A greedy old farmer.
The school's resident snitch.
Spoiled young girls.
Children's show characters are so well-known, even the terrible ones!
Keep watching to find out which ones made the cut!
Shows get new characters added to the main cast all the time.
Sometimes those additions become an important part of the show's new dynamic, like Mike
Hannigan on Friends.
Other times the newbie can overpower the entire show's narrative, like Steve Urkel on Family
Matters.
Other times, you get a character like Scrappy-Doo.
The loud and energetic little pup was introduced as the nephew of Scooby-Doo in the latter's
cartoon series in 1979.
The ratings for the show were dropping, and series writer Mark Evanier credits the arrival
of Scrappy with keeping the show running; so it seems the Great Dane puppy was fairly
popular, at least in the beginning.
Later generations of fans grew to dislike how much attention Scrappy was getting, and
the way he affected the dynamic of the main cast of Scooby and the gang.
Scrappy's popularity sunk so low that he was reimagined as the main villain in the 2002
live-action Scooby-Doo film.
When James Gunn, who wrote the screenplay for the movie, was asked why he made Scrappy
into a villain, Gunn bluntly replied,
"Scrappy is just a completely f—g awful person."
In a sea of superhero cartoons aimed squarely at young boys, The Powerpuff Girls was a breath
of fresh air.
It shone the spotlight on superpowered tween sisters Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup, and
their quest to keep their city safe from just the most adorable villains you can imagine.
While most of the villains on the show were portrayed as creatures and monsters, things
got pretty real with the introduction of Princess Morbucks.
As her name indicates, Morbucks was a little girl whose superpower was having an uber-rich
dad who gave his little princess anything she wanted.
Princess Morbucks typifies the worst kind of spoiled children that exist in the real
world.
"Get on aboard the Choo-choo express.
Woo woo!
I only travel first class on my Daddy's private Lear Jet."
She is the kind of over-entitled brat who thinks the world owes her everything.
Morbucks repeatedly tries to become a Powerpuff Girl with the help of her dad's resources.
When that doesn't work, she tries to take out the competition by every underhanded means
available.
Amusingly, Princess Morbucks might be a parody of Little Orphan Annie.
Both characters are red-haired, freckle-faced little girls, while Daddy Morbucks sounds
quite similar to Annie's adoptive father, Daddy Warbucks.
If Peppa Pig is the modern flagbearer of the "troublesome children's show protagonist"
archetype, Caillou is the OG.
Much like Peppa, Caillou's life revolves around exploring the world with an inquisitive spirit.
Also like Peppa, the dude can become quite the little monster if he is not allowed to
do what he wants all the time.
He complains non-stop about things he does not like, and throws temper tantrums at the
drop of a hat.
He pinched his baby sister, called his friend stupid, and ran wild in the school when Sarah
took him to her class for a project.
To add to the chaos, it's pretty clear that much of Caillou's bad behavior is enabled
by his weak-willed parents.
Things got so bad that many articles were written about how much people hated Caillou
and his show.
Today the character is better known as a symbol of internet hate than for his own show.
You know hating Caillou has gone mainstream when the character gets specifically called
out by Last Week Tonight host John Oliver.
"F— you Caillou!
Grow some hair and leave the house!"
Imagine Dennis the Menace without any of the charm or charisma, and you have Norman Price
in a nutshell.
Norman holds the record for being rescued the most number of times, and roughly each
time he was responsible for his own mess.
Norman refuses to learn from experience, and goes right back to work getting into trouble
again.
While other children's show protagonists often get into trouble because they don't know any
better, Norman is a much more proactive participant.
You know, like the million times he caused a fire.
We're pretty sure Norman's reputation as a "prankster" will get him sent to prison the
minute he turns 18, or if he ever steps foot outside of his hometown where all the grown-ups
are inexplicably cool with Norman's constant life-threatening antics.
"He's dangling from a zip wire above the waterfall hanging upside down by his foot."
"I should have seen that one coming."
At first, The Smurfs looks to be the portrait of an ideal society as embodied by Smurf village.
Every Smurf gets one defining trait, and their jobs and personalities are built around it.
In truth, some of the Smurfs' personalities seem to be built around being obnoxious tools
and nothing else.
Somehow, Brainy Smurf manages to be more annoying than every other resident.
"Clearly you two lack the verbal skills to explain this predicament succinctly."
Supposedly Brainy is the voice of reason among his peers, but he is too in love with his
own mind to be likable.
He constantly brags about his intelligence, looks down on the other Smurfs, and acts like
he is Papa Smurf's second-in-command despite there being no such actual position.
To top it all, while Brainy talks a good game, he has proven himself to be no more competent
at dealing with actual problems than the other Smurfs, which means his problem-solver persona
is all just an act.
2003's Teen Titans was praised for its complex plotlines, strong central cast of characters,
and believable emotional arcs.
