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The Three Friends and Jerry
Jerry
- Attention Whore: His lies are seemingly designed to bring attention to himself.
- Attractive Bent-Gender: To the point he easily passed as a girl in "Girls Clothes" and "Miss Jerry" with a dress and a wig. And even won a beauty contest!
- Butt-Monkey: Most of his plans fail spectacularly, is tricked into crossdressing, accidentally squashed his favorite ant, went Out of Focus for several episodes, the Three Friends truly don't consider them part of the gang... poor boy.
- Catchphrase: "Hi nerds!" and variations of it.
- Characterization Marches On: Compare his smug first appearance to his more optimistic personality seen later on.
- Compulsive Liar: Has a habit of telling these often in order to try to sound cool. Most people don't buy it, but they sometimes humor him just to watch him fail to live up to them.
- Constantly Curious: He's often curious. He always wants to know what's going on and will often appear at the most random times.
- Deadpan Snarker: When he isn't bossed around by the Three Friends, he's snarking at them.
- Decoy Protagonist: Starts to fall seriously Out of Focus in Season 3. It gets so bad that he occasionally doesn't even appear at all.
- Depending on the Writer: His relationship with the Three Friends. Sometimes he's hanging out with them with no problems, other times they can't stand him.
- Dirty Kid: In "Forbidden Fruit", he's very eager at the idea of seeing a naked girl. His fantasies regarding Linda are also less chaste compared to Frank's.
- The Dog Bites Back: Has his moments when he tries to get revenge on how he's treated by the Three Friends. He still loses at the end of the episode though.
- Dogged Nice Guy: Towards Linda, especially in "Miss Jerry", when he still goes out of his way to help her with the beauty contest even though he's not being blackmailed anymore.
- The Gadfly: While he's generally the one getting egged on, he takes on this role towards Frank in "Glasses" and "Cockatoo".
- Genius Ditz: Doesn't know how to use a science kit, how to spell helicopter, can't distinguish real flowers from plastic ones, and believes he can get a girlfriend with a bear trap, but is a highly skilled schemer with an encyclopedic knowledge about ants.
- Goofy Buckteeth: Has prominent ones, like his mother.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: While not shunned, the Three Friends aren't too fond of Jerry. As the series goes on, they have no problem making fun of him to his face and are generally very vocal about how stupid and annoying they find him.
- Friend to All Living Things: Shown to have a soft spot for animals.
- He raises ants, keeping farms of them in jars. They love him back, such as willingly do tricks for him in "Circus" and breaking free from a cage to reunite with him in "My Friend is an Ant".
- He ruined one of the Three Friends's schemes in "Sewergators" because it involved the idea of harming Mimmi's goldfish.
- In "Frog Collection" he takes good care of the female frog, to the point he can make her sing on command.
- In "Miss Jerry" he said he hates seeing children and animals mistreated.
- Karma Houdini: Especially in the first episodes of Season 1, where bad luck and his incompetence get the Three Friends in trouble and yet he gets scot free.
- Kindhearted Simpleton: He's a foolish and gullible Cloudcuckoolander, as well as good-natured and innocent.
- Loner-Turned-Friend: A deconstruction of the trope. He starts off as a loner and grows closer to the Three Friends. But his zany schemes have a tendency to backfire, resulting in them having less and less patience with him. By the end of the series, the Three Friends hate Jerry and want nothing to do with him.
- Master of None: He genuinely does have a wide variety of skills, but he's usually not as good at any of them as he thinks he is.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: If he ever does a good deed, expect it to bit him in the ass at the end of an episode.
- Tries to help Mimmi in "The Delivery" after he finds out her parents never celebrate her birthdays. He ends up working for her all day and she proceeds to exploit him and not give him any snacks.
- Gives Frank his chance to be on national TV on "Barking Up The Wrong Tree" cause it was his birthday and he wanted to make him happy. Frank ends up humilliated on a game show and proceeds to beat Jerry the next day.
- Makes a snowball machine to help the Three Friends in "the Snowball Fight". The machine ends up destroying Oscar's house.
- In "Catch the Girl" he tries to help a prisoner named Jimmy by getting him a loaf of bread. Unbeknownst to Jerry, said loaf of bread contained tools for his escape and once he's free, Jimmy proceeds to rob the Three Friends and Jerry's houses.
