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Characters from Sitcoms you find annoying

Started by Dannyhood91, March 16, 2020, 09:27:44 PM

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neveragain

Rickety Cricket has become less of a treat.

the science eel

Quote from: Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth on March 18, 2020, 11:44:12 AM
All the characters in Curb Your Enthusiasm who completely overreact to whatever innocuous thing Larry has done that week. Richard Lewis just in general.

That's what's funny about it!

canadagoose

I've probably mentioned this before in another thread, but I always found Carla from Scrubs supremely annoying. I imagine that was the intention. I can't even think of any redeeming features she had.

Carla was served a duff role as being the character who pulled the others up on their shit and came across very brittle as a result. Although I quite liked the ep where the writers acknowledged this by having everyone in the hospital tell her she wasn't funny.

For me it was JD who was insufferable in Scrubs, from about Series 3 onward. This was due to his character gleefully repeating the same mistakes and fucking with most people's lives, but also I reckon you can see Zach Braff getting a swollen head and losing all the self-doubt that made his performance charming in the early eps.

Marner and Me

Agree with the above about Big Bang Theory, what a load of toss.

dissolute ocelot

Quote from: Old Gold Tooth on March 18, 2020, 05:07:35 PM
Carla was served a duff role as being the character who pulled the others up on their shit and came across very brittle as a result. Although I quite liked the ep where the writers acknowledged this by having everyone in the hospital tell her she wasn't funny.

For me it was JD who was insufferable in Scrubs, from about Series 3 onward. This was due to his character gleefully repeating the same mistakes and fucking with most people's lives, but also I reckon you can see Zach Braff getting a swollen head and losing all the self-doubt that made his performance charming in the early eps.

Sarah Chalke's doctor was also insufferable, this spoilt princess thing we're meant to sympathise with (the female equivalent of Zack Braff's first world problems), and she wasn't funny either. Even Neil Flynn's janitor wasn't well-written.

neveragain


Lisa Jesusandmarychain

Which one's the best- Carla from " Scrubs" or Carla from " Cheers" ? There's only one way to find out...

markburgle

Quote from: TheBrownBottle on March 18, 2020, 10:57:34 AM
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

It's a very depressing slur on human emotions too see "fancying someone" being equated to "creeping after" them, especially when the feelings are obviously mutual.

Also he doesn't bully the office idiot - the office idiot is extremely annoying, which provokes a reaction from the poor hapless sod who has to sit across from him. In spite of which, when Tim is offered Gareth's dream job, he doesn't just turn the job down - he recommends Gareth. The bullying bastard.

markburgle

Quote from: ishantbekeepingit on March 17, 2020, 10:03:36 AM
I know he's a lot of people's favourite character, but I've never really cared for Tobias Fünke.  While he's not quite one-note, a significant portion of his character/jokes is devoted to "Freudian slips about being gay", which I have never found funny.  Especially his most famous line, "I blue myself." What, habitually?  His actual line should be "I blued myself," but then they can't have the pun, which wouldn't work anyway because a) we've never seen him blow himself and b) blowing yourself is no gayer than wanking but an awful lot more impressive.

The Freudian slips are just window dressing. Tobias Fünke is all about pompous self-delusion and grandiosity. He's in the tradition of lots of classic British sitcom characters in that sense, although you can obviously debate the success of the execution (I personally really enjoy how amplified it is with him. A lot of comparable British characters are more rounded because they're carrying the show - your Hancocks, your Mainwearings, your Brents. I like how Fünke is just a side character and so they're free to ramp up the absurdity).

neveragain

Agree about Tobias but Tim is definitely a bully. At worst Gareth is a jobsworth and, apart from slapping Tim over the head with a newspaper in the first episode, doesn't do much to deserve the ritual tormenting.

famethrowa

Quote from: dissolute ocelot on March 18, 2020, 07:30:19 PM
Sarah Chalke's doctor was also insufferable, this spoilt princess thing we're meant to sympathise with (the female equivalent of Zack Braff's first world problems), and she wasn't funny either. Even Neil Flynn's janitor wasn't well-written.

