[1] By the mid 16th century May Games were becoming increasingly bawdy, and in one play Robin even gives Marian to Friar Tuck as a concubine: "She is a trul of trust, to serue a frier at his lust/a prycker a prauncer a terer of shetes/a wagger of ballockes when other men slepes.

[3] In addition, multiple historical references to eremitic hermits unallied with formal orders have been noted, among them Eustace the Monk (a medieval outlaw) and Robert of Knaresborough who was contemporaries with Richard I.

However, most commonly, Tuck is depicted as a fat, balding monk with a good sense of humour and a great love of food and ale, often together.

In the 1891 romantic opera Ivanhoe by Sir Arthur Sullivan and Julian Sturgis, Friar Tuck was played by Avon Saxon.

In the film, The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) the character Friar Tuck was played by actor Eugene Pallette as a fat individual fond of food but also skilled with a sword.

In the late 1950s British television series The Adventures of Robin Hood, he was played by Alexander Gauge as a fat friar a tad too devoted to good eating.

He is also clearly devoted to the Church and the poor people he serves, using his wits to spare them unjust taxes, provide them education or shelter them from harm.

for a vignette that played during each episode depicting him in front of a large feast, taking a single bite of each piece of food on the table before throwing it over his shoulder.

[citation needed] In Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Tuck was played by Mike McShane, drawing heavily on the overweight, ale-loving interpretation.

The Mel Brooks film Robin Hood: Men in Tights parodies the character as "Rabbi Tuckman," a self-described "purveyor of sacramental wine and mohel extraordinaire."

[citation needed] In the 1991 film adaptation Robin Hood, Friar Tuck (played by Jeff Nuttall) is portrayed as an itinerant seller of phony relics, who is first mugged and then adopted by the Merry Men.

In the 1997 film The Lost World, the second movie in the Jurassic Park franchise, big game hunter Roland Tembo refers to a Pachycephalosaurus as Friar Tuck.

In the 2004 DreamWorks film Shrek 2 the Fairy Godmother and Prince Charming take King Harold to a fast food restaurant called "Friar's Fat Boy".

In the VeggieTales show, Robin Good and His Not-So-Merry Men, Archibald Asparagus portrays a version of him named Friar Cluck.

She notes that he fits into the Robin Hood story as one of the classic archetypes or stereotypes; here, of "a laudatory example of Christian clergyman", remembered for qualities such as "joy and good fellowship", a role for which he became immortalized in popular culture since.

She compared him to characters such as Santa Claus, Falstaff or Winnie the Pooh, calling him "our 'belly cheer', our Lord of Misrule, our occasional defiance of authority, our spirit of seasonal joy".