biff n' his boys

welcome everyone, to perhaps the nichest, most obscure group of characters i have ever fallen in love with. i present: biff tannen, 3-D, and slick.

obviously, biff tannen is the famous antagonist of the back to the future movie trilogy. you can even spot 3-D in the background of some shots. but the specific version of these goofs i'm obsessed with is their appearance in back to the future: the musical. even more specific, the versions played by nathaniel hackmann, will branner, and daryl tofa respectively.

although shout out to early west end goons, played by shane o'riordan and will haswell, because some of their choreography is the queerest thing i've ever laid my eyes upon.

i've written many fanfics about these goofballs. if you want a detailed timeline for said fics, check out the 'lessons learned' timeline.

because they're so obscure, i get to infodump to you about each of them! yippee!

canonical info

biff tannen

the man, the myth, the legendary bully who doesn't know his metaphors. played by nathaniel hackmann, his character in the musical is very similar to his movie persona. except if you go digging, you can find two cut songs that flesh out his backstory and give him motivation for his actions. these songs are it's what i do and good at being bad (links go to tumblr posts with lyrics and extra info)

of course, i recognize that these songs were cut because they risk the audience sympathizing with biff. he's the villain! he does things that shouldn't be copied, especially by young kids that might see the show. it serves the story to remove them.

however. my silly little fanfic world that i write for fun isn't meant for public consumption on the level of a west end/broadway musical. when i write biff as a man with trauma, who's made terrible mistakes but is still allowed friendship and kindness, i'm not excusing his actions in the show. i'm exploring what the aftermath of those mistakes might look like.

3-D

the silly goof, played by will branner! he wears 3D glasses all the time, no matter what. if you ignore the fact that it's definitely supposed to be a physical comedy moment, there's a part right before teach him a lesson that shows he has esotropia (crossed eyes) behind the glasses.

slick

combined from the characters match and skinhead from the movies, slick was originally played by daryl tofa on broadway. he constantly has a toothpick/match in his mouth, and holds his hands very autistically near his belt. because both daryl and his current actor, aaron alcaraz, are filipino, i'm declaring that slick is filipino and there's nothing you can do to stop me.

headcanons

i think about these guys too much. if you've read this far down the page, you know this by now.

• 3-D's father works in pest control and slick's father is a scientist working with asbestos. this is based off their actors playing those roles in cake!
• biff's father left his family on christmas, so biff hates that holiday
• slick and 3-D both have large families with many siblings, but biff only has his mom & grandma
• "slick" is a nickname given by one of his aunts because as a kid, he'd always rub his hands over his hair like he was slicking it back
• all three of them are autistic. to me.
• 3-D mostly struggles with sensory issues, he wears the glasses to help with the overwhelm
• slick struggles more with motor skills (he has raptor hands at his belt buckle most of the time, he’s constantly stimming with the toothpick in his mouth)
• biff obviously has trouble with metaphors, and good at being bad shows he's naturally hyperempathetic and needs things to be done a Particular Way
• after the whole calvin klein thing 3-D and slick befriend lorraine & george. in the new 1985 they’re marty’s weird gay uncles
• george showed some of his comics to 3-D and they bond over loving sci-fi

3-D/slick are gay for each other

listen. i don't really have any "proof" i just think i'm right. okay? okay.

• they don’t realize they're in love until way too late. they hold hands, go on dates, everything, they just say it’s because they’re “best friends”
• slick is gay and 3-D is bi. it took slick until high school to realize his buddies weren’t joking when they said girls were “hot”
• the movies is Their Spot
• obviously 3-D and slick are not their real names, but they might as well be because literally everyone calls them that. most of their peers have forgotten what their actual names are
• they both prefer their nicknames anyway
• in 1985, they own one of the first franchised blockbusters
• in 2015 their blockbuster is the last one in the world. there's a pride flag hanging in the window

favorite moments

this is basically just a list of everything they do in the whole musical because they only have around 20 minutes of stage-time. but this is my shrine i can do what i want. they also might not do these things in every single performance, it's just what i noticed when i saw the show myself (and a particular video of it).

also see the latter half of my notes from my latest visit!