- His attempt to keep a surprise party secret for Eric in "Girls Clothes" ends up with a goat eating their clothes, being forced to return home in a dress and not being able to go to the party. The only upshot is that he ends up having fun playing with the preschool girls.
- Trying to help Linda with the beauty contest in "Miss Jerry" ends up with him winning the contest and being forced to out himself as a boy.
- The Scapegoat: Jerry is always blamed for any misfortune that befalls the Three Friends, whether he really is at fault or not.
- Super Gullible: Even when it comes to Blatant Lies. In "Catch the Girl" he is tricked into releasing a prisoner because he told him a sob story.
- Straw Loser: He pretty much exists to be humiliated.
- Throw the Dog a Bone: Ocassionally things go well for him at the end, such as in "Head Lice", "Costume Party", "Family Matters" and "Miss Jerry".
- Wholesome Crossdresser: While the first few occasions he dressed in drag were due to Frank's meddling, he willingly tries to dress as a girl in "Forbidden Fruit".
Frank
- Abhorrent Admirer: To Linda. She looks quite annoyed every time he tries to flirt with her.
- And I Must Scream: At the end of "Supermarket" he gets paralyzed after accidentally locking himself in a meat fridge. And then Thomas, Eric and Jerry push him off a slope, landing in an ice cream truck. What makes it worse is that his friends are completely oblivious to what happened to him and he can't do anything about it.
- Breakout Character: Jerry is supposedly the main character, but Frank quickly took the center stage in later seasons.
- Butt-Monkey: Although many of the characters are subjected to moments of embarrassment, Frank seems to be unable to go five minutes without something humiliating happening to him. His attempts to woo, impress, or otherwise have fun with Linda always end in humiliation, disappointment, and a near-death experience.
- Charlie Brown Baldness: He apparently has hair and just looks bald. "Head Lice" implies he has a buzzcut.
- The Chew Toy: If Frank is the focus of an episode, expect him to be hurt the worst out of all the Three Friends.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Thomas and Eric, but to a lesser degree than they are with each other.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: When he’s mocked and belittled (a constant in this show), Frank can have some very powerful temper tantrums.
- Hot-Blooded: Aggressive, intense and short-tempered, Frank is not easy to get along with.
- Failed a Spot Check: In "Head Lice", he fails in his attempts to get head lice and miss school. Only at the ends he remembers that he can't because he's bald.
- Flanderization: Early on, while he was still antagonistic towards Jerry, at worst he'd only really taunt him and only get violent when he provoked him. By the later episodes, he would often become a flat-out bully to Jerry, often tormenting him with little to no provocation.
- Genius Ditz: Is genuinely lackadaisical and childish in most respects, but a highly skilled manipulator when it comes to messing with Jerry.
- Gonk: Downplayed. While not quite ugly, on a show with
Ugly Cute characters, he still manages to look fairly dumpy and unappealing. Heck, in "The Beauty Contest", he got mistaken for a dog! - Jabba Table Manners: He does tend to eat like an pig and would make a mess everywhere, as "Neat and Tidy" shows.
- Jerkass: A mild case. He likes to give Jerry a hard time and can be outright cruel to other people, but "Cockatoo" shows a lot of this stems from his lack of empathy rather than outright malice.
- Jerkass Realization: He's regrets the crappy way he treated Simon in "Country Cousin", especially after he says he still loves Frank no matter what.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: His spotlight episodes tend to display him as a Hot-Blooded kid whose impulsiveness get the best of him or digs himself in too deep and needs Jerry to save him. That said, he tends to be a lot nicer to people who aren't Jerry.
- Kissing Cousins: Wants this with Linda badly. Too bad she only sees him as an annoying little brother at best and an Abhorrent Admirer at worst.
- The Leader: Of the Three Friends.
- Made of Iron: He takes heavy injury in nearly every episode, and comes out alive, barely. Exaggerated in "Supermarket", when he's trapped for an hour in the meat fridge. And survived.
- Never My Fault: By the time of Season 3 he blames Jerry for things that happened due to his own poor impulse control.
- Nice Mean And In Between: Mean to Thomas's in-between and Eric's nice.
- Pet the Dog:
- Despite his default Jerk Jock persona and contempt for Jerry, he usually has a good relationship with Thomas and Eric, if not above some casual teasing.
- He does befriend Simon after the events of "Country Cousin", to the point they hang out offscreen.
- In "Cockatoo" he's shown to love his aforementioned pet, at least until it gets him into trouble too many times.
- Sore Loser: In "Cockatoo" he completely loses his shit when Jerry beats him at Monopoly. Thomas and Eric are so disgusted by this that they stop hanging out with him for most of the episode.
- With Friends Like These...: The most likely among the Three Friends to be a backstabber to almost anyone he knows, even nonchalantly speaking. Not even Thomas and Eric are safe from his scheming.
Thomas
- Author Avatar: Of Magnus Carlsson.
- Berserk Button: Don't touch his hat. Seriously don't.
- A Day in the Limelight: "Our Son is an Ostrich", focused on his hidden love for ostriches...until it presses his Berserk Button.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Eric and to a lesser extent Frank.
- Hidden Depths:
- Has a fascination for ostriches and is almost as bad as Jerry's love for ants. He's also a good artist, but he is self-conscious and feels that he needs to hide his creative nature.
- He also takes dancing lessons, which he keeps secret from his friends because he's afraid they'll end up mocking him. Which happens in "Secret Mission".
- Iconic Item: His green cap.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He can be obnoxious when he's around Frank, but his spotlight episodes show that he's more civilized.
- The Lancer: Together with Eric they serve as this to both Frank and Jerry, being (usually) the more calm of the four, but also providing back up whenever they need it. They also rarely instigate the plot, and instead follow along with whatever is currently happening.
- Never Bare Headed: Never takes off his green baseball cap and when he does the camera is arranged so you never see what's under his cap.
- Nice Mean And In Between: In-between to Eric's nice and Frank's mean.
- Only Sane Man: Thomas is the most mature of the group, but being under Frank usually means he has to carry out his insane and whimsical tasks, much to his chagrin. He'll do it, though, because listening to Frank bitch and moan is a bigger pain in the ass than actually doing whatever he wants.
- Skewed Priorities: In "Our Son is an Ostrich" he doesn't seem to care about his injuries or the fact his parents never visited at the hospital due to confusing him with an ostrich, only that the eponymous bird stole his hat.
- Spell My Name With An S: In the original Swedish version his name is spelled as Tomas.
- Those Two Guys: With Eric.
- Yes-Man: To Frank, for the most part.
Eric
- '90s Hair: Has a mullet.
- Chivalrous Pervert: He likes to start conversations about girls. Subverted in that he doesn't reciprocate Tess's feelings and is repulsed at the idea of seeing a naked girl in "Forbidden Fruit".
- A Day in the Limelight: "The Substitute", where he falls in love with the substitute teacher.
- Dumb Jock: He's the most athletic of the Three Friends, but also the dumbest.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Thomas. And Frank, to a lesser extent.
- The Lancer: See Thomas's entry.
- Nice Guy: One of the few characters who never insults or tries to take advantage of Jerry (unless he was with Frank and Thomas), and on a couple of occasions even willingly joined him in his zany schemes.
- Nice Mean And In Between: Nice to Frank's mean and Thomas's in-between.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: In "Junior Show", the fact that even he wants to beat up Jerry for his scam signals just how bad it was. Then again, Eric got a broken leg for his trouble.
- Those Two Guys: With Thomas.
- Token Good Teammate: Of the Three Friends, he shows some degree of sympathy towards Jerry, but because he's a lackey to Frank, he doesn't involve himself.
- Showing concern when everyone thought Jerry got hit by a thunder in "Magic Tricks"
- Confiding about his fear of Oscar in "Curing Phobias".
- Expresses pity after Jerry got in trouble in "Carol Singing" and "Girls Clothes".
- Spell My Name With An S: In the original Swedish version his name is spelled as Erik.
- Yes-Man: To Frank, for the most part.
The Girls
Linda
Frank's mean-spirited cousin and the prettiest girl in class. She is a bit tougher and a little more mature than her two friends, Mimmi and Tess.
