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Main Characters
Eric Tiberius Duckman
What the hell are you starin' at!?
- Voiced by: Jason Alexander
The title character, Duckman is a perverted and angry private detective who is bitter over the death of his wife.
- All Men Are Perverts: When he's not botching an investigation or screaming in anger, he's lusting after a pretty woman that has caught his eye. The first round of clips in "Clip Job" centers around his horny behavior.Duckman: I look at breasts. And I'm a detective, but mostly the breast thing.
- Ambiguously Bi: Although a shameless skirt chaser, he does get a number of
Ho Yay moments with Cornfed, including offering himself up to Cornfed when the latter needed to lose his virginity. - Anti-Mentor: "Das Sub" has Duckman sentenced to community service where he ends up as substitute teacher for a bunch of honor students. Duckman chastises them for being focused on school work instead of learning to survive in the real world. After taking them out on the town for his kind of experiences and nearly sending them sent to jail, the students admit he did teach them some valuable lessons—not the least of which was to never be like him.
- Anti-Role Model:
- Depending on the Writer, Duckman will often stand in for the worst humanity has to offer. It reaches parody levels when he steals a soda can from a vending machine in "Ajax and Ajaxer".Duckman: Why, I bet a kid, thinking I was a role model and wanting to imitate my behavior, could easily steal sodas from a vending machine, too. DO IT! DO IT NOW, KIDS! STICK IT TO THE MAN!
- In "The One with Lisa Kudrow in a Small Role" sees an alien civilization worship him like a God and their society devolves into a Crapsack World very quickly thanks to his life lessons. At the end of the episode, the aliens end up destroying their own planet.
- Harry Medfly bemoans in "Clip Job" how a perverted weirdo that treats family and co-workers like crap is considered a role model for the TV audience. Not believing he's a TV character, Duckman thinks it would be crazy for anyone to want to be like him.
- Depending on the Writer, Duckman will often stand in for the worst humanity has to offer. It reaches parody levels when he steals a soda can from a vending machine in "Ajax and Ajaxer".
- Bad Boss: Try asking Fluffy and Uranus how good of a boss he is, once he's done killing them anyway.
- Bad Liar: In "The Gripes of Wrath," Bernice discovers Duckman has tickets to Busty Bikini Babe Fest, which leads to this:Duckman: It's not like it sounds! First prize is a scholarship, or, uh... something.
- Bed Trick: One of the only women he's been with in a long time was a blind, Seinfeld-obsessed woman who thought he was Jason Alexander in a duck suit.
- The Berserker: No matter where he is, what's his mood or whenever he has done anything at all, Duckman will always be bothered by something.
- Best Friends-in-Law: With Cornfed, if posthumously on his side.
- Brilliant, but Lazy: Often both at once. One time, he had an IV hooked up to his arm and directly poured his morning coffee into it.
- Butt-Monkey: Like you have no idea.
- Calling the Old Man Out:
- Charles, Mambo and even Ajax occasionally aren't exactly proud of their father and will call him out whenever he does or says something ignorant, stupid, selfish, dangerous or ill-conceived.
- Duckman does this to his own (deceased) mother due to her constant neglect.
- He also does this to his biological father when he's about to abandon Duckman, calling him a coward.
- Casanova Wannabe: Just a total sleazebag who couldn't put the moves on a woman if his life depended on it.
- Catchphrase: "What the hell are you starin' at!?" And when he's surprised, "Dwah!" And when he sees a hot lady, "Humina-humina-ha-wah!"
- Chivalrous Pervert: To Beatrice when they were married. And to any woman he ever dated: Angela and Honey, included.
- Clueless Detective: The number of cases he's actually solved without Cornfed's help could easily be counted on one hand.
- Deadpan Snarker: Whenever he's not shouting his snark at the top of his lungs.
- Defective Detective: He works as a private detective and is a thoroughly repulsive and awful person. He's also seriously messed up due to a horrific childhood and his unprocessed grief over Beatrice's death.
- Determined Defeatist: He's constantly surly, depressed, and annoyed with his life, but he explicitly states he keeps going out of some hope that if he keeps going his life will get better somehow.
- Embarrassing First Name: To him, anyway. Eric. It gets to the point where only Beatrice knew about it.
- Everyone Has Standards:
- As depraved as Duckman is, he has limits on his libido. He refuses to go anywhere near Princess Fallopeia (because she's essentially a female Ajax), and is repulsed at the sexual advances of Ajax's elderly teacher. He's also visibly disgusted when he catches one of the teachers at Ajax's school making out with a teenage student in one of the lockers.
- He was genuinely distraught when he found out that Beatrice was (initially) married to another man and would have left her behind had he not loved her so much.
- Eye Glasses: His eyes are actually attached to his glasses. When he takes them off, he's literally Blind Without 'Em.
- Fiery Redhead: He has red-orange hair. See Hair-Trigger Temper and The Berserker for the "Fiery" part.
- Freudian Excuse: See Hilariously Abusive Childhood below. Beyond that, his life is just a never-ending corridor of torture which he continuously lampshades.
- Funny Animal: Lampshaded in "Forbidden Fruit" when he's ostracized by society."I am not an animal! I AM NOT AN ANIMAL! Well, okay, I'm kind of animal. I mean, a few of my features are animal-like, and I don't wear clothes, and I smell a little outdoorsy most of the time. But I have a job, and I talk and stuff, too, so when I say I'm not an animal, I think technically I'm on solid ground."
- Generation Xerox: His mother was a sex-crazed, neglectful parent who can't even remember her own son's name. She also goes on to state that the loss of her husband (though not Duckman's biological father) drove her into hedonism.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: Sometimes it seems like everything pisses him off."Damn... stupid... OXYGEN!!!"
