Michelle Tanner

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Michelle Elizabeth Tanner (born November 18, 1986), portrayed by Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, was a character on the sitcom Full House. Michelle was the youngest of Pam and Danny Tanner's daughters, younger sister to D.J. Tanner and Stephanie Tanner. Common nicknames for Michelle include Shortie and Munchkin (by her Uncle Jesse Katsopolis) and Squirt Jr. (by Kimmy Gibbler, Squirt refers to Stephanie).

Michelle has a wild streak unlike any of the others, partly because she was not punished by her dad till she was almost four ("Crimes and Michelle’s Misdemeanor"). However, whereas a child would be uncontrollable without any timeout, revoked privileges, or anything else, Michelle was shown as generally well-behaved, and her main problem was a bad attitude, particularly in the later seasons - yet amusingly, one of her catch phrases was: "You got a bad attitude." Jesse and Joey never were seen to enforce rules - though it could be argued Jesse gave an occasional timeout in a chair, this is unlikely as he could barely bring himself to time out his children, because of how his father always screamed so much ("Tough Love").

In a real life situation, Michelle would have to have had someone set limits for her from the beginning. Older siblings, usually sisters, have been known to fill the role of disciplinarian when a single father is unwilling. So, it is quite plausible, and likely, that D.J. enforced things somewhat, which is shown in a number of episodes. In the episode "Lust in the Dust," when everyone is leaving the table so Danny get be alone with a potential lady friend, Michelle spouts, "I have to eat lunch in my room ‘cause D.J. said." So there is a history established of Michelle obeying D.J. She also obeys her even in "Crimes and Michelle's Misdemeanor," where D.J. tells her to rake up the mess she made, and she starts to do so without hesitation. Also, when Michelle does something naughty in that episode (dragging her wading pool inside and filling it and swimming in the kitchen) and gets sent to her room for the first time, Danny asks D.J. and Stephanie why they didn’t stop her. Since he appears to expect them to, D.J. may for whatever reason felt this was the right time to get her dad to start punishing Michelle.

Michelle was as well-behaved as most good four-year-olds, but from age five to six and a half was again quite wild. This may possibly be due to a desire on writer’s parts to cash in on the popularity of another child that age - Dennis the Menace. Like Hank Ketcham's Dennis, Michelle is never malicious, just fun-loving, carefree, and prone to doing things without thinking of the consequences. For instance, she sneaks out at night to see Danny on a date ("Bachelor of the Month"), breaks a dinosaur playing tag in a museum ("Please Don’t Touch the Dinosaur"), runs away once ("The Devil Made Me Do It"), and is defiant and bossy at times, such as when she is Princess for a Day at Walt Disney World ("The House Meets the Mouse"). This "Dennis the Menace" stage ends abruptly after season six, as Michelle suddenly matures, becomes quite obedient, and so on.

Danny corrects very little of her misbehavior, which irks some fans. However, the fact the behavior does not continue shows that, again, someone must have been correcting things. Fan speculation as to how much D.J. was involved in disciplining her is quite diverse. The only thing almost all fans agree upon is that D.J.'s own chores were involved in some way. This is based on the eighth season episode "All Stood Up," where we learn Michelle always loses dares for chores, and finally wins one here. D.J.'s character was never the kind to selfishly force her chores on her sisters, nor would Danny allow this. However, D.J. is the type who would win a dare for chores or privileges, then save those in reserve for whenever needed.

Michelle is athletic, but not nearly as much as Stephanie. She plays soccer and, in the book series, baseball/softball. She doesn’t have a love for dance like her older sisters. Instead, she’d rather just play around and have fun. In this way, she is much like the carefree Jesse, whom she copies quite a bit. Her language and phrases in the early years - "You got it, dude," "Duhhuh," and "Oh, puh-lease," most likely come from Jesse and his band, around whom she hangs a lot in the first few seasons. "You got a bad attitude," of course, is never said by the adults, but D.J. once refers to Jesse as "Uncle Bad Attitude," so it likely was copied from her scolding. "You’re in big trouble, mister" is another of her major phrases.

Michelle is a good student, though not a great one. The books based on the series depict her as more compassionate and much more of a leader in the years beyond the show’s end - she is fourth grade class president, in fact, in the "Michelle and Friends" series. This trait is among those that make it appear that the writers wanted her to take after her sisters and not after Jesse in books. As a matter of fact, while she never repeats Stephanie’s ubiquitous "how rude" in the TV series, she says or thinks it several times in the books.

In many episodes, Michelle is seen trying to do whatever she can to get ice cream or cookies. In one episode, she licked every single filling of each cookie that was in the cookie jar.

Michelle's trademark catch phrases include "You got it dude," "You're in big trouble, mister," "Aw, nuts!", "What a rip off!" and "Oh, puh-lease." Mary-Kate and Ashley played Michelle from the ages of nine months through eight years.

Full House
Episodes/Seasons
One | Two | Three | Four | Five | Six | Seven | Eight
Characters
Danny | Jesse | Joey | D.J. | Stephanie | Michelle | Becky Nicky and Alex | Kimmy | Comet | Steve
Other
Full House books | Full House Family Tree