Robbie Rotten ( is, Glanni Glæpur, , reckless crime) is a

fictional character In fiction, a character (or speaker, in poetry) is a person or other being in a narrative (such as a novel, Play (theatre), play, Radio series, radio or television series, music, film, or video game). The character may be entirely fictional or b ...

and the main antagonist of the Icelandic children's program '' LazyTown''. He is also the series' primary

comic relief Comic relief is the inclusion of a humorous character, scene, or witty dialogue in an otherwise serious work, often to relieve tension. Definition Comic relief usually means a releasing of emotional or other tension resulting from a comic epis ...

character. He is a ruthless, selfish and lazy, yet goofy, eccentric and silly supervillain, and the

arch-nemesis In literature, an archenemy (sometimes spelled as arch-enemy) is the main enemy of someone. In fiction, it is a character who is the protagonist's, commonly a hero's, most prominent and most-known enemy. Etymology The word ''archenemy'' sometim ...

of the series' main protagonists, Sportacus and

Stephanie Stephanie is a female name that comes from the Greek name Στέφανος (Stephanos) meaning "crown". The male form is Stephen. Forms of Stephanie in other languages include the German "Stefanie", the Italian, Czech, Polish, and Russian " ...

, who promote exercise, healthy eating and an active and healthy lifestyle. As for Robbie, his favorite pastimes include eating

junk food "Junk food" is a term used to describe food that is high in calories from sugar and/or fat, and possibly also sodium, but with little dietary fiber, protein, vitamins, minerals, or other important forms of nutritional value. It is also known ...

and watching TV. Robbie has fair skin, green-grey eyes, and black hair. He usually wears a two-piece suit of maroon and purple with gold pinstripes, formal shoes, a navy blue shirt with cuffs and cuff links. He is the tallest character. Being extremely lazy, Robbie naturally opposes their attempts to spread a healthy influence to the people of LazyTown and employs various schemes, often involving the use of disguises, to discredit healthy living and run Sportacus (whom he refers to as "Sportaflop") out of LazyTown in every episode, although his plans are always foiled in the end. Ironically, Robbie becomes very active when he executes his plans. He was based on his incarnation from the original musical and played by

Stefán Karl Stefánsson Stefán Karl Stefánsson (; ; 10 July 1975 – 21 August 2018) was an Icelandic actor and singer. He was best known for portraying Robbie Rotten, the antagonist of the children's television series '' LazyTown''. Career Stefán Karl's career ...

on the

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television television channel, channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its List of assets owned by Param ...

Cartoonito Cartoonito is a brand name used by Warner Bros. Discovery for a collection of television networks and programming blocks that target preschool-age children. The name combines the "cartoon" with the Spanish suffix "ito", meaning "small". As o ...

/ HBO TV show.

History

In the second Icelandic stage play, the character was called Glanni Glæpur and, when he arrived at the town, he wore a completely black outfit; but, when he was disguised as Rikki Riki (a very wealthy man), he wore a purple coat, purple pants and shoes that are similar to those that Robbie wears in the television series—although at that point he did not yet have his hair covered in gel. In the television series, Robbie Rotten usually wears a two-piece suit of red and purple with gold pinstripes, formal shoes, a navy blue shirt with cuffs and cuff links, blue and red striped socks and black shoes with black soles. Robbie Rotten's song "You Are a Pirate" was Stefán Karl's favorite song on the show to perform. Since 2007, the lyric "Do what you want 'cause a pirate is free, you are a pirate" became an oft-quoted meme in YouTube Poop and

hacker A hacker is a person skilled in information technology who uses their technical knowledge to achieve a goal or overcome an obstacle, within a computerized system by non-standard means. Though the term ''hacker'' has become associated in popu ...

culture, most often in reference to online piracy via

LimeWire LimeWire was a free peer-to-peer file sharing client for Windows, MacOS, Linux and Solaris. Created by Mark Gorton in 2000, it was most prominently a tool used for the download and distribution of pirated materials, particularly pirated musi ...

. Around 2016, Robbie Rotten rose to internet fame through the song " We Are Number One". The

Reddit Reddit (; stylized in all lowercase as reddit) is an American social news news aggregator, aggregation, Review site#Rating site, content rating, and Internet forum, discussion website. Registered users (commonly referred to as "Redditors") subm ...

forum r/dankmemes voted Robbie Rotten "Meme of the Year" in 2016. On August 21, 2018, his actor

died of bile duct cancer at the age of 43.

References

{{LazyTown Television characters introduced in 2004 Fictional singers LazyTown Internet memes Internet memes introduced in 2016 Film and television memes Fictional Icelandic people Theatre characters introduced in 1999