Characters who appear in The PJs and their associated tropes.
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Thurgood Orenthal Stubbs
The superintendent of the Hilton-Jacobs projects and the main protagonist of the show.
- Affectionate Nickname: Muriel occasionally calls him "Goodie."
- Brilliant, but Lazy: For all the jokes that are made about how bad he is at his job, Thurgood is a gifted repairman that can innovate solutions to unconventional problems. It's just that he's highly unmotivated and prefers goofing off (which is made worse by HUD's poor budget allotments). One episode has him cleaning up his act when the threat of being fired rears its head.
- Cranky Landlord: Of the superintendent variety. A rare example of this type of character being the protagonist.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: As dimwitted as he can be, he's proven to be kind and a natural leader if need be.
- Deadpan Snarker: Most of his interactions with the other tenants consist of sarcastic one-liners on his end.
- Famous Ancestor: The second season premiere reveals that he is descended from Thomas Jefferson.
- Informed Flaw: Many jokes are made about Thurgood being bad at repair work but quite often he demonstrates that he's a capable if unorthodox handyman, often making use of his skills to great effect.
- Jerkass Has a Point: As lazy and ill-tempered as he is, Thurgood's argument that he has very few resources for the upkeep of the Hilton Jacobs building is absolutely true; HUD gives him very little to work with (to the point that he was forced to resort to burglary just to get a new water filter in one episode), and the fact that the building is in a crime-ridden ghetto means that many of the improvements Thurgood could do to the building would just be stolen, as seen in "The Door".
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Thurgood is short-tempered, irresponsible, and lazy to the point of apathy about his job, but he's also a man who cares deeply about his friends and community.
- The Loins Sleep Tonight: A minor Running Gag is that his poor health has led to impotency. It's briefly reignited by a new blood pressure medication.
- Only Sane Man: If he's not the one responsible for the Zany Scheme of the day, he'll be the one to snark about it and try to stop it if it threatens others.
- Retired Badass: Thurgood's no longer in his prime, but he had a successful wrestling career and served in the navy with at least thirty confirmed kills. He also maintains an interest in martial arts which he mixes with his past skills to deal with people that actually threaten him. Unless they pull guns on him, the odds of Thurgood walking away after besting him are pretty good, and even being armed isn't a guarantee he'll be the one losing.
- Skewed Priorities: Whenever he unclogs Haiti Lady's toilet, he's typically more concerned with the fact that she flushed paper towels than the fact that she also flushes animal parts and voodoo accessories.
- Unusual Euphemism: Often uses the names of African-American icons as expletives ("What on Eartha Kitt?", "Mother Marion Berry!", etc.).
- Verbal Tic: Prone to saying "uht" when shocked.
- Younger Than They Look: He's 45, but a lifetime of wearage makes him look like he's in his late 50's.
Muriel Stubbs
Voiced by: Loretta Devine
Thurgood's wife.
- All Women Are Lustful: Has quite the sex drive, as demonstrated when Thurgood begins taking medication that has a side effect of increasing his libido. After he runs out, his libido drops back down, but she still incessantly tries to get him in the mood, and ends up almost forcing herself on him. When he still won't give in, she breaks down crying.
- Only Sane Man/Women Are Wiser: She's typically the voice of reason to Thurgood's antics.
- Pink Is Feminine: She usually wears pink clothing.
Florence Normandy Avery
Voiced by: Ja Net Dubois
An elderly tenant who constantly antagonizes Thurgood. In her past, she used to be a con artist.
- Cool Old Lady: But not as far as Thurgood is concerned.
- I Call It "Vera": She calls her shotgun "Mrs. Jones."
- Last-Name Basis: Most people just call her "Mrs. Avery."
- Made of Iron: She's had multiple strokes, but is still alive and able to move on her own.
- Shotguns Are Just Better: Often brings out a shotgun to threaten people or to get her way.
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Of a sympathetic variety in one episode where she pretended to be hurt because she was lonely and wanted some (male) companionship.
Bebe Ho
Voiced by: Jenifer Lewis
Muriel's sister, and wife of Jimmy Ho.
- Boyish Short Hair: Although her personality is atypical for the trope.
- The Glorious War of Sisterly Rivalry: She and Muriel don't always get along very well.
- Really Gets Around:
- It's mentioned that Jimmy is her fifth husband. Lampshaded in "The Door":
Bebe: With that door gone, what's to stop some strange man from comin' in here and havin' his way with me?
Thurgood: The long-ass line.- She also slept with most of her high school teachers, as well as an exotic dancer—the night before her wedding.
- Of course, this makes "Ho" a Meaningful Name.
Emilio Sanchez
Voiced by: Pepe Serna
Sanchez
A Cuban tenant who speaks with an electrolarynx, and one of Thurgood's friends.- Butt-Monkey: Not only is he given zero respect by his fellow tenants, but is on the receiving end of the show's Amusing Injuries more than the others.
- A Day in the Limelight: Season 3's "Scathroat".
- The Friend Nobody Likes: Of all the tenants, Sanchez is the least liked and most mocked, with everyone making jokes at his expense and insulting him to his face. One episode has him insulting Thurgood just like everyone else, only for Avery to warn him not to get cocky. However, he's still always included in activities.
- Last-Name Basis: Everyone just calls him Sanchez.
- The Lost Lenore: His late-wife Esperansa. When he talks about her, he's still sad over it and loses his mind when Thurgood tosses out her ashes.
