| Mr. Herriman | Gallery |
Mr. Herriman is one of the main characters of Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends. He was voiced by the retired Tom Kane. He is the president/head of the house of Foster's and is Frankie's boss. He's an organized, proper, uptight, stern, strict, lawful, rules-oriented but still somewhat naïve rabbit.
Description[]
Mr. Herriman is a man-sized rabbit-like imaginary friend who wears a top hat, monocle, tuxedo coat, bowtie, yellow vest, white gloves, and a mustache while speaking in an English accent in a personification of the Edwardian era. He is the head of the house and runs things for Madame Foster, his creator. He is the oldest friend in the house, which is something he is quite sensitive about. He is named for Krazy Kat creator George Herriman, with a pun on "hare."
He stands six feet tall (seven feet with his top hat on) and weighs in at 210 pounds. Quite the opposite of his carefree and calm-tempered creator Madame Foster, Mr. Herriman is a stickler for rules, having made many silly and impractical rules in an attempt to keep everything "running smoothly", to the point of being ridiculous. He usually refers to others in a proper manner, calling males "Master" and females "Miss" in front of their names; the only time he actually calls people in normal fashion is when he is in pure terror. He is shown to have an addiction to carrots (which he will go to great, even desperate, lengths to hide), despite his best attempts to ignore or get over the weakness. He is cynophobic and is easily sent into a panic whenever he comes across a dog or anything dog related because dogs are natural predators of rabbits. Because of this, he made a rule that no dogs are allowed in the home.
Mr. Herriman, though proper, has often shown a lack of social skills. His ways of being proper are to the point where the other imaginary friends cannot stand him or be around him, his ways of keeping things "running just the right way" often inconvenience the other characters to the point of being disrespectful. Frankie has a strong disliking towards Mr. Herriman, due to his constant lack of consideration towards her and often talks her down, whether he is aware of it or not. At the end of "Destination Imagination," however, he realizes his poor judgment towards her after witnessing how she handled World, even putting forth an agreement to have the other friends help her around the house. He has a strong disliking for Bloo, due to his chaotic nature and constant rule breaking.
Although Mr. Herriman is a strong stickler for the rules, he is often overruled by Madame Foster. Despite the fact that they often disagree on things (rules mostly), Herriman and Madame Foster have an unquestionably loving relationship, and at times Herriman will appease his creator much in the way that he did when Madame Foster was a little girl (such performing his 'Funny Bunny' dance and song for her when in private). He is also very protective of Madame Foster, to where even she tells him to relax. Mr. Herriman was featured in Cartoon Network's comic series based on the show, hallucinating Madame Foster as a little girl after getting high on cleaning solvents in the "Ill Will" issue. Herriman recalls in the issue how, as a young child, Madame Foster spilled something over, and when questioned by her parents, she blamed him, so he claims that incident as being his reason for obsessing over cleaning, rules, and manners, to avoid getting in trouble again.
Mr. Herriman is very passionate about his job as the house president, taking the job seriously, as he's stated that being the president of the house makes him feel like he is needed and important to the Foster community. Herriman is surprisingly old fashioned, even believing that the internet is an actual net. It is believed that Madame Foster created him during the 1930s, making him believe the 2000s are still running in the old-fashioned ways of living.
Despite his strict, uptight attitude, Mr. Herriman also portrays a willingness to oversee fair play and to protect all those under his charge. For example, when he threatened Mac with a ban from the house after Goo's creations invaded it, he reassured Mac that Bloo would not be let out for adoption, in light of their contract. Said attitude was derailed in the episode "Let Your Hare Down," when his alter ego, a hippie type named "Harry", had no regard for rules until William Collector came, making him become his old self again.
He is frequently called a badger by Goo throughout the show until the episode "Bus the Two of Us".
Trivia[]
- Mr. Herriman is comparable to Captain Peacock from the British TV sitcom Are You Being Served? mainly being a stickler for rules, similar accent, and upper-crust attitude.
- He is also comparable to Sir Topham Hatt (aka The Fat Controller) from Thomas & Friends. They both wear black top hats and waistcoats, supervise, and talk with an English accent.
