Characters from Sitcoms you find annoying

[bgmnts]

In defence of Fünke, Analrapist is one of the hardest I've laughed at a joke that isn't The Simpsons.

[Cuellar]

The two brothers from Friday Night Dinner.

Yeah definitely. I find the level of conflict between them to be almost unbearable - imagine actually living like that.

[Voltan (Man of Steel)]

Frasier's weird in that I think I like all of the characters.

I couldn't really take to him myself.

[Voltan (Man of Steel)]

.

[Chollis]

I couldn't really take to him myself.

Is that Daphne's brother? I never got that far in, watched about 6-7 seasons I think.

[Voltan (Man of Steel)]

Yes, Daphne's brother Simon. He was presumably meant to be a Mancunian like his sister, but Australian actor Anthony LaPaglia played him with a mangled cockney accent for some reason.

[coinneach]

Peggy Hill. Annoyingly boring

[sutin]

Monica from Friends. A million times more annoying than Phoebe. Can't stand her.

[Lemming]

Kryten. Not always but pretty often. He detracted a lot from the original dynamic of Rimmer and Lister together with the Cat just wandering around doing his own thing, which I think made for a better show. Robert Llewellyn is ace though.

Jim from Friday Night Dinner started to get pretty wearing over the course of the many series. The obligation to have him show up in every single episode, even when the plot would flow far better without him, started to undermine the show and made it pretty tedious to watch in parts. He also gradually went from being believably weird and unnerving to being an outright caricature which isn't that funny and jars heavily against the rest of the characters who remain relatively grounded. I hope he's toned way down in the upcoming series. Again, though, Mark Heap is ace.

[sutin]

Jim from Friday Night Dinner started to get pretty wearing over the course of the many series. The obligation to have him show up in every single episode, even when the plot would flow far better without him, started to undermine the show and made it pretty tedious to watch in parts. He also gradually went from being believably weird and unnerving to being an outright caricature which isn't that funny and jars heavily against the rest of the characters who remain relatively grounded. I hope he's toned way down in the upcoming series. Again, though, Mark Heap is ace.

Agreed. I actually cringed at most of his appearances in the last series. Imagine cringing at Mark Heap.

[Len Pounds]

With a lot of the suggestions here the characters are fine for the first few series, but the longer a show runs there is so often a tendency for the humour to become broader and the characters to be reduced to a few exaggerated traits.

[Pearly-Dewdrops Drops]

Mrs Doyle from Father Ted, I regret to say.

[Brundle-Fly]

Said this before on here but Margaret from One Foot In The Grave.  Her toxic jealousy and how humourless she is with Victor. He grumbles a bit but at least he's witty and sometimes profound with it. Half the crappy things that happen to him are not his fault, he's surrounded by arseholes so cut him some slack, you pepper faced old bag.

[The Culture Bunker]

Yes, Daphne's brother Simon. He was presumably meant to be a Mancunian like his sister, but Australian actor Anthony LaPaglia played him with a mangled cockney accent for some reason.

I might be remembering wrong, but I don't think Richard E Grant's "Northern" accent was much better. Robbie Coltrane's was a bit better, but the only time anyone on the show got the accent right was when Martin did an impression of Daphne. Which of course wasn't too hard for him to do.

[Misspent Boners]

Agreed. I actually cringed at most of his appearances in the last series. Imagine cringing at Mark Heap.

I cant help feel that maybe Friday Night Dinner has began playing to its audience of unilads with whom the show seems very popular

[Blue Jam]

Stewie from Family Guy. Actually, everyone from Family Guy, but mainly Stewie.

[Poirots BigGarlickyCorpse]

Nah I think Rick is meant to be an arsehole, clever enough to see what an arsehole he is and why but without the emotional capacity to not be. The whole point, to me, is being nice is better than being clever but being clever allows you to justify your not being nice but that is just a cop-out and taking the easy option.

Yeah, I understand that part, and I have a friend who's a fan and explained that as the show goes on we see that Rick is really troubled and fucked up emotionally, but...

Let me put it this way. When I told my sister last year that I'd gotten into BoJack Horseman, she said "...really? But you hate Rick and Morty and aren't they similar? People compare them a lot." And the difference is that with BoJack, even though it takes maybe six or seven episodes before the writers start showing how his selfish destructive behaviour impacts on the people around him, there's something intrinsically pathetic about him right from the start. When we meet him in 2014, he's an actor who had one big hit and hasn't worked properly since that show ended. He is, in Diane's words, a one trick pony. That's relatable, especially in today's era of "Celebrity" vehicles featuring some goon who was on telly twenty years ago who you barely remember. And as the show progresses the people around him get frustrated with him and fed up of him until one by one they eventually either cut him off completely or pull way back on the relationship. You aren't supposed to admire BoJack or emulate him and the show gets really fucking meta with this concept in season 5. We're shown his shitty childhood and his horrible mother and father but that's never presented as an excuse for his behaviour. The show always positions him as the architect of his own misfortune while allowing you to empathise with him.

