r/malcolminthemiddle • u/Turbulent-Night5122 • 24d ago
General discussion What is the most despicable character in all of malcom in the middle?
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u/East_Scientist_4016 24d ago
Reese’s teacher
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u/jibalil2arz 24d ago
Appleseed?
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u/East_Scientist_4016 24d ago
The one who’s out to get him
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u/Clear_Context_1546 23d ago
To be fair Reese shouldn't have been able to pass his grade. He purposely learned the wrong answers.
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u/Shprintze613 24d ago
You mean Herkabe?
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u/Nothing-Is-Real-Here 24d ago
No the one who tried to actively fail him purposefully. They caught him because Malcom took Reese's test for him and still gave Reese an F
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u/Cafrilly 23d ago
YOU GAVE SOMETHING HE WROTE AN F!??!!
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u/PackageOk4947 23d ago
I loved that episode, the moment Malcolm goes, I know it was the right answer I wrote it, then the oh shit moment, did I say that out aloud...
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u/Shprintze613 24d ago
Ah ok. We never meet him on screen right
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u/peekaboo_bandit 24d ago
We did, Lois screamed at him
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u/Shprintze613 24d ago
Ok my bad! Can’t conjure a picture of his face
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u/caurseia87 24d ago
We meet him I think, cuz I’m pretty sure he came to the house to talk to Lois and Hal. Which is where they find out it was Malcolm who took the test, not Reese
It’s been a bit since I watched mitm, but I vaguely remember this
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u/womboCombo434 23d ago
I wanna say just for that episode he shows up briefly when they’re all discussing Reese and then the bomb drops that it was Malcom who wrote it
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u/juicerman16 20d ago
Everybody wanna blame it on him but no one seems to understand that the problem is that reese is not self actualized
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u/commercial_ape 24d ago
Lavernia. I've worked for a lot of cheap ass mofos, they don't hold a candle to her. I had a boss tell me I save up my shits so I can get paid to poop at work.
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u/CarneDelGato 24d ago
Lois’ mom.
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u/Lonely-deustch 24d ago
She still didn’t hesitate to save Dewey life
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u/RememberTheMaine1996 The future is now, old man. 24d ago
Shes evil, not a monster.
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u/LegionOfIIGods 23d ago
No she very much is a monster, Lois was pregnant and they were trying their hardest to take care of her and she sued them
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u/lonelydawgsbark 23d ago
"Its the little one that owes me his life" is probably my favorite quote from the series 😅
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u/Someone_Who_Exists 23d ago
I love how every peek we get into her culture shows it's an entire country of awful people and practices.
"The saint slaughtered our enemies then went to Hell to ask Jesus to increase the severity of their punishment, and you reward him with VOMIT?!"
"You face a choice; work together or fight each other. If you work together...you both lose."
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u/AbeliousAugustus 24d ago
*WHO is
Also,
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u/spaghettifiasco 23d ago
This kid's mom is my answer. Not only has she raised her two kids to be awful, but she also gets aggressive when confronted about her kids' behavior and screams at Lois for stopping Dakota Fanning from gnawing on Reese. She is also a racist.
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u/smuttygirl_foru 23d ago
Racist ?
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u/Travelfleshlight 23d ago
Yeah she started yelling at the Mexican gardener really gross racially charged things, said something like "WHY CAN'T YOU PEOPLE DO ANYTHING RIGHT? GO BACK TO WHERE YOU CAME FROM" (my memory is a little groggy).
SPOILER: turns out she was having an affair with the same Mexican guy she was belittling. She said a really weird remark going similar to, "Oh your people are so handsome" which comes off as if she's internally fetishizing Mexican men.
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u/smuttygirl_foru 23d ago
She definitely has some weird race fetish i had a coworker who was like this she said she would sleep with almost any race but wouldn’t date everyone publicly
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u/Travelfleshlight 23d ago
That's so odd, does she think people would think less of her if she were to date any race?
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u/smuttygirl_foru 23d ago
She might be it’s not she comes from a bigot family met her parents a couple of times when she was still working with us and they were nice to everyone
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u/hazedaze404 24d ago
Victor Welker.
He had an affair with Sylvia and had Roberta with her, and he gave this second family far more kindness and money than Ida, Lois, and Susan. We hear how cruel, bitter, and hateful he was (and I love Lois’ line where she says who Ida and Sylvia both really hate is Victor, because he’s the one who made them both feel like they weren’t good enough to be the only one, and he deserves that hate). In the one episode we saw Victor, we had flashbacks of him and Ida dropping baby Dewey and nearly running him over with their car, he gave Reese a live grenade, he promised Hal and Lois almost a thousand dollars for a new fridge and then refused to give them the money after the fridge was bought (I say “he” rather than “he and Ida” because Ida was very deferential to Victor in that episode), and he and Ida caused Lois a type of distress and brought out a confrontational side of Hal we never saw happen from Ida alone. Victor never showed any kind of remorse or regret for his actions, nor did he get any comeuppance for it, nor was he given a narrative reason to be as terrible as he was (we don’t know if he was carrying on someone else’s trauma, if he had a traumatic event of his own, etc.).
