50 Most Annoying TV Characters of All Time (2024)

Oldest daughter Becky was played first by Lecy Goranson and later by Sarah Chalke on ABC’s Roseanne. Her character starts out as a normal-enough teenage girl in a working-class family with maybe a few more responsibilities heaped on her than she’d prefer.

Unfortunately, Becky arcs into an ungrateful, foulmouthed hooligan of sorts who refuses to recognize parental authority. Fans cringed at the plausibility of her rebellious high jinks. We all hope our daughters won’t drink our alcohol when we leave the house or runaway or drop out of school and marry a loser. The older she got, the harder it was to watch.

Joffrey was the bane of our existence on Game of Thrones for three and a half seasons. He was a loud, whiny, evil, and annoying little king with too much power and too much time on his hands.

He did little in the way of ruling and made everyone’s lives miserable. He had no redeeming qualities and seemed to be just about the worst person on the show until Ramsay shook things up even more.

The overprotective, shoot-first-ask-questions-later attitude made sense while her little sister needed protecting from zombies. After Amy’s death though, Andrea (played by Laurie Holden) became the bitter, angry, would-be cat lady we were happy to see fall just a hair shy of escaping.

Her ability to hold an unnecessary grudge was as outstanding as her talent for making terrible choices. There are entire websites devoted to hating Andrea. She shot Darryl. Enough said!

As annoying neighbors go, Newman is rather diabolical with antics such as intentional flea infestations and accusations of mail fraud (as if he wasn’t the world’s worst mailman). In fact, the sole purpose of Wayne Knights’s character is to simply be a villainously annoying weasel.

Despite his having no clear backstory or reason for his hatred of Jerry, Newman makes more appearances than any of the other supporting cast members.

Everyone everywhere has seen the Dawson crying face meme. That face sums up the character better than any words ever could, but here goes! Dawson Leery, played by the famously cheesy James Van Der Beek, is a crybaby.

He has to be one of the twerpiest main characters that were actually meant to be more appealing than they turned out to be. Instead of lovelorn Joey, Dawson’s leading lady was actually his emotional hypochondria.

It’s not often a TV character gets a paradox named after them, but Tori Scott of Saved By The Bell is one of them. The Tori Paradox was created when both Tiffani Thiessen and Elizabeth Berkley refused to renew their contracts in the fourth season. They were replaced by Leanna Creel—apparently when you mix Kelly Kapowski and Jessie Spano, you get a biker chick.

Meanwhile, Tori shows up one day, parks her bike in Zack’s spot, and annoys her way into his heart for most of one season. She’s last seen in the School Song episode and afterwards is never mentioned again.

Marcy Rhoades D’Arcy, played by Amanda Bearse, was intrusive neighbor to the Bundys. Although typically friendly with Peggy, her main goal was to be a stye in the eye of a pig named Al. Marcy’s contemptuous bickering with Al stemmed from his chauvinism and her thinking she’s better than the Bundys.

Their tit-for-tats eventually lead to Al running her down with a tricked-out shopping cart when he and Peggy face off with Marcy and Jefferson in a supermarket shopping spree.

Played by Maggie Wheeler, Janice Litman Goralnik nee Hosenstein was the girlfriend of Chandler Bing in the first season of the show. Even after they split she continued to provide a nasally, ear-piercing spice to a total of 19 episodes, always loudly popping in at inopportune times throughout the seasons.

The only sound more annoying than her trademark “Oh My God” line was her cringe-inducing cackle of a laugh that will echo through the entertainment ages.

Based off of the alter ego of the show’s co-creator Larry David, George Costanza, played by Jason Alexander, was the narcissistic yet self-hating second to Jerry Seinfeld.

From dodging work to inadvertently killing his fiance, his laziness and low self-esteem clashed often with his obsessive selfishness, usually resulting in poor consequences.

