Cartoon Pundit Hall of Fame: Favorite Male Characters

A while back I made a post about my favorite female characters. Now I thought it was high time to give you my list of my favorite male characters. I am setting a limit of one character per franchise, as there are a couple shows that could have 2 or 3 characters on this list. Also, I am limiting the list to characters from television shows, so no movie exclusive characters. I’ll probably do a favorite movie characters list at a later time. Like I said for the females list, this entire list is my personal opinion. You may very well hate the characters on this list, but that’s your opinion not mine. Without further adieu, I bring you Cartoon Pundit Hall of Fame: Favorite Male Characters.

10.) Bob Belcher (Bob’s Burgers)

This is a guilty pleasure pick. Bob’s Burgers is probably my favorite show on television right now.  I know  that may come as a surprise, given my public outcry for the awesomeness of Star vs. The Forces of Evil, but it’s still true. If you can ignore the relatively sub-par first season Bob’s Burgers has been the most constantly written show on television the last 5 years or so. The strange thing with the show is that it maintains its humor with no completely abnormal characteristics. What I mean is that Bob’s Burgers doesn’t have a talking dog or alien or a lot of slapstick humor. Bob’s Burgers’ humor comes from its quirky yet still realistic characters. My favorite of which is the eponymous Bob Belcher. Just to get an idea of what makes Bob awesome, just look at his very first speech in the series. “Listen, you’re my children and I love you, but you’re all terrible at what you do here and I feel like I should tell you. I’d fire all of you if I could.” He wasn’t saying this to be mean or hurtful, he was just giving a brutally honest assessment. He has enough respect for his kids that he believes they can handle that brutal honesty. You have to commend Bob though on the fact that on every other ‘nuclear family’ show the dad is the most crazy, off-the-wall, usually dumb character in the family. Bob on the other handle although he has his quirks might be the most sane. I mean look at his children. Tina is hormonal teenager with a massive overwhelming fetish for butts and zombies. Oddly, for how funny she is, Tina might be the most ‘normal’ Belcher child. Gene is attention-seeking middle child who has literally no boundaries as long as he’s getting his attention. I mean he mixes sounds of his grandparents having sex, writes songs about farts, and pees in the sink. Finally, Louise is at best, an evil genius, at worst, a psychopath. The only time you see Louise show any remorse is when it’s directly associated with Bob, who she unwilling admits is her hero. Even with that it is very rare for Louise to show any empathy for what she does to people. As far as his wife, Linda, she’s more of a singing show-off than really kind of nuts, but she’s still slightly more insane than Bob. None of this is to say Bob is boring. He’s pretty much inarguably the best cook in his town. Between that and being ‘swarthy’ and hairy is the only reason he has a great rapport with his landowner, Mr. Fischoeder, which keeps his business afloat. He has never paid his rent on-time and he is quite possibly, the worst business owner ever. Bob gives his food and kitchen equipment voices, which is actually not as insane as it sounds. What really makes Bob my favorite character on the show is how much love for his kids he shows throughout the series. Just for some examples, he works night-shift as a taxi driver to pay for Tina’s birthday, he gets his legs waxed so that Tina didn’t have to do it alone,  he supports Gene’s strange endeavors like place-sitting and saving a talking toilet. I mean arguably the most touching moment in the series’ history is when Louise is worried that she and Bob will end up like the stars of their favorite movies, Hawk & Chick, who haven’t spoken in 20 years. Bob assures her that they will never quit talking to one another. This just proves to me that Bob is the current quintessential cartoon dad. What keeps Bob from being higher on this is is two-fold. First, Bob doesn’t have the nostalgia factor that affects my opinions on some characters. Second, much of the best parts of Bob’s character comes from his interactions with the rest of his family. In other words, while Bob can stand alone, he is much better with his family. Other characters higher on this list completely stand alone.

