I'm going to describe a character archetype to you, found in many modern comedies. These characters have an extremely high opinion of themselves, but are generally incompetent. They are also typically portrayed as selfish and self-absorbed, though occasionally one will get a peek at a supposedly deep-seated vulnerability or "heart of gold" in extreme situations. Finally, and essentially, the characters are not presented as antagonists even though 85% of the time they make a good person protagonist's life harder (either through the aforementioned incompetence, selfishness, or both). From the show's perspective, one is clearly supposed to find these characters lovable -- if only in a "oh, that rascal!" sort of way.
Examples of the archetype include:
- Tom Haverford (Parks and Rec)
- Bender (Futurama)
- Kayla (Hacks)
My question is: why? Why are we supposed to like these characters? Why are we supposed to view them as anything other than antagonists? Why is the incessant message that they deserve infinite grace and good humor and are, underneath it all, good people? They're not! They're obnoxious, terrible people who rarely (if ever) face any accountability for being self-absorbed entitled jerks.
Am I the only one who hates these sorts of characters? I'm not saying they shouldn't be on television -- bad people can make good characters -- but it's maddening that the shows don't seem to present them as truly bad people, when they are. At least with Eleanor Shellstrop her being objectively terrible (at first) is the explicit plot of the show. Yet I talk about how Kayla is an objectively awful human being, and people act as if I'm punching a puppy. I'm sorry, but "lovably chaotic" my ass. If this person was in your life you'd want to chuck them out the window, and if you couldn't do it because she's an untouchable nepo baby it would only accentuate the hellish injustice of being in a society where people like her get to fail up.
Okay, rant over.
They make the show more interesting! Any show, be it comedy or drama, needs a variety of character types to function. If you think about them as playing a role that the writers need someone to fill, a lot of their attributes snap into place. They offer a contrasting perspective to other characters, which creates more interesting dialogue options. (If no one in the room is being selfish, then entire conversations are off the table.) Their selfishness is also frequently the point of the joke—it's actually funny that the Planet Express crew is so comfortable working together with a sociopath who talks in his sleep about killing all humans. And their self-interested actions frequently create problems that the characters need to solve, which is the dramatic tension that a show runs on.
ReplyDeleteI recommend some time on TVTropes to see how they work. Pull up the page for any of your examples and click through to the named tropes. They're tropes for a reason; they do useful writing work.
Again, I have no problem with this sort of character being on the show. I totally get their utility! I just don’t understand why viewers are expected to find the character *likable*.
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