"You couldn't make me 'alright' if you stapled your tongue to my clit and stood in a cement mixer."

December 26, 2010 7:46 PM

I've recently discovered a great fondness for angry, sarcastic characters. Please recommend me your favorite examples. All media welcome but literature especially preferred.
posted by d. z. wang to Writing & Language (61 answers total)

This has Bernard Black from the TV series Black Books written all over it.
posted by apricot at 7:50 PM on December 26, 2010 [8 favorites]

'The Epicure's Lament" by Kate Christensen.
posted by fingersandtoes at 7:50 PM on December 26, 2010

Lisbeth Salander in the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series.
posted by lollusc at 7:51 PM on December 26, 2010 [5 favorites]

Ignatius C. Reilly
posted by Cuspidx at 7:52 PM on December 26, 2010

I also came into mention Dylan Moran in Black Books.
Rowan Atkinson in Black Adder, especially from season 2 onwards.
posted by goshling at 7:56 PM on December 26, 2010

J.
posted by Cuspidx at 7:59 PM on December 26, 2010

A bit obvious, but: every character in Douglas Adams's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
posted by hot soup girl at 8:04 PM on December 26, 2010

Chekhov's "Uncle Vanya" is a perfect example. (See Wallace Shawn play him in the movie "Vanya on 42nd Street.")

Alceste in Moliere's "The Misanthrope" is also an great example. I recommend Richard Wilbur's fun translation.

Holden Caulfield in Salinger's "Catcher in the Rye"

James in O'Neil's "Long Day's Journey Into Night"

For extreme sarcasm and anger, see Jack Nicholson's character in "The Shining."
posted by grumblebee at 8:06 PM on December 26, 2010 [1 favorite]

Came in to mention Ignatius J. Reilly, your humble Working Boy, from whom I stole half my name.

Since he's taken, I give you Yossarian, from Catch 22.
posted by PareidoliaticBoy at 8:10 PM on December 26, 2010

Neil Burnside from Sandbaggers is absolutely amazing on both the rage and sarcasm meters.
posted by joyceanmachine at 8:13 PM on December 26, 2010 [1 favorite]

Cigar-smoking, scotch-slurping, Habs-loving Barney Panofsky in Barney's Version. Read the awesome novel by Mordecai Richler, then catch the film version - with Paul Giamatti perfectly cast as Barney - in theatres now.
posted by gompa at 8:15 PM on December 26, 2010

I would point you at the collected works of one Denis Leary.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 8:18 PM on December 26, 2010

Dr. Cox from TV's Scrubs.
posted by puritycontrol at 8:19 PM on December 26, 2010 [3 favorites]

Seems like Dabney Coleman pretty much patented that character, didn't he, later in his career? (Of course, IRL he's nothing like that.)
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 8:24 PM on December 26, 2010

Here's Tom with the weather
posted by Cuspidx at 8:25 PM on December 26, 2010

Every main or recurring character in Supernatural, at one point or another.
posted by andrewcilento at 8:26 PM on December 26, 2010 [1 favorite]

Basil Fawlty, from the brilliant but short-lived Fawlty Towers is the best example I can think of in any kind of media.
posted by cerebus19 at 8:28 PM on December 26, 2010 [4 favorites]

The main character in Woody Allen's "Whatever Works", played by Larry David.

And Larry David.
posted by whalebreath at 8:30 PM on December 26, 2010 [1 favorite]

Angry? That's be Achilles.

The Illiad is literally all about his anger and how thousands of others suffer for it.
posted by bardic at 8:42 PM on December 26, 2010 [1 favorite]

Everyone in Rescue Me Also everything else Denis Leary has ever done. The Ref is one of my all time favorite movies.
posted by fshgrl at 8:44 PM on December 26, 2010

House
posted by shivohum at 8:46 PM on December 26, 2010 [4 favorites]

Try David Wong's book John Dies At The End.
posted by figment of my conation at 8:52 PM on December 26, 2010

The first season of Veronica Mars. Seriously.
posted by warble at 8:54 PM on December 26, 2010 [5 favorites]

Spider Jerusalem!
posted by QUHZK at 9:00 PM on December 26, 2010 [2 favorites]

"A Fish Called Wanda" is a master class in this.

Seconding "The Ref"

In literature, Cyrano de Bergerac has some nice examples.
posted by Mchelly at 9:05 PM on December 26, 2010

Black Adder.
And on a related note, Dr. Gregory House.
Related because Hugh Laurie is in both.
posted by cleverevans at 9:07 PM on December 26, 2010 [3 favorites]

Violent Acres blog is both angry and hilariously sarcastic.
posted by MsKim at 9:08 PM on December 26, 2010

Blackadder - seasons 2 & 3. (He's no good in the first and mellowed out a little in the last.)
posted by cranberrymonger at 9:15 PM on December 26, 2010

Roman from the television series Party Down.
posted by mellifluous at 9:19 PM on December 26, 2010 [1 favorite]

The daughter on Californication.
posted by rhizome at 9:23 PM on December 26, 2010 [1 favorite]

Arnold Rimmer from Red Dwarf
posted by illenion at 9:28 PM on December 26, 2010

Mal, in the TV show Firefly
posted by arcticwoman at 9:34 PM on December 26, 2010 [1 favorite]

