Meathook

From MIwiki

The interior of Meathook's house as it appears in The Secret of Monkey Island

Meathook is a fairly well-known if not prominent supporting character in the Monkey Island series.

1 Character history
2 Appearance
3 Trivia
4 Game appearances
5 Voiced by

Character history

According to Escape from Monkey Island, in his youth Meathook was an artist-protégé on his way to greatness. He was renowned for his talent with water-colours and at one point H.T. Marley commissioned a painting as a wedding present for his granddaughter.

Meathook's house as it appears in Escape from Monkey Island

Some time between these events and those in The Secret of Monkey Island, Meathook lost both of his hands in an unelaborated accident (except for the fact that it involved Meathook's pet parrot). From this point on Meathook abandoned his life of an artist and, in his own words, drifted to piracy. His home is located on the small Hook Isle just off the North-East coast of Mêlée Island which could only be reached by sliding a rubber chicken with a pulley in the middle across the waters on a cable line in the first game.

In the first game Guybrush must convince Meathook to join his crew and he does so by demonstrating his courage by touching the beast that took Meathook's hands. This creature turns out to be Meathook's parrot. Meathook joins Guybrush's crew and later in the mutiny started by his crew-mates Carla and Otis by becoming completely unhelpful. The trio is stranded on Monkey Island after Guybrush accidentally sinks the ship.

The trio manage to escape from Monkey Island after which Meathook renounces his piratey lifestyle to resume his former passion for art. He begins using the wax-drippings of candles to make portraits by sticking them on his hooks. In Escape from Monkey Island he has finally built a bridge to connect Mêlée and Hook Islands and opened up a studio "Meathook's House of Wax". In this game he is less involved with the actual story and provides only clues to finding the fourth wedding present.

Appearance

Meathook is tall and has a very muscular build. As is known he has hooks for hands which complicate his life. He also has a tattooed skull on his chest which he can manipulate to make it talk. He also wears an eyepatch. His only attire are a pair of pants and boots as he never appears to wear a shirt. In the fourth game he also grows a moustache.

Trivia

Meathook's parrot, called The Beast, was somehow responsible for removing Meathook from his hands. When the player first sees the parrot his interface is given a list of silly things that he can do (tickle etc.) to the parrot.
In the first game one of Meathook's left-facing sprites did not have its eye-patch's position fixed and it visibly though momentarily jumps from one of his eyes to the other.
In the fourth game Meathook confesses to having auditioned for a First Person Shooter, but he blew the audition: "I kept dropping the gun."
He painted the nude portrait of the Harbor Mistress at the Scumm Bar.
If you look at the bridge Guybrush proclaims he prefers the Pulley-n-Poultry method.