9.) Eric Cartman (South Park)

South Park is a very interesting show overall. Unlike most shows, it will routinely make fun of everyone and everything. South Park thrives off its ensemble cast. This actually presents the one problem with South Park which is that it’s ‘main’ main characters are technically Kyle and Stan, who are ‘everyman’ characters and overall not as entertaining as some minor characters. I mean literally Stan’s dad, Randy, and Butters are way better characters overall. However, South Park’s saving grace is that its best character happens to be the 3rd main character in Eric Cartman. Cartman might seem like a cop out as a favorite character, but hear me out. Cartman is an unrelenting psychopath. He caused the murder of two parents of a kid who cons him out of his money. He manipulated a the wife of a psychiatrist to commit suicide because the psychiatrist called him ‘fat’. Cartman is also racist, sexist, and just in general an asshole. Cartman is just one of those characters that you should hate, but for some reason I root for him. A lot of his problems stem from his upbringing. Now that is no excuse for the level that he has taken things, but still. His mom is, for lack of a better term, a whore. She sleeps with every guy in town. Heck, the night she gets pregnant with Cartman she has sex with every member of the town (men and women) and the Denver Broncos. Aside from that, she provides him with everything he asks for. That is literally how he became fat and his general spoiled attitude. It a specific episode it is shown that with boundaries he actually becomes a relatively ‘normal’ boy. It is unknown where his bigotry originally stems from, however, he is shown to respect and emulate Hitler. My personal thoughts on it has always been that he sought out a strong male role model and he correlates power to strength which Hitler had in spades. I mean there is an episode where he became a leader of a group of ‘Ginger’ kids so that they could prove that ‘Gingers’ were not inferior and in fact superior. Basically without a positive male role model he ended up following becoming a complete bigot. There is a lot of depth to Cartman’s character that you have to dig up. Now again, none of that is apologizing for how horrible of a human he is, just adds a new dimension to him. Now removing my personal pseudo-positive commentary for him, him being an asshole is what makes the show. South Park is a show without a true ‘villain,’ so his characterization is the most important. This is even more prevalent with the previous mention of the other main characters lacking personality. Again Cartman is an absolutely great character. The only thing holding Cartman back from being higher on this list is the most recent season was the not the best for his characterization and the inconsistency of his role in recent years. It appears that South Park is trying to give other characters more of a limelight and push Cartman to the side. The aforementioned most recent season saw Gerald Broflovski take on many of Cartman’s traits, but for no discernible reason. It didn’t really help Gerald’s characterization it just pushed Cartman to the side and gave him a fake personality to appease his girlfriend.  But I couldn’t fault Cartman too much as a character for more recent developments when for almost 20 years he was completely awesome and unique.

8.) Toffee (Star vs. The Forces of Evil)

Ok, so this was my first real surprise. As previously stated, Star vs. The Forces of Evil has a lot of great characters. When I started compiling this list I assumed that Marco would be on it. Well, Marco got a minor screw job by me rewatching season 1 of Star vs. and also watching The Battle For Mewni movie while working on this list, because I just got reminded how awesome Toffee is. Toffee is just a perfect villain. He is calm and cool. His personality is just a perfect contrast to Star. What’s so interesting about him is even after 2 seasons and a full movie we still know next to nothing about him. Spoilers  ahead. We know that he was a general in the monster army against Moon’s mother and was the one to kill her. We know that he has his own endgame that still isn’t understood and that’s it. I mean you would think he was after a better life for monsters, but no he went rogue when the monsters were trying to set up a peace treaty. You would think he was trying to kill Star or Moon, no he just walks away. Our complete lack of understanding of his endgame is what makes him compelling, particularly give we know he is a scheming genius. He is the quintessential villain for a show like Star vs. because as lighthearted as the show is, he brings a true sense of danger. I love Toffee, I hope that we get more of him because he is just too perfect of a villain. What’s holding him back from the top of this list? Well…he’s only heavily featured in a couple of episodes. We need more of him…which hopefully will happen, but who knows.

