Dumb Donald | |
---|---|
Name |
Dumb Donald |
Voiced by |
Bill Cosby (1969 Special) Lou Scheimer (Classic Series) |
Portrayed by/Voiced by |
Marques Houston (Film) |
Gender |
Male |
Born |
June 5th 1981 |
Dumb Donald is a member of the Junkyard Gang. In the Junkyard Band, he plays a trombone that he made from plumbers pipe and a morning glory horn from a discarded gramophone record player.
Personality[]
As his nickname would suggest, Dumb Donald is very simple-minded and talks in a screeching voice, but even so, Donald means well and tries his best to help out when needed. But in contrast, he often has outbursts of intelligence.
Dumb Donald was first mentioned by Bill Cosby in his 1971 album When I Was A Kid. Cosby talked about how he and other kids in his neighborhood would collect old newspapers and take them to a junk shop where they would make a little money based on the weight of the papers, but Bill and others discovered they could make more money by sneaking rocks into the middle of the piles of papers to add more weight, but Dumb Donald always got caught because he would put the rocks on the top of his pile.
There was a character named Dumb Donald featured in the 1969 TV special Hey, Hey, Hey, It's Fat Albert, but while he wore a cap on his head, he did not wear it down over his face; that distinction belonged to another boy named Nolan who wore a sack over his head with eye holes cut out so he could see. He also had a deeper voice and spoke in a manner similar to the Disney character, Goofy.
Appearance[]
Dumb Donald wears a pink knit-cap that covers his entire head and face except for his eyes and mouth. He also wears a large green long-sleeved jersey (with two blue stripes on each upper sleeve) which is at least two sizes too big, blue pants, green socks, and blue sneakers. This is his appearance from season 1-8.
His appearance in the film stayed mainly the same, the only difference in the film is that the color of his cap is a darker shade of pink.
Trivia[]
- In the original series, Dumb Donald's full face was never seen. In the 2004 film, however, Dumb Donald took off his hat, revealing his face (in the real world). In the cartoon, his face was only his floating eyeballs and mouth, due to him never being drawn without his cap on. This was more of a joke and not considered canonical.
- In an issue of the Gold Key Fat Albert comic, a flashback sequence had someone yanking the hat off of Donald and tossing it out a window, revealing only the back of his head which showed that he had a close-cropped Afro-American style haircut similar to Bucky's.
- In the season 2 episode "The Newcomer", when he finds out that his parents are going to have another baby, Dumb Donald initially doesn't know how to take it, but when the baby a girl, is born, Donald turns into a loving, devoted brother.
- In the season 8 episode, "The Birds, the Bees and Dumb Donald", he falls for a cheerleader named Elaine, who has an overbearing boyfriend, Hammerhead Rex. Initially, Donald pretends to be someone he is not in an unsuccessful attempt to win her heart. But then after realizing it's okay to be himself, Donald and the gang defeat Rex and his gang playing 'Capture The Flag', and after exposing Rex's team's attempt at cheating, Elaine dumps Rex for Donald.
- As seen in the end of the live action movie, Dumb Donald is based on one of Bill Cosby's friends. He wears a beanie similar to the hat his character wears.
- Donald's baby sister was never seen again after her initial appearance. However, she is briefly mentioned in "Sign Off".
- Oddly, Donald mentions having a baby sister in the 1971 pilot and the first-season episode, "The Hospital" despite her not having been born until "The Newcomer". To make things even more confusing, the 1971 pilot (which aired in 1973) was broadcast 4 months before "The Newcomer" premiered. However, it might be possible that "The Newcomer" might take place before any of the aforementioned events occurred.
- At one point in "Animal Lover", Dumb Donald erroneously speaks in Mushmouth's voice. Ironically, his profile card in the bonus features of the Time Life DVDs state that he dislikes being mistaken for Mushmouth. Conversely, the episode, “Junk Food” has Mushmouth speaking with Donald’s voice at one point.