Lynn L. Loud Sr. and Rita Loud (née Reynolds) are the parents of Lincoln Loud and his ten sisters in the Nickelodeon animated series The Loud House. Lynn Sr., the family cook and the namesake of their fifth-oldest daughter, is a stern father who often steps in to call a halt to his kids' fights, but he loves and cares about them, and sometimes takes part in their antics for fun. He is quite skilled at cooking, to the point that he left his original job as an information technologist to pursue his dream job of becoming a full-time chef, eventually opening his own restaurant, Lynn's Table, at the end of the show's third season. Rita, who works as a dental assistant and later as a newspaper columnist, also cares very much for her children, but is not afraid to punish them if they go too far. She and her husband act playfully romantic toward each other, though she is apparently more level-headed than him. In the show's first season, their faces were never fully shown onscreen.
Appearances in Christmas specials
The Loud House
In the animated series' second season premiere and Christmas episode, "11 Louds a Leapin'", Lynn Sr. bakes his homemade figgy pudding, which is shown to have a really bad smell, and asks his kids if they'd like to taste it, though none of them want to. Eventually, Lola, trying to be as nice as she can for Santa Claus, volunteers to taste it. Meanwhile, Rita is busy decorating the house, saying that she'd like to have a bigger fireplace to hang all the stockings on. As a running gag, she keeps asking where her decorations are, unaware of Leni having used them as material for Christmas outfits. Later, Lynn Sr. and Rita accompany their kids in bringing Christmas cheer to their lonely neighbor, Mr. Grouse, during which their faces are shown onscreen for the first time in the show's run.
In the online-exclusive Loud House short "12 Days of Christmas", in which the Loud family sings their version of the titular song, Lynn Sr. and Rita sing the last two gifts in the verse distribution. Lynn Sr.'s line is "eleven smelly diapers," referring to his having to change Lily's diapers, while Rita's line is "twelve Louds a-looking," in reference to her husband and their kids peeking at their Christmas presents.
Lynn Sr. and Rita with their kids in "Season's Cheatings".
Lynn Sr. and Rita have a minor role in the fifth-season episode "Season's Cheatings", in which it is revealed that they organize an annual family gift exchange for their kids. Lincoln explains at the beginning of the episode that Lynn Sr. and Rita are the ones who actually buy the gift that is supposedly from the youngest child, Lily, since she's too young to buy a gift herself. Therefore, Lincoln, who's hoping to get a Rip Hardcore backpack, rigs the gift-swap so that Lily draws his name from the hat. However, Lynn Sr. and Rita then announce that Lily's going to make a homemade gift this year, forcing Lincoln to change his plans.
In the other half of the episode, "A Flipmas Carol", Lynn Sr. shows up at Flip's Food & Fuel on Christmas Eve, needing to purchase ingredients for Christmas dinner after having been busy working at his restaurant all day. Flip sells him some very questionable victuals that are clearly way past their expiration date. Later that night, when the Ghosts of Christmas Present (played by Lincoln and Clyde) are showing Flip how his scams have affected his customers, we see Lynn Sr. attempting to serve a turkey dinner for his family, only for it to explode in the kitchen. At the end of the episode, the reformed Flip gives Lynn Sr. a fresh turkey.
Lynn Sr., Rita, and their kids also had a cameo at the very end of The Casagrandes episode "A Very Casagrandes Christmas". In it, Lynn Sr. and Rita, along with their kids, go to pick up their oldest daughter, Lori, from college on Christmas Eve, but their car, Vanzilla, breaks down, so they come to the Casagrandes' apartment to spend the evening.
Lynn Sr. and Rita only have minor parts in the main show's next Christmas episode, "Snow Escape". At the beginning of the episode, Lynn Sr. is seen shoveling the walk in front of the house. However, when he realizes that today is "packing day", a day when Lynn Jr. turns into a snowball-throwing beast, he is forced to take shelter in Vanzilla. Rita tells her kids that Lynn Sr. can drive them to school to avoid the snowball attacks, but then Lynn Jr. pops the tires on Vanzilla, forcing the other kids to walk to school. Lynn Sr. and Rita are not seen again until the end of the episode.
Lynn Sr. refuses to celebrate Christmas with his brother Lance in "Twas the Fight Before Christmas".
Lynn Sr. has a significant part in the show's next Christmas episode, "Twas the Fight Before Christmas", which focuses on the long-standing rivalry between him and his older brother Lance, who had previously only appeared as a silhouette in a flashback. It is revealed here that the reason for said rivalry is because, five years earlier, Lance, in a mischievous mood, snatched Lynn Sr.'s new spatula during a White Elephant gift exchange, and in Lynn Sr.'s attempt to get the spatula back, they ended up popping Lance's exercise ball. As a result, the two brothers refused to ever see each other again; for this reason, Lynn Sr. is always faking a back injury to get out of seeing his brother every Christmas (though the viewers were not made aware of this in the previous Christmas episodes). In a plan to get the two men to reconcile, Lincoln and his sisters, along with Lance's three kids, arrange for them to reunite at Camp Mastodon, the campsite that Lynn Sr. and Lance's father Leonard now runs. Needless to say, the two Loud fathers are not happy upon finding out about this arrangement. Rita, on the other hand, does not share her husband's animosity and is just happy to see Lance's family again.
In the film A Loud House Christmas Movie: Naughty or Nice, Lynn Sr. and Rita accompany their kids to the North Pole in order to return Santa Claus to normal after Lincoln accidentally turns him into an evil supervillain. At the start of the film, during the Louds' annual visit to Gingerhausen, Rita buys a Donatello nutcracker to complete her Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles nutcracker collection and works on fixing it when she sees that it is not actually in mint condition like the seller claimed. Meanwhile, Lynn Sr. goes looking for ingredients for his figgy pudding and acquires a special ingredient from the North Pole. This ingredient comes in handy in the climax, where it is revealed that the ingredient is none other than Christmas magic.
Rita stars without Lynn Sr. in the B-plot of the show's latest Christmas episode, "Merry Diss-mas". Her subplot focuses on her wanting to win Royal Woods' house-decorating contest, which she has continually lost to Linda Fox every year. (This was never mentioned in any of the show's previous Christmas episodes, but given how much the Loud house has been decorated for Christmas in said episodes, it's possible that Rita has indeed been trying and failing to win this contest offscreen during those events.) Near the end of the episode, when Rita learns that the Louds finally won the contest this year, she celebrates in a manner of showboating much like the kind her fifth-oldest daughter Lynn Jr. typically indulges in.
The Really Loud House
Lynn Sr. and Rita as they appear in A Loud House Christmas.
Lynn Sr. and Rita made their live-action debut in A Loud House Christmas. When three of their older daughters have plans to be away for Christmas, Lynn Sr. and Rita decide to take the rest of their kids on a vacation to Miami. However, they are forced to cancel their vacation plans after seeing the news about the attack of a "sharkodile" (thanks to a video hoax by Lincoln and Clyde); this saddens the both of them, as they don't think they could possibly take a trip like this until they have both retired. When Lisa creates a sharkodile repellant, Lincoln accidentally sprays Lynn Sr. with it, causing him to act loopy for about an hour, while Rita goes to pick up Lori (who's coming home from college for the holiday) after Bobby's delivery moped runs out of gas. In the end, Lincoln confesses everything to his parents and sisters, and Lynn Sr. and Rita ultimately decide to take the trip after all, but not before celebrating Christmas at home beforehand.