Played by the incomparable Shelley Long, Diane Chambers is waitress and later-girlfriend to bar owner Sam Malone, played by Ted Danson. Her character is meant to be perceived as an intellectual element of class amongst a gathering of barflies.

But the Diane the writers came up with turned out to be a long-winded, pretentious shrue with a superiority complex. Meaning she uses many big words to make the people around her feel dumb because they must always know she is better than them. This, of course, made it completely believable that she couldn't maintain any semblance of a relationship, whether romantically or even with other female characters in the show.

If it weren’t for frequently getting his comeuppance in the form of many funny fiascoes (i.e. the leather pants and spray tanning), Ross Gellar would be intolerable. He doesn’t exactly have a whole lot to offer. He’s not particularly witty or charming or even handsome.

He’s whiny and spoiled, yet he thinks himself a prize of a most covetous nature and can’t fathom why none of his numerous relationships work out or why he can never quite keep a hold on Rachel. Or maybe it's just his rampant paranoia and overbearing jealousy that keep him in our friend zone.

Emily Waltham (played by Helen Baxendale) is known for attempting to pull a Yoko on the group in Seasons 4 and 5. Maybe the writers were getting bored with all the will-they-won’t-they between Ross and Rachel, so they decided it was time to shake things up. Her appearance and dominance over Ross and his personal life really got under our skin.

You’d think saying the wrong name at your own wedding would be enough to end the relationship forever, but the writers milked it as best they could, allowing Emily to slither back in and manipulate the situation to her liking. Needless to say, no one was sad to finally see her go.

While the protagonist of Breaking Bad was from a certain perspective, the reality was that Walter White was anything but a hero, and every horrible thing that happened to him and his family was all his fault, and yet he always played it like he was the victim and had only the best intentions.

The truth is that of everything he did, he enjoyed every bit of it. He enjoyed feeling powerful. And it was annoying for him to act like he was doing it for any reason other than himself. He used people like Jesse and manipulated them to keep them as his minions.

We all know Samuel “Screech” Powers as the lovable-yet-annoying stalker of Lisa Turtle and loyal bestie to Zack Morris on NBC’s Saved By The Bell. What you may not know is that Dustin Diamond is the only cast member to appear in every iteration of the show as well as its starter on the Disney channel called Good Morning Miss Bliss.

Remarkably, other than his occupation, Screech’s quirky, nerdy character never changes from junior high to adulthood. Zoinks!

Fran Drescher is the loud-and-proud owner of the most iconic of all annoying voices. Whether she’s happy or sad or nervous or mad, there’s only one nasally register in her vocal range.

But it’s not just her voice that fans found cringeworthy; her up-and-down relationship with Mr. Sheffield gave us indigestion. Her family members gave us headaches. And when she and Mr. Sheffield finally got together, it brought about the end of the show.

The WB’s Charmed charmed us all, pun intended. Except for Prue. Unfortunately, Shannen Doherty couldn't keep her true self from bleeding into her character.

The constant clashing with the Halliwell sisters was only fictional in the supernatural department. Doherty’s bad attitude both on and off camera eventually lead to the writers blasting her through a wall, never to be seen or (thankfully) heard from again.

Played by Karyn Parsons, Hillary took the valley-girl persona to extreme levels. She probably said “like” more than any other female character in the whole history of TV.

If there was one single thing she could actually do by herself, it was bossing everyone else around.

Dr. Sam Beckett is played by a well-chiseled Scott Bakula long before he decided to ruin Star Trek. The premise of Quantum Leap was an odd twist on time travel that put Dr Beckett in the past and also in other people’s bodies.

But the leaps that put Sam in the body of a chimp or that weirdness with evil Al in season 3, where Sam may or may not have danced with the devil, caused viewers to raise an eyebrow in confusion. By the final season, the leaps got worse and worse and finally bit the bullet in the form of Lee Harvey Oswald. Ouch.

