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This article contains information on the central characters in ''
FoxTrot The foxtrot is a smooth, progressive dance characterized by long, continuous flowing movements across the dance floor. It is danced to big band (usually vocal) music. The dance is similar in its look to waltz, although the rhythm is in a tim ...
'', a
comic strip A comic strip is a sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions. Traditionally, throughout the 20th and into the 21st ...
created by
Bill Amend William J. C. Amend III (; born September 20, 1962) is an American cartoonist. He is known for his comic strip ''FoxTrot''. Early life Amend was born in Massachusetts and raised in Northern California. He attended high school in Burlingame, Ca ...
. The strip centers on a
nuclear family A nuclear family, elementary family, cereal-packet family or conjugal family is a family group consisting of parents and their children (one or more), typically living in one home residence. It is in contrast to a single-parent family, the larger ...
composed of mother Andy, father Roger, and their three children Peter, Paige and Jason, along with several auxiliary characters.


Main characters


Jason Fox

Jason Fox is the youngest child of the family and is considered the
nerd A nerd is a person seen as overly intellectual, obsessive, introverted or lacking social skills. Such a person may spend inordinate amounts of time on unpopular, little known, or non-mainstream activities, which are generally either highly tec ...
iest person in the family. A 10-year-old boy who wears glasses (though his pupils are unseen), he is shown to be very intelligent, and is often relied on to help Roger with taxes, or Peter and Paige with homework. Unlike his siblings, who sometimes make him pay them to do their homework, Jason actually ''wants'' to do his homework, and often receives incredibly high marks as a result (to the point that 72 correct answers out of 20 questions is disappointing to him). He sometimes is disappointed when he has no homework because he did all the homework for the year in the first week of school. He tends to aggravate the teachers with his overly complicated answers, and is frequently in trouble for disrupting class. Despite his intellect, he is shown to take most things too literally on occasion. (Once, when Roger asked him for "java", meaning a cup of coffee, Jason gave him a mug with a printout from the
Java programming language Java is a high-level, class-based, object-oriented programming language that is designed to have as few implementation dependencies as possible. It is a general-purpose programming language intended to let programmers ''write once, run anywh ...
.) He also once placed an order for a pizza with "17/51 cheese, 109/327 sausage, and 86,499,328/259,497,984 mushroom" (which resulted in Roger receiving all his change in pennies and telling Jason that his ever being asked to order their pizza again was an "unlikely event"), and unsuccessfully makes attempts to get Roger and Andy to raise his allowance, which almost always results in sudden, sharp decreases in his pay. Like most stereotypical boys, Jason is a constant source of mischief. He is always coming up with jokes, pranks and tricks which include water bombs, snowballs, dart guns, squirt guns and other contraptions, Paige being his favorite target. She is also the center of his insults, like when he came up with a ''Slug-Man'' superhero comic, which included "Paige-o-Tron" as the villain, or uploading games to his website which included ''Pimple Command'', ''Paige Invaders'', ''Ms. Yap Man'' and ''Paige Don't Know Jack'', on which she is respectively portrayed as a pimply, space alien, a constant talker on the phone and being unable to answer the easiest of questions. Although Paige is his regular target, Peter is sometimes the target of his tricks (such as reprogramming the auto-dial buttons on Peter's cell phone, resulting in Peter accidentally confessing to Andy about sneaking out when the Denise button dialed Andy's number instead). He also enjoys making comic strips with Slug Man (see below), substitutes for other cartoonists' work, e.g. ''Family Circus'', or with his siblings as the characters, such as when he had a week of comic strips in which Paige was portrayed as a deadly monster (which resulted in Paige doing the same for him the following week). Portrayed as a stereotypical
nerd A nerd is a person seen as overly intellectual, obsessive, introverted or lacking social skills. Such a person may spend inordinate amounts of time on unpopular, little known, or non-mainstream activities, which are generally either highly tec ...
, he has an interest in
science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...
, particularly ''
Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop-culture Cultural impact of S ...
,'' ''
Star Trek ''Star Trek'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry, which began with the eponymous 1960s television series and quickly became a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon. The franchise has expanded into vari ...
'' and
role-playing games A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal ac ...
(primarily the fictional fantasy-themed
MMORPG A massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) is a video game that combines aspects of a role-playing video game and a massively multiplayer online game. As in role-playing games (RPGs), the player assumes the role of a Player charac ...
"World of Warquest", a
portmanteau A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of wordsWorld of Warcraft ''World of Warcraft'' (''WoW'') is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) released in 2004 by Blizzard Entertainment. Set in the ''Warcraft'' fantasy universe, ''World of Warcraft'' takes place within the world of Azeroth ...
'' and ''
EverQuest ''EverQuest'' is a 3D fantasy-themed massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) originally developed by Verant Interactive and 989 Studios for Windows PCs. It was released by Sony Online Entertainment in March 1999 in North Americ ...
''), as well as a high level of knowledge in
mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...
and
science Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...
. He also seems to have a high interest in comic books and
dinosaurs Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...
. In a few strips, it is revealed that he likes
Pokémon (an abbreviation for in Japan) is a Japanese media franchise managed by The Pokémon Company, founded by Nintendo, Game Freak, and Creatures (company), Creatures, the owners of the trademark and copyright of the franchise. In terms of ...
and
Yu-Gi-Oh! is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Kazuki Takahashi. It was serialized in Shueisha's ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' magazine between September 1996 and March 2004. The plot follows the story of a boy named Yugi Mutou, w ...
cards, as well as the fictional "Linuxmon", blending his interest in programming with card games, and brings them to school. Jason is also a frequent user of the family computer, and has been shown to be an amazing programmer, repeatedly constructed his own computer programs (including a search engine, which he built before breakfast) and viruses, which he often sends to the other computers in the house and Eileen Jacobson. He also has written at least two viruses that caused worldwide havoc, called the "Darth Jason" and "I-Don't-Love-You-Eileen-Jacobson". He included a copyright line in the latter, and in the former he completely eliminated the Internet (and Jason's web company, "Jasonzonbayhoo") as a result. It is also shown that Jason is a terrific snow sculptor. When it snows he and his best friend Marcus build monsters out of snow to scare Paige. Another example is a storyline in which Andy tells him to go outside instead of playing video games, so he and Marcus build the environments of their favorite video games to play in. In addition, he plays video games regularly — either by himself, with Peter, with Roger, or with Marcus. In one series of strips, Paige plays one of his games and is more adept at it than Jason to his frustration, with common sense assisting her. He frequently attempts to recreate the work of
cartoonists A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comic book illustrators in that they produce both the literary a ...
while they are on
hiatus Hiatus may refer to: *Hiatus (anatomy), a natural fissure in a structure *Hiatus (stratigraphy), a discontinuity in the age of strata in stratigraphy *''Hiatus'', a genus of picture-winged flies with sole member species ''Hiatus fulvipes'' *Globa ...
, usually as an excuse to make fun of Paige. He also makes his own comic called ''Slug Man'', a parody of Superman and Batman. Occasionally, Jason will make exaggerated plans of his own, such as a large-scale
animatronics Animatronics refers to mechatronic puppets. They are a modern variant of the automaton and are often used for the portrayal of characters in films and in theme park attractions. It is a multidisciplinary field integrating puppetry, anatomy a ...
Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus, Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by country, around t ...
display (which has everything but a sound system playing "Jingle Bell Rock" all day) or a skyscraper comic book shop in his backyard (which is squashed by the zoning commission). Like
Calvin Calvin may refer to: Names * Calvin (given name) ** Particularly Calvin Coolidge, 30th President of the United States * Calvin (surname) ** Particularly John Calvin, theologian Places In the United States * Calvin, Arkansas, a hamlet * Calvi ...
from ''
Calvin and Hobbes ''Calvin and Hobbes'' is a daily American comic strip created by cartoonist Bill Watterson that was syndicated from November 18, 1985, to December 31, 1995. Commonly cited as "the last great newspaper comic", ''Calvin and Hobbes'' has enjoyed ...
'', Jason is shown to have a fear/hatred of girls (see below), but admits to slightly liking one of his only female friends, Eileen Jacobson. He sometimes falls prey to advertising ploys, as illustrated in a 1991 arc where he becomes obsessed for a short while with ''
The Simpsons ''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, ...
'' products.


