Sitcoms are rife with menaces—you know, pesky people who always pop up and present some problem to the main character. Let’s look at some of the worst, most obnoxious five sitcom menaces in this “TV Retro”.
Newman (Wayne Knight, Seinfeld)
Originally, this was going to be Newman’s–as well as Jerry Seinfeld, Elaine, and George’s–friend Cosmo Kramer. While Kramer often has some scheme that occasionally drags Jerry and company into it with some assistance from mail carrier Newman, this guy just really sticks in Jerry’s craw.
What I loved about Newman is that if you watched a season of Seinfeld, this guy just popped up and it was instantly hostility. He soured Jerry’s day and Newman just seemed like he lived to do that.
Ned Flanders (Harry Shearer, The Simpsons)
The overly-friendly, overly-optimistic Ned Flanders was the ire of Homer Simpson’s existence. He had his sh** together, everyone loved him, and he was a pillar of the community. Meanwhile, Homer kind of had things together in his home life, he was likable, and you could say that he was a known quantity around town.
It’s hard to hate Flanders but sometimes Homers managed to muster up that spite and disdain for his neigh to the point of inconveniencing him on many occasions.
Ernie the Giant Chicken (Danny Smith, Family Guy)
This is probably my favorite menace/reoccurring antagonist. He used to be just “The Chicken” and has a feud with Peter Griffin dating back to 1984 when Peter accidentally punched Ernie. A friend told Ernie to chill and that he might never run into Peter again…only he does and takes the chance for revenge by giving Peter an expired coupon. When it is declined, Peter becomes teed off and a violent feud begins between them.
The thing with Ernie is that like Peter, he’s just living his life and things are normal—until they run into each other or he’s just on demon time and dives in to interrupt Peter’s day. Also, like Peter, he’s a long-time resident of Quahog, so they should fight more often given everyone bumps into each other regularly in Family Guy.
Steve Urkel (Jaleel White, Family Matters)
If you’re a 90s kid or just remember ABC sitcoms from the early 90s, you’ll remember the family sitcom Family Matters. One of the characters who went from reoccurring to a main character was the nerd Steve Urkel. An extremely friendly teenager, he annoyed most of the Winslow family by simply popping up.
Mind you, this sitcom was based in early 90s Chicago, so no doors should’ve been unlocked but Urkel usually let himself in and greeted the family as if he was given a key to the house. Throughout the series, he would pretty much harass Laura Winslow, the eldest—and eventually only—daughter.
His romantic advances were often rebuffed by Laura who eventually becomes engaged to him after a rough decision of choosing him or his suave alter ego Stefan. Urkel pretty much annoyed Laura into loving him since he was persistent and the only constant among her suitors over the show’s run.
Bruh-Man from the 5th Floor (Reginal Ballard, Martin)
Our last sitcom menace is more of a nuisance—kind of like Steve Urkel, actually. Bruh-Man from the 5th Floor was Martin Payne’s upstairs neighbor who often climbed down the fire escape and left himself in Martin’s home when he and his girlfriend Gina were away.
While there, he would help himself to Martin’s food, bathroom, TV, clothes—whatever. As a matter of fact, one of his traits is wearing clothes that belonged to Martin who is much smaller than Bruh-Man.
The character was only around for thirteen episodes across two seasons but over his appearances, Martin went from being annoyed by the large, freeloading home invader to pretty much treating him like a quasi-room mate and friend. You know, as if they lived in the same house and Bruh-Man had to climb down the side of the house to enter the living room or something.
What are some of your favorite—or loathed—sitcom menaces and nuisances? Let us know in the comments and we’ll visit them in a future part two of “TV Retro”!
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