Yogi Bear (character)


 * This article is about the character. For other uses, see Yogi Bear.

Yogi Bear is a talking anthropomorphic brown bear and the main title protagonist in the Yogi Bear animated franchise. He was originally voiced by Daws Butler, using an impression of actor Art Carney as the basis.

Debuting in shorts of The Huckleberry Hound Show, he would later go on to have his own series with his spot on the previous series being taken by Hokey Wolf. He has since been the leading star of several spin-offs and movies produced by both Hanna-Barbera and Warner Bros.

Character description
Yogi is a walking, talking brown bear with a orange snout (though, it is colored tan in subsequent media). His normal attire consists of a white collar, a green tie, and a green pork pie hat. Yogi's pupils are depicted as simple black dots, though in 2011 live-action film, they are an amber brown in color.

Yogi lives in Jellystone National Park, where he resides inside a cave with his friend Boo Boo Bear. He is jolly and boisterous, but every day he tends to suffer from boredom, hunger, and sometimes hunters within the area. Being smarter than the average bear (as he proclaims), he tends to hatch from one scheme to the next. His plans vary depending on what he needs, but he is frequently seen stealing picnic baskets from Jellystone's unsuspecting guests. While they do seem to work at first, Yogi tends to overestimate himself and his plans would backfire.

Boo Boo often follows his lead, but cautiously tries to dissuade him about the risky things he will do. Although the two have narrowly avoided most of the park's rules, none have held the candle quite as well as Ranger Smith, who is a constant thorn in Yogi's back. Both Smith and the bear share a rivalry with one another in a game of wits, but sometimes, the ranger does sympathize with him; albeit in several occasions.

Being a free-spirited bear, Yogi also spurts out a number of amusing catchphrases. These include his gleeful greeting ("Hey, hey, hey!"), his naming of picnic baskets as "pic-a-nic baskets", and his self-promotion, "I'm smarter than the av-er-age bear!" He also tends to speak in rhyme and would also use puns in his speech, in addition to his habit of pronouncing long words with a long vocal flourish.

TV series

 * Yogi Bear
 * Hokey Wolf
 * 1.13 "Too Much to Bear" (mentioned; picture)
 * 1.17 "The Glass Sneaker" (mentioned)
 * The Flintstones
 * 3.26 "Swedish Visitors"
 * Loopy De Loop
 * 1.35 "Not in Nottingham" (mentioned)
 * Sinbad Jr. and his Magic Belt
 * 1.12B "Mad Mad Movies" (mentioned)
 * The Banana Splits Adventure Hour
 * 1.3 "Episode 3" (Bingo as Yogi)
 * Around the World in 79 Days
 * 1.9 "The Argentiney Meany" (mentioned)
 * The New Scooby-Doo Movies
 * 1.7 "Sandy Duncan's Jekyll and Hyde" (mentioned)
 * 1.15 "The Caped Crusader Caper" (balloon float)
 * Yogi's Gang
 * Yogi's Space Race
 * Galaxy Goof-Ups
 * Yogi's Treasure Hunt
 * A Pup Named Scooby-Doo
 * 1.11 "The Story Stick"
 * Yo, Yogi!
 * Super Secret Secret Squirrel
 * 1.9 "Scirocco Mole" (no lines)
 * Space Ghost Coast to Coast
 * 7.5 "Sweet for Brak" (Satan as Yogi)
 * Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law
 * 1.4 "Death by Chocolate"
 * 2.11 "Guitar Control" (photo)
 * The Powerpuff Girls
 * 5.3B "Shotgun Wedding" (photo)
 * The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy
 * 2.7B "Here Thar Be Dwarves!"
 * 4.2B "Irwin Gets a Clue" (no lines)
 * 5.2 "Keeper of the Reaper" (no lines)
 * Duck Dodgers
 * 2.3B "K9 Quarry" (stuffed trophy)
 * Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated
 * 1.10 "Howl of the Fright Hound" (no lines)
 * Animaniacs
 * 1.2C "Suffragate City" (no lines)
 * Jellystone!