- Alpha Bitch: She's beautiful and popular, but also catty, shallow and vindictive. In fact, with her pageant upbringing and Spoiled Brat persona, she could even be considered a deconstruction of one.
- Attention Whore: Throws a complete fit if not seen as the cutest girl in a given line-up. Justified, given that she is a beauty pageant contestant.
- Entitled Bitch: As much as she's disgusted by Frank, she doesn't like when he pays attention to someone else, as it happens in "Triplets".
- Everyone Loves Blondes: She's blond, and the prettiest girl in class. The Three Friends and Jerry spend their time in her presence Eating the Eye Candy.
- Dude Magnet: She's extremely attractive and seems to attract most of the guys in school, and she's damn proud of it too.
- Freudian Excuse: Her ruthlessness stems from her pageant days, especially with her mother being an overbearing Stage Mom.
- Hypocritical Heartwarming: In "Veteran Rock" she goes great lengths to stop Frank and Eric from moving away....because she doesn't want to lose her Dogged Nice Guys.
- It Runs in the Family: Like Frank, she can be a ruthless manipulator when she wants. She also treats her friends as lackeys.
- Likes Older Men: Has a crush on Tess's brother, Tony. Too bad he sees her as a brat.
- Pet the Dog: A couple times, she does things that are oddly nice, given her character... in her own, manipulative Alpha Bitch way.
- Goes out of her way to help Tess when she gets catfished in "Pen Pal".
- As much as she sees Frank as an Abhorrent Admirer, sometimes she willingly helps him without expecting anything in return and expressed concern when he wanted to fight a gorilla in "Costume Party".
- She also appreciates Gerry's friendship.
- Ship Tease: Has this with Frank and Jerry.
Mimmi
Linda's neighbor, a rich girl who loves flanting her wealth. She's the adoptive daughter of Ray Johnsson.
- Asian Buck Teeth: Has some particular ones.
- Beta Bitch: To Linda.
- Even Bad Women Love Their Mamas: She is complicit in Linda's bitchery and the expensive gifts her parents give her, but is sad when she recounts in "The Delivery" about how her parents forget her birthday every year.
- Parental Neglect: Her parents are so self-absorbed that they always forget her birthday.
- Rich Bitch: Huge house, lavish vacations and is one of the meanest girls in the series. She always lords her social superiority over the other kids.
- Ship Tease: Has this with Thomas.
- Yes-Man: To Linda.
Tess
Linda's other lackey, a shy girl who tends to blindly follow her friends. She's Tony's little sister.
- Abhorrent Admirer: She has a crush on Eric, though "Junior Show" makes it clear he doesn't reciprocate.
- Anti-Villain: She's part of Linda's gang, but she is more shallow, desperate for attention, and insecure than mean.
- Annoying Younger Sibling: To Tony.
- Beta Bitch: More of a follower to Linda than a full-fledged Alpha Bitch. When she was alone, she was usually quite friendly; whenever with Linda and Mimmi she was all too happy to join in on all the meanness.
- Hidden Depths: In "Pen Pal" she has a hidden thoughtful side and gives her information to a teen magazine, hoping to find a friend she could connect with. Too bad the Three Friends decide to catfish her For the Lulz.
- Innocent Beta Bitch: There doesn't seem to be a mean bone in her body. When she does unkind things, she's usually just following the lead of one of the other girls.
- Pet the Dog: As much as she likes messing with the Three Friends, in "Girls Clothes" she agrees that pranking Eric on his birthday is too much.
- Ship Tease: Has this with Eric.
- Yes-Man: To Linda and to a lesser degree, Mimmi.
Others
The P.E Teacher
Jerry's bad-tempered father. He tends to act very loud with the Three Friends and his son, but he has a good heart and intentions.
- Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Shows this towards his wife at times, of note in "Ant Hill" and "The Snowball Fight".
- Control Freak: Is overbearing and controlling, especially with Jerry.
- The Dreaded: So much that the Three Friends were initially afraid of visiting Jerry's house, at least until "Ant Hill".
- Enraged by Idiocy: Unfortunately, his son is a foolish and gullible loser who is always causing trouble with his zany schemes and this makes him almost always angry. That said, his rage is downright scary even by the standards of this trope.
