Magazine Out Now Called TV's 100 Funniest Characters

[Adamantium]

There’s a magazine out now that’s called TV’s 100 Funniest Characters. I didn’t buy it because for one magazines cost too much and secondly, there were too many choices I disagreed with to enjoy having this issue in my home. I did, however, take note of all the characters mentioned and I’m going to post them here for discussion.

It’s split up by decade. Here goes…

The 1950s
1-2. Ethel Mertz & Lucy Ricardo (I Love Lucy)
3. Eddie Haskell (Leave It to Beaver)
4. Ralph Kramden (The Honeymooners)
5-7. Ed Norton, Alice Kramden & Trixie Norton (The Honeymooners)

The 1960s
8. Maxwell Smart (Get Smart)
9. Lisa Douglas (Green Acres)
10. Barney Fife (The Andy Griffith Show)
11. Endora (Bewitched)
12. Granny (The Beverly Hillbillies)
13. Colonel Klink (Hogan’s Heroes)
14. Roger Healey (I Dream of Jeannie)
15. Sally Rogers (The Dick Van Dyke Show)

The 1970s
16. Mary Richards (The Mary Tyler Moore Show)
17-18. Rhoda Morgenstern & Sue Ann Nivens (The Mary Tyler Moore Show)
19. George Jefferson (The Jeffersons)
20. Mork (Mork & Mindy)
21. Arnold Jackson (Diff’rent Strokes)
22. Jack Tripper (Three’s Company)
23. Arnold Horshack (Welcome Back, Kotter)
24. Dwayne Schneider (One Day at a Time)
25. Les Nessman (WKRP in Cincinnati)
26. Felix Unger (The Odd Couple)
27. Hawkeye Pierce (M*A*S*H)
28. J.J. Evans (Good Times)
29-30. Lenny & Squiggy (Laverne & Shirley)
31. Archie Bunker (All in the Family)
32. Bob Hartley (The Bob Newhart Show)
33. Fonzie (Happy Days)
34. Maude Findley (Maude)
35. Fred Sanford (Sanford and Son)
36-37. Latka Gravas & Louie DePalma (Taxi)
38. Flo Castleberry (Alice)

The 1980s
39-40. Norm Peterson & Cliff Clavin (Cheers)
41-44. Dorothy, Blanche, Rose & Sophia (The Golden Girls)
45. Kip Wilson (Bosom Buddies)
46. Alex P. Keaton (Family Ties)
47. Steve Urkel (Family Matters)
48. Balki Bartokomous (Perfect Strangers)
49. Michelle Tanner (Full House)
50. Webster Long (Webster)
51. Murphy Brown (Murphy Brown)
52. Mona Robinson (Who’s the Boss?)

The 1990s
53. Fez (That ‘70s Show)
54. Samantha Jones (Sex and the City)
55-56. Will Smith & Carlton Banks (The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air)
57-60. Jerry, George, Elaine & Kramer (Seinfeld)
61-62. Niles Crane & Frasier Crane (Frasier)
63. Mimi Bibeck (The Drew Carey Show)
64-65. Darlene Conner & Jackie Harris (Roseanne)
66. The Darryl Brothers (Newhart)
67-68. Marie Barone & Frank Barone (Everybody Loves Raymond)
69. Jerri Blank (Strangers with Candy)
70. Harry Solomon (3rd Rock from the Sun)
71. Larry Sanders (The Larry Sanders Show)
72-74. Joey, Phoebe & Chandler (Friends)
75. Fran Fine (The Nanny)
76-77. Karen Walker & Jack McFarland (Will & Grace)

The 2000s
78-80. Tracy Jordan, Jack Dinghy & Kenneth Parcell (30 Rock)
81-82. Michael Scott & Dwight Schrute (The Office)
83. Larry David (Curb Your Enthusiasm)
84-85. Lois & Hal Wilkerson (Malcolm in the Middle)
86. Sheldon Cooper (The Big Bang Theory)
87-88. Charlie Kelly & Frank Reynolds (It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia)
89. Andy Dwyer (Parks & Recreation)
90. Barney Stinson (How I Met Your Mother)
91. Lucille Bluth (Arrested Development)
92. Paris Geller (Gilmore Girls)
93. Cameron Tucker (Modern Family)

The 2010s
94. Titus Andromeda (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt)
95. Jake Peralta (Brooklyn Nine-Nine)
96. Barry Goldberg (The Goldbergs)
97. Selina Meyer (Veep)
98. Moira Rose (Schitt’s Creek)
99. Susie Myerson (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel)
100. Michael (The Good Place)

They included Larry, Darryl & Darryl as ONE character, which I suppose you could argue makes sense. But they put them in the 1990s section. Newhart is an ‘80s sitcom. They also put Steve Urkel as an ‘80s character. He did ONE episode in 1989. The rest of his appearances on Family Matters were from 1990-1998. He’s a ‘90s character!

They didn’t include Dan Fielding (Night Court) or Bill McNeal (NewsRadio) or Bonnie Plunkett (Mom)? No thanks! There were a few other characters that I would have added and a bunch that I would have taken off this list. Roger Healey (I Dream of Jeannie) was funny… but one of the funniest? I don’t think so. While I like Mary Richards, I don’t think of her as one of the funniest characters. I think Phyllis should be on this list instead. And what about Ted Baxter?

[tlc38tlc38]

That list is pure bunk. Thelma Harper should’ve been on it!

