Dan

Appearance
Dan is the titular character of the show. He is a short-stacked man in his 30s, has green eyes, black hair (with a noticeable retreating hairline) and a black goatee. His outfit consists of a black t-shirt with the word ‘Jerk’ in white bold capital letters, blue jeans and black leather shoes, resembling ankle boots.

Youth
He first met his childhood friend Chris at a summer camp, where they were subjected to poor treatment by the camp leader and older campers. Their friendship continued into high school, where they were classmates. Dan remembers this time for being ridiculed by the other teens, while he was bullying Chris. His former classmates actually fondly remember his pranks on them, which included exploding chemical mixtures or letting scorpions loose on prom night.

Career
Dan’s career after school is unknown. It is clear that, at the time of the show, he is unemployed and always short on money. He is only able to keep a job for a few days in Chris’ workplace, a call center, where he becomes ‘Temp of the week’ and the demonic bosses’ favorite. However, when the boss asks him to get rid of Chris to prove Dan’s loyality to her, he decides to banish her to the fiery realm she came from. (S3E3) This ends his career until the end of the show.



Adulthood
Dan lives in a rundown neighborhood in North Hollywood, LA, on the second floor of an apartment complex called ‘Casa Paradisio’(Spanish for Paradise Home) where parking spaces are rare. He drives a red car of an ‘offbrand Filipino model’. His car has been broken in some way nearly every episode, but restored to normal in the next one.

Supposed Age
Dan’s age can only be estimated by assuming the time the episode showing his drivers license first aired is correspondent to the time in the real world, which was in 2013. According to Dan’s drivers license, which lists his birthday on October 31th, 1975, he is 38 at that time.

Height
Dan is the only character we know the exact height of, so we could only determine the height of the other characters through his measurements.

Dan's height is stated on his driver's license as 5'6, but due to his slouch(especially compared to other characters very straight necks and shoulders) his actual standing height is closer to 5'2 or 5'3.,

Family
We learn that Dan absolutely despises his mother (S3E1) and got into some rough arguments with his grandma, who passes away during the series, which allows Dan to get his hands on her famous devilled egg recipe (S2E1, the recipe, 'almost').

Mr. Mumbles
Dan rescued a cat from an animal shelter, who he named Mr. Mumbles, unaware of her gender. This is later revealed to him by a homeless man, who shoves her into his face, belly first, supposedly so he could take a closer look. He frequently talks to her – certain, that she understands his every word. He shares his sparse food with her (sandwiches, pizza etc.), holds and cuddles her frequently. He can’t stay mad at her, even though she scratches his face when scared.

Dennis
When Dan decides he wants to adopt a child to prove his superior parenting skills, he picks Dennis, who he shares a lot of traits with. However due to Dan's criminal records and a dispute with an other potential family, Dan is not able to take him in.



Chris
Dan is very fond of Chris’ company, even when he doesn’t really need his assistance. He will go to all lengths to spend time with Chris and to have him for himself. Commonly he will call him to come over to his apartment to help out with his plots or drops by Chris’ place without prior notice. He will even drag Chris around while unconscious (S1E5). Despite his affection, he takes advantage of Chris for money, shelter, human shield, work force and as a chauffeur.

Ted
Ted doesn't talk to Dan anymore. There is nothing known about him besides that.

Elise
Dan often expresses how he wishes Elise, Chris’ wife, would leave his friend. He is rude and talks down to her. At one point, he writes her on his revenge list, but crosses her name off because he deems her to be too dangerous. Dan is much more aware of her high-tech contraptions than Chris, however he never questions it. He will only team up with Elise when absolutely necessary and gets in her way from time to time, often while using her weapons without her consent. Dan will always try to take the lead and Elise has to work extra fast to counter his mistakes. While Dan definitely doesn't consider Elise a friend (and the other way around), he will accept her efforts when working for the same cause. Dan actively saves Elise's life at one point in S1E3, while Elise saves Chris and Dan many times.

Prescott Richman III
Dan makes friends with Prescott at the golf club, introducing himself as 'Dan I' (Dan, the First). He refers to Scott as 'P-Man'. They briefly enjoy the perks of being elite class members together, like getting massages and hanging out in a hot tub (S2E7). Dan is impressed by his friend's butler, Nigel and the chores this man does for Prescott. Dan receives a gift from his friens: a set of gold clubs his name on the bag.

Mechanic Mike
In one episode, we learn that Dan’s car is always fixed by Mechanic Mike, a car enthusiast who works for free, as long as Dan pays for the spare parts. This beneficial relation is interrupted by Mechanic Mike ‘borrowing’ parts from Dan’s car, replacing them by common household items like a rubber band or a mixer (S3E4).

