The Bash Street Kids is a comic strip in the British comic magazine The Beano. It also appeared briefly in The Wizard as series of prose stories in 1955. The strip, created by Leo Baxendale as When the Bell Rings!, first appeared in issue 604.
In 1994 (the Kids' 40th anniversary), it was announced that The Bash Street Kids would be overhauled to appeal to a more politically correct, modern audience. Changes included the replacement of Danny's trademark school hat by a top hat, Fatty becoming fit and muscular and Tom-boy Toots acting more feminine. The school would be replaced by a technologically advanced "academy", and Teacher by a robot. A protest began, accompanied by petitions and publicity stunts throughout Britain, demanding that the characters remain the same. The proposal turned out to be a hoax when the story introducing the new Bash Street Kids saw them in their old ways. Editor Euan Kerr was pleased with the fan response, saying that the publication "even got death threats!" Shortly afterwards, an animated adaptation was produced as a segment of The Beano Video Stars.
By 2000 The Bash Street Kids was a feature-length strip, filling an entire Beano book. Often drawn by Mike Pearce and Kev F. Sutherland, during the late 2000s the strips moved to Beano sister publication BeanoMAX (where they were drawn by Nigel Parkinson). These feature-length strips were more detailed, delving into an obscure character's personality and introducing new traits. Spotty was revealed as sarcastic and aggressive, while Plug was a more sympathetic, emotional character. The strips detailed a rivalry between the kids and the comic's cover star, Dennis the Menace. Mike Pearce soon began penciling a spin-off from the original strip, The Bash Street Kids – Singled Out, a single-page comic concentrating on one "kid" a week. Pearce retired, the strips were taken over by Tom Paterson before being mothballed and they were later collected into two annuals.
In July 2013, coinciding with the 60th anniversary of the strip, a street in Dundee was renamed "Bash Street".
In May 2021, the character "Fatty" was renamed "Freddy", in an attempt to stop children using the name as an insult for overweight peers. The character "Spotty" was renamed "Scotty" in December 2021.
In June 2021, two new characters, Harsha and Mandi, were introduced to the strip. Harsha already appeared in another strip, Har Har's Joke Shop, which is about her family and the joke shop her father Hari "Har Har" Chandra owns. Mandi previously had her own occasional strip that dealt with mental health issues to promote the charity YoungMinds, and as such her main trait is that she worries about things.
thumb|The Bash Street Kids as of 2022
In June 2022, three more characters, Stevie, Khadija, and Mahira, were introduced to the strip. All three had their own strips prior to their addition. In addition, Cuthbert was given more of a spotlight from this point onwards, as he only showed up in the strip on different occasions throughout the year.
Class 2B
The strip features Class 2B, which contains fifteen pupils.
Danny
Herbert Henry "'Erbert" Hoover is a short-sighted boy who struggles to see even with his spectacles, first appearing in issue 696. Beano Top Trumps – Erbert is least menacing of all Bash Street Kids and is said to resemble a human mole. Except for Cuthbert, the rest of the class have fun swapping his thick-rimmed glasses with others and seeing the resultant mayhem. In older strips, the character is sometimes called Herbert instead of 'Erbert. His short-sightedness is shared by his parents, who have ended up in different parts of town on many parents' evenings.
Feature-length strips and crossovers brand most of 'Erbert's mischief as accidental or the result of misdirection. During an escape, 'Erbert is usually bumping into a wall or running in the opposite direction. His short-sightedness is renowned; in The Beano Annual 2000 the characters take a cruise to Perth, only to reach shore at Perth, Scotland. When they go to the captain's quarters, they discover that 'Erbert has put himself in charge of the ship.
Although he is quiet and friendly, 'Erbert can wreak as much havoc as his classmates. He is a source of entertainment for the others; Sidney and Spotty once send him into a field full of cow pats, with misleading directions for getting out. Despite this, they consider him "one of the kids". When he moves to the Bash Street Academy 'Erbert receives contact lenses to improve his sight, discarding them when he returns to his old school.
His full name is a reference to former United States president Herbert Hoover.