The first members of the family depicted were the mother, the butler, and the "Thing", making their debut in this 1938 cartoon
◊. They were joined in subsequent cartoons by a father, a son, a daughter, a hinted-at-but-never-shown baby, a grandmother, and a recurring bald man whose relationship with the family was ambiguous, but became known as an uncle. These characters proved to be so popular that a 1960s TV sitcom was based off of them, and their popularity only grew from there.
If this family seems to bear an uncanny resemblance to Ray Bradbury's eldritch Elliotts, that's not an accident. Eight years after Addams introduced his chararacters, the Elliotts debuted in a short story called "Homecoming", first published in Mademoiselle with an illustration by Addams. The two men even talked about getting together for a full-length collaboration, but it sadly never came about. (You can read about the Elliotts, and see Addams' original illustration, in Bradbury's 2001 anthology From the Dust Returned.)
Note: this page is for the New Yorker cartoons with the recurring family characters, not the TV show, the movies, or any of the other adaptations and their tropes. In these cartoons, the characters didn't even have names; they were just called "the Addams family" because Charles Addams had created them. For a general overview of all other works based off the cartoons, see here.
Other Recurring Characters in the New Yorker Cartoons
- A blonde girl with flowers in her hair
◊ appeared in a few cartoons and artwork, probably inspiring the character of Ophelia in the TV series. - "It", a short, hairy creature◊. Based on Cousin Itt from the TV show (see Canon Immigrant below), he only appeared in the one cartoon, but was subsequently depicted with the family in much of Addams's cover art.
- The "Wall-Eyed Couple": A bald man with bulging eyes and a blank smile and a short woman with scraggly hair and a nervous smile.◊ In the cartoon shown, they even have a baby, who looks exactly like both of them — in that it has two heads, which are exact copies of the parents'. They are shown visiting the family a lot.
- A weird, cocoon-like... thing that has formed in a tree. It first appeared in this◊ cartoon, unrelated to the family. But then, it started to appear in the background of many of the family's scenes, such as this one◊.
- Disembodied hands reaching out from strange places had appeared in Addams's art before, but they were connected with the family when one cartoon showed two arms reaching out of a phonograph to change the records (see the page image). These were given the Thing's name and role in the TV show.
- The Baby. In a couple of cartoons, the mother is said to be pregnant. According to the Knitting Pregnancy Announcement, it will have four legs, and if it's a boy it will be given "a Biblical name, like Cain or Ananias." It was never referenced again, which is understandable as the cartoons' continuity was loose, but it did inspire Pubert in Addams Family Values.
Tropes found in the cartoons:
- Affably Evil: Most of the family. They clearly care for each other and are sometimes shown politely hosting guests... when they're not ambushing the mailman or boiling Christmas carolers. The son is an exception, as he always seems cruelly sadistic.
- Alien Geometries: Only one of the daughter's paper chain girls has three legs.◊ Try figuring that one out...
- Aloof Dark-Haired Girl: The mother.
- Ambiguously Brown: The father and the grandmother. You can't always tell, but it's especially noticeable in this Christmas cartoon◊ and this book cover◊.
- Ambiguously Evil: How much of what the family does is intentionally malicious, and how much is just their backwards nature?
- Ambiguously Human: The whole family, considering how much inedible materials they're shown to enjoy eating, but especially the Thing, who is a crouching figure that peers out at the family from different hiding places in the house. Also, they will sometimes appear alongside big groups of other people, presumably extended family, whose anatomy is often inhumanly bizarre.
- And I Must Scream: It's implied that there's a person inside the Cocoon.
- Author Appeal: Charles Addams describes the mother as "my idea of a pretty woman." Also, the house's design was possibly based off of an old house in Charles's childhood neighborhood.
- Badass Adorable: The daughter can withstand poisons and poison her brother right back, and also apparently get out of being walled up alive unscathed.
- Badass Family: With parents who siege against Christmas carolers, kids who lay booby traps, and an uncle who regularly uses poison on himself? You'd better believe it.
- Bad Is Good and Good Is Bad:
- This cartoon◊ shows the uncle enjoying a film that is moving the rest of the audience to tears.
- The parents are proud of their son's bad school report.◊
- It's outrageous to NOT cheat at cards.◊
- Feeling merry is very troubling behavior.◊
- Making the world worse is a source of pride.◊
- This cartoon
- Badly Battered Babysitter: It's implied that the babysitter in this◊ cartoon is in for it... at least.
- Bald of Evil: The uncle.
- Banister Slide: Done by the daughter in this cartoon◊.
- Big Fancy House: They live in one that has fallen into decay (though given their outlook on life, it may not be "fallen into" so much as "actively encouraged").
- Big, Screwed-Up Family: Played with. On the one hand, they're often shown having fun together and being content... on the other hand, they do have friction at times, it's not uncommon for the kids to make attempts on each other's life, and their encounters with the outside world often seem to end with unpleasant fates for the outsiders...
- Black Comedy: Almost every single cartoon.
- Bloodless Carnage: The family's acts against outsiders are either implied or only shown about to happen. The children's sibling rivalry also seems to leave them unscathed, despite their unusually deadly methods.
- Blue-and-Orange Morality: They care deeply for each other and are often shown happily spending time and having fun together... and they also praise violence, destruction, and darkness.
- Bookcase Passage: In the house.
- Bound and Gagged: They have to do this to the boy in order to get him on the school bus.◊
- A Boy, a Girl, and a Baby Family: Downplayed. The boy and girl are frequently seen, but the baby is only hinted at on occasion.
- Breakout Character: They were all this, which led to all the adaptations.
- Butt-Monkey: The daughter. She often looks unhappy, her brother tries to kill her, Charles Addams himself described her as "underprivileged" and "pretty lost", and she was put on the honor roll at school.◊ (Not a happy occasion in this family.)
- By the Lights of Their Eyes: Used to spooky effect in the cellar◊ and a crypt.◊
- Canon Immigrant: Cousin Itt was a character created for the TV show. Anticipating the series' debut, Charles Addams drew this cartoon◊ with a hairy creature that heavily resembled Cousin Itt answering the phone and saying "This is It speaking." "It" only appeared in one cartoon proper, but went on to appear alongside the family in cover art.
- Canon Welding: The uncle and the boy both made separate lone appearances before being shown as part of the family.
- Card-Carrying Villain: The whole family. They think games are made to be cheated at◊, treasure making the world a worse place◊ and encourage classroom misbehavior◊.
- Christmas Carolers: A classic cartoon◊ (replicated at the start of The Addams Family movie) has the Family preparing to drop boiling oil onto a group of carolers gathered at the front door of their house.
- Christmas Episode: Several cartoons had jokes with Christmas, such as the one with the Christmas Carolers above.
- Cobweb of Disuse: All over the mansion.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: Implied when the father and children bond by building a Medieval torture rack.◊
- Collector of the Strange: The son collects danger signs◊, the father assembles torture racks with the kids◊, the mother asks the neighbors for cyanide◊, and they have bats◊ and lizards◊ for pets. The uncle has a collection of stuffed animal heads and poisons.◊ This◊ cartoon of them at a thrift shop, checking out the various weird items, showcases it perfectly.
- Comedic Sociopathy: YES.
- Comically Missing the Point: One cartoon has the father reading A Christmas Carol to the children, and describing "good old Scrooge, bless his heart" threatening to fire Bob Cratchit.
- Conjoined Twins: These are often seen in scenes with the extended family.
- Cool and Unusual Punishment: The kids are sent home from camp in PET CARRIERS.◊ Granted, with these children, it was probably the only way to get them under control.
- Cool Old Lady: The grandmother bakes the kids creepy cookies◊ and tells them stories◊.
- Cool Uncle: The uncle has fun with the kids by taking them fishing with dynamite.◊
- Creepy Cemetery: They live next to one. Not that they don't love it, of course.
- Creepy Family: Probably the Trope Codifier.
- Creepy Good: The family.
- Crusty Caretaker: The butler.
- Daddy's Girl: The daughter. The father pushes her on a broomstick swing◊ and often plays with her◊ at bedtime.◊
- Darker and Edgier: The whole point of the family is that they are this to the traditional nuclear family.
- Deliberately Monochrome: The cartoons are in black-and-white and take place in dark settings.
