David Karofsky is a recurring fictional character from the Fox musical comedy-drama series Glee. The character is portrayed by actor Max Adler, and has appeared in Glee since its first season episode "Mash-Up", first broadcast on October 21, 2009. Initially known only by his surname, Karofsky was introduced as a bully and a member of the McKinley High football team who slushies football captain Finn (Cory Monteith), and who teams with fellow athlete and bully Azimio (James Earl) to torment various fellow students, usually members of the school glee club, New Directions. Later in the season, he is identified as a member of the football team, and is a football player in the second season. Karofsky is revealed to be gay early in that season. He is closeted and remains so at the end of the season, though he has stopped bullying and has won the election for Junior Prom King. He transfers to another school for his senior year, but is outed there and attempts suicide after being bullied by his classmates, though he is saved by his father.
Karofsky was initially used as an ordinary jock bully, but Adler's acting impressed show co-creator Ryan Murphy; he expanded Karofsky's role in the show's second season by having him especially target gay glee club member Kurt Hummel (Chris Colfer), only to turn out to be gay himself, though closeted. That revelation sparked a wave of reaction from people who thought it was important for Glee to show "the confusion and the torture one person can put themselves through being closeted". Reviewers have been impressed with Adler's portrayal of Karofsky, including Michael Slezak of TVLine, who in the second season characterized it as "surprisingly nuanced" and with a "terrific amount of depth", and Billboard Rae Votta, who wrote in the third season, "As always, Kurt and Karofsky's scenes shine as the strongest in whichever episode they're featured."
Storylines In the first season of Glee, Karofsky appears in five episodes. He is a jock and a bully, initially a member of the McKinley High hockey team. He is first seen in the episode "Mash-Up", where he slushies football captain Finn Hudson (Cory Monteith). He reappears in "Mattress", teamed with football player Azimio (James Earl) and writes on Finn's face with black markers to demonstrate how they will deface the glee club's yearbook photo, which Karofsky does at the end of the episode. By "Theatricality" he is on the football team with Azimio and they shove Kurt Hummel (Chris Colfer) and Tina Cohen-Chang (Jenna Ushkowitz) against lockers for wearing Lady Gaga costumes—part of a glee club assignment—around school.
Karofsky is featured in the first eleven episodes of the second season continuing his bullying ways; in the sixth episode "Never Been Kissed", he especially targets Kurt who is gay. After he slams Kurt into a locker, Kurt chases after and confronts him and an increasingly agitated Karofsky abruptly grabs Kurt and kisses him. Before Karofsky can initiate a second kiss, a stunned Kurt shoves him away and Karofsky leaves. Kurt and his new gay friend Blaine Anderson (Darren Criss) later try to talk to him about being gay and closeted, but he denies that the kiss happened and soon resumes his bullying. He even threatens to kill Kurt if he tells anyone else about the kiss. Kurt's father Burt (Mike O'Malley) finds out about the threat but not the kiss, and at a meeting with Karofsky's father says that Kurt felt threatened. Karofsky is soon expelled but is allowed to return by the school board because no physical violence to Kurt had been witnessed. Scared, Kurt transfers to Dalton Academy to get away from him.
The football team has clinched a spot in the championship game, but animosity is running high between glee and non-glee members and harming the team's performance. In "The Sue Sylvester Shuffle", Coach Beiste (Dot-Marie Jones) and glee club director Will Schuester (Matthew Morrison) force the entire football team to join the glee club for a week to settle their differences and dispel their prejudices. Karofsky is praised by Will as a good performer and dancer but when the hockey team attacks the football team for their low-status glee club activities, Karofsky leads a walkout from the joint rehearsals by all the non-glee members, and Beiste kicks them off the team. On championship night, the team members—except for Karofsky—relent just before the half-time show which the team and glee club perform together. Karofsky joins in when he sees the crowd's positive reaction to the start of the half-time show, a mashup of "Thriller" and "Heads Will Roll"; the full team ultimately wins the game. Finn approaches Karofsky about joining the glee club and apologizing to Kurt, but Karofsky rejects his suggestion out of hand since the championship victory has him back on top of the social ladder.
