Five Famously Foulmouthed Sitcom Characters
Vulgarity can be a crutch in comedy writing, but it’s also completely true that a well-timed F bomb can turn a somewhat humorous line into a hilarious one. And while plenty of sitcom characters are perfectly funny without offensive language, others turn cursing into an art form. Take, for example, these five fucking hilarious characters…
Eric Cartman from ‘South Park’
Despite the constraints on cable in the late 1990s, Cartman managed to shine with great lines like “Go home you little dildo” and laugh-out-loud musical numbers like “Kyle’s Mom Is a Bitch.” And that was just the first season. Cartman has only grown more vulgar with age — even if the character never actually ages.
Spoonie Luv from ‘Crank Yankers’
For a Comedy Central deep cut, check out Crank Yankers. Created by Jimmy Kimmel, Adam Corolla, Daniel Kellison and Jonathan Kimmel, the show was about as cheap and simple as a TV show could get: They just played recordings of crank calls acted out with puppets. Although almost all the characters were foul, the sexual exploits of Tracy Morgan’s Spoonie Luv made him the worst of the bunch. For example, when he called a sex shop offering up his masturbation videos, or when he called a local newspaper to place a personal ad searching for “a dirty ho to sip Cristal.”
Artie from ‘The Larry Sanders Show’
No one can call someone a “sack of human shit” quite like Artie on The Larry Sanders Show. The ruthless producer spouted off countless funny lines such as, “I said let’s all go down and have some fucking cheese,” and “NBC can eat shit and die.” It’s a character that only an IRL madman like Rip Torn could have played.
Selina Meyer from ‘Veep’
Veep began as an outrageous political satire, but by the time it ended, it seemed tame in comparison to our political reality. Still, Julia Louis-Dreyfus offered up hundreds of off-color lines with a relish that could only come from decades of playing it safe on broadcast TV. She called the American people everything from “fucking idiots” to “ignorant and dumb as shit,” and let’s be honest, she’s not so far off-base.
Susie Greene from ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’
Susie Essman has said that the breakthrough moment for her character on Curb Your Enthusiasm happened when she was working on a scene in which her character, Susie Greene, fights with her husband Jeff (Jeff Garlin). In between takes, Larry David told her to call Jeff a “fat fuck,” and while she was hesitant, she ended up saying it and the moment unlocked her entire character. From that point on, Susie’s insults became her greatest character trait and one of the most consistently funny things about the show. It’s just too bad that, because Curb Your Enthusiasm ended, we’ll likely never hear her call Larry David a “bald piece of shit” ever again.
