Virgil "Bull" Sharkowski is the main antagonist of the Cartoon Network series My Gym Partner's a Monkey. He is the school bully of Charles Darwin Middle School, seen as the most feared and threatening bully by all the other students of CDMS, even reigning superior to the teachers and principal.
He was voiced by Phil LaMarr.
Biography[]
Bull's first appearance was "Shark Attack", where he was first established as a villain to Adam Lyon. Adam unwisely didn't listen to any of the warnings his friends gave about him, and tried befriending Bull, by offering him some of his lunch. This gave Bull the opportunity to eat all of his lunch and keep coming back for it day after day, like a bear. After a solid week of this, Adam tried standing up to Bull, but when he tried to attack, he slipped in a puddle of mayonnaise and as he fell, slapped Bull in the snout, causing minor pain to his body. Even though this was completely weak and non-threatening, the other students of CDMS flipped over this, thinking that Adam had stood up to Bull. In turn, people feared Adam and treated him like a bully. Bull was also no longer feared and would constantly stepped on and mistreated by other students, not having anything to fear about him. Bull hated his new life, since nobody respected him, and Adam hates his, since nobody wanted to be his friend. Fortunately for both of them, Bull slipped in mayonnaise and lightly tapped Adam on the arm. Adam took advantage of this, by pretending Bull gave him a beating, giving Bull his social status back, which of course, meant Adam went back to getting his lunch taken away from him again, a lesser of two evils, he could live with.
In "One Lump or Tutor", it was revealed that Bull Sharkowski had an older sister named Euripides, who was far more dominant than he was. Euripides used to go to CDMS, before graduating and at that time, she was the one in charge. Her leaving, allowed Bull to become the new bully, but he still hated being reminded of her. Students and teachers who'd bring up her name, would get a personal pummeling from him, which was only hiding his deep-rooted sadness and shameful feeling of inferiority. When Euripides paid the school a little visit, she left Bull in tears, after simply insulting him and coming at him with verbal attacks, not using any physical violence at all.
He briefly appeared in the Cartoon Network Invaded cross-through episode, "That Darn Platypus", where he had his atoms obliterated by Windsor's particle decelerator.
In "Hygiene Hijinks", Bull became a good guy, once his braces were removed and he began having straight, white teeth. Because of him being beautiful now, he no longer felt the need to be mean anymore. However, this all stopped when Bull's next row of teeth came in and he went back to his normal, hideous self again.
Appearance[]
Bull Sharkowski is a big blue anthropomorphic tweenage male bull shark. Despite being a 12-year-old, Bull is rather developed for his age, being big, strong, and towering over the other students at CDMS, matching only the elephants in stature. He also has a ton of inconsistently unshaven facial hair that grows in patches around his chin and upper lip. He has angry eyes with angry black eyebrows, a big snout, really big sharp teeth held in place by his braces. He wears a pair of clear headphones made of other plastic or glass that's filled with water. He wears the headphones over his gills to help him breathe when he's on land. He also wears a black t-shirt with a picture of a shark's frowning mouth on it that resembles the mouth position of Bruce from the iconic movie poster from Jaws. He wears no pants shoes as they would not function well on his tail, which he walks on.
Personality[]
Bull Sharkowski enjoys beating up smaller kids and stealing their lunches. His intimidating presence, however, is offset by a high-pitched, squeaky voice, (which is said by many fans, to sound like Mike Tyson), that sometimes lessens the impact of his verbal threats. Despite being a bully, he also has a soft humane side that he doesn't usually realize he's revealing.
Villainous Acts[]
- In "Shark Attack", Slips mentioned that he used to bully a kid named Chucky Seal, so much, that it forced him to leave the school and move to another town. In search of a new primary victim, Bull started harassing Adam, stealing his lunch enough times to make him starve.
- In "Political Animals", he was school president for two years running, and would have been unopposed his third year, if not for Adam running against him. Other kids were afraid to do the same, since he'd threaten to mutilate anyone who dares go against him, which Adam dared to take his chances with. Bull dominated Principal Pixiefrog, and got him to do everything in his favor, making him immune to any real punishment for his bullying, as well as giving him unfair advantages in the debate speeches he ran.
- In "The Sheds", he blamed his bullying problem on Slips shedding his skin.
- In "The "A" Word", Adam bumped into Bull, so he not only beat him up, but also took his autographed poster from him and when he got it back, it was torn apart and vandalized.
- In "Hygiene Hijinks", Jake mentioned that he once went on a rampage, which he and the other students called "The Running of the Bull", which was famous for being one of his worst and most barbaric moments. "The Running of the Bull, Act 2" would happen at the end of the episode.
- In "Shark Fin Soupy", he lost his headphones, to Soupy Baskington, an oblivious whaleshark, who couldn't get them off his head. Despite Soupy's many claims that he held no ill-will toward Bull, he still got repeatedly beaten to a pulp at the end of the episode.
Trivia[]
- Due to being an aquatic species, he wears water-filled headphones over his gills to help him breathe; when he talks, he'll stop as his gills suck up the water with a loud noise.
- His nickname is a mildly obscure reference to the fact that bull sharks are known to be the most aggressive of all shark species.
Gallery[]
