| “ |
Radda |
” | |
| —The thing he says the most | |||
Shnitzel alternatively spelled as “Schnitzel is the tritagonist of Chowder. He is an employee of Mung Daal Catering who is not only underpaid but has to endure the daily shenanigans of his boss's apprentice, Chowder. Often the straightman of the series, Shnitzel frequently regards Mung's and Chowder's behavior as questionable or bizarre.
Appearance[]
Shnitzel is a "rock monster" with ears resembling small cubes sticking out the top of his head, large bean-like fingers and feet resembling an elephant's. He has a tall head (which can be compared to a rectangle) and a relatively small body. Shnitzel usually wears a plain white apron, even when not on the job, although he also occasionally wears regular street clothing as well, such as a raincoat, Hawaiian shirts, shorts, pants, shirts, and jackets.
Sometimes, as in "The Trouble with Truffles" and "The Heist," Shnitzel is shown sporting long, brown hair. In the episode "The Heist," however, he had blonde hair in a ponytail. In an episode where Ms. Endive literally made a boyfriend for herself, he wore black dreadlocks to a party at her house.
Appearances[]
Shnitzel has made appearances in every episode except for "Banned from the Stand," "The Apprentice Games," "A Faire to Remember," and "The Apprentice Scouts." Additionally, though he didn't appear in "At Your Service," Chowder and Mung both made mention of him. Shnitzel also rarely appeared in the puppet scenes used for the series' credits.
Personality[]
Shnitzel, Mung, and Chowder when not under Truffles' discipline
Shnitzel can best be described as stone-faced and short-tempered. A very stoic man who only wants to do his job, he has little patience for anything he finds annoying, and is quick to resort to violence as a means of dealing with it. Whenever faced with a problem, he often favors the quickest solution (such as abandoning Chowder after the latter was kidnapped by the Cinnamini Monster rather than attempting a rescue) despite it rarely working. Being a master chef, Shnitzel can be considered the most professional worker within the catering company, and does not shy away from pointing out when Mung Daal is overdoing things.
Despite his uncaring attitude and open frustration, Shnitzel does in fact care about his coworkers, even regarding them as family. Mung Daal, despite being his boss, could be considered the closest thing he has to a best friend, and he is shown to care about Chowder despite the misery he causes him. His relationship with Truffles is considerably more turbulant, as the two are frequently shown arguing and shouting at one another when tempers flare, though he is also shown to be genuinly terrified of her.
Shnitzel places a great deal of pride in his strength, being publically known as one of the strongest people in all of Marzipan city. He is so protective of his reputation that he quickly fell apart at the implication he had "gone soft", and just as quickly became determind to rebuild his strength. In contrast, he is often cowardly in situations that cannot be resolved with brute strength alone, with his first instinct being to leave. He is also horribly afraid of rats, and equally afraid of Ms. Endive due to her gargatuan size and amorous advances (something not uncommon throughout the city).
At home, he is shown to be a very quiet and reserved man. However, buried deep beneath Shnitzel's rock-faced demeanor, he is also prone to wacky antics. Very rarely, he will get caught up in Mung Daal or Chowder's shenanigans with a smile on his face, which strengthens his bond with them. Throughout the show he is implied to have a number of secret hobbies, such as being a regular performer at a stand-up comedy club (which he quickly ran from after discovering his coworkers attending).
Shnitzel's Language[]
Shnitzel's vocabulary is mostly limited to saying "radda", rendering nearly all of his speech unintelligible to the viewer, though the characters seem to understand Shnitzel perfectly well (and often repeat the meaning so that the audience can comprehend it.) In a few episodes Shnitzel can be heard uttering a real word: for instance, in "The Blackout," Shnitzel said "Yes!" Other remarks he has made include the following:
Shnitzel Talks
- "Radda radda radda radda radda radda radda… Over."
- "Oh, my Radda!"
- "Radda radada radada radada radada radadaradada radada"
- "Radda"
- "Holy Radda!"
- "Radda-goo-goo!"
- "RA....DA-DA-DA-DA-DA-DA-DA-DA-DA-DA-DA-DA!!"
- "Radouken!" (a parody of the exclamations "Hadouken!" and "Shoryuken!" from the Street Fighter series)
- "Raddaball!"
- Rada!
- "Ra da ra da ra da." (which means, "I already have a girlfriend.")
- "Taw!"
- "Egad."
In the episode, "The Trouble With Truffles", Truffles gets a smooth, Southern voice, and while everyone is saying how calm it is because of Truffles' voice, Shnitzel starts speaking normally and says, "Yeah, I'm so calm. Now the audience can finally understand me! Yo, my name's Shnitzel! ALL RIGHT!" whereupon Chowder says, "Nah. Doesn't work for us." Shnitzel then trips, falls over, and becomes unintelligible again.
