[edit] Biography

A hydrocephalic dwarf, Billy is co-founder of Conjectural Technologies with Pete White. Indicative of his nature, he goes by the moniker "boy genius" even though he is an adult. He also is something of a hopeless romantic, keeping his virginity until that special someone comes along, as was mentioned in Escape To The House of Mummies. Rounding out his unique appearance, Billy also has one eye and an artificial left arm that is highly mechanized and capable of letting him perform delicate surgery (Are You There God, It's Me Dean).

Currently, what Conjectural Technologies is and what it does is unknown. Their trailer doubles as their office. One known goal for them is an arch villain, preferably female (Tag Sale - You're It). In preparation for that event, Billy has already designed his "Quizboy costume".

In their friendship, Billy also tends to take the role of the more serious one, paying attention to the business, bills and dinner. Pete is more inclined to play computer games. Yet this unlikely duo does seem to get by in the world. They frequently argue over whom is the protagonist and who is the sidekick, resulting in them both being kidnapped in Any Which Way But Zeus.

It was revealed in The Silent Partners that their company made $10 Million when an mysterious trio called "The Investors" bought stock in Conjectural Technologies. This money turned out to be Billy's fee for transplanting King Gorilla's heart into Monstroso. They stood the risk of losing this money to the Monarch in Handsome Ransom but by Guild law the Monarch was forced to give it back after Dr. Venture rescued Hank before the Monarch could "return" him. He spent the night with Sergeant Hatred but seems to bear no memory of what took place. He is unaware of Hatred's deep attraction to him (because he looks like a child with the added bonus of being 35 and legal).

In season 4 he mentioned he has been kidnapped 5 times in so far that year to perform experimental surgery on others. This is something he seems fine with, accepting it as "his thing."

He and Pete have worked their ways deeply into Doc and Dean's psyches, taking on the roles of Eros and Thanatos in Doc's subconscious and Giant Boy Detective and The White One and in Dean's fantasy world.

[edit] Early Life

As seen in (The Invisible Hand of Fate), a young Billy Whalen began his series of unfortunate events as a contestant on the quiz game show Quizboys, hosted by Pete White. Pete (unknown to Billy) rigged the quiz show so that Billy would always win. When one of the other contestants noticed that Billy was cheating, the finger-pointing events that soon followed caused Billy and Pete White to both get kicked off the show and young Billy's hefty winnings were immediately frozen by the FCC. Billy and Pete sped out of the studio on a moped, hoping to gain a new living as Rusty Venture's scientific assistants but were denied the positions and instead traveled cross-country on their moped effectively making a living by participating the underground quiz circuit. After a long string of quizzing successes, Billy accidentally ended up in a different kind of underground ring (close to the border) and the vicious dog he was supposed to be fighting bit off his left hand and damaged his left eye. This final injustice sent him over the edge and he headed off on his own despite Pete's pleading and ineffective reasoning against it.

Shortly after that, Brock Samson and Hunter Gathers found him on the side of the road shaken and wounded so they took him back to the OSI HQ.There he had a frightful run in with "The Nozzle'" and shortly after was given a new bionic left eye that doubled as a 3-D laser matrix holographic camera to collect data, and a bionic left hand to store the data which his new bionic eye would gather. Brock and Hunter enrolled him in State University as an undercover agent. His task was to gain evidence to find out if Hamilton G. Fantomas, a professor at State University, was secretly a recruiter for the Guild of Calamitous Intent. Fantomas made Billy his graduate assistant due to the impressive essay turned in with Billy's name and after Billy's roommate "Stevie" (the previous assistant), was found dead in his dorm room closet. Fantomas revealed himself to have underdeveloped arms and legs due to a birth defect which he was hiding in prosthetic limbs and outfits that covered the entirety of his body. In order to make his shoddy limbs normal, Fantomas built a muscle-growth acceleration machine which he asked Billy to operate after "his" paper proved his supposed genius. Unfortunately, the paper was actually written by Stephen Hawking (the OSI called in a favor) so he didn't understand the concepts necessary to operate the machine.

When Fantomos tells Billy to check a crucial piece of machinery, Billy is forced to reveal that he knows nothing about this machine and that he cheated on the paper containing the written understanding of said machinery.When the machine generates an incredible amount of power that clearly exceeded the amount intended, Billy's electronic eye is ripped from its socket and causes an explosion which appears to kills Fantomos. Professor Fantomos secretly survived the volatile machine's spectacular explosion and it is proven that the machine worked better than intended due to his once deformed limbs enlarging to normal size and becoming invisible, giving him the incredible power to kill through touch. Due to these events, he dubs himself the "Phantom Limb" and sets off to become a super high ranking villain in the Guild of Calamitous Intent.

As punishment for Brock and Hunter's failure, an OSI superior who appears to be "Sgt. Hatred" before he turned evil (later seen donning a Guild ring) angrily explains to Brock Samson that Colonel Gathers was transferred to Guam and that Brock is now reassigned to be Dr. Venture's bodyguard. This puts a stop to the pair's attempts to expose the Guild. Billy's memory is wiped by the OSI and Brock delivers Billy to a disheveled Pete White.

[edit] Episode Appearances

• The Terrible Secret of Turtle Bay
• Tag-Sale -- You're It!
• Ice Station -- Impossible!
• Are You There God? It's Me, Dean
• A Very Venture Christmas
• Powerless in the Face of Death
• Escape to the House of Mummies Part II
• Victor. Echo. November.
• Showdown at Cremation Creek (Part 2) (as Giant Boy Detective)
• The Doctor is Sin
• The Invisible Hand of Fate
• The Buddy System
• Now Museum - Now You Don't!
• The Revenge Society
• The Better Man
• Pinstripes & Poltergeists
• The Diving Bell Vs. The Butter-glider
• Pomp & Circuitry
• Any Which Way But Zeus
• Everybody Comes to Hank's
• Assisted Suicide (as Eros)
• The Silent Partners
• Operation: P.R.O.M.
• A Very Venture Halloween

[edit] Fun Facts

The character is likely at least partially inspired by Quiz Kid Donnie Smith (played by William H. Macy) from the movie Magnolia, who was in turn inspired by various real life "whiz kids" from early TV quiz shows.

[edit] Gallery

• 

  In all his Quizboy glory

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  Road trip!

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  "It was a dog fight!"

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  Coming face to face with The Nozzle

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  Original Design from the Pilot

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  His incorrect origin according to The Monarch

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  His incorrect origin according to 21

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  "It is the most comfortable thing I have ever worn"

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  "Why don't you ever flush? It's like a bucket full of Payday bars in there"

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  Merry Chrishmesh

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  Result of "Reverse" on the Shrink Ray

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  as Giant Boy Detective in Dean's hallucination

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  So close

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  "You son of a bitch!"

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  "I just saw a child get disemboweled!"