Klaus (American Dad!) 4419697 225711176 2008-07-15T00:58:53Z Stereorock 992600 /* Trivia */ {{Primarysources|date=December 2007}} {| class="infobox" style="width:21em;" |- |colspan=2 style="text-align:center;" | '''''[[American Dad!]]'' character''' |- |colspan=2 style="text-align:center;" | [[Image:Bio-klaus.jpg|250px]] |- !colspan=2 style="font-size: larger" | Klaus the Goldfish |- |'''Gender:''' || Male |- |'''Species:''' || [[Gold fish]]<br> (formerly [[human]], will return to human status by 2045) |- |'''Age:''' || Unknown |- |'''Spouse:''' || Unnamed wife (in future whom he will father unnamed children)</br>[[Francine Smith]] (sexual obsession) |- |'''Family:''' || The Smith Family (foster family)</br> Natural family in Germany presumably deceased |- |'''Children:''' || Presumed father of unnamed children, who will become parent to unnamed grandson (in 2045) |- |'''Favorite TV Shows:''' || ''[[Grey's Anatomy]]''<br> ''[[Scrubs (TV series)|Scrubs]]'' |- |'''Best Friends:''' || [[Stan Smith (American Dad!)|Stan]]<br> [[Steve Smith (American Dad!)|Steve Smith]]<br> [[Hayley Smith]] |- |'''Voice Actor:''' || [[Dee Bradley Baker]] |} '''Klaus''' is a fictional character on the [[television series]] ''[[American Dad!]]''. He is voiced by [[Dee Bradley Baker]]. He is the [[American Dad!#Smith family|Smith family]]'s pet [[goldfish]]. His full name is currently unknown. ==Biography== === Before Becoming a Fish === Klaus used to be an [[East Germany|East German]] Olympic [[ski jumping|ski-jumper]] until his brainwaves were switched with that of a goldfish in the 1986 [[Winter Olympics]] by the [[CIA]] to prevent him from winning the [[gold medal]]. It is not revealed what happened to Klaus' human body, although hinted that his body expired. His original body gone and his mind now inhabiting the body of a fish, the CIA ordered Stan Smith to take care of Klaus posing as the family pet, a fact Klaus has still apparently not come to terms with. Klaus is bitter at being confined to live life as a goldfish and losing all his human abilities, moreso he is angrier at his loss of sexual function than loss of his athletic skills. In "[[The Most Adequate Christmas Ever]]", Klaus stated that his grandfather was a [[Conductor (transportation)|train conductor]] who ran the [[train|kiddie train]] at the [[Oświęcim|Auschwitz]] [[zoo]] (and is appalled when the family assumes he was referring to the [[Auschwitz concentration camp|concentration camp]] and reminds them that there is other stuff in that large town). Not much else is said of Klaus' true family, and it is presumed that Klaus has no living relatives and there are no inquiries in Germany as to his disappearance. ===As The Smiths' Pet === Klaus retains his human intelligence, and his mind seems to have enhanced the goldfish's physiology. Klaus is perfectly fine breathing air so long as at least one small part of his body is in water. Klaus is also able to swim in both salt water and fresh water, and even coffee, [[Jell-O]], and the washing machine, where he enjoys being thrown in with Francine's underwear. In actuality, superheated water is lethal to ordinary goldfish. He lusts after [[Stan Smith (American Dad!)|Stan Smith]]'s wife [[Francine Smith|Francine]]; she is the subject of many of his [[sexual fantasy|sexual fantasies]], which often revolve around [[sadism]]. In the "[[Finances with Wolves]]" episode, Klaus switched his goldfish body for that of a black man's (the front man for an [[Earth, Wind and Fire]] [[cover group]] who ripped off the CIA at their summer [[Mixer dance|mixer]]), and almost ran off with Francine, but the body was mortally damaged in the aftermath of an explosion at the mall. Deciding to spare his life, but also to make sure he never try to seduce Francine again (and that the CIA had no human bodies available at the time), Stan placed his brain in another goldfish's body (Klaus flushed the previous fish's lifeless body down the toilet). This episode also gave an indication of his personality--while Stan dove to save Francine from the blast, Klaus was more concerned in saving his new human body. Though he is a member of the Smith Family, he is often overlooked and not considered