25 Best Cartoon Characters with Big, Buck Teeth

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Plus, why buck teeth are associated with different cartoon stereotypes
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Buck teeth are a fascinating character trope in media. On one hand, they’re associated with bumbling goofballs who never finished school, but on the other, they’re also supposed to be a sign that someone is a total nerd who never lifts their nose out of a book. In this article, we’re going to take a look at the most interesting and recognizable buck-toothed characters (and even take a look at where the stereotypes behind buck teeth come from).

Cartoon Character with Buck Teeth

An illustration of various cartoon characters who are known for their buck teeth, including SpongeBob SquarePants, Bugs Bunny, Tow Mater, and Sid.

“Buck teeth” refers to a common dental condition where your two front teeth stick out. It’s a trait commonly associated with nerds, rural Americans, and the British. Some of the most iconic buck-toothed characters include SpongeBob SquarePants, Bugs Bunny, Tow Mater, and Sid.

1

SpongeBob (SpongeBob SquarePants)

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  1. Alongside his rectangular shape and absurdist love of kitchen work, SpongeBob’s buck teeth are probably his most defining characteristic. In fact, there’s even an entire episode surrounding the gap in his buck teeth being closed, which turns him into “CoolBob.”
    • SpongeBob’s buddy, Patrick, also has a single buck tooth. He didn’t make our list, though—the tooth isn’t prominent enough and only appears every once in a while.
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2

Bugs Bunny (Looney Tunes)

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  1. It feels a little bit like cheating because rabbits naturally have buck teeth in the wild (they have additional incisors in front to help tear through vegetable stalks), but Bugs really does have some iconic buck teeth! He even highlights his buck teeth every time he leans against a wall and chomps on a carrot.
3

Mater (Cars)

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  1. When we embarked on this endeavor, none of us thought an automobile would be cracking the top of a list about teeth, but here we are. Tow Mater is the lovable rural rube who helps Lightning McQueen chase his dreams. His grill has a distinctly toothy smile that really helps round out his hillbilly character.
    • Why are buck teeth associated with rural characters? There’s a historical bias that medical care in the rural South isn’t as good as it is elsewhere. A lack of dental care has come to stand in as a symbol of a rural upbringing, but there’s no evidence Southerners actually have worse dental habits.[1]
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4

Sid (Ice Age)

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  1. Sid is an adventurous and disaster-prone ground sloth with a colossal neck, huge wide-set eyes, and two adorable buck teeth. Sid’s buck teeth are weirdly true to the real world. The now-extinct giant ground sloth had teeth that would never stop growing throughout the animal’s life.[2] We’re not sure if they really had weird pebble eyes and a habit of falling down, though.
5

Abby Mallard (Chicken Little)

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  1. Abby is a secondary character from 2005’s Chicken Little. She’s a fun-loving and supportive duck who later goes on to become Chicken Little’s girlfriend. She’s a lovable nerd with a cute, toothy smile that will melt your heart.
    • Why are buck teeth associated with nerdy characters? This is actually kind of a funny phenomenon. In evolutionary terms, you have to make up for physical shortcomings with intelligence. This is why geeks are often depicted with glasses, or viewed as unathletic—human beings instinctually associate lower physical traits with higher intellectual traits. The buck teeth are just an extension of that.[3]
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6

Nigel (The Wild Thornberrys)

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  1. Nigel is the patriarch of the Thornberry family, and boy, is his character design a lot to look at. He’s got a giant moustache, a huge honker, tiny, beady eyes, and buck teeth so shiny you could see your reflection in them. Oh, and he’s very British.
    • Why are buck teeth associated with the British? This comes from a widespread belief that the United Kingdom has worse dental care than the United States, so American media often depict British characters with less-than-ideal teeth. Weirdly enough, there is some truth to this one. Braces are much less common in England, while almost every American child gets them. On top of that, British health services don’t cover cosmetic dental stuff. So, Americans do tend to have straighter teeth on average.[4]
7

Goofy (Mickey Mouse)

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  1. He’s clumsy, he’s silly, he’s full of laughter, and he has cute little buck teeth. Goofy is one of the primary characters in Disney’s Mickey Mouse universe, and he even got his own (very, very good) movie—A Goofy Movie. He’s a real sweetheart and a testament to the lovability of some adorable buck teeth.
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8

Richard (The Amazing World of Gumball)

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  1. The second animated rabbit to make our list, Richard is the father of the Watterson household (despite his kids not being rabbits, but we don’t know what’s going on there). He’s a big guy with a heart of gold and the stomach of a competitive eater.
9

Sandy (SpongeBob SquarePants)

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  1. SpongeBob may steal the buck tooth headlines in the show, but Sandy has a beautiful pair of chompers, too. Like rabbits and sloths, squirrels have teeth that never stop growing, so it makes sense that an anthropomorphic squirrel would have buck teeth. At least it makes more sense than the astronaut costume, living underwater, or doing karate.
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10

Donkey (Shrek)

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  1. Voiced by the hilarious Eddie Murphy, Donkey is the goofy, whimsical foil to Shrek’s curmudgeon. While we’re calling him buck-toothed, he actually has pretty normal teeth for a donkey. In fact, the phrase “donkey teeth” comes from the fact that donkeys naturally have large, protruding teeth.
11

Olaf (Frozen)

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  1. Since Olaf is made out of snow, are his teeth also made out of snow? If they are, how does he eat with him? In any case, Olaf has some pretty stellar chompers. Well…chomper. He’s probably the only well-known buck-toothed character with a single large tooth instead of 2 or more teeth sticking out.
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12

Gretchen (Recess)

