Trigger (Only Fools and Horses) - Characteristics

Characteristics

How you going Dave? —Trigger's most common phrase to Rodney Trotter

A regular at the Nags Head pub, and old friend of Del Boy, Trigger is a road sweeper, and also appears to dabble in trading and petty thefts (though this status as a small-time thief is soon phased out of the character's development). He once supplied Del with paint which Del proceeded to use to decorate his mother's grave. Only then did Trigger inform him that the paint was used on signs in railway tunnels and therefore, luminous. He also supplies a load of stolen cigarettes, and in the opening episode he announces to Del that "he popped round to his sisters to sort out an alibi for next Thursday."

Trigger is possibly most famous because he calls Rodney Trotter "Dave", even though everybody else calls him Rodney. Rodney discusses this with Trigger in "Homesick", and he agrees to stop, but a few seconds later he calls him it again. When Cassandra Trotter, Rodney's wife, announced she was pregnant in "Modern Men", everybody raised a toast and said "To Cassandra and Rodney", but Trigger can be heard saying "Cassandra and Dave" after everyone else has spoken. At another point, while discussing Del and Raquel's son, Trigger claims that they may name the baby "Rodney, after Dave".

He can miss the point of the silliest joke, such as in "Fatal Extraction", when Del jokes with Boycie, Mike, Rodney and Trigger, saying that woman ask men something then correct them, and everyone says "Why ask" together, and Trigger waits until they're finished and says "Why ask?" very stupidly.

In the pilot episode Rodney asked Del where Trigger got his nickname, thinking Trigger was an armed criminal (i.e. a trigger man). Del however replies that it's because 'he looks like an 'orse', this is a reference to the famous screen horse, Trigger, of the 50s and 60s, as Del says to Trig later on "You know what happened to the real Trigger don't you? Roy Rogers had 'im stuffed!".

It was revealed in Class of '62, that Trigger used to have a crush on Julie Christie, albeit getting her name muddled with the famous early 1900s crime writer Agatha Christie, after he tells Boycie, Del, Rodney and Denzil that he loved her in the film Dr. Zhivago.

Trigger speaks in a fairly slow, monotone voice, but he is loyal, friendly and kind. However, Trigger's most noticeable trait is that he is stupid beyond belief, which is a source of much humour in the show, despite his remaining deadly serious in his delivery. Del has often commented on Trigger's painfully low intelligence; "You could tell the state our school was in; Trigger was head boy." Another example is in one episode, Del had relationship problems with Raquel and a very bad tooth. Whilst talking about the problems with Raquel, Trigger confused the subjects, advising him to just "get shot of it," and proceeding to say, "I know what it's like, you give 'em pet names, I've done it, but take my advice, go to the dentist and have it taken out."

Trigger did not know his father and in all seriousness says "he died a couple of years before I was born" when Rodney asks of his whereabouts in the episode "Ashes to Ashes". He was brought up by his grandparents, with his grandfather having also been a roadsweeper. Trigger is unsurprisingly not married, although he occasionally mentions past relationships during the series and is seen on a blind date with a woman in the 1988 Christmas special, Dates.

In the episode Heroes and Villains, Trigger wins an award for owning the same broom for 20 years. He reveals that it has had 17 new heads and 14 new handles, but insists it is still the same broom. This has given rise to the expression "Trigger's broom" (the Ship of Theseus paradox).

On several occasions, however, despite his general stupidity, Trigger has displayed some moments of cleverness, given his smart remarks and rather intelligent way of explaining the situation of his pregnant niece in the episode The Frog's Legacy.