on certain things. He also doesn't go places with the rest of the family un-like Roger who usually needs to disguise himself. ===Future=== The episode "[[Of Ice and Men]]" shows Klaus in the year [[2045]], where he is inexplicably in a new human body. He also has a grandson in this future; the majority of the episode consisted of a story Klaus told him about the past. The grandson was apparently unaware Klaus had once been a fish. Klaus also claims in this episode to have been two sharks and a monkey, though this might have been sarcasm to end to stop his grandson from asking questions.Another claim he made was that he was roommates with Rick Schroeder during the course of his life. ==Personality == His voice is modeled, in part, after [[Peter Lorre]]'s. Klaus has a strange obsession with ''[[Beauty and the Beast (musical)|Beauty and the Beast]]''. His view is that without Mrs. Potts (whom Francine played in "[[Stan of Arabia]]"), the Beast would have killed himself years ago. This may also be interpreted as simply part of his obsession with Francine. He also takes the story personally, "for who could ever love a beast?" (referring to himself). Klaus is a fan of ''[[Scrubs (TV series)|Scrubs]]'' and ''[[Grey's Anatomy]]'' (which he watches with Roger). He can also play "[[Hava Nagila]]" on [[champagne stemware#Champagne flute|champagne flutes]], and enjoys playing ''[[Tempest (arcade game)|Tempest]]''. Like Stan, Klaus is a fan of the [[Georgetown Hoyas]]. Being that the other family members pay little attention to Klaus, he feels extremely isolated from the others. At one point, he convinced Steve to hold him so he could infect him with [[Ichthyophthirius multifiliis|Ich]], thus forcing Steve to spend time with him, while his other friends avoid him, out of fear of being infected. ==Production Notes == Of the main cast, Klaus is the one least featured in the show's various plots, and often does not show up in episodes for more than brief cameos. The show's creators seem to acknowledge this fact in "[[Big Trouble in Little Langley]]," where Francine, asking if each family member is safe after a fire, forgets to mention Klaus, which leaves him frustrated. In [[Haylias]], he points out the fact that the only time anyone talks to him is when they have no one else to turn to. Also, he acknowledges the fact that he is frequently ignored. He also frequently breaks the [[fourth wall]]; for example, he provided audio commentary in a fight scene between Stan and Bullock, and once bleeped himself to "take the joy away from the [[Censorship|censors]]," using the word "bleep" in place of the actual swear he is implied to have used. It is revealed in the episode "[[Haylias]]" that he does not know how to read, yet he frequently fakes reading whenever he wishes to have time to himself. He and Stan also befriend each other, though Stan appears to forget about Klaus completely after he experiences slight memory loss when recovering from a gunshot to the head. In the German dubbed version of ''American Dad!'', Klaus speaks in a [[Saxony|Saxon]] dialect, which is seen as a stereotype for East Germans in general. His behavior in the German version is similar to that of an ex-[[Stasi]] agent and he hints that he was attached to the Stasi agency, which serves as an alternative to the hints that he has Nazi sympathies in the English version. Klaus has appeared more frequently in Season 3, wherein he is repeatedly featured in several episodes' subplots. ==Trivia== *Coincidentally, an issue of the webcomic The Parking Lot Is Full from July 26th 1996 features a scientist named Viktor Von Klaus telepathically switching minds with a goldfish. *If the [[International Olympic Committee|IOC]] used the convention for holding Olympic Winter Games editions in between the Summer Games during the 1980s, that would put Klaus's events in [[1988 Winter Olympics|Calgary]] Canada. In reality, up until the [[1992 Winter Olympics]], each winter edition was held in the same year as the summer edition. {{American Dad}} [[Category:American Dad! characters]] [[Category:Fictional goldfish]] [[Category:Fictional Germans]] [[es:Klaus]] [[it:Klaus (American Dad!)]] [[ru:Клаус (American Dad!)]]