Yogi Bear (character)

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This article is about the character. For other uses, see Yogi Bear.
Yogi Bear
Yogi Bear (character).png
Species Bear (bruin)
Gender Male
Member of Yogi's Gang[Note 1]
Yogi Yahooeys[Note 2]
Galaxy Guardians[Note 3]
Yogi's Treasure Hunters[Note 4]
L.A.F. Squad
[Note 5]
Affiliation Boo Boo Bear
Ranger Smith
Cindy Bear
Deathstroke[Note 6]
Goals To steal picnic baskets
Running away from Ranger Smith
Father Pop Bear
Uncle(s) Bruno Bear
Marital status Single[Note 7][1]
First appearance YB: "Yogi Bear's Big Break" (1958)
Played by Daws Butler (1958-1988)
Greg Burson (1988-1999)
Maurice LaMarche (2001-04)
Dave Fouquette (2004)
Dan Aykroyd (2010)
Jeff Bergman (since 2021)
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Yo, Yogi!
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Yogi Bear
SDMI Yogi.png
Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated
DC Yogi.png
Deathstroke/Yogi Bear Special
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Jellystone!

Yogi Bear is a talking anthropomorphic brown bear and the main title protagonist in the Yogi Bear animated franchise. His voice was originated 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 tan snout (although, it is originally colored orange in his early appearances). His normal attire consists of a white collar, a green tie, and a green pork pie hat. Yogi's pupils are generally depicted as simple black dots, though in the 2011 live-action film, they are an amber brown in color.

He is generally characterized as a mischevious trickster with a carefree and upbeat personality. One of his most defining traits is his love of eating food — namely treats from picnic baskets (or "pic-a-nic baskets", as he calls them) — which he mainly obesses over to a gluttonous degree. Yogi presents himself as being incredibly clever, although his intelligence tends to overestimate him in most of his antics. He is also shown to have generocity towards others, especially when it comes to lending help to his friends.

He lives in Jellystone National Park, where he resides inside a cave with his friend Boo Boo Bear. He is a fun-loving and free spirited bear who doesn't like to be abided by strictness, especially when it comes to the park's rules. Boo Boo often follows his lead, but cautiously tries to dissuade him on the risks he takes. Yogi's main foil is Ranger Smith, who more often has the displeasure of him breaking the rules at Jellystone. Both Smith and the bear share a rivalry with one another in a game of wits, but sometimes, the ranger has shown to have sympathy with Yogi; albeit in several occasions.

Yogi speaks in a pronounced New York accent and has a deep, baritone voice with an overall lively tone. He is notable for spurting a large number of amusing catchphrases, which 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 sometimes speaks in rhyme and would also use puns in his speech. He also has the habit of pronouncing long words with a long vocal flourish.

Appearances

TV series

Movies

Specials

Shorts

Comics

Books

Video games

Biography

Debut Series

In the Yogi Bear shorts of The Huckleberry Hound Show — and later, The Yogi Bear Show — he is the titular star of the series. Yogi is first established as a dweller of Jellystone Park alongside his friend, Boo Boo; although in the first handful of his cartoons, it was assumed that he appeared in the woods outside the park, since Jellystone wasn't established as the focal point of Yogi's misadventures.

Despite Yogi's jolly, larger-than-life personality, he generally tends to suffer from boredom, hunger, and sometimes hunters within the Jellystone area. A lot of his eacapades vary by many episodes, but Yogi would often make use of his intellect to get away from abiding the park rules, namely stealing picnic baskets from Jellystone's unsuspecting tourists. In spite of Boo Boo's best intentions to warn him, Yogi's overestimation of himself causes him to fail in a lot of of their schemes. In several of his earlier cartoons, for instance, he is also seen either dealing with small, younger animals (such as a little duckling in a few episodes) or trying to get through a variety of other deeds like trying to catch a trout in "The Stout Trout". He has also moved away from Jellystone Park on several occasions, mostly intentional such as in his debut episode, "Yogi Bear's Big Break", in which he tried to escape due to being too sick of having to be patronized; though there are a few times where he left the park with no intent like in "Biggest Show Off on Earth", where an escaped circus bear trades places with Yogi.

Ranger Smith, who is a constant thorn in Yogi's back, is also established as having been his main foil; although there had been plenty of other unnamed park rangers with a similar role prior to "Lullabye-Bye Bear", in which is he formally introduced by his own name. In "Acrobatty Yogi", Cindy Bear was first introduced as Yogi's love interest.

The Early Cameos

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.

Yogi, again, made a cameo appearance, alongside Quick Draw and Baba Looey in an acting book in the Snagglepuss episode "Paws for Applause." He and Boo Boo also made their appearances in the episode "Remember the Daze."

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

In The Flintstones, Yogi and Boo Boo briefly popped up at Jellyrock Park (a Stone Age counterpart of Jellystone) in the episode "Swedish Visitors."