I don't think he was written at all! Didn't they just let him make up whatever he wanted?

Captain Crunch

Quote from: coinneach on March 17, 2020, 05:39:38 PM
Peggy Hill. Annoyingly boring

I agree.  The only thing that blights the early series is the way they think a plain woman being very vain is somehow hilarious and worth doing over and over again. 

Quote from: Dusty Substance on March 16, 2020, 09:42:26 PMKryten. Robert Llewellyn seems like a really nice guy but I never quite fully took to Kryten.

Spare Head 3 was much better.

Quote from: Lemming on March 17, 2020, 06:39:58 PM
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.

I'm not disagreeing but out of curiosity what would you have instead?  No fourth character at all or something different? 

Len Pounds

Quote from: Lisa Jesusandmarychain on March 19, 2020, 01:57:29 PM
Which one's the best- Carla from " Scrubs" or Carla from " Cheers" ? There's only one way to find out...

FIGHT!!!

...to the death. Where both of them die. Because they're both such horrible characters.

Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

I know it's the entire basis of the character, but Sterling Archer's dickheadedness frequently goes past funny and into just being a dickhead. Cheryl/Carol yelling "Outlaw country!" for an entire season also grated.

petril

Quote from: Captain Crunch on March 19, 2020, 09:36:17 PM
I'm not disagreeing but out of curiosity what would you have instead?  No fourth character at all or something different?

Holly was the original fourth. Could've kept with that for daft exposition, plot and casual gags when needed

Deyv

Quote from: petrilTanaka on March 20, 2020, 06:26:30 PM
Holly was the original fourth. Could've kept with that for daft exposition, plot and casual gags when needed

Kryten's better than Holly at walking around though. It would've been shit to have the portable TV and/or watch from the second series following them around. Also, Kryten's better than Holly.

EBGB

Another vote here for Daphne's brothers in 'Frasier'.  How something usually so on the nail went so painfully wrong there has always mystified me, especially given that cast members would have been able to point out how bad it was.  Usually liked her mother, though, when she was being properly wicked.  A pity we didn't see more of Brian Cox as her father.

I know I'll get judged, but Basil Fawlty.  Shouting and bullying are not what make me laugh.  See also anyone played by Ricky Gervais; he's written some outstanding stuff for other people in the same programmes, but the minute the focus is on him, I lose interest.

Hyacinth Bucket.  Not exactly like my own (late) mother, but too damn close for comfort.

WW1 Baldrick.  I've watched all the other series multiple times, but not Goes Forth, purely for that.  A catchphrase on loop rather than the more nuanced character of earlier centuries.  Wasted.

lebowskibukowski

Quote from: EBGB on March 21, 2020, 02:53:34 PM


I know I'll get judged, but Basil Fawlty.  Shouting and bullying are not what make me laugh.

And I thought I was the only one!

Quote from: EBGB on March 21, 2020, 02:53:34 PM

I know I'll get judged, but Basil Fawlty.  Shouting and bullying are not what make me laugh. 

What really leaves a bad taste in the mouth out the way he treats Manuel is that he is so much so much bigger than him plus Manuel is so mild and inoffensive.  Also, the seeming equation of Manuel merely having poor English language skills with him being not very bright is offensive, as is the way he gets patronised by others because of it. 

dissolute ocelot

Basil Fawlty really sets my teeth on edge. I recognise it's a brilliantly written show, and he's not supposed to be nice, but ugh. I can't watch Steptoe and Son either because the father just makes me want to hide behind a cushion, but again, that is what is intended. I'm a sensitive sort.

Also, every child under 12 in a Nickelodeon show. Especially Gibby's little brother.

Sexton Brackets Drugbust

Quote from: dissolute ocelot on March 23, 2020, 10:32:52 AM
Also, every child under 12 in a Nickelodeon show. Especially Gibby's little brother.

