Buster Bluth
Byron "Buster" Bluth is the youngest son of
George Sr. and
Lucille, though it is later revealed that his biological father is actually George Sr.'s identical twin brother,
Oscar. (The two share obvious personality traits and a mutual habit for awkwardly giving people shoulder massages).
Buster is a professional student, having completed coursework in cartography, Native American tribal ceremonies, 18th century agrarian business principles and archaeology. Archival footage indicates his participation in various university medical studies, such as sleep deprivation studies. As the baby of the family, he idolizes his brothers, Gob and Michael. In the second season premiere, Lucille enlists Buster in the
United States Army, although his training is unsuccessful.
Buster is immature and socially inept; but, as indicated by the narrator in Season 2, he is more intelligent than his siblings Gob and Lindsay. He has frequent panic attacks, hates both
closed and
open spaces, is terrified of sheep, seals and birds and is wrathful towards his
Korean-born adopted brother,
Annyong. Buster demonstrates various childlike nutritional sensitivities: for instance, he becomes hyper from the sugar in juice and irritable after eating cheese; he also takes frequent naps. He has an unhealthy attachment to his domineering mother Lucille; one of the running gags throughout the series is his quasi-incestuous,
Oedipal complex. For her part, Lucille won't let him go in the sun, swim in the ocean, or stand on their balcony in windy weather. George Sr. makes reference to the "claw marks" left on Lucille's womb after she gave birth to Buster. He sometimes tries to assert his independence by defying his mother's orders, as when he dates her rival,
Lucille Austero. He has an alienating habit of greeting people with
shoulder massages, and commonly addresses his relatives by their relation to him (for example, Gob and Michael are greeted with "Hey, brother" and Oscar is greeted with "Hey, uncle-father Oscar." Steve Holt is greeted with "Hey, possible nephew"). In Season 2, Buster's left hand is bitten off by a "loose seal" (note the pun on "Lucille"), and in subsequent episodes he wears a
trans-radial prosthetic on his left arm, first a hook and later a prosthetic hand. Despite his obvious personality flaws, Buster does care about the rest of his family more than many of the other Bluths, shown when he, unlike the rest of his siblings, does not sell the company stocks, because of Michael's request.
Buster is portrayed by
Tony Hale.
Entertainment Weekly selected Buster as the uncle for "The Perfect TV Family".
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