Stuck up, up and away: the least likable protagonists in cartoons

[The Great Saiyaman]

Yeah, from what I saw of the Rise series (Which was the complete first season) made me REALLY dislike Donatello. He's so obnoxious, vain and entitled, it just grated me the wrong way.

But let's talk about similar personalities like him in other cartoon series, who are stuck up, entitled jerks who are totally unaware on how dislikable they are to others. BUT they are the series' protagonists as well.


Such as Dib Membrane from "Invader Zim"
- Now if I were to ever meet Dib I would tell him "Give it a rest already!" because he's so highly strung about Zim being an Alien and that he's indeed there to conquer the planet that he very quickly forgets the fact that Zim is no big threat whatsoever. This makes Dib behave very entitled towards everybody else as he envisions himself to be Mankind's last hope. Not caring that his actions are actually making him more of a threat than Zim is.

Well, the next one shouldn't be a surprise...

King Julien is by far the most obnoxious character ever to come from a franchise, he's entitles to the max, not beyond cheating to get his way and willfully puts others in danger because he wants something going his way. After all, he's the KING and a King should get away with anything because of him being the KING!

So who else should be in this list?

[neatoman]

• Lisa Simpson
• Gary Goodspeed
• Peter Parker (Ultimate Spider-Man)
• Bud Buckwald
• Peggy Hill

[superstaff]

Originally Posted by The Great Saiyaman

https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/zi...20160412202139
Such as Dib Membrane from "Invader Zim"
- Now if I were to ever meet Dib I would tell him "Give it a rest already!" because he's so highly strung about Zim being an Alien and that he's indeed there to conquer the planet that he very quickly forgets the fact that Zim is no big threat whatsoever. This makes Dib behave very entitled towards everybody else as he envisions himself to be Mankind's last hope. Not caring that his actions are actually making him more of a threat than Zim is.

That's a part of the joke, and where the humor comes from in the show. The show doesn't glorify Dib for it either, he's hated by basically everyone, and nobody believes him.

Thus, I find him hilarious. He's probably my favorite character on the show.

Feels like people don't understand the difference between a poorly written character that you, as a viewer, are supposed to like and idealize; and a well written character that's flawed, and you're not supposed to emulate in any way.

[sdp]

I love most of those often hated characters that were meant to be loved but got rejected by the fandoms like scrappy doo, snarf, ferbus, jar jar binks, they have their charm and I love how they piss people off. But there's one of those characters even I don't dare touch, f-ckin Bonehead from Dinosaucers



look at this goofy mother****er, he takes a bad show and makes it automatically a million times worse. He doesn't even have an annoying quirk that you can grow fond of. his only personality trait is being a god damn retard.

[Powder]

Originally Posted by superstaff

Feels like people don't understand the difference between a poorly written character that you, as a viewer, are supposed to like and idealize; and a well written character that's flawed, and you're not supposed to emulate in any way.

Bingo. At least with "certain" people.

Donnie is the most popular turtle in Rise, so at least that sentiment wasn't lost on the majority of its fandom.

[Leo656]

The animated "Punky Brewster" series is ostensibly about Punky, but it's really more about Glomer. He takes up about 90% of the real estate, drives 97% of the plot, and he's 100% insufferable.

Every episode but one has the exact same plot: "Glomer massively screws up, and they somehow have to find a way for him to fix it without exposing his existence (but only sometimes; sometimes people find out about Glomer and it's perfectly fine, but in general it's supposed to be a Big Huge Deal)." None of the episodes' plots could even happen if 1. Glomer didn't exist, or 2. Punky fed him to Brandon the same day they met.

Live-action Punky is pretty good by 80s sitcom standards. That cartoon show is pretty f*cking abysmal, though. F*cking Glomer. He makes Orko look like goddamn Yoda.

[FrederikWolferson]

Everyone in American Dad.

[ZariusTwo]

Originally Posted by neatoman

• Lisa Simpson

It was all downhill for her after she rejected Ralph. Any other writer would have made those two endgame.

[FrederikWolferson]

Originally Posted by ZariusTwo

It was all downhill for her after she rejected Ralph. Any other writer would have made those two endgame.

And not when she became an obnoxious mouthpiece for the writers?

[neatoman]

Well, Lisa is has more or less always been a bad character, her first spotlight episode all the way back in season 1 is about her being sad for no apparent reason. Writing this character to be funny seems to have been a low priority from the start, despite the fact that she is part of a comedy. And it only got worse with time as she was seemingly not allowed to express many moral failings or other weaknesses, you know, the thing that drives the humor of most other characters in the series. Most of the actual jokes involving Lisa is that she says something factual or logical and other characters react to it in an absurd way, so you're not really laughing because of her, you're laughing because of the character she interacts with. Not that there isn't a place for such characters, it's just that as she has to be a major character in almost every episode, you just can't help but notice that she just isn't funny, interesting or charming.

[Leo656]

Originally Posted by ZariusTwo

It was all downhill for her after she rejected Ralph. Any other writer would have made those two endgame.

WHAT.

[ZariusTwo]

Originally Posted by Leo656

WHAT.

No kidding. Dude did everything for her in that episode, even got his hands dirty on the roof at Homer's bidding to impress her, bought her tickets to a Krusty anniversary show (even came up with a very creative way of giving her the tickets with the toy car), and puts in the performance of a lifetime at a play to help him cope with the rejection, which impresses Lisa so much she decides to take it slow with him as a more determined friend, that part was fine.

...Then they didn't do anything with it. Like with everything.

Worse, Lisa's attitudes towards Ralph over the years have varied with different writers, sometimes she talks about him behind his back, other times she dreams of having kids with him but fears she'd lose her intelligence, other times she likes the sound of possibly being his first lady were he made president. She's all over the place with him. Even a recent episode saw her get slightly annoyed Ralph even got the same passing grade as her.

That said, you can tell from some of those episodes some writers would love to explore something with them, but I think they're held back because Groening prefers her endgame to be Milhouse (and canonically, he is)

Before the whole "Ralph is stupid for the sake of stupidity" thing caught further fire, that episode could have been a major turning point for him. Guy's not altogether there, but he was not necessarily a dim bulb.

I heard at one point Gail Simone had proposed a Lisa Simpson title for Bongo Comics, where she and Ralph would solve mysteries together, but it got shot down. I wonder if Simone 'shipped them?

It's either Nelson or Ralph for me. Part of what doesn't make Lisa all that interesting these days is they're more concerned about pairing her up with the guest kid of the week rather than any of her actual school friends who know her inside and out. She has appalling taste in men, and is very much a bicycle that 'gets around', it's a good thing she's nine otherwise this kind of behaviour would earn her a rep in college.

Originally Posted by neatoman

Well, Lisa is has more or less always been a bad character, her first spotlight episode all the way back in season 1 is about her being sad for no apparent reason.

This part alone shows how deeply ignorant you are of actual cases of 'the blues' and depression.

[neatoman]

Originally Posted by ZariusTwo

This part alone shows how deeply ignorant you are of actual cases of 'the blues' and depression.

I was more making a point about how an episode of a comedy is depressing rather than it is funny. Lisa is one of the main characters in a comedy, yet very little about her is funny, the fact that they chose to make a straight depiction of depression for her first spotlight episode is just an example of why she's just a bit illfitting in her own show.

[superstaff]

Originally Posted by ZariusTwo

No kidding. Dude did everything for her in that episode, even got his hands dirty on the roof at Homer's bidding to impress her, bought her tickets to a Krusty anniversary show (even came up with a very creative way of giving her the tickets with the toy car), and puts in the performance of a lifetime at a play to help him cope with the rejection, which impresses Lisa so much she decides to take it slow with him as a more determined friend, that part was fine.

...Then they didn't do anything with it. Like with everything.

Worse, Lisa's attitudes towards Ralph over the years have varied with different writers, sometimes she talks about him behind his back, other times she dreams of having kids with him but fears she'd lose her intelligence, other times she likes the sound of possibly being his first lady were he made president. She's all over the place with him. Even a recent episode saw her get slightly annoyed Ralph even got the same passing grade as her.

That said, you can tell from some of those episodes some writers would love to explore something with them, but I think they're held back because Groening prefers her endgame to be Milhouse (and canonically, he is)

Before the whole "Ralph is stupid for the sake of stupidity" thing caught further fire, that episode could have been a major turning point for him. Guy's not altogether there, but he was not necessarily a dim bulb.

I heard at one point Gail Simone had proposed a Lisa Simpson title for Bongo Comics, where she and Ralph would solve mysteries together, but it got shot down. I wonder if Simone 'shipped them?

It's either Nelson or Ralph for me. Part of what doesn't make Lisa all that interesting these days is they're more concerned about pairing her up with the guest kid of the week rather than any of her actual school friends who know her inside and out. She has appalling taste in men, and is very much a bicycle that 'gets around', it's a good thing she's nine otherwise this kind of behaviour would earn her a rep in college.

I really liked the idea of Nelson/Lisa, and I liked her with Ralph in theory as well. Her and Millhouse is so...bleuargh...

Originally Posted by Powder

Bingo. At least with "certain" people.

Donnie is the most popular turtle in Rise, so at least that sentiment wasn't lost on the majority of its fandom.

Eh. I get what they're going for with Donatello in Rise Of. I just don't like that interpretation for Don, personally. Same goes for most of the rest of the cast for that show. It's just not for me.

[Leo656]

There are some serious problems with the whole "Ralph was nice to Lisa, therefore Lisa is 'obligated' to love him back" logic.

First of all, as so many of us had to learn the hard way as youngsters, that isn't how "love" works. On this, I regrettably speak from experience. Thankfully it was a very long time ago, but it was ultimately a good learning experience.

Second of all, well-intentioned or no, Ralph Wiggum is mentally handicapped, and looking at Lisa Simpson as a "person" rather than a fictional character, as I always try to do with any character... yeah, she wouldn't have ever ended up with that kid. "Mean" as it might be to say, no sane person in her position would go, "Well... he was nice to me, so sure... I mean, we'll be 40 years old and I'll be giving him sponge baths and reminding him not to pick his nose and eat it, but HEY, he was NICE to me!" IF Lisa had ever decided to be with Ralph, she'd end up resenting him and the whole thing would end horribly, anyway.

Whoever would deign to marry Ralph Wiggum would literally be resigning themselves to a lifetime of wiping his ass for him. I can completely understand a writer going "Yeah, this is a dead-end situation and the Lisa character would never resign herself to that because she actually has aspirations and life goals."

I'm pretty sure that episode was trying to teach a Very Important Lesson and I think they did a reasonable job, and ended it in a very realistic way.

The truth is, if the Simpsons characters were allowed to age, Ralph Wiggum would end up being a ward of the state. It is what it is.

[ZariusTwo]

Originally Posted by Leo656

The truth is, if the Simpsons characters were allowed to age, Ralph Wiggum would end up being a ward of the state. It is what it is.

One of the possible future episodes, "Barthood", revealed he went into military service.

[Leo656]

"Back in my day we'd stick that kid in the Army an' make him play the bugle."

I forget if that was a Family Guy or American Dad joke. But it fits.