- Fatal Flaw: Wrath. Seriously, this guy always gets angry.
- Fiery Redhead: He's a redheaded known for being easily provoked and screaming a lot.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: BIG TIME. He has a short temper and freaks out all the time. To the point that in "The Move" after finding out that he was never intended to get a promotion and simply got mistaken for someone else, he thrashed down the place instead of leaving.
- Politically Incorrect Hero: Is an open misogynist, who intentionally looks down on boys pursuing theater, wants his son to be manly, and scoffs at the idea of Mrs. Bertwhistle being a capable swimming teacher. Then again, given how the series is set in the '90s, his bigotry is likely intentional.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: Becomes more unpleasant after the events of "The Move".
- Tough Love: He doesn't necessarily believe in being nice to Jerry, having no issue with roughing him up to shape.
- When He Smiles: His face is constantly on a frown or a smug smirk, but when Jerry accidentally wins the macho contest in "Curing Phobias", he breaks into a huge, sincere smile.
Roy Johnson
Mimmi's adoptive father and the wealthiest person in the town. He runs the local shop.
- Fat Bastard: Is a rich, materialistic jerk and is also very stout.
- Karma Houdini:
- Screw the Rules, I Have Money!:
- Spell My Name With An S: In the original Swedish version his surname is spelled as Johnsson.
Tony
Tess's brother, a heavy metal guitarist.
- Distracted by the Sexy: In "The Move", Jerry blackmails him with a photo of some attractive girls in exchange for letting him use Mimmi's trampoline.
- Hidden Depths: Has an encyclopedic knowledge about frogs, due to raising them when he was young.
- Kick the Dog: At worst he'd only really taunt and get violent with the Three Friends and Jerry when they provoked him. But in "Jerry's Lucky Day" he kicks Jerry for no reason.
- Pet the Dog: Apologizes after accidentally hitting Jerry with a ball in "Age Limit", even inviting him to one of his parties to make up for it.
- Ungrateful Bastard: In "Tony's Party", he kicks the Three Friends and Jerry off his party even after they helped to get rid of some thugs.
- Would Hurt a Child: Only when they provoke him, such as Jerry in "Jerry's Lucky Day" and Frank in "Forbidden Fruit".
Monica
Tony's girlfriend, an attractive brunette who works at Roy's shop.
- Apathetic Clerk: She's a snarky teenager who does her best to ignore the Three Friend and Jerry's goofy antics.
- Miss Fanservice: To the point "Forbidden Fruit" is about the Three Friends and Jerry's reactions upon accidentally seeing her naked.
- Pet the Dog: Despite being apathetic towards the Three Friends and Jerry, she does help Frank after he fell from his bike in "Brake Slamming".
Dick Priest
The town's priest, who is always campaigning against everything immoral.
- Big Little Brother: He thinks it's his duty to reform Oscar.
- Friend to All Living Things: Raises frogs and plants at his house, as shown in "Frog Collection" and "Green Thumbs".
- Good Shepherd: Genuinely cares about his community and wants to do good for others. Unfortunately for him, things usually don't go according to plan.
- Hypocrite: Despite campaigning against everything immoral, he is revealed to be a fan of metal music and horror movies.
Oscar
The local bum and Dick's older brother.
- Blind Without Them: What made him give the crown to Jerry instead of Mimmi eight years ago? Because he had lost his glasses.
- Body Horror: His time spent as a hobo hold did him no favors physically: his skin turned a sickly green, his hair's fallen out barring a few strands and he lost most of his teeth.
- Cloud Cuckoolander: Is a bit of a nutter, saying random and crazy things.
- The Dreaded: All the kids are afraid of him, especially Eric.
- Karma Houdini: In "Christmas Party" he got away with stealing all the christmas presents, ruining Roy's party and putting the blame on Jerry.
- I Was Quite a Looker: Back in his tv star days.
- Riches to Rags: Was once a very famous tv star, until he mistakenly gave the first place to Jerry, when Roy previously bribed him to make his daughter Mimmi win a beauty contest.
- Spell My Name With An S: In the original Swedish version his name is spelled as Oskar.
