The Five Most Narcissistic Sitcom Characters
The Egotistical Jerk is a common sitcom trope, but not all narcissists are created equal. As discussed in a recent Reddit thread, only a few sitcom characters rise to the top in the genre’s Egomaniac Hall of Fame. Not to brag, but here are five of the most self-involved, egocentric characters in sitcom history…
Lucille Bluth
Lucille can usually be found slurring her way through another vodka tonic, infantilizing a family member or spending money the Bluths no longer have. More than any other Arrested Development character (and it’s a healthy competition), Lucille craves status — one might even say she believes it’s her birthright. Lucille’s reaction to making this list would likely be a smug, “If that’s a veiled criticism about me, I won’t hear it and I won’t respond to it.”
Dennis Reynolds
Just like the Screen Actors Guild hands out an annual award for Best Performance by an Entire Cast, the It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia gang takes the prize for Most Narcissistic, Group or Ensemble. But that’s not the exercise, and if we have to pick one Always Sunny character, it has to be Dennis “I am a Golden God!” Reynolds. Even Wikipedia knows the drill: “Seemingly the most intelligent and normal of the three co-owners, Dennis is slowly revealed to be the most narcissistic and sociopathic of The Gang.”
Dick Solomon
The tittering writers on 3rd Rock From the Sun had a junior-high field day naming episodes after their lead character (“Frozen Dick,” “The Art of Dick,” “Truth or Dick” and so on), but what else were they supposed to do? Solomon was a Dick and a preening one at that. “Oh my God!” shouts Dick after he gets a load of himself in a hand mirror. “I’m gorgeous!”
Jenna Maroney
Yustrepa Gronkowitz, er, 30 Rock’s Maroney is whose picture you see when you look up “diva” in your online dictionary. A graduate of Adrien Brody’s unaccredited acting school and the Royal Tampa Academy of Dramatic Tricks, Maroney earned her ego as the original star of The Girlie Show. Even though she lost top billing to Tracy Jordan, she agrees with him that their profession constitutes the most important people on the planet. “We’re actors,” she confirms. “If we didn’t exist, how would people know who to vote for?”
Jeff Winger
Pretty-boy Jeff Winger turned to medication to deal with his anxiety, but Community friends worried that without some self-doubt, his barely contained narcissism would run wild. The fears were well-founded — when teenage guest of honor Howie wins a “Most Handsome Young Man” award at his own bar mitzvah, Winger goes into a rage and seizes the award. He begs Britta to help get his ego in check and she responds with a litany of his faults: “You are not that big of a deal, do you understand? You have bad posture. When you do too many push-ups, it looks like you have boobs. The tile in your bathroom is tacky. You were emotionally closed off in bed to the point where one time I didn’t come up because I couldn’t find close enough parking.”
That ought to do it.
