I’m not counting Cartman because South Park is supposed to be a way-outside-the-box cartoon, but those from more mainstream media. Sometimes characters on sitcoms or in movies that are supposed to be sassy or mischeivous just come across as evil little trolls who need to be kicked until they stop moving. A few examples:
Junior from Problem Child- while the movie was supposed to be fluff, all I could think of was that this kid was Rosemary’s baby and not in a good way; the only parent who should adopt him is Andrea Yates. His stunts weren’t mischeivous but potentially homicidal and at very best thoroughly sociopathological- I can totally see him torturing animals before growing up to be a week of episodes on A&E’s serial killer sweeps weeks. The writers (presuming they had some) went just a little too far with the demon (and with his girlfriend in the next one).
Sophia from Golden Girls- I flat out couldn’t stand this old bat and thought Dorothy did a good day’s work when she deposited her in a low rent nursing home. She was belittling, abusive, conniving, selfish and Dorothy owed her nothing than a well chosen ice flow.
Zach from Saved by the Bell- I’ve only seen a few episodes of this show, but I remember when it went off the air Mark Paul Gosellaar took a role as a date rapist because he said he wanted to get as far as possible from the role of Zach. It didn’t work for my part because I have no problem imagining Zach as a date rapist. Some of his stunts would totally scar for life some of the nerds and fat-chicks he pulled them on and if it werent’ for the image of him going to juvie and being Slater’s bitch there’d of been nothing to like on the show.
Gilligan springs to mind. There’s just so much ineptitude I’m willing to tolerate in a survival situation before resorting to bludgeoning and cannibalism.
Bryan, I can totally get behind the bludgeoning but in case stupidity can be aborbed through diet, I’d feel safer if Gilligan’s remains and my appetite were one step removed from each other on the food chain. Fertilizer, perhaps, or nice shark-bait chum.
“James Junior” Evans was supposedly a funny, talented painter and a successful ladies man. EXCUSE ME? The circumsized foreskin on my infant dick hax had more pussy, talent and innate humor than that whole shrill coon stereotype. DynOmite THIS, ya raggedy punkass beeyotch.
That reminds me of when I was a kid and I would be trying to enjoy the Carol Burnett show and Tim Conway would do this terrible character who was slow and frustrating and it was awful! You would wait and wait for the funny and it would never come. He walked so slooooowly. Ew!
George on Seinfeld always really sickened me because he was an ugly jerk liar. How is he funny? He’s horrible. His dad also horrible. But his dad never seemed evil, just too loud. George seemed evil, mean, dishonest and spoiled.
They didn’t make a lot of this on the show, but at least some of the Sophia character’s tendency to insult others and make inappropriate comments was supposed to be the result of her stroke.
Pretty much the entire cast of Seinfeld was like that to me: whiney, self-obsessed, self centered, lying, empty, vapid and just generally people I wouldn’t want to know, and yet for some reason I loved some of the episodes. (Of course you don’t get much more self-centered, manipulative and shallow than Fred Sanford and that show was brilliant.)
Mike the Meathead from All in the Family was a character I respected far less than Archie. He was a freeloader (oh boo hoo hoo… you don’t have money and want to go to college… WORK! You won’t be the first student to have a job while getting an education!), he never missed an opportunity to insult the man who was supporting him, he obviously looked down on his very sweet mother-in-law (and to a lesser degree on his wife), he was prone to temper tantrums and ultimately left Gloria for one of his students. In some ways, bigoted Archie was actually the real “man” on the show.
[spoiler]Granted, she was more of an “unwitting villain” than pure “comic relief,” but that just made her worse. It made her frightening.:eek:
With the nature of her powers and her personality, she was effectively a mad god. Omnipotent and unstoppable, but petty, vindictive, and unwilling to accept when she’s wrong. And she’d thoughtlessly ruined people’s lives because of it.
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I know I’d sleep better if Van Helsing could come along and put an iron bullet through her slaugh heart.
Although I only watched the show sporadically, I don’t know if I’d call the characters evil. They were such pathetic losers that, even at their worst, I couldn’t really find them truly evil.
Now, if you want evil, check out Edmund Blackadder and his descendents. However, I don’t think they’d qualify because, despite their nastiness, they’re still funny.
It’s been awhile since I’ve seen the show, but didn’t Mike eventually get a job while he was in college? I seem to recall one episode where Mike told Gloria he’d been working nights to contribute his share of the family income.
Raymond’s wife in Everybody loves Raymond. I guess she’s supposed to be funny and charming, but I just see a hateful, insufferable bitch who hates her husband.
Everyone except Khan Jr. on King of the Hill. I like the show well enough but I don’t know why – I hate everyone on it and wish to see them die slow and gruesome deaths.
I think that’s a major difference between British and American comedy: American comic characters, no matter how nasty on the surface, always have to have a heart of gold deep down, whereas in Britain they’re given full rein to be despicable: you only have to compare Archie Bunker with his British progenitor, Alf Garnett - Archie Bunker, while on the surface a bigot, usually turned out to be just a lovable grouch; Alf Garnett, on the other hand, was a truly vile old man, with the humour lying in just how vile he could be.
Count the number of British comedies in which the main characters are loathsome human beings with no redeeming features: Fawlty Towers, The Young Ones, Blackadder, Red Dwarf… American comedy tends to go for a more morallly didactic approach, in which values are taught and valuable life lessons are learnt, whereas the best British comedy isn’t afraid to see that being horrible can be funny in its own right, sans message.
This was my problem with Meet The Parents. Robert DeNiro was supposed to be “over protective”, but I thought he was closer to psychotic. From what I hear, he’s worse in the sequel.
The entire cast of Sex and the City. Not only are they 4 complete polar opposites and best friends they have fucked everything in the city and would hump anything that moved and none of them got any STD’s.
Though, Samantha, I liked, because she was honest about it all.
Nah, really, how can you think they’re evil? Sometimes nuts, sometimes obsessed, usualy weird, but not evil.
American comedy tends to go for a more morallly didactic approach, in which values are taught and valuable life lessons are learnt,
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Alkthough at its best it’s just about weirdly conflicted people.
:eek: