Jar Jar Binks, was the most offensive marketing ploy/racial caricature of the last century (Revenge of the Fallen not withstanding). Even the special effects guys who designed the detestable creature couldn't figure out why/how Lucas ever thought he was a good idea.
Jar-Jar was meant by Lucas to be the equivalent of the 'wise fool' of classical literature, the bumbler who sounds like a silly moron that nobody cares about, but who actually does something important in the end (in Jar Jar's case, he tells Amidala that she should rely on her people, and herself, to liberate Naboo, and not on anything the Senate can do, which is why she goes back and enlists the Gungans to fight alongside her security troops.) So yes, Jar-Jar may not seem important, but at the end, he
is important-in his own clumsy way, or course.