EW's 100 Greatest Characters of the Last 20 Years

Jaquandor did commentary on this list, and I am nothing if not a follower in matters of pop culture.

Jaq mentions a few times that he didn't look up Entertainment Weekly's criteria, but I went and took a look at it, because some of these choices were totally mystifying to me. I think EW wanted to make a list of 100 Pop Culture Touchstones of the Last 20 Years and didn't know how to word it. They've got a lot of characters on this list who are much older than 20 years, for example, but whose recent interpretations (such as Heath Ledger's Joker) seem to redefine the characters as we know them now. So, I get that, but I would still reject that reasoning for a list of 100 Greatest Characters.

I also reject some of the choices on this list--such as Jane Lynch's character from Glee--due to the fact that EW states as part of their criteria that the character has to have had a lasting impact on pop culture as we know it. And sure, Glee is inexplicably popular right now, but it's been on for, what, a year, year and a half? That long, even? That seems more like a fad choice, which is pretty much what EW is usually about.

So, anyway, my own meager commentary.

1. Homer Simpson. The Tracey Ullman Show started in the 80s, so he's ineligible. Great character, deserves to be number one, but ineligible.

2. Harry Potter. Absolutely. I was just talking about this on Tumblr yesterday; that Harry Potter is a great character, and that those books will be popular for decades to come because they're about characters first and foremost.

3. Buffy Summers. Meh. I hate Buffy. Everything she did Xena did first, anyway. After Joss Whedon was called groundbreaking for doing a musical episode a year after Xena had done it, a friend of mine joked that one of the ways to get more viewers for Xena should've been to advertise it as "See everything Buffy's going to do next season here first!"

4. Tony Soprano. Don't care. Tried to watch it, but it seemed like a lot of retread to me.

5. The Joker (The Dark Knight). Great performance. Excellent performance. Of a character that first appeared in 1940, I believe. So I would say that's ineligible, no matter how great Heath Ledger's performance was.

6. Rachel Green (Friends). I fucking hate Friends. And if you were going to single out one character, why this one? She's a terrible character!

7. Edward Scissorhands. That's... awfully high. Is there still so much residual love for this performance? I mean, don't get me wrong, it's a great movie, but this seem high to say this is one of the greatest characters of the last two decades. EW just can't get Tim Burton's or Johnny Depp's dicks out of their collective mouth.

8. Hannibal Lecter. Technically, the books pre-date 1990. And I still feel Hopkins is hammy and overwrought as Lecter. Brian Cox did it better 24 years ago.

9. Carrie Bradshaw (Sex and the City). Not for me personally. Besides, I hate characters who are constantly bending over backwards to find new ways to be unfulfilled. Get a life, Carrie.

10. Spongebob Squarepants. Irritating.

11. Cosmo Kramer. I really don't like Seinfeld. But if you're going to choose a character from that show for this list, it should really be George Costanza and not Kramer.

12. Fox Mulder & Dana Scully (The X-Files). Meh. Not an X-Files fan.

13. Jack Sparrow (Pirates of the Caribbean). Captain Jack Sparrow. And though I might quibble over the placement, there's an example of a great character of the last 20 years. As much as I despise these movies, I agree with this choice.

14. Jeff “The Dude” Lebowski (The Big Lebowski). Yes, absolutely.

15. Shrek. Christ, no. First, there's the eligibility issue--I don't know what year William Steig's original book was published--but more importantly, it's just little more than Mike Myers' tired Scottish accent spouting off the same bad routines he always goes to and inane, quickly-dated pop culture references. They captured lightning in a bottle with the first, somewhat sincere, very satirical Shrek. They should've stopped there.

16. Bridget Jones. My question: does this count? Or is she simply a new incarnation of Elizabeth Bennett, since Bridget Jones' Diary is an updating of Pride and Prejudice?

17. Lara Croft. No. A virtual game piece is not a character.

18. Sue Sylvester (Glee). Again, this is far too recent a character to have had some lasting impact on pop culture. Also, what does Jane Lynch do on this show that she doesn't do in everything else she's in? I know lots of people think she's hilarious, but when I see she's in something I know exactly what I'm getting.

