Showblockers!

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Airfridge

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According to a recent AV Club Inventory, "showblockers are characters that stop good TV shows in their tracks" and are "...so grating—sometimes intentionally so—that even fans of the show heave a heavy sigh when they appear onscreen".

I couldn't help but apply this to animated shows.

Sierra (Total Drama World Tour) - From her sore-thumb-at-a-hitchhiker's-convention design to her constant obsessive fawning over Cody, I can't think of a single redeeming quality and I'm always counting the moments until we get to a scene she's not in.

Bonnie (Kim Possible) - Make catty remarks, bait Kim, insult her and Ron. For crying out loud, that's why we have Shego! Did I mention that the attempts to humanize her were embarassing, for her and the writers?
 
"Showblockers are characters that stop good TV shows in their tracks" and are "...so grating—sometimes intentionally so—that even fans of the show heave a heavy sigh when they appear onscreen".

Two characters who definitely fit that bill for me are Bumper and Sissy, both from Johnny Test. Whenever either of them appear on screen, my mind registers "Oh, here we go", and I have to fight off the urge to grab the remote.

The former is the embodiment of everything that I dislike about one-dimensional cartoon bullies: he's a big goon who exists for no other purpose but to abuse and make life miserable for the protagonist (Johnny), despite his having no reason to actually hate him. Bumper only gets a slight pass because Johnny himself is so obnoxious that I have a hard time feeling any sympathy for him.

The latter, in addition to being another unnecessary appendage to the show (seriously, does Johnny really need a would-be love interest?), has a character that is annoyingly inconsistent: when the series started, she was just Johnny's rival, determined to best him in every activity for who knows what reason (but then in season 1, Johnny's love interest was the now thankfully forgotten Janet Nelson, Jr., who was discarded about after that season), then by season 2, she morphed into Helga Pataki, a girl who's outwardly mean to Johnny but secretly coveted him. Then by her first few appearances in season 4 she was just flat-out crushing on Johnny, then later in the season she's being characterized as an overachiever and being described by Susan and Mary as "Miss Perfect". What? When did that happen? Sissy has undergone more personality changes than The 3 Faces of Eve. And the thing is, none of her personas are particularly interesting or appealing.

Both Sissy and Bumper are just more reasons why I think the show should revolve around Susan and Mary. No Johnny would mean we wouldn't have to see these 2 anymore.
 
For me, it's Crow from Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's.

Crow is obnoxious, thinks high and mighty of himself, and think, because he's friends with the two "lead characters" (Jack and Yusei) everyone should step out of his way. It's like he's a 7th grader and is visiting the high school with (high schoolers) Jack and Yusei. Everyone should step out of his way, because he's friends with them.

While Jack and Yusei could kick the other kids' butt, other kids are not going to like Crow, because he acts like a king. He's really the third wheel and only inn 7th grade, why should they think he's so great? Every time I hear him talk, I want to just into the screen and just scream, "You're not #1! You're not cool! Quit thinking you're so great!"

In Season 3 (I haven't watched much of it, but a lot of people I know have), Crow is the third and last rider for his team during the WRGP, along with Jack and Yusei. Akiza, the "lead female", doesn't get to duel.

It doesn't sound like a big deal, that Crow duels instead of Akiza, but in reality it is. This basically leads to only 3 male characters, Jack, Yusei, and Crow to get almost all the duels and screen time. That, flat out, makes the show boring.

I'm sorry, but you got to have a significant female, getting screen time. Otherwise, it's a boring, all male show. Give some respect to the girls!:mad:

The rules, for the WRGP, make it so you "have to ride a Duel runner and Turbo Duel." Well, of course, Crow "just happens" to fit the bill.They have a episode where Akiza learns to ride a Duel runner and Turbo Duels, but it's almost useless as she hasn't done it since. It makes it almost like a joke that "she can duel, but we don't want her to."

If Akiza was dueling, instead of Crow, we'd see the well liked twins, Leo and Luna (which are very good friends of Yusei and Akiza) more and probably many other characters more often.


Then, since Akiza, Leo, and Luna can't duel (due to no more spots), they ship them off to school, which I still don't get. Why isn't Yusei, Jack, Crow, and everyone else going if Akiza has to go? That doesn't make sense. You can make that excuse "they're in the WRGP", but if they grew up in a poor community, shouldn't they have to get an education, just like the well off rich people? Shouldn't their "adoptive mother", Martha, be shoving them going to school down their throats?

I always thought Crow would somehow screw up the series. He doesn't appear until episode 30, which by then, should have all the main characters in place. At the time, before that, it was Yusei, Jack, and Akiza, and the show flowed smoothly. During Season 2, Crow did get a lot of screen time and Akiza got a lot less in comparison. That's fine. As long as he didn't do it next Season, I would've been fine with it.

But now, they make Crow a Signer, same as Akiza, and suddenly, he gets to become a main character too. Akiza gets knocked out of the third most important character spot and once your out of the 3rd most important character, you're not important anymore.

