When Night Court made it’s debut on NBC in 1984, It’s central character, Judge Harold T. Stone (played by the brilliant Harry Anderson) was playful, friendly, unconventional, but a nice guy. I thought that the character was amusing. After the 1st couple of seasons, Harry went from being friendly and playful to this flaky, wild, crazy practical joking clown, and he immediately rose up to being my favorite character on the show. So while John Larrouquette won a couple of Emmy’s for his role as Assistant D.A. Dan Fielding, I primarily watched Night Court for Harry. Harry was like a live action Looney Tunes character (which was fitting that Night Court was produced by Warner Brothers Television). Harry pulled some wacky stunts, such sending a giant 8-ball careening down the court’s hallway and rigging a rival judge’s robe to inflate into a giant multicolored balloon (and both in the same episode, no less!). Unfortunately, around the shows’ 5th season, the shows’ writers calmed the character down and he a boring nice guy type, but during the time when the character was a nutty maverick jokester, Harry was the man.

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While I generally think of the PPGs as a group character, Buttercup was always my favorite among the Powerpuffs. While Blossom is the smart one and Bubbles is largely considered to be the fan favorite, I always preferred the 1 of the group who added a touch of lemon to the sweetness. Buttercup is how I would be if I were a Powerpuff. She’s tough, aggressive, quick with a jab, and has a temper. She has attitude and the super powers to back it up. But despite this, she remains a cute little girl, albeit one who can lift a bus and throw it at you. Buttercup may not hog the limelight like Bubbles, but I think that she usually got the best lines and scenes in the PPG episodes.

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Whenever Mordecai and Rigby get in over their heads (which is invariably), the first person they come to is this guy. Skips is a yeti who seems to have answer or a solution for everything, which is largely because he’s actually hundreds of years old. Skips has the most interesting history of all the RS cast. He’s done battles in space for a group of intergalactic beings who look like giant babies who in return have granted him immortality. Skips is the shows’ resident wise man with a ton of solutions and secrets about his past. I also love how he remains indifferent to almost everything. While Benson, Muscle Man and others are going through their own idosyncrasies, Skips just sits back observing it all, while making the occasional smart alecky remark. I relate to Skips because like him, my family and friends often come to me for help with things, and though I’m rarely sunny and cheerful about it, they know that they can always count on me. Too bad my battle skills aren’t as polished as Skips’ are.

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Initially, I was hesitant to put this character on my list because Gravity Falls is a relatively new show, still only in it’s 1st season, but nonetheless, Mabel is easily my favorite character on GF, with Stan coming in at a close second. Mabel has a twin brother, Dipper, whom I like also but I also feel is too much of a “regular guy” character to be very enjoyable on his own. He reacts to characters that are funnier than he is. Mabel is a much more fascinating and colorful character. Her likable goofiness, her playfulness, her constantly changing colorful sweaters and her unwavering exuberance over whatever she’s obsessing over this week make the character a hoot to watch. There’s no way that I could ever be as bright and bubbly as Mabel is, but I do at least try to look on the bright side of life.

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During the course of my life, I’ve discovered that being “cool” is merely an illusion and that being smart is what’s hot. Since that epiphany, I’ve learned to embrace my inner geek, and Dexter personifies the expression “Nerds Rule!” This kid is a child prodigy to the max, is a know-it-all and has an ego that’s 10 times bigger than he is. Not that he doesn’t have reason to be a little full of himself; he has managed to construct an impossibly high-tech and futuristic laboratory just below his parents’ otherwise ordinary suburban home, seemingly from scratch, and without a job, no less! The Blue Falcon came to him first when his sidekick Dynomutt was in need of repair! How’s that for street cred? And even though the show is designed to make him look like a fool half of the time, Dexter remains king of precocious prigs.

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Continuing with the “Nerds Rule” philosophy, I’d be remiss not to mention one of the biggest nerds of all, Sheldon Lee Cooper. I sometimes feel sorry for actor Johnny Galecki because his character on TBBT Leonard doesn’t get the attention and the accolades that Jim Parsons’ Sheldon does, but I have to say (and I don’t know if this is a good thing or not) that while I like Leonard, I find myself relating much more with Sheldon. Leonard is among the group of oddball misfits, but he longs to be among the “cool” people. Sheldon, on the other hand, knows that he’s different and he doesn’t care because he believes that he is the one that everyone else should aspire to be like. Sheldon has a giant brain and an equally giant ego. He’s obsessive compulsive and is the ultimate comic book super hero and Star Trek fan. Like myself, Sheldon is funny and weird and socially retarded. He’s also like myself, an aromantic asexual, which is a nice change of pace from the usual sex obsessed characters which are usually seen on TV shows.. I’m more like Sheldon than I’d like to admit, but I’m not crazy, my mother had me tested…

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I like both of these characters for similar reasons and I couldn’t decide which one to put over the other, so I decided to cheat and put them both together. I like both Yakko and Slappy because they’re both wise guy characters (despite Slappy being a female), their canny and are usually 2 steps of whichever nemesis makes the mistake of imposing their will on them. But while Yakko is a wild, youthful fast-talker, Slappy is bitter, cranky and acerbic (again, these are traits that I’m too familiar with). And Slappy has been around long enough to know every trick in the book. You want to see wise guy toons cut up and do it really well? Look no further.

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Interestingly, Tony is the only comic book super hero to make this list. I’m a huge fan of Superman, but Supes is more of an ideal. Superman is a character whom I aspire to be, while Tony Stark is a character whom I relate to. This guy is everything that I want to be and also everything that I fear I am. He’s super rich. He’s like catnip to the ladies. He’s brilliant. He’s arrogant. He doesn’t work well with others. He has a talent for getting on people’s nerves. You’re either going to immediately love this guy or you’re going to instantly hate him. I choose the former. In the Avengers movie, when Captain America asks Tony ‘Take away your suit, and what are you?” Tony calmly and smugly responds with “Genius playboy billionaire philanthropist.” How can you not love that line? And he has many in that movie alone.

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And now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for. My number 1 favorite character is……………

Everyone who’s been following me online already knows that I’m a huge Daffy fan. In fact, Daffy is interestingly the only Loony Tunes character to make this list, Don’t get me wrong. I love Bugs Bunny, but Bugs didn’t make my list for the same reason that Superman didn’t make my list; Bugs is great, but he’s more of an ideal. I love Bugs, but I can relate far more to Daffy. Daffy was once described as “An unleashed id”, and that’s basically how I see him. At the start of his film career, Daffy was just insane, and now…well he’s still insane, but he’s been more dimensions thanks to the different attitudes and approaches of the Warner’s directors who worked on the character over the decades. Daffy became greedy, self centered, self promoting, but also self conscious, neurotic and insecure. On many, many occasions, I’ve found myself echoing Daffy’s feelings in a given situation. And I’m too smart to not know that I’m a little “off”. Daffy has a dark side, yes, but he’s hilarious when he fails, falters or just plain goes off the deep end. I’ll always be a Daffy Duck fan.