Pee-Wee Herman (aka Paul Reubens)was everywhere in the '80s, and there aren't many characters that even come close to his level of annoying. His voice grates on the ears, and one of his catchphrases was, "I know you are, but what am I?" It honestly couldn't be any worse. The show itself was also pretty creepy when you get down to it.

There was the chair with a face and the globe — no, just no.Altogether, it was like whoever designed this show was on something pretty strong. We're a little glad the show got taken off the air before it could traumatize a new generation of kids.

Julie’s just another angsty teen no one seems to be able to make a family show without. Played by Aimee Teegarden, Julie would constantly pick fights with her perfect parents and later on had a knack for involving herself in situations beyond her level of maturity.

Maybe what was most annoying about her is that we look back now at our teenage selves and realize we acted just like that.

Josh Radnor plays less-than-loveable lonely architect Ted Mosby in How I Met Your Mother. He can never seem to find love, and he never stops pouting.

The premise of the show has him telling his children the story, not of how he met their mother, but of how he will forever pine for Robin Scherbatsky, played by Cobie Smulders.

Sometimes you forget the show is called Family Matters and not simply Urkel. The writers put so much work into Steve Urkel (Jaleel White), who was initially to have only one appearance, that by the second season he was not only the main character, but also a recurring alter ego by the name of Stefan Urquelle.

He was so annoying that he had to be two people!

Voiced by Yeardley Smith, Lisa Simpson is probably one of the most annoying animated characters not from a children’s show. This little know-it-all doesn’t just know all, she makes it her business to correct everyone else.

She’s the pointy-haired, pearl-sporting, self-righteous anchor of the family’s comedic and out-of-control ship.

Downton Abbey has a lot of lovable characters, but Sarah O’Brien is not one of them. She was arguably one of the worst people on the show. She was bitter, rude to the other servants,and often scheming with the likes of Thomas Barrow – the two brought out the worst in one another.

Later on, Thomas gets a redemption arc, but the same cannot be said for O’Brien, who departs the show in the earlier seasons. By then, Thomas and O’Brien had become rivals.

You won’t find a better example of middle-child syndrome than Lady Edith Crawley of Masterpiece’s Downton Abbey, played expertly by Laura Carmichael. When she’s not whining, she’s backstabbing. And when she’s not whining or backstabbing, she’s moping.

Lady Edith’s bouts of melancholy and self pity could give poor Eeyore a run for his money. But the most annoying detail in Edith’s long list of flaws is that she winds up getting everything she ever wanted and in the end outranks them all by marrying the dorkiest male character in the entire show.

Kimmy Gibbler, played by Andrea Barber, is neighbor to the Tanners and quirky best friend of oldest daughter DJ. She makes several appearances starting in season one and becomes a regular character in season 5.

Throughout the show, her wild style and crazy antics keep the Tanners rolling their eyes and shaking their heads while urging DJ to make less smelly footed friends.

The best friend of Danny Tanner and essentially an uncle to the kids on the show, even if he didn’t get the official title, Joey Gladstone was kind-hearted, but…he was also incredibly annoying.

He had the worst jokes on the show and annoying catchphrases like “CUT IT OUT” with his little scissors gesture. The failed stand-up comedian would also often perform annoying cartoon character imitations that were downright cringy.

As if Eric Foreman and Michael Kelso weren’t individually annoying enough, along came Randy Pearson as a replacement for both of them. When Topher Grace and Ashton Kutcher both chose to leave the show, writers took aspects of each of their characters and created Randy.

Played by Josh Meyers, Randy’s tendencies towards a very ‘80s style yuppiness signaled the end for the series, and the public's’ vast dislike of the character had him barely appearing in the final few episodes.

In a world full of vampires, demons, and other forces of darkness, you wouldn’t expect a teenage girl to be the bigger problem. And yet, Dawn Summers is that problem. All other bratty little sisters should bow before the angsty, gripy, spoiled baby that is Buffy’s little sister.

