Most despicable sitcom character? Page 5

As much as I like them, it's got to be either Alan B'Stard from The New Statesman or Eddie and Richie from Bottom. Some would say Alf Garnett or Rigsby but Rigsby had an affection for Miss Jones, and deep down I think he had a soft spot for Alan and Philip, and Alf did provide for his family. Those things don't mean they weren't despicable people but it shows they did have a small amount of human decency.

But B'Stard, Richie and Eddie have no redeeming qualities whatsoever and would cheat, rob and even kill anyone to get whatever they wanted. In Richie and Eddie's case, even each other.

I don't even think of Rich and Eddie as 'proper' characters, just an excuse for Rik and Ade to indulge in filth. After Filthy-Rich-Catflap and the first series of Bottom, even I lost interest. I know most of the Young Ones inside out; I just couldn't be arsed with yet another Bottom.

Quote: Michael Monkhouse @ 8th March 2018, 4:10 PM

I don't even think of Rich and Eddie as 'proper' characters, just an excuse for Rik and Ade to indulge in filth. After Filthy-Rich-Catflap and the first series of Bottom, even I lost interest. I know most of the Young Ones inside out; I just couldn't be arsed with yet another Bottom.

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I know what you mean because I'm a big fan of Rik and Ade and I would rather have the three series of Bottom than not have them but I also think some of the episodes in series 2 and 3 are pretty boring. Infact I never bother watching the Ferris Wheel one and S'out is also lacking in the bowel moving funny moments. It's a lot of repeated gags and violence.

I like the costume and makeup because Richie looks like a real slimey toad of a man.

The film was gross too, and not in the way they wanted.

> I honestly can't see how anyone could find Martin Bryce "despicable", but have to agree that Paul Ryman clearly gets off on tormenting Martin and finds his distress and confusion highly amusing, revealing a nasty side to his character. One can imagine him having a jolly good laugh telling anecdotes about how he's made Martin look foolish* to his many mates up the golf club. Admittedly he does a couple of things that could be interpreted as kindnesses towards M, such as forcing Rex to confess to the 'hilarious' Belgian prostitute 'joke', and did something nice for Ann and Martin at Christmas, the details of which escape me. But then he allows Martin to believe that he sold / let the house to Dan and Diana Danby (great names, and the Right Sort of People!) so as not to upset the life of The Close, when in fact they were simply the first interested parties.

* I realise he IS foolish - is not point.

> Matthew in 'Game On', although a victim and 'loser', is a horrible bloke and a manipulative bully (making him an interesting character!), especially as portrayed in the first series by that good actor whose name I've forgotten.

> Did someone mention Neil wotsisname in The Office? I always thought him a smarmy bully; a kind of southern posh PC Finchy in disguise.

> Neil Stuke's CJ equivalent (Chris Jackson) in the Clunester's 'Reggie Perrin' is pretty appalling - unlike the original who was merely bombastic and inflexible. The underlings were afraid of John Barron's CJ because he shouted and had the authority to make them unemployed, whereas the boss in the remake appears to be a liar and borderline sociopath who eventually begs Reggie for help and then betrays and humiliates him.

Now I think of it, Nicola Perrin isn't terribly nice either, her having to put up with Reggie's funny little ways notwithstanding.

> It goes without saying that Curb's Susie Green is rather unpleasant, but she can't hold a candle to the repellent Wanda - who appears, unaccountably, to be Cheryl's best friend.

> I'm Alan Partridge: Sophie and Ben could both do with a slap in the chops IMHO. Oddly, I've seen both characters described as 'pleasant' on IMDB or somewhere. They're not taking the piss out of Alan because they care passionately about the prejudice faced by East Anglian farmers, they're impudent overgrown children who think it's funny that AP is older than them and likes uncool clothes and music, which is saaaa-aaa--aaaaad.

I've also seen it suggested that Alan is jealous of the youngsters' sexual relationship because he has the hots for Sophie, which I would contend is poppycock; he's jealous of *anyone* in a sexual relationship as at that point he is not. Anyway, he quite naturally only has eyes for Susan.

> Saxondale: Vicky who runs the office that doles out jobs to the pest controllers does a pretty good line in passive-aggressive cruelty.

> 'Men Behaving Badly': I'm afraid I don't much care for Dorothy (details available on request). Gary's a bit of a prick, obvs. and does some terrible things but remains more or less likeable. I'm probably just sexist.

> 'Fleabag': seems a fairly unpleasant sorta gal to me. Good show though.

> Did anyone mention OFAH's DI Roy Slater? A tour de force from the brilliant Broadbent - almost Dickensian in his villany!

> Arguably, the Sid James character in the wireless 'Hancock's' was reasonably evil. Of course the HHH universe was constantly shifting and relationships changing, but repeatedly plotting to get Tony's house knocked down and ruin him financially whilst pretending to be his mate is hardly defensible, however delightfully dirty the laugh.

> Father Ted: That temporary 'locum priest' who filled in for Jack when he was in the care home (have I got that right?) with his Jungle 'n' Bass pop cassettes was almost demonic but prob. doesn't count as he only appeared in one episode.

The world should count itself lucky that all of the above are only imaginary people, and that some of them are extremely funny.