Paige Fox

Paige Fox is the middle child of the Fox family. A 14-year-old high school
freshman A freshman, fresher, first year, or frosh, is a person in the first year at an educational institution, usually a secondary school or at the college and university level, but also in other forms of post-secondary educational institutions. Ara ...
, she is always portrayed with her hair in a ponytail. She enjoys shopping and will often demand that Peter drive her to the mall, sometimes using
blackmail Blackmail is an act of coercion using the threat of revealing or publicizing either substantially true or false information about a person or people unless certain demands are met. It is often damaging information, and it may be revealed to fa ...
to force him into it. Like the rest of the family, she has interests expected of her age group. Her obsessions include
fashion Fashion is a form of self-expression and autonomy at a particular period and place and in a specific context, of clothing, footwear, lifestyle, accessories, makeup, hairstyle, and body posture. The term implies a look defined by the fashion in ...
,
pop music Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom. The terms ''popular music'' and ''pop music'' are often used interchangeably, although the former describe ...
(particularly
boy band A boy band is loosely defined as a vocal group consisting of young male singers, usually in their teenage years or in their twenties at the time of formation. Generally, boy bands perform Love song, love songs marketed towards girls and young ...
s and, in earlier strips,
Madonna Madonna Louise Ciccone (; ; born August 16, 1958) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Widely dubbed the " Queen of Pop", Madonna has been noted for her continual reinvention and versatility in music production, songwriting, a ...
), modern fads and trends, and attractive teenage boys. A running gag through the series is that she has a huge craving for candy and other sweets. For example, the ice cream man comes to her when she rings a bell and takes out his whole stock, asking Paige "the usual?". She has been shown to make a rainbow ice cream cone not by ordering rainbow sorbet, but instead by ordering seven different flavors in the colors of the rainbow, stacked in a rainbow shape in the right order on top of two cones. In an August 2013, strip she and Nicole suggest to a cupcake shop ideas for a pintcake, quartcake, 2litercake, and a galloncake, in case they ever wanted to expand beyond cupcakes. She shares her obsessions with her best friend, Nicole (see below). Paige often has sleepovers at Nicole's house to avoid Jason's pet
iguana ''Iguana'' (, ) is a genus of herbivorous lizards that are native to tropical areas of Mexico, Central America, South America, and the Caribbean. The genus was first described in 1768 by Austrian naturalist Josephus Nicolaus Laurenti in his bo ...
, Quincy (see below). She also appears to have an
iPhone 4 The iPhone 4 is a smartphone that was designed and marketed by Apple Inc. It is the fourth generation of the iPhone lineup, succeeding the iPhone 3GS and preceding the 4S. Following a number of notable leaks, the iPhone 4 was first unvei ...
. Although persistent in her pursuit of a
boyfriend A boyfriend is a male friend or acquaintance, often specifying a regular male companion with whom a person is romantically or sexually involved. A boyfriend can also be called an admirer, beau, suitor and sweetheart. The analogous female te ...
, she has almost never dated in the strip. A running gag is
nerd A nerd is a person seen as overly intellectual, obsessive, introverted or lacking social skills. Such a person may spend inordinate amounts of time on unpopular, little known, or non-mainstream activities, which are generally either highly tec ...
Morton Goldthwait's interest in her, though she openly despises him. Paige has tried learning to cook to attract boys, but the food she makes is often inedible or burnt. One time, Paige burned all of her cookies so badly that Roger used them as a substitute for charcoal briquettes after Andy "directed him towards a stash." On another occasion, she used
Diet Pepsi Diet Pepsi is a diet carbonated cola soft drink produced by PepsiCo, introduced in 1964 as a variant of Pepsi with no sugar. First test marketed in 1963 under the name Patio Diet Cola, it was re-branded as ''Diet Pepsi'' the following year, becom ...
in baking Christmas cookies, thinking it was the same thing as baking soda. On yet another occasion, she burned the Thanksgiving turkey into charcoal with the oven's clean button, as the cookbook instructed her to "clean" the turkey. Similar to Peppermint Patty from ''
Peanuts ''Peanuts'' is a print syndication, syndicated daily strip, daily and Sunday strip, Sunday American comic strip written and illustrated by Charles M. Schulz. The strip's original run extended from 1950 to 2000, continuing in reruns afterward. ' ...
,'' Paige often falls asleep in class, partly because she stays up late. She is slightly more diligent than Peter when it comes to schoolwork, but has had her own procrastination-related nightmares (like school starting two weeks early and getting a schedule with only math classes with quizzes every day). Paige will often ask Jason for help in homework, usually in the
mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...
of
geometry Geometry (; ) is, with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. It is concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. A mathematician who works in the field of geometry is c ...
. However, he often gives her intentionally incorrect answers or charges her money in exchange for the correct ones. Paige also has difficulties with English class, particularly when reading
Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
. Although she is not flabby, Paige is also shown to be in poor physical shape, not participating in any outdoor activities or organized sports, and the smallest amount of physical activity is shown to wear her out. She once auditioned for the school cheerleading team in an effort to attract boys, which ended in a debacle similar to Peter's attempts to join the baseball team.


