20th Century Fox TelevisionBy himself, Mel is not such a bad character. The only problem here is that he is supposed to replace one of the best characters on the show, Sideshow Bob. Even if the two are complete opposites in terms of personality (which they are not because both regularly show evidence of a higher education), comparisons will always be inevitably drawn between the two and theres no way that Mel can win. As Krustys almost permanent sidekick, Sideshow Mel gets a lot of screen time but not much of that has been used to make the character more likable. He showed us that he is actually an intelligent, classically trained actor who has been reduced to a clowns punching bag (which is funny), but thats about it. As it stands right now, Mel would be completely replaceable by any other character and nobody would care.