Here are some online episodes of the animated series, Daria.
posted by Ellemeno at 9:42 PM on December 26, 2010 [3 favorites]

Larry David in pretty much anything but especially when he portrays Larry David in Curb Your Enthusiasm. Even if he's nothing like that in real life, his portrayal seems like he's actually living his character's life.
posted by motown missile at 9:42 PM on December 26, 2010

Angry - Howard Beale in Network
Sarcastic - Brian in Family Guy
posted by arcticseal at 9:53 PM on December 26, 2010

Adult Swim is ankle-deep in them:

• Master Shake (and the Mooninites) in Aqua Teen Hunger Force
• Early Cuyler in Squidbillies
• Zorak in Space Ghost Coast-to-Coast
• Coach John McGuirk in Home Movies

posted by Lazlo at 10:01 PM on December 26, 2010

You could dip into Mark Twain, in a number of works, but you might start with A Pen Warmed Up in Hell. You'll want a copy of Ambrose Bierce's The Devil's Dictionary, in this, what the French philosopher Voltaire so brilliantly had his character Dr. Pangloss maintain was "the best of all possible worlds" in Candide. And for irony and sarcasm so thick it makes you ashamed of our whole mean race, don't forget your Swift, now, in dumb show version, at a theatre near you.
posted by paulsc at 10:02 PM on December 26, 2010

Hedda Gabler
posted by hortense at 10:05 PM on December 26, 2010

Has anyone mentioned Charles Bukowski as a character in his own work?
posted by Ahab at 11:16 PM on December 26, 2010

Nashara in Tobias Buckell's Ragamuffin. Durandal in Bungie's Marathon games. GlaDOS in Valve's Portal series. Aaron Stack in Warren Ellis' Nextwave. Almost anyone in any Warren Ellis comic or novel, really. Victoria Hand in Brian Bendis' New Avengers. Evil Vampire Willow in Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Angry and sarcastic is the default mode of a lot of post-90s comics and TV. Sometimes it's the default failure mode, though.
posted by fairytale of los angeles at 11:59 PM on December 26, 2010

Pris from Phillip K. Dick's "we can build you"
posted by sexyrobot at 12:12 AM on December 27, 2010

Sand dan Glokta, the crippled torturer, from The First Law trilogy by Joe Abercrombie (3rd gen low fantasy).
posted by Greald at 12:46 AM on December 27, 2010

Malcolm Tucker, the awesomely sweary character from The Thick Of It and In The Loop.
posted by the duck by the oboe at 1:19 AM on December 27, 2010 [3 favorites]

Sam Vimes, in Terry Pratchet's discworld
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 3:15 AM on December 27, 2010 [1 favorite]

Archie Bunker
posted by jgirl at 4:11 AM on December 27, 2010

Francis Crawford of Lymond is usually considered the ultimate in sarcastic, angry heroes to those in the know.
posted by WidgetAlley at 7:02 AM on December 27, 2010

(I should add that if you end up reading Dunnett you'll suddenly realize how many of your other favorite authors have been inspired by her in the years following.... It's a fun game to guess who's read her and then find them acknowledge her influence in, say, an author's note.)
posted by WidgetAlley at 7:04 AM on December 27, 2010

Jaye Tyler from the canceled-way-too-soon show Wonderfalls
posted by littlesq at 7:29 AM on December 27, 2010 [2 favorites]

Clint Eastwood's lead character in Gran Torino.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 8:00 AM on December 27, 2010

Adult Swim's The Venture Bros. has several of these.
posted by Scoo at 8:01 AM on December 27, 2010

Lisa Kudrow's character, Lucia DeLury, in "The Opposite of Sex" - who has gems like the following: "I always felt like the Baroness in 'The Sound of Music.' Everyone else was off singing and climbing an alp and I just wanted to shove the guitar up the nun's ass."
posted by jph at 8:44 AM on December 27, 2010

Merle Kessler as himself or as Ian Shoals.

This commentary from before you were born is still valid.
posted by Lesser Shrew at 4:04 PM on December 27, 2010

Ari Gold from Entourage.
posted by ewiar at 6:17 PM on December 27, 2010

Detective Inspector John Rebus in Ian Rankin's books.
posted by biscotti at 6:22 PM on December 27, 2010

Jack Nicholson in a natural at this and seems to enjoy playing this kind of character, but especially in As Good As It Gets where he's a real foul-mouthed misanthrope.
posted by exphysicist345 at 7:11 PM on December 27, 2010

Try Andy Dalziel in Reginald Hil's Dalziel and Pascoe series.
posted by BoscosMom at 9:19 PM on December 27, 2010

Dennis Leary was recommended a couple of times above, here's a youtube video of his to get you started.
posted by BoscosMom at 9:39 PM on December 27, 2010

Well geez, Louis Black.
posted by mcstayinskool at 10:04 PM on December 27, 2010

Response by poster: Hey, guys, thanks for the suggestions. It'd be a long time before I could mark best answers, so I won't even try. Looks like I have a lot of reading and watching to do!
posted by d. z. wang at 2:24 PM on December 28, 2010

David Thewlis's character in Mike Leigh's Naked.
posted by lapsangsouchong at 3:46 PM on December 28, 2010

And probably everyone in In Bruges, though with varying degrees of anger and sarcasm.
posted by lapsangsouchong at 3:48 PM on December 28, 2010