Peter Fox

Peter Fox is the eldest child of the Fox family. A 16-year-old
high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...
junior, he is regularly shown wearing a blue/purple and white
baseball cap A baseball cap is a type of soft hat with a rounded crown and a stiff bill projecting in front. The front of the hat typically displays a design or a logo (historically, usually only a sports team, namely a baseball team, or names of relevant co ...
with the letter A on it, as well as a grey
hooded sweatshirt A hoodie (in some cases spelled hoody and alternatively known as a hooded sweatshirt) is a sweatshirt with a hood. Hoodies with zippers usually include two pockets on the lower front, one on either side of the zipper, while "pullover" hoodies ...
and blue
jeans Jeans are a type of pants or trousers made from denim or dungaree cloth. Often the term "jeans" refers to a particular style of trousers, called "blue jeans", with copper-riveted pockets which were invented by Jacob W. Davis in 1871 and paten ...
. Occasionally, his cap has an "H" instead of an "A", but only as a benchwarmer for the high school baseball team. He is often seen with his hat on, even at odd times such as swimming. Peter has been seen hatless in places where it is blatantly rude to wear a ballcap indoors, such as church. He is also depicted as having an exaggerated appetite, but is frustrated that no matter how much he eats, he cannot seem to gain any weight (except in one series of strips, where he gained 50 pounds at a pizza joint's all-you-can-eat pizza night, then losing it overnight by the Saturday strip.) He is also shown as a reckless driver, once claiming to have "flirted" with four-digit speeds. Peter has pulled many stunts with the family car, such as speeding, back-
wheelie In vehicle acrobatics, a wheelie, or wheelstand, is a vehicle maneuver in which the front wheel or wheels come off the ground due to sufficient torque being applied to the rear wheel or wheels, or rider motion relative to the vehicle. Whe ...
s, deliberately spinning and
fishtailing Fishtailing is a vehicle handling problem which occurs when the rear wheels lose traction, resulting in oversteer. This can be caused by low friction surfaces (sand, gravel, rain, snow, ice, etc.). Rear-drive vehicles with sufficient power can ...
, driving so fast that
zero-gravity Weightlessness is the complete or near-complete absence of the sensation of weight. It is also termed zero gravity, zero G-force, or zero-G. Weight is a measurement of the force on an object at rest in a relatively strong gravitational fi ...
was achieved, attempting to clear a yellow light from six blocks away, almost sideswiping Andy's car, and going over the speed limit while
parallel parking 250px, Parallel-parked cars in Washington, D.C. 250px, A motorist gets assistance parallel-parking 250px, Parallel parking animation Parallel parking is a method of parking a vehicle parallel to the road, in line with other parked vehicles. ...
. Peter is a
procrastinator Procrastination is the action of unnecessarily and voluntarily delaying or postponing something despite knowing that there will be negative consequences for doing so. The word has originated from the Latin word ''procrastinatus'', which itself evo ...
, and one of the running gags of the strip is the many ways he dreams up to avoid doing his homework or household chores. He once bragged that he was "sick of homework from day one" in response to Paige claiming that she's starting to get sick of homework barely two months after the start of school, as well as becoming two weeks behind on schoolwork only one week into the year, a fact he seems to be proud of. As a result, he often crams homework and study into an all-night session (and once blasted the ''Hallelujah Chorus'' on his stereo to celebrate success). In desperation, Peter invented a high-caffeine concoction: coffee-tea (black coffee with a tea bag). He also shows interest in sports, but is constantly shown to be inept at both
football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
and
baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...
. This has been demonstrated by his name being preprinted on the list of people cut from the football team (and every other sports team, including girls' gymnastics). He even once had a dream of being a contender on the TV show '' American Gladiators'' but before the dream could be realized, he threw a muscle flexing in front of a mirror. He is also seen as occasionally power hungry, especially when their parents are away, as shown in an early storyline in which he forced Paige and Jason to be his servants, baking him cookies, cleaning his room, and the like; before locking them in the basement for "mutiny". Peter also holds other stereotypical interests for an adolescent male, including swimsuit models, video games, and
guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...
playing. He is known to be an avid
Bruce Springsteen Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen (born September 23, 1949) is an American singer and songwriter. He has released 21 studio albums, most of which feature his backing band, the E Street Band. Originally from the Jersey Shore, he is an originat ...
fan, once dating a girl named Susie Johnson only because she had Springsteen tickets, and during the Thursday strip, Peter touched Bruce's sweat. Since some of the earlier strips, Peter has been dating a blind girl named Denise Russo.


Andy Fox

Andrea "Andy" Fox is the mother of Peter, Paige, and Jason and the wife of Roger. She is portrayed in the strip as a 42-year-old mother. According to the strip, she graduated from a college prior to marrying, where she majored in English, but it is never revealed where she got her degree, so it could be possible she got it at a different university than her husband. While earlier strips portrayed her as a freelance writer and columnist for a local
newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sports a ...
, references to her job were gradually dropped and she has mostly been portrayed as a stay-at-home mother. Andy has often clashed with her children about school. She fails to relate to Jason due to his interest in science whereas she was more artistic, and is entirely unsympathetic with Paige and Peter's hatred of school, being under the impression that due to her own love of education, all her kids should also love it. Her locking horns with the kids on school is not without justification, as Peter and Paige are often shown as "go-nowheres", being lazy in school and rarely involved in extracurricular courses. Even on rare occasions Jason has flubbed his schoolwork, causing Andy to come down upon him. Andy often prepares exaggerated
vegetarian Vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the consumption of meat (red meat, poultry, seafood, insects, and the flesh of any other animal). It may also include abstaining from eating all by-products of animal slaughter. Vegetarianism m ...
or
vegan Veganism is the practice of abstaining from the use of animal product—particularly in diet—and an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of animals. An individual who follows the diet or philosophy is known as a vegan. Di ...
meals for her family (most often tofu, eggplants, spinach, beets, etc.), much to their chagrin, but she continues to try to get them to eat what she believes to be healthier meals. Another point of home living she places on her family includes lowering the
thermostat A thermostat is a regulating device component which senses the temperature of a physical system and performs actions so that the system's temperature is maintained near a desired setpoint. Thermostats are used in any device or system tha ...
to below-average temperatures in an attempt to lower the heating bill, which leads to contention from the kids (primarily Paige) who wish for it to be normal. She often criticizes her husband for his love of beer and meat, and children for what she sees as their bad habits, such as
procrastination Procrastination is the action of unnecessarily and voluntarily delaying or postponing something despite knowing that there will be negative consequences for doing so. The word has originated from the Latin word ''procrastinatus'', which itself evo ...
and use of improper grammar. She has been known to impose her will and beliefs rather harshly on her family, including Roger, such as occasions when she refused to buy coffee because she believed him to be "addicted" to it, and instructing Jason to play video games to prevent Roger from watching Super Bowl pre-game programming. In most cases, she has an intense hatred toward video games, often trying to get her kids disinterested in gaming. Her methods have ranged from directly throwing a console across the room during a particularly violent rant, to confiscating all games save for those approved by mother activist groups. This has also shown her to be something of a hypocrite as her attempt to use a Momvo to restrict her children's shows ended when it wouldn't record her soap operas. Andy has been shown to be the most anger prone of the Fox family, although her anger never escalates to hurting others as Paige and Peter have been shown to do. She is easily the most high-strung member of the family and can start screeching about anything in an instant. It was never specified as to the source of Andy's anger, but hinted partly due to a combination of factors, the strained relationship with her mother, the somewhat strained relationship with her children's refusal to do things her way, and that her adult life has been poorer in comparison to the prosperous times she enjoyed as a child. Her father had a job similar to Roger's, but had a far more stable and rewarding career, whereas she shows annoyance that Roger's career is not progressing as well as her father's had when he was Roger's age. Andy has also been shown as being obsessed with bills, as she always leaves the thermostat too low and subscribes to only the most basic necessities for a household. A running joke has been that during the winter the house has been cold enough to freeze things like hot drinks, the steam coming from Roger's coffee, and the family computer (literally); in one strip, she had the thermostat set below -297 degrees Fahrenheit. This is contrasted with the spendthrift attitude of the kids and their locking horns with Andy over this. Arguably because Roger's money pays the bills, he is also careful with expenses, but shows nowhere near the parsimony of his wife. Andy has also been shown to obsess over certain other fads, such as "Bitty Babies" (a parody of
Beanie Babies Beanie Babies are a line of stuffed toys created by American businessman H. Ty Warner, who founded Ty Inc. in 1986. The toys are stuffed with plastic pellets ("beans") rather than conventional soft stuffing. They come in many different forms, mo ...
), the movie ''
Titanic RMS ''Titanic'' was a British passenger liner, operated by the White Star Line, which sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on 15 April 1912 after striking an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, United ...
'', and the Nintendo DS game Nintendogs. Although Andy has been apparently disappointed in Roger's lot in life, she has been supportive that he works to put a roof over their head. A more serious story arc in FoxTrot was when Roger had been tasked by J.P. Pembrook to prepare a presentation to the board of directors to increase Pembrook's pay package by $300,000 - at a time when many of Roger's coworkers had been laid off due to low company profits. Andy is sympathetic with Roger's dilemma, and even suggests he should denounce Pembrook to his face.


