Five Of The Best “TV Ditzes”

Last time on Novastream I compiled a list of the best “TV doofuses”. Now if you don’t know what a doofus is, that is probably because you are one yourself. Actually that’s not quite true, if you’re a woman and you don’t know what a doofus is, then you are more likely to be a ditz. Now before you go and brand me as sexist, I’m just going off the rules here, personally I think both men and women should be called stupid equally. No, God made up the doofus/ditz rules since he is the original sexist, unless that is offensive to you then I meant he is the original nice guy. Whether having a penis or a vagina defines what kind of stupid you are doesn’t really matter because at the end of the day we all like to laugh at a good fool. That’s why today, I have decided to compile a list of some of television’s best ditzes.

Phoebe Buffay(Friends)

The best ditzes are the ones that are lovable people, the kind of people that you would want to be friends with in real life. So it’s only logical that a character from the show Friends is someone which you would want to be friends with. While Phoebe may be lacking in the brains department, she definitely isn’t lacking in kindness. Like all the friends, she’ll be there for you, when the rain starts to fall. She’ll be there for you when, bah you know the rest.

What’s interesting about Phoebe, aside from the fact that she has a name that a dim-witted person would find difficult to spell is that she is very gifted in other areas of life. Of course she is very emotionally intelligent and growing up on the street has given her a set of smarts of the street variety. Not only is Pheobe the most wary of shady behaviour but I would bet on her coming out triumphant in an all-out Friends war.

Jo (Man Down)

There’s something about a character who gets married to a man just because they both like the same type of chocolate bar that instantly has my comedic attention. Jo is not only Man Down’s resident ditz but she is also a very good example of a wild card. It’s quite hard to be a wild card on a show that is already so weird but Roisin Conaty quite expertly delivers the goods.

Man Down is unfortunately not as popular as it deserves to be in Australia but maybe that is for good reason. This show is quirk upon quirk and weird upon weird. The weirdest quirk of them all, Jo, which is quite an achievement considering that Rik Mayall played the father of the main character up until his unfortunate passing. Jo, a woman who wears a backless dress the wrong way round and starts working in a job she was never hired for is a beautiful example of a TV ditz who quite wild-card-like doesn’t even have a surname.

Sharon Strzelecki (Kath And Kim)

As an Australian, I am incredibly proud to list a dipsh**t from our television screens that has nothing to do with politics. Love it or hate it, Kath And Kim is Australia’s most successful sitcom to date and has every foreigner saying; “they are just like that”. It’s a fair argument to say that all the characters on Kath And Kim are not the brightest of tools in the draw. Kath is absolutely clueless, Kim is heavily uneducated, Kel is ridiculously goofy and Bret is emotionally stunted.

Where Sharon stands out from all the rest is her perpetual clumsiness, every week is a different injury. From fractured arms to fractured hearts, Sharon has had them all. Still, she soldiers on, which only makes her character even more endearing. Of all the characters on this list, Sharon may be the most unique. The best way I could explain her character would be to say she’s noice, she’s different, she’s unusual.

Kimmy Schmidt (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt)

Speaking of uniqueness, let’s move on to a show that concerns a woman who has been freed from an underground cult, of fifteen years and has to find a way to fit in with every day society. Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt has got to be this year’s best new comedy and it’s fair to say that Ellie Kemper is a main ingredient in its success. Tina Fey, who created the show with Robert Carlock, once said about Kemper that they found an “innocence” about her face, but also noted there was a “strength” to it, which would also work as a fine description of the Kimmy Schmidt character.

Before I go on, I must make myself clear, Kimmy Schmidt is not an unintelligent person. It’s only to be expected that if someone has been sheltered both intellectually and physically for fifteen years of their life than their world knowledge is not going to be of the highest standard. Luckily, Kimmy Schmidt (it feels only right to always refer to her by her full name) is an unlimited well of positivity and enthusiasm and she doesn’t let something silly like a lack of understanding of the outside world get in her way.

Daisy (Not Going Out)

If you were to look in a dictionary for the definition of ditz you would probably have to wait for Daisy to finish looking up her own name first. Daisy is quite possibly the stupidest character I have ever seen on television and I say that with the deepest of love. In terms of jokes per minute rate, Not Going Out is one of the most value for money shows on the market. This show is like an uzi of comedy and Katy Wix’s character, Daisy provides plenty of ammunition.

Katy Wix is one of the best comedy actresses going around at the moment and her perfection of the empty goldfish stare is well, perfect. There is a special kind of magic to Daisy’s stupidity that allows her to either win every argument she has through sheer dumb luck/logic or just disregard the last few moments probably because she has already forgotten what has just happened. Lee Mack’s Not Going Out has been running for almost ten years now and has unfortunately lost a few actors along the way but Daisy has stuck through whether she planned to or not and fingers crossed she doesn’t get any bright ideas to leave the show. Ha! Daisy having a bright idea, now there’s a thought.