Derpy

Derpy Hooves is the fan-given name of a gray Pegasus pony given by the show's internet following due to her having a cross-eyed "derpy" expression in the first episode. The name has since been adopted by the crew and Hasbro. Starting with Feeling Pinkie Keen, the show's crew began giving the pony crossed eyes intentionally, as a nod to the fans. The character is addressed by Rainbow Dash in The Last Roundup as Derpy, where she speaks for the first time. The scene was later altered so Rainbow Dash no longer names Derpy, and her voice has been changed.

Origin
Alert viewers of the show noticed a googly-eyed Pegasus in the series's first episode, standing in the background in the crowd in Twilight Sparkle's welcoming party. After the image was captured and posted on 4chan's comics and cartoons board /co/, fans began speculating of the nature of this odd pony. The name she was given, Derpy Hooves, is derived from the slang term "derp", which is associated with someone who behaves in a silly manner and is often connected with crossed eyes.

Wall eyes
This gray Pegasus with a bubbles cutie mark was one of several background ponies, chosen from a palette and placed in the scenes on the whim of layout artists. At first, the pony's face wasn't supposed to be visible in that particular scene, but a later layout change uncovered it. Jayson Thiessen, the supervising director of the show, stated that he noticed and was amused by her expression. Since Hasbro had already given the episode green light, he didn't order fixing Derpy's eyes. Thiessen relayed in a Q&A that he was so delighted after discovering popularity of Derpy that he requested altering Derpy's eyes in all episodes that hadn't been sent to the Hub yet.

Name
Lauren Faust has acknowledged the fan following of Derpy. Before the name Derpy was used by the production crew, Faust stated that in one of the unaired episodes at the time, Winter Wrap Up, there is a mention of a "featherbrained" Pegasus named Ditzy Doo whose appearance is never established on-screen, and should Ditzy make an appearance the show may assign Derpy's design to her. Faust later stated that it seems the name has "landed on Derpy Hooves."

Writer Amy Keating Rogers confirmed about Derpy's original name in an email sent to a "Save Derpy" Tumblr, saying that it was changed from Ditzy Doo to Derpy as "a nod to the fans".

Even though background ponies have no official names, an animator from the Philippine studio working on the show said that Derpy was nicknamed Stoneface, Bubbles, Bubblehead, and Ditzy by the crew. Thiessen later relayed that the Canadian crew has adopted the name Derpy.

Derpy is featured in her Nightmare Night paper bags costume in the Castle Creator flash game, with the file name for her asset containing the word "Derpy". A December 2011 update to the game contained another Derpy asset, wearing a reindeer cap and a red nose, this time with its file name containing the phrase "DH_definitely_canon". The day Hearth's Warming Eve aired, The Hub's Facebook page posted a message encouraging readers to "spot fan favorite Derpy" in the episode. She is called "Derpy" on-screen in The Last Roundup, detailed below.

Charity auction
Lauren Faust participated in a charity auction for the 2011 Japan relief effort by donating several of her My Little Pony Friendship is Magic production sketches. In addition to sketches drawn in 2008, she drew a new sketch of Derpy, which sold for 2,151 USD. The character was explicitly called Derpy Hooves by the auctioneer.

Merchandising
Officially licensed apparel sporting Derpy was first made available on August 2011 at the online store WeLoveFine, though the store carries fan-designs which refer to various characters by various fan-given names. More designs were later made available on WeLoveFine and at Hot Topic retail stores. She is also featured on the Comic Con 2011 promotional poster.

Depiction in the series

 * See also character appearances

As a background pony
Derpy first appears in the first episode of the series in the background of several scenes and, as noted above, makes her googly-eyed appearance at Twilight Sparkle's welcoming party.

Derpy can be seen throughout the season trotting through a park, helping with storm preparations, participating in the Running of the Leaves, visiting Ponyville's market, and more. She is one of the ponies admiring Pinkie Pie's "baked bads" in Applebuck Season, delivering the line "muffins" among the crowd, along with Minuette and Amethyst Star, whose mouths also match the spoken line. She appears with intentionally crossed eyes in Feeling Pinkie Keen; when Twilight spies on Pinkie Pie, a series of objects falls on her head: a flower pot, an anvil, a cart of hay and finally a piano. A camera pan reveals that the items were dropped by Derpy and her friend Raindrops, who are hovering next to a movers' truck. In Green Isn't Your Color, she is heard gasping in shock at Fluttershy's catwalk antics.

As a scripted character
Derpy appears in nineteen episodes of season one as a background character. For season two, she has gained a scripted-character status rather than an arbitrary background pony, and she is considered a "Where's Waldo"-type challenge for the fans.

In the remastered version of the opening sequence that is first used in Lesson Zero, she appears in the top window of the first train car.