Roger Fox

Roger Fox is the father of Peter, Paige, and Jason and the husband of Andy. According to the strip, he is 45 years old and was born in
Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...
. Roger has also stated that he majored in
English studies English studies (usually called simply English) is an academic discipline taught in primary, secondary, and post-secondary education in English-speaking countries; it is not to be confused with English taught as a foreign language, which ...
at the fictional Willot College. He works at Pembrook and Associates. Roger's occupation is an unspecified white-collar office job, although his coworkers and his boss, Pembrook, have appeared in the strip. His hobbies include
golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...
,
camping Camping is an outdoor activity involving overnight stays away from home, either without shelter or using basic shelter such as a tent, or a recreational vehicle. Typically, participants leave developed areas to spend time outdoors in more nat ...
, and
chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...
, though he has almost no talent at any of them (or virtually anything else he attempts). When he is golfing, he often hits the ball wildly and completely off target, when camping he always messes up something, and in chess he is defeated in mere seconds. In one strip, he flooded the house trying to use the dishwasher. He often tries to involve his family in his interests, usually by taking them on vacations. He is also portrayed as being highly out of step with modern technology, especially
computer A computer is a machine that can be programmed to Execution (computing), carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (computation) automatically. Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as C ...
s. Many strips also show that he is
overweight Being overweight or fat is having more body fat than is optimally healthy. Being overweight is especially common where food supplies are plentiful and lifestyles are sedentary. , excess weight reached epidemic proportions globally, with mo ...
, balding and in poor physical condition, to the point of his tires sinking just by him sitting inside his car. Despite his wife's attempts to get him to eat healthy foods and exercise, he rarely does so. A running gag in the strip depicts the family grill shooting a giant pillar of fire into the sky whenever Roger tries to light it, typically burning him in the process. In one strip, the pillar reached Mars and destroyed a rover; in response, NASA called demanding money for the damages (Roger implied this has happened before). He also finds it extremely difficult to fully wake up, having been depicted as requiring a large amount of coffee to start each day. Despite being rather clueless at times, he can be clever in some matters. He fares well enough as a family man and clearly cares for his wife and children.


Other recurring characters


Roger's coworkers

J.P. Pembrook is Roger's boss. In the strip, he always appears seated at his desk, with only his hands showing (and almost always folded). Pembrook is a stereotypical boss, showing little care about his company or his workers and is extremely greedy. In one strip, he has Roger be a clown for his son's 5th birthday party, resulting in Andy's anger at her husband being used in this manner. In another, slightly more serious storyline, Pembrook admits to Roger that the company has been in debt and laying off multiple workers; despite all this he has Roger convince the board to increase his CEO pay by $300,000. Roger, conflicted over the stress at home, is henpecked by an enraged Andy that he should tell off Pembrook. Fred is Roger's best friend and coworker and they are often shown playing golf together. Fred seems to be the better golfer as seen in one strip where Fred had a score of 81 while Roger had a score of 180. Fred and the other workers like having Roger around since he often causes the office's computer network to crash, thereby preventing them from having to work. However, Fred was later dropped from the strip after a point where Pembrook announced mass layoffs, whereas in private telling Roger he is being kept on board, which suggests Fred was among the workers who lost his job.


