Five Of The Best “TV Doofuses”

As a famous writer, people approach you all the time with their “brilliant”, “amazing” and “mind-blowing” ideas. Well I’m assuming, I wouldn’t really know, not being famous myself and I barely even scrape through on the writer part. Still, people do come up to me with their ideas for articles and by people I mean, person and by person, I mean my brother. Generally I wouldn’t take on other people’s ideas out of my own sense of creative integrity and originality but his idea was actually pretty good and I’m sure I would have come up with it myself, eventually. “Why not write a list of five of the best TV doofuses?”, he said and considering how much of a doofus he is himself, I was pretty impressed with the idea. Now don’t be alarmed by the lack of women on this list because generally women aren’t doofuses. No, they tend to be more ditzy (not being sexist, I didn’t make the rules). So after you’ve read this list, head over to read my list of five of the best TV ditzes.

Andy Dwyer (Parks And Recreation)

There is no denying that stupid people are absolutely hilarious, unless of course, you yourself are stupid. So it’s no surprise that the doofus is such a popular choice for a comedic character on TV. I’m sure that if you were to ask most people their pick for the king of the sitcom doofuses it would be Kramer and that would be a fine choice. Kramer is timeless in his own stupidity and clumsiness but for me, the ultimate television doofus is Andy Dwyer. Andy encapsulates everything about the lovable buffoon. First of all he is stupid…ahhh yeah that’s all you need.

Chris Pratt put more into the role than just stupid, Andy is a klutz, 100% childish and he has a heart of gold. Which would be a huge surprise to anyone that didn’t make it past the first season of Parks And Recreation. In the first six episodes, Andy was an absolute a***hole, he was selfish, lazy and a terrible boyfriend to Ann. I would’ve loved to have been a fly on the wall in the writer’s room when they decided to flip the character on its head. This decision, along with all the other changes really paid off and catapulted Parks And Recreation to the top of the sitcom pile. Initially I was all set to hate on Andy, since he was such a dick in the first series and I wasn’t too impressed with his role in Guardians Of The Galaxy. Although, only two episodes into series two and he had won my heart, which really came down to his amazing ability to play a naive, yet lovable manchild. Case in point, the video above, which is one of my all time favourite moments from the show.

Gareth Keenan (The Office)

The Office is still for my money the best sitcom of all time. THE BRITISH ONE! God I hate that I have to differentiate each time I mention it, the original should be the first one to come to mind but fair enough, there are over two hundred episodes of the American version. Which only proves how impressive the British version is, with only fourteen episodes in total, the list of memorable moments is huge. The dance, the song, Big Kev’s scotch egg, Tim’s pranks, the Tim and Dawn love story and of course Gareth’s ridiculous quotes.

What makes Gareth’s character so impressive is how true to life he is, in fact he is the most realistic character on this list and one of these characters is a real person. We have all met that annoying person whose impression of themselves massively outweighs the reality. If you haven’t met anyone like that, I’m sure you will one day, otherwise I’ve probably met your share of them because I’ve met a s**ttonne of these people. It also helps that Mackenzie Crook looks absolutely dumbfounded all of the time and whether that’s down to his acting or the mixture of genes passed down from his parents is up for debate. Actually no it’s not, it’s combination of the two and the bowl cut certainly helps.

Bret And Jemaine (Flight Of The Conchords)

What’s better than one idiot? Zero idiots, but if it’s entertainment you are after than the answer is two.   Bret and Jemaine do what no other doofuses on this list have ever had the brains to do and that is to combine forces to rank their intelligence up to that of an average standard. Unfortunately for them but fortunately for us it doesn’t work and together they only barely make it through to contain the combined knowledge of one doofus. You know it has only just dawned on me that maybe I’m wrong, maybe Bret and Jemaine are actually geniuses, they just seem stupid due to all that New Zealand (don’t worry that’s not racist, it’s xenophobic).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfexjnK4ktA

Ha ha, of course I’m only kidding and to prove it I shall mention Murray. Murray, who may not be the sharpest tack in the box but he certainly ratchets up the IQs in the room when the other two are around. While Murray manages to live life alone, since his wife left him, I’m sure Bret could not live without Jemaine and vice versa. The brilliance of these two characters is that each other’s stupidity compliments the other. Jemaine may have a bit more of the book smarts but at least Bret know that it’s pronounced; “Bra-bra”.

Phillip J. Fry (Futurama)

Futurama is among the smartest television shows of all time, literally, there was constantly mathematics jokes written into the background. And I’m not talking about your “seven eight nine” childhood jokes, I’m talking the kind of maths jokes that you would need a PhD to understand. That is why it is so impressive that they created one of the most unintelligent beings in the history or future of universal television. Fry is not only dumb, but he takes dumb to an all new level, a lower level. For example, one line I always remember as a shining example of idiocy;

Gypsy; “Have you heard of the monks of Deshuba?”

Fry; “…I’ve…not heard of them.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCKR7UxxuVc

Ever since he did the nasty in the pasty, Fry had his own fate sealed. This made Fry his own grandfather, which in turn left him lacking the Delta brainwave. The only person in the universe with this anomaly is an absolute moron and yet, the only person capable of saving the universe. Ironically this kind of comedic writing is absolutely genius and just another reason that we need to bring Futurama back. Not giving up on that one.

Karl Pilkington

All hail, “Lord Of The Doofuses”! For no one shall ever be as dim witted, idiotically philosophical or as orange-headed as he! I never understand why Christians don’t cite Karl Pilkington as proof of a God. This man consistently comes out with absolutely hilarious lines that no comedy writer could keep up with and to top it off, most of the time he doesn’t even know what he is saying is some of the best observational comedy this generation has ever produced. As an agnostic I wouldn’t myself, unless I had the chance to piss Ricky Gervais’ atheist core off.

I really don’t think I need to explain why this man is such an entertaining fool, rather I would like to take the time to list some of his best quotes.

            “What were the things in Gremlins?”

            “I was still using me eyes even though I had them shut”

            On doppelgangers – “How would I know which one I was?”

            “You won’t get anything done by planning”

            “Whether it’s a potato or a nut, it’s a foodage.”