- Happily Married: Duckman's relationship with Beatrice, until she died. Duckman's still affected by it and continues to mourn her for years after her supposed death.
- Happy Dance: "You put your pants, down. You thrust your pelvis, huh! You thrust your pelvis, huh!"
- Hated by All: Cornfed and Ajax are the only main characters of the show that treat Duckman with any sort of respect on a consistent basis, and even the former has his limits, while Ajax doesn't have a mean bone in his body.
- The Hedonist: Duckman lives for his pleasure, first and last. Most of his activities are him indulging in one of his vices.
- Ethical Hedonist: When he cares enough, which is rare.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Cornfed.
- Hidden Depths:
- In "Joking the Chicken", turns out his speech about how comedy needs to be offensive wasn't a result of the intelligence potion.
- After his genius sons give him a Love Potion, he successfully reverse engineers and recreates it all by himself. His shoulder angel lampshades how much he could accomplish if he just put some effort in.
- Several times throughout the series, he shows himself to be a very competent detective when he's motivated, such as in "Married Alive" and "Gland of Opportunity". He's just so blinded by his temper, addictions and crippling self-esteem issues that this almost never happens.
- "Psyche" shows that he's very guilt-ridden over Beatrice's supposed death and it's hinted that a lot of his obnoxious behavior and womanizing are methods of coping with it.
- Hidden Heart of Gold:
- Beneath his anger and perversions, Duckman genuinely cares for his sons, Cornfed, and even Bernice. It's just that being repeatedly shunned and disappointed in his formative years made it very difficult for him to open up to others and think he'd receive affection in return. A flashback to his and Beatrice's wedding had Grandma-ma acknowledge how Duckman acts like a jackass as a defense mechanism.
- In his role model rant to Harry Medfly, he alludes to how he's "a disappointed yet still hopeful idealist" that's just making his way in an unforgiving world and looking for appreciation from like-minded individuals.
- Hilariously Abusive Childhood: His mother constantly neglected him in favor of sleeping around with multiple men in a mournful attempt to find a replacement for Duckman's father after his death and he never really had a true father figure.
- Additionally, he was bullied when he was little and often used King Chicken as a scapegoat to spare himself for a moment.
- He recalls in "Cellar Beware" how he was caught stealing candy as a child. His father had the police chief put him in a jail cell to teach him a lesson. However, the chief hit his head fifteen minutes later and became comatose. Since no one else knew why he was there, Duckman was stuck in the cell for sixteen months, still sadly believing his father would come for him and cared for him.
- His Own Worst Enemy: By Duckman's own admission, he often brings misery upon himself through his actions.Bernice: I'm number two, so I try harder.
- Insufferable Imbecile: He is as idiotic as he is cantankerous.
- Jerkass: His abrasive attitude is the cause of most of the plots of the show.
- Jerkass Has a Point: More often than not, his rants will have some truth in them.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He has his moments where he makes it clear that he does love his kids and want the best for them, and is able to think of others before himself.
- Karmic Butt-Monkey: A lot of the abuse he suffers comes directly from being a sleazeball. The series tends to treat him far better when he acts like a better person.
- Kavorka Man: Despite being at best average looking, he has attracted some absolute bombshells over the course of the series.
- Large Ham: He's not afraid to add some ham into his rants, or in general.
- Last-Name Basis: Everyone calls him Duckman, and he really hates his given name.
- The Lost Lenore: His beloved wife, Beatrice. When she died, a part of Duckman died with her. Making matters worse, Bernice is her twin sister, so every day he comes home to someone who looks like Beatrice but treats him like shit.
- Love at First Sight: He fell for Beatrice the second he saw her, while driving by her farm. He then crashed into a cow.
- Manchild: Occasionally, his rants will be more so childish, and he has been known to throw tantrums when all hope is lost.
- Motor Mouth: About a mile per minute.
- Narcissist: High opinion of himself, caters to his own appetites first, often forgets about the necessities of others, his family included; sincere, if selfish concern for his closest peers? Yes, Duckman is this trope through and through.
- No Indoor Voice: If he feels like it, he's gonna say it. Whether or not anyone is paying attention, is another issue.
- Noisy Duck: He's a very loud mallard.
- No-Respect Guy: None, whatsoever. Even when he actually solves a case or saves the day, he still get yelled and cursed by the people around him.
- "Not So Different" Remark: In Cock Tales for Four, when King Chicken does his usual Motive Rant about how Duckman severely bullied him, the most unpopular kid in school, and how he could not know what it's like, Duckman blurts out he knows exactly what that's like, before sheepishly admitting he was the second-most unpopular kid in school and he only did what he did so he could get a break from getting beat up himself, making King Chicken realise they have more in common than they'd care to admit.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
- How do you know saying goodbye to his boys in "The Amazing Colossal Duckman" is serious? Duckman remembers Mambo's name.
- When he genuinely falls in love with a woman, almost all of his negative traits vanish and he becomes more self-aware and respectful. A prime example of this is in the final episode, where he meets Ben Stein's bride and is a perfect gentleman to her.
- Only Friend: With Cornfed. One episode centers around him trying to make other friends... And they all end up wanting to kill him.
- Papa Wolf: When he isn't neglecting his kids, he can be this.
- Parents as People: He's perverted, loudmouthed, bad-tempered, and an equally bad role model for his kids, yet at the same time he genuinely loves them and tries to be the best father they ever had. He also suffers chronic depression from the death of his wife, Beatrice.
- Parental Incest: Hinted at in "Role With It", when he says that therapists forced his mother to stop bathing with him when he was 15.
