Dick Dastardly

Dick Dastardly
Drat, and double drat!
Species	Human
Gender	Male
Member of	Vulture Squadron Really Rottens
Affiliation	Muttley Klunk Zilly
Occupation	Mayor of New Bedrock
Goals	To win at the Wacky Races Catch Yankee Doodle Pigeon
Sibling(s)	One brother, Dread Baron
First appearance	WR: "See-Saw to Arkansas" (1968)
Played by	Paul Winchell (1968–1999) Michael Bell (1990) Rob Paulsen (1991) Jim Cummings (2000–2008) Adam DeVine (2015) Peter Woodward (2017–2019) Jason Isaacs (2020) Dwight Schultz (2024)
File:D&M Dick Dastardly.png Dastardly & Muttley in Their Flying Machines
File:YTH Dick Dastardly.png Yogi's Treasure Hunt
Fender Bender 500
Yo, Yogi!
Wacky Races Forever
File:WRL Dick.png Wacky Raceland
File:D&M DC Dick.png Dastardly & Muttley
Scoob!
Jellystone!
File:VLM Dick Dastardly.png Velma

Dick Dastardly is the main antagonist from the Wacky Races animated franchise. He is one of the central characters of the series, and is known for his old-fashioned, theatrical villain traits and for being an infamous cheater. Dastardly is a racer who competes in the Wacky Races, along with his dog sidekick Muttley. His usual plans involve planting all kinds of traps for the other racers to trip on, but they often backfire on both him and Muttley at a disadvantage. His voice was originated by Paul Winchell.

In the races, Dastardly's vehicle is the rocket-powered Mean Machine (designated #00).

Character description

“

Sometimes I'm so sneaky, I don't even trust myself! ― Dick Dastardly

”

Dick Dastardly is a card-carrying villan with remarkably evil qualities to himself. He is portrayed as being devious, sly, pompous, manipulative, traitorous and arrogant. As his last name implies, Dastardly enjoys causing problems of many kinds—mainly cheating in a race—and gets frustrated when things do not work in his favor, especially when his plans fail on him. Dastardly, despite being a cunning advesary at first, constantly gets humiliated as a result of his inept overconfidence. Dastardly also acts abrasive towards his sidekick Muttley and would occasionally be bitten by him due to how much abuse he gets. His catchphrases are "Muttley, do something!", "Drat, and double drat!" and occasionally "Triple drat!" or "Curses, foiled again!"

Dastardly is a man with a slim figure, a large pointy nose, a protuding chin, and a thin, handlebar mustache. He wears an old-fashined racing outfit, which consists of a purplish-blue duster overcoat worn by early motorists, along with long red gloves, and large striped hat with driving goggles attached. In his appearance in Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines, he instead wears a purple aviator uniform styled after pilots from World War I, along with a red aviator cap with goggles. This look was also carried over with his next appearance in Yogi's Treasure Hunt.

Appearances

TV series

• Wacky Races (1968)
• Dastardly & Muttley in Their Flying Machines
• Yogi's Treasure Hunt
• Yo, Yogi!
• Uncle Grandpa
  • 2.21 "Uncle Grandpa Retires"
• Wacky Races (2017)
• Jellystone!
  • 2.6 "LAFF Games"
• Velma
  • 2.10 "Til Death" (no lines)

Movies

• Scoob!

