The Eastside Bantam, also known as the Bantam of the Opera, often referred to as simply the Bantam, is the former mascot of the Eastside High School sports team, then called the Eastside Bantams. First seen in "The Bantam of the Elementary School Light Opera", it takes the appearance of a bantam, which is a small, aggressive chicken.
It has continued being the mascot of the school until the mid-90s, when it was being replaced by the Eastside Plumber. The Bantam supposedly cursed the school in response and left. Since then, all of the school's play productions have been a disaster, which people began to blame the Curse of the Bantam for.
Physical appearance[]
The Bantam in its last moments of glory.
True to its name, the Eastside Bantam appears as an anthropomorphic, white bantam rooster. The Bantam has a fluffy red comb and long, red tailfeathers, as well as a wide smiling beak with red nostrils, large eyes that look in different directions, and orange, striped legs. The inside of its open beak has speaker holes, patterned in a circle, which chicken noises can come out of. Its eyelids are also articulated in a way that they can close. The blank T-shirt it wears is light green, which was actually the secondary color of the Eastside Bantams, with their primary color being orange.
History[]
Background[]
The Bantam, as it inflicts a "curse" upon the school.
While currently unknown when the Eastside Bantam was implemented, it continued being the Eastside High School mascot prior to being replaced by the Eastside Plumber in the mid-1990s. It apparently did not take the sudden change well, as it "put a curse" on the school (visualized by it taking Eastside Plumber merchandise and piercing a feather through it) and left.
That same night, a student named Christine DePoulet, who had starred in the school's first production of The Vikings of Venzance, had disappeared, and since then, every school play had gone wrong in some fashion. Neither Christine nor the Bantam were ever seen again prior to the events of "The Bantam of the Elementary School Light Opera", so people began to believe the Curse of the Bantam was real.
Season 1[]
The school paper article detailing Christine's disappearance, and the Bantam being blamed for it.
In "The Bantam of the Elementary School Light Opera", the Curse of the Bantam was first mentioned by Fred, after Hiromi's production of The Vikings of Venzance with the students of the Eastside Elementary School suffered from some difficulties during rehearsal, including losing Miranda as the Viking Queen. Fred tells what she knows about the urban legend, which is afterwards dismissed by Hiromi as a silly myth. After everyone has decided that Gretel should replace Miranda (to which Gretel reluctantly agrees due to her disastrous past experience with a school play), rehearsal continues.
The Bantam uses a blinding spotlight so it can disappear in front of Gretel.
Another thing goes wrong during rehearsal, as Bailey and the other students are being flung all over the place while wearing harnesses attached to a rope. As Gretel goes backstage, she actually spots the Bantam messing with the rope movements, before it shines a spotlight on her and disappears. She reports to the others that she has seen the Bantam, but claim is dismissed as part of Gretel's nervousness when Fred discovers faulty wiring in the ceiling.
The nightmare Bantam, about to activate a trap door.
The Bantam, disguised as Kevin, also appears in a nightmare Gretel is having. After Gretel is being humiliated in her ham costume, the Bantam removes its disguise and pulls a lever, activating a trap door beneath Gretel, as the nightmare ends on her falling through it.
At the night of the performance, minutes before it begins, both Gretel and Kevin spot the Bantam again backstage, as it's aggressively messing with props, and flees through the vent while taking the cannon prop. Hamster and Gretel go after the Bantam in their superhero guises, as Kevin is chosen to be the replacement cannon. Following the vent system, Gretel appears inside the Bantam's lair, under the school theater, where they discover the wearer of the Bantam costume was Christine DePoulet.
The Bantam of the Opera is revealed to be none other than Christine DePoulet.
In truth, Christine had adapted the Bantam costume after suffering from stage fright during her performance in The Vikings of Venzance in the mid-90s, and begun a new life as the Bantam of the Opera ever since. Gretel understands what Christine had been going through, and decides that both of them should confront their fears together. Christine initially refuses, but as her lair begins to collapse, she concedes.
As Gretel and Christine successfully finish The Vikings of Venzance together, Christine has decided to retire her role as the Bantam of the Opera, but as she has become a misfit with only grade school education, kept the costume as she has become the Bantam mascot for Frank's Discounted Discount Costumes.
List of appearances[]
- "The Bantam of the Elementary School Light Opera" (First appearance)
- "I Was a Teenage Mad Scientist" (Pictured)