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September 21, 2011
Ranked: Every Character on Community, From Least Funny to Funniest
An ode to Greendale’s finest.
By James Brady Ryan
Tomorrow night, Community returns to TV. To celebrate, we gave ourselves an assignment: rank its amazingly funny cast of characters from least funny to funniest. Since almost every main character has a shot at the top spot, it wasn't going to be easy — you could check in with us hourly and our top rankings would probably change each time — but somehow, we did it.
25. Pavel (Dominik Musiol)
Troy and Abed's Polish dormmate, Pavel, is given little to do besides pop in on the pair and ask what's up. His accent gives him some color, but it doesn’t make him funny.
24. Magnitude (Luke Youngblood)
Magnitude's character has one signature joke. (He says “Pop pop,” for those of you who don't watch the show.) Unfortunately, that one joke is meaningless and overdone.
23. Quendra (Marcy McCusker)
Poor Quendra-with-a-Qu, you never really had a chance. If Jeff had liked you more, you might have had a longer stay on the show and had more of a shot. But still, points for your delivery of the phrase “I love footballs.”
22. Dean Spreck (Jordan Black)
The dean of Greendale’s rival City College, Dean Spreck is just as oddly sexual as Dean Pelton, but in a much more sinister way. His obvious hate/love/lust relationship with Dean Pelton is amusing, and so is the idea of community-college nemeses... but his actual character doesn’t really make us laugh.
21. Andre (Malcolm-Jamal Warner)
Much like Shirley, her reformed husband suffers in terms of his funniness because he has to be a good person. Luckily, that doesn't stop the show from putting former Cosby kid Malcolm-Jamal Warner in a crazy sweater — according to Andre, a gift from his dad. A meta-joke, but we’ll take it.
20. Leonard (Richard Erdman)
Sometimes, Leonard feels like the character to whom Community's writers give all the jokes that didn't quite work for Pierce. But sometimes he hits the spot; also, I don't think Pierce looks old enough to have been in The Little Rascals.
19. Male Nurse Jackie (Patton Oswalt)
Why hasn't Patton Oswalt returned to Community more? (What's that you say? Probably money?) His role is a bit thankless, but Oswalt is a good enough comedian to know that if you only get to say "herpes" once, you'd better make it count.
18. Vicki (Danielle Kaplowitz)
Mostly used as a punching bag for Pierce — but a pretty good punching bag! — Vicki didn't leave much of an impression until we saw her listless saloon girl dancing in “A Fistful of Paintballs."
17. Professor Michelle Slater (Lauren Stamile)
Professor Slater got some good lines in there — it's always fun to hear someone shut Jeff down, as she does repeatedly (before dating him) — but unfortunately, when she was up against the main cast, she just couldn't sell it all the way.
Commentarium (51 Comments)
Completely wrong over Magnitude, Nerve, I can't even look at you now. He's a better Poochie than Poochie himself.
We all need to be vigilant of any plot thread in which Magnitude plans to visit his home planet.
Pop pop, my friends.
Pop pop.
This looks like a list of who just has the most tv air time.
Missing - Professor Holly, the pottery teacher. "No GHOSTING!" No love for Buster Bluth?
I mean, obviously Troy and Abed are actually tied for first place, but at least you had the sense to put them both at the top.
Troy would be nothing without Abed! Abed deserves first place without a doubt. I spent a couple of hours checking out the bloopers on Community. You should too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYZr_zpLRIE
Troy is my favorite character, but he only works to fill in the spots between Abed's characters and routines. Abed is #1.
Uh.... you take that back about Magnitude before I reach through the computer and END you.
POP POP!
Also, did you just analogize "Friends" to this show? That should bar you from any further commentary on "Community" for all time.
hahaha
Even Abed compares Friends to Community
"P...pop..."
"POP WHAT MAGNITUDE??? POP WHAT? WHAT'S HE TRYING TO SAY???"
LOL Love that one!
Hmm... I think I prefer Abed over Troy. With Abed Troy is weaker but Abed can work on his own. Deffinately my favourite character.
And yeah, I give you hell for Senor Chang. He should be a lot higher. Apart from that I agree with this list, as much as it pains me to rank the characters from my favourite show.
DITTO.
Finally, somebody else recognizes that Senor Chang is not funny. Ken Jeong is funny. Senor Chang is not.
Senor Chang is friggin' hilarious so I disagree there!!! I know I'll get crap for this but I just don't think Chevy/Pierce is that funny. His character feels the most forced and I almost never laugh at anything he says or does. Big hearts for everyone else though!!!!!!!!!
