# The most annoying recurring characters on TV **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 9, 2014, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-annoying-recurring-characters-on-tv/690421 "2014-06-09T17:41:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2014, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-annoying-recurring-characters-on-tv/690421/41 "2014-06-10T07:53:24Z")
> [@installLSC](#): > > Actually Flagg is the perfect definition of a recurring character. He appeared in a number but not a majority of episodes, the episodes were spaced out over a long stretch of time, and played a big role when he did appear. He actually didn’t appear all that often. He was only in six episodes. (Or maybe seven. Edward Winter first appeared on the show playing a character named Halloran. Some fans claim that this was actually Flagg using an alias.) ---
**Author:** ![buddha\_david](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee7513/32.png) [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2014, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-annoying-recurring-characters-on-tv/690421/42 "2014-06-10T08:06:03Z")
> [@Mr\_Shine](#): > > You realise that’s still just 1, right? Umm…yeah, of course I knew, that was part of whoosh I was playing. Yeah, that’s the ticket. ( :smack: ) ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2014, 8:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-annoying-recurring-characters-on-tv/690421/43 "2014-06-10T08:33:57Z")
That clown lady (or Drew’s antagonist) on the Drew Carey show. Also, Newman off of Seinfeld. Ditto Third Rock From The Sun. ---
**Author:** ![epbrown01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ba0ec/32.png) [@epbrown01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/epbrown01)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2014, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-annoying-recurring-characters-on-tv/690421/44 "2014-06-10T11:54:47Z")
My biggie was Spike on BTVS. I liked Spike as a seasonal arc villain, the ones Buffy killed off for the finale every year. But the producers clearly wanted to keep the character around while the writers have almost no idea what to do with him, so we got more and more of the character floundering around, and the effect was corrosive to the overall show. You had a character surviving season after season while pulling crap Buffy would have staked any other vampire over, with no plausible explanation for three or four seasons, after which they added the most implausible explanation of all. ---
**Author:** ![Sean\_Factotum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/50afbb/32.png) [@Sean\_Factotum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sean_Factotum)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2014, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-annoying-recurring-characters-on-tv/690421/45 "2014-06-10T13:34:57Z")
For me it’s Uncle Ruckus on _The Boondocks_. I get the joke, and can even see the need for his point of view, but he spends way too much time onscreen. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2014, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-annoying-recurring-characters-on-tv/690421/46 "2014-06-10T13:36:01Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > I’ll see if I can out-obscure you. > > Kate Kestrel, _Terrahawks_. You trumped me. Plus, now I gotta do RESEARCH: I’ve never heard of that show. Gimme a break, I’m only 54. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Bakhesh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3da27b/32.png) [@Bakhesh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bakhesh)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2014, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-annoying-recurring-characters-on-tv/690421/47 "2014-06-10T14:29:13Z")
> [@PSXer](#): > > Wesley Crusher To paraphrase Tim Bisley… Yeah, but Neelix made Wesley Crusher look like… fucking Shaft! ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2014, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-annoying-recurring-characters-on-tv/690421/48 "2014-06-10T15:27:12Z")
Dr. Smith from Lost in Space Scrappy Doo ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2014, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-annoying-recurring-characters-on-tv/690421/49 "2014-06-10T15:48:37Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > I’ll see if I can out-obscure you. > > Kate Kestrel, _Terrahawks_. Let’s see if this rings any bells: Earl J. Waggedorn. A bit more than a recurring character, but the way that Corey always used his full name( first,middle initial, last) each and every time he mentioned him was annoying as hell. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2014, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-annoying-recurring-characters-on-tv/690421/50 "2014-06-10T15:51:53Z")
Urkel, hands down. :: shudder :: Raymond’s obnoxious, insulting, controlling mom on _Everybody Loves Raymond_. If I were Raymond’s wife I would have killed her long ago. Wesley Crusher, but only early on. I liked him much more in his later appearances. Frank Furillo’s ex-wife Faye on _Hill Street Blues_. Annoying to the nth degree. > [@RobDog](#): > > Horatio Caine, CSI: Miami… You’ll like this: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJSqkwyL1Zo](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJSqkwyL1Zo) ---
