many plots of forcing Tom into situations that he does not want to be in takes its toll in "History Week" where his latest scheme involving Tom ends with his reputation thoroughly ruined.
- Running Gag: How many times has he singled out Tom for whatever Zany Scheme he has in mind?
- Addding onto that, how many times has he called Tom to the principal's office through intercom?
- Virtuous Character Copy: He is essentially Tim's boss, down to being a sort of boss-like character that regularly ropes Tom into various schemes that inevitably result in humiliation and chaos. However, unlike Tim's boss, the principal comes across as more well-meaning and nice but also much more pathetic and lame.
Coach
Lunch Lady
Mr. B
- Break the Haughty: In "A Daffodil For Tererence", his overly pompous and snobby attitude towards acting bites him in the ass when he gets booed by the audience after replacing Tom.
- Jerkass: He tends to be one of the more nastier adults Tom has to interact with.
Nurse
Janitor
Other
Dakota's Mom
- A Taste of Defeat: The season two finale has Tom utterly ruining her vacation and (mostly) getting away unscathed.
- Hated by All: Ironic. Despite probably being the biggest factor for why everyone thinks Tom is a loser, she is viewed by everyone in a much more negative light. To the point that Tom's Mom, her husband, and the school nurse all conspired to get her sedated with medication in order to quell her attitude.
- Jerkass: She's obnoxious as all hell and goes out of her way to particularly target Tom and his family for being poor.
- Karma Houdini: Much of her harassment and berating to Tom and his family, along with virtually everyone in Shady Oaks (including her husband) goes unpunished.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: In the season two finale, Tom ruins her vacation by just showing up, gets her banned from any drinks, and uses her money to buy a scam timeshare that destroys her credit.
Dakota's Father
- Butt-Monkey: In the span of two seasons, he loses the few people that barely consider him a friend, has his cabin burned down, gets beaten up by his own wife in public, has his songs infringed in a Super Bowl commercial, and eventually gets fired from his job. All of these problems involve Tom in some fashion.
- The Dog Bites Back: Played for Laughs and downplayed. He finds financially supporting Tom's family a small victory for him, since his wife hates all of them.
- Dreadful Musician: He plays a guitar and sings his own songs to cope with his Awful Wedded Life, and they are all awful.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: None of the other adults in Shady Oaks are fond of him. Likely due to how basically all conversations with him involves him venting his frustrations about his wife through terrible songs.
- Henpecked Husband: The only person Dakota's Mom harasses more than Tom is her own husband.
Doug
- Apathetic Clerk: He clearly does not like the fact that he is stuck in a dead-end job as the ice cream man. He was more than happy to give Tom his business and eventually sink the van into the lake.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Despite his rough exterior, apathetic nature, and willingness to leave the school nurse during their wedding, he has a suprisingly positive relationship with Tom. Often offering advice that are well-meaning but not usually the best, seemingly forgave him for previously sinking his ice cream van, and when Tom appeared to be in danger inside a hot air balloon, he immediately told Tom to jump off so he can catch him.
Rick
