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HTFrussell
Name: Russell
Gender: Male
Interest(s): Fishing, swimming, boating, kite flying
Species: Sea Otter
Color: Turquoise
Relatives: Unknown
Episode Count: 33
Friends/Allies: Lumpy
Cuddles
Giggles
Toothy
Flaky
Sniffles
Disco Bear
Handy
Nutty
Enemies/Rivals: Lifty
Shifty
Evil Flippy
Love Interest(s): Giggles
Kill Count: 7
Deaths: 21 (19 from Regular Episodes)
(1 from HTF Love Bites)
(1 from HTF Break)
First Appearance: "Whose Line Is It Anyway?"
First Victim: Lumpy from "Get Whale Soon"
First Death: "Whose Line Is It Anyway?"
Voice Actor/Actress: Jeff Biancalana
Francis Carr
(2002 - 2005)
(2006 - present)

Russell is one of the main characters in Happy Tree Friends.

Character Bio

A turquoise sea otter, Russell owns typical pirate accessories, such as a Jolly Roger's hat, a striped red/white shirt, a hook, an eyepatch and two wooden peglegs. He enjoys fishing, sailing and eating seafood, especially mussels, which was why he was named Russell. He also likes kite flying and even runs his own fast-food restaurant (Mime to Five). His hook started off on his left hand, but later on, it is on the right hand for the rest of the series. Russell's initial villain design depicted him with a five o'clock shadow; in his early appearances he appeared with it, however, the creators eventually scrapped it. He doesn't have a five o'clock shadow since Get Whale Soon.

Typically, his vocabulary consists only of "Yar!", though in the episode Get Whale Soon, he also says things like 'Aha!' and 'Huh?'. In the A Sight for Sore Eyes episode, he was heard apologizing to Mole after he accidentally bumped into him.

Sometimes, when put in a scary or violent situation, Russell will go insane and start laughing in a crazy manner and his eye turns into grey like Flippy, as seen in Get Whale Soon and Snow Place to Go, but instead of killing people, he just slashes stuff with his hook. Russel is rarely seen with the other characters, because he spends most of time navigating. Though, he does appear in a few episodes with Lumpy, and lately, he seems to appear with the others more often as well. His deaths usually involve sea animals or getting impaled.

From the episode, Sea What I Found, when Russell woke up and went to his closet to change his peglegs, it can be seen that his legs are partially amputated. He is the first character to wear shorts. Also, he's the third character without visible ears, as seen in his Internet shorts introduction when he took his hat off for a few seconds, and in Something Fishy. Russell wears a stripy undershirt when he goes to sleep. He lives in a big pirate ship shaped treehouse and sleeps on a hammock.

Since he only has one eye and his vision is becoming blurry, he's recommended to wear a contact lens as seen in A Sight for Sore Eyes.

He appears to be friends with Lumpy in Sea What I Found. He has also been seen with Nutty and Handy in Ipso Fatso, Disco Bear in The Wrong Side of the Tracks and Sniffles in Double Whammy Part 1. And in Can't Stop Coffin he was seen playing baseball with Cuddles, Toothy and Cro-Marmot

So far, the only internet episodes he survived in were Can't Stop Coffin, By The Seat Of Your Pants, and Put Your Back Into It. During the TV series he has survived in A Sight for Sore Eyes, The Wrong Side of the Tracks, Mime to Five, Chew Said a Mouthful, See What Develops, Easy Comb, Easy Go, and Double Whammy Part 1 . He also survived Milk Pong and Youtube Copyright School .

Russell's Episodes

Famous Deaths

Starring Roles

  1. Whose Line Is It Anyway?
  2. Off the Hook
  3. Get Whale Soon
  4. Sea What I Found
  5. Snow Place to Go
  6. A Sight For Sore Eyes
  7. Something Fishy
  8. YouTube Copyright School
  9. Bottled Up Inside

Featuring Roles

  1. Remains to be Seen
  2. The Wrong Side of the Tracks
  3. Who's to Flame?
  4. Mime to Five
  5. See What Develops
  6. Idol Curiosity
  7. In a Jam
  8. Hear Today, Gone Tomorrow
  9. Can't Stop Coffin
  10. Milk Pong
  11. Happy New Year
  12. You're Kraken Me Up (incredited)
  13. Put Your Back Into It

Appearance Roles

  1. Class Act
  2. From Hero to Eternity
  3. Ipso Fatso
  4. Concrete Solution
  5. Chew Said a Mouthful
  6. Aw Shucks!
  7. Easy Comb, Easy Go
  8. Double Whammy Part 1
  9. Wrath of Con
  10. By the Seat of Your Pants