[stevea]

Aw, c'mon. We all know Webster is funnier than Thelma! (not)

Mary Richards funny? Ted Baxter, yes... And even Phyllis is funnier than Mary.

Endora is funnier than Uncle Arthur?

Tim the tool man Taylor not on the 90s list?

Charlie Harper not on the 2000s list?

Larry and the Darryls belong in the 80s. (sorry, you noted that.)

What the heck is Strangers with Candy?

[Heenan Fan]

They think Lenny and Squiggy are funnier than Archie Bunker? Seriously?

[stevea]

Originally Posted by Heenan Fan

They think Lenny and Squiggy are funnier than Archie Bunker? Seriously?

Yeah, and so is Dwayne Schneider?

Also, Diff'rent Strokes was mostly in the 80s.

And, Sally Rogers was the funniest character on the Dick Van Dyke Show? What about Dick?

[bmasters9]

Originally Posted by tlc38tlc38

That list is pure bunk. Thelma Harper should’ve been on it!

So should Capt. Barney Miller!

[icecream]

Originally Posted by stevea

What the heck is Strangers with Candy?

Some Comedy Central original sitcom from 1999-2000 that only lasted 30 episodes. It looks like Stephen Colbert got his start here (that doesn't recommend it to me ).

http://epguides.com/StrangerswithCandy/

[icecream]

Besides putting Newhart in the wrong decade, a few shows that are primarily 2000s (or were most popular then like Raymond) are listed in the 90s: That 70s Show, Will and Grace, Sex and the City, Everybody Loves Raymond. And the original Murphy Brown is mainly 90s, started very late in the 80s.

[cfr1970]

Is this the order the list showed in the magazine? I ask because it's a very illogical list the way it is because the rankings are parallel to the chronological decades. It makes no sense this way.

A real top 100 list of all time TV characters would be mixed throughout the decades.

The only way i'd say this list would work correctly is if each decade was ranked separately from 1st to last.

[Adamantium]

Originally Posted by cfr1970

Is this the order the list showed in the magazine

Yes. This is the order in which they had them listed.

I guess they didn't want to take the time and thought into putting them in order from best to least best (I can't really say worst as it's supposed to be a "best of" list, haha).

[Adamantium]

Originally Posted by stevea

What the heck is Strangers with Candy?

I actually like this show and even own the complete series on DVD. It's certainly a niche series though. Knowing Sitcoms Online the way I do, I doubt many of you would be into it. It's a sitcom about a 45-year-old high school freshman named Jerri Blank. She dropped out originally because of her druggie ways and after a lifetime of living life the wrong way, she's back in school to make something of herself. It's obviously a show that just tries to be funny and doesn't have any actual heart to it. All the characters are to be laughed AT and not with. It's similar in that way to another Comedy Central show of the past, Reno 911!.

Strangers with Candy mocked after school specials and so every episode felt like a twisted version of one. It was highly dramatized for laughs. If you have a dark sense of humor, you might like this show. While it only made 30 episodes, it ran for three 10 episode seasons, and even had a series finale, so it was considered a hit for Comedy Central back in the day. They even made a movie a few years after it ended. But even though I liked the show, I didn't care for the film.

I think Jerri Blank is very funny, but I wouldn't include her on this list. For one thing, the show is so obscure and for another, there are far funnier characters out there from shows people have heard of, lol. Still though, it's nice to see this little show getting some recognition.

[stevea]

If it mocked another show, I'd be all in. I really like that kind of stuff.

I also like when shows take off on other shows, not exactly mocking. Like King of Queens doing the Honeymooners (and several others, in that episode), or The Wayans Bros. taking off on Good Times (that was kind of a mock).

[opus]

Is this what you're talking about?

[Adamantium]

Originally Posted by opus

Is this what you're talking about?

Attachment 239586

Yep. That's it.

[dee2364]

This is a really crappy list that was very lazily pulled together by people who just looked up the most famous TV shows of all time and either laundry-listed the main cast of each one or randomly picked one of the characters on the show to be the "funniest."

For example, for the 1950s, how could someone not mention Gracie Allen, Jack Benny or Sgt. Bilko? Yes, I know that Allen and Benny were playing "themselves", but they were also playing characters.

Why were Alice and Trixie from The Honeymooners "funny"? They weren't. They were the "straight women" on the show who reacted to Ed and Ralph's shenanigans but they weren't funny in and of themselves.

The 1960s--no Hazel, Gomez Addams, Uncle Fester, or Munsters? No Mr. Mooney? No Gilligan? No Gomer Pyle? Why were Roger Healey and Endora the "funniest" characters? They were great supporting characters but they weren't necessarily gut busting hilarious. To leave out so many great 1960s characters feels like someone's only exposure to 1960s sitcoms was an OTA retro channel or something.

The 1980s/90s--no Al, Peg, Kelly or Bud Bundy? No Frank Drebin? No Monroe (from Too Close to Comfort)? No Homer Simpson?

Speaking of Homer Simpson, why leave out cartoon characters? (Cartman, Ren and Stimpy, Hank Hill, the Griffins, Roger Smith)

Why leave out variety and talk show characters, like Tyrone from Laugh In and The Amazing Kreskin?

Many of the characters listed weren't funny at all, just flat out obnoxious, like Latka Gravas and Horschack. And Reverend Jim was by far the funniest character on Taxi next to Louie de Palma.