- DIY Dentistry: Parodied in a cartoon which has the daughter sitting in a chair with a string running from her mouth to a creepy-looking trapdoor in the floor.
- Drop-In Character: The Thing.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: In the first family cartoon, the butler has a beard, the mother's outfit is somewhat different and her physique less exaggeratedly skinny, and we see more of the Thing's body than usual.
- Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: The mother and daughter.
- Eldritch Location: The family's property seems to be one. It has a haunted Old, Dark House full of spooky paintings and broken mirrors, small Alien Geometries, a Creepy Cemetery, a Garden of Evil, and the whole thing is somewhat both a Mordor and a Halloween Town. See the entries on those tropes for more details.
- Enfant Terrible: The children, especially the son.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: They're very tight-knit, despite their encounters with outsiders.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Whether the family is arguably "evil" or not, they are still shown to have standards in this◊ unpublished cartoon.note
- Evil Wears Black: Most of the family wears black whenever they're seen.
- Extra Digits: At bedtime, it takes more little piggies than usual.◊
- In this scene◊, the uncle has a few more fingers than he should.
- In this scene
- Extremely Dusty Home: A given, seeing as how old and decrepit the house is.
- The Family That Slays Together: A very happy family who enjoy inflicting harm. They pour boiling oil on carolers◊, set traps for the postman◊, encourage bad behavior at school◊, usher a car into a collision with a truck◊, set traps for Santa Claus◊, build torture racks for fun◊, and just generally value making the world a worse place◊.
- Family-Values Villain: The parents are caring toward their family, whatever else they are.
- Fashion Dissonance: The cover illustration for Addams's 1970 book My Crowd depicts the family in hip, colorful "mod" attire of the era.
- Fat Bastard: The uncle, the father, and the son.
- Frankenstein's Monster: The butler highly resembles it.
- Garden of Evil: They have one. The mother is very proud of it.◊ See also the Man-Eating Plant entry below.
- The Ghost: The baby.
- Gonk: The father, the grandmother, and the uncle.
- Goth: The whole family are proto-goths.
- Perky Goth: The uncle and father.
- Gothic Horror: Plays the trappings of this genre for laughs.
- Halloween Episode: This◊ detailed drawing. Understandably, given the nature of this family.
- Halloween Town: The family's mansion, graveyard, and surrounding land all have this feel.
- Happily Married: In their own particular way."Are you unhappy, darling?"
"Oh, yes. Yes! Completely." - Happy Rain: They love bad weather.◊
- Haunted House: The family seems to live in one: There's something◊ in the cellar and restless crypt residents◊, and we can't forget the Thing...
- Heroic Comedic Sociopath: The whole family, usually towards outsiders.
- Horror Doesn't Settle for Simple Tuesday: The mother has "so much to do" on Friday the 13th.◊
- House Fey: The Thing appears to be this sort of creature.
- House of Broken Mirrors: They live in one.
- Ice Queen: The mother. She almost never smiles and often seems stern and aloof.
- Sugar-and-Ice Personality: She sometimes seems to take on a gentler side for her husband and children.
- I'm a Humanitarian: This cartoon◊ shows the uncle contemplating dishes on offer at an automat, which include a dessert, a salad, a pie — and a human head.
- Jekyll & Hyde: The son once drinks a formula, mixed by himself, that makes him bigger and uglier.
- Knitting Pregnancy Announcement: In this◊ cartoon, the mother knits a jumper with multiple legs, which was copied in the first movie.
- Looks Like Orlok: The uncle looks like fat Orlok.
- Madwoman in the Attic: Once cartoon shows how the family had part of one floor finished off as a barred cell to hold an Uncle Eimar. Of course, it being this family, the mother happily tells guests about it.
- Mad Scientist: The boy often plays with poisons and chemicals, and see the entry for Jekyll & Hyde above.
- Man-Eating Plant: Implied in a cartoon where the uncle is shown pumping human blood into his garden plants.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: See the entry for Ambiguously Human above.
- Mordor: The land surrounding the mansion appears to be this. Only dead trees, brown weeds, always dark and cloudy...