- Parental Neglect: He often can't remember Mambo's name, and usually wants nothing to do with them. The only time he seems to want to be with them is when they don't want to be with him. His conversation with his mother shows that he's just repeating the cycle.
- Private Detective: His daytime job. Not that he is pleasant... or does a good job... or is particularly competent... or cares to show up half of the time. Bottom line: never hire this guy.
- Rude Hero, Nice Sidekick: The Rude Hero to Cornfed's Nice Sidekick. Duckman is shown to be a self-centered, angry douche while Cornfed is nice, loyal and polite.
- Screams Like a Little Girl: Aside from his trademark "DWAH!" which is funny on its own, he can scream like a girl literally. When he needs to scream in a panicked state, they splice in stock audio of a girl screaming.
- Self-Made Orphan: One joke hints that he might've shot his own father by accident.
- Small Name, Big Ego: That's why his family needs to keep him in check.
- Sour Outside, Sad Inside: Never really got over the loss of Beatrice and all his bad behavior is his way of coping with his miserable life.
- Sympathetic Adulterer: Of the "Pay Cheating Unto Normal", presented as sympathetic for Duckman in-story. He was genuinely in love with Beatrice and she reciprocated in an affair that led to her getting pregnant, but she was already married to a friendly and morally upstanding man without Duckman's knowledge. Beatrice remarked she loved her husband but was never in love with him as she was with Duckman. Finding out about their affair led the man to have heart attack from shock, and Duckman went onto marry Beatrice. Duckman displays no remorse to this due to seeing the husband as an obstacle to his future with Beatrice, but displays enough guilt to respect the man at his funeral.
- Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist: Zig-Zagging Trope. Duckman's an asshole, a bad friend and an even worse father who probably deserves everything that happens to him. But when the show puts him under a microscope, he's shown to be a lonely, desperate and pathetic guy who has lost the few things he holds dear and is the Butt-Monkey of the world.
- With Friends Like These...: He causes his best friend no end of trouble and embarrassment.
Willibald Feivel Cornfed
- Voiced by: Gregg Berger
Duckman's detective partner, a deadpan pig who is able to do just about everything imaginable.
- The Ace: Cornfed is able to do pretty much anything, and is almost always the one to solve Duckman's cases. If he's ever in trouble, it's usually Duckman's fault.
- All Men Are Perverts: Zig-zagged. Even someone as stoic as Cornfed can be aroused by an attractive woman, but he's just too bashful to have sex, even with women who practically throw themselves at him.
- Beleaguered Assistant: Duckman often treats Cornfed like crap and tries to take all the glory, when in reality it's Cornfed who solves every case.
- Best Friends-in-Law: With Duckman, if posthumously on the latter's side.
- Brainy Pig: An extremely intelligent and capable pig who is far better at his job than Duckman.
- Brilliant, but Lazy: He's brilliant and has all sorts of skills, yet he works as Duckman's sidekick.
- Butt-Monkey: Surprising as it may sound, he can be one for Duckman.
- Celibate Hero: He's never had sex (until "Pig Amok" with Bernice, whom he only has sex with because if he didn't, he'd die). Cornfed is seemingly too much of a gentleman to go through with having sex with any of the girls he meets. There are several points in which it looks like he's had sex, but it's always handwaved in a later episode that they didn't. Even after he gets a steady girlfriend in Beverly, he eventually reveals that they're waiting until they get married to become intimate.
- Chessmaster Sidekick: Not that it takes much to out-think Duckman to begin with.
- Chick Magnet: Cornfed can potentially charm the pants off any woman he comes across, but with that being said, he's never had sex until Bernice. Even after he loses his virginity, he still avoids having sex until he's married.
- Deadpan Snarker: You would be too, working under Duckman.
- Embarrassing First Name:Duckman: Willibald Feivel!? AHAHAHAHA!
- Forgotten First Meeting: "The Girls of the Route Canal" parodies this. In his search for Beatrice, Duckman bumps into Cornfed, at the time a baggage handler in New York. Cornfed keeps trying to help out and talk, but an oblivious Duckman keeps yelling at him to shut up.
- Gag Penis: He's never seen naked, but in one episode, he briefly implies this when Duckman assumes he doesn't want to strip down at a nude beach because of a Teeny Weenie (it's actually because of an embarrassing tattoo). Considering how talented and skilled he is in everything else, it seems unlikely he'd lie about this.
- Hardboiled Detective: Occasionally drifts into this mode when the plot calls for it - he's such a perfect fit that the show's Noir Episode makes him the protagonist and gives him a full-blown Private Eye Monologue.
- Heroic Self-Deprecation: It's implied multiple times throughout the series that Cornfed suffers from critically low self-esteem, longing for a purpose in life which is manifested in his multiple exploits. Not to mention his anxiety over being a virgin for much of the show despite being well into adulthood. It wasn't until he met Duckman and started working for him that he found his life's true calling.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Duckman.
- Hypercompetent Sidekick: It's a wonder he even bothers working under anyone.
- Informed Judaism: There are a couple times in the series where Cornfed goes to funerals wearing a borsalino hat and payot. Ironically, he is a pig.
- Interrupted Suicide: Due to a genetic defect in his family, Cornfed must go on a Quest for Sex before he turns 30 or else he will die. With time just about to run out, Bernice agrees to sleep with him. She sees it as simply helping a friend, but he falls head over heels for her and is so crushed that she doesn't feel the same way that he intends to jump off a cliff. It takes Duckman saying he needs him in his life for Cornfed to step away from the edge.
- Last-Name Basis: Like Duckman, he's also always referred to by his surname.
