Characters / The Penguins of Madagascar

Although they were just a One-Scene Wonder in the first movie, the penguins have proven to be Ensemble Dark Horses to the point that their part in the movies escalated and then they received their own show, The Penguins of Madagascar and a solo movie that (debatably) tied the Madagascar canon to the series canon.

Note that this character sheet applies only to the TV series canon. For tropes related to the characters in the movie franchises (including Penguins of Madagascar), go here.

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Penguins

General

The titular Badass Crew of penguins.

• Ambiguously Bi: All four had a female love interest at some point in the show, but there are also some... scenes... that suggest they probably aren't completely straight.
• Anti-Hero: Except for Private, all of them are mostly Type II or III. Kowalski also shows traits of Type I from time to time.
• Badass Adorable: They are small, cute penguins and complete badasses.
• Badass Crew: Of course.
• Beware the Silly Ones: All four can be incredibly silly in the funniest and weirdest ways. However, all of them can be quite dangerous when provoked.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: As goofy and silly as they are, they do always end up getting their job done.
• Cloud Cuckoolander: Every single one of them.
• Four-Man Band:
  • Only Sane Man: Skipper. He isn't really SANE, but he is the closest thing the group has.
  • The Smart Guy: Kowalski, of the Mad Scientist type.
  • The Pervert: Rico, of the Heroic Comedic Sociopath type
  • Butt-Monkey: When it comes to being a diversion, or bait, Private tends to get the short end of the stick.
• Four-Philosophy Ensemble:
  • Skipper: The Cynic. Being constantly paranoid, Skipper always sees the worst in others, as well as the worst possible scenario.
  • Kowalski: The realistic. While more on the cynical side of the spectrum, Kowalski's goal is always to see the most realistic and rational side of things.
  • Private: The optimistic. Kind to everyone and always sees the good side of others when his teammates don't.
  • Rico: The apathetic. The oddball of the group, Rico doesn't really express himself that much and is more prone to just following Skipper's orders.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble:
  • Skipper: Choleric. Always takes the lead, is strong-willed, passionate, determined, hard-working and confident, but also tends to be a bit of Drill Sergeant Nasty, stubborn, harsh, bossy, cynical, strict and prone to seeing the worst in other animals.
  • Kowalski: Melancholic. Analytical, loyal, witty, more of a follower despite his higher position but also tends to see the worst in people and seems to be kind of insecure.
  • Private: Phlegmatic. Cheerful, open-minded, optimistic, forgiving, polite, compassionate, but tends to be gullible, overly idealistic and timid.
  • Rico: Sanguine. Energetic, passionate, unpredictable, quirky and eccentric The Big Guy of the team, but also emotionally unstable, hyperactive, impulsive and kind of psychotic.
• Good is Not Nice: They are openly heroic and have good intentions... even if they are usually needlessly ruthless and have little concern for collateral damage. Only exception is Private, who fits the Beware of the Nice Ones trope more.
• Heroic Comedic Sociopath: Aside from Private, all of them fit this to an extent. Skipper always uses violence as his first resort, Rico is extremely Ax-Crazy and trigger happy and Kowalski does everything For Science!, even when it results in someone else getting hurt.
• Interspecies Romance: Well, it IS a Madagascar tradition when you think about it...
  • Skipper had a fling with a falcon named Kitka and has some Ship Tease moments with Marlene, who is an otter.
  • Kowalski is in love with a dolphin named Doris.
  • Private once had a crush on a human nurse.
  • Rico's... "girlfriend"... is a human doll named Miss Perky.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Except for Private, who is a straight up Nice Guy, these guys probably aren't the nicest animals in the Zoo and are prone to making selfish mistakes, but they are dedicated to helping animals in need and stopping evil animals and they care about each other deeply.
  • Skipper is a sarcastic, tough, cynical and paranoid leader who constantly sees the worst in other animals and he tends to be mean to his co-workers as well. That said, he cares for all of them - while he often dismisses Private as "naive", even when he is being the Only Sane Man, he practically sees him as his son, he completely accepts Rico's quirks and while he isn't a huge fan of Kowalski's nerdiness and inventions that tend to end with disaster, he still respects him and is willing to help him out with everything.
  • Kowalski is an Insufferable Genius whose obsession with science tends to end in a disaster. He also has a trouble with expressing empathy, though that can be chalked up to him being socially awkward. That said, he might actually be the second nicest member after Private, as he seems to be quite polite to most animals in the Zoo, unless they do something he sees as stupid.
  • Rico may be the Ax-Crazy loose cannon of the penguins, but he is quite the softie once you get to know him. Also, don't hurt his teammates. Just don't.
• Manchild: Mostly Private and Rico, who act more like teenagers at most than actual adults, but Kowalski is prone to throwing temper tantrums for stupidest things, and some of Skipper's thories can be... questionable.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: They are pretty small, even for their species.
• Predators Are Mean: Flips-flops between this and Predation Is Natural. In real life, penguins are predators that regularly prey on, kill, and eat krill, squids, and especially fish, and the show reflects this with the Penguins commonly eating fish, either that are still alive or have been made into sushi. Despite this, the worst they do to the non-fish zoo animals is Dope Slapping them. Besides their love to eat seafood dead or alive, the Penguins are still heroic at heart and are willing to do what's right, even if their means of doing so can get questionable. tough they still label other predatory species such as Falcons, badgers, and especially leopard seals as dangerous.
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Thanks to the Flanderization, Skipper is now an extremely paranoid leader who has prejudiced thoughts about mammmals, Kowalski is a nerdy Insufferable Genius, Rico is their psychotic Dumb Muscle who lives to blow things up and while Private may be the most normal of them, he is still prone to making silly and naive mistakes and is a Cloud Cuckoo Lander.
• Rude Hero, Nice Sidekick: Skipper and Private in a nutshell.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Skipper (a tough leader who slaps his teammates whenever they do something wrong) and Rico (The Big Guy who loves explosions) are manly to Kowalski's (a socially awkward scientist) and Private's (a naive Nice Guy who looks on the bright side of things) sensitive.
• The Team:
  • Skipper is The Leader.
  • Kowalski is The Lancer, as he acts like a leader whenever Skipper is not around and the two are polar opposites in personality (Skipper prefers to act while Kowalski prefers to think) and appearance (Skipper is short and stocky, while Kowalski is tall and slim). He is also The Smart Guy, being the resident scientist and strategist.
  • Rico is The Big Guy, as he is generally the most violent of the group. He is also shown to be second most physically capable member after Skipper.
  • Private is The Heart, as he is the most kind-hearted, open-minded and emphatic member of the group. Skipper even calls him the heart of the group in one episode.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Fish, of course, but they also enjoy snowcones.
• True Companions: They stick together no matter what.
• Undying Loyalty: While they have their arguments from time to time, these guys are constantly loyal to each other.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: The four are very close to each other, but they tend to have arguments extremely often.

Skipper

Voiced By: Tom McGrath

The leader of a Badass Crew of Commando Penguins. He speaks in a crisp, hard-edged tone like a cool spy from a film noir movie. In the TV series, Skipper is somewhat abrasive with the other three penguins, often chastizing them and Dope Slapping them to keep them in line.

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• A Father to His Men: Genuinely seems to look out for and care about his men, and has even pulled off a one manned Big Damn Heroes more than once.
• Afraid of Needles: In "Needle Point," he goes well out of his way to avoid getting a shot. He even lampshades this in "King Me".
  Skipper: Needles, I gotta get over that.
• Angrish: In "Herring Impaired", Skipper notices that his ship from his ship in a bottle kit is missing part of its hull. Believing that a piece is missing, he loses his temper and resorts to using his "angry words", which is effectively this - only the word "bouillabaisse" is clearly audible.
• Authority Equals Asskicking: The leader of the penguins and the best fighter, having several times fought and defeated the other three all at the same time.
• Badass Adorable: In "Rock-A-Bye Birdie".
• Berserk Button:
  • He doesn't go berserk, per se, but Skipper really doesn't like it when you call him fat, or any of its synonyms. He likes to claim it's muscle.
  • His entire team shares this, but he especially doesn't like Hoboken, New Jersey, even ranting on how he would rather mutilate himself by pecking out his own eyes or rot in concentration camps than go to Hoboken.
  • Or Denmark, considering it's heavily implied that he was blamed by Hans for being an alleged wanted fugitive on the run from them.
  • He hates the lemurs going on solo missions.
• Bruiser with a Soft Center: He might try to hide it behind a tough leader facade, but he loves his teammates to no end.
• The Captain: He is the heroic commander of the penguins. His name, "Skipper", is a synonym for "sea captain".
• Catchphrase: "Kowalski, analysis!" Used when a situation has become particularly bizarre and he needs Kowalski to explain it to him.
• The Comically Serious: He takes even his weirdest delusions extremely seriously.
• Deadpan Snarker: Skipper has a snarky sense of humor.
• Determinator: Skipper doesn't know the meaning of the word "surrender". When he puts his mind to something, nothing can stop him.
• Dope Slap: Used often on his comrades. Sometimes all three in one swing. He also likes to order one of his men to do this when he is too far away or can't be bothered to do it himself.
• Drill Sergeant Nasty: Has shades of this in "A Kipper for Skipper". He subjects his comrades to all sorts of difficult and impossible tasks.
• Fantastic Racism: He occasionally makes less-than-complimentary remarks towards mammals. He especially dislikes humans. Despite this, he genuinely respects Marlene, and has openly said that she's smart, despite claiming that mammals have low intelligence. Same with Mason and Phill, two chimpanzees that Skipper regularly goes to for exposition on details he and his team can't read.
• Flanderization: While the most unchanged of the penguins, his opinion of the main characters in the movies (referring to them as hippies) has been expanded to a low opinion of all mammals in general.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: The Choleric. Always takes the lead, is strong-willed, passionate, determined, hard-working and confident, but also tends to be a bit of Drill Sergeant Nasty, stubborn, harsh, bossy, cynical, strict and prone to seeing the worst in other animals.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: In "Skipper Makes Perfect" when Skipper steals his file back from the Danes you can freeze on the file and learn some of what happened (most of which has been brought up at some point or other by Skipper already).
• The Hero: Occasionally, he and the others do come off as jerks, but they almost always save the day in the end.
• It's All My Fault: Done twice. The first time was when he poked a hole in Julien's bouncy house causing him to lose his crown (though he blamed part of it on Marlene for provoking him); the other, when one of the chimps causes him and the penguins to spin out and lose a race to the lemurs. In the latter episode, also he accepts full responsibility despite the fact he did nothing to cause it. He even said they would have his resignation in the morning because of his shame and guilt.
• Large Ham: Lots of dramatic closeups and exaggerated gestures accompany his powerful paranoia and give the impression that Skipper has trained at the William Shatner school of acting. His tendency to clutch a flipper to his chest when upset gives one the permanent suspicion that he's suffering from some sort of heart condition.
• The Leader: He leads and commands the penguin team.
• Like a Son to Me: While he refers to Private as a brother, his attitude is much more like that of a strict but loving father (who's training his son to be a commando/ninja/special-agent).
• Loves My Alter Ego: He fell for Arlene (Marlene in disguise due to chlorine accident) and became kinda Stalker with a Crush.
• Meaningful Name: Skipper is also the title of the captain of a ship or team.
• Never My Fault: The one time it was his fault, he pinned the blame on Private.
• Noble Bigot: Skipper has a rather condescending attitude towards mammals of all kind and constantly goes out of his way to put birds (penguins, specially) on a pedestal. Nonetheless, he and his team will always gladly help any animal in trouble, no matter their species, and also holds Marlene, an otter, in great respect and esteem.
• The Nicknamer: He almost always refers to Julien as "Ringtail," Mort as "Sad Eyes" and Max as "moon cat."
• Odd Friendship:
  • With Marlene. They are certainly friends and honestly respect and trust one another. Even though Marlene's friendly and level-headed nature clashes with Skipper's raving paranoia.
  • With King Julien. The two were described as best friends by Dr. Blowhole and Skipper's fellow penguins end up more or less agreeing.
• Officer and a Gentleman: Mostly Officer.
• Persona Non Grata: As stated above, he can't set foot in Denmark due to Hans the Puffin making him Public Enemy Number One.
• Politically Incorrect Hero: He's rather prejudiced toward mammals and doesn't think highly of them, but still does everything in his power to aid them whenever they need his help.
• Properly Paranoid: Played with. His suspicions are so wild and irrational that no normal person would have them, ranging from robot clones to space-squids. He's always suspicious of new arrivals and has occasionally accused his friends of being brainwashed or enemies in disguise when they disagree with him. And yet he's often right. Then again, sometimes he isn't.
• Smart People Play Chess: He's shown playing chess with Marlene in "Crown Fools".
• Unusual Euphemism: Skipper has loads of these. Hoover Dam! Lincoln's itchy beard! Gandhi's nunchucks!
• The Un-Smile: Skipper has at least once mentioned that it hurts to smile.

Kowalski

Voiced By: Jeff Bennett

The team genius and gadgeteer. Kowalski builds all of the crazy technology that the other penguins use, and a lot of the tech that causes a lot of trouble for them too. He helps to come up with plans - usually ones that are overly complicated - and is occasionally referred to as 'Lieutenant'.

Kowalski is certainly the smartest penguin alive, but his sciencing has a bad habit of putting the entire world in danger, a source of never-ending frustration to Skipper. The solution? MORE science.

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• Ambiguously Jewish: Kowalski is a very common surname among Jewish immigrants, especially those originating from Poland. Kowalski himself manages to hit a few Jewish stereotypes, including his knack for over-analysis and lyrical exaltation setting him close to his compatriots from Eastern Europe. Oh, and the shape of his head looks a little bit like a Kippah.
• Arbitrary Skepticism: Refuses to believe in anything supernatural despite having witnessed things that science just can't cover—although in Kowalski's defense, encounters with things of genuine supernatural origin are rare for the Penguins and such things are either mundane in origin or are ambiguous enough in nature that Kowalski can refute them because evidence to the contrary can't be found. However, he's surprisingly knowledgeable of anything concerning cursed and possessed objects.
  Kowalski: I took an online course!
• Badass Bookworm: While not a bookworm (he can't read, actually), he fits this thanks to the fact that he is highly intelligent, as well as The Smart Guy of the penguin commando and is just as good at fighting as the rest of them.
• Bamboo Technology: Kowalski regularly builds amazing things out of elastic bands, coffee cups, lollipop sticks and duct tape.
• Berserk Button: Skipper learned the hard way what that was in "Goodnight and Good Chuck" — destroying his computer will get you attacked, even if you are technically his boss.
• Bungling Inventor: His inventions do have an AWFUL tendency to backfire, with Skipper showing skepticism of them working.
• Butt-Monkey: Often receives the brunt of Amusing Injuries, Sanity Slippage and just being a Bungling Inventor.
• Cannot Tell a Joke:
  Private: There's two of you! That's a great trick!
  Kowalski: Private, can you recall a time when I have ever played a trick or even told a joke?
  • He has attempted to tell jokes since that episode... but they tend to fall flat.
• Captain Obvious: "Kowalski, report/analysis!" Followed by Kowalski making a blatantly obvious statement.
• Catchphrase: Egads!
• The Chew Toy: His massive ego always makes sure he has it coming to him every time.
• The Comically Serious: Acts all serious and intelligent, but it doesn't take much for this facade to fail.
• Cool Big Bro: This part of him doesn't appear often, but while Skipper acts more like a father figure to Private, Kowalski acts more like an older brother. Private is implied to look up to him, when he does something especially jerkish, Private is especially disappointed in him, he tends to cover Private's eyes and ears the most when something weird happens, he is typically very calm and polite around Private (even if he does tend to get into Insufferable Genius mode around him as well) and the two generally seem to get along pretty well in their off time.
• Deadpan Snarker: He has his moments of this.
• Ditzy Genius: Many of his inventions and plans are...questionable.
• Dogged Nice Guy: Yearns constantly for Doris (whom he doesn't realize is Dr. Blowhole's sister)
• Flanderization: In the movies, he is serious, logical and analytical, playing the Straight Man to Skipper. Here, the serious part is restrained for a more dramatic and eccentric personality and the other attributes are exaggerated to Mad Scientist levels.
• For Science!: He tends to do experiments that put his teammates in danger out of scientific curiosity.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: The Melancholic. Analytical, loyal, witty, more of a follower despite his higher position but also tends to see the worst in people and seems to be kind of insecure.
• Gadgeteer Genius: The team's primary source of Homemade Inventions.
• Genius Sweet Tooth: As shown in "Happy King Julien Day!", he really loves candy.
• Hidden Depths: He can play banjo and sing really well. Also, despite his apparent social awkwardness and love issues (see Doris), "Mental Hen" shows that he (kind of) knows what works on females.
• Homemade Inventions: His specialty.
• I Have No Idea What I'm Doing: Practically his Catchphrase. Apart from, "For SCIENCE!"
• Insufferable Genius: Kowalski is incredibly arrogant about how intelligent he is, bordering on narcissism.
• Interspecies Romance: He has a crush on Doris, a bottlenose dolphin.
• The Lancer: He is Skipper's Number Two, contrasting him both in appearance (Kowalski's tall and skinny, Skipper's short and stocky) and personality (Kowalski prefers to think, Skipper prefers to act).
• Large Ham: Not particularly to Skipper's degree, but he's keeping up.
• Literal-Minded: Pops up from time to time. He seems to be confused by the phrase "listen to your gut" simply because guts cannot vocalize. When Dr Blowhole uses the phrase "sleep with the fishes", he points out that fish technically do not sleep, and when Skipper says that he doesn't understand the meaning of the word "surrender", Kowalski defines the word for him.
• Lovable Nerd: While his ego does tend to push him into the insufferable side from time to time, he is quirky and amusing enough to count.
• Love Hurts: His one-sided love of Doris the dolphin.
  Julien: Ooh, the dolphin-lady who broke him? Yes, he does go on and on about her.
• MacGyvering: He can create awesome gadgets from the garbage he finds in the zoo.
• Mad Scientist: He may not be the Evil version, but there's no doubt that Kowalski holds all qualifications for being as crazy a scientist as you'll get.
  Skipper: Kowalski, have you ever invented anything that doesn't eventually threaten to destroy us all?
  Kowalski: Let me think. Uhhhhh... No.
• Magic Versus Science: Is extremely skeptical of anything with a 'supernatural' bent. Can, however, be convinced of its veracity if the problem persists long enough.
• Meaningful Name: A 'Kowalski' is a nickname given to somebody who works in the background dependably, but never gets any glory or basks in the limelight, which was definitely applicable to Kowalski in the first movie. It's also a gender neutral first name.
• Narcissist: Proof that the narcissist can still be a really nice guy. It's demonstrated most often in his intelligence, but also in his leadership skills, looks and dancing ability. Kowalski is so confident in his intellect that he will regularly use himself as a primary test subject. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it backfires rather horribly. And sometimes...
  Kowalski: I've just been perfecting a pain elimination helmet. As you'll see, (pulls cord, releasing heavy anchor) the neuron inhibiting matrix provides 100% protection from all forms of AAAAAAAAAARGH!!!! IT'S NOT PERFECTED!!!!
• Nerds Are Sexy: He's not shy on fans. You can blame his VA for that. Also, while he usually doesn't really count in-universe, there were two female characters in the show who seemed to be interested in him to some extent (Blue Hen after he distracted her by dancing seductively and Doris in the last scene of the show, where it's implied they actually became a couple), while Skipper and Rico had one (Skipper had Kitka and Rico had Shelly) and Private had none. That's kind of impressive for the socially awkward nerd of the group.
• Never Learned to Read: His inability to read serves as a Running Gag.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: The things he does For Science! usually result in this, such as his Kick the Dog moment in "Friend-in-a-Box" (taking the circuit board from Mort's video game) that earns him a What the Hell, Hero? from the others.
• Number Two: With the rank of Lieutenant, when Skipper goes AWOL, Kowalski does his best to take charge.
• Papa Wolf: To Jiggles. He swears vengeance against the kiddies after thinking they ate Jiggles.
• Phrase Catcher: In early episodes, Skipper would often say "Kowalski, options." or "Kowalski, report." to him. This catch phrase has cropped up again halfway through season 2.
• Puppy-Dog Eyes: Sports a particularly huge pair in the animatic for "It's About Time".
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The blue to Rico's red.
• Sanity Slippage: Is prone to this in most of his Butt-Monkey instances.
• Screams Like a Little Girl: For somebody who's voiced by Jeff Bennett, Kowalski sure does have a high-pitched shriek, and we hear it on a pretty regular basis too.
• The Smart Guy: He is the brain of the team.
• Sniff Sniff Nom: His usual method of handling evidence, including chameleon footprints and a strand of King Julien's fur.
• Stalker with a Crush: Kicks off the events of "Loathe at First Sight" by attempting to divine Doris's location through studying dolphin migatory habits while planning to use his Love-U-Lator on her.
• Techno Babble: Is very fond of giving his inventions techno babble sounding names, to the point of taking offence when the other penguins suggest very straightforward alternatives.
• Vocal Evolution: Has a very subdued and deadpan delivery in the pilot and early episodes, emulating Chris Miller's delivery in the movies, but both the voice and the character become more dramatic as time goes on.
• Would Hurt a Child: He was willing to shoot bunch of kids because he thought that they were eating Jiggles.

Rico

Voiced By: John DiMaggio

Rico is the team Demolitions Expert - and their storage unit. Gluttonous, big-bellied, and impulsive, he usually speaks in short grunts, but he can be fairly coherent when the situation calls for it. Rico's special skill is regurgitating pretty much anything the penguins need - and a lot of things they don't - from a simple paperclip, to a stick of dynamite, to fan blades and a toilet seat, all the way up to a self-assembling air-to-ground missile-launching platform. And the reason he can do it, as far as anybody can tell, is because he ate them first...

To distinguish him from the visually similar Skipper, in the series Rico has a mohawk and a scar over his beak, possibly caused by hacking up too much stuff.

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• Allergic to Love: Well, more to explicit scenes of affection. In one episode, it's stated that he has "mushy love sensitivity." Granted, this saved his life since the Penguins' touching laments on his supposed doom had him able to overcome the gag medication he was given and vomit the explosive. He is clearly capable of expression affection and care.
• Ambiguously Bi: He's got a Miss Perky doll girlfriend that shows in a handful of episodes, but Rico also shows a number of instances of attraction to other males.
• Ascended Extra: In the original films he was the least developed penguin character. Here, he got a more recognizable character design (a tuft of feathers on his head and a scar over his face), was established as the Dumb Muscle of the team with an Ax-Crazy personality, and his Stomach of Holding gag is turned up to eleven.
• Ax-Crazy: Skipper refers to him as "clearly a world-class psychopath."
• Berserk Button: His berserk buttons are messing with his dolly or hurting his friends, especially Skipper.
• Big Eater: Rico makes no attempt to hide his gluttonous nature. He will eat rotting food, walks blissfully through a field of mouse-traps for a fish in "Untouchable", fires himself out of a torpedo tube for herring in "Herring Impaired", and once accidentally ate Kowalski because he looked like candy, as just a few examples.
• The Big Guy: Rico is dubbed the brute force of the penguins, predominantly being Dumb Muscle. He contributes via physical strength, his Big Eater tendencies, or his Stomach of Holding. This once even leads him to have a Brains and Brawn matchup against Kowalski one episode. Not only is Rico physically sturdier than the other three, in "Sting Operation" his block of ice melts significantly faster than either Skipper or Private's, showing he's heavier than them too.
• Bruiser with a Soft Center: He's the group's token evil teammate, but he's also a big softie underneath.
• Chainsaw Good: As Private said in one episode, "Oh, Rico! Chainsaw's Your Answer to Everything!"
• Cloudcuckoolander: The episode "Friend In A Box" has Kowalski make a mind-reading device. When the other two penguins are disgusted with Kowalski (and he with himself), Rico thinks only "Fiiiiiiiiiiiiiish". When the other two penguins are proud of him, Rico still thinks, "Fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiish".
• Combination Attack: Is a component of the most common move in the Penguins arsenal, which is for another Penguin to carry him around and fire him like a gun.
• Drives Like Crazy: Rico is usually the driver of the team, which can cause problems when he gets distracted.
• Dumb Muscle: There are many examples of Rico not being too bright...
• Extreme Omnivore: Not merely a Big Eater regarding food, Rico is capable of eating absolutely anything and regurgitating it for later use.
• Fat Bastard: The Token Evil Teammate of the Penguins and he has a large gut.
• Fat Idiot: A chubby penguin who is not smart at all.
• Flanderization: Probably got the worst of the Flanderization of the returning characters. In the movies, Rico started by choking up paperclips and matches, in number 2 he produces a switchblade from nowhere, but by the Penguins movie he was capable of eating Dave the Octopuses' entire snowglobe collection, and by the series he gained his full-on Stomach of Holding (though this can be argued as a good thing to make sure the Penguins have something in Rico's gut for backup in case something goes wrong and since Rico himself doesn't appear to show much personality prior beyond his fetish for chaos, explosions, and fish that the movies established anyway).
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: The Sanguine. Energetic, passionate, unpredictable, quirky and eccentric The Big Guy of the team, but also emotionally unstable, hyperactive, impulsive and kind of psychotic.
• Hyperspace Arsenal: Apparently his stomach contains a rare atom which can create absolutely anything.
• Intelligible Unintelligible: At times, his speech can be understood fairly easily, especially in later episodes. Either way, if what he's saying is important to the plot, the other penguins will usually provide some sort of translation.
• Love Makes You Crazy: Or crazier. See "Hello, Dollface" or "Kaboom and Kabust".
• Mad Bomber: He has periods when his first response to anything is to cough up a stick of dynamite.
  Rico: Kaboom kaboom kaboom?
  Skipper: Rico, enough with the dynamite already.
• Nightmare Fetishist: When something unpleasant is happening to somebody else - or even to them - the other penguins may be horrified but Rico is more likely to stare with a big grin on his face. Sometimes it's just background but other times it's disturbingly obvious.
  • Like Rico serenely munching away on popcorn while watching a brutal Nature Documentary with penguins getting gobbled up by leopard seals.
  • When Kowalski and Private are clearly horrified/nauseated at Skipper's broken flipper in "I Was a Penguin Zombie," Rico looks… a little too interested.
  • Upon finding Julien in hospice during the events of "Kingdom Come", the team are confronted with the possibilty of witnessing the lemur in a horrific state. Kowalski and Skipper bear looks of grim determination, Private is already recoiling in anticipation, and Rico is eagerly leaning forward with a huge, open-mouthed grin.
  • In "Roger Dodger", as Roger is being pummelled off-screen by the rats, Rico stares at said beatdown, a blank smile on his face, his left eye twitching, and licks his beak at the end.
• Nausea Fuel: In-universe example. The only thing that makes him gag is love - and Private's Anti-Cute attack.
• Noodle Incident: He managed to pass the penguins' psych test. Somehow. According to Skipper, "how Rico slipped through is still shrouded in mystery".
• Overly-Long Tongue: Rico's tongue hangs out of his mouth a lot and is repeatedly stretched.
• Person of Mass Destruction: So very much.
• Psychopathic Manchild: Of the Dumb Muscle type. He also acts like a disappointed child whenever Skipper doesn't allow him to use explosives.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The red to Kowalski's blue.
• Rugged Scar: The scar over Rico's beak wasn't there in the movies and has never been explained in the series, mostly existing so that he's easier to tell apart from Skipper, whom he otherwise closely resembles.
• Sanity Ball: He takes hold of it in "Herring Impaired" when Skipper, Private, and Kowalski contracted Bacterial Pisces Dementia from eating overaged herring. He spends the episode preventing them from consuming fish of any kind, lest they remain fish-craving psychopaths forever.
• Singing Voice Dissonance: Later episodes add a running gag of him randomly singing "Fiiiiiiiiiissssh!" in a clear baritone voice.
• Silent Snarker: Frequently.
• Speech Impediment: A pretty interesting example - Rico is only semi-verbal (he can talk, but it's usually just really short words and phrases) and when he talks, it's kind of muffled and raspy.
• Stomach of Holding: He can swallow almost anything and regurgitate it for later use. He has coughed up things ranging from paperclips and lit TNT, to an Air-To-Ground missile and platform. He's even capable of swallowing and regurgitating other characters safely.
  Kowalski: The things I have seen...
  • To say nothing of the episode where Mort is shoved into his gullet to find something, and the sound of an elevator is heard.
  • Justified as during the Flashback sequence at the beginning of the Penguins movie, Rico swallows Private's egg to keep it safe from predators, much to Skipper, Kowalski, and even the predators' confusion and bewilderment. It's heavily implied that this particular scene was also the backstory of Rico attaining this ability due to the egg permanently distending his stomach to where he could hold anything in there without digesting it.
• Token Evil Teammate: The mischievous, psychotic, loose cannon of the penguins. That said, calling him "evil" might be stretching it, he's mostly just unpredictable.
• Too Kinky to Torture: Rico generally doesn't seem to be so adverse to pain as the other penguins.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Fiiiiiiiiiiiiiish!
• Turn the Other Cheek: Rico tends to forgive people quite easily for anything, with the general implication that he's done something similar. When Marlene went feral and attacked him outside the zoo, he had to stagger back into the zoo with her tying him up with his own tongue. Upon receiving her apology for going feral, he replied simply, "Meh, what you gonna do?"
• Uncleanliness Is Next to Ungodliness: It is often suggested that along with his other bad habits, Rico smells bad or carries disease - in "Stop Bugging Me" he makes friends with cockroaches (they met him hanging out behind a dumpster) and in "Cradle And All" the penguins initially assumed that the smell of a soiled diaper was actually coming from him.

Private

Voiced By: James Patrick Stuart

The youngest member of the team. He tends to be the most sane and logical — at least in comparison to Skipper's paranoid delusions, Kowalski's mad science, and Rico's love for explosions. Sometimes he's also got a little bit of childish naïveté. He has a tendency to get the sucker jobs.

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• The Baby of the Bunch: The youngest member of the team, whose teammates appreciate his cuteness.
• Badass Adorable: His cuteness is actually weaponized in "Cute-astrophe".
• Beware the Nice Ones: He's kind, patient and compassionate but boy does he have his limits. For example, in "When the Chips Our Down", Mort eats all of the supplies and Private explodes at him.
• Big Brother Worship: While they aren't actually brothers, Private seems to look up to Kowalski, as implied in Mask of the Raccoon and Brain Drain. Out of all penguins, he is usually the one who is most disappointed and scared when he does something jerkish, probably for this very reason.
• Bishie Sparkle: Parodied, his weaponized cuteness includes a spontanously generated rainbow. In High Moltage where he was molting, it had the opposite effect of REALLY grossing people out.
• Butt-Monkey: He's the team rookie, after all.
• Cheerful Child: The youngest of the penguins, Private is the most cheerful zoo animal.
• Cloudcuckoolander: While he's much more down-to-earth than the rest of the penguins, he's still pretty weird in his own right.
  Kowalski: Private, you think a tiny man lives inside the refrigerator and turns the lights on and off.
  Private: One day, I'll catch him!
• Comically Cross-Eyed: Private has outward cross-eyes, giving him a constantly goofy expression, which is in line with him being childishly naive. He's still The Heart of the team, and considered the cutest one, and is often the Only Sane Man compared to his Ax-Crazy comrades.
• Competition Freak: He alleges that he was becoming this during his time as a professional mini golfer in "Mr. Tux", and dropped out after he cheated just tokeep his winning streak going.
• The Conscience: Though usually holding the moral high ground, he also tends to be rather timid when first voicing his concerns, gradually losing his patience as Hilarity Ensues.
• Cover Innocent Eyes and Ears: Done to Private by Kowalski and Rico as Skipper uses his "angry words" in "Herring Impaired".
• Cuteness Proximity: Honed to the point of becoming an incredibly effective weapon in "Cute-astrophe".
• The Cutie: There seems to be an in-universe consensus on this, with both Skipper and Kowalski reassuring him of being "Adorable!" on separate occasions. They also use this trait as a tactic once in awhile, and it even features as a plot point in one of the episodes, wherein he becomes jealous that his "title" has been handed over to someone else.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Parodied when Private's Backstory is revealed in "Mr. Tux". He used to be a hardcore miniature golf player in Florida, but when the Amarillo Kid threatened to break his winning streak, he cheated and destroyed a possum girl's ice cream to win. Ashamed of how low he'd sunk, he walked away from the sport and dropped the Mr. Tux alias altogether. The other penguins are quite confused by the gravitas with which he treats the events.
• Flanderization: Less so than the other penguins, but his British accent is more pronounced.
  Skipper: You just stick to the cuteness and the hackney Britsh Slang. "Okay, guv'nor"?
  Private: Right Skipper. I'm a jolly pip, I am!
• Florence Nightingale Effect: The cause of his crush on student nurse Shawna.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: The Phlegmatic. Cheerful, open-minded, optimistic, forgiving, polite, compassionate, but tends to be gullible, overly idealistic and timid.
• The Heart: Spelled out in "Command Crisis."
• Hidden Depths: He likes Shakespeare and he used to be professional mini golfer.
• His Name Really Is "Barkeep": Private is his name and his rank.
• Innocent Blue Eyes: He's naive and pretty childish and he has bright blue eyes to go with it.
• Love Makes You Crazy: His crush on Hospital Hottie Shawna in "Love Hurts" led him to deliberately injure himself. When the others threaten to come between them, he improvises a Wounded Penguin Gambit.
• Manchild: While Private's actual age is left ambiguous, he's implied to be a young adult. He's also rather childish, obsessed with young children's cartoons, and often naive about the world in a similar manner to a small child.
• My God, What Have I Done?: He harbours deep regret for destroying the possum girl's ice cream in his final mini golf game. Lampshaded by the others, who point out he could have just bought her another ice cream.
• Nice Guy: According to Julien, he's the nicest guy in the zoo. Private is generally the most pleasant, kind-hearted and friendly member of the penguin's crew and he is usually the only one who is willing to accept new animals in the Zoo without being paranoid about them.
• Only Sane by Comparison: Private is a Manchild and a Cloudcuckoolander in his own right, but he's the most grounded of the penguins and the first to try and dissuade them from going off on some paranoia-induced Zany Scheme.
• Sanity Ball: Most often, it's in his flippers. "Skorca!" inverts the situation by having him paranoid about the title character and the other penguins not believing him.
• Sweet Tooth: Especially when it comes to butterscotch lollipops.
• That Man Is Dead: When the Amarillo Kid comes to the zoo looking for his rematch with Mr. Tux, Private refuses to take him up, ashamed of the things he did under that alias. He's forced to take it up again, however, when the armadillo holds the entire zoo hostage.
• Token Good Teammate: The most well-intentioned and unambiguously heroic member of the group.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Peanut butter winky. Also butterscotch lollipops.
• Vague Age: While with other penguins you can at least be sure that they are adults, Private, being the youngest and most immature, can be seen as either a young teenager or just an immature adult.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: He's afraid of badgers, and not fond of cockroaches.

Lemurs

King Julien XIII

Voiced By: Danny Jacobs

A ring-tailed lemur and (apparently self-proclaimed) king. Egomaniacal and ditzy, he's the closest thing the show has to a recurring antagonist. But at the same time, the penguins tolerate him when he's not being that big of a jerk. Julien "rules" over a small empire also comprising Maurice and Mort (see below).

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• Ambiguously Bi: He likes to dance; he's obsessed with his own booty; he gives bedroom eyes; he's dressed in drag on occasion (though that may be even less significant to his actual sexuality than in Real Life crossdressers, as he normally wears nothing but his crown); despite his attempts at maintaining a ladies' man image, he was unfamiliar enough with females that he didn't know where mammal babies come from, and was disgusted to find out the truth (though that may just be simple Cloud Cuckoo Lander status); and one episode blatantly ships him with Rico. Oh yeah, and he even said that he has a Girlfriend in Canada. On the other hand, he "courted" Marlene twice and has hit on Rico's Ms Perky doll. Wild Mass Guessing has also pegged him as Ambiguously Transgender, thanks to the Animal Gender-Bender mentioned below. Taken to its limits with Julien in "It's About Time," when he sees Skipper and Private wrestling over the episode's MacGuffin and begins poking Maurice.
  Julien: Ah, look at them Maurice. Why can't we play affectionately like that?
• Animal Gender-Bender: Real Life lemur groups are ruled by females. Then again, now he's in a zoo with only two other lemurs, both of which are male, and he's probably the nearest thing they've got. Also, when he claims Eggy is his, Kowalski says mammals can't lay eggs and asks if he's part platypus, without mentioning that males don't lay eggs either. (Then again, see above.)
• Anti-Hero: The closest thing the show has to a recurring antagonist - but he also repeatedly helps out the penguins when it benefits him.
• Anything That Moves: Forget Ambiguously Gay, it's easier to believe that Julien just loves to be admired, and doesn't care whether that admiration is sexual or otherwise.
• Attention Whore: He views himself as King of the zoo.
• Berserk Button:
  • Never, EVER touch King Julien's feet. Especially if it's cold.
  • "Friend-in-a-Box" suggests that a Freudian Excuse may be involved. After Mort becomes obsessed with a portable video game, Julien goes out of his way to try and force Mort upon his feet, claiming that he wants to experience the joy of kicking Mort off. Eventually, he even goes so far as to beg Maurice and the penguins to pay attention to the royal feet.
  • NEVER forget or ignore King Julien Day, for that matter... "Which forgetter is next for the whooping?! Come on, I want you to hurt LIKE I DO! UAHAHAHAHAA!"
    • Or tell him that there's no such thing as King Julien Day.^note Fortunately, the cake on Skipper's head when he said that distracted King Julien.
• Big, Thin, Short Trio: The Thin to Maurice's Big and Mort's Short.
• Buffy Speak: A normal part of his speech pattern, along with Malaproping; he frequently makes comments like "What is up with the unbig tiny-littleness of my royal estate?"
• The Caligula: Parodied by his existence.
• Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Julien's thought process can be rather weird. For example, one episode has him claiming that he went on a spy mission with a bulldozer posessed by the spirit of William Howard Taft... Yeah.
• Comic Trio: With Maurice and Mort; he's The Leader.
• Crazy Jealous Guy: Thanks to his believing that It's All About Him, he quickly gets jealous when somebody/something else is getting the attention he thinks he deserves. He also doesn't like that Marlene is crushing on Fred rather than him. He doesn't give a reason why this makes him so upset, other than that Marlene was "in love with Julien" the whole time before... which was another lie.
• Department of Redundancy Department: Part of King Julien's regular speech pattern.
• Distressed Dude: He's this thrice: once with a feral Marlene, once with Savio the boa and once with the Red Squirrel.
• Evil Laugh: Not as amazing as other Nicktoons, but pretty close. Usually Played for Laughs, much like most of the tropes on this page.
• Fat and Skinny: Skinny Julien is the silly one, and fat Maurice is the Straight Man.
• Flanderization: A bit more of a Jerkass than in the movies, but he still has his moments (such as saving Skipper's life in one episode). His dialect is also noticeably stronger.
• Friendly Enemy: To Skipper, bordering more toward Vitriolic Best Buds. The two spend most of their shared screentime arguing and generally being annoyed by each other, but Skipper will go out of his way to help Julien, and Julien has gone to Skipper to have his problems fixed. They were actually mistaken as 'BFF's by Skipper's Arch-Nemesis Dr. Blowhole... and the other penguins said he had a point. Heck, Julien himself is excited by the notiona and even Skipper himself doesn't actually deny it.
  Julien: So I face danger and the adventure of a lifetime and nobody will ever know about it?!
  Skipper: Welcome to my world. That makes you an honorary penguin.
  Julien: Does that mean I am your BFF?
  Skipper: Eehh... we'll keep that code on the QT.
• Fun Personified: He's the master of boogies, singing and parties.
• Hidden Depths: The Lost Treasure of the Golden Squirrel is both vast and cursed, causing intense greed in those that get near it. Only someone pure of heart is immune to this curse and that turns out to be Julien. Whereas everyone has grandiose visions of the dreams the treasure could pay for, Julien just sees himself hanging out at the zoo with Maurice and Mort. Julien is as surprised as anyone to learn he's already living his dream.
• I Am Not Weasel: In one episode, he tries to tell a Crazy Cat Lady that he is not a kitty.
• Incidental Villain: Being a spoiled ego-maniacal control freak, he's the most common antagonist on the show, with his schemes often being the catalyst for larger plots or being the main threat of the episode. But, despite being something of a Jerkass, he is only casually disliked by the rest of the cast. The other characters tolerate him when he's not doing anything antagonistic, since he's not generally a bad guy, just a spoiled jerk who occasionally screws with people to get his own way.
• In-Series Nickname: "Ringtail."
• Interspecies Romance: A one-sided crush on Marlene, an otter.
• It's All About Me: He is the King, and so obviously is more important than any non-kingly animals, right?
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He has his moments of being... less mean to the others. Notably, King Julien Day is a holiday dedicated entirely to him, participation was mandatory and lack of participation meant severe punishment, but unexpectedly includes a closing ceremony where Julien rewards his subjects.
• Large Ham: With a side of Keet.
• The Load: Bringing him along usually does more to hurt the penguins than help.
• Malaproper: He is a bit of a word mangler. Examples include "These stitions are very super!" and "No one will be sucking seed!"
• Manchild: He has a tendency to throw childish tantrums, and on one occasion starts talking to his cuddly toys when he's depressed.
• The Millstone: When he tags along on the Penguins' missions, he occasionally helps, but usually ends up being more of an obstruction.
• Narcissist: To the point that he has distinct ho yay with a robot copy of himself.
  Julien: That is not very interesting to me because it is not about me. See how that works?
• Nominal Hero: In the second movie, he is selected for a musical onslaught against the monster MP3 player.
• Papa Wolf: To save the baby Foosa from a snake. He even tells the snake to eat him first when they get cornered, hoping his fuzzy build will make it choke so it can't eat the baby.
• Signature Headgear: His crown. He loves it a lot, but he has a spare for emergecies.
• Singing Voice Dissonance: Nothing major, but the end of his short Congaga song in "Eclipsed"' is rather impressive, especially considering his usual voice is not all that pleasant.
• Sixth Ranger: When the squad is lacking in numbers, Julien often comes in as a substitute.
• Token Evil Teammate: Not evil per se, but a narcissistic Jerkass who often tags along with the penguins but only cares about himself.
• True Companions: Among himself, Maurice and Mort. Arguably.
• Upper-Class Twit: Considers himself to be king of the zoo, and isn't very smart.
• Unstoppable Rage: When one of the rats skates across his feet in "Miracle On Ice", he goes complete apeshit on ALL of them.
• What the Hell Is That Accent?: The same general quasi-African accent in the movie, only (as mentioned above) more exaggerated.
• Wholesome Crossdresser: He dressed as a cheerleader in the episode "Miracle On Ice" and was jealous of Skipper's "pretty pink bow" in "Miss Understanding". The "wholesome" is debateable, but his un-wholesome characteristics are not related directly to the crossdressing.

Maurice

Voiced By: Kevin Michael Richardson

An aye-aye who serves as King Julien's right hand man and advisor, although Julien rarely follows his advice. Although he seems easily annoyed by Julien's antics, Maurice isn't above saving his life.

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• Big Brother Instinct: He actually gets along with Mort better than with Julien and there are times where he seems to feel sorry for him.
• The Big Guy: Of the lemurs.
• Big, Thin, Short Trio: The Big to King Julien's Thin and Mort's Short.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: Gets like this in "Kingdom Come" thanks to a bad batch of lychee nuts.
• Chessmaster Sidekick: Has shades of this. At times, it seems that he really doesn't want to be part of Julien's world, but for some reason he stays faithful.
• Closer to Earth: He is easily the sanest of the three lemurs.
• Comic Trio: The Only Sane Man to leader Julien and fool Mort.
• The Creon: The right-hand man of King Julien.
• Four-Fingered Hands: A strange aversion. Maurice has five fingers/toes, yet Julien and Mort each have four.
• Funny Animal Anatomy: This is what a real aye-aye looks like. Eek.
• Only Sane Man: When you're working for someone like Julien, of course someone has to be there to rationalize with him.
• Servile Snarker: Despite being aware how insane Julien is (and occasionally making snarky comments about it), he still follows his orders.
• Stealth Pun: An aye-aye who is King Julien's Yes-Man.
• Straight Man: To King Julien and Mort.

Mort

Voiced By: Andy Richter

A mouse lemur who is also part of Julien's companions. He is pretty much there to be the victim of physical comedy, although Marlene in particular seems to care for him.

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• Badass Adorable: Although small, dumb and pathetic, he's shown to be capable of beating Skipper at arm wrestling. Another episode has him uprooting trees.
• Berserk Button: Not surprisingly, King Julien's feet, as indicated by his reaction to being separated from them.
• Big, Thin, Short Trio: The Short to Maurice's Big and King Julien's Thin.
• The Chew Toy: To the point where he's declared too dumb to feel pain. Lampshaded in one episode, where he says, "Yay, I'm expendable!"
• Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Mort doesn't seem to be in touch with reality often...
• Comic Trio: The Fool to Julien's Leader and Maurice's Only Sane Man.
• Creepy Child: He's not quite a child, but he certainly has moments where he comes off as this. For example, he's way happier about being used as bait for a hungry falcon than he should be.
  "I'm tasty!"
  • There's also the fact that he is obsessed with King Julien's feet, which is creepy in itself.
• Disability Superpower: In "Sting Operation", it's revealed that he's literally too ignorant to feel pain because he doesn't understand it.
• The Ditz:
  "Which of the colours is blue?"
• Fearless Fool: See above.
• Feel No Pain: Also see above.
• Flanderization: In the movie, the royal feet get merely a passing reference when Julien misinterprets Mort cowering in fear next to him. Here, Mort has a full blown fetish for Julien's feet.
• I Call Him "Mister Happy": Non-genital example. He's named his tail "Rodney".
• In-Series Nickname: "Sad Eyes".
• Older Than They Look: Word of God is that he's actually the lemur equivalent of a thirty-five-year-old. Mouse lemurs simply look like babies their whole lives.
• Paste Eater:
  "I'll get the glue."
  "To eat?!"
  "NO!"
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: He's cute enough to rival Private.
• Tagalong Kid: Quite often.
• Team Pet: He's either Tagalong Kid, this or both.
• What the Hell Is That Accent?: A completely unidentifiable one. It usually comes across as heavily warped Baby Talk.
• Yandere: Mort is quite devoted to King Julien, and not just to the royal feet.

Central Park Zoo

Mason and Phil

Voiced By: Conrad Vernon (Mason)

A pair of chimpanzees. Mason is a stuffy British-accented one, while Phil is mute and communicates only through (completely accurate) sign language.

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• Divergent Character Evolution: Thanks to greater focus on them (compared to their One-Scene Wonder status in the original movies), Mason's Neat Freak nature and Phil's relaxed and slovenly behavior have been revealed and developed.
• Four-Fingered Hands: Averted for the sake of Phil's sign language.
• Mr. Exposition: One of the reasons why Skipper tends to tolerate them more than the other mammals in the zoo considering they often give him valuable information.
• Never Learned to Read: Mason is illiterate. Phil, on the other hand, is the penguin's go-to translator, with Mason translating his signing.
• Odd Couple: Phil is a total slob, much to Neat Freak Mason's chagrin.
• Repeating So the Audience Can Hear: While this is usually justified for the benefit of other characters that don't know sign language, Mason will do this even if Phil is the only other one around.
• Road Apples: Mason mentions throwing poo a couple of times, though this is never seen on-screen.
• Shown Their Work: Phil's sign language is completely accurate.
• The Speechless: Phil, who only speaks in sign language.

Marlene

Voiced By: Nicole Sullivan

A perky female Asian Small Clawed Otter who is friends with the penguins. Playful and kind, she tries to see the best in others and is one of the only characters who cares for Mort's well-being.

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• Action Girl: Has saved Skipper and Kowalski's lives on separate occasions.
• Artistic License – Biology: She has a flat row of very human-like teeth. Otters, being carnivores and members of the mustelid family, naturally have a mouthful of sharp fangs. She does gain more accurate teeth while in her feral form.
• Berserk Button: Never leave her outside or she'll go nuts!
• Beware the Nice Ones: Most of the time, Marlene is friendly and doesn’t engage in physical violence. However, at the end of “Crow Fools”, she has Rico spit out a crowbar for her, which she uses to chase Julien with when he reveals he had a spare crown the whole time. Not only was she mad he kept his spare a secret, but his actions also led to Skipper getting hurt while trying to retrieve the original crown.
• Deadpan Snarker: Goes hand in hand with her Only Sane Woman status.
• Expy: Arguably, she's one for Gloria the hippo and/or Alex the lion.
• Hartman Hips: At the very least, she's obviously more curvy than your average otter.
• Jekyll & Hyde: If she leaves the zoo grounds, she becomes feral. Dee Bradley Baker voices her feral side.
• Nice Girl: Snarkiness aside, Marlene is mostly a friendly and welcoming person who refuses to judge others before getting to know them.
• Not Used to Freedom: Marlene was born in captivity, so stepping outside of the zoo seems exciting and even fun... At first. Overtime, however, a feral emerges and she becomes a mindless, snarling beast that's incapable of reason. As the series continues, she turns beastly within a few seconds if she finds herself outside.
• Only Sane Woman: Along with Maurice, she seems to be the only one trying to reason with the main characters. She even tries to provide some stable ground when Skipper seems to be losing it.
• Playful Otter: Love of clams? Check. Playful and cute? Check.
  • Interestingly, the show does acknowledge how otters, being members of the weasel family, can still be vicious and dangerous, with Marlene’s feral form.
• Sliding Scale of Beauty: World Class Beauty as Arlene. As Marlene she's still one of the cutest Otters you'll meet. When she goes wild, however...
• Smart People Play Chess: Shown playing chess with Skipper in "Crown Fools".
• The Smurfette Principle: She's the only protagonistic female character.
• Stealth Hi/Bye: Does this on occasion. Skipper even tells her to say something before surprising them once.
• Superpowered Evil Side: Due to being born in captivity, whenever she leaves the confines of the zoo's walls she goes 'feral', which results in an increase in strength, speed, and ferocity, but a decrease in intelligence.
• Women Are Wiser: In comparison to the penguins (save for Private). Often overlaps with Only Sane Woman.

Alice

Voiced By: Mary Scheer

She is a zookeeper who doesn't seem to care too much for her job, and expresses annoyance at tour groups.

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• Catchphrase: "Whatever."
• Butt-Monkey: She suffers a lot, though she deserves it most of the time.
• Deadpan Snarker: Has moments of this.
• Jerkass: And she usually suffers for it.
• The Slacker: She puts the bare minimum of effort into her job, and frequently responds to suspicious occurrences with "ahh, whatever."

Bada and Bing

Two hulking, thuggish Western Lowland Gorillas living in the zoo. Bada is dark grey, Bing is a lighter shade of grey.

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• Animals Not to Scale: They are unusually large gorillas, not much smaller than Roy the rhino.
• Brooklyn Rage: They speak with thick Brooklyn accents and have the standoffish tough guy personalities to match.
• Bruiser with a Soft Center:
  • Bing secretly has a stuffed pink bunny which the penguins secretly catch him clutching in "Truth Ache". He's also a Lunacorn fan.
  • Both of them say in "The Penguin Stays In The Picture" that they are unwilling to hurt Mort because he is adorable. When Private thinks that they killed Mort after he expressed jealousy about not being chosen as the animal for the zoo's brochure cover, they actually hid Mort behind some bushes and gave him a huge supply of popsicles until the brochure would be printed with Private on the cover.
• Dumb Muscle: Neither of them is too bright, but they are incredibly strong.
• Killer Gorilla: Besides being characterized as shifty gangsters, they occasionally act like bullies to the other animals, and may go on a rampage if you steal their food.
• Meaningful Name: "Bada bing bada boom" is a stereotypical mobster phrase, fitting their personalities.
• Those Two Guys: Seldom seen without each other.
• Took a Level in Kindness: They softened somewhat over time. In "Antics On Ice", Bing willingly helps Private to go to see the Lunacorns on Ice.
• Trademark Favourite Food: Bananas.

Roger

Voiced By: Richard Kind

A large, friendly American Alligator. Although the others are terrified of him at first, they grow to like him once they find that he is pacifistic and friendly. Eventually he moves into a habitat in the zoo.

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• Ambiguously Gay: A friendly, sensitive, soft-voiced alligator who wants to sing Broadway tunes and bake muffins to placate his enemies…
• Chekhov's Gun: His singing in "Roger Dodger".
• Does Not Know His Own Strength: When he's in a confined space with the penguins, he becomes a menace simply by turning around.
• Gentle Giant: He has to undergo a mind-swap with Rico at one point because he's simply not aggressive, which makes him an easy target for the sewer rats.
• Nice Guy: Despite his fearsome appearance, he's friendly, soft-spoken and mild-mannered.
• Out-of-Character Moment: He seems genuinely annoyed at Julien's pranking in the "April Fools" episode.
• Reluctant Monster: He is a terrifying alligator, but also a very nice and mild-mannered person.
• Sewer Gator: Roger is a sewer gator who is good friends with the penguins.

Burt

Voiced By: John DiMaggio

The resident's Asian Elephant at the zoo. Though normally an easygoing guy, he's easily annoyed by anyone messing with his food. But if you do manage to set him off...

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• Animal Gender-Bender: He's a male Asian elephant, yet he lacks tusks. Only female asian elephants don't have tusks.
• Beware the Nice Ones: While generally nice, piss him off and he will have qualms about crushing you.
• Berserk Button: Don't touch his food.
• The Big Guy: He and Roy are the zoo's biggest animals.
• Cruel Elephant: Can be this when he's very angry or annoyed.
  • Subverted in "Elephant Never Forgets" when the apparent rampage he has on a kid that constantly annoys him with a kazoo is just an attempt to give the stolen kazoo back.
• Cultured Badass: Burt is a lover of Victorian (particularly Dickensian) literature, and an accomplished artist. He also admits to have always wanted to visit Paris. He's also a huge elephant, and single handily beat up Savio the giant boa.
• Elephants Are Scared of Mice: Savio exploits this by sending him a package containing a mouse.
• Elephants Never Forget: One episode features him enlisting the help of the penguins to help him escape from the zoo, so he can pay back a man who had tormented him with a kazoo as a boy. He persuades them by lampshading this trope — "Let's just say... an elephant never forgets!" Said payback turns out to be returning the kazoo Burt stole from the kid because, as Burt points out, while an elephant never forgets, "he always forgives".
• Gentle Giant: Generally is a gentle giant lest someone pisses him off.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Peanuts.
• In-Series Nickname: Long Trunks and Big Grey.

Roy

Voiced By: Danny Jacobs

He is Central Park Zoo's only Southern White Rhinoceros. He's calm and friendly, but does get agitated easily.

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• Ascended Fanboy: He and Bing become characters in the Lunacorns after the events of "Antics On Ice".
• Cool and Unusual Punishment: In "Misfortune Cookie", Julien has him run over Rico 1000 times in order to lift Rico´s "curse".
• Early-Bird Cameo: He first appeared in the video game adaptation of the first Madagascar film, before being properly introduced in the series. In the series itself, we first see his stampeding legs crushing Rico before he makes his full proper debut in "Skorca".
• Horn Attack: He's a rhino, after all.
• Real Men Wear Pink: Like Private and Bing, he's revealed to be a fan of the Lunacorns, and claims he likes its positive portrayal of quadrupedal horned mammals.
• Rhino Rampage: In the episode "April Fools", he spends a good deal of time angrily chasing Julien with the apparent intent of killing him because the lemur drew on his behind with a permanent marker. As it turns out, however, he was actually helping the Penguins to teach Julien to stop his rather harmful pranks.
• Scare 'Em Straight: As revealed at the end of "April Fools", him chasing Julien and apparently trying to kill him was meant to help teach him a lesson about going too far with pranks.

Leonard

Voiced By: Dana Snyder

A paranoid koala who first appears in "Night and Dazed". He is rather afraid of the penguins in their attempts to be nice to him, mainly because he's often the target of unintentional injury.

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• Deep Sleep: He is nocturnal to an absurd degree; he essentially goes into a coma the moment sunlight hits him and can't be woken until it sets.
• Properly Paranoid: You would be too, if the penguins accidentally blew up your habitat.

Joey

Voiced By: James Patrick Stuart

An ill-tempered, violent Red Kangaroo with a stereotypical Australian accent. Antagonist to both the penguins and the lemurs most of the time.

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• Animal Gender-Bender: He has a pouch.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: He'll beat up other animals just for being in his habitat... and deliberately keep them there so that he can beat them up some more if they try to escape.
• Jerkass: Joey is excessively violence prone and unfriendly.
• Kangaroos Represent Australia: He speaks with an Australian Accent.
• Stupid Evil: When fighting the "skorca", he beats off the penguins first because he doesn't want them to win against it. Skipper calls him out on it, but Joey dismisses him on the grounds that "Joey doesn't share".
• Third-Person Person: Lampshaded in "Kanga Management".
• The Worf Effect: Officer X and Eggy have pulled one on him.

Randy

Voiced By: Will Friedle

A sheep who lives in the Children's Zoo.

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• Absurd Phobia: His worst nightmare is apparently "a flying coyote with laser beam eyes".
  "When coyotes develop flight and laser technology... it's game over, y'know?"
• Berserk Button: Tearing out a lump of his fleece was the final straw that caused Randy to snap.
• The Dog Bites Back: When one kid horrifically bullies him, Randy loses it and attacks the brat. The kid then lies to Alice and had Randy Made Out to Be a Jerkass.
• Made Out to Be a Jerkass: The penguins initially believe the child's lies and assume Randy attacked without provocation. Randy has to explain that he bit the kid in self defense.
• Took a Level in Badass: Thanks to the Penguins, Randy develops martial arts skills to better defend himself.

Animals Outside the Zoo

Fred

Voiced By: Fred Stoller

A not-too-bright squirrel who lives in the park. When the penguins leave the zoo, they often cross paths with him.

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• Ambiguously Gay: He seems mostly indifferent to Marlene when roped into dating her, and didn't seem too upset when she broke up with him, and is shown to live with Antonio ("the otter bachelor of Central Park").
• Ambiguously Jewish: Has some traits of this.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: His "fight" with Julien was initially interpreted to be this until he revealed he simply did everything accidentally and let Julien's clumsiness do the rest (which a humiliated Julien admits).
• Cuddle Bug: "What am I gonna do, say no to a hug? I love hugs!"
• Distressed Dude: He gets tied up by the Red Squirrel.
• The Ditz: Intelligence is not his strong point.
• Dumb Is Good: He's too stupid to be evil, as the Red Squirrel learned pretty quickly.
• Genius Ditz: He actually does know the answer to the question that scientists have been trying to figure out for years; how much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?
• Horrible Judge of Character: He considers Archie his best friend (despite calling him a backstabbing liar and a cheat) and even allowed Julien to be his financial adviser when he became rich. In addition, he is prone to trusting complete strangers based on how well they hug.
• Literal-Minded: Spelled out in one episode where Marlene tries to date him. She asks him to show her the town and he answers by pointing and saying, "That way."
• In-Series Nickname: Bushy Tail.
• Madness Mantra: "Acorns! Jackpot! Acorns! Jackpot! Acorns! Jackpot!"
• Rags to Riches: He becomes wealthy (at least in squirrel terms) following his mass acquisition of several hundred pounds of acorns. He's promptly exploited first by Julien and then by the Red Squirrel who want his money for their own selfish purposes.

Max

Voices By: Wayne Knight

A stray cat whom the penguins first meet in a failed attempt to fly to the moon. Max has reappeared in several episodes, often seeking help from the penguins.

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• The Cameo: He appears for about two seconds in "The Helmet".
• In-Series Nickname: "Moon Cat". It's lampshaded by him when he points out that he's not really from the moon.
• Lovable Coward: Nearly always appears when fleeing a threat of some sort.
• Mistaken for Aliens: Because the penguins thought that they were on the moon in Max's debut episode, they assumed that he is actually a moon cat. They found out that he isn't at the end, but Skipper still calls him "moon cat".
• Tastes Like Friendship: In his debut, he gives up trying to eat the penguins (who are unaware of his intentions) when they give him a can of sardines. He so rarely gets food on his own that he is grateful, and pretty much remains their friend after that.
• True Companions: He'll occasionally try to abandon the penguins to save himself, but always come back when he realizes they are his only friends.
• Yank the Dog's Chain: In his introduction, he falls for Schmuck Bait; a pigeon trolls him by pretending to be unable to fly. The pigeon then rubs it in his face and flies off, leaving a starving Max to wish for a bird that couldn't fly. He spends an awful lot of time being the Butt-Monkey even after the penguins give him food.

Eggy

Voiced By: Tara Strong

An adorable little duckling whose egg came under the penguins' care during "Parental Egg-Stinct". After hatching and being returned to Mama Duck, he showed an innate talent for Skipper's style of leadership.

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• All Your Powers Combined: Thanks to being cared and trained by the penguins while still an egg, he has all of their skills. At the end, Julien teaches him how to dance, resulting in Eggy talking like Julien (see Buffy Speak above).
• Badass Adorable: He's a cute little duckling, but he achieved powerful combat skills under the penguins' care. In "Hard Boiled Eggy", he curb-stomps every animal in the zoo except Julien.
• Buffy Speak: He copies Julien's idiosyncratic speech patterns.
• Child Soldiers: Through accident, the penguins taking care of his egg made their personalities rub off on him, making him very interested in carrying out commando operations.
• Defeat Means Friendship: He finds himself unable to land a hit on King Julien (who just dances out of the way) after curb-stomping every other animal in the zoo, and decides to learn his ways. That is to say, learn dancing, which Mama Duck is satisfied with because dancing isn't dangerous like his previous behavior.
• Troubling Unchildlike Behaviour: How Mama Duck views his obsession with combat and commando operations. She requests for the penguins to try to solve his behavior in "Hard Boiled Eggy". It takes Eggy beating up every animal in the zoo except Julien for him to decide to focus on learning dancing over combat.

Kitka

Voiced By: Kari Walhgren

A falcon who crash-landed in the zoo, setting off the events of "The Falcon and the Snow Job" and serving as Skipper's Temporary Love Interest as he fought to clear her good name.

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• Brutal Bird of Prey: What everyone except Skipper thinks she is. She's not. The other falcon, however...
• Carnivore Confusion: Directly acknowledged and the root of the others' distrust. She tries to allay concerns by swearing not to eat anyone in the zoo. She didn't know that they also had friends outside the zoo, like Fred.
• Clear Their Name: Julien mysteriously disappears with falcon feathers at the scene of the crime, so everyone except Skipper suspects Kitka at him and ran off. It turns out that Skipper was right; another falcon is the kidnapper.
• Falling-in-Love Montage: She and Skipper spend time together with one.
• Girl of the Week: Skipper's Love Interest for one episode.
• Love at First Sight: With Skipper.
• Ship Sinking: Didn't make any impact on the Skipper/Marlene fanbase. Possibly lampshaded by Skipper; even he admits that it wasn't working out.

Doris

Voiced By: Calista Flockhart

A dolphin whom Kowalski still yearns after. Appears in the Grand Finale, "The Penguin Who Loved Me."

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• Badass Adorable: She may not have as much experience as the crew, but holds her own during the Grand Finale.
• Friendly, Playful Dolphin: She's kind, friendly, and cares for her brother. It's not her fault that her brother is a Supervillain.
• The Ghost: She is continually mentioned throughout the series, but doesn't appear until the finale.
• Interspecies Romance: Aside from Kowalski's crush on her, she's dated several others outside of her species.
• Just Friends: She tries telling Kowalski that she likes him, but she doesn't like like him.

• Tailfin Walking: Manages this by getting her fins on one of Dr. Blowhole's scooters.

Uncle Nigel

Voiced By: Peter Capaldi

Private's Uncle Nigel who comes to pay the penguins a visit. At first, he comes off as a complete fop but his true nature is completely different.

• Obfuscating Stupidity: The tea and crumpets? The stories about flowers and doilies? Absolute rubbish! He's actually a dashing and fearless spy who works undercover for British Penguin Intelligence.
• Cassandra Truth: He actually thinks Private's childish and effeminate characteristics are part of his own cover story to hide his true nature as a commando. By the end, Private rolls with it shutting Skipper up before he can tell the truth.

Parker

Voiced By: Ty Burrell

A platypus who helps Doris contact Kowalski during "The Penguin Who Loved Me".

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• The Ace: Kowalski can't help but be jealous of him, especially when he manages to impress Skipper with his fighting skills.
• Poisonous Person: Has venomous spurs on his feet, which he uses to help take down opponents with ease.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Immediately backs down when faced with Rico aiming a bazooka his way.

Manfredi & Johnson (Unmarked Spoilers)

Voiced By: Creator/James Patrick Stuart (Manfredi), Creator/Danny Jacobs (Johnson)

Two former members of Skipper's team, they are often name-dropped whenever some ill fate or accident is mentioned. They are finally seen in "The Penguin Who Loved Me."

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• Fat and Skinny: Manfredi is large and round, whereas Johnson has roughly the same body type as Kowalski.
• Last Episode, New Character: While "New" isn't the right word, they are only mentioned by off-hand comments by Skipper comparing the current situation to what happened to Manfredi and Johnson and are only seen during the Grand Finale to show that they're still alive.
• Noodle Incident: Skipper frequently mentions them and how they end up in near fatal situations, but that's all we get. When we finally seen then, Manfredi (the larger sized penguin) has lost his left foot, now replaced by a stick while Johnson (the Kowalski-sized penguin) broke his right flipper and seems to have a burn on his body. We have no idea which of the stories (if any) led to these accidents.
• They Killed Kenny Again: All of numerous Noodle Incidents they've been involved in sound fatal. And yet, they show up alive in "The Penguin Who Loved Me".
• Those Two Guys: From what we know about them, which isn't much.
• Unexpected Character: Everyone assumed these guys were dead and no one expected to actually see them.
• Yank the Dog's Chain: The penguins finally find them, but the two remain unnoticed despite their pleas for help and given how the group said they won't be back again and that the series is over, it looks like these guys are screwed.

Villains

Dr. Blowhole

Voiced By: Neil Patrick Harris

A mad scientist and primary antagonist to Skipper. At first, he was only mentioned in passing by Skipper, leading to Marlene's belief that he didn't exist. The half-hour "Dr. Blowhole's Revenge" showed him to be real.

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• Arch-Enemy: To the Penguins of Madagascar, especially Skipper. The penguins have made many enemies in both past and present, but none are more mentioned as often as Blowhole, with the penguins acknowledging him as their mortal enemy.
• Badass Bookworm: He might be an extremely intelligent scientist who doesn't fight often, but when we actually see him fight, he's able to go toe to toe with Skipper in a prolonged fight.
• Calling Your Attacks: All of his inventions announce themselves with the same dramatic voice whenever they are activated.
• Devious Dolphins: He's a dolphin who wants revenge on the humans for the humiliation that lead to his path of villainy. He fittingly provides the trope image.
• Disproportionate Retribution: He tried to flood the world in revenge for being used as a show dolphin.
• Electronic Eyes: Has a cybernetic eye that fires lasers.
• Embarrassing First Name: Francis.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: He's Doris's brother and she seems to care for him very much.
• Evil Counterpart: At least with the technology and science department, to Kowalski.
• Evil Genius: He is a brilliant inventor with a grudge against the penguins.
• Evil Is Bigger: He towers over the penguins.
• Evil Is Hammy: He presents himself in an over-the-top, dramatic manner.
• Eye Beams: Can fire a laser from his cybernetic eye.
• Friendly, Playful Dolphin: Subverted. Despite being a dolphin, he's vile and wants to destroy the penguins. He temporarily becomes a straight example when he gets his memory erased.
• Giant Enemy Crab: Has lobster henchmen, and also made Crome Claw, a giant lobster with a metal claw.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: Has a scar over his right eye that's just barely visable under the metal plate covering it.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Is mentioned as Skipper and the Penguins' Arch-Enemy, but rarely appears or has a large effect on the series.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Ultimately has his memory erased by his own machine.
• Insistent Terminology: No, Julien, he's not a fish.
• Knight of Cerebus: As goofy and comicbook supervillain-y as he appears, things become a whole lot more Darker and Edgier whenever he shows up with the stakes getting higher.
• Mad Scientist: An evil inventor.
• The Reveal: He and Doris are siblings.
• Sapient Cetaceans: He is a dolphin and an Evil Genius.
• Shout-Out: His name and status as a Mad Scientist Arch-Nemesis seems to be a nod to Dr. Blofeld.
• Tailfin Walking: He stands on his tail-fins on a segway.
• Verbal Tic: He has habit of pronouncing penguins as "peng-you-ens". According to Kowalski, he probably does it just to tick them off. While not exactly verbal, he also has a habit of having his computer dramatically announce the names of his creations.
• Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: He fits it to a T, although half the main protagonists are Heroic Sociopaths with little to no concern for collateral damage
• Villain Song: Gets a few in "Doctor Blowhole Strikes Back" (It Makes Sense in Context). It's actually a plot point that he gets the best songs. Most notable being "Brand New Plan", which is a pretty straight up Villain Song. Helps he's voiced by Neil Patrick Harris.
• Vocal Dissonance: His squeaky dolphin voice conflicts with him being a supervillain.

