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Post by angryfan on Nov 18, 2009 9:56:39 GMT -5
OBSERVE AND REPORT was advertised as a comedy. I submit that it is, indeed, a horror movie. The lead character played by Seth Rogen is a complete psychopath of a mall security guard whose sole desire in life is to be a cop and carry many, many guns. His existence is a sad, lonely one where he lives with his drunk, incestuous mother and lusts after the makeup department girl. He eventually goes insane, takes on the entire police department in a violent meltdown, and shoots a man dead in cold blood. This is not PAUL BLART; it's closer to f*****g TAXI DRIVER. My nephew wanted to see the movie, so we watched it together. He laughed, but I cringed throughout. Maybe part of it is because I work in security and honestly know people like the lead character, but the whole thing was just uncomfortable. A man in a job he obviously hates since it doesn't give him the power he desperately wants can't get the job he wants because he's a medicated nutjob with violent tendencies. Goes out of his way to be a prick to people that try to befriend him, and thinks peole that openly mock him are his friends. Top this off with the obsession not just with guns but with voilent vigilantism that culminates in shooting the streaker and then dragging the bleeding man to the police station (which somehow wins him praise) and it all adds up to just sad. There's a guy I work with, or rather that works for the same company who I have occasion to deal with, that constantly reminds people of his military service and how that makes him special. He is convinced that he is a badass and a combat vet, dispite only being in for two years before being discharged (medical) and spending that time as a file clerk. Subsequently, the man keeps a loaded AR-15 in his trunk at all times and is not shy about showing it off. Long story short, the guy scares the crap out of me, and watching Observe and Report, he was the first person I thought of.
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theryno665
Grimlock
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Post by theryno665 on Nov 18, 2009 9:57:12 GMT -5
As per the Ventures, I argue that both Brock and Orpheus count as not sad. I think Orpheus is a little sad due to him being a single parent who's oblivious as to how to care for his daughter as she's in her teenage years. I'll make an argument for Dr. Girlfriend not being sad. Despite being a villain, she's one of the few with some sort of inner morals. And even though she's married to The Monarch, that just shows that she can see things in him that no one else sees, not even The Monarch himself.
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Mozenrath
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Post by Mozenrath on Nov 18, 2009 10:20:49 GMT -5
OBSERVE AND REPORT was advertised as a comedy. I submit that it is, indeed, a horror movie. The lead character played by Seth Rogen is a complete psychopath of a mall security guard whose sole desire in life is to be a cop and carry many, many guns. His existence is a sad, lonely one where he lives with his drunk, incestuous mother and lusts after the makeup department girl. He eventually goes insane, takes on the entire police department in a violent meltdown, and shoots a man dead in cold blood. This is not PAUL BLART; it's closer to f*****g TAXI DRIVER. My nephew wanted to see the movie, so we watched it together. He laughed, but I cringed throughout. Maybe part of it is because I work in security and honestly know people like the lead character, but the whole thing was just uncomfortable. A man in a job he obviously hates since it doesn't give him the power he desperately wants can't get the job he wants because he's a medicated nutjob with violent tendencies. Goes out of his way to be a prick to people that try to befriend him, and thinks peole that openly mock him are his friends. Top this off with the obsession not just with guns but with voilent vigilantism that culminates in shooting the streaker and then dragging the bleeding man to the police station (which somehow wins him praise) and it all adds up to just sad. There's a guy I work with, or rather that works for the same company who I have occasion to deal with, that constantly reminds people of his military service and how that makes him special. He is convinced that he is a badass and a combat vet, dispite only being in for two years before being discharged (medical) and spending that time as a file clerk. Subsequently, the man keeps a loaded AR-15 in his trunk at all times and is not shy about showing it off. Long story short, the guy scares the crap out of me, and watching Observe and Report, he was the first person I thought of. If it makes you feel any better, that guy you work with has a pretty similar story to the serial killer I saw on a show that killed hunters to steal their guns. Wait, that shouldn't make you feel better. (sorry, couldn't resist) Though, the Observe and Report character is more like that man, just with added Travis Bickle.
