# Characters too awful to exist
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-too-awful-to-exist/960176
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [February 27, 2022, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-too-awful-to-exist/960176 "2022-02-27T01:28:54Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 4
### Author:  [@dorvann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorvann)
#### Post date: [March 11, 2022, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-too-awful-to-exist/960176/61 "2022-03-11T20:43:22Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#):
>
> Is he? I don’t recall him doing anything particularly awful. In fact I don’t remember him doing much at all.
When Strickland’s mistress was killed he tried to frame Hank for the murder(because he thought his wife did it.)
Also despite running a **propane** business he has an **electric** stove in his house.
And he regularly cheats on his wife with his much younger secretaries and hookers, takes part in illegal underground gambling matches, spends his company’s money on horse races, drinks and eats to excess (to the point he’s had so many heart attacks that several parts of his heart have had to be replaced to keep him alive) and at one point buys emus to hunt.
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### Author:  [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)
#### Post date: [March 11, 2022, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-too-awful-to-exist/960176/62 "2022-03-11T21:21:54Z")
> [@dorvann](#):
>
> When Strickland’s mistress was killed he tried to frame Hank for the murder(because he thought his wife did it.)
Which episode was that? I don’t remember that happening.
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### Author:  [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)
#### Post date: [March 11, 2022, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-too-awful-to-exist/960176/63 "2022-03-11T21:41:14Z")
there was a few episodes where hank had to save his boss from something dumb and illegal he was involved in
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### Author:  [@dorvann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorvann)
#### Post date: [March 11, 2022, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-too-awful-to-exist/960176/64 "2022-03-11T22:02:19Z")
Season 4 Episode 13 "Hanky Panky and Episode 14 “High Anxiety”
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### Author:  [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)
#### Post date: [March 11, 2022, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-too-awful-to-exist/960176/65 "2022-03-11T22:34:29Z")
> [@Guest-starring\_Id](#):
>
> Kinda vacillating on the Kris Kristofferson charcater in “Lone Star”. Sure, nothing but nastiness, but I’m also wondering if the plot would’ve completely suffered without him.
One of my very favorite films. IMO Charlie Wade is essential to the plot.
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### Author:  [@Two\_Many\_Cats2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats2)
#### Post date: [March 11, 2022, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-too-awful-to-exist/960176/66 "2022-03-11T22:54:19Z")
I know I’ll catch hell for this but…Barney Fife.
The man is incompetence personified, but the worst part is Andy is always twisting himself in knots trying to:
A) catch and correct Barney’s idiot mistakes.
B) also making sure Barney’s overrated opinion of himself isn’t deflated. Honestly, Andy won’t let
Barney fail so Barney never learns.
I know this is the whole point of the show, and it’s supposed to be endearing, but it gets freaking annoying after awhile, and that show is EVERYWHERE.
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### Author:  [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)
#### Post date: [March 11, 2022, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-too-awful-to-exist/960176/67 "2022-03-11T23:47:14Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#):
>
> Is he? I don’t recall him doing anything particularly awful. In fact I don’t remember him doing much at all.
My daddy’s having a heart attack! My daddy’s having a heart attack!
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### Author:  [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)
#### Post date: [March 12, 2022, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-too-awful-to-exist/960176/68 "2022-03-12T04:02:49Z")
> [@AHunter3](#):
>
> Gaius Baltar
People also generally forget that the Galactica was never exactly the “best” battlestar.
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### Author:  [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)
#### Post date: [March 12, 2022, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-too-awful-to-exist/960176/69 "2022-03-12T05:06:03Z")
> [@Two\_Many\_Cats2](#):
>
> Barney Fife
god yeah. I hated that character. Wanted to backhand him off the screen when I was a kid.
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### Author:  [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)
#### Post date: [March 12, 2022, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-too-awful-to-exist/960176/70 "2022-03-12T18:38:38Z")
Murray the cop.
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### Author:  [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2022, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-too-awful-to-exist/960176/71 "2022-03-13T00:15:15Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#):
>
> Maybe he has a thing for big feet.
