LEAST annoying cartoon comic relief characters?

Cafe Society
1

A wise man once said, “You might have noticed that cartoons had a different idea what was comic relief than other media. Cartoon comic relief people aren’t like the fat guy in the spring break movie that’ll eat anything, get stuck in doorways, and win the water skiing competition with a perfectly timed fart. Comic relief in cartoons didn’t make you laugh. They were just a couple of people that we hated more than anyone else.”

Hard to argue—the trope name for a fan-hated character is even “The Scrappy,” after all.

But still, I’m left wondering—how many exceptions are there? Who are the least unlikable “comic relief” characters in animation—or even the most genuinely funny and likeable?

I’d love to hear from some other viewpoints, but first, the ground rules.

All animation, TV or film, is fair game, eastern or western. I was actually kind of torn as to whether or not to exclude CG movies, though…but I’m not sure I can justify disqualifying them on any non-arbitrary basis. So, they’re in.

And as for what “comic relief” means, I guess I’ll go with the wikipedia definition, “a humorous character [included in] an otherwise serious work, often to relieve tension.” So, no main characters. What “otherwise serious work” is debatable, but I’d at least definite it as a setting at least nominally less goofy in comparison to the ways of the C.R. goofball. Clear as mud?

So…anyone want to [del]drop a sixteen ton safe on[/del] weigh in? Or should I just go back to frame-by-frame analysis of Hanna-Barbera?

2

That’s kind of an oxymoron, eh? If a cartoon is supposed to be funny, the “X relief” character in a work meant to be funny is the opposite of funny?

In other words, the comic relief in a comedy is the main character(s).

3

Never mind - misread the question

4

Lots of cartoons are not supposed to be primarily funny. All the superhero or action cartoons, for example. So you could have comedy relief characters like Bandit, Marvin, or Harley Quinn in non-comedy cartoons like Jonny Quest, Super Friends, or Batman.

5

7-Zark-7 from the old Battle of the Planets wasn’t too bad. Of course, I haven’t seen that show since I was nine.

6

The “no main character” rule doesn’t make sense. If there’s a bunch of regulars one will usually be primarily comic relief, even if they also have a more serious role. And Scrappy was a main character. I’d go with:

The Flash from the Justice League series.
Sokka from The Last Airbender.
Harley Quinn from Batman.

7

After some thought, I thought of some comic relief characters in primarily comedy cartoons:
Wimpy in the Popeye series.
Guest animals from the neighborhood in Get Fuzzy.
Cathy’s Mom in Cathy.
Alice and Wally in Dilbert.
Bill the Cat in Outland/Bloom County
Liz the Vet in Garfield
Not Me in Family Circus

My personal favorite: Susie Derkins in Calvin and Hobbes.

8

Just wanted to say that I loved Scrappy Doo as a kid. LOVED. I’m sure he was an actually terrible character, but in my nostalgia-afflicted mind he totally worked. I was surprised to learn as an adult how hated he is. Now I’m too scared to look back.

9

OK, I’ll admit that, as a young child, I enjoyed his first appearances. At some point, I discovered what an annoying one-note Johnny he was. I’d like to say it didn’t take long, but who the hell remembers?
Scrappy was supposedly well-liked when he was introduced. (The TV TROPES! link from the OP) Check out the info near the bottom in the TROPE NAMER section. Nowadays Scrappy’s edited out of trailers and DVD covers.

10

But only three of those were cartoons. And excluding Popeye, they’re all comic strips. No animation.

As for the OP, might Bender and/or Zoidberg in Futurama qualify as comic relief?

11

Don’t do it man! Don’t ruin the illusion. Protect your precious sanity!

12

The Monkeybird in Pirates of Dark Water was less annoying than most Hanna-Barbera comic relief characters.

Bandit, from Jonny Quest, was relatively non-annoying.

Jughead, in the Archie comics, is tolerable.

Anybody remember “Grobbendonk,” the sidekick of Nemesis the Warlock? “Oh, Shuggles.” Annoying, but not too annoying.

13

Probably Zoidberg. He tended to have a lot of lines that were non-sequiturs vs. the plot of the show.

14

Here is a detailed account of the creation of Scrappy Doo, from the blog of Mark Evanier, who wrote the first episode featuring Scrappy. It’s a bit long (6 parts!), but well worth the investment of time for anyone interested in 70s Hanna-Barbera.

Evanier also asserts that Scrappy was quite popular when first introduced. And, probably more importantly from the point of view of a television producer, Scrappy got the show renewed for a few more seasons, which is what he had always been intended to accomplish.