Gerald Martin Johanssen is a nine-year-old boy and Arnold's best friend. He is an athletic and street-smart boy who is portrayed as loyal, though much less responsible than Arnold. Gerald has known Arnold for many years, most likely since preschool. Besides being Arnold's friend, Gerald also has a good deal of knowledge of many legendary stories in the city, or "urban legends" as he calls them. He apparently gets these myths from a source he has nicknamed "Fuzzy Slippers", mentioned in many episodes as his reliable assistant.
At school, Gerald is the class president, and considers himself very cool, and apparently, so do his friends. When it was revealed that Arnold was on Rhonda's so-called "Cool List", and that Gerald was on her other list known as "The Geek List" (due to a grudge Rhonda had against him over running for class president), many classmates were surprised to find this out ("Cool Party").
His most distinct features are his tall, Kid 'n Play-style hair, and his shirt with the number 33 on it (he also wears 33 on sports uniforms). He has a crush on Phoebe, who shares the same feelings for him. It's implied that at the end of Hey Arnold!: The Jungle Movie that the two have become a couple as they are seen holding hands.
Biography[]
Gerald Martin Johanssen[1]) is a 9-10-year-old boy and Arnold's best friend. He is an athletic and street-smart boy who is portrayed as loyal, though much less responsible than Arnold. Gerald has known Arnold for many years, most likely since preschool. Besides being Arnold's friend, Gerald also has a good deal of knowledge of many legendary stories in the city, or "urban legends" as he calls them. He apparently gets these myths from a source he has nicknamed "Fuzzy Slippers", mentioned in many episodes as his reliable assistant.
At school, Gerald is the class president and considers himself very cool, and apparently, so do his friends. When it was revealed that Arnold was on Rhonda's so-called "Cool List", and that Gerald was on her other list known as "The Geek List" (due to a grudge Rhonda had against him over running for class president), many classmates were surprised to find this out ("Cool Party").
His most distinct features are his tall, Kid 'n Play-style hair, and his shirt with the number 33 on it (he also wears 33 on sports uniforms). He has a crush on Phoebe, who shares the same feelings for him. It's implied that at the end of Hey Arnold!: The Jungle Movie that the two have become a couple as they are seen holding hands.
He serves the role of the storyteller in the fourth-grade group, and his tales are often the setup of the urban legend episodes. He sometimes delivers the urban legends in the form of jazz poetry, which he also recited on stage at the Coco Hut. Gerald's flair for performance has also manifested musically, such as in the episode "Gerald's Tonsils", Gerald is a soloist of a chorus, in "Partners", he plays the piano, and in the episode "Arnold as Cupid" he's briefly seen playing the violin.
He notably possesses a lot of information and know-how on Hillwood and its residents, some of which provided by his mysterious friend Fuzzy Slippers.
He developed a fear of riding a bike after he accidentally rode down the steepest hill in the city, and crashed when he was small. However, Arnold helped him overcome his phobia, and win the city bike race.
Appearances[]
Gerald is of African-American heritage, and his most distinct features are his hi-top fade (classmate Helga often calls him "Tall Hair Boy"), and his red shirt with the number 33 on it. As a child, his redshirt simply said "3". He also wears blue jeans and red and white high top sneakers.
In The Jungle Movie, he wears a red hooded sweatshirt with the same number on it, and different high top sneakers of the same color with white laces. He resembles his brother Jamie O more closely, as his haircut is now a taller version of Jamie O's, and the shape of his head is now less circular, and more similar to his brother's.
Personality[]
Most of the time, Gerald comes across as a cool, friendly, easygoing kid. He is also a very caring and loyal friend.
At school, Gerald is the class president and considers himself very cool, and apparently, so do his friends. When it was revealed that Arnold was on Rhonda's so-called "Cool List", and that Gerald was on her other list known as "The Geek List" (due to a grudge Rhonda had against him over running for class president), many classmates were surprised to find this out. He can even become jealous of others if they steal his spotlight, which likely stems from his home life, where he is the oft picked on middle child.
He often serves as the voice of reason in the group of fourth-grade friends, and a realistic counterbalance to Arnold's optimistic attitude. This sometimes causes conflict between the two, but never for long. Another facet of Gerald's personality that opposes Arnold's is his weaker sense of morality. Gerald is far less open to helping others, and almost always attempts to dissuade Arnold from doing so. He's also more likely to doubt people or to spite somebody that he believes has wronged him, such as his brother. He's also somewhat selfish, seen when he hesitated to tell Jamie O that his girlfriend was manipulating him in order to get benefits from him.
Behind the scenes[]
- His hair looks similar to Marge Simpson's from The Simpsons.
- Gerald was voiced by Jamil Walker Smith throughout the entire run of the original series, even as Smith went through puberty. The voice change was explained as a side effect of when his tonsils were removed, and from that point on, Smith's voice was digitally mastered to a higher pitch by using sound audio. Hey Arnold! The Jungle Movie is the first and only time Gerald has a new voice actor. He sounds noticeably more youthful in it (similar to his Season 1 or 2 self) as a result. [2]
- It has often been speculated that his shirt featuring the number "33" is a reference to Chicago Bulls player Scottie Pippen. However, Craig Bartlett claims that this is only a coincidence.
- It should also be noted that other NBA players, most notably Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Larry Bird, Patrick Ewing, and Shaquille O'Neal have all worn the 33 jersey at one point.
- Gerald seems to have figured out Helga's feelings for Arnold at some point before Hey Arnold! The Jungle Movie.
- Despite being just 9 years old at the time, Gerald is shown to be quite proficient at driving a vehicle with a manual transmission in Hey Arnold! The Movie. This is first shown at the beginning of the movie when he is playing a video game called "Runaway Bus" at the arcade, and towards the end of the movie when he is forced to take the controls of a real city bus in order save the neighborhood.
- He's only the deuteragonist who is the best friend of Arnold. This role doesn't go to Helga because she was the overarching antagonist and tritagonist which separates her from the other main characters, but actually was Arnold's girlfriend and arch-rival.
- Gerald's favorite color is red.[3]
- Gerald's favorite sport is basketball.[4]
- Gerald's favorite show is Pop Daddy.[5] [6]
References[]
- ↑ "Exclusive: Hey Arnold! movie gets a name, hefty slate of returning voice actors". The A.V. Club (13 June 2016).
- ↑ Gerald's Tonsils
- Gerald's last name is spelled "Johanson" in the first season and "Johanssen" in the second season, although it's spelled "Johannsen" in the credits for "The High Life" and "Johansson" in the credits of the "Urban Adventures" tape. Since Gerald signs it "Johanssen" in "The High Life", that's the spelling used in this wiki. <ref>The High Life
- ↑ Gerald's Game
- ↑ Hey Arnold!: The Movie
- ↑ Chocolate Turtles
- ↑ Gerald vs. Jamie O
External Links[]
- Nickipedia
- Hey Arnold Wiki
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Hey_Arnold!_characters#Gerald_Johanssen
v - e - d  | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|