At some point, US writers latched onto the idea that all kids should be written as sassy, jaded adults, ideally with the wily street smarts and hard-nosed business sense of a 40 year old career grifter.

Custard

I've just sat through the, erm, lot of The Job Lot, and Angela is nearly unwatchable. I don't find her funny in the slightest, just a complete cunt

Jockice

Quote from: Sexton Brackets Drugbust on March 23, 2020, 10:37:34 AM
At some point, US writers latched onto the idea that all kids should be written as sassy, jaded adults, ideally with the wily street smarts and hard-nosed business sense of a 40 year old career grifter.

See also the character based on Caitlin Moran in Raised By Wolves. Yes I know teenagers can be pretentious (and I should imagine Ms Moran was a particularly pretentious one) but she said things that I genuinely can't imagine a real life teenager ever saying.

Jockice

Quote from: Sexton Brackets Drugbust on March 23, 2020, 10:37:34 AM
At some point, US writers latched onto the idea that all kids should be written as sassy, jaded adults, ideally with the wily street smarts and hard-nosed business sense of a 40 year old career grifter.

I liked Michael J Fox in Family Ties but I had no idea that US comedies still did that sort of character.

Lemming

Quote from: Captain Crunch on March 19, 2020, 09:36:17 PM
I'm not disagreeing but out of curiosity what would you have instead?  No fourth character at all or something different?

Echoing petrilTanaka, Holly filled out the original fourth character slot nicely. I think Norman Lovett's Holly was far better than Hattie Hayridge's (not due to Hayridge's performance or anything, the lines were just far better for Lovett), and there was definitely a lot of mileage left in that version of the character. I've never been totally sure why they essentially retconned the character to be much more "computer senile" than before from series three onwards.

Quote from: Deyv on March 20, 2020, 07:56:00 PM
Kryten's better than Holly at walking around though. It would've been shit to have the portable TV and/or watch from the second series following them around. Also, Kryten's better than Holly.

Oh wow I forgot about the Holly watch! Truly the most futuristic thing ever seen in a work of science fiction, especially since it's very clearly just a still image of Craig Charles' wrist with Lovett awkwardly superimposed over.

samadriel

I was watching Seinfeld earlier, and realised that I find Estelle Costanza precisely as annoying as the mother in Everybody Loves Raymond - they're both utterly hateful. But at least Estelle is funny. ELR, and the mother in particular, just fills me with rage.

PeterCornelius

Whilst I'm a lifelong Dad's Army fan, Corporal Jones is my least favourite character. We're supposed to laugh every time he shout's 'Don't Panic!' but it's just tedious. Clive Dunn enjoyed a successful career playing variations on this theme. I suppose we should be pleased for him. I'm not.

the science eel

Quote from: PeterCornelius on March 24, 2020, 03:13:29 PM
Whilst I'm a lifelong Dad's Army fan, Corporal Jones is my least favourite character. We're supposed to laugh every time he shout's 'Don't Panic!' but it's just tedious. Clive Dunn enjoyed a successful career playing variations on this theme. I suppose we should be pleased for him. I'm not.

He's a shit clown. I'm glad you said this. It's the first time I've read any kind of dismissal.

Actually most of the cast apart from Lowe and Le Mesurier were rubbish caricatures but Dunn was particularly annoying.

Sexton Brackets Drugbust

Quote from: PeterCornelius on March 24, 2020, 03:13:29 PM
Whilst I'm a lifelong Dad's Army fan, Corporal Jones is my least favourite character. We're supposed to laugh every time he shout's 'Don't Panic!' but it's just tedious. Clive Dunn enjoyed a successful career playing variations on this theme. I suppose we should be pleased for him. I'm not.

My dad has lots of things that will provoke a near-Pavlovian response, and for a time, any mention of or appearance by Clive Dunn would guarantee the expression, "I wouldn't pay him in washers."