Love/Relationships[]
While Mung claims to be a "Lady Killer", Shnitzel is often the one whom most women are attracted to, although as most of these women are considerably old and unpleasant, he is openly uncomfortable about this. In the episode "Shnitzel Quits," it was revealed that Shnitzel had a girlfriend, though she is never seen or mentioned in future episodes. In the episode "Weekend at Shnitzel's," he fell in love with Señorita Mesquite, a female robot singer (knowing full well she was robotic), though by the end of the episode, he has decided to let her stay at the restaurant so she can entertain children.
In the series finale "Chowder grows up", Shnitzel eventually married Endive (for unexplained reasons beyond to stress how badly Chowder's refusal to grow up had affected everybody's lives), although he reacts to this revelation with disturbed and unhinged laughter, implying it is not a happy marriage. By the episode's end, the narrator reveals Shnitzel has discovered he actually enjoys being married to Endive, although the ensuing scene of her smothering him leaves this still under scrutiny.
Trivia[]
- Shnitzel is portrayed by prolific voice actor John DiMaggio, who is perhaps most famous for his roles as Bender Bending Rodriguez from the animated sci-fi sitcom Futurama, as Dr. Drakken in Kim Possible, as Fu Dog in American Dragon Jake Long, and as Jake the Dog from Adventure Time.
- Shnitzel makes a few references to Rico from the Nickelodeon show DreamWorks' The Penguins of Madagascar. Both are unintelligible to everyone but the main characters and both are voiced by John DiMaggio.
- In the show's pilot episode "The Froggy Apple Crumple Thumpkin", Shnitzel was voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson.
- Shnitzel's way of talking is a reference to Radda In Chianti, which is located in Italy.
- Though the food he is named after is spelled as "schnitzel", the official spelling of his name drops the C. Various sources do, however, refer to him as "Schnitzel". Greenblatt has stated the reason for this spelling is because "one C.H. on the the show is enough[1]."
- Though Shnitzel's name is spelled without the "c" in most of Chowder's title cards, it is spelled with a "c" on the ToonFace short, "That's What She Said," in which "Schnitzel" converses with Coco from Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends . Interestingly, he spells "Radda" as "Rada" — and his keyboard has only three letters, "R", "A", and "D". However, this alternate spelling is a reference to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in England.
- Usually, when Shnitzel moves, there's a sound like that of a grinding rock.
- In "Weekend at Shnitzel's", Shnitzel is shown to live in the Marzipan City-equivalent of a trailer park, living in a large UV-like snail car propped up on blocks.
- Shnitzel is known to swear a lot, as Chowder twice affirms.
- There is at least $45 in Shnitzel's swear jar, as revealed in "Shnitzel Quits." It can also be noted that said jar is filled to the brim.
- In "Kid Shnitzel," when Shnitzel was outraged at Chowder for talking him into dressing up as a baby, Chowder stated: "No need for harsh language — this is a kid's show! Sheesh!"
- As heard from The Sing Beans, to keep the trio entertained, everybody told jokes to pass the time. During that, Shnitzel told a dirty joke, but it was censored by his Raddas.
- However, during the Cartoon Network Chowder Grows Up marathon, the pop-ups mention that the joke involves a small bucket of fish and a fisherman.
- According to Mung Daal in "The Wrong Customer," Shnitzel has been known to fart when no one's around.
- Shnitzel is the first and only character ever to have willingly kissed Endive on the lips (in "The Heist").
- Shnitzel is the first and only known character to have fallen down the Wonder Hole, the deepest hole in Marzipan City (in "Chowder's Catering Company").
- In "Sheboodles," at the Eighties party, he dressed up as Boy George.
- Shnitzel is allergic to Cinnamini and sneezes violently when exposed despite lacking a nose, as seen in "The Cinnamini Monster."
- In Punch Time Explosion XL, he synergizes with Young Ben Ten.
- Shnitzel hates thrice cream, which unfortunately is Chowder's favorite food.
- Much like Chowder, Schnitzel also made an appearance in the OK KO episode, CN's Crossover Nexus, where both appeared as two of the Cartoon Network heroes that were summoned and defeated by Strike. He and Chowder were later restored by Strike's pen on the screen.
- In the SpongeBob episode "Superfriends", Barnacle Man, Dirty Bubble and Man Ray created some Cartoon Network villains to defeat the IJLSA.
Gallery[]
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