19. Morpheus (The Matrix). Meh. Overrated.

20. Ally McBeal. Inane.

21. Rosanne Conner (Roseanne). Doesn't count; this show started in 1988. Plus, Roseanne is exceptionally irritating. If any character deserves to be here from this show--and I'm not sure they do--it's Dan Conner. And really, Dan's biggest failure is not walking home one day with a loaded pistol...

22. Eric Cartman (South Park). Definitely.

23. Austin Powers. Maybe if they'd stopped at one movie. I get so endlessly tired of Mike Myers' repetition of the same tics and gags over and over. (This time, with a BRITISH accent!)

24. Felicity Porter. Get JJ Abrams' dick out of your mouth, EW.

25. Woody (Toy Story). Yes, absolutely.

26. Kavalier & Clay (from Michael Chabon's novel). I still haven't read this book. I need to remedy that.

27. Frasier Crane. Umm... I guess you could argue that his spin-off really strengthened the character into something different, but he first started appearing on Cheers in, what, 1984?

28. Madea. Not for me, no.

29. Vincent Vega & Jules Winnfield (Pulp Fiction). Tarantino's written better characters, but they did make an impact on pop culture.

30. Stephen Colbert (in the persona he portrays on his show). Not my thing, but it is nice to see EW acknowledge that The Colbert Report is not a news show.

31. Forrest Gump. A book from the 80s. Also... I don't know, he's just a right wing mouthpiece with his rhetoric softened to make it more palatable. And even cute.

32. Beavis and Butt-Head. Sucks. Where's Daria? Daria's a way better character.

33. Sarah Connor (Terminator 2). First appeared in 1984. Doesn't count.

34. Cher (Clueless). Again, this is an update of Jane Austen's Emma, so... does that count? Great character, great performance, but does it count?

35. Dexter Morgan (Dexter). I've never had the urge to watch it, so I don't know.

36. Gollum (Lord of the Rings). From a novel from 1954-1956.

37. Kyser Söze (The Usual Suspects). He's just a plot device, not a character. And I agree with Jaquandor, it's a crap movie, anyway.

38. Elmo (Sesame Street). Elmo's been around too long. To anyone who worked retail in the 90s, he's been around too long. The only reason I don't despise Elmo anymore is because I despise Baby Bear and Abby Cadabby more.

39. GOB Bluth (Arrested Development). GOB is funny and distinctive, but Michael's a better character.

40. Ron Burgundy (Anchorman). Yes, I would agree with this for the same reasons I agree with Captain Jack Sparrow.

41. Harold and Kumar. Funny, but I wouldn't put them on this list.

42. Sydney Bristow (Alias). Abrams again. I've never seen this show, so I have no idea.

43. Cal Stephanides (the novel Middlesex). Another book I need to read. I thought The Virgin Suicides was an excellent novel, but I've yet to read Middlesex.

44. Jack Bauer – 24. I've never watched this show. I can stream it from Netflix and was thinking of checking it out.

45. Stewie Griffin (Family Guy). You mean Brain, from Pinky and the Brain? No, absolutely not; just a rip-off of far too many other cartoon characters (like everything Seth MacFarlane does).

46. Jerry Maguire. Maybe. Seems like a stretch to me, but maybe.

47. Corky St. Clair (Waiting for Guffman). I'm not generally a fan of Christopher Guest's parade of This Is Spinal Tap remakes.

48. Red (The Shawshank Redemption). From a 1982 story. Great performance, though I get sick of seeing Morgan Freeman repeat it over and over again.

49. Vivian Ward (Pretty Woman). Who cares? Julia Roberts has never played a great character.

50. Pearl the Landlord. Funny video, but it's just the one gag of a swearing toddler.

51. Omar Little (The Wire). Never seen The Wire.

52. Annie Wilkes (Misery). Ineligible; the novel is from 1987.

53. Edward Cullen. Edward Cullen is a terrible character. Just awful.

54. Juno (Juno). No.

55. Tracy Jordan (30 Rock). No. More a collection of tics than a character. Liz and Jack are better characters.

56. Barney Stinson (How I Met Your Mother). Yeah, okay.

57. Clayton Bigsby. Huh?

58. Thelma & Louise. No.

59. Master Chief (Halo). Again, it's a virtual game piece. You might as well say the shoe from Monopoly is a great character.

