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YOUR Favourite Comedy Sadsack

Started by Povidone, January 30, 2021, 09:25:39 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

Poirots BigGarlickyCorpse

George from Drop the Dead Donkey. Mostly because his sad sackery is punctuated with moments of exasperation with his colleagues and occasional moments of badassery, like threatening Daniel Craig with a toasting fork.

AllisonSays

Quote from: lipsink on January 31, 2021, 12:44:12 PM
Does Roger Allam as Peter Mannion in The Thick Of It count?

Such a strangely likeable Tory, possibly just because of Allam's performance. I guess he's at least a human being, unlike the Steve Hilton character.


BeardFaceMan

Quote from: Poirots BigGarlickyCorpse on January 31, 2021, 02:07:08 PM
George from Drop the Dead Donkey. Mostly because his sad sackery is punctuated with moments of exasperation with his colleagues and occasional moments of badassery, like threatening Daniel Craig with a toasting fork.

That's a good shout. The last ep of DTDD was heartbreaking and made total sense for the character.

lipsink

#34
Glen Cullen also from The Thick Of It is a great sadsack character. We get hints that he's quite a lonely man. He's the "irrelevant man" who's a bit older than everyone else nd is not taken seriously. He just looks like a sad teddy bear who wants love but constantly gets shat on  (especially by his old pal Hugh in the first few episodes) Did a rewatch of the whole thing recently and was surprised at how Glen gets a lot of the best lines. He may be even my favourite character (along with Jamie and Mannion) His meltdowns in Spinners and Losers and the final ever episode are gold.

He's also responsible for the funniest line, I reckon, in the entire run.

"Have you seen Notting Hill?"
"She's probably fucking in it"

Lordofthefiles


Gurke and Hare

Graham Lister
Kinky John
Councillors Cox and Evans
Tom Fun and Derek

etc

Quote from: lipsink on January 31, 2021, 10:41:30 PM
Glen Cullen also from The Thick Of It is a great sadsack character. We get hints that he's quite a lonely man. He's the "irrelevant man" who's a bit older than everyone else nd is not taken seriously. He just looks like a sad teddy bear who wants love but constantly gets shat on  (especially by his old pal Hugh in the first few episodes) Did a rewatch of the whole thing recently and was surprised at how Glen gets a lot of the best lines. He may be even my favourite character (along with Jamie and Mannion) His meltdowns in Spinners and Losers and the final ever episode are gold.

He's also responsible for the funniest line, I reckon, in the entire run.

"Have you seen Notting Hill?"
"She's probably fucking in it"
Also had a special needs son who was exploited by Hugh for political gain. And literally being Malcolm's punching bag. Still think Ben Swain is more pathetic though.

lipsink

Quote from: Carpool Dragon on February 01, 2021, 01:57:04 AM
Still think Ben Swain is more pathetic though.

I always love seeing Ben Swain get his comeuppance cos he is a bit of a dick and fucking useless but thinks he's a 'player'.

Quote from: lipsink on January 31, 2021, 10:41:30 PM
Glen Cullen also from The Thick Of It is a great sadsack character. We get hints that he's quite a lonely man. He's the "irrelevant man" who's a bit older than everyone else nd is not taken seriously. He just looks like a sad teddy bear who wants love but constantly gets shat on  (especially by his old pal Hugh in the first few episodes) Did a rewatch of the whole thing recently and was surprised at how Glen gets a lot of the best lines. He may be even my favourite character (along with Jamie and Mannion) His meltdowns in Spinners and Losers and the final ever episode are gold.

He's also responsible for the funniest line, I reckon, in the entire run.

"Have you seen Notting Hill?"
"She's probably fucking in it"

As fantastic as it is, Glen is probably James Smiths second best sad sack performance after Clive in Simon Amstells Grandmas House. His descent from Clarkson-esque, pompous, alpha male to piss soaked, violent alcoholic is really something. Perfect writing and performance. Still think it's the most underrated uk sitcom of the last 20 years.

Sebastian Cobb

Quote from: lipsink on January 31, 2021, 10:41:30 PM
Glen Cullen also from The Thick Of It is a great sadsack character. We get hints that he's quite a lonely man. He's the "irrelevant man" who's a bit older than everyone else nd is not taken seriously. He just looks like a sad teddy bear who wants love but constantly gets shat on  (especially by his old pal Hugh in the first few episodes) Did a rewatch of the whole thing recently and was surprised at how Glen gets a lot of the best lines. He may be even my favourite character (along with Jamie and Mannion) His meltdowns in Spinners and Losers and the final ever episode are gold.

He's also responsible for the funniest line, I reckon, in the entire run.

"Have you seen Notting Hill?"
"She's probably fucking in it"

"Darren Boys? No need for me to get up!"

I quite liked John Duggan as a useless sadsack.

gilbertharding

Quote from: Lordofthefiles on January 31, 2021, 10:48:26 PM
Ralph off of Dear John.

Series 1 Episode 2 is a masterpiece.


https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7xtra2

I saw it at the time (loved Kirk St Moritz, obviously) - but watching a few seconds of it just now... he seems to be channelling Tony Hancock quite strongly in that performance. Does he keep that up all the way through?

jobotic

I had no idea these were on Dailymotion.

Will watch it tonight. She'd better say "were there any...sexual problems?" in this episode or I want my money back.

Lordofthefiles

Quote from: Lordofthefiles on January 31, 2021, 10:48:26 PM
Ralph off of Dear John.

Series 1 Episode 2 is a masterpiece.


https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7xtra2


Made a right arse of that. It was meant to be episode 3 (...but it's disappeared).


Anyway, it centred around Ralph's depression and the other characters gathering around to help him.
It has one of the best punchlines to an episode ever.


I don't know about him channeling Hancock.
The Ralph character is introverted and openly suffering from mental health issues, I don't know if Hancock ever did that.

Blue Jam


Blue Jam


Twonty Gostelow

Quote from: gilbertharding on February 01, 2021, 12:19:51 PM
I saw it at the time (loved Kirk St Moritz, obviously) - but watching a few seconds of it just now... he seems to be channelling Tony Hancock quite strongly in that performance. Does he keep that up all the way through?

Quote from: Lordofthefiles on February 01, 2021, 02:32:44 PM
I don't know about him channeling Hancock.
The Ralph character is introverted and openly suffering from mental health issues, I don't know if Hancock ever did that.

Some confusion between Ralph Bates as John and the character Ralph? (Bates as John has some facets of Tony Hancock in his peformance.)

gilbertharding

Quote from: Lordofthefiles on February 01, 2021, 02:32:44 PM

Made a right arse of that. It was meant to be episode 3 (...but it's disappeared).


Anyway, it centred around Ralph's depression and the other characters gathering around to help him.
It has one of the best punchlines to an episode ever.


I don't know about him channeling Hancock.
The Ralph character is introverted and openly suffering from mental health issues, I don't know if Hancock ever did that.

I absolutely beg your pardon, because I thought you were nominating John from Dear John - and was referring to him as channelling Hancock. Which I think he does - but almost certainly not deliberately. Is Dear John a sitcom with at least *three* Sadsacks?

gilbertharding

Quote from: Blue Jam on February 01, 2021, 02:43:37 PM
Sweep.

No way. Sweep's cool. If anyone's the sadsack in that outfit it's Matthew.

NoOffenceLynn

Quote from: gilbertharding on February 01, 2021, 03:32:56 PM
No way. Sweep's cool. If anyone's the sadsack in that outfit it's Matthew.

So true. This is Sweep in all his hilarious magnificence. 
https://twitter.com/archivetvmus71/status/1304406014490537988?s=19

Blue Jam

Sweep is cool as fuck obviously but underappreciated by the others. Nah, you're right, Matthew is the sad sack. His only friends are puppets, and one of them is that sociopathic shithouse Scampy.

Lordofthefiles

Quote from: gilbertharding on February 01, 2021, 03:31:46 PM
I absolutely beg your pardon, because I thought you were nominating John from Dear John - and was referring to him as channelling Hancock. Which I think he does - but almost certainly not deliberately. Is Dear John a sitcom with at least *three* Sadsacks?

Ha!
That makes more sense - he does.

Yeah, there are at least 3 Sad Sacks in the main cast, as well as just about everyone that attends the 1-2-1 club.

Twonty Gostelow


Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth


neveragain

Are there any female examples? Sweet Dee maybe?


Tony Yeboah

Quote from: neveragain on February 01, 2021, 06:39:07 PM
Are there any female examples? Sweet Dee maybe?

Back to The Thick of It again you've got Nicola Murray and Robyn. Miss Jones in Rising Damp is a good one.

paddy72

Quote from: Bobloblawslawbomb on February 01, 2021, 11:29:10 AM
As fantastic as it is, Glen is probably James Smiths second best sad sack performance after Clive in Simon Amstells Grandmas House. His descent from Clarkson-esque, pompous, alpha male to piss soaked, violent alcoholic is really something. Perfect writing and performance. Still think it's the most underrated uk sitcom of the last 20 years.

I was just about to mention this - I agree entirely about Smith's performance as Clive, and that Grandma's House - series 2 especially - is criminally underrated.

Blue Jam

Quote from: neveragain on February 01, 2021, 06:39:07 PM
Are there any female examples? Sweet Dee maybe?

Kaitlin Olson's character in Curb is possibly even more of a sadsack.

Karen from Green Wing
Fleabag herself
Linda from Gimme Gimme Gimme

Margaret from Lucky Jim if we're doing literature. Very much a Miss Jones type.

Grace from Corporate may not be quite as much of a sadsack as Jake but she probably still counts.

Also how has no-one mentioned Kerry from This Country yet?

non capisco

Quote from: Blue Jam on February 01, 2021, 09:17:58 PM
Also how has no-one mentioned Kerry from This Country yet?

The Vicar is another classic sadsack of the eternally put-upon variety.