Whereas, in the three episodes of Rick and Morty (a much smaller sample size I admit) I've seen, it's always shit like "LOL if Rick was in Needful Things he'd clock that the shopkeeper was the devil immediately, isn't the girl one stupid for not listening to her genius grandpa" "I'll make the dog super intelligent, that'll teach my son-in-law to run his fucking mouth" "Wow look how well this old guy plays this videogame, how amazing". He's just an unpleasant, arrogant, drunken jackass who thinks the whole world is beneath him. And idk, maybe it's because it's more culturally acceptable now to distance yourself from relatives instead of suffering them, or maybe it's because "genius grandparent" isn't a common thing in real life, but I don't understand why the wife (the wife is his daughter I think) would allow her alcoholic asshole father to live in her house, where her children are, being visibly drunk all day, dragging her son into his lunacy and disrespecting her husband. More than that, Rick is so unpleasant, and Morty's screams and gibbers are so GRATING, that I don't care to find out why.

Oh and just so we're clear and no-one feels attacked by some rando's opinion on the Internet, I'm not saying R&M fans are bad or stupid for liking it. It's not my cup of tea and so I don't watch it or fight with fans of it online.

Stewie from Family Guy. Actually, everyone from Family Guy, but mainly Stewie.

The funniest moments in Family Guy now are when Stewie acts like a baby and Brian acts like a dog. But fuck Brian though. He is utterly insufferable. The incongruity of a sophisticated talking dog was funny when the show began but now he's a womanising creep and the only one who calls him out on his general douchebaggery is the rapist.  Which, idk, maybe that means you're not supposed to take the calling out seriously?

[chveik]

Peggy Hill. Annoyingly boring

wrong

[Psmith]

Amazing that my favourite sit-com ,Frasier, has so many characters I dislike.
All of Daphne's family  for a start and I'm not too keen on her either.
All the characters in Friends should be shot.

[Deyv]

Kryten. Not always but pretty often. He detracted a lot from the original dynamic of Rimmer and Lister together with the Cat just wandering around doing his own thing, which I think made for a better show. Robert Llewellyn is ace though.

Arguably the original dynamic has run its course by the end of series 2. The character didn't really come together in series 3 although The Last Day was great, but Kryten is the best part of the show by the sixth series, although he is the worst part of the seventh. The opening scene in Rimmerworld with Llewellyn and Barrie is amazing because of their performances. I love the dynamic between Kryten and Rimmer and how it develops. Then Rob Grant left and the show shat on everything I loved about it. Still, it seems to be doing...okay these days. Mind you, the bit in that series twelve one where Kryten manipulates Rimmer into mopping the flaws is an absolute embarrassment of an opening. You're right about Robert Llewellyn being ace though.

If I had to choose a Red Dwarf character I find annoying (and I do), it would be Captain Hollister when they brought him back to ruin his character and have him spend twenty minutes recapping the previous episode because Doug Naylor doesn't know how to pace a script.

I thought JD in Scrubs was great in the first half of season one, when he's learning the ropes and not so arrogant. But yeah, he gets more annoying as the show goes on in the same way Homer gets a bit more stupid every year?

[Deyv]

Oh and just so we're clear and no-one feels attacked by some rando's opinion on the Internet, I'm not saying R&M fans are bad or stupid for liking it. It's not my cup of tea and so I don't watch it or fight with fans of it online.

They're not necessarily bad but they are stupid. I didn't mind Rick and Morty and was quite excited for the fourth season for a while but I have lost interest and haven't bothered. I saw this Renegade Cut video which did point out genuine flaws with the show, but I kind of think "I'm not a child, I don't need the show to tell me that Rick's an awful character." I see Rick as a reaction against a certain type of TV character more than anything else. A starting point along the lines of, what if the Doctor was actually irredeemably awful? Turns out there isn't a whole lot of mileage in that sort of approach for me. Some interesting ideas and funny moments in the show, though.

But, like I said, entirely lost interest in it now. Bojack Horseman I haven't lost interest in exactly but I haven't watched the last two seasons. I really need to get to doing that.

Frasier's version of English people is awful, and that episode where he goes to Daphne's pub and takes over is complete dog shit except for when he runs away shouting, "I spell colour with a 'u'!" Last line redeems it. Nothing redeems Daphne's family.

[timebug]

I was talked into watching 'Brooklyn Nine Nine' by my grandaughter. I found it okay in a mildly amusing way, except for the really irritating character played by Chelsea Peretti in the first few series. Her character just did not seem to fit in with the group dynamic that was being created by the rest of the cast. Okay,it's a shite american sitcom, but it passes twenty minutes when I am otherwise at a loose end!