Brutus
Dan kept his teddy bear Brutus into adulthood.

Love Interests
During the runtime of the show, Dan falls in love with three women and a sandwich.

Becky Barber

 * As for Becky, we see her on a date with Dan and she agrees to meet him again. While getting a haircut in anticipation, it turns out that her father is the barber and he ruins Dan’s hair completely, causing him to go on a revenge trip on him and at the very end, his daughter, who never wants to see him again after this. (S1E14)

Turkey Sandwich

 * In one episode, he fantasizes about a Turkey Sandwich as his significant other, who leaves him because ‘it’s not working out’ (S1E17).



Hortence Burger

 * The Burgerphile employee Hortence Burger, former last name Lucchesi, caught Dan’s attention, especially after staying by his side while protesting against bad restaurant service. It is clear that she is also impressed by his efforts. While not stated in the show, but by the official Facebook page, Hortence is underage. (link) However, Dan never gets to have a relationship with her, since she leaves the city for a promotion (S1E20). This is followed by her agreeing to marry Mr. Burger, her boss. Dan stops this wedding, but less for moral or legal reasons, but for his own affection towards her. This doesn’t work out in his favor and Hortence is done with him. (S2E9)

Honey O’Houlihan

 * Ms. Honey O’Houlihan, who asks him to help retrieve her stolen cat, Poopsie. It turns out she was a fraud who staged the incident and even took Mr. Mumbles from him in the process, causing Dan to loose interest. (S2E10)

Abby

 * Dan found Abby through a personal ad in a newspaper. She turns out to be casted for 'Fake Date', a hidden camera style reality show (S2E14).

Amber

 * Amber runs an anger management class and goes on revenge quests with Dan, which he interprets as dating, but she is setting him straight that it's not.

Personality and Traits
Dan is quick to anger, over-the-top aggressive, extremely thick-headed, destructive, paranoid, childish and has a wild imagination. He will choose revenge over love (S1E14) and will not stop until he reaches his goal. However, we learn that Dan’s history is so wild with random things happening to him, a lot of his traits are him just trying to overcome his daily obstacles. In every episode, we see him scream out (or at least moan (S2E8)) his revenge target while raising up his arms. Dan has a list of things he wants to take revenge in a storage facility in Sherman Oaks (S3E1), supposedly because it outgrew his apartment. He keeps a box of special memories, containing a hand granade, a gas mask, a drawing of his, and 3D glasses. The box got blown up in the episode it appeared, after Chris his it away and then returned it to Dan (S2E17)). Dan is convinced to have developed a method to raise children, which he calls 'The Dan Method'(S2E15)).

Abilities
His abilities include close combat, fight dancing (S2E4), handling a crowbar, crossbow, as well as bow and arrow (S1E2), building a ballista (S2E3), metalwork (S1E2), chewing himself out of tape and lockers (S3E5), breaking into various buildings, setting up explosives, driving a truck (S3E10), he has a double-jointed left thumb (S1E21) and very specific knowledge of facts (while being oblivious to some common knowledge). He is good with felines: even a saberthooth tiger won’t harm him (S2E10). As for other animals, Dan uses rats (S1E16), cockroaches (S2E3, S3E8) and scorpions (S3E5) as his allies on multiple occasions. He makes friends with a family of raccoons (S1E14). A bat lives under his sink and he doesn’t seem to mind its presence. Dan taught himself to tie his shoes when he was 12 because nobody else would (S1E9) and he can use more code by blinking (S2E14). He is immune to pepper spray; bear mace will only affect him minorly. In contrast to all his strengths, he is lactose intolerant and suffers greatly from consuming milk-based products.

Hobbies
Dan loves watching TV, including court shows (S3E9), horror and sci-fi movies. As a big fan of the ‘Population Control Johnny’ franchise he consumes the comics and movies. Like Chris, he is also into the movie ‘Space Monkeys from Outer Space’ (S2E17). He listens to a radio station which talks about conspiracy theories and it’s quite possible he believes in at least some of them. Despite his displeasure with the government, he votes with pride (S3E7). One of Dan's ongoing struggles is building a jet pack that actually works without exploding (S1E7, S3E11). His best attempt ends up smashing him into a fireworks factory building, which ends up exploding afterwards. In his apartment we see a foosball table, however he confesses to never use it, being more of an air hockey guy (S1E18).

Character Design and Casting
The character is loosely designed after show co-creator Dan Mandel by character designer Chris Battle. He is voiced by actor and voice actor Curtis Armstrong.

Costumes
Disguises and significant other changes to Dan's character model, sorted by time of first appearance.