Beret Guy

Beret Guy
Beret guy, as seen in 1117: My Sky
First appearance	167: Nihilism
Appearances	106

Beret Guy is a stick figure character in xkcd. He is distinguished by his white beret.

Characteristics

Beret Guy is an optimist, and sometimes a naive one (although he is rarely a victim in the strip). He is a funny and sometimes even borderline cute character, and when he is in the strip is usually the basis of that strip's joke. He enjoys philosophizing, often taking the role of the existentialist. He has a very surreal side to him, often thinking about or being involved in bizarre situations. He also is shown to take things far too literally, sometimes making things surreal.

He has been quite fascinated with bakeries as in 434: xkcd Goes to the Airport and 442: xkcd Loves the Discovery Channel, in particular with scones (see 452: Mission as well as the title text of 677: Asshole and 1030: Keyed.)

Beret Guy had a steady job as a bartender in three comics 328: Eggs, 474: Turn-On, and 712: Single Ladies. However, in later comics, he apparently quit his job to become a "business professional", according to 1032: Networking. There are many comics where he has unusual, impossible, or completely unnecessary jobs, like he has in 1117: My Sky. See all comics about Beret Guy's Business. He apparently makes a load of money from doing this, but has no reasons other than the fact that he is "a business grown-up who makes business profits". He appears again, now with his own "real building he found" in 1293: Job Interview. In 1493: Meeting, his business returns again, this time with a name (CompanyName.website) and an explanation, albeit an unusual one, for how it makes money ("Money keeps appearing, but we have no idea how or why."). At this time, it is still massively successful, somehow. As of 1533: Antique Factory it seems Beret Guy has reorganized his business and branched out from his technology area of expertise, and operating what he refers to as an antique factory. In reality, the factory is simply a room with furniture in it where Beret Guy waits as the items age.

Beret Guy also seems to be a miracle maker - see a list of the strange powers of Beret Guy. In 1099: Tuesdays, he grows "endless wings" and in the aforementioned 1293: Job Interview, he seems to be pouring soup from an electrical socket, as well as in 1486: Vacuum, where he misinterprets quantum physics and manages to get unlimited power from a vacuum cleaner. In 1490: Atoms, he appears to have a supernatural ability to see individual atoms (or at least the atomic make-up of items) and his mother seems to have had an unexplained amount of plutonium in her body. However, Beret Guy seems to have no doubt that these events are perfectly normal; in fact, he just seems to accept them as they are without question.

In the What if? Glass Half Empty, he seems to be quite oblivious to pain, especially about foreign objects sticking into his head. This may explain why we never see him without his beret as it may have been stapled to his head - see title text of 291: Dignified. Said comics also speculates he might have been born by Caesarean section.

In the What if? Niagara Straw, he appears in the last comic, going down a relativistic stream of water, oblivious to the fact that said stream of water was destroying the world, in a barrel.

To sum up, Beret Guy is a very naive man with the strange superpower of having the world around him acting according to his naive vision.

He shares several traits with Beriah from Men in Hats, as Black Hat does with Aram from the same series, but in contrast to the latter, this doesn't appear to have been officially acknowledged.

He may also have a relative in Beret Girl.

See also: Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy.