Randall J. Weems is the secondary antagonist of the animated series, Recess. He is the snitch of Third Street Elementary School.
Background[]
Personality[]
He has a few episodes based around him, including "Randall's Friends", "Randall's Reform", "Stand Up Randall", and "Prince Randall". He is in 4th Grade and is most of the time with Miss Finster or spying for her. Just about every kid at the playground hates him for being a snitch, and his reputation of being a snitch was as such that anyone who got into trouble immediately assumes he was the one who tattled on him, even in the rare cases where he was actually innocent of these instances, or at least not directly or intentionally responsible. Notable examples of this are when the Tylers (whom he had recruited earlier to lessen the drought in reports to Finster before they went rogue) began ratting out everyone, including King Bob, causing Bob to angrily yell at him while being sent to the Box, despite Randall not actually being the one who snitched on him, as well as one instance where T.J. and his friends (as well as the new kid Josh Stone) ended up in trouble for trying to sneak into the school via a maintenance tunnel, with T.J. and the others blaming Randall for snitching on him, only for him to protest that he did not do so, with his claims eventually being verified after they discovered it was actually Josh Stone (who was actually a grown man in disguise and a spy for Superintendent Skinner) who snitched on them. Miss Finster trusts Randall more than anyone and even entrusted Randall with a personal key to the playground ball storage room. Despite trusting him fully, however, he is not necessarily close to Ms. Finster, which led to some degree of insecurity on his part due to never being told by her "I owe you one" whenever he does a task well, which ultimately acted as motivation for him to hit himself with a rock and then frame Spinelli for it upon Finster actually thanking Spinelli via that manner during a dirtclod war for saving her cat. It is also hinted, in the episode "Randall's Friends", that he has a crush on Spinelli. Despite his negative reputation due to his snitching, however, he has been an invaluable (if reluctant) source of information for TJ and his friends if they needed it, as demonstrated when they tried to investigate a suspicious new janitor, with their going to Randall to find out who he is, with Randall, after loudly denying any knowledge, eventually admitting after prolonged glares what he did know about him.
Although he is a snitch, he also does have his limits as to who he will snitch on: Namely, he is unwilling to tattle on any higher authority figures, which was best demonstrated in the aforementioned incident with the Tylers, where he made clear that he would never attempt to report King Bob for any troublemaking. This trait was also hinted at in the ending of Recess: School's Out, where Randall was visibly disgusted at Fenwick trying to squeal on his own boss just to reduce his own sentencing for his role in the agenda and called him a squealer. In the episode "Kurst the Not So Bad", it is also implied that he does not engage in tattling for instances that aren't actual rule-breaking to his knowledge, as he initially considered letting Mikey and Kurst off and not reporting on them for a silver tray containing blueberry pastries, and only decided to report on them after learning alongside Ms. Finster that the dessert matching the description of what Mikey and Kurst were eating from had been stolen.
Despite his usual unwillingness to snitch on authority figures, he did report to Finster on Principal Prickly acting like a child via hypnotism, although in that case, it was implied to be out of utter shock at what happened rather than his usual joy at snitching on others. While not willing to report on authority figures, he does not make exemptions towards adults, as evidenced by his ratting out the Superintendent's spy Josh Stone for a flagpole prank on Superintendent Skinner (though the fact that Stone framed him for snitching on the others may have been a motivating factor, as TJ allowed Randall to do the honors of snitching on him).
Appearances[]
TV Series[]
Films[]
Recess: School’s Out[]
As the students are going crazy due to the last day of school, Randall has made records of all the students causing trouble, everyone except for T.J. and his friends, whom he hasn’t seen anywhere. He also was surprised to hear Ms. Finster blow off his attempted report, as she had something much bigger in store: Sending all the ice cream she hid from the students back to the district in exchange for more school supplies. A couple days later, as T.J. is sulking due to his friends having gone to camp, his mom suggests hanging out with Randall, much to his chagrin.
Later, as T.J. and his friends go to the school to rescue an imprisoned Principal Prickly, Randall overhears their plans to break in to the school while hiding in a trash can, then goes to Ms. Finster’s house to tell her what he heard. The duo then secretly watch the gang climbing in through the window. Ms. Finster tries to climb in as well, but the rope snaps, causing her to fall on top of Randall. Shortly afterwards, Ms. Finster tries to climb in through an air vent, but gets stuck; she then asks Randall to return to her house and get the butter to loosen her up. As Randall returns with the butter, and Ms. Finster manages to get free, they witness T.J.’s friends fleeing from a group of ninjas, causing them to suspect something is going on in the school. When Ms. Finster rallies the teachers to help fight back against Phillium Benedict and his men, Randall presumably takes part in the battle as well.
When Fenwick tries to talk his way out of being arrested, to no avail, Randall disgustedly calls him a squealer.
Trivia[]
- Possible other friends of Randall are Barry and Scribe Kid as they, along with Menlo, were all on the same football team in "Soccer Boy" and were together at Menlo's Birthday Party in "Some Friend".
- In Recess: Taking the Fifth Grade, he was the only 5th/6th grader banned from the Fifth and Sixth Graders Club due too his snitching.
- Randall shares the same voice actor as Digger Dave.
- In "The Madness of King Bob", he is mistakenly referred to as Randall C. Weems rather than Randall J. Weems (although this may just be a mistake on the part of Hustler Kid).
- In "Lawson and his Crew", Randall was the Gus in Lawson's crew.
- Randall appears to be in various classes with little consistency between episodes.
- Randall was born in 1988.
- Randall is similar to Randall Boggs of the Monsters Inc. franchise.
- Randall learned his snitching abilities from his father since his father was a snitch as a boy.