Karofsky appears in three additional episodes later in the second season. Santana Lopez (Naya Rivera) decides in the episode "Born This Way" that she wants to become prom queen. She sees Karofsky and realizes he would be a credible prom king partner moments before she sees him checking out a male student's butt and also realizes he is as closeted as she is. She then blackmails him into teaming up with her as a pretend couple—beards—and starting an anti-bullying club, with the purpose of getting Kurt to return to McKinley and New Directions. Karofsky apologizes to Kurt for his bullying in a meeting with Will, Principal Figgins (Iqbal Theba) and their respective fathers Paul (Daniel Roebuck) and Burt. Kurt is happy to be able to transfer back. In "Prom Queen", Karofsky and Santana arrange to guard Kurt at school when they learn he will be bringing Blaine as his prom date; Karofsky tells Kurt, tearfully, that he is sorry for what he did to him. At the prom, Karofsky is voted prom king but Santana is not elected prom queen. Instead, an appalled Kurt is written in and wins. As they take the floor for the traditional prom king and queen dance, Kurt suggests that this is Karofsky's chance to come out and "make a difference" but Karofsky is not ready to do so and walks away.
He next appears in the third-season episode "The First Time". He has transferred to another high school from McKinley for his senior year, fearing that he might be outed if he stayed. He sees Kurt in a gay bar and tells Kurt he has become a regular there and feels accepted. He is Kurt's secret admirer for Valentine's Day in the episode "Heart" and after Kurt gently turns him down, he is recognized by a classmate who later spreads the word to others in the school that Karofsky is gay. In "On My Way", he is taunted and bullied by his athletic teammates and by others at school and using online media, so severely that he attempts to hang himself, but is saved by his father in time. Kurt visits Karofsky in the hospital where Karofsky tells Kurt his best friend never wants to see him again and how his mother thinks he has a disease and can be "cured". Karofsky, in tears the whole time, again apologizes to Kurt saying he made Kurt's life hell but he couldn't handle it himself. The two agree to become friends.
In the fifth season he appears in a nightmare Rachel has about her opening night of Funny Girl. In the sixth season, Karofsky has calmed down and is dating Blaine but when he finds out that Blaine still loves Kurt they break up on good terms. Karofsky appeared in the series finale at the end where he joined the entirety of the Glee club on stage for their final performance.
Development
Dave Karofsky is played by actor Max Adler, who first appeared in the first season episode "Mash-Up", initially as a member of the William McKinley High School hockey team. Karofsky began as a background character who tormented members of the glee club, and was known only by his surname. So far as Adler knew, his role was for a single episode only, but he returned once more before the first half of the first season ended, and then three times in the nine episodes of the second half of that season. The last of these, "Theatricality", written and directed by series co-creator Ryan Murphy, proved to be pivotal: Murphy was impressed with his acting and wanted to write more for him.
Although Karofsky begins the second season as an ordinary jock bully, Murphy hinted to Adler that there would be more in store for the character. According to Adler, Murphy approached him at the second-season premiere and said, we just wrote some really good stuff for you for episode six'." The actor recalls, "I had no idea what that meant, until I read it!" Adler had long wondered why his character behaved the way he did: "I thought there's got to be a reason why he's so angry, why he's such a bully, why he's going out of his way to make other people's lives a living hell". Although he had considered various ideas for Karofsky—"maybe he was jealous of the glee club, maybe he was gay, maybe a million different things"—when he got the script for that episode he "was just as shocked as anybody else" when his character kissed Kurt, though he "thought it was so awesome that they would allow this character to go there."
There was a strong reaction from the show's viewers. Adler said, "I've heard from a lot of fans how important this character is for them because it's important to watch the internal struggle, the confusion and the torture one person can put themselves through being closeted." He wants Karofsky to "accept himself and come out because [he thinks] it would be a beacon of hope for everyone else who's struggling", and noted, "people do get hope from Glee." He also said, "I think [Ryan Murphy] trusts me to do what I'm doing with the character, which is one heck of a compliment from him." Murphy has indicated a preference for positive future developments, and said in early January 2011, "This show is by nature optimistic and I think a character like Karofsky could turn to booze or pills or alcohol and kill themselves or do something dark. But I also love Max and I love that character and I sorta want that character to have a happy ending." At one point in the bullying storyline, Karofsky threatens to kill Kurt, a scene that Adler characterized as "very powerful. Chilling, terrifying, horrifying, yet, at the same time, heartbreaking. ... Because there are kids who have messaged me since that episode saying they used to hear that line spoken to them day in and day out at school", and they dreaded school because of it.