Crossover Era

It's Yogi's Gang

In Yogi's Gang, Yogi served as the captain of a flying ark and is the leader of a gang consisting of his friends and other anthropomorphic animals. Together, he and his crew set out on numerous encounters where they settled on individual villians who personify many moral dellemas, including Mr. Fibber, the Envy Brothers, the Gossipy Witch, Doctor Bigot, and Mr. Cheater among others.

Yogi's Ark Lark

Laff-A-Lympics

Yogi's First Christmas

Yogi Bear's All Star Comedy Christmas Caper

Casper's First Christmas

Yogi's Treasure Hunt

In Yogi's Treasure Hunt, he becomes a leader of his own treasure hunting crew, consisting of his friends, and is the captain of the S.S. Jelly Roger. He is assigned to go on special missions by Top Cat to retrieve rare, sought-after items from around the world. It is during these adventures where he and his team also cross paths with Dick Dastardly and Muttley, who get in the way to steal the treasures themselves.

Yogi's Great Escape

The Good, the Bad, and Huckleberry Hound

Celebrating another 50 years! 50 years of fun!

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.

Fender Bender 500

Yo, Yogi!

In Yo, Yogi!, Yogi is portrayed as a young, pre-teen sleuth who usually hangs out with his friends at Jellystone Mall, a shopping center located in Jellystone Town. Yogi and the gang work at a lost and found agency called the L.A.F. Squad (short for Lost and Found), where they act as detectives trying to solve mysteries under the supervision of the mall's security guard Officer Smith.

Help from Harvey Birdman

In the episode "Death by Chocolate", Yogi and Boo Boo were awakened by ATF agents who (accidentally) throw tear gas in their cave. Yogi was later seen during Boo Boo's trial — in which he was acussed of being a terrorist known as the Unabooboo — as a witness, and clarified that both he and Boo Boo are illiterate.

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 Bear Gets the CGI Treatment

Yogi Sells Out

In The Powerpuff Girls episode "Shotgun Wedding", Professor Utonium looks over a poster featuring bears of the world, of which Yogi Bear in a quadrupedal stance is included.

In The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy episode "Here There Be Dwarfs," he is portrayed as an implied drug addict trying to steal a picnic basket from Billy. In "Irwin Gets a Clue," he's one of several Hanna-Barbera characters run over by Hoss Delgado's truck. In "Keeper of the Reaper", Billy sings a lyric stating that Grim is "the pic-a-nic in [his] bear!", while Yogi is stuffing himself from Grim as a basket.

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

Kellogg's Corn Flakes

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.

Yogi in the Funny Books

Flintstones visit New York World's Fair

Scooby-Doo teams up with Yogi

Development

Yogi Bear's characterization was a spoof of Art Carney, who was mainly notable for his role as Ed Norton in the 1950s television sitcom The Honeymooners.[2] His personality largely came from similar traits to Carney's character, as the two share an identical hat, carefree attitude, and vocal inflection. Daws Butler had previously used his Art Carney impression a few years earlier in a series of three Looney Tunes shorts directed by Robert McKimson, which directly lampooned the then-popular show.

Before he was given officially christened "Yogi," he originally went by the working names of "Huckleberry," "Yucca," and "Yo-Yo."[3] The name "Huckleberry" was later given to the character of Huckleberry Hound, after "Yogi" was decided.

Gallery

Main article: Yogi Bear (character)/Gallery

Toys and merchandise

Main article: Yogi Bear (character)/Toys

Behind the scenes

  • According to Hanna-Barbera's 1982 calendar, he was born on September 9th.
  • He goes into hibernation on December 22nd.
  • Yogi was one of several Hanna-Barbera characters to have a collar, which allowed animators to keep his body static, redrawing only his head in each frame when he spoke. This reduced the number of drawings needed for a seven-minute cartoon from around 14,000 to around 2,000.[4]
  • Yogi Bear's name shares similarities, although unofficially, to that of Yankees baseball player Yogi Berra. Berra sued Hanna-Barbera for defamation over Yogi's name sounding too similar, but withdrew it when Hanna-Barbera stated that it was a coincidence.[5] According to Joseph Barbera, he claimed that the name did not have an intended reference, but asserted that "the sound of the name was awash in our collective unconscious at a time when Yogi Berra was a very popular figure."[6] Berra, however, addressed the similarities of the name in a 1963 interview, stating "Television is big enough for both me and Yogi Bear. I was going to sue the Yogi Bear program for using my name, until somebody reminded me Yogi isn’t my real name — it’s Lawrence."[6]
    • As part of a tie-in storyline for the film Hey There, It's Yogi Bear, a Yogi Bear comic strip from August 16, 1964, made a reference to this connection, with a night club host nervously shaking hands with both Yogi Bear and the baseball legend.[7]
    • Ironically when Berra died on September 22, 2015, his obituary by the press accidentally referred to him as Yogi Bear.[8]
  • His least favorite foods are nuts and berries, which are part of the natural bear diet.
  • In the letters page of DC Comics' Cartoon Network Presents #2, Yogi's height and weight are given as seven feet tall and a thousand pounds, respectively.

