25 Insufferable Sitcom Main Characters Who Their Shows Would've Been Better Off Without
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A while back, Reddit user u/Competitive_Owl7085 asked, "Who was the most unlikeable main character of a TV show?" and people had a lotttt of thoughts, especially when it came to sitcoms. Here are sitcom main characters people wished would just straight-up leave the show — along with some more submissions from the BuzzFeed Community!*
*And this Reddit thread!
1.Shawn from Psych
"He was a selfish, pompous asshole who treated his best friend like shit."
"He was always extremely selfish. Everything he did was only for himself regardless of how it affected other people. I could never watch any more than a couple of episodes at a time because it was really irritating."
2.Grace from Will & Grace
"Selfish, self-absorbed, and neurotic...and a BAD friend!"
"Omg, Grace is the worst. I'm actually surprised she gets so many partners, because she seems like she would be AWFUL to date."
"She cries like a toddler throwing a fit, and she even has slip-up moments where she admits it's 'always about me' when she's not getting her way."
3.Kevin from Kevin Can Wait
"I stopped watching the show because they made him such a bumbling, oblivious, self-centered buffoon that I could not suspend enough belief that anybody would maintain a relationship with him."
4.Peter from Family Guy
"Peter Griffin is genuinely a terrible person, and I'm convinced his exploits are supported by Lois's parents secretly giving them shitloads of money."
"He's a terrible person. Can barely stand his wife unless she fucks him, and he wants her family's money, knows nothing about his children, straight up HATES Meg and blatantly abuses her, and is perpetually drunk and underachieving.
At least Homer Simpson adores Marge even though he's a dumbass. He loves his children so fiercely even though he doesn't always understand them. He drinks too much, but he's a good friend and eventually figures things out when he does wrong."
5.Malcolm from Malcolm in the Middle
"Dude tried to go one week without being an asshole, and it went so against his nature he started coughing blood."
I find many of the stories are about Malcolm being brought down by his pride. He can't admit anyone else is smarter than him and acts out when he isn't the center of attention."
"Malcolm truly crossed a line for me when he left his poor dad stranded on a buoy so he could steal his boat to go chase some girls.
I mean I get that he's just a teenager, but for someone so smart, he had so little self-control and conscience at times that it was downright appalling. There were times when he was, like, the worst person in their whole family.
I felt so sorry for Hal and Lois a bunch of times. All Hal wanted to do was go fishing with his son, the poor bastard. He was trying to be such a good dad."
6.Jerry from Seinfeld
"Jerry Seinfeld in Seinfeld was a sad, pathetic example of a human being. I accept that this isn’t consistent with how popular he is as a very funny comedian, but his character in that show was just dark."
"How this is routinely rated one of the best comedies of all time is beyond me. Every character was terrible, but Jerry was like nails on a chalkboard to me."
7.J.D. from Scrubs
"He's sooooo annoying and self-involved. I don't remember a single time he did something for someone else just to be a good person."
"That guy is such a narcissistic piece of shit."
8.Urkel from Family Matters
"Motherfucking Steve Urkel. Why are you stalking a cop's daughter, Steve?! Why are you constantly in their home, Steve?! How the fuck did you invent that robot, Steve?! Why the fuck would you re-invent yourself, Stefan?! AND, you're not fooling anyone, you know full-fucking-well you did that, Steve!!"
"That kid was the worst ever. No one liked him, he went out of his way to be annoying to everyone, ruined people’s lives, and harassed Laura to no end. His whole role was to be a shit disturber."
9.Michael from The Office
"Michael Scott is one of the worst characters in television history. Absolutely insufferable, with almost zero redeeming factors."
"Steve Carell has said he wouldn’t work today, and he’s not wrong. Michael has an immaturity to him, such as turning off the power because he’s not the center of attention. When he gets called out for not being safe in the warehouse, he ends up organizing a fake suicide jump so people will pay attention to him. Then there’s his bullying of Toby, who is targeted for doing his job. Michael should have been demoted or fired many times over."