From her constant complaining to her obsessive need to be the center of attention, Dawn’s pentiant for getting herself and the gang into trouble was uncanny. Her abandonment issues and bouts of kleptomania kept big sis Buffy constantly on her toes.

Kenny Bania was one of the show's most annoying side characters. His most memorable episode was when he gave Jerry a gaudy Armani suit and wanted compensation via a lunch with Jerry.

When the time came for lunch, Kenny ordered soup and insisted after the fact that soup was not really lunch, trying to rope Jerry into having lunch with him again!

Known for his over-the-top smarts and insufferable haughtiness, Stuart Minkus was the proverbial picnic ant. Played by Lee Norris, who also reprised the role in the show’s spinoff series Girl Meets World, Minkus fancied himself the ma of Topanga’s dreams and a superior rival to Cory Matthews.

However, his lack of character development or any kind of emotional arc get him wished away for a few years only returning periodically to remind us he had ever been there in the first place.

Joey Russo, Joey Lawrence—there wasn’t much of a difference at the time. Joey Russo’s role in Blossom was to be the dumbest jock ever. His character had so little to offer that if you google Joey Russo, you will get nothing but blurbs about how the first “whoa” didn’t get a peep from the audience so they let Lawrence do it his way on the second try and that was that.

The only smart things he ever did were coasting through life on baseball, that hair, and a “Whoa” that will follow Joey Lawrence all his life.

Leonard is the nerd that most nerds can’t stand. He’s the nerd that’s ashamed of being a nerd. Aside from the whining and pining for a girl that’s clearly out of his league, he spends a lot of time belittling his equally nerdy best friend and roommate for nothing less than also being a nerd.

And although he finally wins the girl of his far fetched dreams, it only serves to make him more of a snob and less of a loveable...Nerd.

Played unerringly by Wil Wheaton, Wesley Crusher, son of ships doctor Beverly Crusher, was meant to be a space-age wonderkid. Instead, we wondered why he was there in the first place.

We watched Star Trek for the aliens and the inappropriate fraternization amongst the crew members; not for smarty-pants kids trying and failing to fit in with the scientists and engineers around them. In the end, we were happy to see him finally leave for Starfleet Academy. Now back to the grown-up stuff!

ABC’s Once Upon A Time is about a woman whose day-to-day is turned upside down by the revelation that fairytales are not only real, but they’re an inseparable part of her life. Mr. Gold, played by Robert Carlyle, turns out to be none other than the ever-mischievous Rumplestiltskin. In the first few seasons, he is delightfully wicked and even takes the role of the beast who imprisons a very forward-thinking Belle.

It’s the Mr. Gold of a curse-free Storybrooke that's irksome. He settles down with his beloved Belle and promptly turns into a wimp. He does try once or twice to be his not-so-loveable old self, but gives up way too easily. Even his backstory becomes more annoying after the first season or two. In short, he becomes a character you don't even love to hate, you just simply don’t want to bother.

Jenna Elfman plays free-spirited and somewhat-manic yoga instructor and dog walker Dharma, who meets and immediately marries uptight lawyer Greg. The show is about two extreme opposites somehow proving that love is enough.

The entire plot, however, is centered on Dharma pretty much being a wackadoo. Every episode is about new and cringe-worthy ways in which she embarrassess Greg. By the time the show was canceled in 2002, Dharma elicited more eye rolling than she did riotous laughter.

Junior Soprano was perhaps one of the worst uncles of all time. Of course, historically, uncles are not all that great when it comes to positions of power, all vying for the throne, if you will.

Junior tries to unalive his nephew Tony Soprano and then later fakes dementia to escape the consequences. Later on, he actually gets dementia but by then, you are wondering why this guy was allowed to live in the first place.

Betsy Kettleman, a conniving con artist, was controlling and manipulative in every aspect of her life. Unwilling to listen to the advice of Jimmy McGill, aka Saul Goodman, she would have let her husband go to jail for her rather than turn herself in after embezzling $1.6 million.

