Backgrounder



Backgrounder is old fandom slang for the background characters in each episode. Some of these, mainly by accident, have names (like through a seating chart in "Cafe Disaffecto") but they almost all lack a voice - and if they have names, our main cast never refer to them. They rarely, if ever, interact with the main cast but can implicitly have been people the cast talked to 'off screen', such as the backgrounders filling up the Lawndale High Track Team with Jane.

Because the backgrounders appeared often enough to be recognisable, Guy Moore pitched an episode where we'd follow the backgrounders' stories and Daria and Jane would be the voiceless background people. Karen Disher believed they couldn't do it because fans complained whenever Daria & Jane weren't the focus.

They are extremely useful for fanfic writers: a source of ready-made people with an existing image, that your fellow obsessives may know! Their names are usually based on appearance, an in-joke, or simply whoever got to them first in a fanfic.

(This page will not focus on the backgrounders who do have canon/sort-of-canon names, like Burnout Girl or Bob)

Nerds


These three guys are friends of The Head, and they sit together with him at lunch. They were first pointed out to us in "Quinn the Brain"; Daria and Jane used their existence as a taunt to Quinn, and presumably aren't too impressed with them either. From left to right, Nerd 1 (blond), Nerd 2 (fat), and Nerd 3 (black male). They're rarely seen, presumably avoiding everyone else; Nerd 2 did witness Ms Li's freakout in "Fizz Ed". Nerd 2 can sneeze milk from his nose, which the others find hilarious.

Appearances in fanfic

In "A Hard Days' Night" by The Angst Guy, they're part of the Irregulars: boy genius crime fighters. They use codenames based on three fanfic writers (Bug Guy, Penguin Guy, and Brother Grimace respectively).

White Sweater


Long haired Asian-American girl, in several of Daria and Jane's classes; wears a light green T-shirt, tan jeans, and a necklace most of the time. Named by TAG for her distinctive white blazer. A fan of Mental in the Morning, based on "Jake of Hearts".

"White Sweater" has been seen hanging around a lot of people when outside of class, a number of them popular and photogenic: Jennifer, Joey, and she was also part of the in-crowd admiring a newly-thin Sandi in "Fat Like Me". She was also flirted with by Les in that episode, himself a Lawndale High Track Team dude. She's also been seen with less popular people, including sitting with Shaggy and Burnout Girl in "Cafe Disaffecto". "White Sweater" appears to be both popular and a nice, sociable person.

Appearances in fanfic

Named Woot in "Scarlett" by TAG, where she's a member of the Lawndale Leopards hockey team.