Kit Harrington as Jon Snow.
Television can be a divisive matter. Everyone has shows they know and love, and those they can't abide. But nothing is more divisive than an annoying character.
We all have one: that person who sticks out like a sore, diseased, infuriating thumb in a show we otherwise love otherwise. A person who haunts our televisual nightmares, someone that makes you just want to throw something at the TV.
Here are our picks for television's most annoying characters.
It's not personal, Ross, it's just that I hate your face. Every time you made that silly confused expression - which was basically every scene you were ever in - I wanted to punch you right in that silly comical mug of yours. Chandler was the funny guy, and Joey was for the ladies, but Ross wasn't a man, he was the equivalent of a wet wipe: soft, smushy and ready to wipe up tears.
- Chris Schulz
He's the guy whose schtick is to walk through doors in a totally, like, hilarious way. Once or twice, OK, mildly amusing, but every day of every week of every month? I'd want to string up some piano wire and stand over his injured, quivering body: "Who's laughing now asshole?"
- Alan Perrott
Pretty much every character to ever speak so much as a line on HBO's Girls is objectively bad, self-obsessed, and annoying. As a result it's impossible to reach any kind of consensus as to who is 'the worst' - everyone who watches seems to have a different character that makes their skin crawl.
For me, it's Jessa... Jessa is the definitely the worst. Her faux-English accent, her put-on worldliness, her condescending air of superiority... but the most annoying thing is that she's usually sort of right. You could probably design a deeply perceptive Myers-Briggs style personality test based on which Girls characters people can't stand and the ones they're weirdly sympathetic towards.
- Calum Henderson
To think there was once a time when women actively argued with their friends over who was the most like Carrie makes you blush for womankind. These days, I would fight for the right to slap her in the face. Harsh? Yes. But Carrie Bradshaw deserves it. As a 15-year-old, what I saw as glamorous, sophisticated and urbane, I now see as self-obsessed, shallow and utterly inane.
How does a professional journalist not back up their computer hard drive!? But perhaps the most annoying - and insulting - thing about Bradshaw was the fact we were expected to believe she funded a Jimmy Choo-clad New York lifestyle while writing one (appallingly written and repetitive) column a week. Bah.
- Joanna Hunkin
Now this is a man who could bore for his country, so how the hell was it that the Street's resident serial killer never found time to knock him on the head with a rock? You know, as a public service? Come to think of it, why didn't anyone else? It was the perfect opportunity, what with the rising death rate and everything it's likely no-one would have noticed the moaning little bleeder was even missing.
- Alan Perrott
Mad Men is a masterwork, but the character at its centre was a constant source of annoyance. Although Jon Hamm's performance was faultless, many of the paths creator Matthew Weiner took Draper down rendered him far too much of an irredeemable bore, as opposed to the tortured soul he was often presented as. Weiner addressed this satisfactorily in the recent final episodes, but that didn't undo how annoying Draper was throughout most of the series.
- Dominic Corry
Watching all six seasons of Lost back-to-back on Netflix is painful enough - especially when the entire cast is ridiculously annoying at one point or another. But there is one man who rises above all others to claim the title as most irritating character of all time, Benjamin "I make life a living hell for er'body" Linus.
Portrayed by Michael Emerson, Ben is the kind of manipulative, googley-eyed asshole that you just want to punch in the face, which a lot of other the Lost characters get the chance to do. He's menacing, untrustworthy, creepy and pathetic, and at the end of it all there's no real reason behind his devious ways - other than to mess with people. Argh!
- Rachel Bache
There's none more annoying than the one 'unbelievable' character on an otherwise 'believable' TV show. Never has this annoyance been felt more acutely than the day Kip Denton arrived in Ferndale and completely destroyed the carefully-observed realist drama Shortland Street. Kip's cartoonish pantomime take on the classic Kiwi bloke was just too jarring alongside the nuanced method acting of your Chris Warners or Sarah Pottses. I despised him, and developed a watertight conspiracy theory proving he was the Ferndale Strangler - it was the only explanation for why they would let such an annoying character on the show. After a while I think he toned it down a bit and I stopped getting so rarked up by him.
- Calum Henderson
Sure, she was this powerful key with the power to end the world, but once that storyline finished, Dawn served little purpose. I had forgotten how irritating she was, but after recently re-watching the series on Zone, I was reminded just how unnecessary Buffy's little sister was. All she did for two seasons was get in the way and have hissy fits about no one paying attention to her. Funnily enough, Dawnie, when people are adjusting to coming back from the dead and trying to stop the apocalypse, your kleptomania issues are kinda bottom the of the agenda. The last two seasons of Buffy aren't perfect, but they'd be significantly better if Dawn hadn't been there.
- Ethan Sills
Wesley Crusher was supposed to be an inspirational character for kids, a role model. Someone they could look up to and aspire to be like when they hit those difficult teenage years.
The big problem was that not many kids aspire to be a giant nerd. So despite the good intentions Wes, as the Enterprise crew called him, instead became the most reviled character in Star Trek history.
With his annoying manner, coming-of-age storylines and terrible dress sense, Wesley episodes rank amongst the most boring of the entire Next Gen run. The only redeeming part of any Wes episode is the inevitable scene where Captain Picard loses his rag at the boy genius and boots him off the bridge. Doing what we at home couldn't.
Fortunately, after a few seasons the writers finally realised that Wes was ruining an increasingly excellent sci-fi series and did the fans a favour by shipping the character off to the furthest reaches of the galaxy.
- Karl Puschmann
It's not Ralphie. It's not Paulie. And it's definitely not Tony. No,
The Sopranos
' most despicable, deceitful and conniving character was Janice, Tony's whiny, moronic sister. Every time she came on screen, my skin crawled. Every time she talked, I wanted to cover my ears. And everything she did was just nasty. Her most evil act wasn't shooting abusive husband Richie Aprile, it was stealing her mother's carer's false leg. Anyone who can do that deserves to sleep with the fishes.
- Chris Schulz
Not all characters start off annoying. Three seasons ago, Piper Chapman seemed like a nice enough sort of girl. Sure, she'd made some misguided life choices (hence the jail sentence) but she was still relatable and engendered sympathy. But as season three unfolds, Chapman has changed and is fast losing any of the redeeming features she once possessed. Granted, it's a deliberate plot device designed to illustrate prison's long-term effects on a person (I assume) but Chapman is reaching the point of no return and it's painful to watch. It's just as well she's locked up with other inmates as it's become impossible to believe anyone would voluntarily spend time with her.
- Joanna Hunkin
A: He's a shortarse. B: He's one of those blokes people think is mysterious when in fact he has nothing to say. C: He'd have had his arse handed to him early on if it hadn't been for his mangy mutt, magic sword and body odour. Otherwise, good riddance to bad rubbish, we're just hoping this winter he keeps banging on about turns out to be a bus and he's looking the wrong way when it arrives.
- Alan Perrott
• Who grinds your gears when it comes to TV characters? Join the conversation below!
- nzherald.co.nz
The latest entertainment news from NZ Herald Chief Lifestyle and Entertainment Reporter, Jenni Mortimer.