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Post by angryfan on Nov 18, 2009 10:27:04 GMT -5
My nephew wanted to see the movie, so we watched it together. He laughed, but I cringed throughout. Maybe part of it is because I work in security and honestly know people like the lead character, but the whole thing was just uncomfortable. A man in a job he obviously hates since it doesn't give him the power he desperately wants can't get the job he wants because he's a medicated nutjob with violent tendencies. Goes out of his way to be a prick to people that try to befriend him, and thinks peole that openly mock him are his friends. Top this off with the obsession not just with guns but with voilent vigilantism that culminates in shooting the streaker and then dragging the bleeding man to the police station (which somehow wins him praise) and it all adds up to just sad. There's a guy I work with, or rather that works for the same company who I have occasion to deal with, that constantly reminds people of his military service and how that makes him special. He is convinced that he is a badass and a combat vet, dispite only being in for two years before being discharged (medical) and spending that time as a file clerk. Subsequently, the man keeps a loaded AR-15 in his trunk at all times and is not shy about showing it off. Long story short, the guy scares the crap out of me, and watching Observe and Report, he was the first person I thought of. If it makes you feel any better, that guy you work with has a pretty similar story to the serial killer I saw on a show that killed hunters to steal their guns. Wait, that shouldn't make you feel better. (sorry, couldn't resist) Though, the Observe and Report character is more like that man, just with added Travis Bickle. I can see the Taxi Driver reference, although when you put the two "Man on a Mission" scenes side by side, it serves to only make the dude in OaR look worse. Bickle went off to save a young girl who was being abused by her pimp. He shot people to get to her so that she wouldn't have to be degraded anymore. Rogan's character shot a dude to prevent a stuck up skank with a drug problem from seeing someone's crank, nevermind the fact that, at the point he shot the dude, she'd already seen said johnson more than once.
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Post by KAMALARAMBO: BOOMSHAKALAKA!!! on Nov 18, 2009 19:27:45 GMT -5
Some interesting choices here.
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Post by Janitor From Mars on Nov 18, 2009 20:23:58 GMT -5
Andy from The Office.
Dude is a colossal douche and ends up doing hilarious things to prove that point even further, such as crashing a golf cart while out playing golf with Jim and Kevin.
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Bones58
Don Corleone
Shuup Baby, I know it!
Posts: 1,476
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Post by Bones58 on Nov 18, 2009 20:37:15 GMT -5
Arnold Rimmer.
"Well, I'll tell you something, Lister. I'll tell you something. I'd trade it all in -- all of it. My pips, my long-service medals, my swimming certificates, my telescope, my shoe trees. I'd trade everything in to be loved and to have been loved. (Starts singing in a reedy voice in a pathetic kind of way) I'm a little lamb, lost in the wood, maybe I could, really be good, with someone to watch over me... That was going to be our song. But I never found anyone to share it with. So now it's just my song."
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Post by Alexander The So-so on Nov 18, 2009 20:56:38 GMT -5
I'd have to mention Fez from That 70's Show. Sure, he was a comedic character, but part of me couldn't help but feel sorry for the guy, especially as he was in the earlier seasons. He was an awkward, lonely guy in an unfamiliar foreign land who faced the double-whammy of both cultural barriers and his own individual eccentric personality. He pined away for Jackie even though all she ever did was use him (while she was bouncing between her less-than-functional relationships with Kelso and Hyde), and had so many dating and sexual misadventures that surely couldn't have been good on anybody's self-esteem.
Of course in the final season he turned into a babe magnet, and finally got Jackie in the end. But in those early times it was tough going for him.
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Post by Guns of the Samuri on Nov 18, 2009 21:14:01 GMT -5
Ghandi from Clone High. He gets kicked out of his first foster home by his then sister Cleo after living with her for many years and giving her one of his kidneys (whom the other still misses), Gets hated on by an entire community for having ADD, and every time he tries to get some action, he ends up getting the short end of the stick (whether it be because the thing was an anthropomorphic seahorse or because he was frozen).
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Abadebe
Don Corleone
Man of the Hour
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Post by Abadebe on Nov 18, 2009 21:16:10 GMT -5
Al Bundy
Has a wife he can't stand and kids that don't even like him, much less respect him. Stuck in a job selling shoes to fat women and making very little money, which his shopaholic wife pilfers from his wallet.
His nightly dinner is basically a choice between the crumbs left in the toaster and whatever he can grab from the dog's dish. Drives a beat up old rustbucket of a car that's worth less than the gas he can't afford to put in it.
He has no good years to look forward to. No happy retirement. He'll be stuck at that shoe store until he physically cannot work there any more. He's a total broken shell of a man whose only happiness comes in reminiscing about the one time he actually mattered - when he scored four touchdowns during a game of high school football thirty years earlier. And deep down he knows those days are gone forever.
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appunk
Mike the Goon
Nevermind that **** Here Comes Mongo
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Post by appunk on Nov 18, 2009 21:24:49 GMT -5
Earl Hickey from My Name Is Earl Al Bundy Charlie Ted From Scrubs Meg Griffen Joe Swanson Michael and his son on Arrested Development Carl From ATHF
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Jay Peas 42
El Dandy
Totally flips out ALL the time.