In popular culture

  • In the British sitcom Mind Your Language, there was an episode called "No Flowers by Request," in which 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 necktie ala Yogi.
  • For the "It's All Relatives" segment in the Tiny Toon Adventures episode "Pledge Week," Babs acts and dresses like Yogi (with an authentic background to match) in the hopes that this impression is what her grandmother wants to see.
  • In the Moesha episode "(Grand)Poppa Don't Take No Mess," Myles has a print of Yogi on his t-shirt.
  • In the Animaniacs segment "Back in Style," the Warner siblings were loaned off to other cartoon studios, including one run by Phil and Schmoe (parodies of Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera). One of the cartoon characters that the Warners met is a spoof of Yogi Bear, named Who Who Hooey, where they mock its superficial dialogue and flat backgrounds. The Warner siblings interfere in the lunchbox stealing escapades of Calhourn Capybara and his impressionable young sidekick, Lew Lew, parodies of Yogi and Boo Boo.
  • In Chris Rice's song "Cartoons," Rice questions if Yogi is religious and would say "Hey, Boo-Boo-loo-ya" in place of "Hallelujah."
  • 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 Mad episode "Ko-Bee Movie/Law and Ogre," during the "Law and Ogre Segment," a mysterious caller tells 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."
  • In the film Snow Dogs, Ted runs into a bear, whom he unsuccessfully tries to appeal to by saying he likes Yogi.
  • In The Fairly OddParents/Jimmy Neutron crossover TV movie The Jimmy Timmy 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 Futurama DTV movie The Beast of a Billion Backs (syndicated as part 2 of the TV series, when asked by Calculon if he's worthy of being in the League of Robots, Bender says in a Yogi-like voice, "Worthier than the average robot."
  • There is an episode of According to Jim called "The Yoga Bear."
  • 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 British movie Adult Life Skills, the main character Anna says Yogi was a moral nihilist for stealing picnics.
  • 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!"
  • 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 the options.
  • In the Bargain Hunt episode "Christmas Special - Malvern 27," fiberglass rubbish bin lids shaped like Yogi, Huckleberry, and Boo Boo were found at a car boot sale by the red team who bought the Yogi one for £110, which they sold at auction for £80. The loss of this particular item resulted in them losing to the blue team.
  • In the Hailey's On It! episode "The Umpire Strikes Back", Scott first makes a reference to Yogi Berra by saying "It ain't over till it's over", and then says that he stole "pic a nic" baskets, which is a direct reference to Yogi Bear.

Saturday Night Live

  • "Robert Klein/Bonnie Raitt:" Klein imitates the general idea of a friendly cartoon bear in his monologue, and apparently chooses Yogi because he says, "Hi, Boo Boo."
  • In the Saturday Night Live episode "Rob Lowe/Eminem," in a skit about a fictional Crime TV program called Pros & Cons, the participants talk about the ethics of Mystery Inc. taking the law into their own hands (which includes Scooby and Shaggy themselves), with the next episode's topic planning to "examine the concept of victims' rights in the theft of pic-a-nic baskets."

The Simpsons

Main article: The Simpsons
  • "The Day the Violence Died:" When Chester takes Robert Meyers, Jr. to court over plagiarism of his creation of Itchy, Meyers claims that this is part of the business because, without Art Carney or even Yogi Berra, there wouldn't be Yogi Bear.
  • "Much Apu About Nothing:" When an angry mob goes to the mayor after the town is overrun with an infestation of bears, Moe adds, "And these ones are smarter than the average bear. They stole my 'pic-a-nic' basket."
  • "When You Dish Upon a Star:" Homer dreams he's Yogi, with Bart as "Bart-Bart" and Ned Flanders as the park ranger.
  • "Mr. Spritz Goes to Washington:" Homer looks at a kid's menu featuring an activity where the goal is to help Yogi Bear find Washington.
  • "Don't Fear the Roofer:" In the hospital, Homer jokes that he can see Yogi Bear.
  • "Treehouse of Horror XXXI:" During the Into The Homer-verse segment, Homer Barbera turns into Yogi and tells Boo Boo that they should steal a "pic-a-nic meal."
  • "Treehouse of Horror XXI": During Lisa and Edmund's date in the park, Yogi passes by them with Ranger Smith's head in a picnic basket.

Whose Line Is It Anyway? (American)

  • November 21, 2001: A game of "Press Conference" had Colin Mochrie as Yogi announcing he killed Boo Boo. The host, Drew Carrey, points out that the audience may not like Boo Boo, as they cheered at the fact he was killed.
  • January 31, 2002: A game of "Questionable Impersonations" had Brad Sherwood asking Boo Boo when Mr. Ed's wife was due, with Ryan Stiles as Mr. Ed believing that Yogi was the doctor.

Notes

References