- Multiple-Choice Past: How exactly he lost his voice. It's typically stated that years of smoking damaged his throat, but it's implied in "Haiti Sings the Blues" that Haiti Lady placed a voodoo curse on him. Not that either explanation is mutually exclusive.
- Smoking Is Not Cool: He speaks with an electrolarynx because of his smoking habit.
Jimmy Ho
Voiced by: Michael Paul Chan
Jimmy
Bebe's Korean husband and Muriel and Thurgood's brother-in-law, who considers himself part of the African-American community.- Freudian Excuse: "Red Man's Burden" explains Jimmy's Pretty Fly for a White Guy behavior. He rejects his Korean heritage because the one night stand that led to his birth caused his mother be thrown out of the family and he believed his father to be black based on the name on the dog tags left behind.
- Native American Casino: In one of the last produced episodes, he finds out he's part Native American, and opens up an Indian casino in the projects.
- Pretty Fly for a White Guy: Well, he's Asian, but he still fits the bill, considering himself an honorary black man and often using speaking of himself as such.
Garcelle "Haiti Lady" DuPris
- Voiced by: Cheryl Francis Harrington
Mambo Garcelle
A Haitian tenant and the projects' resident voodoo queen.
- Hartman Hips: Or, as Bebe said "childbearing Hippos". She has the largest set of hips compared to the rest of cast and they take up most of her body.
- Hollywood Voodoo: Whether or not her magic actually works varies between episodes, so far, it's only been proven in two episodes.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Most people just call her "Haiti Lady". She often has to remind Thurgood that it's not her actual name.
Elister "Smokey" McDaniel
- Voiced by: Shawn Michael Howard
A homeless crackhead who is nonetheless considered part of the Hilton-Jacobs community.
- Drugs Are Bad: He's homeless and addicted to crack.
- Hidden Depths: For a crackhead, Smokey is actually pretty intelligent. He helps Thurgood get his GED (successfully) and has an understanding of housing laws and building codes (which most likely comes from illegally living in housing projects or hanging around HUD).
- Only Known by Their Nickname: His real name, Elister, is revealed in the second season episode "Smokey the Squatter", and his surname, McDaniel, is revealed in the
originally-unaired-in-the-US episode "Clip Show". Prior to that, he's either known as "that damn crackhead," "Mr. Crack," or "Smokey." - Sticky Fingers: He tends to steal from the tenants whenever possible.
Walter Burkett
- Voiced by: Marc Wilmore
The neighborhood parole officer and a friend of Thurgood's.
- Dirty Cop: In "How the Super Stoled Christmas", he arrests a purse snatcher, but leaves him locked in a trunk instead of turning him in. He also steals evidence and sells it at the pawnshop as his "Christmas bonus", and once threatens to beat up Thurgood when he thinks he's wearing a wire.
- Son of a Whore: He mentions in the episode "Bougie Nights" that he was raised in a whorehouse.
Calvin Banks
- Voiced By: Crystal Scales
Calvin
One of the local Hilton Jacob's children. Often hangs out with Thurgood and at one point planned on becoming a janitor himself. Oddly enough, his parents are never seen, despite Calvin appearing with the rest of the residents for meetings and various hijinks.
- Fat and Skinny: The skinny to Juicy's fat.
- Intergenerational Friendship: With Thurgood, somehow. He and Juicy are among the few characters he's nice to.
- Those Two Guys: Is almost never seen apart from Juicy.
Juicy Hudson
- Voiced By: Michèle Morgan
- Big Eater: Early episodes had his mother hanging a "Do Not Feed" sign around his neck to curb this tendency.
- Big Fun
- Extreme Omnivore: Often eats things that aren't food, such as the plastic bag around the marshmallows, or the carpet insulation.
- Fat and Skinny: The fat to Calvin's skinny.
- Fat Best Friend: For Calvin.
- Fat Idiot: Is notably slow-witted and almost completely lacks common sense.
- The Unfavorite: Thurgood often treats Juicy with significantly less regard than he does Calvin. It is implied in some episodes to be because of Juicy's low intelligence.
Babs and De-Shawn
Two other crackheads that are seldom seen apart.
- Addled Addict: More so than Smokey is, as Babs is all but feral and De-Shawn is just there.
- Flat Character: There's not a lot to them besides being crack addicts and Smokey's associates.
- Reduced to Ratburgers: De-Shawn, according to Fear of a Black Rat, eats rats.
- Streetwalker: Babs is implied to be this or close enough to this, as one episode makes a mention that she's a crackwhore and, like De-Shawn and Smokey, she's implied to be homeless, too.
- Those Two Guys: These two only show up together when they appear at all.
- The Unintelligible: Babs doesn't so much talk and, when she does, it's more like an animal screaming.
Juicy's Parents
Mama and Papa Hudson are Juicy's extremely obese parents, who never leave their apartment, so Juicy has to do things for them.
- The Shut-In: Their extreme obesity means they can't fit through the door, though Papa Hudson did leave the apartment once.
- The Voice: For the longest, we knew they were there when they talked, though Papa's arm and leg could be seen in a few episodes and we even see his face in some episodes.
Rasta Man
A marijuana-loving tenant who's always got a huge cloud of smoke surrounding him.
- Only Known By His Nickname: He's only ever referred to as "Rasta Man" and we never find out what his real name is.
- The Voice: While we sometimes see his legs/feet, we never find out what he really looks like as he's always got this huge cloud of marijuana smoke around him.