60. Mary Jones (Precious). Too recent; a great performance, sure, but too recent to call.

61. Vic Mackey (The Shield). Never saw it; I've never seen a show on FX that I've really liked.

62. Jimmy Corrigan (Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth). I agree, although it's hard not to read this as EW's token comics character from a comic that hasn't been made into a movie yet. I mean, Spider Jerusalem is a great character, but you're not going to see him on here, are you?

63. John Locke (Lost). I would've put him higher.

64. Maximus (Gladiator). No.

65. Lorelai & Rory Gilmore (Gilmore Girls). If the show had only had four seasons, than I'd agree.

66. Allie & Noah (The Notebook). I haven't seen or read The Notebook.

67. Borat. I'd say yes, although Borat seems like a comedy device more than an actual character. Is a shtick persona a character?

68. Effie White (Dreamgirls). Jennifer Hudson was excellent in the movie. However, it's based on a musical from 1982, so it doesn't count.

69. Miranda Priestly (The Devil Wears Prada). Yes.

70. Mary Katherine Gallagher (SNL). Fucking no.

71. Det. Alonzo Harris (Training Day). Terrible; it's not even worth an Oscar, let alone a place on this list.

72. Kara “Starbuck” Thrace (Battlestar Galactica). I've never seen the remake, but I have seen the original, so I would say that since Starbuck is a character from 1978, she's ineligible.

73. Catherine Tramell (Basic Instinct). No.

74. Don Draper (Mad Men). What I've seen of the show has bored me greatly.

75. David Brent (The Office - original from the UK). Definitely.

76. Tyler Durden (Fight Club). Terrible movie, excellent novel. If we're talking novel, then I'd say absolutely.

77. Mimi Marquez (Rent). Rent blows. And it's just La Boheme.

78. Patty Hewes (Damages). Again, the FX thing. I tend to avoid shows on FX.

79. Elphaba (Wicked). But she's a reinterpretation of a character from a book published in 1901. Plus, I fucking hate Wicked.

80. Gorillaz, the world’s greatest virtual band. They're more of a gimmick than characters.

81. Amanda Woodward (Melrose Place). Please.

82. Tracy Flick (Election). Good performance, but this seems like a stretch.

83. Jen Yu (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon). Doesn't count; fantastic, but based on a novel from 1938-1942.

84. House (House). I've never seen what's so special about House.

85. Daniel Plainview (There Will Be Blood). Excellent performance, though I'm not sure how closely (if at all) the film hews to the 1927 novel it's loosely based on.

86. Karen Walker & Jack McFarland (Will & Grace). Will & Grace is the worst show in the history of television, and these two shrill assholes a big part of the reason why.

87. Tony Stark (Iron Man). Iron Man first appeared in 1963; I don't care how popular the movie was, it doesn't count. Plus, it's been two years, where's the long-lasting impact on pop culture as we know it? I mean, Spider-Man had arguably more of an impact, but he's ineligible for the same reason.

88. Napoleon Dynamite. No. A collection of annoying tics, but not a character.

89. Wilkus van de Merwe (District 9). I don't know... maybe.

90. Marge Gunderson (Fargo). Yes.

91. Hancock (Hancock). Have I mentioned yet that Entertainment Weekly is owned by Time Warner, a division of Warner Bros? Just felt like mentioning it somehow. And I think you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who feels like Hancock made a big impact on pop culture, which EW listed as their main criterion.

92. Christopher Boone (The Curious Incident of the Dog in Night-Time). Haven't read it, but I am getting sick of hearing about it.

93. “Game Boys”: Nathan Drake – Uncharted, Kratos – God of War, Niko Bellic – Grand Theft Auto IV. Also, the queen's knight in chess. Please.

94. Truman (The Truman Show). Excellent movie, but no.

95. Wilhelmina Slater (Ugly Betty). Okay, yes.

96. Bernie Mac (The Bernie Mac Show). No.

97. Violet Weston (August: Osage County). I don't know what this means.

98. Lisbeth Salander (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo). This seems like another fad choice to me.

99. The Bride (Kill Bill). Yes, I would agree here. One of Tarantino's best characters, especially as the second movie fills out the revenge drama of the first.

100. Tim Riggins (Friday Night Lights). I have no interest in it.

And there you are.