Most Unlikable Protagonists

[Drtooth]

I also didn't like the episode "Quagmire's Quagmire" in which the writers tried to paint him as the victim when he dates a woman who's really into bondage and relentlessly tortures him. Considering all the depraved things Quag has done, it just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

I liked it in a taste of his own medicine type way. It seemed much more sitcomy than some of the serious episodes, which is a plus. This one was just... off. I'm loathed to hate it for that hilarious riff on those awful The General commercials from daytime television. I think the tell tale sign that even the writers felt it was a bad episode was that they spent the end of the episode with none of the characters being empathetic towards his incarceration.

Can we bring them in to tutor Seth MacFarlane? Lol. His problem is there is no one to root for on Family Guy. A lot of comedy works because we feel like we're taking a side against something wrong, and thus supporting something right. But no one is ever "right" on Family Guy. He has spent all his energy making these characters as despicable or as disturbing as possible. And any time we might be remotely motivated to like them despite their faults, he deliberately finds a reason to destroy that. And it doesn't feel like any kind of social comment on his part about not having heroes. It just feels like him thinking compulsive contrariness is funny. I guess what I'm saying is, comedy and nihilism don't mix!

No, the problem is Seth basically does the character voices and gets his check. Sure, detractors love to paint him as a talentless hack, but he did some great stuff. Such as the good first season Johnny Bravos with Butch Hartman. I just think Seth desperately wants out of the show, but can't because Fox makes a crapload of money on FG. And I'm sure the poor reaction to Million Ways to Die in the West (which doesn't deserve near the hate it gets) are going to stick him back in the show. Funny that Fox couldn't wait to cancel the show back in 2002. It really, at best, had 2 or 3 more seasons generously.

Plus, the show has been on since 1999, with that 2 year cancellation break. All the best writers left for other projects, some being Seth's other shows (which are better written, anyway... Yes even Cleveland show was better at the time). You're getting in a new crop of writers doing their own thing, not to mention trying desperately to unpander to the college adult swim crowd.

 

[mr3urious]

No, the problem is Seth basically does the character voices and gets his check. Sure, detractors love to paint him as a talentless hack, but he did some great stuff. Such as the good first season Johnny Bravos with Butch Hartman. I just think Seth desperately wants out of the show, but can't because Fox makes a crapload of money on FG. And I'm sure the poor reaction to Million Ways to Die in the West (which doesn't deserve near the hate it gets) are going to stick him back in the show. Funny that Fox couldn't wait to cancel the show back in 2002. It really, at best, had 2 or 3 more seasons generously.

Blaming Seth for FG sucking is like blaming Matt Groening for The Simpsons falling in quality, or blaming Stephen Hillenberg for SpongeBob being the same. The show's quality is beyond his control.

 

[Drtooth]

Stephen totally left Spongebob, too.

I think Seth gets a crapload of hate because he's the only cartoonist/animator that's mainstream enough to be named outside the cartoon fan community. I also totally feel it that he'd rather do films, and the public doesn't even want him to do that because Ted is a one-time thing. Maybe the threat of the Flintstones reboot ticked a lot of people off. You know, because The Flintstones have never has a bad cartoon before.

Long running shows just have that happen to them. Short running shows even.

Back on the subject, I swear I mentioned them before, but Fanboy and Chum Chum. Even taking into consideration that the show's an unenjoyable piece of garbage with hideous character designs, the characters are some of the worst main characters I've ever seen. Everytime I managed to catch some of an episode, unfortunately, they either do something stupid and selfish or run around screaming in circles. I wanna know who thought that would be a good idea for a TV show? Even fans of the show (there are fans?! According to TVTropes, apparently) hate the main characters. You know something's wrong there.

I'm sure I mentioned Sheen when he had Planet Sheen too, but I have to admit he's the thing wrong with the show. I get the point that he's supposed to be the opposite of Jimmy Neutron who's an insufferable genius. But here's the thing. Often when Jimmy's being an insufferable genius, he gets called out on it and gets comeuppance leading him to have to fix things and apologize for it. Sheen's the opposite. An insufferable deluded moron who ruins things and the few times he solves anything, he falls butt backwards into the solution and gets praise for it. Which would be funny as an antithesis, but in execution, he's a complete jerk being rewarded for being a jerk. Even when the monkey basically tries calling him out, he's ignored. The huge wallbangers of the series being the Monkey should be the one trying to get Sheen killed and if the actual villain hates Sheen so dang much why won't he help fix his rocket and just get him off the freaking planet to begin with?