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2014, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-annoying-recurring-characters-on-tv/690421/51 "2014-06-10T15:53:06Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > The only time I like Jean-Ralphio is when Mona Lisa is there too. They riff on each other really well. They writers did really good job giving us just enough of them. Any more would have made the show hard too watch (say, if they were in every other episode or had episodes centered around them). It looks like there’s 113 episodes (if Leslie was in all of them). Jean-Ralphio was only in 18 and Mona Lisa was in 7. I actually think the actor who plays JR is quite talented and genuinely funny. He’s supposed to be annoying, and he fills that role perfectly. I just want him dead. 🙂 My favorite scene was when Ron put a death grip on his wrist when JR tried to filch a piece of meat from him. “Don’t ever touch another man’s meat.” I don’t feel the same about ML. She just needs to be beaten, not killed. ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_T-Cups](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed655f/32.png) [@Sir\_T-Cups](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_T-Cups)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2014, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-annoying-recurring-characters-on-tv/690421/52 "2014-06-10T16:20:40Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Yeah, it seemed to me that Adrian Monk had an inconsistent level of self-awareness; and he was damned annoying, and strained my credulity, on those occasions when he, a supposedly smart man, seemed to have no clue that his way of interacting with the world was at all unusual or unreasonable or a problem for those around him. Take out Adrian Monk, and insert Sheldon Cooper and you my thoughts on why he is the most annoying person on TV ever ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2014, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-annoying-recurring-characters-on-tv/690421/53 "2014-06-10T16:38:28Z")
> [@Sir\_T-Cups](#): > > Take out Adrian Monk, and insert Sheldon Cooper and you my thoughts on why he is the most annoying person on TV ever The thing is, when \*Monk \*first started, his obsessiveness was one facet of his character. But he was competent, brave, sensible, and charming. Not unlike Sherlock Holmes, whose character-- in the books anyway-- had many personal tics, mannerisms, and habits, some of them quite annoying, that worked with his talent as a detective not against it. In later seasons, Monk’s quirks got weirder and weirder and became the focal point of plots, and the show became painful and embarrassing to watch. The writers stripped him of all dignity and made him a comic buffoon. BTW, Tony Shaloub is seriously hot. On _Wings_, he was definitely more attractive than the two flyboys. ---
**Author:** ![oft\_wears\_hats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/7993a0/32.png) [@oft\_wears\_hats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/oft_wears_hats)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2014, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-annoying-recurring-characters-on-tv/690421/54 "2014-06-10T16:40:40Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > Lwaxana Troi, from ST-TNG. > [@dropzone](#): > > But she was _supposed_ to be annoying. Intentionally annoying is still annoying. I disliked her so much that I purposely avoided every single TNG episode that featured her. To this day the only episodes I haven’t seen are all ones that she’s mentioned in the synopsis or appears within the cold opening. > [@control-z](#): > > Scrappy Doo That’s who I came in to mention. Being the most annoying character on an annoying show full of annoying characters is quite a feat. Scrappy was even worse than the annoying kid they added later in that spinoff with Vincent Price. ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_T-Cups](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed655f/32.png) [@Sir\_T-Cups](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_T-Cups)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2014, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-annoying-recurring-characters-on-tv/690421/55 "2014-06-10T17:03:46Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > The thing is, when \*Monk \*first started, his obsessiveness was one facet of his character. But he was competent, brave, sensible, and charming. Not unlike Sherlock Holmes, whose character-- in the books anyway-- had many personal tics, mannerisms, and habits, some of them quite annoying, that worked with his talent as a detective not against it. > > In later seasons, Monk’s quirks got weirder and weirder and became the focal point of plots, and the show became painful and embarrassing to watch. The writers stripped him of all dignity and made him a comic buffoon. > > BTW, Tony Shaloub