10.And also, essentially the lead after Michael left, Jim
"[Jim] led on a bunch of girls (Katy, Brenda, Karen, etc.) knowing he was in love with an engaged woman he continuously flirted with (Pam allowed this, though). Treated them like disposable humans. Broke up with Karen and asked Pam out the same day. He’s living his best life, [with] no remorse, while there is a girl completely heartbroken over him.
[Jim] left his wife taking care of a baby and a toddler and maintaining a house ([that] he bought without telling her) to pursue his dream. [He] made [his] wife believe he was having a bad time at work to not make her 'feel worse' about being alone with the kids. [The] whole time he was being driven around in limousines and meeting his sports idols. One bad day, [he] went into total dick mode over a dance recital she didn’t record when he should’ve been there in the first place.
[Jim] made Dwight believe the office was contaminated with radiation, got him to waste money on a work bus, [and] made him drive it to a pie stand. [He] bossed him around like an animal all day to fix his marriage problems. All while Dwight was going through a crisis thinking the radiation made him infertile.
There’s more, but I’m tired, lol. The Office is my favorite show. Jim isn’t the worst; I just seriously don’t comprehend why he is so loved."
11.Zack Morris from Saved by the Bell
Suggested by radst1984
"There's a TV show called Zack Morris Is Trash. Some guy basically breaks down each episode of Saved by the Bell and points out every single heinous thing Zack does to his friends and classmates."
"He ruined many things for his friends because of his jealousy. He caused Kelly to get a concussion in the golf cart and almost let Slater take the fall. He treated Screech like shit (ok, I can forgive that one). He was just a terrible person that did awful things to his friends and was forgiven after a shitty apology."
"We’re presented his behaviors as cute and endearing rather than the fact he...sells out his friends on a whim. And dare I mention that time he started acting like a Native American stereotype the moment he thought he was partially Native American?"
12.Raymond from Everybody Loves Raymond
"Conceited little bastard."
"The wedding invitation episode where Debra finds out he’s been using weaponized incompetence to make her do all the chores their entire marriage...devastating. I cry a little watching that scene."
13.Eric from That '70s Show
"He’s an asshole throughout the whole show, but toward the end of the series, it really ramps up. WTF did Donna see in him??"
"I think this scene summed it up perfectly."
14.Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory
"Went from a clueless, socially awkward side character in the first couple of years to a self-centered narcissistic bully. I don't know why they ever hung out with him."
15.And another main character from the ensemble cast, Penny
"I know it's supposed to be stereotypically hot girl next door the nerd falls for and eventually wins over. However, by the time she and Leonard are in their final relationship, she’s a very emotionally abusive partner. She’s constantly talking down to him, belittling his interests and hobbies. She’s constantly reminding him how much she’s out of his league and is 'lucky' to have her, that she could replace him instantly while he could never get another hot girl. Her past sexual exploits are always brought up and used to humiliate him."
16.Hawkeye from M*A*S*H
"Pushing nurses up against the wall when they clearly don’t want him to, forcing homemade martinis on them, and driving everyone else insane with his narcissistic...behavior."
"Alcoholic, hedonistic hypocrite, pontificator excused by his skill as a surgeon."
17.Ted from How I Met Your Mother
"I stopped watching the show 'cause of how whiny, 'woe is me Robin won’t love me' [Ted was], after she made herself very clear what she was and wasn’t looking for."
"A typical self-proclaimed 'nice guy.' ... I remember he went to great lengths to steal client information from a matchmaker agency, because he thought she was 'the one.' He also went back to a girl who he dumped on her birthday because he was worried that what if she was 'the one'… then, he dumped her again on her birthday because he didn’t want to 'waste her time.'"
18.Also Lily — not quite *the* main character, but still *a* main character.
"[She] left her fiancée right before their wedding by going to school across the country, then expected Marshall to immediately welcome her back when she failed and ran back to him, and expected to just continue planning their wedding as if nothing happened. Then once again chose her career over family when she tried dragging Marshall to Italy, only for her to get mad at Marshall for doing the same thing.
Not to mention the fact that she actively sabotaged Ted's relationships she didn't deem worthy of her and Marshall growing old with. ... [She] also hid massive credit card debt from her husband, forced him to stay at the soulless corporate job he hated, and then later gave him shit when he started to actually like that corporate job."