Is looking forward to a Nation of Domination Kwannza Special.
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Post by Jay Peas 42 on Nov 18, 2009 21:34:13 GMT -5
Mike Nelson from MST 3-K, if you go by the last episode.
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JDviant
Unicron
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Post by JDviant on Nov 18, 2009 21:53:14 GMT -5
Some of these I'm not sure I agree with. Al Bundy is an interesting one, because time and time again - despite his complaining - he's shown to be pretty content and happy with his family, and in a strange way they all really do love each other. He's still pretty pitiful, but that to me removes him largely from a list like this.
Micheal and George Micheal too, if only because in the finale they're moving away from all of the things that tie their personal failings together. Until the movie or whatnot, and we see where they are, the direction they took at the end would also have me keep them off. The rest of the Bluth children would easily make it though.
Someone mentioned Andy from the office, calling him a d-bag. I think in season 3 I'd agree, but threw 4 until now he's really not been one, just a sad man reaching out for acceptance. Him, Micheal, and Dwight all have fairly tragic personalities.
I'd count Walowitz and Raj from Big Bang Theory, but its obvious thats what they're supposed to be so no shock, but probably not Sheldon. While he IS a sad character, from OUR point of view, the way he processes information makes it so what makes us happy wouldn't for him. It's more akin to me thinking someone from another country is sad because they just think differently.
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Grendel
Bill S. Preston, Esq.
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Post by Grendel on Nov 18, 2009 21:59:24 GMT -5
Some of these I'm not sure I agree with. Al Bundy is an interesting one, because time and time again - despite his complaining - he's shown to be pretty content and happy with his family, and in a strange way they all really do love each other. He's still pretty pitiful, but that to me removes him largely from a list like this. Micheal and George Micheal too, if only because in the finale they're moving away from all of the things that tie their personal failings together. Until the movie or whatnot, and we see where they are, the direction they took at the end would also have me keep them off. The rest of the Bluth children would easily make it though. Someone mentioned Andy from the office, calling him a d-bag. I think in season 3 I'd agree, but threw 4 until now he's really not been one, just a sad man reaching out for acceptance. Him, Micheal, and Dwight all have fairly tragic personalities. I'd count Walowitz and Raj from Big Bang Theory, but its obvious thats what they're supposed to be so no shock, but probably not Sheldon. While he IS a sad character, from OUR point of view, the way he processes information makes it so what makes us happy wouldn't for him. It's more akin to me thinking someone from another country is sad because they just think differently. Sheldon is perfectly happy being him. So he's not sad, he's just Sheldon. Most people don't get him, but be honest. Out in the world, how many people don't get us?
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Post by Threadkiller [Classic] on Nov 18, 2009 23:37:04 GMT -5
I can't believe no one's mentioned Butters yet.
His parents don't really seem to like him all that much. His friends all ridicule him. He's generally an outcast, and if I remember correctly, it was implied that his uncle molests him (although he's too naive to know what it was he was doing). Never mind the fact that it's a CHILD, and it crosses over from just plain sad to straight-up horrifying. And yet, he's arguably the funniest character on the show.
There are a lot of characters from South Park that you can do this for, not the least of which is Kenny, a poor kid living just below the poverty line who gets killed in gruesome fashion in nearly every episode.
Moving away from The Simpsons, South Park, or King of the Hill and on to a different animated comedy, how about Meg Griffin?
Much like Butters, it seems her entire family hates her, she's a social outcast, she's (allegedly, though I don't see it) hideous to look at, and it's become a crude running joke to abuse her (a joke I've personally never been okay with). Granted, the one bullet hole in this theory is that Meg's not actually funny, nor is she really supposed to be, but still. I guess a better example would be Joe, a man confined to a wheelchair who is constantly reminded of that fact by his douchebag friends.
Really, though, take your pick.
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Post by KAMALARAMBO: BOOMSHAKALAKA!!! on Nov 18, 2009 23:40:22 GMT -5
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Post by Sickfit, King Of The Fits on Nov 18, 2009 23:42:52 GMT -5
Zach Galiafianakis' character in The Hangover.
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Mozenrath
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Post by Mozenrath on Nov 18, 2009 23:43:08 GMT -5
Earl Hickey from My Name Is Earl Al Bundy Charlie Ted From Scrubs Meg Griffen Joe SwansonMichael and his son on Arrested Development Carl From ATHF "Well, there goes my smile."
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