Eventually, she gets her comeuppance when Jimmy steals the money and returns it himself. Betsy and her husband return in the sixth and final season, where Jimmy foils her plans to scam some elderly people out of their tax returns.

Elmo is easily the worst character on Sesame Street. While some may think he’s cute, he’s been acting like a baby for decades, and the act is getting old. Plus, there’s his annoying voice we can’t stand.

And on top of all that, there’s the fact that he talks about himself in the third person. Either he has a huge ego, or he’s secretly Gollum before he starts losing his hair.

You either love him or you hate him, but either way, you have to admit that Spongebob is annoying. To some, his annoying behavior is endearing, but to the Squidwards of the world, he’s just a burden.

Of course, even Squidward cares for him to some extent. Nevertheless, Spongebob does an exceedingly excellent job of annoying those around him.

While Michael Scott himself is arguably one of the most annoying characters on The Office, he has his redeeming qualities. Todd Packer, on the other hand, a traveling salesman and friend of Michael, was completely unlikeable.

His childish pranks and vulgar ways, and inappropriate comments made most of the office despise him. Unfortunately, he appeared on the show on and off throughout the nine seasons it aired.

Mickey Doyle was the one character on Boardwalk Empire who could never pick a side, jumping from boss to boss. He ratted people out and never stood by anyone’s side if his life was on the line.

His loud mouth, annoying laugh, and complete lack of integrity eventually got on everyone’s nerves when the character finally met his demise in the final season. It was astonishing that he even lasted as long as he did.

The Waif was yet another annoying character on Game of Thrones who hated Arya for some reason that was never quite clear. Was it just jealousy? Perhaps, but whatever the reason may be, she was easily the most petty of all the characters.

Ultimately, she met her demise at the hands of Arya’s exceptional combat skills, despite her efforts to get the upper hand. We collectively celebrated when Arya defeated her and went back home to Winterfell.

As you can tell, Game of Thrones had a lot of annoying characters, some so annoying that you can’t even say that you “love to hate” them. Walder Frey was such a character.

He was repulsive, unfunny, and despicable in every regard. He brought about the dreaded “Red Wedding” and somehow continued on living until the shows second to last season. We were glad when he met his end.

Like Mickey Doyle on Boardwalk Empire, EB Farnum was a smarmy character with no integrity on Deadwood. While he saw himself as cunning, in reality, he was foolish and cowardly.

He would have long-winded monologues on the show, which had us seething. And even the heart of the character had no redeeming qualities, as he was a bigot and misogynist, through and through.

Ziggy was one of the most annoying characters on The Wire, and that’s saying a lot, given that the protagonist himself was annoying. But Ziggy was foolish and childlike, ultimately leading to the demise of his own father.

He ends up in jail, crying about it when all of his horrible choices led to that happening. He was also vulgar and didn’t listen to anybody. He had nobody to blame but himself.

Janice Soprano was a mooch. She used her family, faked a disability to get on welfare, and did just about everything in her repertoire to use people.

She comes from a family of leeches on society, but at least they aren’t pretending to be anything else. On top of that, she has a grating personality and entitled attitude that makes her unlikeable in just about every way.

Livia Soprano was an absolutely horrible mother and arguably part of the reason behind the monster that was Tony Soprano. She complained all the time and tried to get her own son unalived, despite his efforts to care for her.

Ungrateful and spiteful, Livia Soprano was one of the most despicable characters on the show for its first two seasons until the character was written off due to the passing of actress Nancy Marchand.

Russell Edgington lived up to his name, being one of the edgiest characters on a pretty edgy show. But his larger-than-life persona and despicable deeds got on your nerves after a while, and you couldn’t wait for him to meet his end.

After his return in season 5 we were quite sick of his antics but luckily didn’t have to see him after that season. As good as a villain as he may have been, he was undoubtedly annoying too.

Author Rachel Downs Last Updated: May 21, 2024