Or, I suppose, SOB, since men are eligible as well. This thread will undoubtedly have open spoilers for any number of different shows or movies, so be warned.
Last week, or perhaps the week before that, I found myself watching the 2005 Monk holiday special. In an early, pre-murder scene, Monk and his terribly cute, very perk, clearly-meant-to-capture-the-audience’s-heart assistant, Natalie, are at a Xmas party with their friends from the police station. Natalie is doing the uncoordinate-blonde-equivalent-of-dancing when she notices that one of the supporting characters, Lieutenant Dork, is wearing a red sweater. Asked where he got it, he tells her that it was a gift from his favorite aunt, who told him that she spent weeks knitting it. Natalie UBEoDs away and finds another guest at the party wearing the exact same sweater, laughing as she points out that the Wal-Mart tag is still visible on Lieutenant Dork’s sweater. As she UBEoDs away again, still laughing, I thought, “You are really lucky you are so cute, honey, because you are an ENORMOUS bitch.”
What other characters come to mind for the same reason – supposedly nice characters the writers mean us to identify with, who are, nevertheless, actually quite mean when you get down to it.
(And no, Cordelia Chase doesn’t qualify. She was SUPPOSED to be a bitch.)
*Early in the morning, as he was on his way back to the city, he was hungry. Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. Then he said to it, “May you never bear fruit again!” Immediately the tree withered.
When the disciples saw this, they were amazed. “How did the fig tree wither so quickly?” they asked.
Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done. If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.” *
Silenus, can we restrict this to nominations not actually intended to be provocative oor insulting? If you feel the need to slam Jesus, feel free to open up a Pit or GD thread.
Skald, it really wasn’t meant to be either provacative or insulting. I had been discussing theology and ethics with a student just prior to reading yout OP, and it was the first thing that came to mind. The Prince of Peace could be a real bad-ass when it was necessary. Just ask the temple money-changers.
WhyNot, properly executed snark is always in order.
The Nameless One in *Rebecca[/a]. You don’t see it so much in the film version, where she just seems shy, awkward, and lacking in self-confidence; in the book, where you can follow her thoughts more closely, she’s always thinking unkind and snarky things about people which make me dislike her.
I’ll nominate Lennier from Babylon 5. He started out at this shy, unassuming acolyte and aide to Delenn. For most of the first 4 seasons he was polite and deferent. Then Marcus touched him once. Once. The next thing Marcus knows, Lennier is holding him aloft by his cloak, with one hand, while coldly telling him never to presume to touch him again. After that, we all had to look at Lennier a little differently.
Speaking of Willow, I saw an episode of How I Met Your Mother and the Alyson Hannigan character–while clearly trying to be winsome and cute and charming–was in fact inconsiderate, rude, self-righteous, and insufferable.
I can’t agree with the OP, though, because Lt. Disher is a bit pompous and ego-driven and is always posturing as a “tough guy”, so it’s up to Natalie to deflate his balloon on occasion. I’ve never seen her do something genuinely mean (plus, by pointing out the sweater, he stops bragging about it, making him look less foolish than if he wasn’t told by anyone).
I still maintain that the most powerful force in the B5 universe is Lennier. That guy rocked. Also, I’m not certain that scene was meant to convey his bitchiness- but rather that he’s an alien. Wasn’t he complaining that humans like to touch, and that just because the Minbari look human, that doesn’t mean they ARE human?
Granted, we did have to look at Lennier differently from that point on.
I rarely watch The Closer, and it’s because I simply loathe the main character. She’s a bitch in every sense of the word, and it’s a miracle she hasn’t been killed yet. I caught part of one episode where she subtly grilled a guy about his wife’s death, 'cause she kind of suspected that he’d killed her. However, she hadn’t actually told him that his wife was dead- the poor guy had no idea. She’s supposed to be a “good guy”, and yet I wanted him to punch her in the face.
That reminds me of most characters in CSI:Miami, especially David Caruso’s guy. It seems like they are constantly accusing everyone of crimes, talking down to them, acting like the queen bee, when 90% of the people they talk to have never done anything wrong. I’m not sure if they’re supposed to be nice or not, but they’re all bitches.
Emma Woodhouse, from the Jane Austen novel Emma, I always thought was given more credit by her author than I as a ready thought she deserved. Snobby, interfering, and occasionally bitchy – and yet clearly supposed to be someone the reader identified with and rooted for. I thought Joan Aiken’s book Jane Fairfax (which re-tells the Emma story from the perspective of Jane, a secondary character) did a good job of showing what a bitch Emma could have appeared to be, to an outsider who wasn’t related to her or in love with her (as Austen, as her author, sort of was).
The Seinfeld characters don’t count. I think Jerry and Larry David realized that people who really acted like sitcom characters act would be major league assholes. They may have thrown in some misdirection, but the creators of the show clearly realized that Jerry, George, Elaine and Kramer were horrible, horrible people.
As for Emma, even Jane Austen didn’t expect her to be much loved.
(From Wikipedia, but widely quoted.)
I liked Emma myself, but she certainly has flaws, no doubt about it.
The point about Jayne was that he said such unexpected things–his timing was great. And he didn’t see the Tams as part of the ‘family’ so when he showed Mal he cared what the rest of them thought, Mal gave him another chance. He’s more silly and venal than evil, and even then, he’d really begun to show some feeling for the rest of the crew. He’d never be Mal, but he wasn’t totally untrustworthy.
I nominate Melanie from Gone with the Wind. While ‘bitch’ is too strong, she certainly was as disdainful of Belle as anyone, she was just too surprised to do anything. And she was very mean to India, when, after all, India was just telling the truth. Okay, India probably over-stated it, but still.
Clark Kent/ Superman. He just comes across as a bit of a dick, and so self absorbed (and I completely agree with Jesus-- don’t people read that thing?)
Troy, I don’t think the 4 leads on Seinfeld or Jayne from Firefly count. The viewer isn’t meant to sympathize with them (especially not George). Now, if you wanted to claim that, oh, Kaylee Frye was actually a bitch you might have something (not that I’d agree, and not that you wouldn’t be beaten to death for uttering such heresy). The category is putatively nice charaters who actually are bitches (or their sons).
(Actually, silenus, I agree with you. But I couldn’t pass up the chance for the snark.)