- No Name Given: None of the family members have names; they were only given names for the TV series, though the names came from Charles Addams himself when the show's producers asked what they were (except for Pugsley, for whom Addams tried to suggest "Pubert" but the producers found this too vulgar for television). Interestingly, extended relatives of the family avert this and are referenced by name, such as Uncle Eimar and Uncle Cosimo.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: They consider◊ naming the baby "Cain" or "Ananias".
- Nightmare Fetishist: The whole family.
- Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant: All of them.
- Noodle People: The mother.
- Obliviously Evil: Possibly the uncle. Compare him and the son: While the son always has a cruel sneer on his face when wreaking havoc, the uncle always looks genuinely happy and excited. It's possible he has no idea that others don't enjoy what he does to them. This is supported by him enjoying a movie scene that everyone else finds heartbreaking.
- Old, Dark House: Home sweet home.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Everyone is concerned when Christmas gives the father a dreadful urge to be merry.◊
- He in turn is concerned when the mother starts decorating with flowers◊.
- He in turn is concerned when the mother starts decorating with flowers
- Origami Gag: In one strip, the daughter cuts out a string of paper dolls, one of which inexplicably has a third leg.
- Perky Goth: Both the father and uncle act gleeful and upbeat, despite their dark and creepy attire.
- Pig Man: The father's appearance is often somewhat porcine.
- Put on a Bus: Then-New Yorker editor William Shawn wanted nothing to do with characters that had appeared on so vulgar a medium as television, so for a while Addams's cartoons in the magazine were Family-free.
- The Bus Came Back, however, when the next editor was happy to have them make a return.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: The husband is enthusiastic and emotional, the wife is cool and distant.
- Scenery Gorn: The house is old and big, with its decayed state lovingly detailed.
- Serial Killer: A family of them. For more details, see the entries for The Family that Slays Together and Siblings in Crime.
- Shark Fin of Doom: Invoked in one cartoon, as the children plan to scare some kids at a river with one of these.
- Sibling Rivalry: Carried to an extreme by the little dark-haired girl and her bulbous brother. Attempted assassination was the theme of several of their cartoons, such as attempting to poison each other◊ and walling up alive◊.
- Siblings in Crime: The children (when they're not after each other) team up against the babysitter◊, Santa Claus◊, and the postman◊.
- Silent Snarker: The butler is not unknown to sport a raised eyebrow or skeptical expression.
- Slasher Smile: The boy is often shown sporting one. Occasionally the uncle as well.
- Slave Galley: The uncle is shown to have a slave galley in his motorboat.
- Spooky Painting: A whole room of them◊... except for Uncle Zander's. He was the Black Sheep of the family, y'see.
- Stuff Blowing Up: The uncle believes that using dynamite is the way to fish.◊
- Too Kinky to Torture: They view poisoning someone as a childish squabble◊, use various deadly substances for personal grooming◊, like their shower water to be scalding◊, and kick each other as a sign of affection.◊
- The Tooth Hurts: In this◊ cartoon, the daughter tries to get her loose tooth out by tying it to a string and tying the string to a trap door.
- Troll: The son is almost always this, and sometimes the uncle is too.
- Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: See Siblings in Crime above.
- Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: The father and mother.
- Unholy Matrimony: The parents are a sort of borderline example; they are very creepy and eccentric, but calling them overtly "evil" might not be entirely fair.
- They also may not even be married.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: The uncle describes a movie about a giant killer moth as "true to life".◊
- Unusual Pets for Unusual People: Bats, lizards, and... something◊ lurking in the basement. The uncle is also shown to keep vultures.
- Villain Protagonist: Most of the family, as shown by many of their unpleasant encounters with the outside world (unpleasant on the outside world's side).
- The Voiceless: Everyone except the mother, the father, and the grandmother.
- Walking the Earth: While the main family is usually shown in their mansion, the uncle is always shown in a different place and situation. He does seem to have his own house once or twice, though, such as here◊.
- Walled Up Alive: The son once did this to his sister.◊ She seems to have gotten out just fine, though, not surprisingly considering that she's a member of this family.
- Widow Witch: The grandmother's husband is never seen or mentioned.
- Witch Classic: The grandmother makes potions in cauldrons and has flying brooms.
