College

Dick Emery on College: "His very name suggests that he has had some kind of education, and he seems to have enjoyed a rather different background from the usual down-and-out tramp. The humour of the situation comes from the difference between College's actual status in life, and his refusal to acknowledge his reduced circumstances. He remains a gentleman with cultural pretensions while slumming it with his friend, Droopy. He retains the vestiges of his former life. with his old school tie, battered bowler hat and crumpled buttonhole. And if he met a fellow 'old boy' from his school taking a stroll through the park where College sleeps every night, he would act as though their stations in life were equal, and his misfortunes would become even less real to him."

There is no doubt that the tramp has always been a favourite character of viewers, but this character has always had a strong appeal for comedians as well due to the scope of comedic situations and characterization. Since the days of silent comedies when Charlie Chaplin donned a bowler hat and picked up a walking stick the tramp has always held a special place in the affections of viewers and critics alike. One critic, James Agee, wrote of Chaplin's character: '[He] is as centrally representative of humanity, as many-sided and as mysterious, as Hamlet, and it seems unlikely that any dancer or actor can ever have excelled him in eloquence, variety or poignancy of motion.' In the 1960s comedian Arthur Haynes enjoyed success with his own tramp character. Both had one common factor; the characters forever railing against society and the triumph (no matter how short lived) of the little man against officialdom.