# Worst tacked on character or sub-plot? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 17, 2004, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tacked-on-character-or-sub-plot/275224 "2004-11-17T07:14:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![VarlosZ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d78d45/32.png) [@VarlosZ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VarlosZ)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tacked-on-character-or-sub-plot/275224/1 "2004-11-17T07:14:31Z")
What springs immediately to my mind is Rob Schneider’s role in “Judge Dredd.” Apparently desperate for comic relief, the producers had him mugging and making non-stop wisecracks through all of his (frankly terrifying) misadventures. Sadly, he didn’t even get the movie’s funniest line, which instead went to a robotic food dispenser: > [@](#): > > Eat recycled food. Recycled food is good for the environment, and okay for you. ---
**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:** [November 17, 2004, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tacked-on-character-or-sub-plot/275224/2 "2004-11-17T07:16:38Z")
Poochie the Dog is the classic satirical version, but almost any child under 13 is by default an annoying tack-on, with the single largest exception being Newt from _Aliens_. ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 8:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tacked-on-character-or-sub-plot/275224/3 "2004-11-17T08:13:50Z")
Two words: _ **Jar Jar.** _ ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 9:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tacked-on-character-or-sub-plot/275224/4 "2004-11-17T09:44:17Z")
> [@Snooooopy](#): > > Two words: _ **Jar Jar.** _ Yeah. What, exactly, did he do in the 1st movie? As far as I can recall, he only had two uses: to lead the good guys to the Gungan city, and later to lead the good guys to the Gungan camp. In both instances he could easily have been replaced by a convenient signpost. ---
**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:** [November 17, 2004, 9:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tacked-on-character-or-sub-plot/275224/5 "2004-11-17T09:46:15Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > In both instances he could easily have been replaced by a convenient signpost. Signpost: Gungan City: Thees-a Way ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 10:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tacked-on-character-or-sub-plot/275224/6 "2004-11-17T10:09:07Z")
Scrappy Doo. 'Nuff said ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 10:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tacked-on-character-or-sub-plot/275224/7 "2004-11-17T10:09:46Z")
> [@Snooooopy](#): > > Two words: _ **Jar Jar.** _ Well, it’s now a battle for second place. Scrappy was very annoying, maybe he gets that spot. ---
**Author:** ![paulberserker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c4cdca/32.png) [@paulberserker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/paulberserker)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 10:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tacked-on-character-or-sub-plot/275224/8 "2004-11-17T10:35:03Z")
Anything where kids, or a pet, or kids and a pet are in danger and they get rescued/survive in the nick of time. I’m sick of seeing this. When I make my film, kids and pets will not only die immediately, i’m bringing them back as Zombies so the heroes have to kill them again. In fact with the OP, any role Rob Schneider plays is unnecessary, even when he’s the lead. ---
**Author:** ![SPOOFE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 10:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tacked-on-character-or-sub-plot/275224/9 "2004-11-17T10:43:41Z")
I’d say Italy in World War II, but I think you meant fiction. What about the uber-gymnast black girl in _Jurassic Park II_? She was a Token So-Many-Things, it’s ridiculous… ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tacked-on-character-or-sub-plot/275224/10 "2004-11-17T11:13:03Z")
> [@paulberserker](#): > > Anything where kids, or a pet, or kids and a pet are in danger and they get rescued/survive in the nick of time. I’m sick of seeing this. I’m really sick of seeing audiences cheer this kind of manipulative crap. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tacked-on-character-or-sub-plot/275224/11 "2004-11-17T12:07:33Z")
“Okay, the hell with the story. Wallace Beery is a wrestler. I wanna know his hopes, his dreams. Naturally, he’ll have to get mixed up with a bad element. And a romantic interest. You know the drill. Romantic interest, or else a young kid. An orphan. What do you think, Lou? Wally a little too old for a romantic interest? Look at me, a writer in the room and I’m askin’ Lou what the goddamn story should be! … Well Bart, which is it? Orphan? Dame?” — Jack Lipnik, _Barton Fink_ ---
