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'Scott the Dick' characters in TV

JirinPanthosa

JirinPanthosa

Admiral
Admiral
For those of you unfamiliar with South Park or 'Scott the Dick':

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Scott The Dick is a character who first appeared in the Terence & Philip episode. He is every TV bad guy: He's arbitrarily nasty for no reason, and exists solely to make life difficult for the protagonists. He is an easy formula for lazy one dimensional villains.

The biggest Star Trek example of a 'Scott The Dick' is Brunt, but DS9 and some of the other Treks are rife with them, especially when it comes to single-appearance villains. Other recent examples are:

Jamm from Parks & Recreation
Eckley from CSI

What are some other big Scott the Dick characters in TV, and why do screenwriters fall back on them so easily? Is it just more economical to have one composite character for everybody who gets in the way of the characters getting what they want?
 
Roy Biggins from Wings

As for why? As part of the storytelling process, there usually needs to be conflict. TV is a business. Therefore, it has to be created with a certain economy. The dick character creates conflict with economy.
 
In fairness to Eckley, in the last few seasons the writers have made his character a bit more three dimensional and now he's not even that bad of a guy.

I can't think of his name off the top of my head, but the guy who owned the rival bar in 'Cheers' is a good example of that type of character.
 
^Gary, owner of Gary's Tavern. And even then, I'd put Carla Tortelli over Gary for the topic of this thread.

Other notables:

Q, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager

Colonel Harry Maybourne, Stargate SG-1

Pierce Hawthorne on Community

Dwight Schrute on The Office

Cordelia Chase on (the early years of) Buffy The Vampire Slayer

Lucille Bluth on Arrested Development
 
^ I didn't see Q as a "Scott the Dick" kind of character. Sure, he was a pain, but I did find some depth in him. Especially in episodes like "Death Wish" and even "Q and the Grey". About the only time I saw him as a "Scott" was on DS9...

How about pretty much everyone in the Alliance from Firefly?
 
Oh I completely agree -there's tons of depth to Q, marvelously portrayed by de Lancie, but he's also a colossal jerk to Picard, Riker, et al in each of his appearances. Whether you (the general "you") qualify that because he's a demi-god or because he's a Scott Dick kind of person is entirely subjective.
 
Just about any Internal Affairs character from any cop show you can name...almost everyone of them is a total dick like that dude from Law and Order SVU.
 
The Master on Doctor Who. You could also use the Daleks and Cybermen, too.

Louie DePalma, on Taxi. I think he had one redeeming episode, but that was about it.
 
There were few episodes of "redemption" for Louis on Taxi but he still had tons of depth. He was much, much, more than a "Scott the Dick" character.
 
I do believe Perry lost exactly one case on that show. So yes, Burger did win a case, though even after the case was over Perry went on to exonerate the person anyways.
 
doubleohfive said:
Pierce Hawthorne on Community

Dwight Schrute on The Office

Cordelia Chase on (the early years of) Buffy The Vampire Slayer

Lucille Bluth on Arrested Development
Click to expand...
Naw man. Naw.
All of those characters are/were antagonists on some level, sure, but that antagonism makes perfect sense in the context of their characters. Pierce devolved into just being the dick character for a while, certainly, but Lucille was a different trope all together and Dwight always had some method to his madness and was rarely out to do anyone harm. Cordelia was set up to play to the bitchy "queen bee" archetype in order to break it, but even then she had moments of good intent and sympathy even in the first season when she was barely a character.
 
I'm recalling that interaction between Cyclops and Wolverine in the first X-Men Movie while Mystique was fooling about...

"Hey? How do I know that you're really you?"

"You're a dick."
 
Chief Strauss from Criminal Minds.

And I can't remember his name, but the Detective in Cracker that was upset about losing his partner was a total dick to the female detective. Even to the point of what he did to her towards the end.
 
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