Main Characters
Alex Kerkovich
Played By: Elisha Cuthbert
I'm not as dumb as I am.
Jane's ditzy younger sister and the youngest (and most clueless) member of the group. She was once engaged to Dave but abandoned him at the altar but as of season 3 they start dating again. But then, they break up again at the end of that season..
- Amicable Exes: with Dave until they start dating again. Then they break up again at the end of season 3. Amicably.
- Big Eater: Possibly the only character in the show who has an appetite bigger than Max.
- Brilliant, but Lazy: Literally. When she actively applied herself she proved to be so alarmingly intelligent that her friends couldn’t take it. Then she made one tiny error in front of some judgmental nerds, and that was enough for her to give up and go back to being willfully dumb, deciding that being smart wasn’t worth the effort.
- Characterization Marches On: Alex originally didn't have any defining character traits, but she's gradually turned into the cute ditz.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Set off events which meant the whole group was pranking one another because she's "Not as dumb as I am", by pranking her boyfriend with guns for food.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Yeah, she's out there. Claims to have pig friends, for one thing.
- Comically Missing the Point: Often does this.
- The Cutie: Is cheerful and optimistic, more so than any of the others.
- The Ditz: In a webisode, she’s incredulous that the aliens Michael Jordan played with in Space Jam were actually cartoons.
- Dumb Blonde: Although she notes she's a bottle blonde.
- Flanderization: She may have been slightly impulsive and childlike in the first two seasons, but was ultimately on par with her friends in the intelligence department. In season three, they exaggerated her impulsivity and childlike nature and being a complete ditz became her defining character trait. She still showed evidence of the old Alex and even had moments in which she was more clever than the crew, but she was "the dumb one" all throughout.
- "Flowers for Algernon" Syndrome: Temporarily becomes smart in one episode. Ends up going back to her old ways when she finds that hanging out with other intellectuals isn't all that fun.
- Four-Temperament Ensemble: Choleric (shares this with Jane)
- The Glorious War of Sisterly Rivalry: Jane and Alex are normally on the same page but when they fight it gets bad, as seen in the Season 3 episode, The Incident.
- Guilty Pleasures: Alex loves cliched and formulaic Rom Com movies.
- The Heart: Has twice led charges for the group 'For Love!'
- Horrible Judge of Character: See the episode where she's looking for a new roommate.
- Ms. Fanservice: While not as exploited as her sister, who had multiple nude scenes, she is a beautiful blonde played by Elisha Cuthbert, of course the show was going to exploit her trim body from time to time.
- My God, What Have I Done?:
- Felt incredibly guilty about leaving Dave at the altar. Recurs throughout Season 1, whenever she's reminded of the pain she's caused him. They both manage to get past it though.
- She also got this way after chopping off some of her hair to try to protect herself from Max's prank (which ended up being pointless). Or at least she's pretending to be.
- Once Done, Never Forgotten: A lot of people continue to remember her for leaving Dave at the altar long after the pilot.
- One-Hour Work Week: Owner and seemingly sole employee of a store that she spends hardly any time in.
- Runaway Bride: How she was first introduced.
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Alex’s tiny size is often a source of humor, but she’s also shown to have near superhuman strength on rare occasion.
- Sibling Yin-Yang Not too bright, very nice and easy personality contrasting with Jane's intelligent if ruthless approach to things.
- Smart Ball: one episode sees her get smarter after doing extensive reading...only to revert to her dumb but sweet self at the end.
- Strong Family Resemblance: With Jane.
- That Came Out Wrong: Occasionally does this. Sometimes she notices.
- Too Dumb to Live: To prove a point to Dave, Alex tried using her apartment chimney. She ended up setting the place on fire.
- Took a Level in Kindness: She was a bully in elementary school, but grew out of this behavior.
- We Want Our Idiot Back!: In one episode, she becomes fairly smart which makes Dave and Jane feel threatened. They even try to coax her back to her old ways.
- Womanchild: She was the flower girl at her sister's wedding, a role usually reserved for five-year olds.
Jane Kerkovich-Williams
Played By: Eliza Coupe
You lightly bite one security guard and they act like you're a criminal!
