Howard and Harold McBride

Characters

Howard and Harold McBride are famously overprotective parents to their son Clyde, rarely letting him out of their sight unless he is at school or with his friend Lincoln. Howard is the more anxious and emotional of the two, often needing his husband Harold to help him settle down. Harold, by contrast, is calm and direct. The couple shares a love for cats and owns two named Cleopawtra and Nepurrtiti.

A recurring joke involves their absurdly long and ever-growing list of past jobs and hobbies, which expands to fit whatever skill a story requires. When a Loud child learns something from either dad, they simply credit "Mr. McBride," leaving it unclear which one taught them. The one steady interest is Harold’s cooking, especially his Swiss chard frittatas, a favorite of Clyde’s. The McBrides act as a contrast to Lincoln’s parents, who are far less anxious despite raising eleven children.

Howard and Harold first appeared on screen in the episode "Overnight Success," where they drop Clyde off for a sleepover and Howard struggles to let him go. They were previously mentioned in "A Tale of Two Tables" and "Hand-Me-Downer," the first two full-length episodes of The Loud House released online.

Reception

Critical responses to the characters have been positive. Time reported in July 2016 that people were thrilled about Nickelodeon's decision to include a gay couple. Kaitlyn Hayes of PinkNews wrote that their portrayal in such a natural and accurate way still puts a huge smile on faces. Radio Times reported that Twitter gave rise to many overwhelmingly positive tweets about the couple.

Laura Bradley of Vanity Fair stated that The Loud House handles the topic of same-sex marriage in exactly the right way and that this kind of casual representation in children's programming is a milestone. De Elizabeth of Teen Vogue wrote that the best part is that the show does not treat these characters any differently or introduce them with a heavy asterisk about their marital status. The Friskys Tai Gooden noted that kids who have two dads will be thrilled to see a family they can identify with on TV.

The staff of Rotten Tomatoes expressed hopes that the two characters would continue to make prominent appearances. William Hughes of The A.V. Club stated that he viewed Howard and Harold as more significant than previous LGBT characters in children's media since they are recurring and not one-off characters. The vocal performances of Michael McDonald and Wayne Brady have also been positively reviewed; Bustles Jordana Lipsitz stated that the show could not have picked better actors to portray them.

The characters have been received well outside the United States: the French magazine Yagg stated that the McBrides were brilliantly brought into the plot and had conquered fans overseas, and the Spanish news site Fórmula TV wrote that the milestone is not only given by the sexual orientation and gender of the couple but also by their skin colors as an interracial marriage. Viacom Media Networks responded to the media's support by stating that they are 'Loud' and proud of their commitment to LGBT representation. However, the introduction of the characters resulted in some controversy and censorship of the series.