- Mr. Herriman and the Mayor of Townsville in The Powerpuff Girls (Craig McCracken's other original cartoon) have several similarities:
- They both wear black top hats and waistcoats.
- They both have a monocle over their left eye, although Mr. Herriman's monocle has been switched between his left and right eye often many times, such as in "Hiccy Burp," where it changes three times in one scene alone. He does, however, seem not to be able to see very well without it.
- They both have a white mustache which moves as they speak.
- Both usually have their eyes closed (though awake).
- Both have an unhealthy obsession over a certain food (carrots and pickles respectively).
- Aside from Mr. Herriman's similarities to the Mayor of Townsville, his voice actor, Tom Kane, was also known for providing voicework to The Powerpuff Girls, namely Professor Utonium and Him.
- He has secret immature behaviour, like lying in "Berry Scary," and especially in "Crime After Crime," where he punishes everybody without a good reason, because the places where the imaginary friends are have the carrots he hid.
- While Mr. Herriman can keep things going smoothly, he seems to be unable to do the work himself, as seen in "Destination Imagination."
- He has a habit of forgetting to mention one small key detail as seen in "Goodbye to Bloo." This was also explored as well during the events of "The Big Cheese," where he literally thinks choosing a code at random is typing it while not looking at the numbers.
- Normally, he hops everywhere, but he can be seeing running normally, such as in "World Wide Wabbit" and "Destination Imagination".
- He has shown be a hypocrite in some instances, because despite being too strict with the rules, he sometimes breaks them intentionally to accomplish some objective (often out of selfishness):
- In "Beat with a Schtick", when he learned that Bloo would fight in a brawl against the New Guy, a giant imaginary friend, Mr. Herriman intentionally overlooked the fact that the rules forbides that the residents participate in brawls to say that it isn't a fight, but a "gentleman's challenge", as an excuse to justify the fight of Bloo against the New Guy, as Mr. Herriman knows that Bloo would be severely beaten up by the New Guy, and he intentionally allows this brawl out of spite to Bloo, even laughing at the predicament of Bloo.
- In "Imposter's Home for Um... Make 'Em Up Pals", Mr. Herriman ignored and overlooked the antics and naughty actions of Goofball within the mansion, and instead treats Frankie badly as if she don't do a good job, or even outright blames her for the actions of Goofball, like when Goofball invited his friends to play in the mansion and leave a mess in the corridors, and Mr. Herriman ignored that Goofball brought, without previous advice, these teens that caused a mess in the mansion and simply and unfairly blamed Frankie for not doing a good job. Mr. Herriman intentionally ignored the actions of Goofball, that actually means a breaking of the rules, out of spite Frankie.
- He is also a hypocrite when he made the rule that "No Running" is not allowed in the house in "Busted" and breaks the rule in several later episodes.
- Though that regarding the "No Running" rule, his most hypocritical action was in the episode "Crime After Crime", as Mr. Herriman was running constantly within the hallways of the mansion, to search for the hidden carrots, that he stole for himself, leaving clear that Mr. Herriman didn't only break one rule, but also did it to hide a crime, showing that he is even capable of breaking the rules to hide his mistakes and crimes. Adding that he even goes too far by punishing the imaginary friends only for the risk that they could learn about his actions in the episode.
- He is very similar in appearance and personality to 19th century railroad tycoon E.H. Harriman.
- His golden trading card statistics from the Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends Leapster game are:
- Likes to be scratched behind the ears. But ONLY by Madame Foster.
- Is not a very funny bunny.
- Dreams of when Bloo will leave the house.
- Is the oldest friend in the house.
| Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends | |
|---|---|
| Characters | Main Characters • Secondary Characters Mac • Bloo • Frankie • Madame Foster •Goo •Wilt • Coco • Eduardo • Mr. Herriman • Cheese • Jackie |
| Media | Episodes and DVD releases |
| Movies/Specials | House of Bloo's • A Lost Claus • Good Wilt Hunting • Cheese a Go-Go • Nightmare on Wilson Way • Race for Your Life Mac & Bloo • Destination Imagination • Goodbye to Bloo |
| Games | Big Fat Awesome House Party • Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends • Imagination Invaders • Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends Didj |
| Creators | Craig McCracken • Lauren Faust |