7.) Goofy (Disney)

So I knew that one of the member of Mickey’s gang would make my personal list. Well after some thought I realized something…Mickey is by far the most boring of his gang. Mickey is the ‘everyman’ character. This doesn’t necessarily mean that he’s going to be boring, but in comparison to the others he isn’t that interesting. Then it came down to who is my favorite of the rest of the Disney gang. Well, I initially thought Donald, but figured out I just like Goofy better. Goofy has a lot going for him. First, he constantly has an upbeat attitude even though he is a complete screw-up. He is a single father with a smart yet mischievous son. He oddly becomes best friends with Pete who was generally a villainous character prior to being friends with Goofy. Goofy is completely willing to do anything for his friends and family. His constant optimism is a good stark contrast to Donald and Pete. I hate to admit, but Goofy’s inclusion on this list is probably based purely on nostalgia. I remember watching Goof Troop all the time as a kid and watching old Mickey, Donald, and Goofy cartoons when they would come on. To this day, I still watch them periodically.  Now note, sadly nostalgia can only get you so far, particularly when I prefer a couple other nostalgic characters coming up. Also, I couldn’t stand the direction they took with the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, but it is a show for children under 5 so I can’t fault them too much. However, I still love Goofy. Hopefully, the writing for Disney characters improves. I will say I saw a couple of episodes of Mickey and Roadster Racers, the replacement for Clubhouse, and was pleasantly surprised so here’s hoping.

6.) Scooby-Doo (Scooby-Doo series)

Alright another massive nostalgia pick. I will admit to a simple fact, I watched Scooby-Doo in some form or another everyday for years. The series maybe my all-time favorite. While it was extremely difficult to boot Shaggy, Scooby is the star and my favorite character overall from the show. He is a glutenous coward like Shaggy. But also like Shaggy he routinely shows great courage in the face of adversity. What I’ve always liked about Scooby is that he always seemed to find that one clue that broke open the case. I also always loved Scooby’s upbeat and fun attitude. He is also pretty funny. Along with finding the one big clue he always seemed to be at the right place at the right time to catch the bad guy, particularly important given how Fred’s Rube Goldberg Machines always failed. Scooby is one of those characters that is forever ingrained in pop culture. Many have tried to emulate the success of this character with very few actually succeeding. In my opinion for what he is, Scooby has never been supplanted in his character trope. The amazing thing is that I have seen all of his shows going back to the 60’s and I still love watching them even now. The only thing holding him back is envisioning Scooby without Shaggy is impossible. Their characterizations are that dependent upon each other. So rating him toward the top of a list of single characters is difficult. With that said, if I could rate them together they would probably be my #1.

5.) Spike Spiegel (Cowboy Bebop)

Ok, so in stark contrast to the females list this is my only anime character. Why that is? I do not know. I only had two other characters come close to making the list, Edward Elric (Fullmetal Alchemist) and Monkey D. Luffy (One Piece). Yes, I know not having Goku is blasphemy, but while I respect his effect on anime, particularly bringing it overseas, I just found the characterizations to be weak in DBZ, in comparison. Honestly, overall Vegeta was a better character and Goku’s characterization was better as a kid. Back to Spike. Spike is just completely awesome. He appears at first to have a completely lackadaisical personality. Going so far as to just lounge around and sleep, when not on a bounty hunt. The truth is that he is a very talented martial artist and has a deep dark past. He shows absolutely no fear of death as he considers himself to have already died. He was a killer for the Red Dragon Syndicate prior to the series. His ‘best friend’ Vicious set him up and tries to kill him. Spike is saved by a woman by the name of Julia, who was Vicious’s girlfriend. They fall in love, but Vicious gives her the ultimatum to kill Spike or be killed herself. Instead she decides to leave to protect Spike. Spike becomes a bounty hunter to find Julia again. The entire series builds up until they finally meet again, just for her to die in his arms. Then he decides to cleanse the syndicate by himself. He kills several goons on the way to fighting Vicious. This accumulates in an epic showdown between Spike and Vicious with Spike coming out on top. The final tip of the iceberg of his awesomeness is the very last scene of the series is Spike facing down about to collapse and giving them a last ‘bang’ with a finger gun. I do realize that that’s a blatant rip-off of the end of Taxi Driver, however, it was still awesome. Spike is sarcastic, fun, cynical, and overall completely awesome. Really the only thing holding him back, is the awesomeness of each member of my Top 4 and also just how awesome the rest of the cast is as well. Yeah, the cast of Cowboy Bebop is arguably the greatest collective cast with no weak links. That is saying something. They all sort of play off each other, so unlike other characters coming up from great casts, but are more independent characters, Spike takes a minor hit. This does not drop him far and he is still vastly awesome in my book. By the way highly recommend Cowboy Bebop to anyone.