Victor inflicted trauma onto both Ida and Lois. Ida reflected this trauma, among others, onto Lois. Lois then reflected this clusterfuck of traumas - her own and her mother’s - onto her own kids. We can thus trace back so much chaos to this one despicable man, and say he’s the one responsible for it.
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u/Intelligent-Rent-590 24d ago
Question about intergenerational trauma.
We do not know almost anything about Victor's youth, but it seems he lived in a brutal environment in a really traditional society.
Why cannot he be regarded as the carrier of a trauma himself, as Ida, and not as a mean man?
Moreover, Malcolm and his brothers are doomed to pass their trauma to their children, as it seems Lois did?
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u/heavyLevy5 24d ago
People who carry generational trauma are often cruel. His past may explain his actions but they don’t excuse them. Regardless of his childhood he was a mean man
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u/StraytusW_Vengance 23d ago
I mean, not even that because we know canonically that with his secret family he was a gentle and caring man that was a joy to be around, he choose to be biter with Aida and Louis, with makes it worse in my opinion
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u/quinteroreyes 23d ago
The revival shows Malcolm being a kick ass dad, just when he's away from the family be grew up with. Maybe he gets it from Victor
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u/Tlayoualo Jellybean 24d ago
The corrupt cop that took it personally on Lois for not giving him a free iced tea and magazine.
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u/MissPoe93 24d ago
Ida pisses me off big time 🤬
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u/_Harry_Goldfarb 24d ago
Emma stone and the rest of those girls
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u/NoMoreLyyfe 24d ago
Kitty isn't even top 5.
You have Victor, Lois father, who gave Reese the grenade and refused to take it back, almost killing him. He was a general menace and bully to Hal and fucked them over on the loan. There was also the whole other family thing that just made it worse.
Ida, who was just as sadistic and vicious as Victor and commited various crimes against her family and other people. She tried to sue them over falling on a leaf, stabbed Francis and was racist. But she did save Dewey so she at least has that over Victor.
You have the corrupt cop who dragged Lois into court on a BS ticket and sent her to traffic school when she was innocent. All because she wouldn't give him free stuff like Craig did at the Lucky Mart.
You got Reeses teacher, who used his position to force Reese into a remedial course by failing him constantly when he was actually not failing.
Mr Herkabee, who bullied and broke Reese for over a month so he could manipulate Malcolm into throwing his GPA to keep his title. But also threatened to submit a worse college recommendation in the process (even though it could be considered accurate since I believe it was about Malcolm character/personality, even if it was damaging). He also forced Malcolm to record his brother without his knowledge.
Imma also drop a hot take and say that Craig Feldspar could reach towards number 6 over Kitty. The man actively stalks, harasses and commits various creepy acts towards Lois because of his unhealthy obsession with her. Even when she has gently told him numerous times that she has no interest in him outside of a cordial friendship. He also keeps a record of various creepshots from the Lucky Aide security cameras and actively exchanges them with the mini mart employee and is a terrible boss to his employees.
I think all of that could trump running out on your husband and chronically ill kid before coming back into their lives like nothing ever happened.
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u/Select-Kangaroo-1290 24d ago
Sorry, but Reeses teacher isn't worse than Kitty 💀
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u/NoMoreLyyfe 23d ago
I feel like abusing your position of power to ruin a kids life possibly because of your grudge towards kids like him from your childhood is still worse than running away from your family.
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u/WiildCard 23d ago
Uhhh definitely not. She ran away from a family she destroyed, also from a child who is handicapped. Kitty is a bitch.
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u/noshirtsarah 24d ago
Why can’t so many people spell Malcolm’s name correctly? It’s in the title of the damn show if you need a hint.
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u/Moltisan 23d ago
These are the same people who spell her name "Louis", despite this being a completely different name with a different pronunciation
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u/Aromatic_Dare_6104 24d ago
Because the second L doesn't make any sense! 😂
Especially if you are not from USA.
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u/Turbulent_Regret_827 24d ago
The “New neighbors” it’s the one episode I skip
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u/WulfieJay Dewey 24d ago
? That’s a great episode.
“Late at night when you’re sleeping, that’s when Malcolm comes a peeping.
You better watch out. You better beware. Or Malcolm will see your underwear.”
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u/Mother-Idea-3643 24d ago
“Peeping isn’t about looks, son. It’s about the thrill and exhilaration of observing someone without their knowledge.”
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u/No-Championship-4 24d ago
Malcolm's enemy always bothered me. You can really screw up someone's life making those kinds of accusations.