 

[mr3urious]

Back on the subject, I swear I mentioned them before, but Fanboy and Chum Chum. Even taking into consideration that the show's an unenjoyable piece of garbage with hideous character designs, the characters are some of the worst main characters I've ever seen. Everytime I managed to catch some of an episode, unfortunately, they either do something stupid and selfish or run around screaming in circles. I wanna know who thought that would be a good idea for a TV show? Even fans of the show (there are fans?! According to TVTropes, apparently) hate the main characters. You know something's wrong there.

Also, they dress up like superheroes, but don't do anything superheroic. That would have at least added a nice angle to the show.

I'm sure I mentioned Sheen when he had Planet Sheen too, but I have to admit he's the thing wrong with the show. I get the point that he's supposed to be the opposite of Jimmy Neutron who's an insufferable genius. But here's the thing. Often when Jimmy's being an insufferable genius, he gets called out on it and gets comeuppance leading him to have to fix things and apologize for it. Sheen's the opposite. An insufferable deluded moron who ruins things and the few times he solves anything, he falls butt backwards into the solution and gets praise for it. Which would be funny as an antithesis, but in execution, he's a complete jerk being rewarded for being a jerk. Even when the monkey basically tries calling him out, he's ignored. The huge wallbangers of the series being the Monkey should be the one trying to get Sheen killed and if the actual villain hates Sheen so dang much why won't he help fix his rocket and just get him off the freaking planet to begin with?

Sheen's better when he's part of the Three Amigops (sic) playing off of Jimmy and Carl. So the writers seemed to have realized this when they forced an alien in there who is exactly like Carl down to having Rob Paulsen voicing him, which was a true sign that a Sheen spinoff was a bad idea.

 

[Drtooth]

Also, they dress up like superheroes, but don't do anything superheroic. That would have at least added a nice angle to the show.

The angle of the show was supposed to be a loving nod to nerdy fanboy kids, and I've never actually seen that. I saw a lame Comic Book Guy wannabe that they worship for some reason, and that was it. Other than that, I just see spastic kids being spastic and annoying everyone in universe. I do get why they're dressed as Super heroes while not really doing anything heroic, just don't get why they bungled the nerdy cosplayer angle for "kids like loud fast things screaming in their faces."

Sheen's better when he's part of the Three Amigops (sic) playing off of Jimmy and Carl. So the writers seemed to have realized this when they forced an alien in there who is exactly like Carl down to having Rob Paulsen voicing him, which was a true sign that a Sheen spinoff was a bad idea.

To be brutally honest, that show was a product of Nick's not giving a crap unless it's a live action show attitude which is disappointing they still have. It seems like they greenlit that cartoon to take a dive, and all the energy going into creating that show should have been to sustaining El Tigre. At least that show had the morally ambiguous protagonist angle. Worst thing, it's not that Sheen was a completely bad show. It did have a nice level of observational humor. Way I see it, it's like Shaggy and Scooby-Doo Get a Clue. You could put any new random character into the show and it would still work, but they latched it up to an established character to get it greenlit. The same problem with the protagonists persist in both shows as the villains were actually salvageable and enjoyable. I'd say the only completely awful characters were Sheen and that Princess that was only there to make the tired "A MAAAYYYYUNN!!!" joke.

Even then, they changed Sheen from hyperactive obsessive fanboy (see? The can get that concept right) to oblivious moron. He does indeed work better as a supporting role, especially since the concept was Jimmy had to hang out with geeky sidekicks who actually were in awe and amazement of Jimmy instead of out-doing him. You'd expect him in his own series to have a slight change due to shift in dynamic, but for the most part, everything that made Sheen Sheen was stripped away. They even got rid of his Ultra-Lord obsession as early as the second episode. Now, I'd understand if it was a "quickly grew out of it" situation, but more the case they just decided to have him uncharacteristically drop it cold turkey.