- Living Emotional Crutch: Duckman talks Cornfed down from suicide in "Pig Amok" by admitting this. He says Cornfed's inherently good qualities keep him from falling apart.
- Multiple-Choice Past: The show gives several scenarios in which Duckman meets Cornfed for the first time. In one, he takes a bullet for Duckman, saves him from choking, then takes another bullet for him. In another, they knew each other in high school. In yet another, Cornfed drove Duckman from New York to Beatrice's house in order to reunite the two.
- Nice Guy: Compared to Duckman, he's one of the nicest characters of the series.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: His voice and personality are a parody of Jack Webb's character, Joe Friday.
- Noodle Incident: The final episode reveals he knew all along that Beatrice was still alive. He insists he can explain just ahead of To Be Continued.
- Not So Above It All:
- He enjoys a good crude joke every so often and sometimes even laughs at Duckman's snappy quips.
- Despite his stoic and celibate nature, he does show sexual frustration almost on Duckman's level a few times.
- For all of Cornfed's general humbleness, Duckman points out in "Role With It" that there are occasions when he's quick to slyly brag about being The Ace and pat himself on the back.
- He uses Beautex to improve his physical appearance. Duckman points out how Cornfed is usually the "Beauty comes from within" type.
- He stuffed Fluffy and Uranus into the tailpipe of his car when they annoyed him too much.
- He was apparently aware throughout the entire series that Beatrice was alive.
- Only Friend: With Duckman.
- The Perfectionist: In one episode he pulls off an incredibly complex basketball shot but complains that he caught some rim.
- Quest for Sex: Somewhat unwillingly in "Pig Amok", where it's revealed that the men of Cornfed's family suffer from a rare, and possibly unique, genetic defect that requires them to lose their virginity by the age of 30, or die when their system goes berserk before shutting down. Despite Duckman's "help", Cornfed comes very close to dying, but ends up losing his virginity to Bernice, saving his life.
- Rude Hero, Nice Sidekick: The Nice Sidekick to Duckman's Rude Hero. He is shown to be is nice, loyal and polite while Duckman is shown to be a self-centered, angry douche.
- Seen It All: Cornfed has seen and done a great many things throughout his life, and he'll usually bring something up from his past to explain how he's able to do amazing things as a detective. For example, he fought in The Vietnam War, was a member of Irish parliament, played Jimi Hendrix in Legends on Ice, has a medical degree from a Peruvian university, and wrote a book on how to be a mailman.
- Ship Tease: With Beverly. They get married in the last episode.
- The Stoic: His default way of speaking.
- Suddenly Always Knew That: Cornfed is often suddenly put in situations that call for him to have some complicated skill, anything from playing the piano to performing medical examinations. He's always prepared, and always has a story from his past on how he has this knowledge.
- Taking the Bullet: For Duckman. Twice. And he didn't even know him in that explanation of how he met Duckman.
- Undying Loyalty: Duckman treats him like crap most of the time, and sometimes Cornfed will go against him, but Cornfed will always come back to Duckman, which says a lot, since he's qualified to do literally anything else.
Bernice Florence Hufnagel
- Voiced by: Nancy Travis
Duckman's sister-in-law who hates him with a passion. She became the primary caretaker of her nephews Ajax, and the twins Charles and Mambo, when her sister Beatrice granted her both joint custody of her children, and the deed to her house before her death. She is a fitness fanatic who is almost always seen exercising, and unlike her relationship with Duckman, she adores her nephews.
- Acronym and Abbreviation Overload: Invokes this in "They Craved Duckman's Brain".Bernice: I'm going to call our congressman and get that S.O.B. to rouse the F.D.A, H.E.W., D.O.J., and every other V.I.P. in D.C. ASAP!
- Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: On occasion an episode will show that she does indeed care for Duckman, for all his faults.
- Berserk Button: In addition to basically anything Duckman says or does, she tends to get really offended when the size of her butt is brought up.
- Butch Lesbian: Subverted. She becomes attracted to Regine Poulet in "Forbidden Fruit" and is incredibly relieved to find out "she" was actually King Chicken Disguised in Drag.
- Commuting on a Bus: In the fourth season she becomes a Congresswoman and moves to Washington D.C., but she still comes home often enough to appear in episodes every few weeks.
- Covert Pervert: She's more subtle about it than Duckman but she can sometimes be just as sex-crazed as him, and she's a fan of corporal punishment among other things.
- Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male: Zig-zagged. Duckman often deliberately antagonizes her, which warrants an ass-kicking or two to keep him in line. But she also does go a little overboard with her abuse at times, especially when she's doing it solely to screw Duckman over or get him killed.
- Hidden Depths: It's hinted at in the show, and strongly hinted in the comics, that she's actually attracted to Duckman, and that she sees what her dead sister saw in him. This causes her to lash out at Duckman even more than she normally would.
- Jerkass Has a Point: For all of her domineering, belittling, and violent behavior towards Duckman, her points about him being a sleazy, deadbeat father are valid, what with his usual behavior.
- Jerkass to One: She's a loving mother figure for the kids, a good friend to Cornfed, and an obnoxious bitch to Duckman. Though many times he does actually deserve it.
- Long-Lost Relative: Beverly is her and Beatrice's long-lost triplet sister.
- Mama Bear: Brash, bitter, obnoxious, and loves the kids to death.
- My Biological Clock Is Ticking: "Sperms of Endearment" centers around her desperation to have an actual baby of her own, even though she's basically a mother to Duckman's kids.
- Nice Mean And In Between: Of the triplets, she's easily the mean.
- Not So Above It All: Despite her repeated protests against Duckman's perverted behavior, Bernice is often just as desperate for a partner as he is and isn't afraid to lower her standards and morals.
- Parental Substitute: For Ajax and the twins, Charles and Mambo, ever since their mother (and Bernice's sister), Beatrice, died. She's aware of this and this role eventually leads her to wanting to have a child of her own, with no success.
- Precision F-Strike: In "Research and Destroy", she lets loose on a snooty bouncer who keeps her and the family waiting in line for Ajax's performance, despite being family: After the bouncer makes a remark about fog, Bernice keeps saying "fogging" while yelling at the bouncer. So while not the actual "f" word, "fogging" sounds close enough.
- Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: To Duckman, as the two are almost always bickering when in contact with each other. That said she'll usually take a back seat whenever King Chicken is involved.
- Straw Feminist: She's prone to spouting anti-men rhetoric and is the first to complain on the subject of female rights, which she mainly just uses as an excuse to emasculate and demean men to make herself feel better. Predominantly Duckman.
- The Smurfette Principle: The only female in the main cast (not counting Grandma-ma).
- Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: A duck woman who towers over the smaller Duckman.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: The tomboy to Beatrice's (and later, Beverly's) girly girl.
Ajax Duckman
- Voiced by: Dweezil Zappa
Duckman's first-born son, who is severely stupid.
- Ambiguous Gender: Well, he has a uterus.
- Big Eater: Often seen eating something, especially sandwiches.
- Dumbass Teenage Son: Duckman cracks a joke once about his IQ being somewhere in the single digits.
- Dumb Is Good: The dumbest member of the family is easily the kindest.
- Establishing Character Moment: While "I, Duckman" establishes his stupidity immediately (he swallowed Bernice's stopwatch), it's the final scene where he talks to Duckman that establishes how kindhearted he is and how unusually profound he can be.
- Extreme Omnivore: He can eat literally anything he can fit in his mouth; he's eaten fecal matter (both human and animal) on several occasions. Not once has he ever suffered any ill effects.
- Genius Ditz: Ajax will occasionally say something intelligent, causing other to stare at him in Stunned Silence. This usually follows with him saying a complete Non Sequitur.
- Hidden Depths: "Research and Destroy" highlights his well-received poetry. "The One with Lisa Kudrow in a Small Role" reveals other interests: sculpting cheese, wanting to go to college, and that he's been secretly slipping extra cash into Duckman's wallet.
- Idiot Savant: Ajax is described as such when it comes to poetry.
- Incorruptible Pure Pureness: In the group therapy session from "Role With It," Duckman calls out the entire main cast on the ways they're mean-spirited, but he doesn't have a single negative thing to say about Ajax.
- Kindhearted Simpleton: Along with Cornfed, he is probably the most genuinely kind character on the show.
- Likes Older Women: Fell in love with his Vice Principal in "It's the Thing of the Principal."
- Meaningful Name: "The Girls of the Route Canal" reveals his name comes from the side of the truck that brought Duckman back to Beatrice and started their family.
- Missing Mom: His mother, Beatrice, died when he was very young. "Research and Destroy" shows that she is the inspiration behind his poetry.
- Nice Guy: Ajax is generally sweet, being respectful towards just about anybody, including his semi-neglectful father.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: King Chicken's plot in "Ride the High School" is to make Ajax too smart to relate to Duckman. Ajax slowly realizes what's happening when he speaks eloquently about a dandelion, leading him to scream.
- Parental Favoritism: Duckman favors Ajax over Charles and Mambo, because Ajax's lack of intelligence means that Duckman can relate to him. However, this doesn't mean much, as he still forgets his son's birthday and usually doesn't want to be around him.
- Sibling Yin-Yang: Ajax is stupid, spacy, and desperately craves his father's love. Charles and Mambo are brilliant and frequently dismiss their father figure.
- Singing Voice Dissonance: In "Vuuck, as in Duck".
- Surfer Dude: He has the accent of one, for example, calling his dad "Dod".
- Verbal Tic: Exclusively says "Dod" instead of "Dad". It's even spelled "Dod" in the text for the PC game.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: He desperately craves his father's approval and affection.
Charles and Mambo Duckman
- Voiced by: Dana Hill (Charles, original voice), Pat Musick (Charles, "How to Suck in Business Without Really Trying" and onward), E.G. Daily (Mambo)
Duckman's second-born sons, who were born conjoined twins with two heads on the same body.
- Accidental Misnaming: Duckman would often get Mambo's name wrong, usually referring to him as another time of dance like Meringue or Macarena. On rare occasions, he doesn't even use a word starting with M.
- Aerith and Bob: Charles and Mambo (or whatever type of dance Duckman calls him that day).
- Conjoined Twins: Two heads on one body.
- Identical Twin ID Tag: Charles has lighter colored hair then Mambo.
- Insufferable Genius: They sometimes act like this.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: They're fairly rude (makes sense given who their father is), but they also love their deceased mother, brother, and at times their father.
- Like Father, Like Son: Despite their shared distaste for Duckman, they inherited most of his traits, like his Motor Mouth, bad temper, and penchant for insults.
- Missing Mom: Their mother, Beatrice, died when they were young.
- Multiple Head Case: They're two heads sharing a body and they sometimes get into arguments, which usually results in their whacking their own heads against each other.
- Mouthy Kid: They take after their Daddy in that regard.
- Sibling Yin-Yang: Charles and Mambo really couldn't be more different from Ajax if they tried.
- Single-Minded Twins: They can be. They don't have any clear differences in personality, and when they disagree it's usually over something they both want to do.
- Strong Family Resemblance: They both resemble their father pretty closely, minus the eyeglasses.
- Teen Genius: They're very intelligent for their age.
- TV Genius: While not complete nerds, they do exhibit many shades of this.
- Twin Telepathy: They demonstrate this ability in "Bonfire of the Panties" during a ride in the car. It was probably a given since they share a body.
- The Un-Favourite: Both of them are this to Duckman, due to their vastly different interests and the rather large intelligence gap; a Running Gag of the series is Duckman misnaming Mambo. As with Ajax being the favorite son, this doesn't really mean much, given Duckman's lousy parenting in general. On the other hand, Ajax still gets far more Pet the Dog moments than the twins do. "Role With It" even has Duckman admit he makes little effort to parent them because of how frequently they dismiss him as an idiot and disregard his position as an authority figure (an admission that actually causes Charles and Mambo to feel ashamed).
Sophia "Grandma-ma" Longnameovich-Hufnagel
- Voiced by: Nancy Travis
Duckman's mother-in-law, who is in a comatose state, only able to fart loudly.
- And I Must Scream: The comics stressed she's aware of what's going on around her. Once, when she was left at the altar, she cried in private afterward. Other episodes showed that she does make expressions (somehow).
- Criminal Doppelgänger: Agnes Delrooney looks exactly like her.
- A Day in the Limelight: "Crime, Punishment, War, Peace, and the Idiot".
- Fartillery: She has done this many, many times, that it's pretty much the only way she can communicate. She can even fart in Morse code.
- Farts on Fire: Her farts have actually has been ignited a few times.
- Gasshole: All she's able to do is sit around and fart. Duckman in "I, Duckman" even calls her a potential fire hazard.
- I Was Quite a Looker: In flashbacks in "Crime, Punishment, War, Peace, and the Idiot" and in "Grandma-ma'a Flatulent adventure" Young Grandma-ma is actually very nice looking and polite especially when compare to how she looks and acts now.
- Non-Standard Character Design: Her design is less surreal than the other characters in the series.
- Not So Stoic: She has shown other expressions besides her usual frown (somehow).
- Obnoxious In-Laws: Downplayed, Duckman thinks of her as an inconvenience and, as we find out in one episode, she doesn't like him either (or that much, as the Klasky-Csupo website says she has a "soft spot" for him), though she was civil to him at his and Beatrice's wedding.
- The Speechless:
- With only a few exceptions, such as when her thoughts are audible or during her flashback in "Crime, Punishment, War, Peace, and the Idiot".
- In Grandma-ma's Flatulent Adventure: Not only do we hear Grandma-ma talking in the flashback but we also hear her inner monologue at the end of the episode.
Fluffy and Uranus
- Voiced by: Pat Musick
Duckman and Cornfed's secretaries. A pair of stuffed bears who are overly-cute and nice and politically correct, who often end up being horribly and casually killed off by Duckman.
- Aerith and Bob: Fluffy is a perfectly suitable name for a stuffed bear, Uranus is not.
- Ambiguous Gender: In the episode "Exile in Guyville", all men and women are divided by a wall and those who are sexually confused become the guards, and the only two guards shown are Fluffy and Uranus.
- Beware the Nice Ones: They're usually quite friendly, even to Duckman... But they have their limits and have snapped at Duckman at least once.
- Butt-Monkey: Duckman always subjects them to horrific deaths and mutilations.
- The Dividual: Fluffy and Uranus are never apart from each other, have the same personality, and annoy Duckman at an equal level.
- The Dog Bites Back: When Duckman abuses their hospitality, they snap and give him a long, swear-laden rant before kicking him out.
- Iron Butt Monkey: Keep coming back after every terrible, gruesome thing Duckman does to them.
- Leitmotif: An overly sweet music box-like tune plays almost every time they open their mouths.
- Not So Above It All: They openly lust after a post-surgery Angela after freaking out at her initial appearance.
- Pink Girl, Blue Boy: Averted. Although it's easy to assume that they fit this trope, not even they know what gender they are.
- Political Overcorrectness: The two of them are as politically correct as possible, which drives Duckman insane.Duckman: Suppose you're the chairman of a large-
Uranus: Ah ah ah! Chairperson.
Duckman: Suppose you're the chairperson of a large corporation that makes meat on a stick.
Fluffy: Oh, Mr. Duckman, we couldn't support the killing of animals for food!
Uranus: Nor the senseless slaughter of trees for sticks!
Duckman: Okay. You're the chairpeople of a large, environmentally friendly corporation that produces wholesome apples. Now, you're supposed to prove that someone died of natural causes, what do you do?
Fluffy: Are the apples free-range or are they grown in captivity?
(Duckman throws them out the window where they get run over by a steamroller) - Rage Breaking Point: They actually reach one with Duckman after he stays at their house in "Forbidden Fruit". He keeps them up all night, cooks their last-of-their-kind spotted finch eggs for breakfast, and completely trashes the place.Duckman: Look, these eggs need a little ketchup, is there anything else?
(Beat)
Uranus: As a matter of fact there is. Get the (Bleep) out of here, Mr. Duckman.
(Beat)
Fluffy: You deaf, Mr. (Bleep) cool!? Get the (Bleep) out of here before we tear your (Bleep) (Bleep) off and shove it up your (Bleep) (Bleep)! - Significant Monogram: Their names are Fluffy and Uranus. In other words, "FU".
- They Killed Kenny Again: Constantly killed by Duckman, but being stuffed, they always find a way to be put back together again.
- Those Two Guys: Duckman's secretaries that are never seen apart. And even if one of them dies before the other, it won’t take long before the other dies too.
Other Characters
George Herbert Walker 'King' Chicken
- Voiced by: Tim Curry
Duckman's arch nemesis, King Chicken wants Duckman dead for tormenting him in grade school.
