The Best Show with Tom Scharpling's Top 50 Worst Movie Characters of All Time

I will take this list seriously just long enough to affirm that Scott Pilgrim is in fact the worst movie character of all time.

Forrest Gump

I find "worst" ambiguous--does he mean evil or poorly conceived? There are some great characters here (Damone, Lois Byrd...I won't waste time arguing for Lester Burnham); Damone is a creep, but I'd hardly call Lois Byrd evil.

High Fidelity Rob - if there was any comeuppance it would be less revolting.

Uncle Billy? Okay, then he must mean poorly conceived. And Lois Byrd and Damone are perfectly drawn characters.

Worst as in annoying, unlikeable, etc. Damone was nominated by one of the guests, who lobbied for him on the grounds of scalping. Lois was simply deemed annoying ("I need my hat").

For those who don't know, The Best Show is a comedy podcast that occasionally does lists like these. Nominees are suggested by the host, the crew, the guests, and fans who call in to the show (which I'm pretty sure included, in the case of this list, an ILXer).

Might go with Gollum insofar as it's the biggest gap between how much I love the book character vs. finding the film portrayal unsatisfying

Joker

Just to indicate some of the thinking that went into this list: Mr. Pink is on here because he refuses to tip.

So...worst PEOPLE?

Sure.

By which metrics, the answer is still Scott Pilgrim.

ok, then God

C-3PO, easily

was he like a diddler or something

Mike Damone, are you kidding me?! I am still working his 5-Point Plan - it's paid off quite handsomely over the years.

Wot about the guy with the firecrackers in Boogie Nights?

Bonus points for calling real-life people Steve Wiebe and Timmy Treadwell horrible people, but I won't be voting for either. And William Atherton is a cheat; cite Looking for Mr. Goodbar or don't play the game at all.

Worst 5:
Ferris Bueller, Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Rob Gordon, High Fidelity
Lester Burnham, American Beauty
Officer John Ryan, Crash
The Blues Brothers, The Blues Brothers

Also, love that even in a list like this they could only summon enough interest to include (by my count) 5 female roles.

tbf, I think the lack of female characters on this list is more due to a show hosted by a bunch of dudes not wanting to come off as misogynist by including too many female characters on a worst list.

Tom's co-host on his other podcast, Double Threat, did her own top 10 list, which includes 5 women on it, that can be found here: https://www.instagram.com/p/Cqd7Q-5P4AP/?hl=en

I know I've written words to the effect that "...it doesn't matter to me that he's supposed to be annoying," so now that I'm clear on the concept, I have a bunch of these characters (that I'll try to remember).

Tom's co-host on his other podcast, Double Threat, did her own top 10 list, which includes 5 women on it, that can be found here: https://www.instagram.com/p/Cqd7Q-5P4AP/?hl=en

Points awarded for including Guy Woodhouse and Val Goldman; points deducted for including Kay Corleone.

i got mr pink and scott p on this list

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CqJq1VlOuNd/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Voted Jack Sparrow, a one note character that now also stands as some sort of heroic symbol for the most detestable people alive.

Baby Driver is a good shout tho, prob not enough of a cultural footprint to be a contender but I did have an immediate "fuck's sake" reaction just reading the name.

I mean, there's a Kevin Spacey character right there in that movie too.

Don't remember that character grating much, decent enough perf of a generic baddie iirc. Spacey himself a monster ofc.

Guy Woodhouse shows how tricky this concept is. He's a perfect choice according to the idea of "Worst as in annoying, unlikeable, etc." (He's also evil.) But he's so integral to a film that is one of my favourites, I guess I've gotten used to him. Ditto for Keith Carradine's character in Nashville, who's about as callous and unlikeable as you can be. I even hate him when he's smugly expressing anti-war sentiments I agree with (or maybe it's that he's directing them at the wrong person). But he's a key part of Nashville, which in the end would exclude him from my own list for the same reason.

i think by "worst" here he means "would be the most exhausting to interact with if they existed in real life"

or i guess in the case of the documentary figures, "exhausting to interact with in real life and annoying on film"

in which case, i would probably move the cable guy or any other jim carrey character to the absolute top

Why this particular character from Dazed and Confused? He isn't all that significant iirc, just one of the Mitch friends.

Pulp Fiction nom should be Jimmie

Here’s the full discussion of the list, starting after about an hour in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hi07tMHYuhA

How do people think it's OK for podcast episodes to go on for three hours?

If your show is born out of years of a local radio slot, it makes sense.

in which case, i would probably move the cable guy or any other jim carrey character to the absolute top

I was ready to vote for the Cable Guy, but after double-checking, they've nominated Matthew Broderick's character in the movie!

thanks for pointing that out. i am terrible at remembering character names from movies

no Ziggy Sobotka?

oh this is movies nvm

Robbie Robertson by a mile, jesus that smug fuck

Voted Jack Sparrow, a one note character that now also stands as some sort of heroic symbol for the most detestable people alive.

me too, same logic

pretty sure God will win

only God can judge this thread

Spacey, the avatar of one the most smug movies of all time.

I like that Ulrich gets two nominations

One for a movie he had two tiny cameos in

There are some actually good characters here (Lois, uncle Billy, Gollum, blues bros, Neal Page, Mr Pink), definitely some bad ones. Baby Driver is pretty tough to take (kinda imagine it would be a much better film w/a likable lead, Tom Holland or someone of that nature), Rocco from boondock saints is absolutely sublevels of awful but so is the film which means he has less of an impact, Lester/Forrest/Doubtfire are all kind of annoying.

I think probably gotta go w Jack Sparrow, a character which worked some of the time in the first film but contributed to the rest of the sequels being some of the worst and ugliest flicks I’ve ever seen.

voted for william atherton, all roles

i argued mr pink just for the tipping thing.. great performance but spawned awful behavior. i likened him to bad religion. good band that spawned terrible bands.

Keith Carradine's character in Nashville, who's about as callous and unlikeable as you can be

But he's easy!

Inspired by the Canadian songs poll, I'm voting Bob Rock.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

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