TV Characters that became caricatures of themselves

[Mr Blake]

We see this quite a lot with popular TV characters. Writers try too hard to write the traits why we find the character popular in the first place and they become a caricatures of themselves.

We see this quite a lot in soaps (normally with "villains" and they become too far fetched) and long term characters. 

The catalyst for me starting this discussion though is I watched a later Christmas episode of The Royle Family last night and the characters had just gone too far from the original.

Jim Royle originally was a loveable lazy penny pinching dad - by the later episodes he was quite cruel/ nasty with his penny pinching ways, maliciously bumming money, not buying a present for his wife on Christmas Day etc. He was also a total slob. I felt this was a caricature of the origional character.

Also Dave & Denise - originally they were both a bit dopey & slightly idle - near the end they were complete thicko's (putting the turkey in the bath with them) and they had no regard for their children - palming them off on anyone/ letting them fend for themselves - which if real you'd contact social services.

Any other characters you can think of who became a caricature/ far fetched?

[SuperBacon]

As much as I adore The Simpsons, Homer sadly became a caricature of himself a long time ago.

The turn from loveable forgetful oaf who always had heart in everything he did to just a downright nasty bad parent/husband was a bit sad to be honest.

[Keith Houchen]

1 minute ago, SuperBacon said:

As much as I adore The Simpsons, Homer sadly became a caricature of himself a long time ago.

 

Yeah, I'd Echo this. Wasn't it a change of writers that started this sorry turn.

[MVP RULZ]

I was reading that 1st Post and was all ready to reply with Homer from The Simpsons

As stated above he has changed too much and veered into just Plain Nasty and Is now more dumb and Idiotic than being slightly dim witted but heart being in the right place character he was in the earlier seasons

I also think Joey from Friends followed a similar pattern in the latter seasons he is just too stupid to be believable at times which is nothing like he was previously where he was a lot smarter then he later was portrayed as being.

[TheBurningRed]

9 minutes ago, MVP RULZ said:

I also think Joey from Friends followed a similar pattern in the latter seasons he is just too stupid to be believable at times which is nothing like he was previously where he was a lot smarter then he later was portrayed as being.

Yeah I think of Joey and one episode in particular. The episode where Phoebe is teaching him french and he just repeats back nonsense. Yeah he’s thick, and so are a lot of people, but no one is actually that stupid that they would just repeat sounds back instead of words. Unless they’re a baby or they’ve suffered some massive head injury. 

[Devon Malcolm]

50 minutes ago, Keith Houchen said:

Yeah, I'd Echo this. Wasn't it a change of writers that started this sorry turn.

Maybe you're right.

[Guest]

Fitting that The Simpsons is one of the first shows mentioned, as the topic of this thread actually has a name: Flanderisation.

[RedRooster]

Randy Marsh in South Park. There was a period of time where he was one of the best characters on the show, but his most irritating qualities have been over-amplified and he’s been over-exposed to the point it would make Baron Corbin blush.

I was going to throw Gob Bluth from Arrested Development in there too, before realising that show in its entirety turned into a bad tribute act to itself in the Netflix continuation.

[Loki]

9 hours ago, Devon Malcolm said:

Maybe you're right.

If you two keep doing this I'll Shanks you.

[Retro Red]

Just don't shank them in the Arm, it ages badly (the wound I mean).

[Mr_Danger]

Bodger and Dave Benson Phillips are bellends.

[boytoy]

36 minutes ago, Mr_Danger said:

Bodger and Dave Benson Phillips are bellends.

A couple of mates once noticed Bodger walking along on the other side of the street and when he noticed that he had been spotted he yelled at them 'Ha Ha, fucking mashed potato" from the other side of the road. 

[Egg Shen]

Maybe not overall in fitting with this thread, but somewhat related. I watched an episode of Only Fools & Horses last week where Rodney meets some rich bird and they start dating. Del weasles his way in and basically ruins the whole thing (the theatre scene, the clay pigeon shooting). Watching it back, Del's just an utter prick in that episode, usually his heart is in the right place, he'd just got about getting to his goal in his own messed up way, but in that episode he's just plain cruel.

Edited December 18, 2019 by Egg Shen

[SuperBacon]

He’s always been a bit cruel though. Remember he got his brother to believe he was a rapist for a bit of bantz.

[The Gaffer]

1 minute ago, Egg Shen said:

Maybe not overall in fitting with this thread, but somewhat related. I watched an episode of Only Fools & Horses last week where Rodney meets some rich bird and they start dating. Del weasles his way in and basically ruins the whole thing (the theatre scene, the clay pigeon shooting). Watching it back, Del's just an utter prick in that episode, usually his heart is in the right place, he'd just got about getting to his goal in his own messed up way, but in that episode he's just plain cruel.

I had a discussion with my mate a few weeks back over the various leave/remain habits of British TV characters, and Del Boy was the first leave voter that we came up with. We ended up deciding the entire cast bar Rodney and Cassandra were brexiters. "C'mon my son, you know it makes sense" and all that. 

I'll nominate Super Hans for this thread. He was always a bit of a one dimensional psychopath narcissist, but as Peep Show waned in its last few years I feel like the writers fell back on him by default to deliver endless DRUGS LOL! moments that lost their charm. He became a meme shared by people who've never stomached the show.