List of modern day tricksters

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This List of modern day tricksters attests to both the enduring nature of the mythological figure of the trickster and its continued popularity in a variety of media.

The trickster, in later folklore or modern popular culture, is a clever, mischievous person or creature, who survives in a dangerous world through use of trickery. An archetypical example is the fairy tale of the King who puts suitors for his daughter to the test. No brave and valiant prince or knight succeeds, until a simple peasant arrives. Aided only by his natural wit, he evades danger and triumphs over monsters and villains without fighting. Thus the most unlikely candidate passes the trials and receives the prize. Modern examples of this type are Bugs Bunny and The Tramp (Charlie Chaplin).

[edit] Characteristics

Hynes and Doty, in Mythical Trickster Figures (1993) state that every trickster has several of the following six traits:^[1]

fundamentally ambiguous and anomalous
deceiver and trick-player
shape-shifter
situation-inverter
messenger and imitator of the gods
sacred and lewd bricoleur

[edit] Modern-day tricksters

Bellman - a trickster hero featured in many jokes from Sweden.
Brer Rabbit - a slave trickster of African origin.^[2]
Blackout - hatted trickster alter ego of American actor/entertainer Michael Biggins.
Bugs Bunny - a rabbit trickster, in some respects similar to Brer Rabbit.^[3].
Stone Columbus - from Gerald Vizenor's trickster novel The Heirs of Columbus.
Maurice Conchis - from John Fowles The Magus.
John Constantine, star of the Hellblazer comic series
Carl Denham - from the 2005 version of King Kong.
The Doctor, from Doctor Who - a situation-inverter, trick-player; a Time Lord who uses ingenuity to overcome obstacles and often trickery to defeat opponents.
Tyler Durden - chronically ambiguous, a trick-player, situation-inverter, bricoleur from Fight Club, the book by Chuck Palahniuk and the film of the same name.
El-ahrairah - the Prince of Rabbits, or "the Prince with the Thousand Enemies"; the trickster folk hero of the rabbits in Watership Down.
Felix the Cat - a "transgressor of boundaries"^[4].
Nagi Homura - a character from the My-Hime anime series.
Impossible Man - an amoral, childlike, shapeshifting extraterrestrial from the Fantastic Four comics.
Jack Mary Ann - a minor folk hero popular in local oral traditions in the Wrexham area of Wales.
The Joker and The Riddler - major supervillains featured in Batman comics and movies.
Karagöz - a poor survivor character of Turkish folklore. He tries to find ways and make money, often by tricking and fooling others.
Kikuri - a character from the manga and anime Jigoku Shoujo.
Andy Larkin - the compulsive prankster from What's With Andy?.
Timothy Leary - "probably the best example of the 'trickster' archetype that the 20th Century produced"^[5].
Parker Lewis - from the TV series Parker Lewis Can't Lose
The Master - hypnotist, genius, occasional shape-shifter; nemesis of the Doctor. A Time Lord who once worked his way into British government as part of a plan to take over Earth.
The Mask - wears a mask imbued with Loki's powers and lack of inhibition.
Naruto Uzumaki - from the anime Naruto.
Shawn Michaels and Triple H - part of WWE's stable D-Generation X.
Mister Mxyzptlk - an imp from the fifth dimension featured in the Superman comics.
Nick Naylor - from the film Thank You for Smoking.
Nyarlathotep - a malevolent and godlike trickster figure occasionally featuring in the Cthulhu stories of H. P. Lovecraft and others.
The Pink Panther.
Q and fellow members of the Q Continuum - from the TV series Star Trek.
Bart Simpson - from the animated TV series The Simpsons^[6].
Captain Jack Sparrow - from the Pirates of the Caribbean films.
Jack Spicer and Hannibal Roy Bean - of Xiaolin Showdown.
Kusuda Uni - a character from the visual novel Remember11 - the age of infinity.
V - from the movie and graphic novel V For Vendetta.
Ace Ventura - from the movies Ace Ventura: Pet Detective and Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls.
the Vorlons from the science fiction series Babylon 5 are, in most significant ways, portrayed as an entire race of trickster beings, in many ways similar to the members of Star Trek's Q Continuum, and at one point or another displaying virtually every characteristic listed by Hynes and Doty in their Mythical Trickster Figures (1993; see above).
Wile E. Coyote - featured in the Road Runner cartoons and based on a traditional Native American trickster figure, Old Man Coyote^[7] An argument might also be made that Wile E. Coyote's arch nemesis, the Road Runner itself, is also at least as great a trickster as Wile E. himself.
Wisakejak - appears as a Coyote-spirit trickster, alongside Harriet, a rabbit-shaped Pookah, in the game Ghost Master for PC and Mac.
Woody Woodpecker - "A less complex version of the Trickster"^[8].
The Woodsie Lord (called "Constantine" when in human form) - from the computer game Thief: The Dark Project; the fabled god figure of the Pagans in that game world.
Xelloss (a.k.a: "The Trickster Priest") - from the novel, manga, and anime series Slayers.

[edit] Notes

^ Hynes, William J. and William G. Doty. (1993). Mythical Trickster Figures, (pp. 34-42). Tuscaloosa:The University of Alabama Press.
^ Emerson College. Characteristics of a Slave Trickster. Retrieved on July 11, 2007
^ Shaune Heyser, Cathlena Martin (2004) The Incarnation of a Trickster. Retrieved on July 11, 2007
^ Patricia Vettel Tom. (1996) "Felix the Cat as Modern Trickster" American Art, Vol. 10, No. 1 (Spring, 1996), pp. 64-87. Retrieved on July 11, 2007
^ Krassner, Paul. (August 13, 2006) The Legacy of Timothy Leary. Retrieved on: September 5, 2007.
^ Grand Valley State University Trickster World Mythology Course (Eng 104). Retrieved on: 2007-07-20.
^ Terri Windling. Wile E. Coyote and Other Sly Trickster Tales. The Endicott Studio. Retrieved on July 11, 2007.
^ Tina Blue. (2001) Traditional Themes and Motifs in Literature. Retrieved on July 11, 2007.