Annoying Characters
In many TV shows, there will be a character who is meant to be annoying. Sometimes this happens so that the writers can use them to be the butt of cruel jokes. Sometimes annoying characters can be foils to the main characters, and sometimes the best villains are annoying.A good example of an annoying character who is meant to be a joke is Trina Vega from Victorious. Trina Vega is a narcissist, mostly because she wants to prove herself to her parents. This narcissism shows itself when she constantly overestimates her talents, when she is comfortable with other people’s discomfort, and when she just generally is frustrating. Since she is so annoying to the characters (however, not a foil), bad things happen to her often. For example, multiple “cute boys” stand her up throughout the series, but it’s funny because we don’t like Trina. The problem with characters like these is that they don’t always work. Sometimes the cruelty seems uncalled for. A lot of the older fanbase dislikes how Trina was treated, and jokes they liked as kids aren’t funny anymore. When I watched Jungle Cruise, the villain got crushed by a rock at the end, and sure, the guy was evil, but I didn’t enjoy seeing him die.
I think the annoying foil character to the main cast is usually funny. The audience isn’t necessarily meant to hate this character, but we are meant to think they’re frustrating. Fregley from Diary of a Wimpy Kid is a great example of this. People don’t wish poorly on Fregley, and we can all agree that he’s a nice kid, and we just wish he’d leave the main characters alone. In real life, there are Fregleys, people you like but still find annoying, and that’s why I think they work so well in shows. I think it’s fair for the main cast to be slightly grossed out by Fregley because they aren’t unnecessarily cruel to him.
I think annoying villains are often more effective than villains who are evil-incarnate. I think audiences can know that a devil-type villain is bad, but there’s a certain level of disconnect we have with them. I feel like we get the angriest at the opportunistic, cold, condescending, and fake villains because we can imagine them being real. Think of Azula from Avatar the Last Airbender or Umbridge from Harry Potter. I knew that Voldemort was evil, and I hated him, but Umbridge made me exclaim out loud while reading.
Anyways, in conclusion, annoying characters can improve a series, but we have to remember that they’re people. Next week I will talk about episodic vs serialized shows.