19.Alan from Two and a Half Men
Suggested by u/Cronicasdecrimen
"The character has some depth in the first season or two. He was sympathetic. Then they Flanderized the fuck out him. Shame, because Cryer himself is awesome."
20.And also Charlie
Suggested by u/AcornTopHat
"I always get the impression that Sheen wasn't even acting and was just being himself. That made it worse."
"Hate that stupid fucking show. All they do is fuck around, be annoying, and make all the women on that show 'dumb blonde bimbos.'”
21.Rachel from Friends
"Think about how the show starts: She shows up on Monica's doorstep and is like, 'Well, I've fucked up my life, so now, I'm going to make it your problem.' ... Let's not forget that at the start of the show, Monica and Rachel weren't friends, and hadn't been since high school — the whole reason Rachel went to her is because she was the only person she knew in New York who wasn't invited to her wedding. ... It's established in the episode with Brad Pitt that Rachel was a vicious bully in high school. So, at the start of the show, we have an objectively terrible person. Does she really change as the show goes on? I don't think so.
—She wants to break up with Ross but doesn't have the decency to tear the Band-Aid off in one go, and instead leaves Ross to do the hard work. As far as I'm concerned, 'Let's take a break' is code for 'I want this to be over, but I don't want to take responsibility for it,' and I'll fight anyone who says otherwise. Then, she throws a tantrum at him for 'cheating' on her.
—She flies all the way to London for the express purpose of dangling herself in front of Ross one more time just as he's getting married, and manages to wreck his wedding and his relationship with Emily.
—When they both get married in Vegas, somehow it's all Ross's fault (Ross obviously shouldn't have said he got the annulment when he didn't, but putting all the blame for the debacle on him was unfair).
—When she came on to him and got pregnant, she lied to their whole friend group about it and tried to blame it on him. Even when he tried to take the high road and let it go, she insisted on pushing it.
The whole 10 years was her jerking Ross around and expecting him to come running whenever she called, and never taking any responsibility for their relationship problems."
22.But also, of course, Ross
Suggested by u/secretly-bees
"What’s really wild is that you can tell when the show aired he was supposed to be the most sympathetic character. He’s a massive piece of shit. Joey is probably the nicest guy on the show. He’s a womanizer, but he’s never deceitful about it. And he would do anything for his friends."
23.Amy from Superstore
"I mean Jonah can be a bit much, but she is so mean to him, and he is probably the nicest person. Then, she strings him along for years and wants him to uproot himself across the US, and she couldn’t even say if she wanted to marry him or not. Like, it was still the beginning of the relationship, and [she] was treating it like a five-year summer fling."
24.Jess from New Girl
"Jess was very frustrating because almost every issue she had was self-inflicted. [The] show could've run better without her."
"The first two seasons, yay. It was a great mashup of different personalities bouncing off each other, then coming together to make it work. Then, the writers seemed to waaaaayyyyy 'over-quirk' Jess. She slowly became very annoying [and] clingy, almost a parody of herself."
"SO many of the episodes at the start of the series were [like this]: Jess wants to do something, either out of impulse or to try to force the universe to be the way she wants it to be. The guys collectively tell her, 'No, Jess, that's a bad idea.' Jess does it anyway. Tsunami of consequences. No lessons learned.
Her relationship with Nick (and Nick wasn't perfect either) felt constantly sabotaged by Jess, often due to the formula above. ... As the show went on, she continued to be the 'quirky' one that everyone else often had to navigate around, and late in the game, when she had jury duty (aka Zooey Deschanel was pregnant) and she was gone for a long stretch and Megan Fox was around...the show didn't miss a beat and, in a lot of people's opinions, was better."
25.And finally, a classic example for ya to prove sitcom leads have been the worst for forever: Ralph on The Honeymooners
"He yelled at his wife constantly, threatening her with his fist, and also treated his best friend badly, all the time. As a child, I watched the show with my parents and hated him."
What sitcom characters can you not stand? Let us know in the comments!
Submissions have been edited for length/clarity.