- Affably Evil: He's remarkably polite, barely showing any actual cruelty to anyone aside from Duckman.
- Big Bad: He's the only recurring villain on the show and is out to do everything he can to get even with Duckman for picking on him when they were kids.
- Bond Villain Stupidity: He leaves Duckman bound to a chair in "Joking the Chicken", promising to finish him off after the concert is over. Seems like he didn't expect the janitor.
- Crazy-Prepared: He reveals in "Color of Naught" that he secretly gave Duckman the antidote to his Beautex formula during dinner in "Forbidden Fruit" while disguised as the kids' nanny.King Chicken: Hey, you gotta think ahead in this business. By the way, here's an amulet I'd like you to wear.
Duckman: Wow, thanks. - Cut Lex Luthor a Check: He creates impressive robots and other devices, all to get revenge on Duckman.
- Dramatic Unmask: Most of his appearances. "Forbidden Fruit" might be the crowning example, as he's wearing his other masks underneath his current disguise.
- Evil Mentor: To Iggy in "Joking the Chicken".
- Freudian Excuse: A super genius whose childhood trauma reduced him to thinking of ways to get revenge on Duckman and to take over the world.
- Harmless Villain: His schemes are never outright dangerous, usually around to mess with Duckman.
- Hypocrite: He's enraged over Duckman doing anything with his wife, Honey. Never mind that he repeatedly cheated on her with Bernice, including earlier that evening.
- Laughably Evil: King Chicken is loud and most of his schemes just involve messing with Duckman.
- Master of Disguise: His main means of getting close to Duckman. However, genre-savvy viewers will be able to tell it's King Chicken because he doesn't usually change his voice for his disguises, and King Chicken is voiced by Tim Curry, who has a very distinct voice.
- Even in the case of the episode "Vuuck, as in Duck", the villain of the episode is voiced by Tim Curry but is never revealed to be King Chicken... until after the credits are over where he can be heard saying "I didn't get to peel off my head!" indicating that he actually was King Chicken.
- The only time when his voice is not used in a disguise is near the end of "Duckman: Legend of the Fall" when he perfectly disguises himself as Ajax, right to fully imitating his voice instead of using his usual voice.
- Motive Rant: After the first few times, his motives will be stated by everyone else around him in unison.
- Out of Focus: Was a villain in two season 1 episodes, a season 2 episode, and three season 3 episodes, then fell off for a good long while until he re-appeared towards the end of season 4.
- Sexless Marriage: According to Honey, they never once had sex in the nine years they were married, though part of that is because he was confused over what sex actually was as he thought he was having sex constantly with both her and Bernice. When Duckman explains the concept to him, he's physically nauseated, and later runs off when Duckman says the word "penis".
- Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: When he's not the Big Bad, he's this - on one level or another, he will antagonize Duckman.
- Strange Minds Think Alike: He and Bernice immediately hit it off due to having the same opinions on teaching and punishment.
- Villain: Exit, Stage Left: He frequently gets away after his scheme is thwarted. "Joking the Chicken" even has him say "Exit, stage left" as he makes his escape.
Beatrice Duckman
- Voiced by: Nancy Travis
- Covert Pervert: She wasn't nearly as perverted as Duckman, but she did have a few kinky habits, and she did enjoy Duckman's idea for erotic playing cards when they first met.
- Crazy-Prepared: Much as she loved Duckman she was aware of his many parental faults, and as such she stipulated in her will that Bernice gets part-custody of the kids. There was also fine print saying whoever can be the best provider gets sole custody.
- Deceased Parents Are the Best: Ajax, Charles, and Mambo always speak of her with utmost reverence. Even learning that she was married to someone else when she fell for Duckman doesn't disrupt their saintly image of her.
- The Lost Lenore: While Duckman has no problem with ogling and making sexual advances towards women, it was because of Beatrice's death that Duckman was for a long time unable to get into a relationship.
- Love at First Sight: The moment she laid eyes on Duckman, after he accidentally crashed his car in front of her farm.
- Morality Chain: Duckman himself notes in the first episode how Beatrice made him a better person.
- Nice Mean And In Between: The nice girl of the triplets.
- Not Quite Dead: The finale revealed that she's been alive this entire time, and for some reason, Cornfed knew about this and never told Duckman. However, the show was never greenlit for another season, and the many questions of how and why will likely remain unanswered.
- Secret-Keeper: The only one who Duckman confided his Embarrassing First Name to.
- Sympathetic Adulterer: Of the Pay Cheating Unto Normal variety. Her first husband, Richard, is a very nice and charitable person that she cares about, but Duckman is the one she actually falls for. She stayed loyal to Richard out of concern for his heart condition (which Duckman exacerbated when he admitted to the affair in great detail).
Beverly Glenn Hufnagel
- Voiced by: Nancy Travis
- Composite Character: Can be as sweet as Beatrice and as snarky as Bernice when she needs to be.
- Covert Pervert: Much like her sisters she has a few kinks and it's implied she pleasures herself regularly.
- Long-Lost Relative: Nobody knew that Bernice and Beatrice had another sister until she came along.
- Nice Mean And In Between: The in between of the triplets.
- Only Sane Woman: Her general reaction to the other characters' quirks.
- Parental Substitute: While Bernice was busy as a congresswoman.
- Ship Tease: With Cornfed, much to Duckman's annoyance. They get married in the last episode.
Dr. Ben Stein
- Voiced by: Ben Stein
Duckman's neighbor, who is both a psychiatrist and a medical doctor, played by Ben Stein.
- The Comically Serious: Never loses that monotone voice of his even when making threats. Though this comes with Ben Stein.
