Charles Ruttheimer III

Upchuck and Daria ("The Invitation")

Charles Ruttheimer III, known as "Upchuck," is a student at Lawndale High, in Daria's class. He is largely known for his buffoon-like attempts to engender female interest.

Character Overview

Charles "Upchuck" Ruttheimer the Third was a student at Lawndale High, in Daria's class. His chief characteristic appears to have been attempting to arouse female interest by (badly) affecting a sophisticated persona, seemingly based in part on James Bond, Playboy founder Hugh Hefner, a distasteful parody of a bad Las Vegas comedian. For example, he often referred to females as "ladies," and always spoke the term in a salacious tone.

Interestingly, he for the most part appears to buy into his delusions of being a "Casanova." Delusions, however, is the proper term to describe his belief, as he appears to be among the least-popular students at Lawndale High, at least as far as the females were concerned. His status was confirmed by Tiffany with the brief phrase, "Upchuck? Ewww...." (See the episode Jake of Hearts.) This extends to females he encounters outside of school, including the cop from I Loathe a Parade who referred to him disparagingly as Don Guano.

Perpetually-undeterred, Upchuck would make a sexual comment almost every time he appeared on-screen in the company of females, and would frequently deliver his catch phrase "Grrr... feisty!" in response to any insult or rejection thrown his way by women.

At the very end of the series, he did finally have off-stage sex with Andrea. His surprise at Andrea's acceptance of his modest proposal suggests that his bravado may have been an act all along, after all.

Background Information

Very little was ever revealed about Charles's personal life, as he was a secondary character founded on a stereotype, one of many comic relief devices used in the series (see also characters Kevin Thompson, Brittany Taylor). His mother only appeared once in the entire series (in "Legends of the Mall"), and this was a faux flashback to illustrate an urban legend of Lawndale. The character portrayed as Upchuck's mother may or may not bear any resemblance to Upchuck's "real" mother and was never given a name in any case.

From the "III" attached to his name, and from The Daria Diaries, we do know that his father's name was Charles. In Malled, there is the implication that his father is rich.

There are a couple of indications that Upchuck was smart, at least in some senses. He secured entrance to Brittany's party in The Invitation by helping Brittany dissect her frog. He is capable of constructing a maze for a trained mouse, and proves to be a capable blackmailer and manipulator of Brittany, in The Lab Brat. (From how well he handled the mouse and Brittany, it can be inferred that Upchuck has a gift for manipulating small-brained mammals.) Finally, some talent with computers (and again with manipulating small-brained mammals), is pretty-clearly implied in Prize Fighters.

There is every reason to think that Upchuck's nickname was intended to be a reference to his repulsive manner.

Upchuck in Fanfiction

• For a long time, Upchuck was portrayed as slime in Daria fanfics. In recent years, however, a different theme has emerged that expands upon his native intelligence and wide range of interests. Some stories have even shipped Upchuck with Daria, and made it work.

• Evidence for Upchuck's brain power is present, though often ignored. The Daria Diaries reveals that he maintains his own website (Ultrasuave Universe, at www.ultrasuave.com) with extensive information on topics like Jerry Lewis, the Three Stooges, Monty Python, "hot babes" throughout history, favorite jokes, and comic books.

• Upchuck's antics are usually played upon for laughs in fanfiction; however, the Falling Into College found Upchuck's activities crossing over into criminal affairs, as the character was found to be a long-time stalker of Daria's, with many videotapes and photographs of her during her last year at Lawndale High and of her return visits during her first two years at Raft University. After being arrested for his activities, Upchuck was finally incarcerated after attempting to 'jump bail' and travel to Boston to find Daria; he did this after breaking into Schloss Morgendorffer and finding that Daria had not returned for Thanksgiving break.

• Some fanfiction has presented the hypothesis of Tom Sloane and Charles knowing each other: either Charles had frequented Fielding Preparatory School, or their respective families had met, due to both of them being a degree up the social scale than Daria and her classmates.

• In the Legion of Lawndale Heroes universe, the Charles Ruttheimer there (who is only rarely referred to as 'Upchuck' anymore) has developed into possibly the most well-rounded version of teh character in the Daria Multiverse. He has responded very well to the physical and academic training that he has recieved as a Legionnaire, as well as evolved beyond the need for his high-school personality. He is considered the smartest Legionnaire (with the exception of Jodie Landon, who was only considered academically superior to Charles at Lawndale High because of her voluminous load of extracurricular activities during her high school career, and whose metahuman powers give her hyper-intelligence), and the Legionnaire who has most benebitted from joining the Legion. This Charles still enjoys all of the things he was involved in before his Legion life (his infatuation with all things Three Stooges and James Bond, his fast-food merchandise collectables, and his interest in online role-playing games), but also has allowed himself to expand his horizons. Ashe has become more well-rounded, he has also finally had his 'growth spurt', and now stands just over six feet in height. He has an unusual quality that (to the dismay and utter disbelief of the female Legionnaires) makes him quite interesting to many young women; he has begun to enjoy this attention, and has recently begin dating Langston Chambers. (Because of the fact that Langston lives in Alaska, they have decided to not become too serious.) He has also come under the interested eyes of Tainn Reynolds, Chandni Kaur, and Elsie Sloane.

• Also, some fan works have presented the theme of Charles having a crush on Daria. This is fundamented from Upchuck's web page in Daria Diaries, in which it can be seen a 'women of mistery' blackened, bu whose profile is obviously Daria. This has either been played innocentely and romantically (e.g. Identity Crisis by Yori Daoren) or with darker tones (Falling Into College serial, by Richard Lobinske)

Trivia

• The only time Charles was ever successful at "picking up" a girl was in the Daria movie finale, Is It College Yet? In the final scene of the movie, he tried one of his suave pick-up lines on fellow student Andrea, and she nonchalantly accepted. He seemed very surprised, but took advantage of the opportunity right away. This was unusual on Andrea's part, considering her comment to him in Fair Enough: "Don't touch me, you Howdy-Doody-looking creep."
• He was one of only two characters on the show with an actual catch phrase, in the traditional sense of the word. (The other was Jake Morgendorffer, whose catch phrase was "Dammit!"/"Gaddammit!"). Other characters had recurring mannerisms (i.e. Tiffany's slowed speech and easy distraction, Mr. O'Neill's frightened squeals).
• Charles "Upchuck" Ruttheimer III was voiced by actor Marc Thompson, who also gave voice to Anthony DeMartino, Timothy O'Neill, and Kevin Thompson.
• He drives a Volvo sedan.

External Links

• January 2006 interview with Anne D. Bernstein on DVDaria, in which the creator of Upchuck is revealed