• Where Does He Get All Those Wonderful Toys?: Kowalski complains about bad guys always getting the coolest stuff, but it's never explained where he gets the resources required for them.
• Xanatos Speed Chess: He normally has a plan to begin with, but is more than capable of improvising on the fly. Referenced in "Brand New Plan", where he points out that, despite things having not gone as he planned, it'll work out perfectly for him and makes up a new plan on the fly.

Officer X

Voiced By: Cedric Yarbrough

An animal control officer who has made repeated, failed attempts to capture the penguins while they're out on the town. After getting thwarted by the penguins in one episode, he loses his job and reappeared later on as an exterminator and so on.

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• Bald of Evil: Tries to capture the penguins and is bald.
• Broken Ace: Was mentioned by his former boss in animal control that he was best officer on their staff until he went crazy obsessing over the penguins who ruined his life.
• Cassandra Truth: Officer X constantly tried to tell others that the penguins were responsible for multiple acts of destruction and mayhem, but was decried as a laughingstock and lunatic and fired from job after job. When the penguins antics were revealed worldwide in a news story, he was absolutely elated, but soon broke down into tears and sobbing when the story was mocked as a news hoax.
• Charles Atlas Superpower: He's tougher, stronger, and more agile than any other human shown and has taken down the penguins and dangerous animals like Joey the Kangaroo with ease.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Most people think he is, because let's face it, when you say you keep losing to penguins, it doesn't send the image of a sane person.
• Combat Pragmatist: Uses Kowalski as a boomerang to hit Rico and Private in "A Kipper for Skipper".
• Cool Car: His animal control van features a laser, claws and a winch. He also gets angry when it gets destroyed in "What Goes Around".
  Officer X: I loved THAT VAN!
• Cool Shades: He wears them all the time.
• Deadpan Snarker: He fires off a salvo of puns in "The Officer X Factor."
• Implacable Man: He will never stop chasing after his prey. Even Mason the Chimpanzee admitted that Officer was "not human" after pelting him with animal feces because he wouldn't stop no matter how much he threw at him.
• Leit Motif: Officer X has his own, instantly recognisable theme.
• Manly Facial Hair: A macho man with a full beard before it was ripped out by tape thanks to the penguins. It grew back though.
• New Job as the Plot Demands: Because of the penguins, of course!
• No Name Given:
  Alice: X, eh? Is that the name your mommy gave you?
  Agent X: Mother never told me my real name. Said it was classified.
• Pungeon Master: Easily notified by the penguins are his plentiful one-liner puns. Can even be a Hurricane of Puns.
• Real Men Wear Pink: His exterminator uniform is pink.
• Scary Black Man: He's visibly of African-American descent and he's evil.
• Scarily Competent Tracker: Once he decides to track down his prey, literally nothing will stop him. He even managed to cage and restrain Marlene's savage persona when it was split from her by one of Kowalski's experiments.
• Shock and Awe: Wields a shock stick.
• Speaks Fluent Animal: Either that or the penguins are talking animals and he speaks to them in human.
• The Cuckoolander Was Right: Despite being clearly obsessed with the penguins and ridiculed by the public as a loon, he's the only human shown fully aware of and posing a threat the the penguins' schemes and plans. Because of this, he was capable of constantly out-thinking the penguins, and anticipating their plans when hired as their zookeeper.
• The Nose Knows: He can immediately sense the presence of the penguins by smell even if they're hiding.
• The Worf Effect: Pulls one on Rico and one on Joey.
• You Shall Not Pass!: Parodied in "What Goes Around".
  Officer X: Delinquent penguins! In the name of the Metropolitan Department of Animal Control and Pretzel Cart Regulation, You Shall Not Pass!

Rat King

Voiced By: Diedrich Bader

A large, muscular sewer rat with a heavy East-Side accent and a tendency to say "Dude!" and "Awesome!" a lot, who often antagonizes the penguins.

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• Dumb Muscle: A muscle-bound rat who isn't smart.
• Gullible Lemmings: In "Rat Fink", he blindly follows what he believes to be the true rat king, despite the Paper-Thin Disguise. He only becomes confused when the invasion plan is put into action.
• Hustling the Mark: See Obfuscating Stupidity.
• Mooks: The other sewer rats who follow him.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Inflicts this on Skipper in "Crown Fools".
• Obfuscating Stupidity: He and the rats pretend not to know the rules of ice hockey before the penguins challenge him to a game. It turns out they were hustling the penguins, and the rats curb-stomp them.
• Rat King: He's not a literal "rat king" (which are several rats stuck together by their tail), but rather a gigantic, muscle-bound rat.
• Recurring Character: So far, he's appeared in a total of eight episodes.
• Rodents of Unusual Size: Exaggerated; he's taller than the penguins. This is because he's a genetically modified lab rat.
  • Large and in Charge: Duh. He's "The Rat King" for a reason. He's very tall.
• Top-Heavy Guy: He's got quite the build, only supported by a pair of stubby little legs.
• The Worf Effect: He seems to exist only for the Penguins to have moments of awesome against him. He also inflicted this on Skipper in "Crown Fools".
• You Dirty Rat!: An evil rat.

Hornets

Voiced By: Danny Jacobs, James Patrick Stuart

A group of hornets who like stinging people.

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• Catchphrase: "I sting your face!"
• For the Evulz: They don't seem to have any reasons for stinging others besides their own amusement.
• Husky Russkie: They all speak with a Russian accent.
• Jerkass: They are all unpleasant and like stinging others for no reason.
• Scary Stinging Swarm: They are a swarm of hornets who frequently indulge in their desire to sting others for fun.
• Wicked Wasps: They are hostile hornets who like to sting others just because.
• Would Hurt a Child: In their debut episode they tried to sting a bunch of little kids. Fortunately they never get the chance when Mort destroys their nest and the hornets are forced to flee.

Hans

Voiced By: John DiMaggio

A puffin who has a dark history with Skipper. Whatever happened in Denmark is between Skipper, him and the Danes.

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• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: His first episode revolves around him trying to make peace with Skipper, but it turns out to be an act.
• Dub Name Change: To "Lars" in the German dub. This is probably due to the pronunciation of Hans being a lot shorter in German than it is in English (the a is much longer in English). Lars is about the same length as the English Hans and looks similar in lip movement.
• Early-Bird Cameo: In the episode "Tagged," Private has a book with information on Penguins, Pigeons, Puffins and Flamingos that he's using to try to play a convincing façade for a researcher visiting the zoo. The picture of the puffin looks exactly like Hans, but the episode aired a whole 22 episodes before Hans' debut episode in "Huffin and Puffin".
• Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Played with in the episode Smotherly Love.
• My Sister Is Off-Limits: Attempted to Invoke this, but:

  Hans: —And I kissed your sister! On the lips!
  Skipper: I don't have a sister. And if I did, she wouldn't have lips.
  Hans: ...Oh. Then who did I kiss?

• National Animal Stereotypes: A Danish puffin.
• Noodle Incident: As said above, whatever happened in Denmark is between him, Skipper, and the Danes.
• Shamu Fu: He always (ray guns and "capuccino gun" do not count) wants to fight using a fish, but he is terrible in "fish flynning"
• Third-Person Person: Sometimes he starts to talk like this:

  Hans: Hans will return again!
  

Clemson

Voiced By: Larry Miller

A lemur who was mailed from Hoboken Zoo to Central Park and back.

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• Evil Laugh: Does this all too well and often.
• Sycophantic Servant: He comes off like this at first towards Julien, but it turns out to be a rather non-fatal version of...
  • The Starscream
• Thinking Out Loud: Does this so often even he thinks it's weird.

Savio

Voiced By: Nestor Carbonell

A boa constrictor who was temporarily transferred from Hoboken Zoo to Central Park.

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• Dashing Hispanic: Has a strong Spanish accent, and always acts charming and witty even when he's gloating about taking his revenge on his enemies by swallowing them one by one, regurgitating them and then swallowing them in reverse order.
• Deadpan Snarker: Savio, being Faux Affably Evil rarely snarks, but he is capable of delivering biting comments.
  Skipper: My, my, my. Someone looks ... plump!
  Savio: As do you. But do I make wild accusations?
• Diabolical Mastermind: His intellect could possibly rival Dr. Blowhole's, since in each appearance he always managed to find ways to outsmart the penguins and take down previous threats. Not only did he figure out how to unlock the locks in his habitat in his first appearance, but the next episode "All Tied Up With A Boa", he took down the zookeepers at his enclosure, swam the Hudson River all the way towards the Central Park Zoo presumably on memory alone, got Burt the elephant (who beat him up in the first episode) out of the way by mailing him a mouse, evaded every single trap devised by the penguins, and overpowered them by using said traps to incapacitate them along with Marlene, Maurice and Mort (who were also armed). He would have won if it weren't for Julien and a bucket of old popcorn butter.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Lampshaded by Marlene when they learn Savio has escaped from Hoboken Zoo to take revenge on the animals for sending him there, even though most of them were just his victims.
• The Dreaded: News of his escape in "All Tied Up In The Boa" sent the penguins (with the exception of Skipper) into Troubled Fetal Positions, even Rico.
• Enemy Mine: He briefly teams up with the penguins during the Hoboken episode.
• Evil Is Bigger: Savio is the most physically imposing villain.
• Faux Affably Evil: Savio always speaks in an impeccably polite manner (aside from the occasional bit of snark) and rarely raises his voice, even when he gloats in detail about his plan for revenge.
• Genius Bruiser: Not only is Savio very strong, he's incredibly smart as well as shown in the first two episodes.
• Gratuitous Spanish: He drops in some Spanish during 'The Terror Of Madagascar', saying: "Yo quiero ese appetizer!"
• Hurricane of Puns: Always makes constant food related puns when he's about to eat someone. Lampshaded by Savio himself, when Julien makes fun of one his lamer ones.
• Knight of Cerebus: Episodes in which he is involved are generally more serious.
• Lightning Bruiser: Very fast, very strong and never actually taken down by the penguins themselves, Savio fits the bill.
• Metronomic Man Mashing: Well, 'Snake Mashing', to be correct, but he is subjected to this at the end of 'The Big Squeeze' at the hands of Burt.
• National Animal Stereotypes: A boa constrictor with a Hispanic accent.
• Picky Eater: Has a predilection towards mammals. However, he had no trouble eating Private disguised as a mammal.
• Roaring Rampageof Revenge: Goes on a truly epic one against the penguins when he escapes from the Hoboken Zoo. A herpetologist on the breaking news of Savio's escape even goes to state that his breed has a biological insatiable desire for vengeance, nursing a grudge for months before wreaking hideous retribution.
• Snakes Are Sinister: Very deceptive and sly.
• Soft-Spoken Sadist: Savio rarely raises his voice when talking, including detailing his plan for revenge.
• Villainous Breakdown: In "The Terror of Madagascar", Savio gets a taste of his own medicine when the baby fossa he was planning to eat uses him as a chew toy, forcing him to flea in terror screaming in fear and pain all the while.
• Villainous Glutton: Savio's most consistent trait is his desire to eat, either out of hunger or revenge.
• Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: Perhaps more so than Dr. Blowhole, given that the penguins were never able to defeat him by themselves and many of the zoo inhabitants being (understandably) scared stiff of him.
• The Worf Effect: Possibly the only villain the penguins were never able to defeat on their own. In the three times the penguins faced him, they only managed to gain an edge on him with the help of Burt the elephant, Julien and popcorn butter, and a baby fossa respectively. Lampshaded by the penguins in "The Terror of Madagascar".
• Would Hurt a Child: Savio seems rather excited about eating a baby fossa.

The Red Squirrel

Voiced By: Jeff Bennett

An evil squirrel who longs to Take Over the World, but is experiencing problems getting any evil plans off the ground, mostly because he lacks Mooks.

