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The Eeyore / Live-Action TV

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  • Fisher, one of the interns on Bones. Most of his lines involve death, misery, and dying and he states that he is jealous of the corpses they work with. After the timeskip between seasons 5 and 6, it is revealed that he spent a year in a mental hospital for being too depressed to do anything but sleep 20 hours a day. Even Cam goes out of her way to try to get him to smile.
  • Private James Frazer from Dad's Army.
  • Robert in Everybody Loves Raymond. Fittingly enough, Brad Garrett went on to voice Eeyore himself in Christopher Robin.
  • Fraggle Rock has Boober Fraggle; who is not only depressive and fearful, but is also an obsessive expert on diseases, superstitions, and laundry. This actually proves very useful to the other Fraggles, as Boober is always the first to sense impending disaster.
  • Game of Thrones:
    • Dolorous Edd is a humorously pessimistic Deadpan Snarker.
      Edd: "We'll live another day. Hurrah."
    • Rickon is quite cynical and depressed for a boy of six. Probably less surprising when considering that most of his family went away in very short succession, leaving him frightened and confused.
  • Meredith Grey of Grey's Anatomy. At least for the first few seasons...she's toned it down since she's married Derek but who knows how Lexie's death will affect her sunny disposition
  • Season four of Hell's Kitchen had Matt as a particularly creepy example, as he would look to be on the verge of tears when told off and only found happiness when others were suffering, which he reveled in with unabashed glee.
  • House, M.D. is such an extreme case, he legitimately seems to believe he can't function if he's not deeply unhappy.
  • Tiberius in I, Claudius. A scene in the first episode has him talk about how dark and miserable he feels inside, constantly, even to the point of contemplating suicide—to modern audiences, it sounds like he's trying to describe clinical depression. His naturally cheerful brother Drusus more or less tells him to buck up. The only people who can keep Tiberius happy are his wife Vipsania and his naturally cheerful brother Drusus... he loses them both in the first episode when Livia forces him to divorce Vipsania and Drusus dies on the German front. From then on, all Tiberius has is misery, spite, and pessimism.
  • George from Inside George Webley is a terrible pessimist and always the first to think of a negative to any situation, much to his wife Rosemary's chagrin.
  • Kirby Buckets has a character named Sad Randy, who as his name mentions is always sad because terrible things keep happening to him.
  • The Reverend Giles Shawcross in the Midsomer Murders episode "The Sword of Guillaume".
  • Howard Moon from The Mighty Boosh. He's self-described as "dark, fractured, broken, paranoid" and has always been the "Stop Having Fun" Guy in all of the show's incarnations. Somewhat justified as The Eeyore, as he really is the Butt-Monkey of his entire universe. In The Power of The Crimp, usually cheerful Vince is depressed and starts rattling off bleak imagery, to which Howard responds, "Have you got my script?"
  • Gonzo in the first season of The Muppet Show.
    • Minor character Droop also fits this trope like a glove.
  • An episode of Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide had student Mark Downer depressing everyone he encounters, including Martin Querly. Ned solves the problem by finding Mark an equally depressive girlfriend.
  • Seaman "Doom & Gloom" Broom from Operation Petticoat (the series).
  • Perry Mason (2020): Perry suffers from severe depression and rarely shows any kind of joy. One of his first scenes shows him sitting in a crowded movie theater glowering while the rest of the audience laughs hysterically.
  • Hannah from Please Like Me suffers from depression. She doesn't really like going out or socializing and is generally quiet and sullen when she does.
  • David Hyde Pierce's character on The Powers That Be. (John Forsyth was the titular U.S. Senator; Pierce was his son-in-law who was in the House of Representatives.) One memorably darkly funny bit had him reading Final Exit (a real-life book detailing various methods of suicide) with commentary ("tried it, tried that twice, like that's going to work...")
  • Parodied by the recurring character Debbie Downer (Rachel Dratch) from Saturday Night Live. Her theme song says it all:
    You're enjoying your day
    Everything's going your way
    Then along comes Debbie Downer
    Always there to tell you 'bout a new disease
    A car accident or killer bees
    You'll beg her to spare you
    "Debbie, please!"
    But you can't stop Debbie Downer!
  • Mr. "Snuffy" Snuffleupagus in his early Sesame Street appearances.
  • The Reverend I.M. Jolly from Scotch and Wry.
  • Ted, the completely unsuccessful, miserable, and suicidal (in a humorous way) lawyer from Scrubs, who serves as the show's Butt-Monkey. Even The Woobie Elliot casually acknowledges that she is nowhere near as miserable as Ted.
  • Detective Ronnie Gardocki from The Shield.
  • Bova from Space Cases.
    • In one episode it's shown that his father is the same way so it might be a racial trait. Being from Uranus, they're the butt of every joke, alongside Uranus simply being very dark and gloomy. Contrast Rosie, who was from Mercury and very bright and sunny.
  • Kendall Roy on Succession is a dead-eyed, unsmiling, morose guy (with a Creepy Monotone, to boot). Since his character arc early in the show involves a Break the Haughty Trauma Conga Line, it's unclear whether he has a depressive personality, has been browbeaten into misery, or a combination of the two thereof.
  • While it doesn't always fit, on Third Watch Sully often qualifies. At one point when a character mentions a first kiss, he responds that his first kiss sneezed in his mouth.
  • Veep: Ben, the White House Chief of Staff, is constantly depressed, worn down by his long years in politics, especially in his current position. This is best exemplified at the end of "Crate", where while everyone else is celebrating the news of the President's pending resignation and Selina taking over, he merely says "Wow. This must be what it feels like to be happy" with the same dull look and voice he always has.
  • Toby Ziegler on The West Wing. His ex-wife even cites this as the reason why she doesn't want to get back together. He does not take it well.
  • Neil, the depressive hippy in The Young Ones, who has made it his life's mission to inform everyone about how depressed he is. Given everyone's treatment of him, he has good reason to.

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