Sick Sad World

This is a blog dedicated to Daria - an animated series from MTV.

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Norah Barkman (voiced by Kiki Barrer)

Norah Barkman is the President of Buzzdome, and dot-com millionaire who hires Jake Morgendorffer. He is noted for being a dynamic personality and speaking in a stream of confusing buzzwords & jargon.

When Jake enthusiastically spouted jargon back, Noah assumed he was hip to the industry (and only worked out he wasn't when Jake became visibly nervous during a presentation); he liked Jake and found his excitement reminded him of his own beginnings, and quickly re-hired Jake as a consultant after firing him. He turned 24 shortly before the episode. He spent Buzzdome.com's early days on late-night code-crunching sessions, fuelled by coffee beans and sleeping on the carpet.

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Monique 

Monique is a former classmate, former bandmate, and on-again off-again love interest of Trent Lane.

Monique appears in the show only twice. We learn that she was once in a band with Trent, and is currently in a band called the Harpies. In a later episode, we learn that her and Trent keep breaking up and getting back together again.

In both episodes, her appearance is disturbing or annoying to Daria, thanks to her crush on Trent, thus explaining the way Monique in fan fiction has deviated substantially from how she is portrayed in the actual series.

Her hairstyle varies slightly in her two appearances - she has wavy jet black hair which can occasionally be seen with red streaks.

She seems friendly, but Jane is cool towards her: she tells Trent outright that he and Monique are no good for each other. MTV's ''It Takes Two To Tangle'' stated the couple are "compatible in many ways in terms of lifestyle and temperament, they may have trouble bonding due to their both being too cool for words".

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Axl

Axl is the Owner/operator of Axl's Piercing Parlor, a body-piercing and tattoo shop in Lawndale.

He has a scruffy appearance, speaks with a lower class British cockney accent, and has a casual regard for hygiene and for the law. He has a good relation with Trent and Monique.

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Artie 

Artie is red-haired UFO buff, pizza delivery boy, and later a Pizza King waiter. 

Artie in the series is portrayed as a nearly-psychotic, barely functioning UFO nut. In his second appearance, it's made clear his obsession prevents him from holding down a job: he's been repeatedly fired, something he blames on the aliens but is more because he does things likespend hours when on-the-job telling people about UFOs.

Among other things, he believes that aliens are stealing humans' skin, because the skin remembers everything you see, taste, or touch. He also believes that the aliens who kidnap him periodically also press his pants and do "a nice job."

He's appeared twice on Sick, Sad World, talking about his abduction. In the second one, he accused Daria and Jane of being aliens, who used him. The second time he ran into Daria and Jane, he recognised them as "familiar" but couldn't pinpoint where from.

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Angie 

Angie is a blonde (or perhaps platinum bottle-blond) student at Lawndale High School. She is part of the Cheerleaders team.

Of all of the female characters, Angie might be the one most friendly with Brittany. She also appears to be the breaker of bad news to Brittany. It is Angie's job to inform Brittany that her date, Robert, dances like a "geek". She tells Brittany that Kevin was "smiling his head off" at a lady customer purchasing nuts, which provokes an angry response and leads to Brittany confronting Kevin at the nut stand.

However, Angie's role as Brittany's confidante does not trump cheerleader solidarity. When Brittany attempts to change her personality for a class assignment, Angie goes along with the other cheerleaders in temporarily kicking Brittany off the cheerleading team. 

Angie, along with the other cheerleaders, gets into Great Prairie State University after graduation as nowhere else will take her.

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Amelia (voiced by Sarah Drew)

Amelia is a teenager at Camp Grizzly in the episode, and Daria's only known fan/follower. Freckled Amelia is taller than Daria and of stockier build, with dark bangs parted in the middle and dark glasses with square frames. 

Amelia saw herself and Daria as having a lot in common. She idolizes Daria as the ultimate rebel, though many of Daria's "rebellious" acts during her stay at Camp Grizzly could be explained through either bad luck or Daria being ostracised.

Amelia's adoration of Daria is so great that when Jane refers to Amelia as "Daria having a secret fan club," Amelia takes the statement literally and assumes that Daria has an actual fan club.