Andy's contacts

Katie O'Dell is the baby daughter of one of Andy's friends, Margaret O'Dell. Paige sometimes babysits for her, usually with disastrous results. One time, Paige fell asleep on the job allowing Katie to find scissors and chop up her brand-new dress while wearing it. In another case Paige watched an adult show, ''Jerzy Spaniel'' (a parody of ''
Jerry Springer Gerald Norman Springer (born February 13, 1944) is a British-American broadcaster, journalist, actor, producer, former lawyer, and politician. He hosted the tabloid talk show ''Jerry Springer'' between September 30, 1991 and July 26, 2018, an ...
'') with Katie discovering a swear word, repeating it over and over. Another time, Paige gave her cake, making her exceedingly hyper. Another time, Katie had been punished and could not watch TV or videos for misbehaving more than usual that morning, leading to Katie repeatedly yelling "''
Blue's Clues ''Blue's Clues'' is an American live-action/animated children's television series, created by Angela C. Santomero, Todd Kessler, and Traci Paige Johnson, that premiered on Nickelodeon as part of its Nick Jr. block on September 8, 1996, and co ...
''!" for hours on end. Paige described her as "a broken nonstop tape recorder" on the Saturday strip. Margaret O'Dell is one of Andy's friends in a book club and is the mother of Katie O'Dell. She is known to be very specific in details (such as with phone numbers or Katie's name). She usually pays Paige enough to make Paige happy to babysit again.


Peter's classmates and teachers

Denise Russo is Peter's blind girlfriend whom he met at school in the strip's first year. They are very close, and kiss constantly, although they do have their share of fights. Peter once attempted to break up with her so he could date other girls and "develop socially," but had a change of heart when he realized dating is not a rite of passage and there is no "appropriate" romance, and later admitted he was subject to peer pressure and media stereotypes. Denise has a manipulative streak and knows exactly how to get what she wants from Peter. In several strips, Paige and Jason
blackmail Blackmail is an act of coercion using the threat of revealing or publicizing either substantially true or false information about a person or people unless certain demands are met. It is often damaging information, and it may be revealed to fa ...
him with photographs of the two together. Since the strip's move to Sundays-only publishing, Denise has hardly been mentioned or shown. Steve Riley is Peter's best friend. Peter and Steve are often seen watching sports, or playing video games or guitar together. Steve works at Luigi's Pizza. He often lets Peter borrow his guitar instruments and amps, which usually ends up with Peter destroying most of the objects in the house. Paige once noted that Steve was "cute", much to Peter's chagrin. Despite his generally straight-laced nature, Steve had once tried to sponge answers off a test Peter had already taken, and Peter calls out Steve for his lousy ways. Coach is Peter's unnamed baseball and football coach. For reasons unknown (other than Peter's implied lack of athletic skill), he always makes Peter sit on the bench during games, only using Peter in an emergency or when he needs a new bag of sunflower seeds. He is the opposite image of a good coach, showing little interest in improving skills and only thinking of the "easy way out" to win games. He is also portrayed with a fat belly that hangs over his pants; hardly the image of an athlete. Later coaches, though, have shown more competence, but share the same low opinions of Peter's athletic skill. The Physics Teacher is an unnamed man who teaches physics at Peter's high school. He wears glasses and a full beard. He seems to have little patience for the laziness of Peter and Steve, but will sometimes be helpful if he realizes students are making an honest effort. Sometimes Paige has been shown as a student of his classes. The Theater Manager is Peter's boss at the movie theater where he has a summer job.


Paige's classmates and teachers

Nicole is Paige's best friend. She is also a high school freshman who has similar interests. Paige and Nicole sometimes go shopping together. The two once broke off their friendship after Nicole was able to get a date for the prom and Paige was not, but they soon reconciled. Nicole once had a crush on Peter, but that disappeared after she learned of his slovenly persona. Morton Goldthwait is a stereotypical
nerd A nerd is a person seen as overly intellectual, obsessive, introverted or lacking social skills. Such a person may spend inordinate amounts of time on unpopular, little known, or non-mainstream activities, which are generally either highly tec ...
who attends school with Paige, though he is half her size. Although Paige has mostly ignored him, he still has a crush on her. In a 1997 storyline, he was also Jason's summer camp instructor, running his part of the camp with a rod of iron and insisting that he be addressed as "Your glorious and all-powerful high eminence, sir." Jason had planned to set him up on a date with Paige as revenge, until he discovered that Morton actually liked Paige. Jason has also taken advantage of Morton's crush on Paige by arranging to have him become a part of her friends page on
Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...
and sending him a "gushy love note" on her behalf. Despite Paige's distaste for Morton, she seems to be at least somewhat flattered by his crush on her, as on one occasion when Morton asks another girl to a school dance because he figures Paige would turn him down, and Paige reacts jealously. It is mentioned that he took the
SAT The SAT ( ) is a standardized test widely used for college admissions in the United States. Since its debut in 1926, its name and scoring have changed several times; originally called the Scholastic Aptitude Test, it was later called the Schol ...
s, and was angry about getting "only" a 1590 out of a possible 1600. Jason considers him a stud, which of course infuriates Paige. Morton has been a part of many antics involving school activities. In one series of strips he formed the varsity e-football team, which plays video game football. Dr. Ting is Paige's biology teacher at school. While generally kind and patient, he has been shown to have a sadistic streak, as on an occasion where he assigned his class a test that covered forty-six chapters. Miss Rockbottom is Paige's Physical Education teacher. Despite appearing to be somewhat overweight herself, she is depicted as being very strict, once assigning more than 500 laps around the school track.