Brad's wife and Alex's older sister. She was something of an irresponsible party girl in her college days, but matured into a competitive, driven, career-minded perfectionist.
- Always Someone Better: Turns out, she has an older sister that makes Jane look like Alex whenever she's around.
- Experimented in College: Penny says she dated a huge number of girls and called it 'just a phase.'
- Big Sister Instinct: If Alex is being taken advantage of, like the instance when Alex's new roommate was using her for a hidden web cam porn site, she is willing to get physical.
- Comedic Sociopathy
- Competition Freak: Demonstrated in 'She Got Game Night' and 'Deuce Babylove 2: Electric Babydeuce.' After she and Brad defeat Max and Alex in a tennis match, she takes Alex's racket and begins to smash it against the court, saying 'You don't deserve this!'
- Cool Big Sis: Mixed with Big Sister Instinct, she's a Neurotic Control Freak yes, but damnit if she isn't there for Alex through thick or thin.
- Crazy-Prepared: Part of the side effects of being a Control Freak, and shown to what extremes it is possible in "The Kerkovich Way." This becomes a Berserk Button in "Un-sabotageable", Max says at times she's woefully unprepared. Jane responds by decking him.
- Four-Temperament Ensemble: Choleric (shares this with Alex)
- Freudian Excuse: A lot of her present day and past actions were seemingly motivated by an attempt to match or outshine her older sister who, when she's around, turns Jane into Alex.
- Guile Hero: When she's using her powers for good.
- Manipulative Bastard: when she's not.
- Happily Married: To Brad.
- Leg Focus: Both Max and Alex (when she's carrying the Smart Ball for an episode) note that Jane almost never wears long pants so she can show off her legs get outside validation, which she says she needs a lot of.
- Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: she wears the pants in the relationship.
- Ms. Fanservice: Though all the women (and men, for that matter) on the show are rather attractive, Jane most fits this trope, from constantly baring her legs to being unabashed in her sexual desire for her husband, to the completely naked (though censored) scene she gets in the Season 3 opener.
- Sensual Slav: The Serbian heritage is played up much more with her, even though it’s Alex who still has the maiden name.
- Significant Birthdate: Christmas.
- The Smart Guy: together with her husband Brad.
- Stealth Hi/Bye: She's ridiculously good at those.
- Strong Family Resemblance: With Alex.
- Token Evil Teammate: The show casts her in lovable villain mode a surprising number of times.
- We Want Our Jerk Back!: one episode had her mellow down significantly, much to the eventual chagrin of her friends who found her new personality too relaxed and unmotivated.
- Where da White Women At?: Apparently Brad's not the only black guy Jane's dated.Jane: Why are you having private messages with Megan? What are you writing that I can't read?
Brad: I am writing "none of your business." I don't ask what you're writing to Jamal, or Malik, or Ladwinian!
Dave Rose
Played By: Zachary Knighton
Champaigne for my real friends, real pain for my sham friends.
Alex's melancholic ex-fiance who as of season 3 start dating again, who quits his boring office job to start a food truck business. Tries to be "the cool guy" of the gang but usually fails.
- Amicable Exes: with Alex. Until they start dating again. Then they break up again at the end of season 3. Amicably.
- Beard of Sorrow: Seems to have one in early episodes after getting jilted, but it eventually just becomes part of his look.
- Camp Straight: less so than Brad, but it's there.
- Catchphrase: "Let me back up..." after a bad opening to an explanation, then again after the explanation fails, then at last being cut off as he leads into some anecdote about his childhood. His father shares the same phrase.
- Character Tics: slaps Max after high-fives.
- Consistent Clothing Style: V-Neck Tee-Shirts. There's even an entire episode where Max and Alex try to hold an intervention for the fact that his entire wardrobe is nothing but Vs.Max: Dave, are you wearing a different V-Neck than you were two hours ago?
Dave: (proudly) I am, thank you for noticing. I actually keep one in the truck in case I want to make the old switch. I call it, my "Emergen-Tee". - Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life
- Distracted by the Luxury: Sneaks back into the apartment he shared with Alex… because her bathroom is nicer than Max’s.
