| Bernie (doonesbury) |
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He was first introduced as Mike Doonesbury 's laboratory partner in a science class they both took at Walden College. Bernie was portrayed as a typical Mad Scientist , and was clearly as insane as he was brilliant. Over the strip's early years much humor was derived from Mike's deadpan reactions to Bernie's crazy antics. In the first strip he appeared in, he drank a potion of his own creation that turned him into a Werewolf . He later on came up with variations on this such as a Giraffe and a Warthog . He also frequently blew things up, teleported, travelled through time and space, and cleaned himself in a washing machine along with his laundry. He also had aspirations of World Domination , but kept them mainly to himself. When the other characters moved onto Walden Commune, Bernie joined them along with his girlfriend Didi, who had hair so long she resembled Cousin Itt from the Addams Family . There he continued his scientific exploits, but became a more minor character, as Garry Trudeau shifted the strip's focus more toward politics, and felt that Bernie's slapstick humor was an unnecessary distraction. In 1976 Bernie went on a hunt for the Loch Ness Monster , but was unsuccessful. This was his last appearance for a while, but he returned with a vengeance in the 1990s . During Mike's annual summer daydream, he imagined that he had gotten a dream job working as a marketer for Bernie. Bernie had patented his werewolf formula into Morphing technology, gaining him a great deal of money with which he started his own software company. Mike woke up from his daydream to find that it had come true, and he really was employed. Mike and Bernie worked together for several years, until Mike split to start his own company with Kim Rosenthal . The two remain good friends, and Mike often turns to Bernie for business advice. Bernie has become so rich in recent years that his net worth is bigger than the Gross National Product of some countries. In a gesture of humility, as his value passes that of each country he visits it, but is very leery of having to visit France . Bernie now serves as a springboard for any sort of discussion about technology issues, which means that he appears quite regularly. |
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