Specials

• Hanna-Barbera's 50th: A Yabba Dabba Doo Celebration (no lines)

Shorts

• Wacky Races Forever

Comics

• Wacky Races
• Laff-A-Lympics
  • Issue #13: "No Laff-A-Lympics Today!"
• Hanna-Barbera Presents
  • Issue #2A: "Madcap Manhattan Motoring"
  • Issue #2B: "Trekking to Tanzania"
  • Issue #7A: "Desert Victory"
  • Issue #7B: "The Jaded Japanese Jaunt!"
• Cartoon Network Presents
  • Issue #7A: "Drag Racing]]"
  • Issue #7B:" Out of the Blue and Into the Red"
  • Issue #11A: "Fair Play"
  • Issue #15A: "Drive and Driveability"
  • Issue #15B: "Media Madness"
  • Issue #18A: "The Murgatroid Asteroid"
  • Issue #18B: "Oil's Well That Ends Well"
• Wacky Raceland
• Dastardly & Muttley
• Scooby-Doo! Team-Up
  • Issue #44: "Just Plane Scared"

Books

• The Official Guide: Penelope Pitstop

Video games

• Wacky Races
• Wacky Races: Crash & Dash (Wii)
• Wacky Races: Crash & Dash (DS)

Biography

Stop the Pigeon, Stop the Pigeon, Stop the Pigeon

In his spin-off show, Dick Dastardly continued his villainy by being the head of the Vulture Squadron. He and Muttley are joined up by Zilly, a coward who would hide in his own clothing when ordered to deploy; and Klunk, a mechanic who speaks in unintelligible sounds that only Zilly can understand. Dastardly and his team use World War I-style airplanes in an attempt to stop a messenger pigeon called Yankee Doodle Pigeon from delivering messages to an opposing army.

Yo, Dickie!

In Yo, Yogi!, Dastardly was nicknamed Dickie, and was an adolescent bully at Jellystone Mall. He and Muttley pick on Yogi and his gang with their usual antics, but often fail as always. He rides a motorcycle modeled after the Mean Machine.

Wacky Races: The Next Generation

Years after the original races, Dick Dastardly and Muttley take part in new races, but this time work for Mr. Viceroy, in some sinister plot that was never revealed because the series only existed as a five minute pilot pitch.

Dick Sells Out

Evil Wizard's biggest fans.

In the Uncle Grandpa episode "Uncle Grandpa Retires," Dastardly and Muttley are watching the Big Fat Race go by, with Dastardly rooting for Evil Wizard.

Development

As Wacky Races was inspired by the 1965 period comedy film The Great Race, Dick Dastardly was likewise modeled after Professor Fate, the film's chief villain played by Jack Lemmon. Like Dastardly, Fate is a parody of the cliché villain stereotype commonly associated with silent melodrama films — a card-carrying rogue who perpetuates on elaborate schemes in an attempt to win, but has a streak of failure as a result of his incompetence. Dastardly is also based on English actor Terry-Thomas, who played a similar role with Sir Percy Ware-Armitage in the comedy film, Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines.

Gallery

Main article: Dick Dastardly/Gallery

Toys and merchandise

Main article: Dick Dastardly/Toys

Behind the scenes

• In the movie Scoob!, his full name is revealed to be Richard.

In popular culture

• In "Episode 4" (series 2) of the BBC Radio 4 comedy sketch show Dead Ringers, there is a sketch called Police Crash Bang Wallop (also a parody of Police Camera Action!), presented by Alistair Stewart, in which Lazy Luke and Blubber, Professor Pat Pending, and Dick and Muttley are described as a bunch of boy racers who are flagrantly disregarding the rules of the road. They are said to be repentant, although Dick says, "Drat and double drat," followed by Muttley's snicker and laugh.
• In the UK show Sooty, there is an episode called "The Great Car Race," which has a Wacky Races-type race, with its own Dick Dastardly, Freddy Firewheel, who also says, "Drat, and double drat," when Sooty and Soo foil his plan to stop them from driving their van by throwing oil over their windshield by simply using the windshield wipers.
• In the South Park episode "Handicar," Dastardly, alongside Muttley, attempts to cheat the race by cutting down trees to block the other racers. It doesn't work and their car ended up being hijacked by Nathan and Mimsy. The duo later appears in "South ParQ Vaccination Special" celebrating the end of the pandemic.
• In the Japanese manga "Super Mario 4 Koma Manga Theater", Dastardly and Muttley are seen in the background of a panel.