The 100 Greatest Characters of the Last 20 Years

[MarkGrace]

The article in the magazine had a little caption for each character, unfortunately it's not available online.

To help celebrate Entertainment Weekly‘s 20th anniversary (one more year and we can finally drink booze!), the writers and editors have carefully curated a list of the 100 greatest characters in pop-culture over the last 20 years. Whether the fictional women, men, ogres, muppets, babies, and cartoon rockers who made our list were initially created before 1990 didn’t matter so long as they made a lasting impact in the culture after 1990. Some characters were so inseparable in our minds and hearts — like a certain highly articulate TV mother and daughter, for example — that we simply listed them together. (Hey, it’s our list, so we get to make the rules.) Rest assured, we carefully deliberated, debated, argued, and bickered over who would make the cut and where they deserved to be ranked; after you take a look at our list, please feel free to do the same in the comments.

100. Tim Riggins from Friday Night Lights
99. The Bride from Kill Bill
98. Lisbeth Salander from The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and its sequels
97. Violet Weston from August: Osage County
96. Bernie Mac from The Bernie Mac Show
95. Wilhelmina from Ugly Betty
94. Truman from The Truman Show
93. Game Boys: Nathan Drake from the Uncharted series; Kratos from the God of War series; and Niko Bellic from Grand Theft Auto IV
92. Christopher Boone from The Curious Incident of the Dog in Night-Time
91. Hancock from Hancock
90. Marge Gunderson from Fargo
89. Wikus van de Merwe from District 9
88. Napoleon Dynamite from Napoleon Dynamite
87. Tony Stark from the Iron Man series
86. Karen Walker and Jack McFarland from Will & Grace
85. Daniel Plainview from There Will Be Blood
84. Dr. Gregory House from House, M.D.
83. Jen Yu from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
82. Tracy Flick from Election
81. Amanda Woodward from Melrose Place
80. Gorillaz, the animated rock band
79. Elphaba from Wicked
78. Patty Hewes from Damages
77. Mimi Marquez from Rent
76. Tyler Durden from Fight Club
75. David Brent from The Office (original version)
74. Don Draper from Mad Men
73. Catherine Trammell from Basic Instinct
72. Kara “Starbuck” Thrace from Battlestar Galactica
71. Det. Alonzo Harris from Training Day
70. Mary Katherine Gallagher from Saturday Night Live
69. Miranda Priestly from The Devil Wears Prada
68. Effie White from Dreamgirls
67. Borat from Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
66. Allie and Noah from The Notebook
65. Lorelai and Rory Gilmore from Gilmore Girls
64. Maximus from Gladiator
63. John Locke from Lost
62. Jimmy Corrigan from Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth
61. Vic Mackey from The Shield
60. Mary Jones from Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Saphhire
59. Master Chief from the Halo series
58. Thelma and Louise from Thelma & Louise
57. Clayton Bigsby from Chappelle’s Show
56. Barney Stinson from How I Met Your Mother
55. Tracy Jordan from 30 Rock
54. Juno from Juno
53. Edward Cullen from the Twilight saga
52. Annie Wilkes from Misery
51. Omar Little from The Wire
50. Pearl the Landlord from FunnyorDie.com
49. Vivian Ward from Pretty Woman
48. Red from The Shawshank Redemption
47. Corky St. Clair Waiting for Guffman
46. Jerry Maguire from Jerry Maguire
45. Stewie Griffin from Family Guy
44. Jack Bauer from 24
43. Cal Stephanides from Middlesex
42. Sydney Bristow from Alias
41. Harold and Kumar from the Harold & Kumar series
40. Ron Burgundy from Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy
39. Gob Bluth from Arrested Development
38. Elmo from Sesame Street
37. Keyser Söze from The Usual Suspects
36. Gollum from The Lord of the Rings
35. Dexter Morgan from Dexter
34. Cher from Clueless
33. Sarah Connor from Terminator 2: Judgment Day
32. Beavis and Butt-Head from Beavis and Butt-Head
31. Forrest Gump from Forrest Gump
30. “Stephen Colbert” from The Colbert Report
29. Vincent Vega and Jules Winnfield from Pulp Fiction
28. Madea from several Tyler Perry films and plays
27. Frasier from Frasier
26. Kavalier and Clay from The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
25. Woody from the Toy Story series
24. Felicity Porter from Felicity
23. Austin Powers from the Austin Powers series
22. Eric Cartman from South Park
21. Roseanne Conner from Roseanne
20. Ally McBeal from Ally McBeal
19. Morpheus from The Matrix series
18. Sue Sylvester from Glee
17. Lara Croft from the Tomb Raider franchise
16. Bridget Jones from the Bridget Jones series
15. Shrek from the Shrek series
14. Jeff “The Dude” Lebowski from The Big Lebowski
13. Jack Sparrow from the Pirates of the Caribbean series
12. Fox Mulder and Dana Scully from The X-Files
11. Cosmo Kramer from Seinfeld
10. SpongeBob SquarePants from SpongeBob SquarePants
9. Carrie Bradshaw from Sex and the City
8. Hannibal Lecter from The Silence of the Lambs and its sequels
7. Edward Scissorhands from Edward Scissorhands
6. Rachel Green from Friends
5. The Joker from The Dark Knight
4. Tony Soprano from The Sopranos
3. Buffy from Buffy the Vampire Slayer
2. Harry Potter from the Harry Potter series
1. Homer Simpson from The Simpsons