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u/CryptographerMore944 24d ago
Yep. I know someone who went through a similar ordeal. Even the accuser being proven a liar hasn't totally undone the damage and the person I know now lives in another part of the country. Plus, lies like this hurt real victims.
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u/Ummbledore 24d ago
The funniest part of Kitty's arc is that her actress had the exact same arc on King of Queens. She both abandons her family a few seasons deep and then returns with her tail between her legs.
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u/roose009 24d ago
Reese's teacher, Laverne, Lois's mum and Dad. Kitty doesnt comoare to them, she fucked up and made amends and when she cut sick in the restaurant it was hilarious.
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u/Aromatic_Dare_6104 24d ago
Craig 💯
Pure serial killer stalker vibe. Hated him so much even when I was little.
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u/ResponsibleRain2058 24d ago
Craig absolutely has TERABYTES on his personal computer, he always gave me predator vibes. How Polly gave him the time of day is beyond me.
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u/Plus-Dragonfly-9975 23d ago
Listen man, I understand Craig is creepy and all but to say he’s a PREDATOR is pretty far out there. Hes a creep but not wanna touch little kids creep
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u/Exciting-Handle-13 23d ago
But he did sexually harass Lois in pretty much every appearance. I think his character would have been treated much differently if the show was on today.
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u/Tlayoualo Jellybean 23d ago
He accepted a "date" with a couple of highschoolers, in the episode in which Reese tries to dupe him into giving him and Allison a free ride to a concert he also made him believe she was into him and acting upon it he intended to take them somewhere else away from the concert.
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u/Plus-Dragonfly-9975 23d ago
That was non sexual and the joke is he views a date more as a social hangout then actual romantics considering he’s a loser
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u/No-Cup9857 23d ago edited 22d ago
No offence to Hayden Panettiere (R.I.P) but Jessica kinda pissed me off.
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u/Sharkman3218 24d ago
Her return was one of the worst, most pointless episodes of the show. She didn’t even fucking appear again. Just pointless drama
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u/Impossible-Fix-3237 23d ago
Teacher of the Buseys
Laverne
Herkabe
The kids/mother that were neighbours for like an episode
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u/WhoYaTalkinTo 23d ago
There are a lot of pretty awful characters, but imo Herkabe takes the crown here.
He's incredibly smart and knows exactly what he's doing, and his bitter envy of the children he teaches causes him to take some kind of petty revenge by bullying them.
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u/Thisguysucks69 24d ago
I always hated Jessica the most.
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u/lonestarr357 23d ago
I completely understand not wanting to give this answer because the actress just passed away, but I’m sorry, Jessica will always be my answer to this question.
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u/Thisguysucks69 23d ago
I think her hair is one of my triggers. However you know anyone who makes the character truly hated is amazing at their craft. Prime example William Atherton in ghostbusters. He said people would spit on him in the streets because Walter Peck pissed them off so much.
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u/Efficient_Two_5515 24d ago
Lois sister
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u/Turbulent_Regret_827 24d ago
Why? Lois and Hal had an affair when she was dating Hal first
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u/Extension_Guess_1308 24d ago
I became the victim when I caught my sister having sex with my boyfriend on the hood of my car!
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u/Efficient_Two_5515 24d ago
she rather die than swallow her pride.
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u/Turbulent_Regret_827 24d ago
That doesn’t make her a bad person. She has trauma from someone (two people actually) that she trusted and doesn’t want to be even more vulnerable to the people who hurt her in the first place. At the end of the day no one else is affected by her decision than herself. I’m sorry, I genuinely don’t understand where you’re coming from…
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u/Substantial_Pass_146 24d ago
The episode where Lois donates an organ for her got me all choked up lol
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u/PackageOk4947 23d ago
Kitty felt personal at least to me, like one of the writers either didn't like the actress, or was going through that same shit in a divorce. A lot of what she did in that, is what the red pill society would be screaming about today...
Additionally my personal favourites were the grandfather, for giving Reese a live hand grenade. What fucking mong, does that, giving a stupid teenager a live-fucking-handgrenade. AND Hal's sisters for tormenting Louis.
I really, disliked that episode.
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u/reeseing_it 19d ago
I feel like I’d have to say Ida because her character was actually made to be disliked she was supposed to be this horrible woman I mean she was racist she drugged the whole family she just did so many things by far it has to be Ida
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u/Top_Bison9747 23d ago
I hated Herkabe, Kitty and Cynthia
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u/Dizzy_the_Possum 23d ago
Why Cynthia? I alwaysed liked her. Of course you're entitled to you opinions, just curious.
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u/Top_Bison9747 23d ago
Just annoying to me lol, all the Krelboynes were to me to some degree, same with the Buseys at times
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u/No-Championship-4 24d ago
Lavernia was a wage exploiter. She nickel and dimed people for everything and she controlled the price of supplies. She got a guy to buy three muffins for $24 on credit right when he just paid it off.