The Scrappy-Doo hatred: justified or overblown?

The general consensus is that Scrappy-Doo is the most controversial character in Scooby-Doo, and is part of the Unholy Trinity, alongside Jar Jar Binks and Wesley Crusher.

Yes, I know that he may be annoying (depending on perspective), but I've been wondering if the hatred is justified or overblown, because of the very Vocal Minority.

If WB really hates him (other than the obvious fan-pandering shots at him), then how come they're not treating his shows as Creator Backlash/Old Shame (i.e., his shows are shown on Boomerang, and some shows featuring Scrappy are released on DVD, but he isn't mentioned on the cover or the descriptions)?

Star Wars: Episode I and Star Trek: TNG are out on DVD, and yet Jar Jar Binks and Wesley Crusher still appear on them.

edited 8th Apr '13 5:44:00 AM by JudasZala

I think the hatred stems from how his presence kind of derailed many of the episodes he appeared in. When he started out, he was just another source of gags for the monster chase scenes (some of these episodes are pretty good, actually), but later Scooby Doo abandoned it's basic premise and became Scooby, Shaggy, and Scrappy in various vaudeville/ 3 Stooges-esque situations that would eventually involve monsters or ghosts (in this episode, Shaggy Scooby and Scrappy are security guards! In a mall! And then a lobster monster shows up! They chase each other around for 7 minutes or so and Scrappy shouts "Puppy Power!"). The hate stems from how his presence turned the show into something other than what the fans had come to enjoy.

I'm indifferent myself.

Having hated Scooby Doo since the beginning, I can say Scrappy Doo was only mildly annoying to his adult relative. At least he didn't have a speech impediment.

I think it’s overblown, personally. I didn’t hate Scrappy back in the day, so I find the Hate Dumb really rather ridiculous. Of course, nowadays I have no time for anything Scooby related and I find even early stuff to be quite silly and juvenile. But I still think the Scrappy thing is blown out of all proportion.

I liked him when I was a kid. And even now I don't really find his antics annoying either. Bit one note and repetitive, yes, but not to the point that I can really summon much vitriol toward.

edited 7th Apr '13 11:52:16 PM by Malchus

I'm the same way. He was actually my favorite when I was little. I feel like hating on Scrappy was the "cool" thing to do and thus the hate towards him was magnified.

I didn't like him, but then I didn't like Shaggy or Scooby either. All three of them tended to spend the entire episode being useless. I dunno how Fred put up with their shit.

edited 8th Apr '13 1:13:58 AM by Pykrete

But that's what make Shaggy and Scooby the best part of the show: they just sort of stumble into the traps and slip out in the most inept, out-of-the-box cartoony ways possible. Being The Load is their thing.

Add me to the overblown column.

The hatred is overblown, no question. The only beef I had with Scrappy was that his first voice actor was perfect, but then they switched to Scooby's voice actor. Scooby's voice actor really shouldn't have put on an annoying voice.

Not only that, but Scrappy saved the franchise, and how is he repayed for it? By being disowned and everybody swearing to never speak his name again. Honestly, he should be given a medal!

To be fair, in a setting where villains would have been allowed to kill, Scrappy would have gotten the gang killed several times over.

Still, he didn't become really unbearable until he was put alone with Scooby and Shaggy, and even then he got better in Thirteen Ghosts.

edited 8th Apr '13 5:19:19 AM by NapoleonDeCheese

Was it that Scrappy-Doo got better, or was it that Flim-Flam was worse? I didn't see enough to know for sure.

@Pykrete: Because Fred is an equally useless imbecile whose too busy making useless traps or allegedly making out with Daphne to do any better?

I liked Scrappy as a kid. At an older age, I can see how he can be annoying, but truthfully most of the cast outside possible Shaggy and Scooby were either one note comic relief or blank slates until remakes tried to give the franchise new life. Even the aforementioned genre change likely would have happened with or without him because the original dynamic was far too formulaic to go on for so many rehashed series.

At the very least I don't think he deserves to be treated as an Old Shame that most modern references place him as. There's far worse characters in Hanna Barbera's back catalogue.

edited 8th Apr '13 6:26:54 AM by Psi001

@Robbery

I'm guessing that at the time, the mystery format was getting worn out, as well as the glut of Scooby clones that were on the air at the time. Also, there's Scooby-Dum, Scooby-Dee, and the various relatives of the gang.

I also think the only way judge the character's popularity back then is in the then-current Nielsen ratings; according to Mark Evanier, Scrappy saved the show, unlike Cousin Oliver, who appeared in the final episodes of The Brady Bunch.

edited 8th Apr '13 5:42:38 AM by JudasZala

I actually liked Scooby Doo as a child, but not for the characters- I just wanted to try to solve the mysteries before they did (yeah, they were pretty simple, but like I said, I was just a kid.) Scrappy was irritating but not much more than Shaggy or Scooby already were.

I'll put it this way, I've seen a lot of characters that have more vigorously earned the title of The Scrappy.

edited 8th Apr '13 5:55:39 AM by Psi001

a little bit of both.

People hate scrappy doo because in certain communities its cool to hate scrappy doo.

It's the same way that people who have never even seen a Sean Connery Bond will go around talking about how Connery is the only real Bond.

When most people were kids, they didn't care. They ate their breakfast cereal, sat down and enjoyed their episode of Scooby Doo. The only people who hate Scrappy are people trying to look cool on the internet.

@Distortion 00

Pretty much Complaining About Shows You Don't Watch.

I'm not a fan of Scooby - Doo. The only efforts I really liked/paid attention to were the first four made-for-TV joints.

What's New,Scooby Doo? was alright, though Scooby Doo:Mystery Incorporated kicked ass (even if I didn't really pay attention to either, what I saw was a decent time-sink for me...). They were that little bit better for not having Scrappy in them, to be honest.

As for hatred of Scrappy - it's officially overblown - save for those crappy theatrical movies, Scrappy hasn't been in anything of note since... Making hatred for him all the more pointless after awhile. It might have been justified way back when, though - and that's if you thought Shaggy and Scooby were more than enough comic relief for their respective universe of series'.

edited 8th Apr '13 7:13:32 AM by TheShopSoldier

I wasn't really a fan of classic Scooby Doo stuff, so Scrappy didn't bug me as much as some other people. I just didn't feel like he really ruined anything all that worthwhile.

If he showed up in Mystery Inc, I'd probably feel more strongly. As of now, I just see the hatred as overblown.

Put me in the "overblown" category. He wasn't perhaps my favorite character, but he's nowhere near as bad as he's remembered. As someone already noted, Scrappy probably gets a lot more hate than he deserves because people consider him as indicative of the Genre Shift and massive changes that started happening after he debuted.

Of course, it's unlikely any of that had anything to do with his inclusion (in fact, several of those later shows and movies drastically improved his personality, especially in 13 Ghosts or Ghoul School), but people saw a correlation and, well...

On the other hand, I can totally understand why people would hate the guy - I can plainly see the traits that would cause people do dislike him and the reason why they could be a problem, even though I personally don't have much of a problem with them. Though, funnily enough, I had never run into anyone who didn't like Scrappy until I started going onto the internet...

I think Scrappy deserves a second chance, honestly. With better writing and such. Maybe not as a major character, but perhaps as a recurring one? I dislike when recent things go out of their way to Take That! him (mostly because I think those gags are awkward, stop the show/movie cold and are largely unnecessary).

edited 8th Apr '13 7:34:58 AM by KnownUnknown

Never really a fan of Scooby Doo, watched it when it came on.

Saw him and instantly thought "wow this show got stupid". He annoyed me from the very get go. Of course, seeing as I'm not a particularly big fan I never swore a vendetta that I would destroy him in the name of God, but he still really, really annoyed me.

I've been thinking that about the first live-action movie, did the creators intend it to be a parody of the shows themselves, much like how The Brady Bunch Movie parodied the original show?