an analysis of the token dumb character
I’m not sure why I felt the compulsion to do this, but last weekend I decided I was going to make two posts this week. I am now in the firm belief that Last Week Grace was a jerk, who probably kicked puppies and dog-eared pages in books for fun. But here we are.
So. Token Dumb Characters. They pop up most often in tv shows, but these characters show up in books and movies as well. Their purpose? Comic relief. Which sometimes works well, and sometimes ends up as Jar-Jar Binks.
Dumb characters tend to be guys (but they’re occasionally women.) Their dumbness ranges from annoying bigheaded-ness (like Chekov from Star Trek or Eustace Scrubb from the Chronicles of Narnia) to steady incompetence in most things (like Mr. Poe from A Series of Unfortunate Events or Officer McNab from Psych) to full-blown stupidity (like Dudley Dursley from Harry Potter or Michael Scott from The Office.)
My all-time favorite dumb character is Andy Dwyer, which is partly because he’s played by Chris Pratt, and partly because he’s hilarious. Lots of times token dumb characters are annoying or unlikeable (even if they are funny), but Andy is just really goofy. One of the things I like the most about his character is his growth. At the beginning of the show, he’s a bum and basically lives in a pit. By the end, he’s grown as a person and found some things that he’s good at. And he’s gotten a little more responsible. Maybe.
Kailey Warner
Really, I think Andy knows more than us all.
Kailey Warner
Also I don’t remember the episode that these gifs came from…
Grace
It looks like the first one is from season 2 episode 23 and the last two are from season 6 episode 17
Matthew
I never got a “full-blown stupidity” feeling from Dudley. I thought that his issue was more a refusal to accept the different (that came from his parents). Really a lot of his character was bullying and sucking up. Since we rarely see him aside from those two activities, I don’t know if he really was all that dumb.
Grace
You’re probably right that Dudley wasn’t entirely dumb. I grew up watching the movies long before I read the books, and I think they made him dumber and less complex in them than he was in the books, so I just project that on to him.