This doesn't include characters like Barney Fife, Gilligan, or Steven Q. Urkel, who mean well, are likeable, and try to do what's right. In Barney Fife's case, if you boil everything down, he's actually a pretty darn good cop. I'm talking about people you would avoid like the plague. We've all run into them.
I've included a movie character because the film he's featured in has been on TV so much, and the plot centers around television.
Rupert Pupkin, The King of Comedy, 1983. One of the most unsettling characters in movies, ever, brilliantly played by Robert De Niro. Almost ranks up there with Freddy Kruger and Jason. Every word of advice meant to help him goes right past him, he's 34 and living with his mother, has out loud imaginary conversations with famous people, and he thinks that the world owes him a successful comedy career, money, and a beautiful woman. It's established in the film that he was a nerd in high school, and he's managed all too well to take it into adulthood. Very creepy.
Patrick Thomas McNulty The Twilight Zone, episode title: "A Kind of a Stopwatch", first airing Oct. 1963, One of that series' most famous episodes, McNulty, aptly played by the excellent character actor Richard Erdman, is described in the opening as "The biggest bore on Earth". We've all run into this type, who'll yak your ear off about nothing, and just go on and on, pouring on the verbal torture. Fortunately, they don't get special kinds of stopwatches to mess up our lives with. Their mere presence is bad enough.
Andy Dick. Take your choice: Scripted role or real life. Very creepy either way. Just how does he keep getting work? It truly boggles the mind.
I've included a movie character because the film he's featured in has been on TV so much, and the plot centers around television.
Rupert Pupkin, The King of Comedy, 1983. One of the most unsettling characters in movies, ever, brilliantly played by Robert De Niro. Almost ranks up there with Freddy Kruger and Jason. Every word of advice meant to help him goes right past him, he's 34 and living with his mother, has out loud imaginary conversations with famous people, and he thinks that the world owes him a successful comedy career, money, and a beautiful woman. It's established in the film that he was a nerd in high school, and he's managed all too well to take it into adulthood. Very creepy.
Patrick Thomas McNulty The Twilight Zone, episode title: "A Kind of a Stopwatch", first airing Oct. 1963, One of that series' most famous episodes, McNulty, aptly played by the excellent character actor Richard Erdman, is described in the opening as "The biggest bore on Earth". We've all run into this type, who'll yak your ear off about nothing, and just go on and on, pouring on the verbal torture. Fortunately, they don't get special kinds of stopwatches to mess up our lives with. Their mere presence is bad enough.
Andy Dick. Take your choice: Scripted role or real life. Very creepy either way. Just how does he keep getting work? It truly boggles the mind.
