Shaggy

Shaggy in "Jake of Hearts"

A silent background character in Daria who has an uncanny resemblance to Shaggy Rogers of the Scooby-Doo cartoon show, hence the nickname. One source says the character's name for production purposes was Boy Teen 8. In "Cafe Disaffecto," a seating chart is shown in Mr. O'Neill's hands, according to which Shaggy is actually named Dewey. For consistency, however, the more commonly used nickname will be used here. (Do not confuse with the Daria fan artist known as Beatnik Shaggy.)

Shaggy appears in the very first Daria episode, "Esteemsters," at the back of the small group of new students that Principal Li is showing around Lawndale High. Daria and Quinn are at the front of the group. This implies that he, too, was a new student and was beginning 10th grade there. In "The New Kid," Shaggy is shown working as part of the school yearbook staff. He shares various classes with Daria and Jane.

Shaggy has a curious place in the lore of this fandom, as various episodes appear to show him doing impossible or at least unlikely things. He appears in two places at one time in "The Invitation," and is shown at least three years earlier at a Lawndale High football game, watching Tommy Sherman play, in "The Misery Chick." He watched Kevin Thompson crash his motor scooter and break his leg in "A Tree Grows in Lawndale," is also one of the few eyewitnesses to the falling out between Daria and Jane in a hallway of the school, when Daria admitting kissing Tom Sloane ("Dye! Dye! My Darling").

Shaggy in Fanfic

Despite his peculiarities, Shaggy does not often appear in Daria fanfic, and to date never in major roles. He appears (still mostly in the background) in Richard Lobinske's First Summer story, "Fun on the Fourth," as "Beatnik Shaggy"; in Richard's story "Spelling It Out" as Dewey; and in Canadibrit's "Process of Elimination" as Shaggy.

In Kara Wild's Driven Wild Universe installment, "In Her Own Words," Shaggy has a more prominent role as a character named Vince Rogers, founder of an infamous underground newspaper. Wild named him before the MTV website revealed "Shaggy" as his official name.

External Links

• Shaggy Guy in the Daria Character Database
• Shaggy in Sick, Sad World
• PPMB thread about background characters' names: "BURNOUT GIRL'S REAL NAME!" (For Shaggy/Dewey, look for the entries on August 3, 2005.)

This article is a stub. You can help DariaWiki by expanding it.