**Author:** ![Silentgoldfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@Silentgoldfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silentgoldfish)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tacked-on-character-or-sub-plot/275224/12 "2004-11-17T14:05:56Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > I’m really sick of seeing audiences cheer this kind of manipulative crap. Watch **Mimic**. You may not like the rest of the movie but I’m sure you (like everyone else with more then half a brain) will cheer at one particular scene: The precocious youths discover the giant insect egg sacks and run into the giant insects themselves… and get eaten. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tacked-on-character-or-sub-plot/275224/13 "2004-11-17T14:11:06Z")
I saw this old POS on AMC (Horror Week). It was all I could do to stop from laughing-every few minutes, you saw “Perry Mason” intoning a few solemn words, while the rubber-suited monster wrecks TOKYO! How much was Burr paid for his acting role? ---
**Author:** ![Agrippina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8797f3/32.png) [@Agrippina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agrippina)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tacked-on-character-or-sub-plot/275224/14 "2004-11-17T14:11:14Z")
Andy Keaton on “Family Ties”. I say he’s “tacked on” because in one season he’s a newborn and the next he’s five years old. He doesn’t do much of anything except for jokes about Alex trying to convert the kid to be a Republican. ---
**Author:** ![Chastain86](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Chastain86](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chastain86)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tacked-on-character-or-sub-plot/275224/15 "2004-11-17T14:35:34Z")
Wow, who knew there would be so many of them? My first thought was the extra kids they brought in on “The Cosby Show,” Rudy’s friends. The only one I can think of by name was Buuuud. Then, when all the regular kids grew up and weren’t cute anymore, they introduced Lisa Bonet’s kid, played by Raven Simone. I was thumbing through the channels the other day and discovered Raven Simone has her own show now. I wonder if they had to introduce all-new even more cuddly-wuddly kids in order to make it work. It’s like the cycle of cuddly-wuddliness begins anew every 5 years or something. It’s a wonder we haven’t all moved to a Logan’s Run-type society by now. ---
**Author:** ![Agrippina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8797f3/32.png) [@Agrippina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agrippina)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tacked-on-character-or-sub-plot/275224/16 "2004-11-17T14:44:07Z")
> [@Chastain86](#): > > Then, when all the regular kids grew up and weren’t cute anymore, they introduced Lisa Bonet’s kid, played by Raven Simone. When DJ, Stephanie, and Michelle were “getting too old” on “Full House”, they brought in Joey and his wife’s twin boys, Nicky and Alex. And Michelle usually had a group of friends come over constantly around this time, including that boy in “Pet Semetary”—Miko Hughes. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tacked-on-character-or-sub-plot/275224/17 "2004-11-17T14:46:30Z")
> [@Snooooopy](#): > > Two words: _ **Jar Jar.** _ 1. Jar-Jar. 1a. The Ewoks. ---
**Author:** ![kidchameleon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/898d66/32.png) [@kidchameleon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kidchameleon)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tacked-on-character-or-sub-plot/275224/18 "2004-11-17T15:06:00Z")
> [@SPOOFE](#): > > I’d say Italy in World War II, but I think you meant fiction. Italy, schmitaly, what about Bulgaria? Or Brazil on the Allies side. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tacked-on-character-or-sub-plot/275224/19 "2004-11-17T15:09:33Z")
I really hated Will Ferrell’s role in _Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back_. I don’t know if it can be called tacked on because it was in the comics, but it was actually _funny_ in the comics. Ferrell somehow managed to make it suck. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tacked-on-character-or-sub-plot/275224/20 "2004-11-17T15:10:51Z")
> [@kidchameleon](#): > > Italy, schmitaly, what about Bulgaria? Or Brazil on the Allies side. They’re like extras, whereas Italy actually had a few speaking lines. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tacked-on-character-or-sub-plot/275224.md?page=2)