- Deadpan Snarker: Though, he might not be this intentionally, as that's how his voice sounds
- Ink-Suit Actor: Basically he's Ben Stein as a human-like dog.
- Shiksa Goddess: Dr. Stein's wife, who is described as "the daughter of beautiful Gentiles."
Art De Salvo
- Voiced by: Gilbert Gottfried
A sleazy publicist and businessman. He eventually becomes one of Duckman's neighbors.
- Ink-Suit Actor: He appears to be a grotesque caricature of Gilbert Gottfried.
- No Indoor Voice: He switches between shouting and shouting very loud.
- Suddenly Shouting: As expected from a character played by Gilbert Gottfried.
Iggy Catalpa
- Voiced by: Eddie Deezen
- Cannot Tell a Joke: His idea of "inoffensive comedy" isn't working out
- Don't Explain the Joke: He does this as well as being overly-politically correct.Iggy: Hi! I'm, uh, (Looks at wallet) Iggy Catalpa. I was checking my wallet like I forgot!
- Ink-Suit Actor: Though Iggy is not human, he still bears a strong resemblance to Eddie Deezen.
- Political Overcorrectness: All of his jokes are this due to him trying to be as inoffensive as possible. He wises up at the end of his debut episode.Iggy: Well, I guess it's time to move on to my lesbian jokes. (Beat) Hey, whatever works!
Agnes Delrooney
- Voiced by: Brian Doyle-Murray
A notorious criminal who happens to look exactly like Grandma-Ma.
- Black Widow: When she seemingly looks at herself in a mirror, she remarks "No wonder all my husbands left me" before revealing that she actually killed all her husbands.
- Chained Heat: The second half of "You've Come a Wrong Way, Baby" is her and Duckman being in this situation.
- Criminal Doppelgänger: She looks exactly like Grandma-Ma, and her episode ends with Agnes staying undercover as Grandma-Ma while the real Grandma-Ma is jailed. This goes on for thirty or so episodes until "You've Come a Wrong Way, Baby", when the Duckman family is enslaved by an evil tobacco company, and Agnes decides to bust out along with Duckman.
- Heel–Face Turn: Was a vicious criminal in her first appearance, but "You've Come a Wrong Way, Baby" shows she's mellowed out and grown to like Duckman and his family. She even got a pardon when it was all over.
- Non-Standard Character Design: Being Grandma-Ma's doppelganger, she shares her somewhat tamer character design compared to the rest of Peck's portfolio.
- Twin Switch: Season 3's "Aged Heat" is built on this, as Agnes uses Grandma-Ma to escape during a robbery. The final twist is that the characters didn't actually send the right one to prison in the end. It's not until Season 4 is almost over that the situation is resolved.
- Vocal Dissonance: Her voice sounds NOTHING like that of a typical woman.
Tami Margulies
- Voiced by: Kim Cattrall
A young, attractive blond woman who tried to become the mother figure of the Duckman family, but revealed herself to be a psychopathic murderer who kills any family that she views as imperfect.
- Ax-Crazy: She's a murderous psychopath.
- Ink-Suit Actor: She's not too far off the way her voice actress looks.
- Nightmare Face: When her true nature is revealed, she sports some extremely frightening looks.
- Not Quite Dead: Parodied. She's seemingly killed and immediately returns to try to kill Duckman. He's saved by Bernice and Cornfed, who note awareness of how the psycho killer is never dead the first time.
- Uncanny Valley Girl: In comparison to rest of the cast, she looks and acts weird as all get out. Hell, her speech sounds kinda robotic.
- Would Hurt a Child: She attempts to kill Duckman's entire family, his sons Ajax, Charles, and Mambo included.
Terry Duke Tetzlov
- Voiced by: John Astin
A sleazy businessman who provides services to the Duckman family, which usually end up backfiring.
- Call-Back: Whenever he shows up, the sleazy things he's done in the past will be brought up.Duckman: Hey, aren't you Terry Duke Tetzlov, the con man who almost killed me off with a defective home security system, buried my mother-in-law when she wasn't dead, and, uh, did that other bad thing?
- Honest John's Dealership: No matter what job he's doing, it's always poor-quality, sleazy and without a license.
- Ink-Suit Actor: He looks a lot like his voice actor.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: "Sperms of Endearment" is the only time he actually suffers for his sleazy ways: getting tormented by Duckman-like children.
- New Job as the Plot Demands: Characters will almost always point out all of his previous appearances when he shows up - justified in that he's a career conman and grifter.
Uncle Mo
- Voiced by: Robert Klein
The last of Duckman's blood relatives, not counting his kids. He's an even bigger jerk than Duckman himself, and in his last days, decides to take advantage of a family curse in order to exploit and torture Duckman as much as he can.
- Ambiguously Jewish: Constantly uses Yiddish words in his first appearance, even calling Cornfed "treif," Yiddish for non-kosher food.
- The Dreaded: His arrival causes Duckman to have horrible, nightmarish visions and is played as an abusive Knight of Cerebus for Duckman.
- Escape Artist: Duckman captures him in a burlap sack, chains him up, locks him in a trunk, and chucks him down into the basement, and he escapes seconds later. He explains that he's pissed off so many people that he gets tied up and locked in trunks all the time.
- Evil Counterpart: Uncle Mo's essentially what Duckman would become if he had no scruples at all or cared for anyone but himself. Duckman himself acknowledges this comparison.
- Fat Bastard: He's rather chunky and manages to be an even worse person than Duckman.
- Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Unlike Duckman, Mo is never shown to have any redeeming qualities.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: He shows up for one episode and dies at the end, although he also briefly appears in another as a ghost.