In My Mind’s Eye, I just saw Hank’s reaction to this. It was hilarious!
And yeah, his boss was a Royal Piece of Shit.
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### Author:  [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2022, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-too-awful-to-exist/960176/72 "2022-03-13T00:20:40Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#):
>
> And yeah, his boss was a Royal Piece of Shit.
My earlier implied reference to Buck:
[ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bZb7bkNjGk)
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### Author:  [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2022, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-too-awful-to-exist/960176/73 "2022-03-13T01:05:17Z")
> [@TreacherousCretin](#):
>
> One of my very favorite films. IMO Charlie Wade is essential to the plot.
Yeah. And it’s not like he was an insufferable character everyone put up with. Dude was killed after all.
> [@salinqmind1](#):
>
> Long-suffering Hank is a product of a dysfunctional home - doesn’t anyone remember his horrific father, Cotton? (talk about too awful to exist! Marrying Hank’s ex-girlfriend and producing baby 'G.H. -for ‘Good Hank’).
Hank went to kindergarten with her but I don’t think they were romantically involved. In the first episode we see her in she asks Hank, “Do you still like to finger paint?”
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### Author:  [@Capn\_Carl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capn_Carl)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2022, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-too-awful-to-exist/960176/74 "2022-03-13T01:38:12Z")
Great movie, full of great lines. And yes, Charlie Wade stays. The movie needs him.
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### Author:  [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2022, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-too-awful-to-exist/960176/75 "2022-03-13T02:05:34Z")
Yes. And Frances McDormand was heartbreaking in it.
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### Author:  [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2022, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-too-awful-to-exist/960176/76 "2022-03-13T05:27:23Z")
> [@carrps](#):
>
> Yes. And Frances McDormand was heartbreaking in it
That is the _perfect_ word to describe her part in the film. She is a phenomenally gifted actress.
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### Author:  [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2022, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-too-awful-to-exist/960176/77 "2022-03-13T18:23:17Z")
In “Touch of Evil”, Dennis Weaver is ridiculously unwatchable as a cowering, doltish motel manager. Welles told him to improvise - no idea how the former was ok with such an overwrought, ham-handed, pigeon-holing performance. Luckily a small part.
[ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ug2BOO4oQ14)
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### Author:  [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2022, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-too-awful-to-exist/960176/78 "2022-03-13T19:34:04Z")
> [@TreacherousCretin](#):
>
> That is the _perfect_ word to describe her part in the film. She is a phenomenally gifted actress.
It’s one of my favorite movies, too.
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### Author:  [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2022, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-too-awful-to-exist/960176/79 "2022-03-13T20:09:26Z")
> [@lissener](#):
>
> It brought to mind the characters of Pippin and Merry in the LOTR movies, whose dangerous stupidity leads to many of the worst obstacles the Fellowship must overcome.
Well, Pippin does drop some stuff in the well in Moria, and looks into the Palantir. The first is pure foolishness, but do note that Gandalf didn’t bother telling them how dangerous it was.
But he also helps talk the Ents into attacking, dropped his broach so that Aragorn and Legolas could track them, and saved Boromir from the pyre.
Exactly what stupid thing did Merry do??
> [@ParallelLines](#):
>
> She’s not alone in this category, as there are plenty of Bad/False friends or repeated betrayers that are still, somehow, kept around in movies and TV. S
Thomas Barrow:
Blackmailer, leads Pamuck to Mary’s room, coward then bully during the war, black marketeer, sexual assault, steals from his boos and frames another for it, and is outed as gay in that period- but isn’t fired for any of that.
> [@Shoeless](#):
>
> Sheldon Cooper. Nobody is going to put up with a “friend” who treats other people the way he does for any length of time.
Yep.
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### Author:  [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2022, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-too-awful-to-exist/960176/80 "2022-03-13T20:16:47Z")
> [@DrDeth](#):
>
> and saved Boromir from the pyre.
Faramir, but yes.
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