Love Bites Roles

  1. Sea of Love

Occupations and Careers

For more information, see List of Occupations

  1. Pirate - Almost every regular episode he has starred, featured, or appeared in
  2. Fisherman - Whose Line Is It Anyway?; Sea What I Found
  3. Treasure Hunter - Sea What I Found
  4. Sanitation Engineer - Who's to Flame?
  5. Fast-Food Restaurant Owner - Mime to Five
  6. Ship Deck Swabber - Idol Curiosity
  7. Carnival Booth Operator - Aw, Shucks!; Double Whammy
  8. Bass Guitarist - In a Jam
  9. Fish Market Trucker - Hear Today, Gone Tomorrow
  10. Student/School Play Actor - Something Fishy
  11. Swimmer- By The Seat of Your Pants

Fates

Deaths

Russell

Russell's death in Get Whale Soon.

Seen on Computer and on TV

  1. Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Impaled through mouth by a swordfish.
  2. Off the Hook: Hits a seamine and explodes.
  3. Get Whale Soon: His head is impaled on a ship's mast.
  4. Class Act: Dies in an explosion.
  5. Remains to be Seen: Dies in a truck crash, revived as a zombie, and run over with a lawn mower by Lumpy.
  6. From Hero to Eternity: Sinks into a whirlpool and burned by lava.
  7. Ipso Fatso: Sliced to pieces by flying glass shards (along with Nutty).
  8. Concrete Solution: Possibly dies when bridge collapses.
  9. Sea What I Found: Suffers decompression sickness, causing his muscles to expand through his skin.
  10. Who's to Flame?: Gets impaled by sharp and pointy objects.
    HTFT22

    Russell blew up, but Lumpy didn't notice because he was deaf in this episode.

  11. Snow Place to Go: Eaten by an orca.
  12. Idol Curiosity: Drowns when a boat he's connected to sinks.
  13. Aw, Shucks!: Crushed by a huge piece of popcorn (Death was seen after the corn was done popping).
  14. In a Jam: Electrocuted by an electric guitar and blown to dust.
  15. Hear Today, Gone Tomorrow: Dies in a truck explosion.
  16. Sea of Love: Skin ripped off his face by a little anglerfish and possibly drowns or is eaten by the anglerfish.
  17. Wrath of Con: Head pierced by tip of pen flicked by Splendid (along with Disco Bear & Mime).
  18. Something Fishy: Head eaten by his killer fish.
  19. Breaking Wind: Killed by Splendid's fart.
  20. Happy New Year:Crushed by Lumpy's van along with Flaky.
  21. Bottled Up Inside: Forced through a bottle.
  22. You're Kraken Me Up: Forced through a hole in his boat and likely drowns in the ocean.

Additional

  1. Overkill DVD box set: Possibly killed in the explosion from Flippy's bomb. (Death not seen)
  2. Happy Tree Friends: False Alarm gameplay: Deaths and injuries various, depending on the environment of the level, such as getting sliced by blades and saws, getting crushed and flattened like paper or cardboard, getting electrocuted or burned.
  3. Mayhem 2008 Wallpaper: Possibly killed by a chainsaw. (Debatable and not seen)
  4. Happy New Year 2008 Calendar: A hook goes through his mouth and his eye.
  5. Fall Harvest Wallpaper: Splatters on the ground. (Death not seen)
  6. Un-named Wallpaper: Killed when Flippy's Dynamite explodes. (Death not seen)
  7. HTF Hot-Topic T-Shirt: Burnt by Flippy.
  8. I'm Hooked on You 2011 Calendar: Hooked through the eye.

Seen in arcade Games

  1. Fire Escape: Fall to his death.
  2. Petunia Balance: Drowned in the bloody water.
  3. Dumb Ways to Die: Dies of oil poisoning when his oil tanker crashes and leaks in the North Pole.
  4. On Thin Ice: If you lose - Eaten by a giant Squid.

Injuries

Seen on Computer and on TV

  1. Whose Line is it Anyway: Chokes on a blowfish.
  2. Off the Hook: Gets zapped by an eel and dragged through jagged coral.
  3. Chew Said a Mouthful: A bucket of hot water splashes on him, painfully burning him.
  4. Idol Curiosity: (before death) Gets his peg legs stuck in boards, hit by an anchor (pulling his intestines out), and pulled through a ring of fire.
  5. A Sight for Sore Eyes: He puts on Nutty's googly eye, mistaking it for his contact lens, and his vision reddens.
  6. Hear Today, Gone Tomorrow (before death): Pinned under a truck.
  7. Prior to the series: Lost his right eye, both of his legs, and his right hand. (permanent)
  8. Bottled Up Inside: Impaled by bottle.
  9. You're Kraken Me Up: Patches of skin is ripped off by the suction cups on the squid's tentacles.