Jason's classmates, friends and teachers

Marcus Jones is Jason's best friend, and the only recurring
African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...
character in the strip. While similar to Jason in character, Marcus tends to be a little more sensible. Jason and Marcus usually play together, launching model rockets, flying kites, playing video games, or other activities, such as harassing Paige. Marcus has four sisters named Doreen, Lisa, Cybil, and Lana. He is always happy to take care of Quincy when Jason and the family go on vacation, so he can mess with his sisters; he also has a hamster. Eileen Jacobson is one of Jason's classmates. She attempts to converse with Jason regularly, only for him to show discomfort around her. Their relationship appears to be a mixture of hatred and grudging respect (in addition to Jason's fear of girls in general), though there may be romantic subtexts in the relationship. In one extended 1998 storyline, Eileen managed to trick Jason into admitting that he did sort of "like" her, leading Jason to spend weeks trying to figure out how to undo his "mistake" through time travel. At this point they even begin dating, though this is seemingly short-lived when Jason tries to keep the relationship confidential so that his friends wouldn't shun him. In another 1996 story arc, Jason accidentally sends a love note that was meant to be for Andy for
Mother's Day Mother's Day is a celebration honoring the mother of the family or individual, as well as motherhood, maternal bonds, and the influence of mothers in society. It is celebrated on different days in many parts of the world, most commonly in the ...
to Eileen, and it takes several strips to correct the mistake. Even Marcus thought Jason had Eileen's "
cooties Cooties is a fictitious childhood disease, commonly represented as childlore. It is used in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the Philippines as a rejection term and an infection Tag (game), tag game (such as Humans vs. Zo ...
," which he confesses at the end of the strip. It is noted by Andy that Eileen has a "loud laugh". Eileen seems to have a knack for getting Jason to do whatever she wants him to do, as evidenced by a series of strips in which Eileen makes Jason be her partner on a school field trip in exchange for a
Charizard Charizard (), known in Japan as , is a Pokémon in Nintendo and Game Freak's '' Pokémon'' franchise. Created by Atsuko Nishida, Charizard first appeared in the video games ''Pokémon Red'' and ''Blue'' ( ''Pokémon Red'' and ''Green'' in ...
Pokémon (an abbreviation for in Japan) is a Japanese media franchise managed by The Pokémon Company, founded by Nintendo, Game Freak, and Creatures (company), Creatures, the owners of the trademark and copyright of the franchise. In terms of ...
card. She is also a fan of the ''
Harry Potter ''Harry Potter'' is a series of seven fantasy literature, fantasy novels written by British author J. K. Rowling. The novels chronicle the lives of a young Magician (fantasy), wizard, Harry Potter (character), Harry Potter, and his friends ...
'' franchise, and in spite of Jason attempting to compete, she manages to get him interested as well. Miss O'Malley is Jason's teacher. At first, Jason disliked her because, unlike his former teacher, Miss O'Malley encouraged Jason's creativity (such as marking the sites of dinosaur bone discoveries on a map when he was only required to name the continents), but she eventually came to realize how big a problem Jason was. She sometimes forces Jason to stay after school and write sentences on the blackboard after he misbehaves. A common gag is that Jason tries to find excuses to stay at school when summer begins, despite Miss O'Malley's reminders for him to go home. Phoebe and Eugene Wu Phoebe is a friend of Eileen's, whom Jason and Marcus meet while attending science camp one summer. She and her younger brother, Eugene, are
Chinese-American Chinese Americans are Americans of Han Chinese ancestry. Chinese Americans constitute a subgroup of East Asian Americans which also constitute a subgroup of Asian Americans. Many Chinese Americans along with their ancestors trace lineage from m ...
. While Phoebe appears to be a relatively normal girl, Eugene is an obnoxious braggart who does not get along well with Jason and Marcus and is regarded even by his big sister (who, it is mentioned, has a higher IQ than he) as an object of derision. Phoebe and Eileen are rivals of Jason and Marcus at first, but the rivalry ends when Jason and Marcus cast the votes for Phoebe and Eileen's science project to win over Eugene's in the camp's science fair, and the girls initiate Marcus and a reluctant Jason into their "super-secret friendship club." The Wu siblings return in a second extended story line a few years later involving the theft of Phoebe's camp journal. The culprit turned out to be Eugene, who had hoped to foster discord among the "friendship club" and thus bring about its disbandment; however, Phoebe punishes him by incorporating a new friendship club with a non-disbandment clause. They have since made occasional guest appearances.