Movies

 * Hey There, It's Yogi Bear
 * Yogi's Ark Lark
 * The Gathering (doll)
 * Casper's First Christmas
 * Yogi's First Christmas
 * Yogi Bear's All-Star Comedy Christmas Caper
 * Yogi's Great Escape
 * Yogi Bear and the Magical Flight of the Spruce Goose
 * The Good, the Bad and Huckleberry Hound
 * Yogi and the Invasion of the Space Bears
 * Yogi Bear
 * Scooby-Doo! WrestleMania Mystery (mentioned)
 * Space Jam: A New Legacy

Specials

 * Hanna-Barbera's 50th: A Yabba Dabba Doo Celebration
 * Yogi the Easter Bear
 * The 1st 13th Annual Fancy Anvil Awards Show Program Special: Live in Stereo (no lines)

Shorts

 * American Cancer Society commercial
 * D.A.R.E. Bear Yogi
 * American Melanoma Foundation commercial
 * Rocket Mortgage commercial
 * Geico commercial

Comics

 * Yogi Bear (Dell Comics)
 * Yogi Bear (Gold Key Comics)
 * Bear Facts for Bike Drivers
 * Yogi Bear (Charlton Comics)
 * Yogi Bear (Marvel Comics)
 * Laff-A-Lympics
 * Yogi Bear D.A.R.E.
 * Yogi Bear (Harvey Comics)
 * Cartoon Network Presents
 * #3A "The Twiddle Method"
 * #18A "The Murgatroid Asteroid"
 * #18B "Oil's Well That Ends Well"
 * #22B "Brain Food"
 * Scooby-Doo! Team-Up
 * #35 "Bear-ly Scared"
 * Deathstroke/Yogi Bear Special
 * #1A "Jellystone Dark"

Video games

 * Yogi's Great Escape
 * Hanna-Barbera's Turbo Toons
 * Yogi Bear: The Video Game

The Early Cameos
He and Boo Boo made cameos appearances in the Snagglepuss episode "Remember The Daze."

Yogi, again, made a cameo appearance, alongside Quick Draw and Baba Looey in an acting book in the episode "Paws For Applause."

In the Hokey Wolf episode "Too Much to Bear," he was mentioned as the cousin of the Three Bears. He was later seen in a picture frame in the Three Bears' house.

In The Flintstones, he and Boo Boo briefly popped up at Bedrock in the episode "Swedish Visitors."

In the Augie Doggie and Doggie Daddy episode "Pop's Nature Pup," Augie brings in a bear who can drive, which happens to be Yogi.

A Pup Named Scooby-Doo cameo
In the episode "The Story Stick," he conspicuously watched the kids from the background, as they entered the Indian reservation.

He later reappeared during a chase between the kids and the Totem Spirit, with the latter running into a cave, and then being chased back out by unwelcoming Yogi.

Everyone's Back in Jellystone!
In the HBO Max web series Jellystone!, he works as a doctor at Jellystone Hospital, where he often messes up on surgeries.

In "A Town Video: Welcome to Jellystone," Yogi botches Wally Gator's surgery so bad, he starts speaking French.

Yogi Sells Out
In The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy episode "Here There Be Dwarfs," he is portrayed as a drug addict trying to steal a picnic basket from Billy. In "Irwin Gets a Clue," he's one of the Hanna Barbera characters run over by Hoss Delgado's truck.

In the Duck Dodgers episode "K9 Quarry," Yogi appears as a stuffed trophy on an alien hunter's ship.

In the MAD episode "Ko-Bee Movie/Law and Ogre", during the "Law and Ogre Segment", a mysterious caller tell Shrek he prosecuted the wrong bear and they'll never find the real killer. The caller and killer turns out to be Yogi, who accidentally gave himself away when he says "You'll never catch me, I'm smarter than the average bear"

Into the ServerVerse
In the Warner Bros. Serververse in Space Jam: A New Legacy, Yogi and Boo Boo arrive at the basketball game between the Tune Squad and the Goon Squad in the Mystery Machine. Like all the other IPs, they have no particular preference and just react to whatever is happening.

Development
Like many of Hanna-Barbera's characters, Yogi Bear was a spoof of a popular celebrity of the time. Art Carney, who was known for playing Ed Norton on the 1950s sitcom The Honeymooners, was said to be the inspiration for Yogi. His personality largely came from similar traits to Carney's character, as the two share an identical hat, carefree attitude, and vocal inflection.

Before he was given the title of "Yogi", the bear originally went by the names of "Huckleberry", "Yucca", and "Yo-Yo." The name "Huckleberry" was later given to the character of Huckleberry Hound, after "Yogi" was decided.

Behind the scenes

 * According to a 1982 calendar, he was born on September 9th.
 * He goes into hibernation on December 22nd.

In popular culture

 * In the Robert Klein episode of Saturday Night Live, he imitates the general idea of a friendly cartoon bear in his monologue, and apparently chooses Yogi because he says, "Hi, Boo Boo."
 * For an episode of the British sitcom Mind Your Language, called "No Flowers by Request," Mr. Brown mentioned (John) Logie Baird, the Scottish inventor of the television, but Ali thought he meant Yogi, who he watched the previous night, along with Yogi's friend Boo Boo.
 * In the film The Great Outdoors, when Chet gets two bears on top of his car, he says "Yogi and Boo Boo in the flesh. I wish the hell Ranger Smith would get out here and get us home."
 * In The Ren & Stimpy Show episode "The Big Shot!," Stimpy becomes the co-star of Muddy Mudskipper, where they reenact one of the many chase sequences between Yogi and Ranger Smith, respectively, with Stimpy wearing a collar and neck tie ala Yogi.
 * In the Moesha episode "(Grand)Poppa Don't Take No Mess," Myles has a print of Yogi on his t-shirt.
 * In the Gilmore Girls episode "Red Light on the Wedding Night," Lorelei mentions Yogi Berra to Snookie, but Snookie is so hungover she thinks Lorelei said Yogi Bear.
 * In the film Snow Dogs, Ted runs into a bear, who he unsuccessfully tries to appeal to by saying he likes Yogi.
 * In The Fairly OddParents and Jimmy Neutron crossover "Timmy Jimmy Power Hour," Jimmy tells everyone that he's not Timmy, to which Sanjay mocks him by saying "I'm not Sanjay, I'm Yogi Bear, and I am smarter than the average bear."
 * In the Family Guy episode "Hell Comes to Quahog," Meg berates Peter for getting her tank confiscated, but he tells her it's not as worse as the time he did a park ranger (likely Ranger Smith) a favor by fatally stabbing Yogi with a hunter's knife and then suffocating him to get the job done faster, while Boo Boo watches helplessly. After Peter is done, he callously orders Boo Boo to tell the other bears what he just saw. Seth MacFarlane voices Yogi.
 * In The Cleveland Show episode "Birth of a Salesman," Terry says he'll buy Tim the bear a whole steak if he shows him his "bear penis." Cleveland then mocks him by imitating Yogi's voice when he asks, "Is it bigger than the average bear's?"
 * In the Comic Book Men episode "Wurst Episode Ever," Walt asks the staff what their official animal watchdog would be for the Stash, with Ming replying it would be Yogi, which Walt thinks is a terrible idea because all he does is steal picnic baskets.
 * In the Transformers: Robots in Disguise episode "The Trouble with Fixit," after fighting a bear, Sideswipe tells Jetstorm and Slipstream they should get out of the woods before "Yogi" shows up again.
 * In the 31st Treehouse of Horror segment "Into the Homer-verse" of The Simpsons, one of the many Homers features a homer named Homer-Barbera, who changes into a parody of Yogi Bear and goes "Hey Boo Boo, let's go steal a pic a nic meal!"
 * Baseball player Yogi Berra attempted to sue Hanna Barbera over Yogi Bear sounding too similar to his name. Hanna Barbera stated that the name was merely a coincidence and the case didn't go anywhere. Ironically when Berra died on September 22, 2015, his obituary by the press accidentally referred to him as Yogi Bear.
 * In the American version of Whose Line is it Anyway?, a game of "Press Conference" had Colin Mochrie as Yogi announcing he killed Boo Boo.
 * In the Disney+ film Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers, Yogi has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
 * In The Jackbox Party Pack 8 game "Wheel of Enormous Proportions", a question you can get is "Pick all characters from Hanna-Barbera" where Yogi is listed as one of options.