Why do Americans hate Lisa Simpson

Agreed.

It is just irritating to what the writers did to both characters.

It's not just them, either. I'm sure there are other examples; Lisa Simpson and Brian (FG) are just the most prominent.

I've seen complaints about how the show treats Lisa in the right when she's wrong. I completely understand this, and this is the reason why I hate other characters from other shows. While I don't hate Lisa, I can see why others do.

Who are these other characters? They can't be worse than Lisa or Brian (FG) are, can they? I'm curious to see some examples, that's all.

They are: the main characters from Teen Titans Go!, the kids from Ed, Edd n Eddy (whenever one of them hold the Jerkass Ball), and (I've said this so many times, it's annoying!) Lois and (sometimes) Peter from Family Guy.

edited 8th Aug '15 5:56:32 PM by MsCC93

Yep... Most of those guys are worse. Mostly because they're your typical stupid and/or annoying types of characters. But I think it's pretty clear not enough Americans hate characters like those more than they do the character on topic. Damn shame; I always thought stupidity/idiocy was worse than being a Mary Sue of some kind. Then again, NOTHING is worse than a Mary Sue, in terms of entertainment mediums of any kind!

I'll concur that Peter, Lois, the Toddler Titans (Mr. Enter's nickname for TTG), Kevin, Sarah, Jimmy, Lisa, and Brian are the worst characters in Western Animated TV Shows.

edited 8th Aug '15 7:04:38 PM by powerpuffbats

I think the problem is that, often when writers want to set up some sympathetic loser, they need a character to oppose them and play the 'winner'. Ones that just see it as a means to an end aren't careful and forget that audiences don't like a completely insufferable character winning all the time, especially if how they win essentially plays them off as a hypocrite or a bully.

Mr Krabs is another example. His role as a more scrupulous rival slowly dissolved as Plankton became more sympathetic. Now he's just there to spitefully make sure Plankton stays miserable no matter what he does. Even if it makes Plankton more whole, who likes a douche like that winning all the time?

edited 8th Aug '15 10:31:27 PM by Psi001

The sad thing about this is that we are supposed to root for Mr.Krabs because the writers still think that he is the good guy. Mr.Krabs tried to drive Plankton to suicide and we are supposed to think that he was justified in doing so? Even pre movie Krabs would never do this.

Krabs is bad yes but he isn't as bad as Patrick or hell even Spongebob himself nowadays. Patrick takes the cake though for being an asshole and getting next to no comeuppance for it. This even briefly shows up in some of pre-movie episodes.

The general issue is that the writers of these shows can't seem to ever keep the characters consistent. And they have no excuse for it usually either as there is many other shows in the market that can keep a consistent characterization while properly developing said character. Of course you could have the opposite problem where one of the main characters is a unlikable asshole, he stays that way, and yet he is still treated as the good guy (Johnny Test). I have rarely ever seen that pulled off well.

There is also the cases were the antagonists of said shows have done next to nothing wrong actually during the episodes or what they did was small compared to what the protagonists do in retaliation. So it comes off as disturbing Disproportionate Retribution rather then comeuppance. You commonly see this in Spongebob in the infamous Squidward gets beaten down by the world episodes. There is also episodes were Spongebob or Gary do nothing wrong and get beaten down for it.

It just comes off as badly written to be brutally honest. A lot of the long running shows are experiencing this which makes me wonder if it might be because the studios switch out writers over time and the new writers are not very familiar with the rules of the show or the characterizations. You would think they would at least try though instead of flanderizing the character to make them an antagonist or completely ignoring important rules in general (you see this a lot in Fairy Oddparents nowadays).

Oh yes must I say that Teen Titans Go is absolutely fucking awful at giving important lessons to children? Just look at the stupid Girls vs. Boys episode (that was so outdated it was not even funny) and the episode that was a clear rip off from the famous accidental time travel episode from the original show aka How long is forever? which basically taught you that responsibility was stupid. The writers said that they want there to be important lessons in that show. Well...so far they haven't been able to pull it off.

edited 9th Aug '15 2:55:17 AM by Bleddyn

Really? They've SAID they want to put important lessons in the show? I always thought they were making fun in shoehorned cartoon Aesops.

I heard somewhere that the writers' whole point was that Krabs was being an asshole about it, just they thought it would be funnier if Plankton was still the loser anyway. Again the primary problem, making an unlikable winner for the sake of a sympathetic loser.

Yes they did say that in one of the interviews. The interviews pretty much show that the writers don't have the best attitude towards there critics either. Albeit Lets get Serious! and Return of Slade, have already proven that...

edited 9th Aug '15 1:54:57 PM by Bleddyn

I don't really have much to add to the topic at hand, but I am wondering, what's up with the title? Is Lisa mainly just hated in america while otherwise being popular in other countries or something like that? Cause otherwise I don't get the point of singleing out Americans on Lisa hate.

edited 9th Aug '15 2:59:54 PM by marston

I understand Lisa is hugely popular in Japan.

I don't know why Lisa has become popular in other countries. Lisa has suffered some major character derailment as of late especially since she became Buddhist and Right wing.

Annoyance doesn't cross cultural boundaries

How the hell did this topic get past our rules on complaining threads?