- The Ditz: Not as much as Alex, but they did once work out their relationship issues after getting locked together in a series of smaller and smaller rooms. Also, he's blindingly naive when it comes to scams for the most part.
- Dreadful Musician: he's a singer-songwriter. A really bad one.
- The Eeyore: he's a wee bit prone to depression.
- Four-Temperament Ensemble: Melancholic
- Hypocritical Humor: despite his obsession with being cool, he's basically the opposite of that, as his friends often point out.
- The Leader / The Hero: However, Penny lampshades his atypical nature of this trope by pointing out "Dave, for a leading-man type, you partake in some really outlandish behavior".
- Limited Wardrobe: Dave seems to wear exclusively v-necks.
- Mr. Fanservice: Of the men, he had the most amount of fanservicy moments. Given he was an attractive, nicely-shaped gentlemen, it wasn't hard to see why.
- Properly Paranoid: Is prepared for most of Max's pranks except for faking his death.
- Pungeon Master: The proprietor of Steak Me Home Tonight pretty much has to be.
- Running Gag: Tends to explain things by going way too broad, saying 'Let me back up'. Eventually its revealed his dad does the same thing.
- White Anglo-Saxon Protestant: Although he's apparently 1/16 Navajo.
Max Blum A.K.A. Joseph Reynolds
Played By: Adam Pally
Wow, a 90s hippie jam band. You know what I'd rather listen to? Myself being shot in the face.
Penny's ex-boyfriend, Dave's friend since college and Brad's former roommate on The Real World: lazy, sarcastic, gay and perpetually unemployed.
- All Gays are Promiscuous: In the first season, toned down in the second and seemingly averted in the third where Max begins looking for a steady boyfriend.
- Badass Boast: Attempts several of these in the prank episode, but keeps failing to say his own name correctly.
- The Bear: Lampshaded in Ordinary Extraordinary Love.
- Characterization Marches On: Spends the first season moving from fling to fling, finds himself unwittingly in a serious relationship through the second season, starts looking for a serious relationship in the third season when he breaks up with his boyfriend in the second.
- Get-Rich-Quick Scheme: a lot, due to his unwillingness to take up a full-time job.
- Guilty Pleasures: Max reads Japanese Tiger Beat.
- I Call Him "Mr. Happy": Apparently his "underpants monster" is called Chad.
- Informed Judaism
- Nice Jewish Boy: Loves his parents and they love him, before and after he belatedly comes out to them.
- It's All About Me: Is pretty self-centered most of the time. But deep down he does care about his friends.
- New Job as the Plot Demands: although he does eventually become a limo driver for some time. He's usually either unemployed or with a job that as Brad puts it, shows that 'Max leads the league in having jobs you didn't know were jobs.'
- Perpetual Poverty: due to perpetual unemployment.
- Platonic Life-Partners: With Penny.
- Refuge in Audacity: Lots of his actions. Such as faking his own death as a prank.
- Straight Gay: Much to Penny's chagrin, he's basically "a straight dude that happens to like guys."
- Twofer Token Minority: gay and Jewish.
- Why Did It Have To Be Spiders?: It's his third biggest phobia behind public speaking and drag queens with no makeup.
Brad Williams:
Played By: Damon Wayans Jr.
All about me, what time is it? Sex o'clock!
Jane's easygoing (and somewhat effeminate) husband who has a Those Two Guys vibe with Max. Met Max, and later the rest of the group, due to both him and Max being roommates on a season of The Real World.
- Camp Straight: “So what, now a brother can’t twirl?”
- Catchphrase: Often issues a quick, high-pitched "What?" in response to a racist or otherwise offensive comment in conversation. This is typically ignored by the other characters, who continue to talk amongst themselves.
- Character Tics: Brad dry heaves when he sees someone ready to throw up.
- Crazy Jealous Guy: Can get jealous pretty easily when it comes to his wife. To be fair, Jane's not that much better.
- Four-Temperament Ensemble: Sanguine (shares this with Penny)
- Guilty Pleasures: Brad loves cliched and formulaic Rom Com movies.
- The Smart Guy: shares this role with Jane.
- Unconfessed Unemployment: For a while in the second season finale. Inverted in the third season premiere where he pretends to be jobless.
