Sad sack characters in fiction, movies, TV?

So, I’m reading the Wallander series by Henning Mankell and while I enjoy the books and like the character, I can help thinking Jesus Christ, what an Eeyore!

Any other otherwise sympathetic characters who could use a Paxil, a bouquet of daffodils and a month at the beach?

Hamlet and young Werther come to mind. I don’t know about the Paxil though. They wouldn’t have been interesting enough to carry the story if they weren’t depressed.

Robert from Everybody Loves Raymond

Mr Carlin from The Bob Newhart Show

“Cellophane, Mr. Cellophane, shoulda been my name, Mr. Cellophane…”

Chicago - either the stage or film version of the musical will do.

Poor bastich to be sure, but he really does make me want to kick him.

How about Ben Vereen and the Muppets?

Well, there’s this guy.

Also good, but I don’t want to kick Mr Vereen, he’s too boss.

Inspector Morse never seemed very cheery. (Did he ever smile?) And once they started running the Lewis sequel series, Lewis seemed to inherit Morse’s melancholy.

Would you consider Byronic heroessuch as Rochester in Jane Eyre to be examples of what you’re talking about?

In quite a different category, there’s Puddleglum from C.S. Lewis’ The Silver Chair – like Eeyore, his glumness is his defining characteristic.

Stewart on The Big Bang Theory: destitute, mentally ill, homeless failed businessman, with literally a box of pharmaceuticals to get him through the day.

Sad Sack - a person who is not successful or able to do things well; an inept person who causes feelings of pity or disgust in other people. That would be Stan Laurel, of course!

What about Gil Gunderson from the Simpsons - can’t O’l Gil ever get any love?

There is, of course, Marvin the Paranoid Android. But I don’t blame you for forgetting. Everyone does. sigh

The lawyer guy from Scrubs. Was it Ted?

Yeah. I thought of him immediately when I saw the thread title.

Moseley from Downton Abbey.

And Charlie Brown!

Perhaps an even closer silent comic to the type would be Harry Langdon, who was Oliver Hardy’s teammate before Stan Laurel proved to be better as half a duo. Langdon’s character was a bewildered child-man bordering on the mentally retarded.

So was Langdon himself. He had a sad, and shortened, life. :frowning: