Cricket Green

Concept and creation

Cricket is directly based on Chris Houghton as a young child.^[2][3] His signature haircut mirrors the exact hairstyle Chris wore for many years growing up.^[2] The name "Cricket" comes from a nickname Chris encouraged his classmates to call him, though it never caught on back then.^[2] His signature exclamation, "Bingo! Bango!", was a phrase Chris frequently used while storyboarding on the animated series Harvey Beaks (2015–2017).^[4] His personality was meant to reflect how Chris Houghton was as a child,^[5] excluding the misbehaving.^[6]

During early development, Cricket was originally meant to be named "Bucket". This was ultimately changed to avoid naming conflicts with another Disney project, Kirby Buckets.^{[‡ 1]} The visual design of Cricket and the rest of the cast was heavily influenced by the aesthetic of The Muppets, aiming for a fun, friendly, and "poppy" look crafted by the Houghton Brothers.^[6]

Voice

Cricket is voiced by Chris Houghton. According to Houghton, Cricket's voice just came naturally.^[4][6]

Cricket Green is a frenzied, mischievous, optimistic, animalistic, and sometimes quadruped 10-year-old country kid and the unplanned only son of Bill Green and Nancy Green, and the younger brother to Tilly Green, who has moved to Big City with his family to live with his cranky grandmother Alice.

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The second kid in the Green family, Cricket was born 2 or 3 years after Tilly in Smalton to parents Bill and Nancy Green, his birth being unplanned, striking panic for Bill at first.^[7] In his early years, Cricket was bored on the farm. Therefore, his sister Tilly created a persona: Jilly, to which he was immediately astonished by.^[8].

Although Tilly normally adores Cricket and they often get along as brother and sister, one day, Cricket's frenzy enraged Tilly. She vowed to trade him out, and tried to sell him to someone else, and looked up on the internet for where to dump her brother, but all she found was animals and nobody ever wanted to own Cricket, and she was not happy about this. The more animalistic Cricket behaved, the angrier Tilly got. When she thought if she cannot remove him, she would just have to stay away from him.

One day, Bill announced that he was moving the family to Big City. Cricket and Tilly were not happy about this and Cricket tried desperately to stay. However, Bill confirmed they were leaving due to being outcompeted by other farms, as well as bills piling up. Though Cricket was still hesitant to leave, Bill gave Cricket a jar of dirt to remind him that the country is part of him.^[9] Ultimately, he and his family move to Big City. Though, it took a struggle before they finally reached Alice's house.^[10]

After the move, Cricket wants to make a good impression and so he gets the idea to launch a chicken into space with the help of Tilly and a random kid Remy, the latter becoming Cricket's best friend.^[11]

in Steak night

Green family return from shopping at Wholesome Foods for their annual family steak night. Cricket asks to hold the packaged steaks himself and Bill reluctantly agrees, but he tells him to be careful with it as "steaks are the heart of Steak Night." With it getting late, the family decide to take the subway much to Gramma Alice's chagrin. In the subway station Cricket and Tilly "show" the bag of steaks around the subway with the latter befriending a family of rats where she interprets their squeaks for wanting her to be their leader. Cricket is later distracted by a street dancer doing the robot. Cricket begins seeing him as a threat, but Bill calls him over once their train approaches. As they move out of the station, Cricket realizes to his horror that he left the steaks behind.

In the train, as Bill, Tilly and Alice plan out how to have their steaks, Cricket breaks and reveals that he left them behind. As it is impossible to buy more steaks, Cricket suggests just heading back to the previous station. Bill tries to stop him, but is too late as Cricket leaves. The family race to the next train, but Bill ends up losing more of their groceries in the process. When they reach the train to get back, it suddenly stops due to a "mysterious package" that was found at 5th Street Station. In the train, upset, Bill tells Cricket that he has done enough and to just forget about it. As Cricket wallows in self-pity, Tilly comforts him by saying how he never gives up on family. With her help, Cricket sneaks out of the train though the emergency exit.

In the subway, a Bomb Squad Robot has caught the steaks with its controllers, and Cricket tries to tackle the robot, but both of them end up on the train tracks. As Cricket fights the robot, the train is starting to emerge from the tunnel, forcing the Green family to lift Cricket, but Cricket does not let go of the steaks until Bill mentions that family is more important than steaks, and they cannot afford to buy another Cricket, and according to Tilly she tried to sell Cricket. Learning that he is more precious than steaks, Cricket finally sacrifices the steaks to the robot and the robot takes the hit from the train while doing a victory dance, destroying the steaks.