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Alison (voiced by Bif Naked)

Alison is an artist and one of the residents of Ashfield. She is present when Jane Lane visits Ashfield in Is It Fall Yet?  Alison and Jane meet while listening to a lecture by visiting artist Daniel Dotson. Neither think much of Dotson's artistic talent, and the two form a common bond. Jane is glad to form a bond with Alison as she has little in common with the other Ashfield artists.

She is a tall young woman with long, black hair, and striking good looks. She keeps her midriff bare, wears tattoos, and dresses in hip clothing. Alison is trying to make it as her own as an artist working in pastels. When Jane later gets a chance to look at Alison's work, she likes it, but Alison tells Jane that the galleries don't agree and that she wishes that she had had Jane's drive and focus when she was younger.

A bet is made where Alison bets that the artists at Ashfield will warm up to Jane if they get a chance to know her. When Alison loses the bet, Jane and Alison have dinner together, and when Jane returns to Alison's cabin, Alison makes a pass at Jane. Not only does Alison state that she's a bisexual, she states that she doesn't believe that Jane is straight, and that the source of Jane's immediate discomfort is that Jane is nervous about making love to a girl. She further states, "I never hit on straight chicks", implying that not only is she sure about her sexuality, but about Jane's as well.

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Ethan Yeager 

Ethan Yeager is the teenage son of Coyote and Willow Yeager. Although he doesn't explicitly reject his parents' anti-materialist views, he seems to hold them in a certain amount of contempt. He speaks in a monotone similar to Daria's and he comes off as indifferent and a little bitter about his life. He describes Quinn as cute "in a shallow, superficial way".

Ethan appears with the rest of the Yeagers in one episode, emerging from the yellow VW Beetle after Daria had decided to escape to Jane's. Quinn is immediately transfixed by the presence of a handsome boy and quickly agrees to hang around the house in an attempt to get blackmail material—and get to know Ethan.

Ethan seems to be moody and taciturn by nature. He displays no interest in conversing with Jake and Helen, dismisses his father's statement that he is "gonna rock climb. When he's ready," with a mumbled "Whatever," and rebuffs Quinn's first overtures. When she shows him around the house, he chooses to stay in Daria's room, describing it as "cool." Later, he sees his father and Jake on the Beetle drinking berry juice and notes acidly that Coyote "let the berry juice ferment again." He then takes Quinn for a slush cup, which she pays for, and spills some dirt on her parents.

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Willow Yeager 

Willow Yeager and her husband Coyote are old friends of Jake and Helen Morgendorffer. The two couples were part of the same commune for an unspecified amount of time in the late '60s/early '70s. When Jake and Helen left the commune to "change the system from within," Coyote and Willow remained there for awhile before carving out an existence outside of society by making hand crafted items, such as hammocks. The families didn't meet again for around 25 years.

Coyote and Willow have a son, Ethan, and a dog, Leary.

Willow and the rest of the Yeagers are featured in one episode where the family arrives in a beat up yellow VW bug bringing their own supplies, many which were cooked or made by Willow. She says that Daria "has a very old soul".

At first, she maintains the superiority of her simple life over Helen's materialism, but while she and Helen are making a compost pile, she tells Helen that she hates kneading bread. After both she and Helen fall into the compost, she stalks off angrily, berating Coyote complaining about missing bacon when she is covered in garbage. Later when she calms down, Helen gives her the Morgendorffers' bread maker to help her cut down on her cooking time and suggests frozen bagels as a way to further cut down on cooking time.

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Coyote Yeager 

Coyote Yeager and his wife, Willow, are old friends of Jake and Helen Morgendorffer.

The two couples were part of the same commune for an unspecified amount of time in the late '60s/early '70s. When Jake and Helen left the commune to "change the system from within," Coyote and Willow remained there for awhile before carving out an existence outside of society by making hand crafted items, such as hammocks. The families didn't meet again for around 25 years.

Coyote and Willow have a son, Ethan, and a dog, Leary.

Coyote and the rest of the Yeagers are featured in one episode where the family arrives in a beat up yellow VW bug, which Coyote maintains himself. At first, he maintains the superiority of his simple life over Jake's materialism, but by the end of the episode he confesses that he hates his car, buying food in bulk, and not flushing every time he goes to the bathroom. He then asks Jake to teach him to play golf so they can "ride in one of those little carts." He also has a fondness for home made berry juice, especially after it ferments.

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Val (voiced by Stacy Brass)

Val is the thirty-something publisher of Val Magazine. She is egotistical, vain and continually tries to pass herself off as barely out of her teen years even though her real age is obvious.

What we know about her daily life is that she spends a lot of time trying to further her own image & fame - usually while pretending not to. She also tries to move in the same social circles as young celebrities, tending to namedrop the first names of celebrities she's met.

In conversation, she alternates between seemingly-clueness attempts to sound young & cool, and cynical media manipulator. A brief glimpse behind the mask was shown when she discovered her younger boyfriend Drew, a celebrity, was dumping her for a starlet that he'd got pregnant: she was left distraught, had to mutter the calming mantra "I am Val as in Val" (something she appears to have done before), and made angry & upset threats to destroy his career.

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Doug Thompson 

Doug Thompson is the father of Kevin Thompson and is married to Charlene. He was 18 when Kevin was born, and he had failed his senior year and a ''checkpoint test".

It is later hinted that he had to get a job after school and couldn't have gone to college anyway due to the need to support Kevin; Doug doesn't think Kevin will do the same thing, laughing to his wife "I'm sure Kevin will be more careful than we were!". Kevin at one point says that Doug is "a contractor."

He's a former Lawndale Lions team captain and hosts the annual Lawndale High football barbecues. He's been shown using too much lighter fluid for the barbeque grill. The student players found him funny and liked talking to him about recent games.

He is possessed of an undeniable sexism, and shows both laddish behaviour, such as drinking directly from a keg, and a tendency towards bullying & threats. He seems to dote on his son for being good at football, though Kevin mentioned that after a failed game, Doug decided they should work on some other skills instead of relying on a football scholarship.

In an eerie note, the background of the Thompson family photo shows photos of baby Kevin who has been given a little baby football. Even when he's a week old.

He almost certainly was at school with either Wind or Summer Lane, as both appear to be in their 30s as well.

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Charlene Thompson 

Charlene Thompson is Kevin Thompson's mother. She and her husband, Doug were first mentioned in The Daria Database, and according to the ages given, they were 18 when Kevin was born.

She dislikes Kevin's girlfriend Brittany Taylor, as she thinks she is a bad influence on her son; she's afraid Kevin will get Brittany pregnant, and will then have to get a job and not go to college. 

She almost certainly was at school with either Wind or Summer Lane, as both appear to be in their 30s as well.

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Vivian Taylor (shown in photo frame) 

Vivian Taylor is Brittany and Brian Taylor's mother.

Absent from the series, her only appearance comes in form of a framed photograph in the Taylor family portrait in The Daria Database, where she is described as:

"actress/model/restaurant hostess/former Mrs. Taylor. Shortly after Brian's birth, deserted family to move to Hollywood where people are relatively sane."

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Steve Taylor 

Steve Taylor is the father of Brittany and Brian Taylor. His ex-wife (and Brittany's mother) is Vivian Taylor and his current wife is Ashley-Amber Taylor.

He is an ad executive who met Ashley-Amber when she was a spokesmodel for a beer company.

Steve's personality is somewhat crude and irritable. He seems especially impatient with his son Brian, though he seems to favor Brittany, throwing her a party and giving her an expensive present. He had apparently thrown Brian a party recently too, but seemed bitter about that fact. He apparently collects a lot of art work, including one of the reproductions that Jane had made.

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Ashley-Amber Taylor 

Ashley-Amber Taylor is Brittany's step-mother and Steve Taylor's trophy wife. She was also the poster model for St. Peter Girl beer: "I'll cure what 'ales' you."

She met Steve at a photo shoot.

In her speaking parts, Ashley-Amber seems to be quite dim and has a strong big-sister relationship with Brittany. "The Daria Database" adds an unexpected new depth to her, stating that without Steve realising, she's "secretly learning the joint-property laws"...

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Brian Taylor

Brian Taylor makes only three short appearances in the show, and a non-speaking appearance inone film.

His appearances sugest he is a brat, as he talks back at his father and is shown running around the house swearing and taunting his family by handling things not belonging to him (and in a way that could break them). He also enjoys torturing small animals.

This behaviour takes on a more sinister edge thanks to The Daria Database, which strongly implies that Brian has been systematically murdering every single pet cat the family has ever had and that they know he's doing it ("cats disappear with Brian around, so family no longer bothers coming up with original names"). We're told this sick bastard "loves electrical cords, duct tape and the whimper of a helpless animal on a hot afternoon".