4.) Homer Simpson (The Simpsons)

This was another surprise. Growing up, Bart was by far my favorite character. Recently, I started watching The Simpsons again now that I am an adult. Well, I began to realize that Homer is a better overall character. I will admit something, though, if I allowed myself to have more than one per franchise Bart would still be in the top 10. However, this is about Homer. Homer is the most insanely quotable character in the history of all cartoons, potentially all of television history. A couple of my favorites are, “When will I learn? The answer to life’s problems aren’t at the bottom of a bottle, they’re on TV.”, “Kids you tried your best and failed miserably. The lesson is, never try.”, and of course, “I want to share something with you: The three little sentences that will get you through life. Number 1: Cover for me, Number 2: Oh, good idea, Boss! Number 3: It was like that when I got here.” Those are obviously the tips of the iceberg, but you get the idea. One of the profound things to come out of The Simpsons was the episode where they discover that Homer has a crayon stuck in his brain. Well in that episode he chooses to live happy versus being intelligent. Honestly, it is both commendable and sad that he had to make that choice. What makes Homer such a great character is like Bob he will do literally anything for his family. Unlike Bob, though, with the less realistic approach The Simpsons takes Homer’s is even more dangerous situations. I mean in one episode order to protect Bart and to prove a point, Homer literally attempts to jump over Springfield Gorge knowing full well it might kill him. That is a level of dedication which is amazing. Arguably, the biggest representative of Homer’s dedication to his children is the backstory of Marge getting pregnant with Maggie. Homer quits the plant and gets the best job of his life working at Barney’s Bowlarama. He finally at the end of flashback has to swallow his pride to beg Mr. Burns for his job back in order to pay for everything. Mr. Burns agrees, but under the condition that Homer has to have a demotivational plaque in his office. In a tear-jerking scene, you see that every photo of Maggie covers the plaque leaving the words “Do it for her.” Literally, Homer gave up his happiness for his family. Homer may not be the first cartoon dad, but for my money he is the best. Also, as previously said, he actually becomes a better character the older one gets. The thing holding him back…more recent seasons haven’t been the best for him. Now, it’s kind of difficult 28 seasons in to keep up constant greatness so this doesn’t fault him too much. Just keeps him out of the top 3.

3.) Terry McGinnis (Batman Beyond)

So this is probably the most surprising choice for most people. Well first I will reiterate this is MY list of MY favorite male characters. Second, I chose to deliberately avoid having characters like Bruce Wayne or the Joker on this list because while their animated versions particularly from the Batman: The Animated Series are iconic they are known for being comic book characters. This is actually in stark contrast to Terry who was not only a television original character and he didn’t even join the DC comic book universe proper until almost a decade after the series was over. So I thought including him was fair game. I will have another admission of nostalgia affecting his ranking. When Batman Beyond was originally broadcast I was 10 and thought it was one of the coolest shows ever. Years later, I rewatched the series and remembered just how brilliant it was. Ever since I have made it a point to watch the series at least once a year. What made Terry and by extension the series so interesting is that he combines the best points of both Batman and Spider-man. He is a normal man (with an admittedly awesome suit) that has to use his wits to fight bad guys. In contrast to Bruce he had to rely on street smarts vs. book smarts. His similarities to Spider-man start with his disturbingly similar villains to Spider-man’s. He also had Spider-man’s problem of trying to balance being a normal teen with his responsibilities as Batman. I mean on multiple occasions he had to choose saving Gotham over his personal life. The most telling episode of Batman Beyond is the one where Terry literally fights the Batsuit. Up to that point there was a debate upon how much of Batman was Terry and how much was the suit. It was proof positive that Terry was not just a man in a suit. Additionally, Terry’s background is actually quite brilliant. He admits he was a ‘bad kid’ growing up. It’s not explicitly said in the series, I personally believe that his parents divorce even though amiable, led him to seeking the acceptance of life in a gang. After a stint in juvenile hall, he rejoined regular high school and although he still had some of his attitude he decided to be a better person. Sadly it took his dad’s death to make him a man worthy of the title Batman. He is a character that really needs to be revisited in a movie or television series, because there is a lot of depth to his character. Also…he totally beat the entire Justice League by himself.

