Binky Barnes

"'I was scared of the dark too, but I was more scared of Binky Barnes.' &mdash; Buster Baxter, 'Arthur's First Sleepover'"

Shelley "Binky" Barnes is one of the main characters, and one of a few characters portrayed by Bruce Dinsmore. Although Binky's real name is Shelly, he is very sensitive about it, and prefers to be called Binky.

Appearance
Binky Barnes is an anthropomorphic bulldog and usually wears a long sleeved orange-pecan button up shirt, dark blue slacks, a light blue belt buckle, boxer shots, and brown loafers. He usually wears his shirt tucked into his pants. He also outweighs all of the students at Lakewood Elementary School, weighing approximately 180 lbs. This later becomes an issue for Binky in later episodes, as he tries to lose weight in future seasons. For formal occasions Binky will wear a grey polka dotted suit with a top front pocket on the right hand side of the jacket. Binky kept 3 pencils in this pocket. The suit also has two pockets, one on each side, with the pocket on the left hand side being slightly above the one on the right. The suit has two buttons and a black sleeve patch, one on each sleeve. He also wears a white collar shirt, a light green tie, matching trousers and black shoes. His real name is Shelley. He stopped being a bully in Bully for Binky.

Personality and description
Though Binky is generally portrayed as the typical school bully (more so in the earlier episodes), he also has a softer side: he dances ballet, plays the clarinet and flute and is a lepidopterologist(butterfly collector) but really wants to kill the butterflies for his collection. He usually keeps these interests private and rarely tells or shows others about them. Although, in the episode "Binky Goes Nuts" a butterfly lands on his arm and Binky let Molly MacDonald shoot a spitball at it, hoping it would die from impact.

Binky is a keen cyclist, as well. We see in numerous episodes that Binky cycles to school and enters most cycling tournaments in Elwood City. His most treasured possession is his Lance Armstrong t-shirt.

Binky also has an interest in the fine arts. He enjoys the works of various poets and classical music composers, such as Frédéric Chopin, the great romantic composer.

He also secretly is afraid of the dark and worried about having a physical confrontation (fight) with Sue Ellen Armstrong - as Binky has actually never had to fight anyone during all the years he was considered to be a bully - and a failed fight would ruin his reputation for being strong and tough. He is Forward and Goalkeeper for the Lakewood Elementary Soccer Club.

In season 11 of the television show, the Barnes family adopted 1 year old baby girl (Mei-Lin) from China.

Family

 * Mrs. Barnes: Binky's mom is a nurse who loves her son very much, and probably isn't very aware of his old bullying habits. She's very well-meaning, but occasionally can be a worrywart, as evidenced after she discovered Binky had a serious peanut allergy, during which she kept constant watch on him.
 * Mr. Barnes: Little is known of Binky's dad since he only appears occasionally, other than the fact that he too is very loving towards his son.
 * Mei-Lin Barnes: Binky's baby sister Mei-Lin is from China and was adopted by the Barnes family very recently. At first, Binky didn't know how to open up to his new sister, but with patience and some hard work, the two of them developed a very strong bond. Binky takes good care of his sister and works hard to raise her along with his parents, and is excited when Mei-Lin shows signs of growth, as he was thrilled when she learned to stand by herself.

Future Life

 * If the intro to the episode, "The Election" happens, he will be a member of The United States Secret Service.

Trivia

 * In the earlier seasons, Binky usually hung out with the Tough Customers, but in the later seasons he seems to hang out with Arthur and his friends more often.
 * According to the chapter book "Arthur and the World Record" Binky is 4.458 feet (about 4 feet 5 ½ inches), which makes his friends and Arthur around 4 feet each.
 * Binky was held back in the third grade do what was implied to be his poor academic performance, a fact he is not very proud of. Thus, he should have been in the fourth grade with the Tough Customers and classmate Prunella Deegan. He is 9 years old and not the same age as the other 3rd graders, though in Binky vs. Binky, a form he has says he is 10 years old.
 * He is allergic to peanuts as revealed in Binky Goes Nuts.
 * He is considered one of the two best members of the school band due to his expertise with the clarinet, rivaled only by Sue Ellen on the saxophone.
 * In the episode Bully for Binky, Binky seems to not like ballet. But in the later seasons, Binky has grown to have an affinity for it and is shown to be extremely talented at ballet.
 * In the episode Arthur's Faraway Friend, Binky was miscolored when he was waving to Buster.
 * Binky got lighter to heavier as he got older in the past years.
 * Binky is just a nickname. His real name is actually Shelley, named after his great-grandfather as revealed in What's in a name?.
 * Binky hates going on the Science Museum field trip because he was held back.
 * Binky's Birthday according to him is next month in "Brother Can You Spare a Clarinet?, when you calculate Arthur birthday plus the time Arthur said, you could determine that Binky's Birthday is in October because the episode is based in September. It is confirmed that Binky's birthday is sometime between September and May, because a score card in "Binky vs. Binky" says that he was 10 in that episode, which took place in May.
 * Binky's email address is begins with "binkybarnes@" The ending of it is unknown, as we only see Binky writing the beginning.