The sidekick: Always there to back up the lead character
and provide comic relief when appropriate. Then there are
the sidekicks who are just plain annoying, pointless and
painful to watch. A bad sidekick can bring even the coolest badass lead character down.
It’s a sad truth that we the viewer have to suffer. You can almost guarantee any animal or child superhero sidekick is an automatic fail. But there are hundreds of supporting characters that bring the whole entertainment aspect of a show or comic down. Who was the person in the final edit room who said “Pass the potato chips, because I am high on delight”? To call out these lame useless excuses for sidekicks, here’s the UP’s top ten.
10. Donkey, Shrek:
There’s a fine line between a comic
relief character and relief from a
comic character. He was funny at
first, but after four movies, enough
is enough. Donkey caused Shrek
more trouble than he already had,
and constantly complained about
everything. Not to mention he
was dumb as a rock and somehow
mated with a dragon which is
both disgusting and biologically
impossible. Then again, so is talking
donkeys and dragons.
09. Chuckie Finster, RUGRATS
For being a baby, he was really a baby.
He was Tommy Pickles’ best friend,
but he was a horrible friend. All he
did was shy away from everything
and everyone. Chucky complained,
cried, and ran away from everything.
Compared to the terrifying knife
wielding Chucky from the movies of
almost the exact same resemblance,
this Chuckie is a complete pushover.
There was not doubt he would grow
to be a socially awkward obsessivecompulsive
person. And when we
saw him in the later teenage version
of “Rugrats”, he was still…well…
awkward.
08. Jubilee, X-Men
Jubilee is from the Generation X
class of “X-Men” and often played
a sidekick to Wolverine in the comic
books and television show. She
dressed like Doc Brown from Back to
the Future Part 2, and shot essentially
what were fireworks from her hands.
Her mutant powers in comparison
are like shooting a bunch of bottle
rockets on the fourth of July, while
your neighbors shoot off an illegal
batch of rainbow colored motors. In
other words, she was lame. Marvel
gave Jubilee her own comic series in
2004, but she was so unpopular that
it was cancelled after just six issues.
Marvelous.
07. Jimmy Olsen, Superman
A photojournalist at the Daily
Planet, Jimmy Olsen was the “Peter
Parker” of DC comics…except for
the fact that he wasn’t a superhero
or cool. Olsen admired Superman to
the point of obsession and when he
wasn’t whining about how much he
wished he was the man of steel, he
was following around Clark Kent and
Louis Lane like a typical third wheel.
06. Bucky, Captain America
Bucky was the former sidekick to
Steve Roger, also known as “Captain
America”. If you don’t know much
about Bucky, that’s because he was
quickly removed from the comic book
world due to unpopularity. However,
he made a triumphant return when
he took over for the presumed dead
“Captain America”. Then DC comics
pulled a “just kidding” and brought
back good ol’ Rogers
05. Snarf, Thundercats
Snarf was the sidekick cat pet of
the humanoid cat superheroes. Why
these cats had a pet cat is beyond us,
but what we do know is Snarf was an
extremely useless character. He added
nothing to the story and constantly
spewed nonsense dialogue where he
had to yelp the “snaaaaarrrfffff” after
every word.
04. Scrappy Doo, Scooby Doo Where Are You?!
Scooby and Shaggy would have
made this list had it not been for
Scrappy Doo. He was introduced to
the show as Scooby’s nephew, and
if that didn’t boggle your mind, who
is Scooby’s sibling and how does
Scrappy just dropped by from time to
time? Never-the-less, Scrappy was a
poser. He pretended to be tough and
constantly annoyed everyone with
how much he wanted to fight, but
when it came time to step up, he was
nowhere to be seen.
03. Ma-Ti, Captain Planet
Captain Planet was a beloved
childhood cartoon that promoted a
clean Earth. The “Planeteers” were
teenagers from around the globe that
wore rings, which had cool powers
like fire, water, earth, and wind. Then
there was Ma-Ti…a twelve year old
kid from the Amazon who had the
ring of heart that allowed him to instill
love and compassion in the hearts of
his enemies. Because, when thugs
with machine guns surround you,
forget the power of fire or wind, heart
is what’s going to get those big bad
meat heads to drop their weapons…
right. All we can say to that is thank
god he didn’t get a spin off show.
02. Jason Todd, Batman
Jason Todd, who can be seen in
the comics, animated movies and
television shows, was the second
Robin behind Dick Greyson, who
went on to become Nighwing.
Greyson was an awesome Robin,
Todd…not so much. He was cocky,
loud, annoying, and eventually got
himself killed by the Joker leaving
Batman mentally messed up for
years. Way to go.
01. Jar Jar Binks, Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace.
This may be the third time we’ve used a Star Wars reference, and yes, this is the second time it’s made the number one spot, but Jar Jar Binks is by far the most annoying sidekick character ever created. As if watching a whining young Anakin Skywalker wasn’t painful enough, George Lucas decided to give the future Darth Vader an annoying never-shuts-his-mouth sidekick alien.