Number of Kills

Survival Rate

  • Internet series: 36.36%
  • TV series: 41%

Trivia

  • Russell's hook and eye patch often change places between and within episodes. As with Lumpy's antlers and Nutty's eyes, this is probably the result of the animators mirroring him when he turns around, instead of making new models with his hook and patch in the right places.
  • Russell is the first character to have a bonus episode in the DVD, First Blood.
  • He is seen only as a black silhouette on the back of the First Blood DVD case with a big white question mark.
  • Russell and Petunia are the only Happy Tree Friends with realistic human names. They are also related species. 
  • He is one of the two main characters (along with Lammy) that isn't a tree or forest animal. He is a sea animal.
  • Russell, Lumpy, Handy and Flaky are the only characters without visible ears. In Something Fishy, when Russell's hat is removed, his ears still cannot be seen.
  • Russell, Mime and Cro-Marmot are the only characters without secret information from the "Collect Them All" section.
  • He owns his own fast food restaurant in Mime to Five.
  • It is shown that Russell has poor vision in his remaining eye in A Sight for Sore Eyes.
  • It's been evident in the episode In a Jam that Russell lost his eye and wears the eye patch over it (which is the reason Cuddles got his part in the band).
  • In Sea of Love, when the little angler fish rips Russell's face off, it shows that Russell's right eye socket is empty.
  • In Off the Hook and Sea of Love Russell doesn't need an underwater suit for oxygen, but in Sea What I Found he wears a suit while searching for treasure. This could be because in Sea of Love and Off the Hook he was only underwater for about a minute while in Sea What I Found he was underwater longer, possibly indicating he has only short term breathing abilities underwater or because he was in a deep area and there would have been a lot of pressure, but Lifty and Shifty survived.
  • Russell is the first character to die in the Love Bites series.
  • Russell and Splendid starred in two episodes in the Internet series' first and third season and one episode in Season 2.
  • Russell is one of the few characters that flips out when stressed but does not kill, the others being Petunia (though she did kill herself in Wishy Washy), Nutty, and Flippy.
  • Russell is one of the playable characters in Happy Tree Friends: False Alarm.
  • So far the only starring role he has survived in is A Sight for Sore Eyes.
  • Russell is one of the eight characters wearing clothes. The others are Mime, Disco Bear, Flippy, Mole, Lammy, Pop and Lumpy.
  • His name may come from the word "mussel", as he was seen eating and catching some in Whose Line Is It Anyway?
  • Russell (like Cuddles) has died in every season one and season two Internet episode he appeared in.
  • Russell is sometimes mistaken as a cat due to his whiskers.
  • He has an iPhone as seen in Youtube Copyright School
  • He is one of the main characters without good vision, the others being Mole (who can't see) and Sniffles.
  • He is one of three characters to have permanently missing hand/hands, the other two are Handy and Tiger General.
  • In the TV series, Lumpy and Cuddles appeared in all of his starring roles.
  • In Season 3, his alliterate sentence is: Row, row your boat down a running river!
  • Russell is the only character who has not yet killed a girl.
  • Russell was originally gonna be the stuntman on Brake the Cycle, but Lumpy took his place since they needed someone with two legs and hands.
  • Russell originally had a five o' clock shadow on his face. It disappeared in Season 2.
  • Russell's tail is flat and beaver-like. In reality, sea otters have only slightly flattened tails.
  • If you choose Russell in the Vision-O-Rama feature in the Third Strike DVD, the movie theater's screen will show a "half" Spin Fun Knowin Ya (the right section of the screen is covered).
  • The first (and so far only) time he plays an antagonistic role is in Youtube Copyright School, where he commits crimes of copyright infringement.
  • In Youtube Copyright School, he has 70 videos.
  • Russell appears as a boss in Deadeye Derby.

Gallery

Main article: Russell/Gallery
Happy Tree Friends Main Cast

CuddlesGigglesToothyLumpyPetuniaHandy
NuttySnifflesPopCubFlakyMoleDisco Bear
RussellLiftyShiftyMimeCro-MarmotFlippy (Fliqpy)•
SplendidLammyMr. Pickels

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