[Obel]

I love Peretti's character. It's Boyle I have absolutely no time for. Everything about him is irritating and I don't think I've ever laughed at his antics.

[TheBrownBottle]

Tim from The Office is one for me.  I just don't see the 'Everyman' in him - he just comes across as a bitter, bullying letch.  Creeping after the office secretary, cowardly bullying of the office idiot (he doesn't apply his 'hilarious' wit against anyone who is above him/could chin him), whining about completely solvable issues.  He's as big a bully as Finchy, except Finchy would probably be occasionally entertaining on a night on the piss.

Loads have mentioned this above, but the entire Moon clan in Frasier.  Particularly her mother - I know the show declined, but the series where she's a permanent cast member (Season 9?) is unwatchable.  Actually, Frasier has a few of these.  I always felt unsure about Gil Chesterton - the character is unbelievable and feels a bit dodgy for me; though it didn't take much for the same bloke to play Noel Coward in Goodnight Sweetheart, given that is who Chesterton basically is.

The Kochanski character reboot in Red Dwarf VII killed the show - and I quite liked Red Dwarf.  So that was pretty annoying.

EDIT:  whilst I'm aware he's meant to be annoying, William Pitt the Even Younger is exponentially more annoying than intended in Blackadder the Third.  Yet I still love that episode.

[C_Larence]

Ed Helms in The Office US. I pretty much hated every character by the end, but Andy was consistently irritating.

Aziz Ansari in Parks & Rec. For being a whiny cunt.

[thenoise]

Said this before on here but Margaret from One Foot In The Grave.  Her toxic jealousy and how humourless she is with Victor. He grumbles a bit but at least he's witty and sometimes profound with it. Half the crappy things that happen to him are not his fault, he's surrounded by arseholes so cut him some slack, you pepper faced old bag.

Yes.  Barely listens to her husband's (usually) reasonable grumbles, belittles his attempts to better himself, blames him for everything bad that happens to him, etc.  And when she has an 'almost' affair with the 'I don't know what is worse than bad champagne' guy, she was a much put off by the fact that he irritated her than out of any loyalty to Victor.  Half of Victor's suffering could be avoided if she weren't so cowardly and embarrassed that he has to cover up every situation he ends up in.

In the last episode

Spoiler alert

if she did kill Victor's killer, it's only because she finally realises what a good person he was once he is actually gone.  She didn't give a hoot about him getting a soaking walking home due to covering up embarrassment, etc.

[close]

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

All the characters in Curb Your Enthusiasm who completely overreact to whatever innocuous thing Larry has done that week. Richard Lewis just in general.

[TheBrownBottle]

Yes.  Barely listens to her husband's (usually) reasonable grumbles, belittles his attempts to better himself, blames him for everything bad that happens to him, etc.  And when she has an 'almost' affair with the 'I don't know what is worse than bad champagne' guy, she was a much put off by the fact that he irritated her than out of any loyalty to Victor.  Half of Victor's suffering could be avoided if she weren't so cowardly and embarrassed that he has to cover up every situation he ends up in.

In the last episode

Spoiler alert

if she did kill Victor's killer, it's only because she finally realises what a good person he was once he is actually gone.  She didn't give a hoot about him getting a soaking walking home due to covering up embarrassment, etc.

[close]

I always thought that the episode 'Rearranging the Dust' where they talk about meeting at a party is heart-wrenching.  Margaret laughing about actually wanting to cop off with someone else, and Victor telling her she was always his first choice.  A perfect summation of their relationship.  Victor is far more likeable.

[Huxleys Babkins]

Tim from The Office is one for me.  I just don't see the 'Everyman' in him - he just comes across as a bitter, bullying letch.  Creeping after the office secretary, cowardly bullying of the office idiot (he doesn't apply his 'hilarious' wit against anyone who is above him/could chin him), whining about completely solvable issues.  He's as big a bully as Finchy, except Finchy would probably be occasionally entertaining on a night on the piss.

I wouldn't call him a letch. Dawn clearly fancies him just as much as he does her and is constantly leading him on. She just can't see what she's doing.

[dissolute ocelot]

Ed Helms in The Office US. I pretty much hated every character by the end, but Andy was consistently irritating.

Andy started out being really annoying, which was presumably intentional, but later on he was just really really dull. Sing a song, disappear for 3 months, become a tramp, nobody cares. I hated Erin early on for being so fucking insipid, but Ellie Kemper is a great actor and she did develop a personality after a few seasons. Despite all the tedious will they/won't they plots.

I think in a good sitcom like Frasier or Seinfeld you should find yourself hating the lead characters some of the time, because they are fucking assholes some of the time. But when their actions inspire only meh, you have a bad sitcom.