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  1. Gretchen Grundler is the brains of the operation in her Recess crew. Her intellect is mirrored in her character design; she has big, round glasses, an archetypally nerdy outfit, and two big buck teeth that stick out when she smiles.
13

Pinky (Pinky & the Brain)

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  1. Pinky and the Brain are two lab rats who are on a mission to take over the world. The Brain is the brains of the operation (get it?), and Pinky is the lovable, clumsy valet who follows him around and occasionally breaks something by accident. Pinky’s got a couple of buck teeth to signal that he’s the goofball out of the two.
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14

Kathy (Finding Nemo)

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  1. She’s definitely a minor character, but Kathy’s moments are so memorable that it’s hard not to include her. In the first film, she’s the character with the iconic line, "Oh, my gosh! Nemo's swimming out to sea!" In the sequel, she has a few scenes where she freaks out about Mr. Ray coming back from migration. Her character model is super interesting—she’s a narrow-faced triggerfish with two large teeth.[5]
    • Do fish have teeth? Yes! Most fish do have teeth, although they rarely look like human teeth. In fact, trigger fish are one of the only fish species this doesn’t apply to, and many of them look like they have buck teeth IRL!
15

Buster (Arthur)

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  1. Arthur’s best friend, Buster, is another anthropomorphic rabbit with buck teeth. There’s a funny character design choice with Buster, too—the showrunners gave him a voracious appetite, so the big teeth sort of line up nicely with that.
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16

Daggett and Norbert (The Angry Beaver)

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  1. Daggett and Norbert are the main characters of the show. They’re beavers, so the big buck teeth make sense. Norbert is the fun-loving, clever one, while Daggett is much angrier than his brother.
17

Butt-Head(Beavis and Butt-Head)

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  1. A lot of people think Beavis has buck teeth, but he’s actually just got a really bad underbite. Butt-Head is the one with the subtle buck teeth. The two of them aren’t particularly known for their quick wits, and the bad teeth are another extension of that whole “people who aren’t smart don’t get dental care” trope.
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18

Scrat (Ice Age)

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  1. Scrat doesn’t technically have buck teeth. He’s based on saber-toothed squirrels, a prehistoric and extinct animal with a long snout and two distinctive fangs (yes, that’s a real animal that existed). But Scrat gives such buck-toothed vibes that we’re counting the saber-teeth as buck teeth for all intents and purposes.
19

Mabel Pines (Gravity Falls)

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  1. Mabel Pines is the rare character who has both buck teeth and braces. Her toothy smile really adds to her charm, though—it’s hard to imagine Mabel not smiling ear-to-ear with those giant chompers sticking out.
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20

Helga Pataki (Hey Arnold!)

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  1. Helga is the antagonist-turned-bully-turned-secret-lover of Arnold, the show’s titular character. Her unibrow, wacky pigtails, giant bow, and buck teeth really give her an intimidating texture as a character, but it all somehow just works.
21

Ed (Ed, Edd n Eddy)

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  1. Another example of the “not smart” = “bad teeth” trope, Ed is the tall, silly, and not very bright member of the trio. He’s got a really delightful accent, too. He kind of sing-songs his way through dialogue with this frumpy, throaty voice.
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22

Sadness (Inside Out)

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  1. Sadness doesn’t spend a lot of time smiling, so there aren’t a ton of opportunities to take a gander at her teeth, but she does indeed have two little buck teeth. It’s a kind of lovely character design choice, giving the metaphor for sadness an imperfect smile.
23

Larry the Cucumber (VeggieTales)

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  1. Larry the Cucumber is one of the two main characters in the religious children’s show, VeggieTales. They sing songs, they learn life lessons, and they bask in the afterglow of Larry’s incredibly vertical and prominent teeth.
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24

Chuckie (Rugrats)

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  1. Chuckie Finster is kind of a classic example of a character where the buck teeth signal something important. He’s the “nerdy” kid in the group, so naturally he has to have glasses and buck teeth! Luckily, he’s also an infant, so the odds he’ll get the buck teeth corrected at some point are high.
25

Harold (Hey Arnold!)

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  1. Harold actually doesn’t technically have a buck tooth. By definition, buck teeth can only occur with the top teeth. But, he has this prominent tooth sticking out of his bottom jaw that kind of reads like a buck tooth. It’s interesting that just by moving the protruding tooth from the top to the bottom, the character goes from reading as “nerdy” to intimidating and scary; Harold is the oft-bully of the show.
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References

  1. ↑ https://now.tufts.edu/2018/03/07/cartoons-and-stereotypes
  2. ↑ https://www.vice.com/en/article/today-some-guy-carrying-a-satchel-of-sloth-teeth-sat-next-to-me/
  3. ↑ https://www.secretorum.life/p/the-genetic-origins-of-the-nerd-stereotype
  4. ↑ https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BritishTeeth
  5. ↑ https://pixar.fandom.com/wiki/Kathy

About This Article

Eric McClure
Co-authored by:
Eric McClure
wikiHow Staff Writer
This article was co-authored by wikiHow staff writer, Eric McClure. Eric McClure is an editing fellow at wikiHow where he has been editing, researching, and creating content since 2019. A former educator and poet, his work has appeared in Carcinogenic Poetry, Shot Glass Journal, Prairie Margins, and The Rusty Nail. His digital chapbook, The Internet, was also published in TL;DR Magazine. He was the winner of the Paul Carroll award for outstanding achievement in creative writing in 2014, and he was a featured reader at the Poetry Foundation’s Open Door Reading Series in 2015. Eric holds a BA in English from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and an MEd in secondary education from DePaul University.
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Updated: February 26, 2026
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