His most famous quote has to be ‘leave off Grandad’ which to me about sums up Rodney. He’s put across as simple and childish although he’s grown up he will always be treat as the baby of the family.
Matt leBlanc plays Joey Tribbiani one of the main characters from the ever so popular sitcom Friends. Joey is a very casual character who is seen by the others as kind of dim. He is the male version of Phoebe Buffay (from the series) and is often spoke down to by the other characters. Joey isn’t thick though he just seems to be a little slower than the others, which is one of his key successes when creating the humour.
Joey is a very smooth character he dresses casually and always looks the part. He’s an amateur actor but never seems to have money problems. He’s a very clean cut man who’s up to date with the fashion etc. He has an Italian look about him with his dark hair and dark eyes making him favourable with the ladies. This is another way that Joey generates humour, his power with the ladies. Joey never has serious girlfriends in the show and most of his relationships haven’t worked out or have been a string of one-night stands. This gives the writers the flexibility to bring in different minor characters throughout the series to work alongside Joey and to enhance his character. This can also help Joey’s character to blossom and show his sweet and handsome side instead of the lesser intelligent side his friends bring out in him. Joey is a very macho character he loves sports, women and hanging out with his friends especially Chandler. Joey isn’t arrogant but he does have confidence both in himself and in his job. He has had many knocks in the series especially due to his not existent acting career that just hasn’t seemed to take off like he planned. Most of Joey’s big storylines have sprung from him getting an audition for another acting job and then him taking on the role of the character in his way this creates a lot of the humour for his character.
Michael Crawford was the actor chosen to play the part of Frank Spencer in Some Mothers Do Av’ em and what a part it is. Frank is one of the most accident-prone characters on TV. His supreme ability to annoy people within the space of five minutes and naïve characteristics give him the talent to make everyone laugh. Frank is very easily led and doesn’t like to think wrong of anyone or anything. His well-known response to any comment slightly risky or action slightly controversial was the famous startled "oooh" with a strained expression alongside it. Also he was famous for his dress sense or should I say lack of it. He was very old fashioned; his permanent attire was a raincoat and beret worn atop tight trousers and a gaudy tank top, which he even wore in bed to the disgust of his wife. He has a well-mannered, well-educated wife whom continues to stick by him even though he almost sends her round the bend. As Frank was so sensitive and a main target for ridicule his wife was his backbone and often had to stand up for him. Frank had other elements of comedy wrapped into his character one is his ability reduce the most calm and rational folk to tears by his annoying habit of not answering questions coherently or filling his responses with pointless trivial monologues, usually concerning his childhood. It seems as though the character of Frank is an old fashioned elderly man stuck in the body of a simple-minded middle-aged husband.
This is his element of comedy.
I am briefly going to talk about a modern character from a relatively new sitcom Will and Grace. The character is Jack and he is played by American actor Sean Hayes. Even though Jack isn’t one of the main characters he manages to create the most humour in the show. His flamboyant, wacky sense of humour makes people love to hate him. He’s always in the wrong place at the wrong time and if there’s a problem then Jack is always there to make it worse. His character often contradicts himself with his pretentious and bitter ways. He is a wannabe actor whom feels he has it all and likes to look down on the others as in a snobbish way. He feels he has the best in life even though he is unemployed and often single. He always means well but seems to always want situations to end in his favour, he’s very self involved. All of the characteristics that I have mentioned make him the bitchy, ostentatious character that makes people laugh in the smash hit show.
Lastly I will discuss the character George Mainwaring from Dad’s Army. He is played by Arthur Lowe and is a very stern, well-educated individual. His comedy feature is his constant craving to be in control and command the others. He longs to be the most educated person within the group therefore had a chip on his shoulder about Wilson’s upper class pedigree. The rest of the group however did look up to him and saw him as a leader whom they did not often question. Mainwaring was intrusive, pretentious and bad-tempered and would never admit to making a mistake. If caught out, he would try to cover up with comments like 'I was wondering when you'd spot that.' The men didn’t notice this and other than a few whispered comments seemed to believe him comments. His most famous saying is " you stupid boy" which he repeated many times throughout the series. Due to his well-educated personality his dress sense represented the same type of statement that he portrayed. He was well dressed and always looked smart without a crease out of place. This represents his character very well as he liked everything to be in place and appear proper.
I will now go on to talk about female characters in Sitcoms,
Firstly I will talk about Monica Geller from Friends the character is played by Courtney Cox Arquette and is the most ‘normal’ of the Friends characters. She is very compulsive and can sometimes be childish. She is to some degree quite spoilt or at least acts spoilt. You can imagine her jumping up and down, shouting and stamping her feet when things don’t go the right or she doesn’t get her own way. However she is still known as the backbone of the group, the leader. She is the bond that holds them together and helps them all through their stressful times. Monica is very dependant on relationships and having people close to her. Monica is known for her want of a baby and she even gave up the man she loved because he didn’t want children, then she started a relationship with Chandler and is currently trying for a baby. Monica and Chandlers relationship has brought a lot more comedy to Monica’s role especially in the new series. Her eccentric ways of wanting everything to be perfect give her great sense of humour.
Her perfected way in life is also shown within her image. Her hair, makeup and dress sense is all up to date and is always precise and neat Even her apartment is perfectly tidy and exact.