# Movie sidekicks that suck

**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-sidekicks-that-suck/430664
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [December 20, 2007, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-sidekicks-that-suck/430664 "2007-12-20T02:46:10Z")
**Posts on this page:** 17
**Page:** 3

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### Author: ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2007, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-sidekicks-that-suck/430664/41 "2007-12-20T15:42:17Z")

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For British TV, Harry Sullivan, one of the Doctor’s companions. As the Doctor said himself, “Harry Sullivan is an idiot!”

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### Author: ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2007, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-sidekicks-that-suck/430664/42 "2007-12-20T15:47:24Z")

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Okay, I got one that follows the 5 rules:

**Samwise Gamgee**

He’s that trustworthy friend that will do anything for you but likes to bitch and complain about it the whole time.

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### Author: ![JSexton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@JSexton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JSexton)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2007, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-sidekicks-that-suck/430664/43 "2007-12-20T18:01:31Z")

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Snarf.

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### Author: ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2007, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-sidekicks-that-suck/430664/44 "2007-12-20T18:53:50Z")

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[QUOTE=Wile E]  
I see your Short Round and raise you Willie.  
[/QUOTE]

Potty mouth.

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### Author: ![Shark\_Sandwich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f04885/32.png) [@Shark\_Sandwich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shark_Sandwich)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2007, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-sidekicks-that-suck/430664/45 "2007-12-20T19:21:52Z")

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I nominate: Scrappy Doo. Even as a kid I knew he was poison to that show.

- SS

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### Author: ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2007, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-sidekicks-that-suck/430664/46 "2007-12-20T19:28:28Z")

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**Andy Devine** in every movie he was ever in.

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### Author: ![TV\_time](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f17d59/32.png) [@TV\_time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TV_time)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2007, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-sidekicks-that-suck/430664/47 "2007-12-20T22:51:04Z")

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[QUOTE=Chefguy]  
**Andy Devine** in every movie he was ever in.  
[/QUOTE]  
And if you have any chance to reference him in the television show Wild Bill Hickcock it was delightfully painful.

Another delightfully painful sidekick performance was **Oliver Hardy** in The Fighting Kentuckian with John Wayne as the hero. It was just so wrong in so many places.

In literature it would have to be **Dr. Watson** and in Cartoons it would have to be **Penfold** to Dangermouse.

I am a big sidekick fan. As a child, I wanted to be one. I thought it was cool they got to go through all of the adventures and didn’t have to put up with the yuckie girls. Then later I noticed they often ended up with the more interesting girls and I thought that wasn’t so bad.

I thought sidekicks might make a come back after I saw Sahara, but no such luck.

A little note nere: Robert Blake’s first role in television (if you don’t count the Our Gang Comedies which actually were made for the movie houses) was as a sidekick. He was adult Red Rider’s child sidekick Little Beaver, riding around in breech cloth and moccasins and little else (now that I look back on that - there were so many sexual inuendos involved).

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### Author: ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2007, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-sidekicks-that-suck/430664/48 "2007-12-21T01:29:31Z")

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I can’t agree as far as Chris Tucker as Ruby Rod in The 5th Element. He was supposed to be incredibly obnoxious almost totally useless, and he’s not in the least bit a sidekick.

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### Author: ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2007, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-sidekicks-that-suck/430664/49 "2007-12-21T02:04:22Z")

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I liked Tucker in _5th Element_, actually, including the parts where Willis would give one- or two-word replies to Tucker’s long elaborate intros, clearly just to piss him off.

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### Author: ![Mr\_Shine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr_shine/32/464_2.png) [@Mr\_Shine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Shine)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2007, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-sidekicks-that-suck/430664/50 "2007-12-21T03:04:55Z")

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[QUOTE=Superfluous Parentheses]  
That would be a good nomination if only we could determine the hero. See rule #1 and #4.  
[/QUOTE]

I’d say he just about qualifies. Clearly Obi-Wan is the hero of the new trilogy, and (I haven’t watched Episode I since 1999 and don’t intend to, so I forget details), he spends a lot of time with him. Also implied is that if it weren’t for his antics in the robot-Gungan showdown the robots would have probably won the fight, the Trade Federation would have been victorious and Obi-Wan would have been executed.

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### Author: ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2007, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-sidekicks-that-suck/430664/51 "2007-12-21T04:11:13Z")

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Going for obscure, I nominate **Newton the centaur** from [The Mighty Hercules](http://www.toontracker.com/hercules/hercules.htm), which I recall from its run in syndication.

The template for Short Round, surely!

(Wait… does TV count?)

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### Author: ![Runs\_With\_Scissors](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/278dde/32.png) [@Runs\_With\_Scissors](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Runs_With_Scissors)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2007, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-sidekicks-that-suck/430664/52 "2007-12-21T06:21:02Z")

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That dumbass donkey in the Shrek movies.

Puke.

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### Author: ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2007, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-sidekicks-that-suck/430664/53 "2007-12-21T11:48:34Z")

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Chris Tucker was the one I first thought of. I hated his character.

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### Author: ![Engineer\_Dude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9fc29f/32.png) [@Engineer\_Dude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Engineer_Dude)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2007, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-sidekicks-that-suck/430664/54 "2007-12-21T15:52:42Z")

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Eddie Bunker (Mos Def) in _16 Blocks_. Most of the movie was him babbling about God-knows-what in a high pitched, nasal voice. :mad:

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### Author: ![Sweetums](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Sweetums](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sweetums)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2007, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-sidekicks-that-suck/430664/55 "2007-12-21T16:19:45Z")

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[QUOTE=smiling bandit]  
**Snails** , played by Marlon Wayans. He is the sidekick of **Ridley** , from _Dungeons and Dragons_.

It is functionally impossible to be a more annoying sidekick. From the very first appearance on-screen, I had an intense urge to kill him. I can understand why the villains would want to send out the army to hunt the “heroes” down to the death, as their existence is so abominable that they pollute the soil with their total obnoxiousness, of which Snails is the absolute worst.  
[/QUOTE]

```
  First thing I thought of after seeing the thread title. I remember reading reviews of the movie that mention people cheering when the character died. To make matters worse, the end of the movies had the heroes leaving on a quest to revive him. 

Ghod, he was like Jar Jar's more annoying little brother!

```

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### Author: ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2007, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-sidekicks-that-suck/430664/56 "2007-12-21T16:52:41Z")

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All this hating on Short Round, I don’t understand it.  
Jerry Lewis was the sidekick for Dean Martin in 17 movies from 1949 to 1956. **NOBODY** is more annoying than that. With 17 movies I’m sure there is one that fulfills all the OP’s criteria, I’m just not going to be the person to watch them all.

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### Author: ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2007, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-sidekicks-that-suck/430664/57 "2007-12-21T22:48:05Z")

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[I rest my case.](http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/pic/54/039_18378~Jerry-Lewis-Posters.jpg)

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