Erwin Lawson, often just referred to as Lawson, is the fifth (later sixth) grade school bully, and the arch enemy of the gang, especially T.J. and Vince. However, he does like T.J., as stated in the episode "Nobody Doesn't Like T.J.".
Personality
His personality is akin to a bully jock. He is shown to be mean, rude, and competitive towards his lessers and equals of Third Street. He is presented to be athletic, not to mention obnoxious and at times, and ruthless. His blatant lack of originality has been seen on more than one occasion in the series. Apart from his work with his crew, he does not seem to know much else other than sports. He seems to be jealous of the Recess Gang's popularity, one time causing him to create a similar crew.
Though not as violent as Gelman or even Chucko (when he was in charge of the gang), Lawson is not above threatening younger kids with physical violence, though mainly, he does violence in sports and had no trouble throwing a dodgeball at Hector in "Dodgeball City". He, however, usually prefers to harass others in non-violent ways.
Despite all this like most antagonistic kids, Lawson has displayed a good side and has helped those he bullied. Here are the following examples of this instance.
- When Miss Finster broke her leg in "The Fuss Over Finster", he admitted that jerky behavior was beneath him and even asked T.J. politely to return the ball.
- When T.J. was a principal in "Principal for a Day", he showed friendship towards him even laughing with T.J. saying will he give a soda and called him buddy (though it was possibly to get off the hook).
- He along with the rest of the school joined in on T.J.'s plan of using the word "whomps".
- When the Recess Gang gave everyone 10s in "The Ratings Game", he joined T.J.'s equality speech saying 10s only.
- He treated Mikey with respect for playing on his soccer team.
- In "Lawson and his Crew", he helped others (although it was mainly to back at the Recess gang) and later he showed gratitude to Vince giving a high five after the latter suggested the former should get back with his old friends after his crew disbanded. He even decided to buy food for his friends at Kelso's.
- He admitted to liking T.J. in "Nobody Doesn't Like T.J.", even though T.J. has called him his worst enemy, which they are more like rivals.
- He was friendly to the gang when they moved up to the fifth grade acting like a friend (but still was not above mocking younger kids).
- His rivalry with the gang seems to sort of be a friendly one as evident at the end of "Fort Tender".
- In "Prince Randall", he laughed at himself showing how his sister put his hair in pigtails aiding T.J.'s plan of not making King Bob look foolish. Although he could have been just saying that for attention as he claimed that he was just as funny as King Bob.
- In "This Brain for Hire", Lawson, along with the other kids, helped buy Gretchen a bike and cheered for her when she earned it.
Relationships
Lawson is apparently one of the movers of fifth grade and is the leader of his particular friendship group. They consist of his five closest friends: Cheay, Jocko, Buster, Chucko Kowalski, and Koreo. While they appear alongside him quite often, the five boys friends have rarely been seen with Lawson altogether at once and usually only 2-4 appear when with him.
Lawson also appears to be friends with fellow fifth grade bully Gelman on a few occasions. Despite this, he is rarely seen with Lawson's gang when not playing sports, suggesting that they are not necessarily close.
Other students who are often seen playing sports on Lawson's team are Slappy, King Freddy, Sound Effects Boy, Greg Skeens and an unnamed girl with curly brown hair and a blue shirt.
History
Lawson has appeared in many different episodes and could be referred to as a recurring nemesis for The Recess Gang, often causing trouble for them or insulting them. Despite this, in the episode "The Fuss Over Finster" where everyone was taking advantage of Finster and T.J. and the gang told them how beneath them it was, even Lawson agreed as he shed tears and said that it was below even him to take advantage of her when she had a broken leg, implying he does have some level of morality.
It also seems despite his competitive nature, he is not a cheater. While he seems to lose in every sport against Vince and the others, except one time in the episode "Soccer Boy", when he hired Mikey as goalies for his team. When T.J refused to let him play in his team, it was the only episode where Lawson was happy to beat Vince and his team after winning King Bob soccer's trophy.
Appearance
Lawson is tall, skinny and has light freckles on his cheeks. He wears a light blue, short-sleeved shirt with two red stripes and one white stripe, blue jeans, black and white sneakers, and a blue baseball cap worn with the visor in front over his auburn hair.