Other

Quincy is Jason's pet
iguana ''Iguana'' (, ) is a genus of herbivorous lizards that are native to tropical areas of Mexico, Central America, South America, and the Caribbean. The genus was first described in 1768 by Austrian naturalist Josephus Nicolaus Laurenti in his bo ...
. Jason regularly uses him to tease Paige, either by waving the iguana in front of her, putting him in the bathtub while she is taking a bath, or throwing him on her. Other times he will let Quincy into her room so he can chew up her belongings and throw them up. At other times, Quincy just sits on Jason's head, while sometimes he dresses Quincy and himself up as various fictional characters, such as The Lone Iguana, Quincy John Adams, Quincynook, and QUINCE-E. Quincy's species has never been revealed, but it is most likely that he is a juvenile Green Iguana (''Iguana iguana''). He has talked only twice. The first time was in a strip where Jason built a Spider-Man web launcher and had trouble with it, and his mother said "Comic books aren't real." He denies this, and Quincy replies, "Listen to your mother, Jason" as a play on what Andy said. The second time was at the end of a dream where Peter is in the Odyssey and discovers, to his disgust, that Quincy is Penelope. In that strip, Quincy said "Hold me. Kiss me. Love me." To his surprise Jason's teacher Ms. O'Malley actually thinks Quincy is adorable. iFruit is a parody of the
iMac iMac is a family of all-in-one Mac desktop computers designed and built by Apple Inc. It has been the primary part of Apple's consumer desktop offerings since its debut in August 1998, and has evolved through seven distinct forms. In it ...
computer. iFruit is the Fox's talking family computer which, upon being turned on, opens with the phrase, "Welcome to iFruit. Hug me". It first appears in a 1999 storyline in which Andy buys it on a computer shopping spree (namely after, in an earlier storyline, Roger sells the old computer in a yard sale after he ends up losing so much money day trading stocks), but only because it was "darling," much to the dismay of Jason, who comments, "Geekdom is dead." However, later in the series, iFruit starts growing on Jason because Andy starts buying its peripherals saying they are "adorable," unlike in the case of their previous computer. Later strips show that it has upgraded to resemble recent iMac flat-screen computers. However, the old model was shown in a recent strip in the Foxes' basement, where it is used in memory of
Steve Jobs Steven Paul Jobs (February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011) was an American entrepreneur, industrial designer, media proprietor, and investor. He was the co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Apple; the chairman and majority shareholder of Pixar; a ...
(following his death) via
daylight saving time Daylight saving time (DST), also referred to as daylight savings time or simply daylight time (United States, Canada, and Australia), and summer time (United Kingdom, European Union, and others), is the practice of advancing clocks (typicall ...
, with Andy stating that "you can't turn the clock back", and Jason replying that he just wants to pretend. Pierre is an imaginary character from the strip's early years. Paige had recurring dreams of herself in a relationship with the French prince; these dreams are typically influenced by things happening in the strip's real world while Paige is asleep (Jason messing with her, Andy attempting to wake her up, etc.). In dreams where Paige and Pierre kiss, one can typically expect to in reality find Jason having Quincy kiss her. While most Pierre dreams take place while Paige is home, school has influenced the dreams on more than one occasion, such as Paige falling asleep in class. One story arc that had both school and home was where Paige was dreaming Pierre was dueling a rival suitor, a Spanish knight named Juan Carlos. The reality was where Andy was trying to get Paige to focus on an elective course to sign up for the forthcoming academic year, and the choice was between Spanish and French class. Fauntleroy is the tiny pet dog of one of the Fox's neighbors. He is the main focal point of some arcs focusing on Peter, who is occasionally hired to take care of the dog, despite its tendency to bite.


Other family

Andy's mother (the maternal grandmother of Paige, Peter and Jason) has occasionally appeared in the strip as well. The grandmother is often referred to as "perfect"; as a result, Andy often feels inferior around her (according to the strip, this resentment started around seventh grade, as Andy's friends liked her mom more than her), and tries to prove herself by competing against her mother (usually by trying to cook a meal as well as her mother can). It has been mentioned that her cooking has won awards and that Martha Stewart has tried to get one of her recipes. In addition, her mother has also supplied Peter with a music CD called ''Lance and the Boils'' out of what was strongly implied to be revenge towards Andy for her choice of music as a teenager. She had also gifted the grandchildren with gifts more akin to their interests such as a
Nintendo Wii The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America and in December 2006 for most other regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major home game console, f ...
, which Andy has great disdain for, wanting her children to be more like she is, which implies the grandmother is more accepting of the kids for who they are. Uncle Ralph is Roger's brother, an
unseen character An unseen character in theatre, comics, film, or television, or silent character in radio or literature, is a character that is mentioned but not directly known to the audience, but who advances the action of the plot in a significant way, and wh ...
only mentioned during the early years of the strip, when the Fox family would go to "Uncle Ralph's Cabin" for, at one point, the ninth year in a row. Andy's father is an unknown character that was never seen or mentioned in the strip, and his current status in unknown.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Foxtrot Characters, List Of Fictional families Fictional lizards