The series got a semi-spinoff in 2013 called Teen Titans Go! which was exactly like the
original, except all the returning main characters were now just awful people in every way.
Robin, Raven, Beast Boy, Starfire, and Cyborg on Teen Titans Go! are like parody versions
of the Teen Titans characters.
They rarely fight crime, and are frequently depicted more as self-absorbed teenagers than
superheroes.
The creators of the show are aware that fans of the original are not happy with the changes
made to the main characters.
As producer Michael Jelenic told Comics Alliance,
"We decided to bring back the original cast because they had good chemistry, and so far,
it's worked.
For everybody except for fans of the original show."
The issue has become so hotly debated that Teen Titans Go!
did an entire episode about its characters needing to be more like the guys from the
original Teen Titans.
Everyone knows the basic premise of Tom and Jerry.
There is Tom the cat and Jerry the mouse.
Their battles have become the stuff of legends.
Within the confines of the house Tom belongs to, Tom is the dim-witted Goliath, while Jerry
is the quick-witted but much tinier David.
As such, Jerry is usually depicted as the protagonist of the series.
But as you grow older, you realize how unfairly Tom is depicted in the cartoons.
After all, the dude is a house pet, and is specifically expected to help keep his owners'
house and belongings free of vermin.
On the other hand, Jerry is the undesired house guest who steals what he wants, destroys
house property, and even brings his pals from the wild into the house for extended periods.
Who knows what kind of diseases or dangerous bacteria Jerry, his nephew Nibbles, or Quacker
the Duckling have brought into the house over the years?
As you become an adult and a homeowner, you start to realize the danger posed by rodents
to your property, and that's when Tom starts looking more and more like the good guy.
Recess was a show that dared to ask, what if the typical American school playground
during recess became a sophisticated, small-scale version of society?
Complete with kids being placed in highly organized social groups and a king to oversee
the running of the entire structure and dole out punishment to wrongdoers.
The central premise of the show might appear limited, but it works surprisingly well due
to the well-rounded nature of the characters of the children who take part in the "recess"
society.
However not every character is likable, least of all Randall Weems.
Randall is the school's resident snitch, which might sound like an insult if Randall wasn't
so proud of the fact.
Throughout the show, he is shown to be completely devoted to the cause of snitching on his fellow
classmates to his beloved teacher Miss Finster.
Randall is also shown at different points to be a coward and a traitor.
To make matters worse, he is not above using information he has on other kids to blackmail
them for favors.
Honestly, if he wasn't such a scrawny little weasel that you occasionally feel sorry for,
Randall would be one of the most despicable characters in fiction.
Blonde, pigtailed, and angelic looking, Angelica Pickles is a prime example of a wolf in sheep's
clothing.
The cousin of Tommy and Dil Pickles, Angelica served as one of the main villains on Rugrats,
which is a truly awful statement when you remember the heroes of the series are literal
toddlers that Angelica delights in terrorizing.
At just three years old, Angelica is a spoiled, head-strong little tyrant who can communicate
with adults as well as infants.
"Ahahahaha.
Here's your pudding Angelica.
Oh, that's ok Uncle Stu I'm not hungry anymore."
Instead of acting as a bridge of understanding between the two groups, Angelica uses her
advantage entirely for her own ends.
She has also frequently played the babies off against each other, pinned the blame for
her cat's actions on Tommy's dog, convinced the other babies that Chuckie is an alien,
and faked a ransom note to get free candy.
Honestly, a grown-up version of Angelica would probably be a full-blown psychopath who'd
cyber-bully her classmates as a joke.
Fortunately, teenage Angelica who showed up later in the series is shown to have calmed
down somewhat and isn't nearly as awful as her three-year-old self.
Farmers and old men are generally treated kindly on children's shows.
They are often depicted as fatherly and full of wisdom, or harmless backdrop characters
to whatever the protagonist of the show has going on at the moment.
Eustace from Courage the Cowardly Dog bucks this trend by being an actively awful person.
As the title suggests, the show is about a dog named Courage, who is an extreme coward.
However, his cowardice does not stop him from protecting his owners, Eustace and his wife
Muriel.
While Muriel is every bit the simple, warm-hearted farmer stereotype you could hope for, her
husband is a crotchety, greedy, mean-spirited jerk who constantly goes out of his way to
make Courage's life miserable.
The main villains on the show are aliens and otherworldly monsters, but viewers realize,
as grown-ups, how much more realistic and compelling a villain Eustace was than the
villain-of-the-week creatures.
His habit of addressing Courage as "stupid dog," putting on scary masks to send Courage
into a frenzied panic, and taking his irritation out on the family pet all line up depressingly
well with real-life cases of animal abuse.
Really, if Courage hadn't been so loyal, the best thing he could have done was just let
the monsters take Eustace.
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