2.) Bugs Bunny (Looney Tunes)

Unlike the last entry, this one should come as a surprise to no one. Whenever you say Looney Tunes everyone immediately thinks Bugs Bunny. He is a complete icon and for good reason. Unlike his Mickey Mouse counterpart, Bugs was never written as an everyman which made for better characterization. He was always a clever trickster who enjoyed playing with his enemies. He was sarcastic, nonchalant until he ‘declared war’, and super cool. All of his personal characterization is ignoring that his interactions were the only thing that made other great characters great. I mean Daffy Duck would be about 5 on this list if I allowed multiple entries from the same franchise and his best work is with Bugs. I love Yosemite Sam and Elmer Fudd, but they are literally nothing without Bugs. He has the distinction of making every other character around him better. He also brought culture specifically music and theater to children for decades. I mean I knew the music of What’s Opera, Doc? long before I ever knew who Richard Wagner was. It’s part of the reason I joined band when I was in middle school and why I still periodically listen to Classical Music today. Also on a personal level, you have to give Bugs some credit, he’s best friends with Daffy, a.k.a. the most selfish person ever, and Lola, his girlfriend, is completely insane. I may joke, but Bugs really is an amazing character. He is just an all time great and is my dad’s favorite character of all time. He barely misses out on being mine as well.

1.) Bill Cipher (Gravity Falls)

Yes, I acknowledge my #1 favorite male character goes completely against my ‘nostalgia can affect the rankings’. I also acknowledge Bill in never going to be a ‘classic’ character in the Bugs, Scooby, or even Homer sense, but hear me out. In my favorite female characters list, I made mention to the fact that I love the crazies. If you go back to my Most Psychotic Characters list, Bill Cipher was a clear #1, at least on the Western front. Bill is so insane yet so awesome it is awe-inspiring. I mean how many characters literal opening is yanking the teeth out of a deer and offering them as a gift to a 10-year-old boy. And when the boy says “You’re insane!” his response is “Sure I am, what’s your point?” I mean just how nonchalant he is about it, is great. What’s very much missed in Bill’s insanity is just how clever a being he is. I mean literally he tricks Ford and Dipper like it’s child’s play. Worst part, they asked for it. He was so manipulating that he got them to literally ask for an inter-dimensional demon to enter their minds. His selfishness is actually great as well. He literally cares about nothing, but himself and his continued existence. It doesn’t matter what it is he will do whatever he needs to survive, up to and including destroying whole dimensions. You would think this selfishness would make him completely unlikable and you would be wrong. He is so over-the-top that it’s actually difficult to fully hate him or if you do hate him it’s a “love to hate” deal. I mean even when he was physically hurting Dipper’s body because “Pain is hilarious” it’s very difficult to hate him for it because of his upbeat eccentric attitude. Even his maniacal side is still somewhat likable. Honestly, what really put him over the edge is the simple fact, Gravity Falls is full of absolutely great characters. I know this shouldn’t have a huge effect on the position of one character on my personal favorite male characters list, but it does. Just look at Dipper as a basis point. Dipper would on almost every other show easily be the best character. He’s smart, funny, brave, and pretty awesome overall. He’s also THE MAIN CHARACTER which means he has the most depth of story overall. On Gravity Falls, he’s at best the 5th best character after Bill, Soos, Grunkle Stan, and Mabel. Another example, Wendy is a (pseudo) main character and is adventurous, chill, and fun. She on most shows could conceivably be the best character. She might not even be in the top 10 of characters from Gravity Falls. Bill stands on top of all of these great characters and if I’m being honest it’s not even close. Just to add to my point, if I included more than one character from a franchise, Soos would be in the top 3 with Grunkle Stan still in the top 10 of this list and yet Bill completely blows them out of the water. No character in the history of television has ever been quite as insane and fun as Bill. This is why Bill Cipher sits atop my list for my favorite male characters.

Hope you enjoyed Cartoon Pundit Hall of Fame: Favorite Male Characters. Comments are always appreciated. Now time to watch some of these guys in action.