Lawson's Crew
- Main article: Lawson's Crew
In the double-length episode "Lawson and his Crew", Lawson becomes jealous of T.J. and the rest of the gang getting all the glory for fixing things in the playground and decides to form his own crew, ditching his own friends in the process. His new crew consists of the Randall (who we know colloquially is a snitch), Swinger Girl (who was referred to as "Swinger Kid" by Menlo in this episode), Skeens (also known as the Graffiti Kid), Kurst the Worst, and Menlo.
Each member of Lawson's Crew members had the same job and position as and can be considered counterparts to each one of T.J.'s Crew: Randall being the Gus, Swinger Kid being the Spinelli, Skeens being the Vince, Kurst being the Mikey, Menlo being the Gretchen, and Lawson himself being the ringleader, T.J.
His new gang all worked well together throughout the episode, managing to beat the Recess Gang in solving all the problems of the playground before they could. Problems they solve included getting the Diggers back together, saving the Library Kid and organizing protests against banning of Chocolate milk in the School Cafeteria.
But there was one small problem: Lawson and his crew did not bother to make friends among one another, so they easily broke up by the end of the episode, with Lawson himself returning to his real friends. Lawson did not mind this and went back to being rival to T.J. and his friends.
Foreign Voice Actors
- Finnish: Juha Paananen
- French: Serge Faliu
- German: Robin Kahnmeyer
- Japanese: Rica Matsumoto
- Polish: Mariusz Oborski
- Swedish: Calle Walderkrantz
- Spanish: Jesús Tobas
Trivia
- In the first season, Lawson was nowhere to be seen. Instead, his gang was lead by Chucko Kowalski.
- Lawson's appearance is T.J.'s appearance inverted. While T.J. is short and plump and wears a red baseball hat facing the back, Lawson is tall and lanky and wears a blue baseball hat facing the front. Their sole similarity being that both have brown hair and freckles, though T.J.'s hairs are lighter. Additionally like T.J., Lawson is the leader of a gang of his five closest friends (Cheay, Jocko, Chucko, Buster and Koreo), whom often appear alongside him. Unlike T.J.'s gang who are always seen acting together as a group of six, Lawson's crew is seldom seen altogether at once and, when with him, typically appear as a group of 2-4.
- His first name was revealed in "Soccer Boy".
- Despite T.J.'s claim in "Nobody Doesn't Like T.J." that Lawson never beats him in Sports, there are several examples of Lawson and his friends beating the Recess Gang in athletics. This includes beating the Recess Gang in Soccer Boy with Mikey's help, as well as Lawson leading the fifth grade to victory numerous times in dodgeball as revealed in Dodgeball City. Lawson's fifth grade team also beat T.J. and the fourth graders in football as shown in That Stinking Feeling.
Gallery
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 Media: Recess (Episode List) | Recess: School's Out | Recess: All Growed Down | Recess: Taking the Fifth Grade | Recess Christmas: Miracle on Third Street Characters: T.J. Detweiler | Vince LaSalle | Ashley Spinelli | Mikey Blumberg | Gretchen Grundler | Gus Griswald | Captain Bradley | Cornchip Girl | The Diggers | Hustler Kid | Erwin Lawson | Miss Grotke | Muriel Finster | Becky Detweiler | Dr. Phillium Benedict | Menlo | Brock | Peter Prickly | Kojak | Butch | Ashley Armbruster | Ashley Boulet | Ashley Quinlan | Ashley Tomassian | Wallace Fenwick | Brandon the Singer | Gelman | King Bob | Chucko Kowalski | Jocko | Randall Weems | King Freddy II | Cheay | Spencer | Swinger Girl | Upside-Down Girl | Gordy | Hector | Miss Lemon | Lunchlady Irma | Tubby | Jordan & Jerome | Flo Spinelli | Bob Spinelli | Guru Kid Songs: Recess Theme Song | "We Shall Not Be Moved" | "Jingle Bells" (Recess Version) | "The Otter Dance" | Bonky Theme Song |