Britta? Is that you?
This list is awful.
Donald Glover should be 25th. He's the least funny. I'm so tired of hyper-active squealing people that get cheap laughs that way. And seriously, Patton Oswalt that low? That speaks for the rest of this article.
Abed is WAAAAYYYY funnier than Troy. WAY.
Inflection is SOOOOOOO interesting
Wow, this list is completely off. Chang that far back on the list? Terrible. Also I like Donald Glover, but he is no where near the funniest person on the show. This list just made me angry.
Senior Chang is by far the biggest mistake with this list, he is awesome especially in second series he should be in top 5. Abed is by far number 1 and then pierce. Troy should be number 4.
Sorry, pal, Ken Jeong is good for nothing. Actually, he's pretty good in this show. Yeah, now that I think about it, you're totally right. I just don't like that guy in anything else. Who even cares about him?
Also, are you British? A British chap named Doddsy - boy, is there something I like about that. I once met a British guy named Giles and shat my Ps.
Did anybody see the Cougar Town episode, where Abed was randomly just hanging out in the background, overtly eavesdropping on the main characters??
Yeah I ended up looking for that clip and it was just so awkward.. lol.
Chang at 15?? Go to hell.
What about the Human Being???
You're not gonna find a bigger fan of 'mmunity than me - give me a glass of vino and my sweats and I'm giggles-deep before the theme song. But holy God Donald Glover is not funny. It's things like this list that make it painfully obvious that the general public should not be allowed to watch TV shows.
Also Aziz Ansari in Parks & Rec. blows, too.
Also, wait, now that I read the whole list, JBR can't rate any of these char'cs. Sorry, what was funny about Dino Stamatopoulos?
'Mmunity? Sigh. I really wanted to value your opinion, too.
Just wanna say that Abed's "oddly serious monologue" is a just another pop culture reference. It's reenactment of My Dinner with Andre, in which the titular character, Andre, talks about his own life changing experiences in a series of serious monologues. So, really, it's not odd at all!
Abed is nothing but brilliant.
The writers are the funniest thing about Community. That they have not won gads of awards is a travesty.
I go to UCLA and Donald Glover (Childish Gambino) came to our free concert last Sunday, and he was hella good! How is he so good at so many things??
His rap is mind-blowing.
Shirley, Andre, starburns, professor Malcom, and Jeffs teacher girlfriend were never meant to be funny.
You could call this list characters the writer of this list likes the most, which is hard to agree with, but as it is the list is whack.
Pop Pop
Would it kill nerve to get better writers?
I'm gonna get soo much shit for this, but Shirley should be much higher, Britta much lower. Shirley's one liners are perfectly crafted.
Also, Pop pop.
Magnitude's ranking invalidates this entire list. Pop-pop fo' life!
How does Patton Oswalt even make the list when there's no room for Kevin Corrigan as Professor Professorson?
WASTE OF TIME LIST. shirley funnier than Chang?! NO WAY. chang should be in the running for number one with abed and troy. and pierce
I guess it depends on how you balance season 1 vs. season 2. Season 1 Chang would deserve to be higher, but they were really scattershot with him in season 2. Same with the Abed vs. Troy debate in my mind. Season 1 was Abed (and I'd actually put Annie second), but Donald Glover would top the list for Season 2 in my opinion.
Nerve got the top 3 right, and nailed it on Chang, but the rest of the cast is jumbled. Magnitude is top 15, and with apologies to Chevy Chase (love him, but he hasn't been funny since 1989), Pierce's character is just not funny at all.
Any body who says Donald Glover is not funny should kill themselves. Seriously. He is number one undisputed. Who on the show a has highlight reel like this:
http://thelaughbutton.com/news/donald-glovers-moments-community/
Aight - chevy is not funny. sorry - he's everyone's least favorite character and never causes a laugh. maybe you've gotta be old. And both magnitude and vicki need to seriously move up this list. dedicated fans love these two.
britta, annie, shirley and jeff are all stupid characters and annoying as hell. I could watch a show with just Abed, Troy, and Pierce. That would be hilarious.
I think you overrated Annie. You ranked Pierce well, but for the wrong reason. You were right when you said you would get hell for ranking Chang so low. How dare you. Personally, Jeff, Abed, and Troy are in a 3 way tie for me.
senor chang is one of the funniest characters of all time. and duncan is also hilarious. troy? seriously? no.
Chang isn't funny. End of.