Joffrey Baratheon | Game of Thrones
Unlike most of the other characters on this list, viewers don’t hate Joffrey (Jack Gleeson) due to poor writing. We’re supposed to hate Joffrey, the cowardly inbred prince who ascends to the throne and calls for the execution of noble Eddard Stark (Sean Bean). Whether he’s being disarmed by a young girl or getting slapped senseless by his wee uncle Tyrion (Peter Dinklage), viewers revel in whatever misfortune Joffrey suffers — and won’t be truly satisfied until that misfortune is a suitably violent death.
Skyler White | Breaking Bad
At a human level, we should probably be more understanding of Skyler (Anna Gunn), the mother of a disabled teenage son who was also pregnant when she learned her husband had terminal cancer. Then, when she got the good news that her husband’s cancer was in remission, she made the unsettling discovery that he was making a living by cooking methamphetamine. She should be sympathetic, but instead we hate her for being a jerk to everyone in her life: her cancer-ridden husband, her sister, the dude she starts boning in order to be even more of a jerk to her husband. If her disapproving Botox-ed face got any more screen time, people wouldn’t be calling Breaking Bad the best show on television.
Matt Ufford is editor-in-chief of the excellent TV blog Warming Glow.
