Christine DePoulet is a character in the Hamster & Gretel episode "The Bantam of the Elementary School Light Opera". She was a student at Eastside High School, who played the lead role of the Viking Queen in the school's original production of The Vikings of Venzance in the mid-1990s, but went missing that same night after the play. Since the Eastside Bantam put a "curse" on the school that very same day, after it was swiftly and unwillingly retired in favor of the Eastside Plumber, many students put the blame on the Bantam for Christine's disappearance.
In reality, Christine ran away on her own volition. After a bad case of stage fright, she hid under the school stage, and after finding the bantam costume there, she started a new life as the Bantam of the Opera, ruining school plays for nearly 25 years straight due to never receiving the applause she deserved. After Gretel helped her overcome her stage fright during Hiromi's production of The Vikings of Venzance, Christine has retired her role as the Bantam of the Opera and works for Frank's Discounted Discount Costumes as its mascot since.
Physical appearance[]
Christine DePoulet is a fair-skinned woman with strawberry blonde hair, a pink lower lip, and a sharp hook nose, reminiscent of a chicken's beak. She has a long ponytail, held up with an indigo-colored hair clamp, creating a downwards bun in the process. This makes the ponytail not only resemble a rooster's tail, but also reminiscent of her hairstyle when she was a teenager, in which she had a short ponytail. She also wears earrings shaped like egg splatters. It is unknown what outfit she wears under the bantam costume, aside from a reddish shirt with a blue collar, barely visible from the costume's head hole.
Her teenage appearance is very similar, having the same skin color, hair color and nose shape, but no pink lips. Her ponytail is also shorter and held up on the head higher with an indigo hair tie. She also wears earrings shaped like (unharmed) chicken eggs, as well as a pinkish shirt. It is unknown what else she wore, as the only known photo of her in her regular attire is from the head's up.
History[]
Background[]
Christine has suffered from a bad stage fright during The Vikings of Venzance.
Christine DePoulet was an Eastside high school students in the 1990s, who would star in the then-current school play production of The Vikings of Venzance. However, on opening night, as the cannon sounded to summon the Viking Queen, Christine froze in stage fright, shedding tears as she was completely petrified in front of a full audience. Afterwards, she ran away in shame, hiding in the basement under the school theater basement, located under the stage. There, she found an abandoned bantam costume, the same as the one used for the Eastside Bantam mascot, who was replaced by the Eastside Plumber earlier that day. Adapting the bantam costume and making the basement her new lair and home, Christine started a new life, becoming the Bantam of the Opera to ruin future school plays because she never got the applause she deserved, figuring that if she couldn't have it, no one else should, either. This lifestyle change and newfound goal coincided pretty well with the Bantam having "cursed" the school earlier that day, and therefor people blaming the Bantam for Christine's disappearance the following day.
Christine had also found a cardboard cutout of a hunky man in her newfound lair, deciding it to be her husband and dubbing him Jerry. It is unknown whether she found Jerry around the same time as the bantam costume or much later, and it is also unknown when they "married".
Season 1[]
In "The Bantam of the Elementary School Light Opera", Christine, as the Bantam, was as determined as with any other play to ruin Hiromi's production of The Vikings of Venzance. While it is unknown if she tampered with the cannon in order for it to fire a dud during rehearsals (causing Miranda to quit the play as the Viking Queen), Christine was indeed responsible for two other incidents. One was when Bailey and several other students were wearing harnesses attached to ropes so they could "float around" (due to the play being set in space now after the production team received the wrong costumes), Christine messed with the rope controls to have the students precariously swing around the set. Gretel was able to spot her in her Bantam costume before shining a blinding spotlight on her to disappear.
The second time was right before opening night, as Gretel, Hamster and Kevin spotted her as the Bantam, making a mess backstage and taking the cannon prop through the vent. Hamster Gretel chased her through the vent and found themselves in her lair, where she warns the superheroes through microphone to leave her abode, before Hamster revealed her hiding spot by pulling the curtain in front of it. She trips in surprise, as her true identity was revealed right in front of Hamster and Gretel.
After Christine explained her backstory, Gretel related to her fear of being on stage (as Gretel had a traumatic incident on stage as well), and offered her to join her and face their fears together. Christine initially refused, claiming that she's doing fine in her current situation. However, after accidentally firing the prop cannon and hitting a support beam, causing the basement to crumble down, Christine ultimately conceded and asked Gretel to take her back to the surface. While Hamster saved her "husband" Jerry, Gretel and Christine appeared on stage just in time for the cue of the Viking Queen, as the two concluded the play together.
Having faced her fear, Christine decided to abandon her lifestyle as the Bantam of the Opera, but had no clue what kind of job she could get as an attention-starved misfit what only has had a grade school education. She has since become a mascot of Frank's Discounted Discount Costumes, still wearing the bantam outfit.
Gallery[]
List of appearances[]
- "The Bantam of the Elementary School Light Opera" (First appearance)