—Scoutmaster Lumpus never did see his parents again after they stopped talking in 1988, (17 years from 2005, see episode: “Parents Day.”) When he got engaged to Jane, she insisted he be the bigger man and call them to invite them to their wedding. When he tried, he couldn’t reach them. After some digging, he found out they had both already passed away. It hit him hard and he almost called the wedding off.
—Edward’s millionaire dad, Antonio, is homophobic. After Fancypants came out, he kicked him out of the house and forbid any of his sons from talking to him. (Fancypants has a ton of money of his own and landed on his feet, but that’s neither here nor there for this.) This was very difficult for Edward, because Fance was the only stepbrother he liked. It meant too that he had one less ally in the Platypus Mansion versus his other stepbrothers when they bullied him. When Edward comes to grips with being gay himself, he nearly has a nervous breakdown at the thought of being disowned himself, and at a much younger age than Fancypants.
—Philip was born of an affair between Antonio and a woman besides his first wife Regina, and before Antonio met Susan. This broke Antonio and Regina’s marriage. Philip’s mother then refuses to have anything to do with Philip, so Antonio gets full custody. Cheesly and Alpine haaaaated Philip for this and basically acted like he was an intruder to the family. Only when Susan came into the picture and Edward was born did Philip become accepted by them, and that was only because they were now unified against Edward. Horrible.
—When Samson’s a young adult, there’s a few years where he moves into an apartment. To afford it, he needs to take in two roommates who eventually stop helping him with payments and reveal themselves to be manipulative slobs. Only with the help of Lazlo, Dave and Ping Pong is he able to do something about it.
—Patsy took Lazlo coming out as gay harder than she’ll ever admit.
—Before Jane Doe was promoted to Denmother, she served as Denmother’s Assistant to a perfectionist, verbally abusive old crone, Denmother Carson. (I’ve posted about her before, if you search my stuff.) Carson made her life miiiiserable and there were many times Jane wanted to up and quit.
—Nurse Leslie didn’t want to go into the medical field, but his family, the Sharkiros, have a longstanding tradition of it and essentially forced him.
(Ah crap. I ran out of tags. Never mind, we persevere!)
—Ms. Mucus is divorced.
—Gordon the bear has an anxiety problem.
—There was a time where, before he worked at Camp Kidney, Chef McMuesli wasn’t just a voluntary nomad but legitimately homeless and broke.
—99% of the time Clam doesn’t mind being judged for his unusual speech pattern and appearance, but 1% of the time (when it’s by Scoutmaster Lumpus or some other authority figure,) he does.
—I can’t explain it but there’s something about Scoutmaster Wesley and the way he talks and treats his genius scout (see episode: “Prodigious Clamus”) that just screams he has a history of cruelty and selfishness far beyond that one instance.
—Lazlo and the Loons’ parents were all very accepting and encouraging in regards to their orientations, so you can imagine how much they felt for Edward who was in a much worse situation.
—Edward, as a young adult, eventually writes off his father, Cheesly, Alpine and Philip, while still being close with Susan and Fancypants. Antonio makes it hard for Edward to interact with Susan for some time out of sheer spite.
—Bill struggles with self-image and he copes with this by trying different accents.
