Mike and Molly was a sitcom that ran on CBS for six seasons and is one of the most underrated sitcoms of the past decade. The comedy set in Chicago was created by prolific sitcom producer, Chuck Lorre, and with his string of hit shows such as Two and a Half Men and The Big Bang Theory, it isn’t outlandish to see how the show managed to slip through the cracks.
That being said, avid watchers of the show will praise its hilarity and how it never ceases to hold back from certain topics that could be considered offensive (fat-shaming). But while the jokes may have never stopped coming, there were certain characters on the show that made us laugh more than others. Here’s a list of the main characters of Mike and Molly ranked by funniness.
Harry
Oh, Harry, if only you’d stood up for yourself a little bit more and started praising Mike just a little less. The character that was seemingly only brought in so that Mike would have another fat-friend to hang out with, Harry never really made much of a comedic impression on the audience.
It isn’t to say he wasn’t funny, it’s just that his character felt more like a guilty add-on to the show so that Mike Biggs wouldn’t be the only person taking the butt of the fat-jokes throughout the series. Unfortunately, it resulted in Harry kind of glorifying Mike instead of just being his friend to a point where it became a little creepy.
Victoria Flynn
This ranking isn’t necessarily fair because Victoria was arguably hilarious if all you find funny are marijuana jokes. Throughout the entire series, you’d be hard-pressed to find a joke from, or about, Victoria that doesn’t include some sort of ganja reference.
Victoria was known as the pot-head of the show (and it was originally hilarious since Mike was a cop and was forced to look the other way) but it soon became overdone and just felt like the writers were laying it on a little thick. We get it, the pot-smoker is absent-minded - let’s move on.
Carl McMillan
In most sitcoms, the way it works is that the sidekick character is supposed to be even funnier than the main protagonist to add a little bit of comedic relief. However, in this particular comedy, the sidekick does the exact opposite and instead acts as the protagonists’ main support and is often there to help raise Mike up whenever he’s feeling down on himself.
Carl can certainly still be funny, but the character seems to go out of his way to not make any fat jokes about his best friend (unless the two are fighting, in which case Carl can drop some of the meanest fat jokes of the series).
Joyce Flynn
While Carl may have slipped onto the not-so-funny side of our list due to his lack of jokes concerning weight, Joyce makes her way down because she only seemed to make jokes about weight.
Easily the skinniest character on the show, Molly and Victoria’s mother made it known from the first episode that she had no problem ripping into somebody based on how many pounds they were packing (including her big-boned daughter). As with any genre of comedy, her occasional zingers would light up the screen, but more often than not her digs seemed more mean than funny (especially at Mike).
Mike Biggs
It’s odd to see a titular character of a sitcom fall so far down a comedic list, but that is the unfortunate case with Mike and Molly since Mike Biggs was never really considered one of the funniest of characters. In fact, due to the nature of the show, Mike was much more often the one jokes were stemming from rather than the one rattling them off.
He did occasionally let his comedic flag fly and would have a classic comeback to a fat joke that shut everybody up except for the audience, but most of the time Mike was just the lovable, jolly teddy bear that the audience was rooting for.
Samuel
The immigrant from Africa takes the number five spot on our list as Samuel was easily one of the most underrated characters on Mike and Molly. The long-time server from Abe’s wasn’t on screen as much as his main character counter-parts since he was usually only interacted with at the diner, but anytime he appeared it was hilarious.
The sarcastic, pessimistic character never failed to let Mike and Carl know how crazy they drove him and had at least one joke every episode where he mentioned the struggles of growing up in Africa. Not to mention that his food-related profession allowed him to make countless digs at Mike’s physique.
Vincent Moranto
Nobody thought that Vince was going to stick around the first time that he appeared on screen (long-time fans will remember that he was originally a blind-date for Molly in season 1) but we’re incredibly happy that he did.
One of the funniest characters on the show was also one of the most unlikely as Vince slowly worked his way into the Flynn house, hitting on every girl in the process. He eventually landed the part of Joyce’s hubby and never let go, but the best part about Vince was that his humor wasn’t solely based on fat jokes - he just made jokes about everything.
Peggy Biggs
Talk about a show with ruthless mothers. If Joyce Flynn didn’t care about making fat jokes, Peggy certainly one-upped her by not caring about anything.
Samuel could have learned a thing or two about sarcasm and pessimism from the holiest character on the show (ironic since she was more like the Devil) because Peggy made a point of pissing off every person she came in contact with. She didn’t seem to do it intentionally, but she also never seemed to shy away from letting people know what she thought (about them or anything else). Joyce may have been ruthless with the fat jokes, but Peggy was just ruthless.
Molly Flynn
Her name may be second in the title, but there’s no question that Molly beats out Mike when it comes to comedy. Arguably considered the smartest character on the show, Molly never fails to make a hilarious joke or comment throughout the entire series as she can bring the fat jokes but can just as easily dish it out in any other comedic genre.
Her intelligence paired with her wit often earns her the role of funniest woman in the room (Melissa McCarthy didn’t win a Primetime Emmy Award for this role for nothing) and it always a treat for fans to see what snappy remark she’ll make.
Grandma Rosetta
Another incredibly underrated character from Mike and Molly that doesn’t get anywhere near the credit she deserves is Rosetta McMillan, Carl’s grandmother. Ordinarily, elderly women in sitcoms play the role of wise individuals that help the protagonist along their journey (and that certainly describes Grandma Rosetta) but this show stepped it up a thousand notches and made the character’s wit the best part of her comedy too.
Every line that Carl’s Grandma spoke was either a memorable life-lesson that would serve anybody to hied or a stomach-clutching one-liner that caused the audience to keel over laughing. We love you, Grandma, and please don’t ever change.
