It’s inevitable that not everyone can be liked. While some characters are created intentionally to be loathed, as villains or troublesome stumbling blocks for the heroes to bump into, other creations are disliked simply for being themselves. It’s not that the filmmakers have gone out of their way to create someone so utterly horrible, but that these creations have practically become sentient and taken control of the ship, developing a life of their own simply by being hated by so many people.
It doesn’t even have to do with the quality of the art or medium; while The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time may be one of the greatest games ever made, it still brings to mind that piece of crap fairy shouting at you to “LISTEN!” Thus, these are our picks for just some of the most obnoxious or just downright worst characters to grace the silver screen, regardless of how good the film is.
Poochie (The Simpsons)
20th Century Fox
Poochie is a bit of a meta addition to this list, as outside the actual world of The Simpsons, the one-off character has a set of fans that can appreciate him for his blink-and-you’ll-miss-it appearance on the show. Added as an antidote to the Itchy & Scratchy Show for dwindling ratings, natural progression suggests that the mouse/cat dynamic required a dog with attitude.
A surfer who raps, voiced by one Homer Simpson, Poochie the Dog is killed off in the very next episode to never return, and existed as a way for the writers to mock Fox’s studio executives, who wanted them to do something “fresh” with The Simpsons.
Grandpa Joe (Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory)
Paramount Pictures
The hatred for one Grandpa Joe has rightfully risen with passing years and the advent of the internet (take “Grandpa Joe Sucks and Is the Real Villain in Willy Wonka” from Barstool Sports, for example, or “Grandpa Joe Is the Internet’s Most Hated Man” from Buzzfeed News). The people can’t stand this blatant user for sitting in bed for half of his life, suckling on the kindness of his younger offspring, then jumping up and dancing when faced with a golden ticket. Grandpa Joe is also the architect of Charlie’s own lapse in judgment and the theft of a fizzy lifting drink.
As quite clearly magical as the Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory movie certainly is, it’s down to us as film fans to not let this manipulative and true villain of the piece off the hook, and it’s about time that this perfectly able bastard was canceled.
The Predalien (Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem)
Following the final reveal of Alien vs. Predator, a mash-up of both species has hit a small town and is executing the locals. Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem was a poorly lit drudge that no one liked, and the unfortunately dubbed “Predalien” was a sum of two monsters’ worst parts. AVPR essentially killed off both the Alien and Predator movie series until Ridley Scott came back with Prometheus years later, which was praised by some but, for some fans, finished Requiem’s job by shooting the franchise dead for good.
Mutt Williams (Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull)
As is normal for fading series, Mutt was added to the Indiana Jones franchise as a “fun, new, young character” to the belated fourth movie (and was thus the very thing that Poochie mocked in The Simpsons). As the film is set in the late ’50s, Mutt (unfortunately played by Shia LaBeouf) is a black-leather-wearing greaser with a motorbike and a tough persona, and the flesh and blood offspring of Doctor Jones and Marion Ravenwood. In a universe of gods, magic, and aliens, what’s most baffling is how either of these combined DNAs could ever result in such a limp try-hard of a fail-son.
In most likely the worst movie Steven Spielberg has ever committed to celluloid, Mutt in particular stands out as a wrongun. Like the majority of the additions on this list, he is irritating to be around and annoying to look at. However, he does come away with being the only one here who swings through vines with animated monkeys… and somehow that’s not even the worst moment in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Time will tell what kind of mention Mutt receives in the upcoming Indiana Jones picture, if any.
Wesley Crusher (Star Trek: The Next Generation)
Paramount Domestic Television
Young Wesley Crusher, son of The Enterprise’s Doctor Crusher, was an irritating little nerd that the rest of the crew simply tolerated on Star Trek: The Next Generation. Spunky and overeager, his toothy smile appeared far too often as the obligatory younger casting on the Sci-Fi show. With skills above his years as a pilot, it didn’t make up for the fact that such an irksome and deeply irritating character was given so much screentime aboard the Enterprise. Smarmy doesn’t cover the half of it.
Crusher was played by Wil Wheaton, who received a lot of unnecessary hate from fans, but nonetheless managed to capitalize on it by becoming self-aware about the whole ordeal. The past two decades has seen him hosting various shows, playing himself on others (such as The Big Bang Theory and Trekkies), and being all-around decent despite the amount of negativity launched at him, such as video mock-ups of him dying… which you can watch below…
Jar Jar Binks (Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace)
Only technically impressive, as the first fully formed CGI character that would utilize the now industry-standard mocap technique, Jar Jar Binks is a long-lasting road sign for the beginning of the end of Star Wars. Obnoxious and generally moronic, the Gungan was also arguably a racist caricature, what with his faux-rasta accent and long dread-like ears. This was all made worse by the fact that he was so pivotal to the actual story of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, and that awesome Jedi like Qui Gon Jinn and Obi Wan are essentially put on babysitting duty for this idiot.
Thankfully by the sequel, Jar Jar’s role had been mercifully reduced. In the comic books, when faced with a gun to his own head, Jar Jar’s own father (the hysterically named “George Binks”) shoots himself rather than have to go back to his son.
Scrappy Doo (Scooby-Doo)
Warner Bros.
Scrappy Doo, the nephew of the beloved Scooby, was a minute version of the Great Dane. Equipped with an overzealous energy, Scrappy dove headfirst into situations where his miniature stature would have only seen him thankfully crushed or killed if they had properly played out to their conclusion.
Equipped with irksome catchphrases, Scrappy is yet another iteration of what Poochie was made to mock — an add-on character forced onto the Scooby-Doo franchise in order to spice things up and have something for younger fans to yell at their parents. Instead, he’s generally remembered as a regrettable addition in the long-running canon of a series that has felt like it has been on for the entirety of history. Tapping into his fundamental lack of likability, the Scooby-Doo Movie would even set up Scrappy as the main villain of the piece.