Crow completely ruined this series. If he would've been satisfied taking a back seat or not being in it at all! The series and in Season 3, Akiza would've been the 3rd important character. Other characters, well liked characters, would get more screen time and the show would've flowed wonderfully.

However, Crow has to come in and ruin the series! :mad:
 
Would the hippos, Mindy and Buttons, and Rita and Runt from Animaniacs count? Whenever they came on, I would be like, "I'd rather see a :narf: and the :brain: cartoon."
 
For me it was definitely the Goodfeathers segments on Animaniacs. I really dreaded those. It was just too much of a pop culture reference and depended on celebrity impersonations, actually impersonations of impersonations, that got old really quickly. It would have been okay as a one-off segment on the show but as a recurring feature it was way too much. It certainly hasn't aged well, either, depending on impersonations of actors that aren't so much in the public eye any more and a mob movie revival fad.

Sorry, Silverstar, but I can't agree that Johnny Test would be better without Johnny. Then you'd have Dexter with no DeeDee. They'd just do boring experiments with no one around to mess them up.
 
I think Johnny Test Minus Johnny could potentially work, the producers would just have to alter the formula so it wouldn't just be a gender-reversed Dexter and Dee-Dee. Just make the girls a little more dimensional and irresponsible so they could screw up once in a while and prolong stories. They're already off to a good start by not making Susan and Mary carbon copies of each other, but at the same time they're not "different as night and day" so they can still work as a pair and not just be thesis and antithesis.
 
I could never get into Naruto because of Naruto. He reminds me so much of an annoying neighbor kid that always came over to our house when I was growing up.
 
I didn't particularly care for the Goodfeathers segments, either. I thought they were boring and unfunny.

The four main kids on Rocket Power overdid it with the 'tude, especially Otto (it seemed so forced). Whenever he was the main focus of the episode, I'd turn the channel.


I'm not sure if Towlie of South Park would count. What with getting his own episode, and Cartman calling him "The worst character ever", I'm guessing he's a parody.
 
I remember reading once that the Towelie episode was made because the creators were amused how every one-shot character they created would become a hit with the fan base no matter how thin their premise was, such as Timmy. So they created a completely ridiculous character with a stupid gimmick and backstory. And, like they thought would happen, he ended up becoming at least a moderate hit with the show's fan base.
 
This is exactly how I feel anout Bobo from Generator Rex!:mad:

He's so annoying how he always has to have the last word and would sell out his best friend for a pizza! Also in episode 6 he played poker while Rex was in a life and death situation. He's also completly useless as he never able to get a hit on any of the EVOs and in episode 9 he almost got himself and Agent Six killed by giant scorpion EVOs! Also he is the one and only source in Generator Rex of potty humor which I don't want to see!:shrug:

At least in episode 10 he wasn't only tolerable, but even mildly amusing, so maybe the writers are making him better!
 
Occasionally Family Guy will cut away to Conway Twitty. Probably the most annyoing couple of minutes I can possible conceive of in an animated program.



Well she's that show's "Cordelia." Kim = Buffy, Ron = Xander, Bonnie = Cordelia, Shego = Faith. Eh, maybe you just have to be a Buffy fanatic to see it.
 
That doesn't make it a not-stupid move on the part of the writers. Mild diversion: with Shego, you know where you stand: bad girl is bad...and loving it! With Bonnie, they tried to have it both ways: "I hate you and that you'll always be better than me. Oh, boo-hoo, my sisters treat me like crap. Please pity me." The password is 'bad writing'.

Getting things back on track...

Miss Garrison (South Park) - Holy hell, was this a stupid move! There was nothing wrong with Mr. Garrison at all. In fairness, as a bit character, I could stand "her" (like that bit in "Cartoon Wars"), but whenever an episode was centered around her, it was a rough (not to mention boring and laugh-free) 22 minutes. It didn't help that the episode that introduced "her" was more disgusting than funny; as if the show was indulging the criticisms that it's nothing more than gross-out humor.
 
Family Guy relies on a lot of one-note characters who were funny for their initial gag but became overused and just plain unfunny when they constantly kept using them again and again and again. Alright, we get it, Herbert is a pedophile.
 
A couple of years ago I rewatched a bunch of episodes of Ducktales I had on some old videos. Every time Doofus appeared I wanted to throw something at the TV. His only perpose in life is to be a stereotype of fat people.
 
Gotta love how in the episode where "Miss Garrison" went back to being Mr. Garrison, s/he acknowledged it was a mistake in dialogue, like Matt and Trey were saying, "Yeah, we messed up, but we're going to fix this".
 
Otto from Rocket Power, which is sad because he's one of the main characters. I remember forcing myself to find one good redeeming quality about him, only to come up with "well he's a kid, of course he'd be jerky and a show off." Ehh, I tried.
 
Randy Marsh. They've made the character so annoying and idiotic that anytime he takes the lead in any South Park episode, I have to turn the channel.
 
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