# Most annoying TV and movie characters? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 31, 2008, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-annoying-tv-and-movie-characters/451254 "2008-05-31T12:29:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2008, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-annoying-tv-and-movie-characters/451254/21 "2008-06-01T01:04:20Z")
My Mother-in-Law is an older, racist version of Peggy Hill. ---
**Author:** ![Beadalin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@Beadalin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beadalin)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2008, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-annoying-tv-and-movie-characters/451254/22 "2008-06-01T01:55:05Z")
Steve Urkel, anyone? ---
**Author:** ![neutron\_star](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/51bf81/32.png) [@neutron\_star](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neutron_star)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2008, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-annoying-tv-and-movie-characters/451254/23 "2008-06-01T03:31:44Z")
Similarly, Screech from Saved by the Bell. (I don’t know why those two are similar. Somehow they just are.) ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2008, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-annoying-tv-and-movie-characters/451254/24 "2008-06-01T03:53:19Z")
Does reality tv count? Mary Murphy from So You Think You Can Dance. It is somewhat all the more horrid because you realize that _she’s really like that_. ---
**Author:** ![phil417](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/6bbea6/32.png) [@phil417](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phil417)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2008, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-annoying-tv-and-movie-characters/451254/25 "2008-06-01T03:58:43Z")
I work nights, so I don’t always get a chance to catch up on new shows. The 1st time I saw _Pushing Daisies_, I thought it was merely bad. A few weeks later, I caught another episode. Why doesn’t anyone bitch-slap “Chuck” Charles (Anna Friel), or at least dose her water w/some sort of sedative? She’s in-your-face annoying/pushy/chirpy. Do you think she’d understand the words, “back off, already”? Loved, Phil ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2008, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-annoying-tv-and-movie-characters/451254/26 "2008-06-01T04:08:48Z")
A few characters from _Frazier_: His agent, Bebe Glazer Daphne’s mother, Gertrude Moon Food critic Gil Chesterton Noel Shempsky Ronee Lawrence (Wendie Malick): I just cannot stand that woman’s voice. But I LOVE Niles! ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2008, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-annoying-tv-and-movie-characters/451254/27 "2008-06-02T12:18:20Z")
Kathy Lee Gifford. Katie Couric ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2008, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-annoying-tv-and-movie-characters/451254/28 "2008-06-02T12:23:01Z")
Raymond Barone. This guy is so gutless and emasculated, and seems to live in constant fear of his mother and his wife. The idea that a man should basically have to beg his spouse for love and affection is a comedy meme I’ve never understood. I’d shoot myself if I lived like that. ---
**Author:** ![Shawn1767](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Shawn1767](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shawn1767)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2008, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-annoying-tv-and-movie-characters/451254/29 "2008-06-02T12:28:40Z")
From movies, I submit Willie Scott from Temple of Doom. ---
**Author:** ![Gala\_Matrix\_Fire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4da419/32.png) [@Gala\_Matrix\_Fire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gala_Matrix_Fire)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2008, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-annoying-tv-and-movie-characters/451254/30 "2008-06-02T12:29:19Z")
[QUOTE=Atomicktom] Raymond Barone. This guy is so gutless and emasculated, and seems to live in constant fear of his mother and his wife. The idea that a man should basically have to beg his spouse for love and affection is a comedy meme I’ve never understood. I’d shoot myself if I lived like that. [/QUOTE] Agreed that Ray Barone is despicable, but because he’s a selfish whiner whose primary concern at all times is “what can I get away with?” with never a thought for how it will affect anyone else. I’ve only watched parts of a few episodes, but seeing him whine and bitch trying to weasel out of the promise he made to take his own kids to the park put him on my shit list forever. I hate to think how many dads out there identify with Ray. “Spend time with my children just because I promised to?! Fuck that! Kids are for women.” ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2008, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-annoying-tv-and-movie-characters/451254/31 "2008-06-02T12:34:06Z")
[QUOTE=RealityChuck] George Costanza from **Seinfeld**. I find it incomprehensible that people complain about Woody Allen’s neurotic comedy but don’t seem to have problems with Jason Alexander’s fifth-rate Woody Allen impression that is George. He’s stupid, whiny, and about as funny as a labor camp. He consistently acts in incomprehensible ways for poorly defined reasons and, for some reason, everyone seems to think he’s loveable. He can’t be on the screen for more than three seconds before I feel the urge to kick in him the crotch just on general principles. [/QUOTE] Who even thought George was lovable? You’re supposed to hate him - that’s the point of the character. That’s why he never wins. He’s a bad person, and half the fun of the show is watching bad things happen to him. ---