http://popwatch.ew.com/2010/06/01/10...ars-full-list/

[Babs]

Rachel Green? That is so not right.

[All-American]

I think you may have made an error in copying and pasting that list. I checked twice, and Jar Jar Binks is definitely not on it.

[Babs]

I think you may have made an error in copying and pasting that list. I checked twice, and Jar Jar Binks is definitely not on it.

I think he was narrowly edged out by Elmo (#38).

[MarkGrace]

Rachel Green? That is so not right.

I gagged when I saw that last night. And so high on the list!

[Hsaru]

This list is bad it is trying to appeal to everyone instead of making a good list, especially with all of the tween/mindless show characters added on there.

[All-American]

This list is bad it is trying to appeal to everyone instead of making a good list, especially with all of the tween/mindless show characters added on there.

Love the picture, by the way.

[HuskyFreeNorthwest]

Rachel Green? That is so not right.

Seriously isn't it at Rachel Geller? Or is she one of those hipster non-conforming New Yorkers?

[Babs]

Seriously isn't it at Rachel Geller? Or is she one of those hipster non-conforming New Yorkers?

Did they get married? I thought she just got off an airplane.

[YOhio]

Did they get married? I thought she just got off an airplane.

You're right. HFN is up in the night on this one. It was a very dramatic and romantic scene when Ross raced to the airport to plead with Rachel not to move to Paris, France. Despite this gesture, she still boarded the plane. While waiting for the other passengers to board she had second thoughts and left the plane to return to Ross. There wasn't a dry eye in America that night.

[HuskyFreeNorthwest]

You're right. HFN is up in the night on this one. It was a very dramatic and romantic scene when Ross raced to the airport to plead with Rachel not to move to Paris, France. Despite this gesture, she still boarded the plane. While waiting for the other passengers to board she had second thoughts and left the plane to return to Ross. There wasn't a dry eye in America that night.

You a warthog faced baltador.

[DU Ute]

Congrats to JL for coming in at #14.

[Babs]

You're right. HFN is up in the night on this one. It was a very dramatic and romantic scene when Ross raced to the airport to plead with Rachel not to move to Paris, France. Despite this gesture, she still boarded the plane. While waiting for the other passengers to board she had second thoughts and left the plane to return to Ross. There wasn't a dry eye in America that night.

"You got off the plane?"

"I got off the plane."

[Babs]

Congrats to JL for coming in at #14.

[DU Ute]

Gob is only #39!?!?! COME ON!!!