From film, literature, the small screen (or real life for that matter).
I can’t think of one - but wouldn’t mind seeing an entire list of eternal optimists - in that they deem everything as perfect, wonderful or good.
(Kinda lame) example:
So how was “Ishtar”? Great. Academy Award caliber.
Didn’t you say the same thing about, “Dude, Where’s My Car”? Yeah. Great film!
Did you have dinner yet? Yeah. I had lasagna at the Chinese take-out. Delicious.
The Chinese make MSG-laden lasagna with ketchup & Velveeta. I bet you’d say eating fly-infested cat litter was just as good. Yeah. It’s one of my favorite meals
Lucky you grabbed a bite before the hurricane rolled in Yeah, Beautiful weather we’re having.
Beautiful?!? Urility poles are blowing away as we speak. Enough of this. What are your plans for the rest of the day? I’m gonna curl and finish the last few chapters of this engrossing romance novel, King Of The Desert, Captive Bride."
And I seem to recall reading about a Hollywood rabbi who was famous for being able to see the good in everyone. On being challenged to say something good about the much-hated and (then) recently deceased Harry Cohn, the Rabbi said “He’s dead”.
There are lots of sycophants who are always positive/yes men/obsequious to their superiors- Uriah Heep, Smithers (from The Simpsons, etc.), at least until they’re not.
Quinch, sidekick of Waldo “D. R.” Dobbs {the D. R. stands for Diminished Responsibility, although he once claimed it meant Deeply Religious} from Alan Moore’s brilliant old D.R And Quinch strip: all he ever said was “S’right”.
As for eternal optimists, the classic example would have to be Dicken’s Mr Micawber, from David Copperfield, who was always sure that “something would turn up”.
Kafuka Fūra (who oddly enough is named after Franz Kafka) in the still running TV series Sayonara Zetsubō Sensei. She is a complete contrast to her home-room teacher Nozomu Itoshiki, who is pessimistic and often suicidal, and she often saves Nozomu from his suicide attempts without recognising them as suicide attempts because of her optimism.
The series is extremely funny, but has not yet been officially released outside Japan (though it can be found in fansub form).
I forget the name of the character, but in I Go Pogo the young bug is selected as the perfect running mate for Pogo due to his inability to say anything other than “just fine”.
Unfortunately, he gets dunked in a vat of… something that clears his head up, after which he proceeds to give a very erudite chewing out of everyone in the swamp.
I have maybe seen three full episodes of the series Friends. The only one that sticks in my head is “the one where” (do recall the titling convention for some reason) one of the female leads is dating an annoying optimist played by Alec Baldwin. After coming into the character’s apartment, he glanced back out the door, and enthiastically shouted something to the efect: “What an incredibly well lit hallway!”
Gary Burghoff as Cpl. “Radar” O’Reilly on MASH was a rather optimistic character in this sense. He was sort of the sacrificial lamb in that series. The Innocence and Innocence Lost.
Some rather poignant scenes written for Radar’s optimism and innocence against the background of War.
His endless good cheer finally caused even Phoebe to snap. She said something like, “You’re like Santa Claus… in Vegas… on Prozac… getting laid!”
Monty Python had a brief interview with a guy who always responded affirmatively. The interviewer couldn’t help but suggest all sorts of insulting things to which the guest couldn’t help but agree.
On the other hand, Scotty always initally said he couldn’t pull off whatever engineering miracle Captain Kirk wanted, but he always managed to do it in the end.
On the old Milton Berle show, there was a recurring appearance of Milty’s ‘friend’ Sam and his wife Martha. Sam was an annoying know-it-all, whom Milty could never get to go away. Martha’s only line was simply, “Yes.” She’d say it to whatever question was asked to her… Although she said it in various degrees of sarcasm.