Glass of OJ, Kiffster?
Martin Chatterley, "Thirst to Be the First"
Martin Chatterley is a supporting character in the series Kiff. He is Kiff Chatterley's father and Beryl Chatterley's husband, who is a freelance inventor.
Profile[]
Martin pitching the double trucker.
Martin Chatterley is Beryl Chatterley's husband and Kiff Chatterley's father, and the three live in their home in suburban Table Town. He is Rose Chatterley and Tom Chatterley's first-born child, and Pat Chatterley's older brother.
Martin is a freelance inventor, which requires him to pitch his product ideas to investors around Table Town. He tends to conceptualize offbeat novelty items, which have been met with little success in attracting investors, although in "No Dad Ideas", Martin manages to sell his idea for a "double trucker" (a double-brimmed trucker hat) to Greg and Linda for one million nuts. As he does not have fixed employment, Martin can often be found staying at home and working on new inventions, as well as looking after Kiff while Beryl is at work.
Appearance[]
Martin struggling with his lawn mower.
Martin is a squirrel with brown fur, a cream underbelly, and a bushy tail lined with a stripe in a darker shade of brown. He has large round eyes with small pupils, a brown oval-shaped nose, as well as a dark brown mustache and a five o'clock shadow. For an adult squirrel, Martin is rather short, being only slightly taller than Kiff and much shorter than his wife, his brother, and both of his elderly parents, as well as barely being able to reach the handle of his own lawn mower.[3]
From season 2 onward, Martin receives a slight redesign, with a more squarish body and his eyes being pushed a little closer to each other.
In a flashback, Martin is shown to have had a head of brown hair as a young adult.[4]
Personality[]
Martin spacing out.
Martin is a dedicated husband and father, with a generally upbeat personality. He can, however, be rather scatterbrained, and thus more susceptible to getting wrapped up in Kiff's escapades – which is established early on in "Thirst to Be the First", where Beryl leaves the message "Kiff is tricking you" on the Chatterleys' refrigerator to remind Martin not to be fooled into letting Kiff sneak out of the house.
Martin also has a notoriously poor memory. When Kiff exploits this trait in "Be Still My Harp" to deal with a magical memory-affecting harp, Martin mentions that this was not always the case, and that he used to participate in trivia nights with Beryl. In "Weekly Grocery Shop", a simple grocery trip becomes complicated when Martin forgets the family's shopping list and struggles to remember what items to buy.
In his childhood, Martin had numerous bad vacation experiences, mostly centered around his failed attempts to get the attention of other tourists while visiting different tourist destinations. He is fond of recounting these "sob stories" to his family (and Barry) while traveling with them to said landmarks, including Bannister Beach in "Beach Day" and Old Punctual in "Kiff Loses Barry". In the latter episode, his attempt to finally execute his childhood plan at Old Punctual causes a huge accident that not only results in Barry being separated from the Chatterleys in the vast desert, but also nearly leads to Martin's arrest.
Martin going over his road trip rules.
Nonetheless, Martin also has a more serious, rigid side to his personality. On family road trips, Martin rigorously enforces road trip rules for cleanliness and safety, which are restrictive to the point that Kiff dreads road trips due to Martin's rules.[5] He can also be rather grouchy, particularly around overly chatty individuals such as his brother Pat, and especially his next-door neighbor the Pone.
Martin runs out of popcorn while watching Smoldering Cove.
Martin has a notably large appetite. He loves Pulp OJ orange juice and becomes annoyed when the Chatterleys run out of it at home.[6] In "Chatterley vs. Chatterley", Beryl suspects Martin of eating her leftover pizza slice, leading him to be tried in "family court", where he is threatened with a lifetime pizza and popcorn ban until Kiff admits to eating the slice. In "Hungee Squirrel", he is hugely disappointed when the Chatterleys lose the chance to enjoy free meals for life at the Hungee Squirrel.
Martin is a devoted fan of the soap opera Smoldering Cove. He is also skilled at ice dancing, a pastime he kept secret until it was exposed at Ghost Wolf's art show in "Ghost Wolf's Art". Furthermore, Martin is an alumnus of an unnamed clown school.[7]
In "Big Coat", Martin briefly attempts to embrace a new look by wearing cowboy clothes, which leads to complications when he is mistaken for an actual cowboy. After receiving a "jaw chewer" as a Father's Day gift from Kiff in "Troubles Wubbington", Martin develops a strong jaw, leading to him being cast in the film Jaw & Order; however, he is later fired when he loses his jaw strength after his jaw chewer breaks, and also for developing diva-like behavior on set, particularly an expensive obsession with sparkling water.
Relationships[]
Kiff Chatterley[]
Martin after receiving some needed motivation from Kiff.
Martin and Kiff have a strong bond with each other. Martin has participated in many adventures with Kiff, and overall tends to be quite lax with her, even moreso than Beryl. Martin has noted that Kiff seemingly inherited her more carefree traits – including procastination – from him.[8]
In "No Dad Ideas", Martin brings Kiff along to a product pitch when he feels that she is unaware of what he does as an inventor. After seeing Martin become overwhelmed by nerves during the pitch, Kiff stages a meeting with an "investor" (in actuality Terri Buns) to boost Martin's confidence, which leads him to spend huge amounts of time and money promoting the double trucker hat. Kiff later represents Martin as his "family court" lawyer in "Chatterley vs. Chatterley".