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• Arch-Enemy: To Buck Rotgut and Uncle Nigel.
• Card-Carrying Villain: Is very up front about how evil he is. In "Nuts to You," he flat out says he wants the jackpot acorns "for [his] own evil purposes."
• Diabolical Mastermind: Tries to be this but can't quite cut it, due to a combination of crippling overconfidence (his Fatal Flaw) and Wrong Genre Savvy.
• Evil Old Folks: He is very old, having been out of retirement for over forty years, but he's still quite spry.
• Expy: Of the Red Skull.
• Eyepatch of Power: Concealing the button he uses to launch his missile.
• Fantastic Racism: He despises penguins more than almost anyone.
• Gratuitous Russian: Says things like "Do svidaniya".
• Hair-Trigger Temper: He gets mad very easily. Often it seems like the slightest thing will set him off.
• Mooks: He has none and frequently laments the lack of them. But sometimes he forgets this, and shouts orders to henchmen who don't actually exist before remembering he's alone.
• In-Series Nickname: "Red." Begun by Rotgut and sometimes appropriated by the other penguins.
• Surrounded by Idiots: He doesn't think highly of his fellow squirrels, least of all Fred.
• Villainous Breakdown: When his "ally" Julien sells all of their acorns (intended to pay for Mooks) to buy not just magic beans, but magic jellybeans.
• What the Hell Is That Accent?: He has a vague "European bad guy" sounding accent, despite the Gratuitous Russian.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: He seems to think he's in a far more serious action thriller, but he exists in an illogical cartoon universe, and so everything he tries is doomed to failure because he approaches all his plans as if his enemies were from the same spy movie 'verse he thinks he's in, dooming himself to failure and rendering his towering intellect effectively meaningless.

Jiggles

Voiced By: Dee Bradley Baker

A gelatinous Green Cube creation of Kowalski that nearly destroyed the world. Twice. Kowalski's attachment to Jiggles proves endlessly frustrating to Skipper and dangerous for everyone else.

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• Asteroids Monster: In its second appearance, it constantly duplicates itself when damaged. The resulting "Jiggli" end up nearly drowning the whole world in themselves.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Eating fruit made it grow larger each time. While it never gets exceedingly massive, it does get larger than Kowalski is able to handle.
• Blob Monster: While it's more like sentient jello than a blob, it does fit.
• Cute Is Evil/Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon: Jiggles is a tiny cube of sentient jello whos entire dialogue consists of cute, almost babylike chirps and noises, but Skipper certainly believes both these tropes apply to Jiggles. He's not wrong though.
• Cuteness Proximity: Deconstructed. Kowalski has this reaction when he's around Jiggles, much to Skipper's anger and putting everyone else's lives in danger.
• Dub Name Change: "Flubbi" in the German dub.
• Trademark Favourite Food: Eats fruit in its first appearance, and Kowalski modifies it to eat whipped cream instead later.

Blue Hen

Voiced By: Audrey Wasilewski

An incredibly intelligent chicken from Delaware and Kowalski's rival, voiced by Audrey Wasilewski.

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• Deadpan Snarker: Lampshaded by Private.
• Distracted by the Sexy: She was defeated because Kowalski was able to distract her with a suggestive song and dance. It happened again in P.E.L.T, but only for few seconds.
• Insufferable Genius: Blue Hen is really proud of her genius IQ and she never misses the chance to shove it in somebody's face.
• Seers: According to the gorillas, she is able to predict the future. Subverted, she just has REALLY strong strategical thinking and is good at figuring out what will happen thanks to her knowledge of physics and psychology.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: By her second appearance, she is willing to freeze all zoo animals solid just to be the center of attention.
• Villainous Crush: Kowalski WAS able to distract her by singing and dancing for her, she silently giggled when he slapped his butt, complimented his dancing and KISSED HIM and in P.E.L.T, she straight up laid an egg and stared at him for few seconds when he tried to do it again.

The Amarillo Kid

Voiced By: Jeff Bennett

A nine-banded armadillo from Texas who harbours a grudge against Private, aka "Mr. Tux", from years ago.

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• Absurdly High-Stakes Game: Seems to be quite fond of these, as he made King Julien wager all his possessions (as well as Maurice and Mort) in a mini-golf game, and sets one up with Private to ensure he gets his rematch.
• The Ace: Is a damn good mini-golfer, to the point where he gave Private, who was already the best, a run for his money in their first encounter. Private had to resort to cheating (and destroying a young possum girl's ice cream) to beat him.
• Annoying Laugh: Has a weird, snorting laugh that he frequently uses.
• Artistic License – Biology: The Amarillo Kid is a nine-banded armadillo, yet is shown rolling into a ball on multiple occasions, which only three-banded armadillos can do.
• Ax-Crazy: Skipper considers him - and all armadillos - to be this. It's not too unfair an assessment, given how the Amarillo Kid openly talked about taxidermizing (i.e. killing and stuffing) Mort and Maurice, then threatened to blow up the entire zoo, all just to get a mini golf game out of Private.
• Be the Ball: Rolling and bouncing around like a golf ball is his main mode of travel. Private turns this on him after finally defeating him in their rematch, sending him flying out of the zoo with a single swing of his golf club.
• Disproportionate Retribution: His response to having his challenge rebuffed is to lock down the entire zoo and threaten to self-destruct the Penguin's thermonuclear reactor, taking the zoo and everyone inside with it, unless Private complies.
• Heel–Face Turn: Has one of these during "Showdown on Fairway 18", needing Private's help and eventually becoming friends with him.
• It's Personal: He shows up in Central Park Zoo to settle an old score with Private, aka "Mr. Tux" - specifically, a rematch in mini-golf.
• Jerkass: He's initially this in "Mr. Tux", constantly badgering Private for a mini-golf rematch. When he doesn't get his way, he threatens Private's friends, and when that doesn't work, he essentially holds the entire zoo hostage to force Private's hand. He changes by "Showdown on Fairyway 18", needing the penguins' help, and pulls a proper Heel–Face Turn by the end of it.
• Known Only by Their Nickname: While "The Amarillo Kid" is clearly an alias, his proper name is never given.
• Revenge Before Reason: The Amarillo Kid is so fixated on settling his score with Private, aka "Mr. Tux", that he won't even listen when Skipper tells him to back off. He goes as far as blackmailing the entire zoo with nuclear destruction just to get his rematch.
• The Rival: To Private, whom he lost a mini-golf tournament to years ago.
• Serious Business: Mini-golf is this to him. Having lost to Private years ago, he goes to great lengths to get a rematch out of him, going as far as hijacking the penguins' base and locking the zoo down.
• Southern-Fried Genius: Has a thick Texas accent, and is smart enough to hijack Kowalski's thermo-nuclear fusion reactor and take over the zoo's security systems.
• Taxidermy Is Creepy: Implied - in "Mr. Tux", he openly threatens to do this to Mort and Maurice during his golf game with King Julien. He also considers sticking antlers on them akin to jackalopes and calling them "Lemur-lopes".

Kuchikukan

Voiced By: Conan O'Brien

Known as the Destroyer of Worlds, he is a powerful, cataclysmic entity of sheer evil who was defeated by General Shingen and imprisoned within an urn in ancient times which was then housed within a museum. After Private mistakingly frees him from his prison, he seeks out to continue his mission of destroying our planet and every single world he comes across.

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• Awesome, but Impractical: He can possess mortal bodies and give them his powers, and is even able to acquire their own, but is bound by mortal needs which can be used against him.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: At the climax of "Lunacorn Apocalypse", while possessing Private's Princess Selfrespectra toy, he uses Clap Your Hands If You Believe to grow into a giant.
• Big Bad: Of "Lunacorn Apocalypse".
• Crippling Overspecialization: As powerful as he is, he can only act directly by ussing a mortal vessel, whether it is a biological body or an inanimate object, and while he's able to imbue any vessel he uses with his unholy powers and even acquires some of his hosts' habilities, he becomes bound by mortal needs such as hunger and thirst, which can be surprisingly useful in dealing against him. Namely, Private defeats him by tricking him into biting a billboard with electric illumination promoting sparkles for parties (sparkles being the main food of the Lunacorns), which, Kuchikukan, driven by his hunger, promptly does. His physical vessel is quickly electrocuted and destroyed, allowing the penguins to reimprison the demon in his urn.
• Cute Is Evil: He possesses a Lunacorn toy belonging to Private and remains in this form until his defeat. He was originally planning to possess Private, which would have counted as well.
• Eldritch Abomination: His true form is an uncorporeal red mist, and he is a fearsome, ancient evil of apocalyptic powers that destroys planets For the Evulz.
• Expy: Of Gozer.
• Faux Affably Evil: As dreadful as he is, he's voiced by Conan O'Brien, who gives him a twisted sense of humour not unlike The Joker's own.
• Generic Doomsday Villain: Zig-Zagged. While he is basically a cataclysmic threat that destroys planets, he does have quite an amount of personality, namely him being a Faux Affably Evil trickster who enjoys toying with his food.
• Good Powers, Bad People: By virtue of possessing the body of a Lunacorn toy, he has access to the magical abilities of the ponies. Of course, he uses them to further his own malevolent goals.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Has only appeared in a single episode, but succesfully manages to upstage all of the other villains the penguins have encountered by virtue of being a ridiculously ancient demonic god with massive dark powers.
• Invincible Villain: In the end, the penguins can only put him back in his prison, hopefully forever.
• Make My Monster Grow: He uses Clap Your Hands If You Believe to grow into a gargantuan-sized Princess Selfrespectra at the climax.
• Noodle Incident: The urn notably suggests Kuchikukan once possessed a piece of cheese and destroyed six worlds in two weeks, and came dangerously close to destroying Earth with an old foe of his expressing concern that they may have less than a day.
• Knight of Cerebus: Even if he has a few comedic moments (he is voiced by Conan O'Brien, after all), he is still an insanely powerful and deadly Lovecraftian demon who comes dangerously close to destroying Earth in the sole episode he appears in.
• Light Is Not Good: He winds up possessing Private's Princess Selfrespectra Lunacorn toy, making him look like an adorable pony with the body of a world-destroying Eldritch Abomination inside. He also uses his newfound powers to command an entire army of Lunacorn toys which attack everyone in the world.
• Meaningful Name: His name means "Destroyer" in Japanese. However, Kuchikukan specifically refers to a type of warship, and not "One who destroys".
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Is also known as "The Destroyer of Worlds". Definitely sounds like a friendly guy, huh?
• Our Demons Are Different: He is an incorporeal entity and thus must search for a physical body or object which he can use as a vessel.
• Planet Destroyer: His main schtick.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: Was originally imprisoned in an urn before Private accidentally set him free. He is re-imprisoned after his defeat.

Chuck Charles

Voiced By: Jeff Bennett

• Accidental Truth: The Penguins actually believed Chuck somehow discovered that they were commandos but he just said that to some visitors as a sarcastic remark.
• Anti-Villain: Chuck Charles only wanted to get his job back as news anchor even if it means exposing the Penguins' secrets.
• Badass Normal: For a news anchor, he's actually pretty skilled. He even actually defeats the Penguins; not even Officer X, one of the human villains, couldn't do it.
• Catchphrase: "I am the Ninja".
• How the Mighty Have Fallen: In "Goodnight and Good Chuck", Chuck got fired and had to work at the Central Park Zoo.
• Intrepid Reporter: Chuck Charles is news anchor for Channel 1 and one of the main sources of information the Penguins rely on.
• Secret-Keeper: Chuck is the one of the few humans who knows about the Penguins' sentience but chooses to keep it as a secret as gratitude to them after they helped him get his old job back.
• Yank the Dog's Chain: Chuck discovered the Penguins' secrets and took the evidence to his old news station so he could get his old job back. He almost succeeded but his rival stole the evidence. Then it's Subverted when exposing it makes Chuck's rival into a laughingstock and fired, allowing Chuck to be rehired.

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