The great thing about the Bash Street Kids is that there’s somebody for pretty much everybody to relate to: all humanity is there from tall skinny ones to shorter fatter ones.
And I love that many of their names are unabashedly direct: there’s Fatty, Spotty and Plug (ugly), just there would be in any classroom.
And for the record, as well as those three, the regular characters are: Danny, Erbert, Sydney, Smiffy, Toots, Wlfred and Cuthbert. And, of course, Teacher.
The strip, created by Leo Baxendale as When the Bell Rings, first appeared on 13 February 1954. The story became The Bash Street Kids in 1956.
The Beano is of course also home to those other icons of British children's comic humour Dennis the Menace and Gnasher.
Incidentally, the word beano is apparently short for "bean-feast" and means a feast, a celebration and a good time.