Kiff and Martin head out to do yardwork.
Kiff shares Martin's love of Smoldering Cove, and in "Soup Opera", they attempt to rescue Miss Deer Teacher when it seems that a plot from the show is playing out in real life. The two also spend quality time weeding their backyard on Saturdays; in "Mushroommates", their procrastination in completing this chore leads to them having to save the yard from invasive biting mushrooms.
When Kiff was younger, Martin would read her "stories before snories", but eventually stopped when Kiff became more demanding about the exact kinds of stories she wanted to hear from him. When Kiff has trouble falling asleep one night in "Stories Before Snories", however, she asks him for a story for the first time in many years.
Beryl Chatterley[]
Martin and Beryl in matching Halloween costumes.
Martin is a devoted husband to Beryl, and he strives to do his best in performing his family responsibilities and other tasks requested of him by Beryl. When Beryl assigns Martin to do the Chatterleys' grocery shopping in "Weekly Grocery Shop", for instance, he pushes himself to complete the task without letting Beryl discover that he once again forgot their shopping list at home, not wanting to disappoint her.
Martin has been shown to side with Beryl over Kiff when it comes to parenting decisions, such as in "You Can't Handle the Tooth!", where he is briefly swayed by Kiff into trying to convince Beryl to let Kiff skip tooth brushing, but cannot bring himself to object further when Beryl puts her foot down on the issue.
In "Roy-alty Check", Beryl and Martin have a trivial disagreement on whether Kiff should use her Found in Ambiguity royalties to repair the roof or the basement, and the two end up trying to outdo each other in spoiling Kiff to sway her to their respective sides.
Pat Chatterley[]
Martin rejecting Pat's help.
When Pat visits Martin, Beryl, and Kiff in "Fun Uncle Pat", Martin not only resents Pat's presence, but is unsympathetic to the news of Pat's homelessness; he lies that there is no room left in the house for Pat, then becomes annoyed at Kiff when she lets Pat stay in her room. Martin afterwards hurts Pat's feelings by snapping at Pat for refilling Martin's coffee mug during breakfast. Eventually, Martin admits that while he loves Pat, he finds Pat's cheerful habits to be extremely annoying; however, he ultimately comes around to Pat after Pat takes him on a free cruise.
During his childhood trips to Bannister Beach with his family, Martin always buried Pat in the sand but never got to be buried himself, and thus never got to be the center of attention, which he remains bitter about to the present day.[9]
By "Uncle Pat in Charge", Martin has grown to consider Pat responsible enough to babysit Kiff while he and Beryl take a trip to attend his clown school reunion. He still shows mild annoyance toward Pat's personality, however, and leaves almost immediately after Pat arrives at the house.
Barry Buns[]
Barry's contact details on Martin's phone.
Being Kiff's best friend, Barry is a familiar presence to Martin, who appreciates his company when he comes over to visit the Chatterleys.
In "Leave a Little Juice", Martin readily goes along with Kiff's plan to avoid telling Barry about his juice-wasting problem in order not to potentially hurt his feelings, which results in Beryl being left to speak to Barry herself.
The Pone[]
Martin annoyed to see the Pone.
Due to his overly chatty and outgoing demeanor, the Pone is a source of great annoyance to Martin, though the animosity is one-sided and the Pone has always viewed Martin as a friend.
Martin has repeatedly turned down the Pone's gestures of kindness, including rudely rejecting a free jug of Pulp OJ from him by slamming the door on him,[6] and later having him removed as a witness in "family court" despite him potentially being able to clear Martin's name.[10] Both times, Martin justifies his behavior with the same brief explanation: "I don't like that guy."
In "OTDR", Martin refuses to leave the house in order to avoid having to converse with the Pone and his girlfriend Cherry Berry outside. When the Pone and Cherry later become engaged in "Here Comes the Wedding Episode", Martin is asked to be the best man at the wedding, in part because Martin's refusal to drive the Pone to the mechanic shop is what led him to meet Cherry at the tram station in the first place. Assuming that the Pone will move away with Cherry once they are married, Martin accepts and even offers to help the Pone plan the wedding, and in the process, he begins to warm up to the Pone. Later, Martin admits in a wedding speech that he has come to realize that the Pone, while annoying, is indeed a good person.
Appearances[]
| Specials | ||||
| Opening sequence: | Non-speaking | |||
| 1. "The Haunting of Miss McGravy's House": | Absent | 2. "Lore of the Ring Light": | Absent | |
Trivia[]
- He goes by the username "SMARTYPRANCE116" on TableToob.[11]
- His and Beryl's credit card number (which Kiff knows, for unexplained reasons) is 70314.[12]
- He and Beryl are members of a thriller-genre book club with Rachel Racona and Robby Racona.[13]
Gallery[]
Click here to view the gallery for Martin Chatterley.
References[]
- ↑ "Kiff Is Good at Sports".
- ↑ "Kiff Loses Barry".
- ↑ "When You Mow, You Mow".
- ↑ "Be Still My Harp".
- ↑ "Road Trip".
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 "Leave a Little Juice".
- ↑ "Uncle Pat in Charge".
- ↑ "Mushroommates".
- ↑ "Beach Day".
- ↑ "Chatterley vs. Chatterley".
- ↑ "Totally Table Town".
- ↑ "Hungee Squirrel".
- ↑ "Slippery Slopes".