Penny Hartz
Played By: Casey Wilson
Ah-mah-zing.
A friend of Alex, Jane and Dave since childhood, as well as Max's ex-girlfriend (he refers to it as his "first gay relationship"). She's constantly on the prowl for the right guy but tends to scare potential suitors away with her slightly manic personality.
- Abandoned Catchphrase: Penny's Catchphrase in the first season was "Ah-mazing!" She quietly dropped it on the second season, acknowledging that it was So Last Season... It's really more of a summer expression.
- The Beard: Went into a relationship with Max to fool his parents into thinking he was gay. Something she wasn't particularly fond of.
- Butt-Monkey: Her relationships are constantly failing, she's often the butt of everyone's jokes, her birthday's cursed, and she keeps hitting her head.
- Buxom Beauty Standard: Her large bust is often noted by other characters In-Universe, such as Max and the Car Czar referring to her as 'Countess von Boobs' and 'Honey boobs-boobs'.
- Catchphrase: "Ah-mah-zing".
- Drunken Master: When Penny gets really drunk, she can speak fluent Italian.
- Friend to All Children: Sees herself this way, which is why she’s taken aback when two kids she’s babysitting prefer aloof Max.
- Fag Hag: Penny wants to be this to Max. Because of the whole Straight Gay thing it doesn't really work out.
- Four-Temperament Ensemble: Sanguine (shares this with Brad)
- Heroic BSoD: Enters one when she goes on a cleanse.
- Insult Backfire: Thinks the nicknames her co-workers give her are meant as compliments. It takes a while for her to realize that "old spinster", "un-dateable", and "train wreck" may not be forms of praise.
- Large Ham: Is very loud, outspoken, and often overreacts.
- Last Het Romance: for Max, or according to him, first gay romance, as Penny acts like a Camp Gay man.
- Ma'am Shock: First in the pilot, when she responds to being called ma'am by saying she's going to "go bawl my eyes out, and then I'll be back to physically fight you.". In a later episode, she has a more subdued but still surprised reaction when a waiter calls her ma'am.
- Running Gag: Penny is constantly hitting her head on things. In one episode, she's actually prescribed a helmet by her doctor because of this.
- Statuesque Stunner: May be considered this at 5'8''.
- Verbal Tic: Really fond of abbreviations, or “abbrevs”.
- Weight Woe: The plot of one episode revolved around her dieting, which she couldn't keep up for long.
Secondary Characters
Derrick
Played by: Stephen Guarino
The gang's "offensively stereotypical gay" friend.
- All Gays are Promiscuous: averted; he gets married to his boyfriend Erik in season 2.
- Catchphrase: [sung] Draaaa-maaaa!
- Foil: to Max, who is as far removed from DRAMA! and gay stereotypes as possible.
- Took a Level in Kindness: Considerably nicer in his season 3 appearances than he was when introduced in the second episode.
Scotty
Played by: Seth Morris
A friend of Max's who is weird and psychotic but it occasionally called upon for various favors.
Dana Hartz
Played by: Megan Mullally
Penny's upbeat, creative mother. She has been thrice divorced and is a traveling lounge singer.
- Manic Pixie Dream Girl: A rare older example.
- Parent with New Paramour: Currently dating Dave's father, "Big" Dave.
- The Pollyanna: She's always looking on the bright side of things.
Grant
Played by: James Wolk
Max's "perfect" on/off boyfriend.
- Achilles' Heel: Despite everyone thinking he's perfect he reveals he has a secret need to be liked.
- The Ace: Seems to be great at everything and the group becomes instantly enamored with him (to the point of obsession) where usually they automatically hate every other significant other any of them bring home.
- Catchphrase: "Para hoy!" which is spanish for 'for today'.
- Mr. Fanservice: They get their mileage out of having James Wolk for three episodes, especially an extended shirtless scene in "Everybody Loves Grant".
- Straight Gay: Like Max he has no stereotypical traits, only downplayed in comparison to Max ironically as he also doesn't have Max's uber-masculine "frat boy" traits either.
- Walking Shirtless Scene: See entry under Mr. Fanservice.
