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The real stuffed toys owned by Christopher Robin and featured in the Winnie-the-Pooh stories. Eeyore is top right

Eeyore is a character in the book series Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne. He is a pessimistic, gloomy, old stuffed donkey who is a friend of Winnie the Pooh. Eeyore's name is a phonetic representation of the donkey's bray: an onomatopoeia, possibly derived from the baby talk name for the animal.

Physically, Eeyore is described as an "old grey donkey". In Ernest H. Shepard's illustrations, he appears to be about waist-high to Pooh and about knee-high to Christopher Robin. He has a long tail, of which he is very fond, but also prone to losing. (Owl once mistakes it for a bell-rope.) Christopher Robin is able to reattach the tail with a nail.

Eeyore is apparently able to write, or at least recognize letters such as the letter A that he teaches to Piglet in the fifth chapter of The House at Pooh Corner. He spells his own name "eoR" when signing the "rissolution" that the animals give to Christopher Robin as a farewell present in the final chapter of The House at Pooh Corner. Eeyore also wrote the awkwardly-rhymed poem called, "POEM", which appeared on the "rissolution", making him the only character in the Winnie-the-Pooh books other than Pooh himself who attempts to write poetry. Eeyore is also surprisingly good at the game Poohsticks, winning more times than anyone else when it is played in the sixth chapter of House at Pooh Corner.

Eeyore lives in the southeast corner of the Hundred Acre Wood, in an area labeled "Eeyore's Gloomy Place" on the map in the book. He has a stick house there, called the House at Pooh corner, which Pooh and Piglet built for him after accidentally mistaking the original house that Eeyore built for a pile of sticks.

Eeyore's favorite food is thistles.

Eeyore appears in chapters IV, VI, VIII, and X of Winnie-the-Pooh, and is mentioned in a few others. He also appears in all the chapters of The House at Pooh Corner except chapter VII.

Eeyore's "birthday" is December 25, 1921, the date when Christopher Robin Milne received a stuffed toy donkey as a Christmas present.

Eeyore, as depicted by Disney

Eeyore also appears in the Winnie the Pooh cartoons which were popularized by Disney studios. In the Disney's cartoon, he was originally voiced by the late Ralph Wright (who was also a major writer for Disney); his current voice actor is Peter Cullen.

Eeyore is often used as a beast of burden in the cartoons, most notably when he was ridden by Rabbit in his search for train "borrowers" in The Tigger Without A Name and The Pooh With A Name. Nearly all of Eeyore's houses in the cartoons have fallen down, been knocked down, or been bounced down. Eeyore is not good at rebuilding the houses; butterflies often knock them down just by landing on them. Yet, like tortured Sisyphus, he soldiers on and rebuilds again, time after time.

Despite his depressive nature, Eeyore is capable of great compassion, which is shown when he grows a plant that Rabbit, a master gardener, was unable to grow, just by showing the plant a little love.

In merchandise by The Walt Disney Company, Eeyore sometimes has an uncharacteristic smile. Also, he is somewhat less caustic and sarcastic in the Disney version than in A. A. Milne's original stories. It must also be noted that Eeyore's tail was not always fixed to him by a pushpin, although Disney has chosen this as part of his permanent image. Eeyore lost his tail in one of Milne's stories. Owl found it and used it as a bell pull for his door, before Winnie the Pooh found it for Eeyore. Christopher Robin then pinned it back on. According to Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree, this was possible because Eeyore is full of sawdust.

His catchphrase is "Thanks for noticin' me."

The difference between Milne's and Disney's portrayals of Eeyore may be due to a difference between British and American culture. The original Eeyore is very British, embodying as he does a mixture of pessimism, stoicism, sarcasm and cynicism, all qualities common to the stereotypical British character. Moreover he expresses these attitudes in dry, deadpan humour, again typically British. In her book Watching the English, author Kate Fox lists 'Eeyorishness' as a fundamental English characteristic.

Eeyore has also been featured in a number of movies: "Piglet's Big Movie", "The Tigger Movie" and "Pooh's Heffalump Movie".

Eeyore also appears as a character in the game Kingdom Hearts. In the game, Eeyore (イーヨー, Īyō^?) is a depressed donkey who lives in the 100 Acre Wood. He has no permanent dwelling, and his only shelter is an arranged set of sticks that are always being knocked down. He also constantly misplaces his tail, which is only attached to him by a small nail that keeps slipping out. He goes about with a pessimistic attitude, never really seeing the bright side. However, he is never unwilling to help and he takes life almost stoically in stride. He is voiced by Gregg Berger in the English versions and Taro Ishida in the Japanese versions.

In more cynical workplaces such as newspaper newsrooms or universities, a co-worker who is constantly a source of depressing and incongruous commentary is sometimes secretly referred to as "Eeyore." Eeyore is also the subject of a long-standing celebration in Austin, Texas called Eeyore's Birthday Party.

In the episode of Pinky and the Brain, Brainy the Poo, Al Gore is parodied in the episode with the animators drawing him imposed on Eeyore's body; thereby making the satirical parallel that Al Gore is just as monotonous, pessimistic and depressing as Eeyore. He is also shown to be full of hot air.

In music, Slipknot recorded a song called "Eeyore" although the song appears to have little to do with Eeyore or any of his character traits.

In the Vicar of Dibley episode "The Handsome Stranger", the Vicar sets up a book club, but no one reads the selected book. In an attempt to stop the evening from being a total disaster, the Vicar decides to discuss the one book that everyone has read: The Many Adventures of Winnie The Pooh. The discussion seems to centre around Eeyore and his depressive nature.

Eeyore is sometimes referred to as the first 'emo'^{[citation needed]}.

Heptathlete Carolina Klüft has Eeyore as her mascot.