YOUR Favourite Comedy Sadsack

[Povidone]

This is probably quite a wide ranging topic and before the inevtable Linehan mention I should point out that I don't mean real life human detritus but the loving comedy creations of those who champion the eternal underdog. I'm thinking Gregg Turkington - from the outright wreckage of Neil Hamburger to the more subtle, deluded sadsackery of his On Cinema persona.

It was listening to Brian Huskey on a podcast today that made me think of this topic, he is a performer I always think of just playing a kind of merry failure, he sometimes veers into creepy or deranged and he can do those well but most often I think of him as Wompler's stepdad, constantly berated, attempting to calmly explain to his stepdaughter that a prolapse is perfectly normal for a man his age.

There's loads of these I could think of but these are the half baked, malformed thoughts that I had the energy to type out so I can turn the topic over to you lot before I lose interest.

Who is YOUR (your) favourite comedy sadsack and WHY?

[dead-ced-dead]

Hank Kingsley from The Larry Sanders Show has to be mine. Jeffrey Tambor judges the performance so well, balancing pathos and pathetic flop sweat so well. He's almost like a character Anton Chekhov would write.

[Povidone]

Ah fuck that's a great one, I'm sitting here cackling thinking about the Garden Weasel now.

[Sexton Brackets Drugbust]

Hank's amazing. How Tambor oscillates between totally sympathetic and contemptibly hateful is remarkable.

[neveragain]

Hank may be the best.
In regards to another Hank... I was going to offer Bill Dauterive. A bit creepy at times (towards Peggy) but mainly full of pathos.

[Tony Yeboah]

Nick Swainey in One Foot in the Grave. Owen Brenman's performance is great, the character is totally believable even in the really farcical scenes and it's unflinching in showing his incessant cheeriness is on top of an underlying sadness. Plus he's really funny.

[Brundle-Fly]

10/10 for Nick Swainey. When he suddenly gets morbidly obese in the latter series was heartbreaking.

Before Neil Hamburger?

Bobby Chariot.



"On pills for me nerves. Sleepin in me jag. How ya diddlin?"

[Sebastian Cobb]

Richard Kind's pathetic character in Curb is a masterpiece. I genuinely loathe the annoying whelk but feel guilty and get angry at me, and him for doing so because he's harmless.

[dissolute ocelot]

I don't know if Justin Edwards's Jeremy Lion counts, because he was on the border between sad and deeply sinister, but a great performance.

[dead-ced-dead]

Hank may be the best.
In regards to another Hank... I was going to offer Bill Dauterive. A bit creepy at times (towards Peggy) but mainly full of pathos.

Bill is one of televisions most pitiable characters. He's genuinely made me cry on a few occasions. Stephen Root's voice acting is wonderful.

[letsgobrian]

I was going to say Droopy, but he tends to be portrayed with a supernatural level of competence that runs counter to his demeanour, so he's not a sad sack of shit.

So I'll say good ol' Charlie Brown.

[Rizla]

10/10 for Nick Swainey. When he suddenly gets morbidly obese in the latter series was heartbreaking.

Before Neil Hamburger?

Bobby Chariot.



"On pills for me nerves. Sleepin in me jag. How ya diddlin?"

I wonder was Bobby Chariot a Linehan/Mathews creation? I don't recall the character pre-All New Alexei Sayle show.

[Icehaven]

[Urinal Cake]

Richard Herring

[worldsgreatestsinner]

Cliff Clavin has to be up there.

[Ornlu]

After that big Red Dwarf rewatch, I think I'm going to have to say Arnie. Such a perfectly written character for either two or six series, depending on your mileage.

[Sebastian Cobb]

[dr_christian_troy]

Hank's amazing. How Tambor oscillates between totally sympathetic and contemptibly hateful is remarkable.

I am still desperately in need of a clear recording of Hank's version of Spinning Wheel.

[Cold Meat Platter]

Richard Richard is up there for me, entirely because of Rik, really. 

[PowerButchi]

William Fontaine De La Tour Dauterive!!!

[bgmnts]

Arnold Rimmer for me.

[Bronzy]

Toby Flenderson

[Pink Gregory]

William Fontaine De La Tour Dauterive!!!

"I'm so depressed I can't even blink."

[olliebean]

[Misspent Boners]

Bit on the nose perhaps; but I adore Coogans lesser known standup character Duncan Thickett

[chveik]

Jon Glaser
Bret "I am not doing well" Gelman

[Twonty Gostelow]

Has to be Anthony Aloysius St John Hancock for me, if a lead with occasional delusions of grandeur can be described as a sadsack. Rupert Rigsby might be close behind.

As part of an ensemble, Private Duane Doberman.

[Povidone]

Has to be Anthony Aloysius St John Hancock for me, if a lead with occasional delusions of grandeur can be described as a sadsack. Rupert Rigsby might be close behind.

As part of an ensemble, Private Duane Doberman.

Good shout, I reckon delusions of grandeur or at least a dream that is constantly shattered (like Turkington's VFA) make for a better sadsack, something very human about that, contrasted with a life that is anything but. It's definitely a major component of Hank Kingsley - also had forgotten Tambor in Arrested Development does a great line in abject patheticness as both George Bluth and his twin brother.

[Tony Tony Tony]

All four of the Inbetweeners.

[lipsink]

Does Roger Allam as Peter Mannion in The Thick Of It count?