History Characters / HeavyTraffic

* AmbiguousDisorder: The "Crazy" in his name doesn't seem to just be for show. He shows some signs of being schizophrenic.

* CoolLoser: Michael has no job prospects, very few friends, and is still a virgin at 22, yet is shown to be quite quick-witted and charming in most social interactions. It seems like his circumstances are more a result of being stifled by his environment than any personal failings on his part.

* PoliticallyIncorrectHero: Calls her husband all manner of racist slurs and seems convinced that his rotten personality is intrinsically linked to his being Italian.

* BareYourMidriff: As a result of wearing only a bikini top for a shirt.

* KnifeNut: Her preferred weapon to go after Angie with is a kitchen knife.

* FanDisservice: A running gag has one of her breasts pop out of her dress, and we end up seeing her entire naked body while she's strutting around drunk at the night club.

A paraplegic bouncer at the bar Carole works at. Has an unrequited crush on her and isn't happy about her relationship with Michael.

* NiceHat: Wears a nifty bowler hat in a few scenes.

* DoubleStandardAbuseFemaleOnMale: While he and Ida both viciously attack each other, Angie is notably never the ''instigator'' of their fights, at least as far as is shown on screen.

* NiceHat: Like any good mobster, he's always wearing a fedora when out on business.
* OffingTheOffspring: Spends the entire second half of the movie trying to have his son killed for dating a black woman. [[spoiler: And succeeds by the end. [[GainaxEnding Maybe]].]]

* NiceHat: Always seen wearing a bowler.

* NiceHat: Wears a sideways baseball cap.

* TheBouncer: His job at Mario's bar. From what we see of him, he's very good at it.

* AuthorAvatar: Somewhat; he's an underground cartoonist of Jewish descent from the streets of New York City who uses the CrapsackWorld around him as his primary creative inspiration, much like Creator/RalphBakshi. His main comic is also a post-apocalyptic story that darkly parodies and deconstructs religion, not unlike Bakshi's ''{{Film/Wizards}}''.

* BirdsOfAFeather: Her relationship with Michael blurs the line between this and OppositesAttract.. While their personalities are [[RedOniBlueOni near]] [[SavvyGuyEnergeticGirl opposites]], both of them are down on their luck young people who feel constrained by the big city and want to escape to greener pastures. They also seem to encourage each other's worst impulses, and go from morally gray to outright [[VillainProtagonist Villain Protagonists]] as they continue being a couple.

* BirdsOfAFeather: Manages to fit into this in his relationship with Carole. While their personalities are [[RedOniBlueOni near]] [[SavvyGuyEnergeticGirl opposites]], both of them are down on their luck young people who feel constrained by the big city and want to escape to greener pastures. They also seem to encourage each other's worst impulses, and go from morally gray to outright [[VillainProtagonist Villain Protagonists]] as they continue being a couple.

* BirdsOfAFeather / OppositesAttract: Manages to fit into both in her relationship with Michael. While their personalities are [[RedOniBlueOni near]] [[SavvyGuyEnergeticGirl opposites]], both of them are down on their luck young people who feel constrained by the big city and want to escape to greener pastures. They also seem to encourage each other's worst impulses, and go from morally gray to outright [[VillainProtagonist Villain Protagonists]] as they continue being a couple.

* AManIsNotAVirgin: Angie describes his prolonged virginity as "not Italian". Later on the four prostitutes also mockingly refer to him as a "boy" for similar reasons.

* BirdsOfAFeather / OppositesAttract: Manages to fit into both in his relationship with Carole. While their personalities are [[RedOniBlueOni near]] [[SavvyGuyEnergeticGirl opposites]], both of them are down on their luck young people who feel constrained by the big city and want to escape to greener pastures. They also seem to encourage each other's worst impulses, and go from morally gray to outright [[VillainProtagonist Villain Protagonists]] as they continue being a couple.

* VirginShaming: Everyone in the city seems to know that he hasn't lost his V-card, and they often bring it up to mock or belittle him.

* VillainProtagonist: [[spoiler: By the end of the movie he's a murder who beats his significant other.]]

* NonStandardCharacterDesign: She's one of the few characters to have a relatively realistic-looking design, though she's still relatively cartoonish when compared to Michael.

Michael's Jewish mother. Violently hates her husband while doting on her son.

* InkSuitActor: A less overt version than Michael and Carole. Her actress' mannerisms lent themselves to how she was animated and the pictures of her as a young woman were taken from Terri Haven's personal collection.

Michael's Italian father. A mafioso who is mortified that his son is dating a black woman.

* NiceHat: Always seen wearing a nifty bowler.

* AllWomenAreLustful: Spends most of her screeentime trying to get Angie to stop what he's doing and have sex with her.

* MixedAncestry: Has an Ashkenazi Jew for a mother and an Italian for a father. Despite his parents' racially-charged feud, he seems mostly ambivalent to both sides of his heritage.

* HistoryRepeats: She implied to be NotSoDifferent from Ida in throwing her entire life away after falling for Angie.

* BunnyEarsLawyer: He's a legless dullard who moves around on a blank on wheels, but he's shown to be a ''very'' tough fighter.

* NiceToTheWaiter: The first character we see him interact with outside of his apartment is Crazy Moe, who he treats as a friend and equal despite being a CrazyHomelessPerson.

* DomesticAbuse: While it's unclear who was the instigator of the violence in his relationship with Ida, both of them are absolutely brutal to each other.

* MilesGloriosus: Fancies himself to be a big wheel in the mafia who gets called in as a secret weapon whenever its workers try to unionize, but the one time we actually see him try to do this ends in utter failure and with him on the Godfather's shit list.

* MoodSwinger: Goes from attempting to murder Michael's pet pigeon to cheerfully about how much he likes it after it gets set free.