is seriously hot. On _Wings_, he was definitely more attractive than the two flyboys. This is again all things (well, most things) that can be attributed to Sheldon. He started off as a Just-Smarter-Than-You uber-nerd who is going about his daily life as said uber-nerd. I won’t bastardize your quote too much but his nerdyness was “one facet of his character, but he was competent, social, respectful, and innocent (in his own way). Now his quirks are weirder and weirder and beccame the focal point of plots, and now the show is painful and embarassing to watch. They stripped him of dignity and made him a comic buffoon” ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2014, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-annoying-recurring-characters-on-tv/690421/56 "2014-06-10T18:22:15Z")
Billy in _Six Feet Under_. Hated him so much I stopped watching the show. I finally picked it up again, FF-ed through the “Billy” scenes I’ve already watched, and gritted my teeth through the rest of his story arc. [Similar thread here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=570543), in case anybody cares. What is once old, is new again. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2014, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-annoying-recurring-characters-on-tv/690421/57 "2014-06-10T20:10:41Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > The thing is, when \*Monk \*first started, his obsessiveness was one facet of his character. But he was competent, brave, sensible, and charming. Not unlike Sherlock Holmes, whose character-- in the books anyway-- had many personal tics, mannerisms, and habits, some of them quite annoying, that worked with his talent as a detective not against it. > > In later seasons, Monk’s quirks got weirder and weirder and became the focal point of plots, and the show became painful and embarrassing to watch. The writers stripped him of all dignity and made him a comic buffoon. > . Exactly. Like how he quit knowing how to use a cell phone in the Natalie years. Or a TV remote, or a VCR (picture go fast! Geeze, what, is he an alien?). You know who else was annoying in that show? Trudy. She was dead, yet she kept changing her look all the time!🙂 ---
**Author:** ![danhanegan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/eb9ed0/32.png) [@danhanegan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/danhanegan)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2014, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-annoying-recurring-characters-on-tv/690421/58 "2014-06-10T21:45:50Z")
> [@Bakhesh](#): > > To paraphrase Tim Bisley… > > Yeah, but Neelix made Wesley Crusher look like… fucking Shaft! Neelix. Yeesh. Why they ditched the elf-girl and not him will be a mystery forever. Sheldon Cooper – I kinda like Sheldon. The uber geek completely unself-conscious about being a geek. And in fairness, every character on BBT is annoying as heck in one way or another. Sheldon is just more consistent about it then the others. If I had to pick the MOST annoying BBT character it would have to be Howard’s mother. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2014, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-annoying-recurring-characters-on-tv/690421/59 "2014-06-10T23:10:59Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > Exactly. Like how he quit knowing how to use a cell phone in the Natalie years. Or a TV remote, or a VCR (picture go fast! Geeze, what, is he an alien?). > > You know who else was annoying in that show? Trudy. She was dead, yet she kept changing her look all the time!🙂 And THE single most annoying thing of all about Trudy was that she gave Adrian that Christmas present right before she died and after she was killed he never opened it. But in the final episode, he \*did \*open it, and the clue to her killer was in there all the time in that unopened box sitting on a shelf in his house! :smack: I’m a widow (although my husband wasn’t murdered) so I sort of understand a little. But geez Louise!! That really annoyed me. That’s almost as bad as finding out the whole series happened in a snow globe. :mad: Spoiler box prolly not necessary, but you never know. ---
**Author:** ![Victor\_Charlie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/7ea924/32.png) [@Victor\_Charlie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Victor_Charlie)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2014, 8:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-annoying-recurring-characters-on-tv/690421/60 "2014-06-11T08:42:43Z")
Sally and Betty Draper on _Mad Men._ In fact, I can do without his entire family. Jean Kasem on _Cheers._ Gloria on _Modern Family._ The shout-talking and verbal flubs are exhausting at this point. They’ve become a crutch for both the actress and the writers. I can’t explain why but Michelle Greene bothered my on _L.A. Law._ Sondra and Elvin on _The Cosby Show._ They served no purpose other than abject smugness. First Becky on _Roseanne._ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-annoying-recurring-characters-on-tv/690421.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-annoying-recurring-characters-on-tv/690421.md?page=4)