 

[beatnikchick300]

Blaming Seth for FG sucking is like blaming Matt Groening for The Simpsons falling in quality, or blaming Stephen Hillenberg for SpongeBob being the same. The show's quality is beyond his control.

I would....not totally agree with that. While Hillenberg left Spongebob a while ago (he helped on the new movie, and will be back for the upcoming season), and I can't really speak to how deeply Groening is involved in The Simpsons (I assume not much), MacFarlane is still involved with Family Guy (if only as a voice actor). It's not like he could never even say anything about it, even just his opinion (he's even said that he just doesn't care). Besides...I really don't think the show was all that great to begin with (nor do I find MacFarlane especially funny or talented), but that's just me.

You can do both. Stanley Kubrick has done it. Mel Brooks has done it. South Park (a much smarter show, IMHO) has done it.

Of course you can. But it takes the writers having talent and passion, something that FG really lacks at this point.

 

[Drtooth]

It's not like he could never even say anything about it, even just his opinion (he's even said that he just doesn't care). Besides...I really don't think the show was all that great to begin with (nor do I find MacFarlane especially funny or talented), but that's just me.

When a show's that popular, they can afford to be on cruise control. That's unfortunate. Some of the best people left that series and went onto their own thing. I give them credit for trying to turn the show around after becoming so lazily reliant on the same boring gags. Especially the OJ Simpson episode that relied on a complete Conway Twitty song. Oh yeah, they can say they were trying to troll the audience by annoying them with a long cutaway, but they threw that terrible episode together and just wanted to kill time. Still, trying to make the show more dramatic, they're essentially way too late and their messages fall flat when they're the same things they played for laughs.

I miss the show when it was a scrappy pop culture absorbed thing and Peter didn't turn into a manchild. When he was parts Archie Bunker, 1980's TV dad, and had a Junkion like obsession with television. Still, what's Fox going to fill the time slot with? Another singing competition? Mulaney? I don't think so.

 

[Harleena]

The Telephone Guy from the Five Nights at Freddy's games. He's the one who calls you and gives you information to help you survive the night, and cheerfully encourages you. He also blithely glosses over unimportant matters such as recent murders involving the restaurant you are working at, the way the parent company covers it all up, and the lethality of the mascots. This is the bit from FNAF3 that made me decide that he is not a nice person at all:

When using an animatronic as a suit, please ensure that the animatronic parts are tightly compressed and fastened by the spring locks located around the inside of the suit. It may take a few moments to position your head and torso between these parts in a manner where you can move and speak. Try not to nudge or press against any of the spring locks inside the suit. Do not touch the spring locks at any time. Do not breathe on the spring locks, as moisture may loosen them, and cause them to break loose. In the case of the spring-locks come loose while you are wearing the suit, please try to maneuver away from populated areas before bleeding out, as to not ruin the customers' experience.​

Wow, that's bad…I can't really try to redeem that. Although I personally liked him in the first two games. My friend even started to affectionately call him "Navi" (she's a huge Zelda geek), and her reaction when he died was mostly shock and crying.

 

[scooterfan360]

Has anyone seen the movie Bebe's Kids? Robin and the three kids were pretty unlikable characters. Heck I would say Robin was even worse and more unlikable than the three misbehave kids. And yes I'm aware it's based off the stand up of the late Robin Harris.

Jubilee from the 90s X-Men cartoons, there were just times were she was just so dang annoying and she was almost always getting into trouble. I don't exactly hate her or nothing, but she was able to big time get on my nervous.

The Cat in the Hat from the live action film. Don't get me wrong, I love the original story of the Cat in the Hat. But man do I HATE what Hollywood is doing to classic Suess and this one is without question the biggest offender.

The Garbage Pail kids from the Garbage Pail Kids movie. For anyone unlucky enough to have seen this eye sore of a movie, I don't need to further explain, I'm sure.

i seen Bebe's kids , and it's robin i didn't like . not the kids , he said negative things about the three kids . when he first met them, and was ready to dump them off quickly. when they returned to town. and was still ready to ditch them , even after he seen how they lived.