Some good ones but I'm not sure about Neil from The Office as I always saw him as a friendly, approachable boss. The Swindon lot love him so that suggests he was was a good manager before the merger. It's only David that dislikes him and Neil isn't very fond of David because he distracts people from their work and is underperforming. Finchy isn't a nice person because he's mean towards David even though David views him as his mate.

I agree about that priest in Father Ted because he is really nasty. The jungle track he has blaring out is one of my favourite remixes as I listened to a lot of that kind of stuff in the 90s. For some nice bedtime listeneing it's Cutty Ranks - Limb By Limb (DJ SS remix)

I don't think Sophie and Ben are disrespectful to Alan but they do see him as a bit of a joke. He is probably a very demanding guest so I can't blame them for letting off steam behind his back. If Alan only had eyes for Susan why didn't he go all the way with her in the lift? What was he thinking?!

Ah yes. That's the very tune. Riddim indeed!

Yes, Neil's good at his job, but also is popular because he's smarmy, as the writing suggests. Of course the joke is that Brent thinks he's 'good with people', whereas Neil actually is, though on a very superficial level, hence the resentment you reference. We can see that Neil is somewhat a kindred spirit of Finchy's at the Christmas party when the pair gang up on Brent and insult him and his date in a crude and witless way (for example).

Sophie does a cartoonish impersonation of Alan when the staff are playing cards during the hotel refurb (as a child might make fun of a teacher) and Susan doesn't call her out for being unprofessional. Alan's a massive prat for sure, but the way the staff (and Lynn) exclude** him from their gang is kind of nasty. I don't recall Alan being a particularly demanding guest. Perhaps I feel poor Alan should have someone else on his side beside Lynn and Michael :-)

Edit: Actually, he (AP) was later truly horrible to Sonja so maybe that tempers my sympathy a little.

** not my verb, Carol ... the verb of Alan Partridge.

Quote: Definitely Tarby @ 28th June 2019, 11:33 PM

If Alan only had eyes for Susan why didn't he go all the way with her in the lift? What was he thinking?!

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Because he knew she was (weirdly and uncharacteristically) teasing him in a piss-taking way to belittle him. Perhaps he secretly loved it. Who knows??

Also there were probably some very 'interesting' films on the hotel cable TV that night!

... and the above is an important point: however good the writing, in many sitcoms characters will occasionally speak and/or behave in inconsistent ways in order to serve the plot. Susan's outburst at AP's pathetically triumphant leaving do in his room being another example.

Both Capt. Mainwaring and Private Frazer had their short-lived moments of spite and downright nastiness.

Edit: I slightly agree with user Mike X regarding Tim Canterbury of Wernham Hogg fame being a snidey f*cker.

... and I've thought of another 'despicable': Corp. Percy Marsh from 'Get Some In' - a truly reptillian individual.

Oh, just thought of another trio of absolute charmers - this time from "Dear John":

> John Lacey's (ex) wife Wendy and his 'best friend' Mike.

> John's other best mate Ken, who pretends to be single (or separated) to join the 1-2-1 club to prey on needy ladies and proceeds to string along the obviously vulnerable Kate.

Rex Tynan played by Peter Blake in EDC, (who incidentally died a year ago next month - I didn't realise that. RIP) who sets Martin up with a girl in his bedroom when they are on a business trip to Brussels.

What a nasty piece of work he was!

Stepmother in Fleabag. Fleabag herself isn't perfect but she's still likeable whilst being flawed. Stepmother is a monster, as is Claire's other half Martin.

Quote: Michael Monkhouse @ 8th March 2018, 4:10 PM

I just couldn't be arsed with yet another Bottom.

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One's enough eh?

Yes B'stard was despicable and so was Jill in Nighty Night.

Not for the first time in a BCG discussion, we need to define our terms.

Sitcoms over the years have had their fair share of bastards, monsters and complete and utter c-words but I'm struggling to think of one I'd describe as "despicable".

In a bona fide sitcom, I'd expect even the baddies to be funny.

If the writer believes him/herself (rightly or wrongly) to to be a serious dramatist, then unpleasant people are very likely to appear.

However, there is still a gap between "unpleasant" and "despicable".

A despicable character deserves to be hated (and not in the jovial sense in which audiences hate pantomime villains).

I'm not saying such characters have never existed in sitcom but a great many of those mentioned above don't qualify, in my opinion.

Mark's dad in Peep Show. And Garth Merenghi is pretty despicable.

Quote: Rood Eye @ 29th June 2019, 5:39 PM

Not for the first time in a BCG discussion, we need to define our terms.

Sitcoms over the years have had their fair share of bastards, monsters and complete and utter c-words but I'm struggling to think of one I'd describe as "despicable".

In a bona fide sitcom, I'd expect even the baddies to be funny.

If the writer believes him/herself (rightly or wrongly) to to be a serious dramatist, then unpleasant people are very likely to appear.

However, there is still a gap between "unpleasant" and "despicable".

A despicable character deserves to be hated (and not in the jovial sense in which audiences hate pantomime villains).

I'm not saying such characters have never existed in sitcom but a great many of those mentioned above don't qualify, in my opinion.

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Darren's boss in Bewitched. He's always expecting him to suck up to potential clients, even entertain them at home. If having a witch for a wife isn't stressful enough. Mind you, he doesn't know that of course.