Least likeable Sesame character?

[Bob1995]

For me, it would be Baby Bear. Case closed.

 

[Drtooth]

Do you have any specific reasons, or will this just be a listing thread? It's okay that you don't like him and everything, but the conversation will be a lot more interesting if you state the reasons why, the reasons why the character doesn't work.

But I'll continue the list with some other characters...

Elizabeth and Little Murray Sparkles- Okay, so maybe not Murray... he's a cute puppet and everything... but the whole point of the character is to say how cute and lovable her cat is.... something about it rubs me the wrong way, since she comes off extremely flat as a character. Somehow I wish the cat would have been somehow displeased with her... sort of like how animals react to Elmyra of Tiny Toons... or somehow like the cat think's what she's doing is undignified. Plus, the whole overly proud of someone or something doing nothing special has been taken by Humphry and Ingrid, who did it much, much funnier.

Rodeo Rosie- It's killing me to pick on an old character... especially since I like how the character looks, and her overall design... but her intoduction skit showed showed that she was abrasive, bossy, loud, and came on waaaaaaay too strong. Her entrance is random, too... and somehow comes off exactly like the Poochie skit from The Simpsons.

The Two girls on Monster Clubhouse- lacking personality at every turn. It's such a shame Stephanie never had any major characters that got real developement... she is highly talented, but she never had a character of which she found her voice. And when they were close, she left the show, or the characters were phased out. That said, I LOVE the 2 guy monsters, Narf and Mel... Too bad they were used exclusively in a bad segment.

 

[Bob1995]

Sorry about the lack of info...

BUt the reasons that Baby Bear is my least favorite is that he resembles a bear doing a bad Elmer Fudd impression. It gets WAY more annoying than Elmo (who dosn't bug me that much) after while.

 

[ISNorden]

Three old ones, three new ones

Excluding one-shot characters--those who appeared only in a single, non-recurring sketch--here's my personal list of the most annoying, unlikeable characters on Sesame Street. (Judging the one-shots doesn't seem fair when there's no little material to go on!) Yes, I'm one of the old-schoolers who dislikes the way Elmo has changed; but I also realize that some older characters had personalities we'd hate in real-world people. So I've included six unlikable characters here, three old ones and three new ones...

The Older Ones

3. Fuzzyface (Grover's predecessor with the greenish-brown fur). He was abrasive, insensitive and bossy compared to the lovable blue Muppet who took his place later.

2. Gladys the Cow: A parody of the over-eager actress who thinks she's God's gift to the stage--almost the only time she appeared in a sympathetic light was her musical number "Proud to Be a Cow".

1. Harvey Kneeslapper. As a girl I identified most with the victims of his pranks; he seemed mean-spirited, obsessed with his own sense of humor, and unconcerned with the damage he did as a result (like the man whose hat Harvey ruined after keeping an "I" on it).

The Newer Ones

3. Benny the Bellhop (the rabbit who worked at the Furry Arms during the "Around the Corner" years). He was deliberately created to be rude, ugly, loud and unlikeable...a reversal of the cute, lovable bunny stereotype in children's fiction.

2. Baby Bear: Some people here have already mentioned his Elmer Fudd-like "baby talk" voice, which fits his age...but does more harm than good on a show that teaches the sounds of letters (among other topics). Besides the voice, his porridge-eating obsession shows a recent trend towards giving every Muppet a "favorite thing" gimmick and building most stories around it. Older characters grew out of being that gimmicky--Cookie Monster has actually appeared in a few segments that never mention food at all, and Oscar the Grouch has starred in a few episode plots that weren't centered on trash. I hope that Baby Bear, too, "grows up" eventually...

1. Elmo: He's not the main reason for Sesame Street's deteriorating, believe it or not. (For that, I blame the Workshop's financial problems and the loss of so many original performers and writers.) Still, Elmo has evolved from a cute, playful friend of the gang to a hyperactive figure who thrives on attention--I miss the days when he was an equal to the other Muppets, not a superstar.

 

[Drtooth]

2. Baby Bear: Some people here have already mentioned his Elmer Fudd-like "baby talk" voice, which fits his age...but does more harm than good on a show that teaches the sounds of letters (among other topics). Besides the voice, his porridge-eating obsession shows a recent trend towards giving every Muppet a "favorite thing" gimmick and building most stories around it. Older characters grew out of being that gimmicky--Cookie Monster has actually appeared in a few segments that never mention food at all, and Oscar the Grouch has starred in a few episode plots that weren't centered on trash. I hope that Baby Bear, too, "grows up" eventually...

I really think that the creation and addition of Cruley Bear has really made the character come a long way. In fact, funny everyone mentions Elmer Fudd... I say his original character took after him (or just as likely Yosemite Sam, in his fits of rage) just for the fact he was basically created to always be annoyed with Goldilocks's antics... which really made him a flat character. I think the turning point was dropping Goldy and making him Telly's best friend. I still feel the character's rise to popularity had a lot to do with David wanting a main character to perform on the show (long before he took over the role of Cookie).

Elmo: He's not the main reason for Sesame Street's deteriorating, believe it or not. (For that, I blame the Workshop's financial problems and the loss of so many original performers and writers.) Still, Elmo has evolved from a cute, playful friend of the gang to a hyperactive figure who thrives on attention--I miss the days when he was an equal to the other Muppets, not a superstar.

I really agree that too many old-schoolers say Elmo ruined the show. It's just too easy to say that, instead of looking at the disgusting trends towards children's (preschool) television during the 90's... I'm glad someone stated that in that way. Personally, I think the character lost a lot of likability for the reasons you stated. He went from a monster child to a child that just so happens to be a monster... and you really lose a lot of the character's child caricatured hyperactivity (like his selfishness displayed in the linking material for Monster Hits, or when he was telling reporter Kermit about his new ideeeeeeas for games). What I dislike about things like Elmo's World is you never see the character's personality.... even in Elmo in Grouchland and certain street scenes we can see Elmo's flaws and how he copes with them. And it's a darn shame he spends more time talking about Birthday cakes not wearing suspenders, since Kevin is such a talented performer... his outside of SS appearances are a LOT funnier and better than anything in the show. I especially like how he's almost a pervert.... (like in Scrubs... "Is she your woman?")

 

[muppetmonster]

Mine are:

Elmo (he was better as a minor character, but he has taken over all of Sesame Street, now everything is about him, ugh, and not just that, but he is an annoying character at all who contributes nothing to his family or friends, he just cares about being in the spotlight)

Rosita and Zoe (I am sorry, I just do not like them, I cannot explain why, I just don't; they are nice characters, but they are annoying, at least to me, of course they are not as bad as Elmo or Baby Bear)

Baby Bear (I know he is young, but he is very annoying and very naive, as with Elmo, he cares about nothing but being in the spotlight)

You might disagree with these picks, but these are the ones I prefer to mention. They are just annoying to me, and I honestly see no reason for them to have to be major characters. If they must be on Sesame Street, they should be minor characters, and the characters (Big Bird, Snuffy, Ernie, Bert, Cookie Monster, Grover, Herry Monster, Oscar, the Count, etc, should be the major ones again). I do not mind the writers bringing in newer characters, I just mind if they take over Sesame Street in their entirety, while contributing nothing. At least have a purpose for them if you want the audience to like them.

I also cannot think of any older characters who I do not like, but I will post if I think of any.

Muppetmonster

 

[Nick22]

Okay, I'm not HUGE on Sesame Street, but I know enough to pick out the bad characters:

Elmo- I don't completely hate him, but as mentioned before, he's taken over Sesame Street. I would much rather see more Cookie Monster, Bert and Ernie, and all those guys.

Telly- Again, I don't completely hate him, i actually rully love him, but sometimes he gets super annoying.

Murray Monster- Sometimes I just wanna clock him in the side of the head.

Mr. Noodle- I know he isn't a puppet, but I hate him with a passion. He is the worst thing that has ever happened to Sesame Street.

 

[ISNorden]

Okay, I'm not HUGE on Sesame Street, but I know enough to pick out the bad characters:

Elmo- I don't completely hate him, but as mentioned before, he's taken over Sesame Street. I would much rather see more Cookie Monster, Bert and Ernie, and all those guys.

Telly- Again, I don't completely hate him, i actually rully love him, but sometimes he gets super annoying.

Murray Monster- Sometimes I just wanna clock him in the side of the head.

Mr. Noodle- I know he isn't a puppet, but I hate him with a passion. He is the worst thing that has ever happened to Sesame Street.

Telly used to be all right, until the writers made two changes: (1) making Baby Bear his best friend instead of Oscar, and (2) over-emphasizing most Muppet characters' favorite things ad nauseam. The cast lost a lot of color when Telly degenerated from an older neurotic figure--think "teenage angst"--to a childlike character with childlike worries. Oscar let Telly act his (apparent) age even when their attempts at friendship failed; with Baby Bear, Telly gets dragged down to a preschool level. (I've already mentioned the "favorite thing" overuse in my comments on Baby Bear: would it kill the writers to make Telly a main character in a street scene and not involve triangles somehow?)

Murray is a minor character who got thrust into the spotlight too quickly: he's not as annoying as some of the other Muppets people have mentioned, but giving a newish character two recurring spots of his own (Word on the Street and Little Lamb) is going too far, I agree.

Mr. Noodle is as pointless as the older bumbling human characters who demonstrated the wrong way to do things; how many old-school Sesame fans learned that much from Buddy and Jim, for instance? Even with an obvious-looking joke context, children that young may end up getting the wrong idea and copying the Noodles--simply because they don't know any better.

 

[CensoredAlso]

Mr. Noodle is as pointless as the older bumbling human characters who demonstrated the wrong way to do things; how many old-school Sesame fans learned that much from Buddy and Jim, for instance? Even with an obvious-looking joke context, children that young may end up getting the wrong idea and copying the Noodles--simply because they don't know any better.

I actually see those kinds of characters as similar to Blue's Clues and Dora. Kids most likely already know the answer (since they do have lives outside of watching TV!), and watching the bumblers just drills it in further and lets a kid feel important (like when they answer in class).

 

[mr3urious]

I will agree with Drtooth that Monster Clubhouse is the worst thing EVER to happen on Sesame Street! I mean, as bad as Elmo's World is, at least it has some educational value!