She is one of the ponies under the effects of Twilight Sparkle's spell on her doll, Smarty Pants, in Lesson Zero. When Princess Celestia removes the spell from everyone, Derpy finds herself fighting with the Mayor, and returns to her derped-face self. In the photo on the right her face is the same face shown in the very first episode of season one.

Derpy is dressed in several brown paper bags in Luna Eclipsed, and participates in Applejack's apple bob activity during Nightmare Night with Golden Harvest. However, while bobbing for apples she accidentally pulls the plug, causing all the water in the bob to go down the drain. She makes a brief cameo in Sisterhooves Social among the crowd listening to Granny Smith's announcement. In The Cutie Pox, a wall-eyed Pegasus filly with the same color scheme as Derpy appears briefly for one shot in the schoolyard, with most of her body obscured by Apple Bloom and another filly. Derpy makes a brief appearance in the doorway to Fluttershy's chicken coop in May the Best Pet Win!, an episode otherwise devoid of background ponies.

She appears briefly in The Mysterious Mare Do Well among the crowd cheering after Rainbow Dash saves the old folks falling on the balcony. She appears in Sweet and Elite along with many other ponies during a shot in the song Becoming Popular, wearing the same paper bag that was part of her costume in Luna Eclipsed, in addition to a pearl necklace. She pops out of a well in-between Heartstrings and Bon Bon in Secret of My Excess. She rides the train to Canterlot in Hearth's Warming Eve. Later, she pops out from behind the curtain to wave at the audience before the show. She walks away sad afterwards when the Stage Manager stops her. At the end of the episode, she talks in the background with Amethyst Star.

She appears frequently throughout the musical sequence The Flim Flam Brothers in the episode The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000, as well as in the crowd watching the competition. She appears in Hearts and Hooves Day in three village shots, one standing next to an unknown filly and twice standing next to Doctor Whooves on the bridge. In A Friend in Deed, she appears twice, first flying upside down in the snow globe Pinkie Pie finds in Cranky Doodle Donkey's things and the second time by a stand in Ponyville square with two other ponies.

In Putting Your Hoof Down, she first appears in the market scene, approaching the asparagus stand whilst bearing muffin-sealed saddlebags, where she reacts to the stallholder's lack of asparagus, and later she appears in the crowd at Iron Will's seminar.

Speaking role
Derpy has a significant speaking role in The Last Roundup. The scene starts with Rainbow Dash getting the tip of her tail singed by a lightning bolt, coming from a gray storm cloud that Derpy is bouncing on. Dash tells her, "Now, careful, Derpy. Don't wanna do any more damage than you've already done", pointing to the broken and crashing roof of the Ponyville town hall. Derpy replies, "I just don't know what went wrong" and shocks herself from another bolt of lightning from the cloud she's bouncing on. She flies by Rainbow Dash and compliments her work, but bumps into a pillar, and sends it hurtling to the ground. Rainbow Dash tries to stop it but she smashes through the floor with the pillar. Derpy sticks her head in the hole asking if Rainbow Dash is okay and asks if there's anything she can do to help, but Rainbow Dash flies up and tells her to sit there and do nothing. When Derpy sits down in response, the floor below her starts to crack and she falls through, grabbing Rainbow Dash and pulling her down along for the ride. When the Mayor gives her speech in honor of Applejack, Derpy sticks out of the hole in the broken floor and cheers for Applejack, but she lets go and falls down once again. Her eyes are crossed through the majority of the scene.

Production
Derpy is voiced by Tabitha St. Germain in the original cut. Germain was not aware at the time that Derpy is female and voiced her "with a neighbor's son in mind." The episode was storyboarded by Sabrina Alberghetti and Nicole Wang. Alberghetti was reminded of herself in the portrayal of Derpy as an "accident-prone klutz". Derpy was originally named "Ditzy" in the episode's production and was portrayed as "ditzy" by the writer, Amy Keating Rogers. Rogers was requested to rename the pony to "Derpy" as a "tip of the hat" to fans.

Subsequent alteration
The episode was removed from iTunes a week after its release, and put back up on 24 February 2012, with Derpy's scene altered: a few words are omitted from the dialog, in particular Rainbow Dash does not name Derpy; Derpy's voice is different and more feminine; and Derpy's eyes are not as acutely crossed in a few of the shots in the scene. This alteration does not appear in The Friendship Express DVD.

The decision to alter the character was made by Hasbro or The Hub, in response to emails complaining about the character's portrayal and the word "derpy", both of which have been construed as offensive to disabled people, even though the episode's writer is an advocate for the disabled herself.

Appearances
The following charts details Derpy's appearances in the show, using approximate times from various videos available online.

Galleries

 * Derpy image gallery
 * Gallery of characters making faces