**Author:** ![puppygod](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@puppygod](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puppygod)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2008, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-annoying-tv-and-movie-characters/451254/32 "2008-06-02T12:45:18Z")
[QUOTE=Attack from the 3rd dimension] I’m at an intermission while watching Star Wars Episode I with my kids (their first time). And the winner is: Jar Jar Binks, the Jamaican frog-monkey from space. [/QUOTE] First thing I thought about looking at the title of the OP. Jar Jar Binks hands down. Little shits like Scrappy Do are annoying, sure, but mostly because they have some wicked, corrupted spawn of ‘hero exemption’ and ‘informed attribute’ traits and other characters behave as they were cute and encourage their inane behavior. If just single character said to, for example, Scrappy Do ‘just shut the f… up’, he would plummet from ‘wildly annoying’ to ‘mildly annoing’ or even just ‘meh’. But Jar Jar Binks is self-made. Nothing short of a bullet between eyes would stop him or made him cool… Oh, wait… There is nothing between his eyes… That explains a lot… ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tof](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@The\_Tof](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tof)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2008, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-annoying-tv-and-movie-characters/451254/33 "2008-06-02T14:30:22Z")
[QUOTE=RealityChuck] George Costanza from **Seinfeld**. I find it incomprehensible that people complain about Woody Allen’s neurotic comedy but don’t seem to have problems with Jason Alexander’s fifth-rate Woody Allen impression that is George. [QUOTE] In the first episodes Jason Alexander is doing a straight Woody Allen Impression. I mean- very very obvious. In the commentary he states that he auditioned that way, thinking there was no way he’d get the job. When he got it, he just kept it up. Then he got a script that he thought was ridiculous, he went to Larry David to complain that nobody would end up in that situation and if they did, would never react the way the script dictates. Larry indicated that it had in fact happened to him, and that was exactly what he did. That’s when Jason switched playing George from a straight Woody Allen impression to a straight Larry David impression. But I agree, that part of the fun is that George is supposed to be the “loser” of the group. Whenever they look for some particularly underhanded plan, they look to George. It’s only in the episode where he goes against every instinct he has that things work out for him. In the spirit of the OP… the character from the Soprano’s who always bugged the crap out of me was AJ. I just wanted to strangle the kid. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2008, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-annoying-tv-and-movie-characters/451254/34 "2008-06-02T14:36:24Z")
Fay Furillo from “Hill Street Blues.” I wonder if she was actually acting, or was that the way she screeched to then-married-to-her Bochco. I like watching the old “Hill Street” reruns, but I’d be very happy if they cut all her scenes. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2008, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-annoying-tv-and-movie-characters/451254/35 "2008-06-02T16:02:56Z")
Meadow Soprano grated on my nerves. But the strange thing was that I couldn’t help thinking that _of course_ Tony & Carmela Soprano would have a pampered, spoiled brat daughter like that. Dawn from **Buffy** and Conner from **Angel**. To be fair, at least the actress playing Dawn managed to make her slightly sympathetic. But as written, Dawn was a simpering whiny annoyance. There was no excuse for Conner. In fact, let’s add Anya to the list as well. Tacked on to the regular cast of “Buffy” as a replacement for Cordelia, she never was half as interesting or funny as Charisma Carpenter. ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2008, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-annoying-tv-and-movie-characters/451254/36 "2008-06-02T16:12:09Z")
The character of Diane from _Cheers_. Of course, her successor, Rebecca, was annoying as shit, too. I realize they were supposed to be that way, so we would laugh when they got their comeuppances, but they still irritated the hell out of me. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2008, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-annoying-tv-and-movie-characters/451254/37 "2008-06-02T16:14:26Z")
[QUOTE=The New and Improved Superman] Meadow Soprano grated on my nerves. But the strange thing was that I couldn’t help thinking that _of course_ Tony & Carmela Soprano would have a pampered, spoiled brat daughter like that. Dawn from **Buffy** and Conner from **Angel**. To be fair, at least the actress playing Dawn managed to make her slightly sympathetic. But as written, Dawn was a simpering whiny annoyance. There was no excuse for Conner. [/quote] I’ll defend Connor – sort of. Yes, he was a horrible person–but (a) there’s a perfectly reasonable in-story explanation for even the worst of his behavior, and (b) YOU’RE NOT SUPPOSED TO LIKE HIM ANYWAY. I don’t think any of the characters liked him once he was back from Hell Dimension his evil foster daddy took him too. And that includes Angel. Oh, Angel LOVED him, and wanted his love back–but like him? Hell no. The closest he came to liking him was wanting him to change into someone who could only survive because he had super-powers. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2008, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-annoying-tv-and-movie-characters/451254/38 "2008-06-02T16:17:20Z")
Ross from _Friends_. I haven’t seen that show in years but the mere memory of that spineless, whiny wuss still irks me. ---
**Author:** ![Silver\_Tyger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/fbc32d/32.png) [@Silver\_Tyger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silver_Tyger)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2008, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-annoying-tv-and-movie-characters/451254/39 "2008-06-02T17:09:22Z")
As much as Thundercats hate Snarf (and all the other snarfs, especially Snarfer, who was just like his uncle except with a higher pitched voice, more annoying mannerisms, and even less of a reason for being there), I also found Jaga to be worse. He was a smarmy half-naked bastard who’s sole purpose was the state the obvious. And be smarmy. And from Silverhawks: Zeek the beak. He was Scrappy-Doo level annoying. Snarfer level annoying. And some of the writers _loved_ him. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2008, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-annoying-tv-and-movie-characters/451254/40 "2008-06-02T17:18:47Z")
No list of annoying TV characters is complete without Mr. Haney from _Green Acres_. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-annoying-tv-and-movie-characters/451254.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-annoying-tv-and-movie-characters/451254.md?page=3)