My Favorite Cartoon Characters
For no particular reason, and in no particular order, here are my 8 [EDIT: I added one more!] most favoritest cartoon characters. My criteria -- if removed from their prospective shows, all would suffer. I started out trying to list 10, but i couldn't find 10 that i felt strongly enough about.
[EDITED to add Carl, who should never have been forgotten]
Eric Cartman, South Park -- "I'll do what I want!" Possibly the most evil cartoon character on this list, especailly for an 8-year-old. His most brilliant episode is the episode when his hand 'becomes' Jennifer Lopez and starts dating Ben Affleck. The whole time, Cartman acts as if he's not controlling his own hand, to the point that he gives Affleck a handjob.
Homer Simpson, The Simpsons -- Need I explain? I do need to explain how The Simpsons writers decided to try to make him more like Peter Griffin from Family Guy. but still, 10 years of brilliant Homer is enough to excuse a few bad years.
Quagmire, Family Guy -- probably the easiest choice would be Stewie. I'm completely over the show at this point, but without Stewie, I'm not sure that the show would have been as interesting. But Quagmire adds that certain something to the show that makes it more than just a hybrid of The Simpsons and South Park watered-down for regular TV.
The Monarch, The Venture Bros. -- "I can see your ... dirty pillows!" Now, I know Mike will argue that Brock Sampson is the superior character, but to me the show without the Moharch would be alot less fun. Alot. Brock is good -- mostly because of the voice. But the Monarch's relationship w/ Dr. Girlfriend, his upbringing by butterflies, and his time in prison make him my favorite.
a tie: Zapp Brannigan & Dr. Zoidberg, Futurama -- Zapp: "Rock crushes paper. But paper covers rock. Qif, we have a conundrum. Get me a rock and some paper." Zoidberg: "That's it. I'm going for a scuttle!" I know this is a cop-out, but both of these characters bring something integral to the show.
Dale Gribble, King of the Hill -- "I loved my dad like a father. And he betrayed me - like a betrayer." King of the Hill has always amused me to no end, even though it's not as zany as most of the shows on this list. I can't figure it out. Bobby is a great character, but Dale with his paranoia, his baldness, his sunglasses, his cowardice and his complete ignorance of his wife's infidelity (to the point where he doesn't realize his son is not his) earns Dale a spot here. Bobby is a close second, but it's mostly Hank's responses to Bobby that make him great.
Carl, Aqua Teen Hunger Force -- "I don't NEED instructions to know how to ROCK!" and of course "Everytime I think of 'Urgent' I think of that girl's boobs...with my vomit on them." Yeah. That's classic comedy. There are countless quotes that make milk come out of my nose. "I knew there was something special about you and I'm not just saying that 'cause you're a whore, but you are a total whore." Carl is what makes ATF worth watching.
Comments
My top 10 cartoon characters.
1. Homer-just thinking about his "crazy schemes" can keep me laughing.
2. Krusty the Clown- hey, hey! i love his products and insensitivity to kids.
3. Apu, Comic Book Guy, Dr. Nick, Sarcastic Man.
To be honest it is hard for me to single out one simpsons character. i like almost all of them- even the minor ones. their take on asian people always makes me laugh.
4. Zapf and Zoidberg- i agree with evan. these two make the show that much better. zoidberg is awesome when he is aging backwards. and zapf-"you win again gravity."
5. Towlie- i know he is just an afterthought, but his voice and mannerisms kill me (no you're a towel!) butters is great, too.
6.Quagmire is the part of family guy which makes it worth it.
7. Brock Sampson and Dr. Orpheus- Brocks voice and face expressions are great. Orpheus has his moments, too. i also like the Monarch's henchmen.
8. Mr. Mackey- m'okay? the christmas special does it for me and the drug one, too.
9. Troy McClure
10.Dale is pretty good from "king of the hill." i have a hard time watching the show sometimes because they make peggy so unlikable-the woman who does her voice is really good at this. if peggy is a featured part of the story i'll turn it off, i dislike her that much.
Posted by: mike | August 27, 2006 1:30 PM
ok, here are mine, and evan and mike, your neglect of any and all warner bros characters is criminal. CRIMINAL!
1. daffy duck. selfish, greedy, opinionated, often wrong but always certain...and probably the funniest-ever cartoon bit ever is the "shoot him now!" "shoot me now!" with daffy, bugs and a befuddled elmer.
2. zorak, "space ghost coast to coast." this show is terribly underrated and yet one of the first and funniest of adult swim's offerings. the purity of zorak's evil is unmatched and hilarious.
3. ren hoek. is there a pattern here to my picks? one perhaps reflective of my personality?
4. squidward. this might draw some howls from you purists, but i still like the actual kid cartoons and spongebob is one of the more inventive ones.
5. khan, "king of the hill." his ongoing disgust at the rubes around him cracks me up.
6. wile e. coyote. perhaps chuck jones' best creation. the talking wile e., aka "suuuuper-genius," cartoons are funny up until chuck jones got a little too snarky in the 60s. he gets props, too, for persistence.
7. quagmire. i think that ground's been covered.
8. buttercup, the powerpuff girl. first, i think there should be at least one female character, and her name shouldn't be jessica rabbit. second, she kicks ass. third, this cartoon--and a lot of gendy tartakovsky's stuff--was abandoned too quickly by cartoon network.
9. krusty the klown. for pretty much the same reasons mike lists, and the yiddish phrases he sprinkles throughout his lines. yiddish is always funny.
10. the pink panther. man, that cat was slick. i kinda count this as more than one character, since i liked the inspector and jou-dou, the ant and the aardvark and the tijuana toads, which were all grouped with the pink panther into one show when i was a kid.
Posted by: phaedra | August 29, 2006 7:04 PM
hey, i totally forgot spongebob and squidward. they are two that fit into a tie in my top ten. from the "classics" i forgot tex avery's stuff. barney bear and company. also. the three little bears were cool from the bugs bunny days. (baby bear-"duuh, grandma what big eyes you've got." phaedra, thanks for mentioning zorak. i liked brak.
Posted by: mike | August 29, 2006 9:39 PM
I had Bugs Bunny in mind when I started this list. I'm sad to have left him off. I also thought about Space Ghost, but something weird happened over the summer. laura and I rented a season. And we didn't laugh. At all. We didn't even finish the first disk. It was really weird. I felt like part of me was dead. I remember finding that show so funny once. Perhaps other shows have just laughed me out? Or is Space Ghost aging poorly, like Melissa Rivers? Zing!
Brak was cool too. but then they gave him his own show. I have a firm belief in certain character's being valuable in small doses. Bender, for instance, is hilarious when he's a side character, but kinda boring when the whole episode is about him (See "Bender shouldn't be allowed on Television" for a good example. Although, when Bender becomes God, it worked.)
Anyway. I'm sorry for leaving off bugs, since he was an integral part of my childhood. And the episode Phaedra mentioned is a classic.
Posted by: evan | August 29, 2006 9:51 PM