Cricket apologies for his behaviour and Bill forgives him, Tilly tries to eat a dirty pizza, but the Green family stops her, then they take the bus.

Sometime later, Cricket earns the Green family name by taking down his grandmother Alice for the Green Family Rite of Passage.^[12] Later one day, Cricket faces his fear of heights when he goes to the pool one day, falling from a height higher than the high dive, earning the respect of the other kids there; notably, Benny, Weezie and Kiki, who later befriend Cricket.^[13]

Cricket would soon find himself working at Big Coffee to pay off a massive amount of damage he had caused there,^[14] forming a strong bond with Gloria over time. At a Valentine's Day dance, Cricket gains a crush on a girl Gabriella, though struggles to muster up the courage to dance with her. By the time he does, Remy had already stolen the spot.^[15] Ever since that day, Cricket has been lovestruck. Remy pushes him to talk to her, wanting to help him out for once. Though, when Gabriella announces she's going to Montreal, he panics and, with the help of Vasquez and Remy, catches her bus to express his feelings, to which she reciprocated; therefore, they began dating.^[16]

One day in 2026 August 22, in Caging Cricket Bill lies to Cricket that they were going to the excitement land adventure park, but when Cricket runs outside, Cricket falls over and gets locked up in a cage. When Bill explained to Alice that years ago, Cricket accidentally trapped himself in an animal cage, and Bill had to use the cage again. Furious that his dad used the theme park as bait to cage him, Cricket decided to put Bill in the cage instead. But when Cricket was stuck in the cage, Bill hosed him down and never turned off the hose.

When Bill does end up in the cage, Cricket steals Bill's wallet and ran away in a truck. Cricket destroyed something from hippies, and the hippies get angry at Cricket and chase him down. Bill tried to protect Cricket from the hippies by putting him in the cage, but Cricket resisted, and then Bill stepts into the cage himself, abandoning the hippies who get distracted by a rock.

They do arive at the theme park, but Bill is squashed in the cage and Cricket has to continue dragging him.

Cricket is portrayed as an optimistic, frienzied and animalistic kid whose curiosity and desire for adventure brings him and his family on wild adventures. He is the main troublemaker of the Green family, prone to causing chaos and destruction, often causing him to unrest the family. However, despite this, he doesn't always have malicious intent.^[6] He also loves to pull pranks, formerly with his ex-girlfriend Gabriella, and as revealed in "April Fool", it was their way of affection. Per "People Watching" and "Animation Abomination", he loves explosions.

Despite his usual reckless personality, he can also be responsible when he needs to be, often taking accountability for his selfish actions and trying to make them right. For example, in "Wishing Well", Cricket makes a wishing well to cash in on people making wishes, and when Tilly dumps her life savings into it only to find out her wish wasn't coming true (to feel a rainbow), he makes it come true on his own.

He is almost always barefoot, which is one of his personal convictions as seen in "No Service".^[17] Said episode, as well as "Cyberbullies", shows that he will often stand up for whatever he believes in. As revealed in "Rat Tail", he likes to express himself and is also perceptive to subliminal messaging. While not always the voice of reason, at certain times he knows he has to be, such as in "Gargoyle Gals" and "Broken Karted".

He really cares about his older sister Tilly and, as revealed in "Green Trial", the two have a "sibling code" only to be invoked in the direst of situations. As revealed in "Cheap Snake", he doesn't like to make plans and would rather not think about them, though learns that it's better to have one later. In "Wild Side", it is revealed that Cricket gets an annual "wild urge" Bill refers to as "the itch" that isn't satiated unless he is taken camping in the woods. In "Chip's Revenge", it is revealed that Cricket, when enraged, can receive massive strength. Cricket also has rare moments of vulnerability, such as when he loses his beloved dog Phoenix in "Phoenix Rises".

Cricket has received a generally positive reception. According to Chris Houghton, he is often encouraged by fans to do Cricket's voice,^[18] and an official TikTok account for the character is available, ran by Houghton, using a puppet of the character.^[19] He has often been compared to Bart Simpson.^[20][21]

Common Sense Media reviewer Emily Ashby describes Cricket as an energetic and quirky kid whose enthusiasm for life leads to silly, wildly improbable adventures.^[22] Similarly, Laughing Place describes Cricket as "a 10-year-old boy who's curious, energetic, and always optimistic."^[23]

• List of Big City Greens characters